Immigration News

[Soldier4Christ]

Immigration Ordinance Unlikely To Withstand a Legal Challenge


AVON PARK -- Outgoing City Attorney Mike Disler, who was fired after criticizing Avon Park's proposed illegal immigration ordinance as "poorly drafted," got some support from a recently released congressional analysis.

The Congressional Research Service analyzed the illegal immigration ordinance drafted by the city of Hazelton, Pa., at the request of U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski, a Pennsylvania Democrat whose district includes Hazelton.

Avon Park Mayor Tom Macklin said his draft version was a "mirror image" of the Hazelton measure.

The eight-page analysis deals mostly with whether local ordinances can pre-empt federal immigration law.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled localities can adopt an ordinance dealing with immigration if it "focuses directly upon . . . essentially local problems and is tailored to combat effectively the perceived evils," said the June 29 report, quoting the Supreme Court.

A clause in the Hazelton and Avon Park ordinances that seeks to deny a license to any business that "aids and abets illegal aliens . . . in the United States" appears to go beyond the court's narrow exception, the report said.

"The scope of . . . the proposed ordinance does not appear narrowly tailored to address particular, essentially local problems . . . and instead appears aimed at deterring U.S. immigration violations nationwide," it said. "Therefore, it does not appear that Hazelton could regulate the conduct of for-profit entities occurring outside its jurisdiction that may `aid and abet' illegal aliens."

The report also criticized the ordinance for not providing a mechanism to determine the meaning of "aid and abet" or for defining "illegal alien," which is not a term used in federal immigration law.

While federal law expressly pre-empts a state or locality from imposing civil or criminal sanctions upon employers who hire illegal immigrants, that restriction generally does not apply to licensing laws, the report said.

"In sum, the proposed ordinance would arguably create a new immigration regulatory regime independent from the federal system. Such a regime would very likely be found by a reviewing court to be pre-empted in whole or in part by federal immigration laws," the report said.

[Soldier4Christ]

Immigration debate hurts Western Union's performance

First Data Corporation's shares fell nearly five percent today after its chief executive said the Western Union money transfer subsidiary has been hurt by a drop in business from immigrants worried about the national immigration reform debate.

Ric Duques is chairman and chief executive officer of the credit-card processing company based in Colorado.

He says immigrants have been hesitant to send money home to support their families.

He says Western Union's overall revenue growth was hurt by as much as two percent, and the impact will continue until the immigration policy reform issues are resolved.

First Data shares dropped two dollars and nine cents to close at 41-dollars-76-cents a share on the New York Stock Exchange today. -

[Soldier4Christ]

Hazle Twp. quietly passes own immigration ordinance
Though it is patterned on Hazleton’s Illegal Immigration Relief Act, there are minor differences.


HAZLE TWP. – After Hazleton was thrust into the national spotlight with the introduction of the Illegal Immigration Relief Act ordinance in June, officials in a nearby municipality quietly passed a similar law before Hazleton City Council adopted its ordinance on July 13.

Supervisors on July 11 voted unanimously to adopt the Hazle Township Illegal Immigration Relief Act – an ordinance almost identical to the original version of Hazleton’s Relief Act ordinance.

Because Hazleton is a third class city, council was required by state law to vote on the ordinance three times for adoption, although the final two readings are allowed at the same meeting. Township supervisors can adopt an ordinance after one reading.

While most of the language in the two ordinances is identical, there are some differences.

A business found to knowingly employ an illegal immigrant in Hazleton would have its business license suspended for five years for a first offense and 10 years for a second offense. Such a business in Hazle Township would have its permit suspended for two years.

Other council amendments that supervisors did not add include an explanation of the ordinance’s purpose, additional exceptions for aiding and abetting illegal immigrants, and the exclusion of some forms of communication in the official-language section.

For example, while the Hazleton ordinance prohibits “aiding and abetting” illegal immigrants, one section exempted providing medical assistance from being considered a form of aiding and abetting. City council amended that section to also allow emergency and legal assistance, but township supervisors did not include those two additional exemptions.

And in the section that makes English the city’s official language, council deleted telecommunications and electronic communications from the types of city business that must be conducted in English. Those provisions remain in the township ordinance.

Dr. Agapito Lopez, a Hazleton physician and Hazleton Area Latino Taskforce member, said he told supervisors that the ordinance is “unconstitutional and violates all the civil rights laws that have been written. It has raised a lot of hate and a lot of discrimination in the population of Hazleton and Hazle Township.”

His message was delivered after the supervisors’ 6 p.m. meeting because he was given an agenda that listed the meeting time as 7 p.m., and he didn’t arrive until 6:45 p.m., Lopez said.

Supervisors William Gallagher and Anthony Matz did not return calls seeking comment. Supervisor Francis Boyarski could not be reached for comment.

Township Secretary Carol Lenahan said the 7 p.m. meeting time was a typo she forgot to correct on a computer template. She said the meeting time was advertised correctly in a newspaper.

Lenahan also defended the ordinance’s official-language section, saying it would be unfair to other nationalities to provide documents only in English and Spanish and too costly to provide them in every existing language.

Lopez said he suspects the township will follow Hazleton’s lead in adopting a landlord-tenant ordinance that would require tenants to obtain occupancy permits and prove that they are legal residents.

He said the ordinances “most probably will eliminate most of the Latinos (as tenants) because I don’t think (landlords) will send white people to get a permit. It will block (Latinos’) access by making them go through all the red tape with council and supervisors, who don’t conduct any business in Spanish.”

Wilkes-Barre lawyer Barry Dyller – one of 11 lawyers who warned Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta that their clients would sue the city if the ordinance passed – says Hazleton will continue to be the focus of a civil rights lawsuit they’re working on because most of the people affected live in the city.

But he encouraged any Hazle Township resident who is affected by the township ordinance to contact him or another attorney.

Dyller said he, attorneys George Barron of Wilkes-Barre and David Vaida of Allentown, and attorneys from the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Community Justice Project and the American Civil Liberties Union continue to take on Hazleton clients, but he declined to provide an approximate number.

Lopez said similar ordinances are being considered locally in White Haven and Freeland. The Schuylkill County towns of Shenandoah, Lansford and McAdoo are also considering legislation.

[Soldier4Christ]

Immigration reform has to start on the street
A balance is needed between tougher enforcement and responsible compassion

As the summer wears on, it appears less and less likely that Congress will reach a compromise on immigration reform. Legislators are stymied by the vast distance between the House and Senate approaches to illegal immigration.

But, as the federal debate has wound its rhetorically charged course, state and local governments have been busy considering their own legislation. The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that, by the end of April, 460 immigration-related bills had been introduced in 43 states. Although we have come to expect the federal government to exercise a monopoly over immigration enforcement, all these state and local efforts underscore that a coherent national policy on illegal migration may be beyond our grasp.

 Meanwhile, state and local governments are trying to crack down on illegal immigration. Just this month, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy proposed a law that would require companies seeking county contracts to swear formally that they do not employ undocumented workers. Similar laws have been considered this year in at least 30 other jurisdictions.

Across the country, state and local governments are staking out their enforcement positions. States have debated proposals that include penalizing landlords who rent to undocumented immigrants, cutting off health and welfare benefits to the undocumented and even making unlawful presence a state crime. It's not uncommon to hear the sponsors of many state measures claim, as Levy did, that they are being forced to pick up the slack of a federal government unable or unwilling to enforce the law.

But at the same time that state and local governments are looking for ways to deter illegal immigration, other lawmakers and community activists within the same states are pushing laws designed to ease the integration of undocumented immigrants into their communities. Familiar examples include the issuance of drivers' licenses or identification cards to the undocumented, as the city of New Haven recently has considered doing and as several states already have done. Some state and local policies also permit undocumented residents to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities, as is the case in the City University of New York schools, as well as in the California system.

But perhaps the best example of this countervailing trend is the emergence of hiring halls, where willing day laborers, many of them undocumented, can connect with employers in a regulated and safe manner. Both Nassau and Suffolk County have taxpayer-supported hiring halls, although Levy and others have strongly opposed them. The January 2006 National Day Labor Study documented that at least 63 day-labor worker centers exist across the country, many of them created or supported by municipalities cooperating with community groups. According to the study, most centers establish a system for allocating jobs each day and protect the health and safety interests of workers by setting minimum wage rates and monitoring employer practices and labor standards.

Although the federal government may control who can and cannot enter the United States - and therefore who can and cannot work - this recent activity underscores that it is state and local governments that perform the actual work of integrating those who arrive, whether legally or illegally.

These governments are more likely to bear the fiscal costs of unauthorized immigration in their education and health care systems, and they will therefore seek to do what they can to alleviate this burden. At the same time, they are more likely to hear and appreciate the day-to-day concerns of both immigrants and the broader community. Immigrants are also critical to the economic well-being of many towns and cities. As a result, even though much of the recent state and local talk has been enforcement-oriented, state and local governments also have shown great willingness to adopt practical policies designed to account for undocumented immigrants living, working and participating in local communities, despite their illegal federal status.

As residents of the New York area know, the legitimacy of day-labor hiring halls has been hotly contested. Indeed, a legal challenge is currently pending against the city of Herndon, Va., for its attempts to regularize day labor, and attempts to establish hiring halls in other cities have run aground because of public opposition. In the same vein, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger famously vetoed the bill that would have allowed undocumented immigrants to acquire drivers' licenses in California.



B ut this controversy is actually part of the solution. The apparent contradictions between enforcement-oriented legislation and integration-focused efforts stem from the public's feeling ambivalent about how to deal with the reality of illegal immigration. On the one hand, the kind of zero tolerance for lawbreakers embodied in efforts to crack down on employers resonates in a climate in which politicians traffic in sound bites and the cultural anxiety associated with immigration is high.

At the same time, public health and safety concerns - as well as the realization that millions of undocumented immigrants are functioning, contributing and integrated members of local communities - prompt legislation that takes a practical and humanitarian approach to their presence. What is more, while it is proper and important to police our national borders, we must also face the possibility that undocumented immigration is beyond any government's capacity to stop completely. Measures designed to help integrate the undocumented are thus necessary, even if they seem to give tacit support to illegal immigration.

This ambivalence and complexity cannot be captured by a single national policy. Instead, it must take patchwork form. The proliferation of varied state and local regulations related to immigration is itself evidence that managing immigration ultimately requires participation by all levels of government. Most state measures are neither signs of the federal government's failure to do its job nor inappropriate contradictions to federal policy. Instead, allowing the conflict embodied by most of these measures to be expressed, even when it creates friction with federal policy, is the only way to approach the immigration issue practically, humanely and democratically.



O f course, some local efforts to manage the effects of immigration will be misguided. Efforts like Levy's to put pressure on employers who hire undocumented workers, in particular, seem likely to be ineffective. They probably will affect only small employers, and they won't be coordinated with one another. Other states' efforts, namely laws that criminalize unlawful presence or authorize states to engage in their own border control, are almost certainly beyond the states' authority.

But as the immigration debate proceeds, and after it inevitably disappears from the national stage, state and local governments should continue to project strong voices on the issue. And, if Congress does get around to passing legislation, it should resist the temptation to preempt local efforts to deal with undocumented immigration, particularly those efforts designed to help integrate immigrants.

State and local officials, because they are on the front lines of the integration process, deal every day with the complex reality that characterizes transnational migration. It is a reality in which the sentiment that lawbreakers should not be rewarded means little in the face of market-driven traffic across borders, traffic that results in communities of people who must be treated as people and not as problems that can be enforced away. State and local governments are thus helping bring about a debate over how best to integrate undocumented individuals - a debate difficult to have at the national level with the frequency it demands. In the end, we cannot speak with just one voice on immigration.

[Soldier4Christ]

Immigration reform unfinished

It doesn’t take any particular expertise on immigration policy to understand the shortfalls of the Colorado Legislature’s recent special session. You just need a basic understanding of economics - or business. Heck, anyone with a credit card knows that if demand is high enough there will be a willing supplier. And while the Legislature did take steps to roll up the welcome mat to illegals, it failed to do anything substantively to cut off demand by penalizing rogue employers.

Just one example is the employee documents requirement in HB1017. It says that employers “shall affirm” that they are following existing federal law. How many illegal aliens will lose their jobs because of this “requirement?" Pledges might work with the Boy Scouts, but they probably won’t with employers who were already breaking the law.

The other provisions in HB1017 are similarly impotent. The director of the Division of Labor “may” conduct audits of employers’ documents. If employers are found to have tampered with documents “in reckless disregard” of the law, the director may fine them $5,000. Don’t hold your breath.

“In reckless disregard” of the law is a high evidentiary standard that would require an extensive investigation and a flagrant violation of the law. It didn’t have to be this way.

Democrats killed a bill in committee that would have required employers to see photo identification before hiring a new employee. Democratic Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald called that requirement “a stumbling block to Colorado’s economic development,” yet in the next breath she sided with Gov. Bill Owens’ contention that the law is the toughest in the country.

Her soft spot for employers of illegal workers may have caused her to overlook the example of Georgia. Georgia’s bill enrolls state agencies and all state contractors and subcontractors in the federal government’s electronic verification system, known as the basic pilot program. Even the U.S. Senate’s pro-amnesty bill includes mandatory participation in the pilot program because without an easy and reliable way to check a worker’s status, it’s nearly impossible to hold employers accountable. While the special session’s employer sanctions were an abject failure, the Legislature deserves credit for placing limits on social services to illegal aliens in HB1023.

The bill requires state agencies to verify the legal status of public assistance applicants through a federal SAVE system, which is similar to the basic pilot program. If implemented faithfully, it will make progress in preventing illegal aliens from receiving benefits such as welfare, healthcare and assisted housing.

Some of my Republican colleagues in the Legislature are rightly concerned about the public benefits exemption for illegal aliens under 18. They worry that by explicitly exempting illegal aliens who are minors, the law extends a wide spectrum of benefits to illegal aliens other than the ones already mandated by federal law (K-12 education and emergency health care).

Others fault the bill’s vaguely worded section 3(a) which says that verification is not required “for any purpose for which lawful presence in the U.S. is not required by law, ordinance, or rule.”

I’ll let the lawyers wrangle over 3(a) and we’ll all wait and see whether sanctuary cities like Denver deliberately flout the law. What concerns me more is what the Legislature should have done and what it and the governor now should do about the problem.

The governor by executive order could enter into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to train and deputize state police to arrest illegal aliens. It’s already being done in Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Los Angeles County. He could also direct all state agencies to energetically implement the requirements of the Secure and Verifiable Identification Document Act of 2003, which prescribes acceptable ID for all social services and governmental activities.

The Legislature could also have done more to strengthen laws against illegal immigration. The Legislature, for example, could have required photo ID and proof of citizenship for voting. It could have prohibited municipalities from spending public money to support day laborer centers that cater to illegal aliens, and it could have required judges to deny bail to illegal aliens charged with a DUI or any serious crime.

Colorado’s Legislature took a first good step towards stopping illegal immigration during its special session, but there is a large unfinished agenda. It failed to impose significant sanctions on employers who hire illegal aliens and it did not strengthen local law enforcement’s role in fighting illegal immigration.

Batting one for three is good in baseball but not in politics. The self-congratulatory rhetoric coming from Democrats about Colorado now being “the best in the nation” in controlling illegal immigration is pure political hype.

I hope the governor and state representatives who want to truly control illegal immigration will see the past special session as the beginning of reform, not the end of it.

[Soldier4Christ]

 Teddy's immigration lies carpet the path to national disaster

 Gains for illegals come from hides of American workers

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY'S Inde- pendence Day commentary ["This Fourth of July, let's remember: We're a nation of immigrants"] is more propaganda than truth. When Walt Whitman wrote about "a teaming of nations," immigrants came to the United States legally. Illegal aliens come now. The debate is not about entitlement to citizenship. It is about illegal immigration.

Let Kennedy show one community where illegals made a contribution. Our future does not depend on illegal aliens. It depends on Americans. Standing on the Mall during the recent immigration demonstration, did he not see foreign flags and anti-American signs?

Illegal aliens are not undocumented workers. They have broken U.S. immigration laws and are criminals. American workers will take jobs for decent wages, causing prosperity twofold. With a decent wage, American workers would have more disposable income, which would stay in this country, not go south of the border. Also, there would be a lighter burden on the social infrastructure--education, health care, welfare; no translators in hospitals and government offices solely to benefit aliens; no money wasted providing instructions and directions in a foreign language.

Kennedy's claim that the "majority of Americans believe [the] liberal Senate immigration bill is a sound blueprint for progress" is bogus. Eighty percent of Americans do not believe that. The Senate measure is anti-American worker and anti-American family; it is pro-business, pro-labor, and pro-political power sought by both Republicans and Democrats.

Few Americans bought the lie of the past that "illegal aliens do jobs that the native-born won't," and we won't buy the newest lie--"our economy needs these people to maximize production." Few Americans would refuse overtime, maximizing production, for good pay. There are college students, on full scholarships, with tuition money, room, board, and stipends provided, who would work 16 hours a day for good pay. They would be willing to maximize production for equitable wages. They would do the hard jobs--those jobs the pro-amnesty lawmakers claim Americans won't do.

If Ted Kennedy knows that 1,000 illegal aliens enter this country daily, where is his legislation to secure the borders and enforce the law? If laws are enforced, aliens are not hired, aliens will return home and stay there, more aliens will never come.

It is preached to American citizens that aliens love their families, faith, communities, and (the footnote) "America." But Americans--unhyphenated Americans--want good-paying jobs to support the families we love, to practice and give to the faiths we hold, to love and contribute to our communities, and to serve our country with our wealth. Immigrants built America, it's true. We are descended from immigrants. But we are no longer a nation of immigrants. We are a nation of Americans--280 million of us.

One must wonder if legislators ever read the Constitution or ever had a lesson in history or government, ever considered what is good for the country, ever had an idea what threatens liberty.

John F. Kennedy said, "We need a nation of Minutemen, prepared to take arms, who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life." Our present government calls such people vigilantes. We must insist that government allow the militia and police agencies to enforce the law. Legislators must be stopped from driving their pro-illegal agenda right past our noses or we will have a catastrophic problem. By 2020, at present trends, the U.S. population will increase by 100 million aliens.

We the people own this nation. We cannot fiddle while America falls to Third Country status. We must contact legislators and let them know we are not buying their immigration bill of goods. We can ask Congress members to stand firm on the tougher House bill.

President Bush, some allege, is pursuing a globalist agenda to create a North American Union, effectively erasing our borders with Mexico and Canada. We must be vigilant and oppose any such agenda to trade away our sovereignty and dissolve the U.S.A. into the NAU.

Let's listen to the voices of a few great men:

"It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones"--Calvin Coolidge.

"A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves."--Edward R. Murrow.

"When governments fear the people there is liberty. When the people fear the government there is tyranny."--Thomas Jefferson.

We are the government. Let's not fear ourselves nor those we elect to represent us. Let's not allow the elected to make bad decisions.

The liberals will have us believe that Americans are for bad policies. Don't believe their lies.

[Soldier4Christ]

Official's immigration views spark a dust-up
Undocumented - A Springfield councilor's call for a crackdown spurs the mayor to issue an apology

SPRINGFIELD -- A city councilor who called for a local crackdown on illegal immigrants he says are "invading" the United States is standing firm despite criticism from the mayor and others.

Springfield Councilor Dave Ralston was responding to an e-mail the city received from a man named Michael Nave, who asked officials to consider a plan similar to a proposed ballot initiative in San Bernardino, Calif., that would penalize landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, and businesses that hire undocumented workers.

The plan also would make English the city's official language and ban day-labor centers. At day-labor centers, people can hire workers without seeking proof that they are legally allowed to work in this country.

In an e-mail to Council President John Woodrow, Ralston said: "I believe that we cannot continue to absorb the flow of illegal immigrants, many of whom benefit from government services that our citizens provide . . . They want to invade and not assimilate . . . Mark my words, this is a serious problem that we will have to deal with sooner or later and I am tired of being politically correct in order to not offend anyone."

Woodrow said he initially shared Nave's e-mail with Ralston and the rest of the Springfield council to determine whether a response was necessary. Woodrow said he and other councilors expressed opposition to views included in the message.

But Ralston clearly felt otherwise, saying he supported the measures Nave talked about.

"This is MY country and I have a right to stand up for it," Ralston wrote. "Illegal immigrants are breaking OUR laws and getting away with it. Just try to go to one of their countries and do what they are doing here and see what happens. This is 'America' and we speak English, love it or leave it."

After learning that Ralston's e-mail was circulating in the community, Mayor Sid Leiken last week issued a response stating his disappointment with Ralston and emphasizing the city's efforts to promote diversity.

"Personally, I cannot and will not condone the negative tone (Ralston) used in attempting to articulate his points," Leiken said. "I sincerely apologize if a vital segment of our community was left to question their place in Springfield."

No one is sure of the size of Springfield's Latino population, but it appears to be expanding rapidly. The 2000 Census put it at 3,600 people, or 6.9 percent of the city's population. But some believe it is double or triple that.

Ralston has defended his written comments.

"This has nothing to do with race," he said. "It has everything to do with being an American and having a threat to our lifestyle. I judge a person's character individually. Anyone who wants to make this out as a race issue is racist."

Carmen Urbina, a local Latino advocate and former director of Centro Latino Americano in Eugene, said she and other community members have met to discuss the issue, but were not yet prepared to make a public statement. She said the group supports Leiken's response.

Mark Molina, a board member for the local Latino Business Network and the Springfield Chamber of Commerce who earlier this year ran for a seat on the City Council, agreed with Leiken's assessment that Ralston's beliefs do not represent those of other city officials.

Ralston "is entitled to his convictions and his freedom of speech, but they contradict the views and agenda of the city," Molina said.

[Soldier4Christ]

Immigration agents target employers

Arrests double, and many doing the hiring are themselves illegal immigrants, officials say

WASHINGTON – The number of employers arrested on charges of hiring illegal immigrants has more than doubled this year. And some employers themselves are in the United States illegally, immigration officials say.

With cases this week in Arkansas, Kentucky and Ohio, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested 445 people so far this year on criminal charges and has picked up an additional 2,700 people suspected of immigration violations.

In 2005, there were 176 arrests on criminal charges and 1,116 on immigration violations, ICE said.

The stepped-up enforcement is intended to demonstrate the risk to companies that ignore the law in pursuit of cheap labor.

"ICE is taking an increasingly tough stance against egregious corporate violators that knowingly employ illegal aliens," ICE assistant secretary Julie L. Myers said Friday. "This is a wholesale departure from the past system of sanctioning corporate violators with minor fines, which were rarely paid in a timely manner or at all."

Two companies in Kentucky pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring to harbor illegal aliens, who worked at the companies' hotels in the London, Ky., area.

Asha Ventures LLC and Narayan LLC agreed to pay $1.5 million and could face another $500,000 in fines when they are sentenced in October, ICE said.

In Fairfield, Ohio, the owner of a Chinese restaurant was charged Thursday with encouraging or inducing illegal workers to reside in the United States.

Jing Fei Jiang, who owns the Bee's Buffet restaurant, employed at least two workers who were ordered deported from the United States in the 1990s, according to an affidavit filed in federal court.

Jiang also was in the United States illegally, the affidavit said.

In Springdale, Ark., a raid by immigration agents resulted in the arrest of 27 suspected illegal workers and two managers of a construction business.

Alejandro Arevalo, manager of Arevalo Framing, was charged with harboring illegal aliens, ICE said. Arevalo and his crew leader, Rodrigo Arevalo, also were charged with re-entering the country after having been deported, the agency said.

The largest raid to date occurred in April when federal agents arrested seven current and former managers of IFCO Systems, a manufacturer of crates and pallets, on criminal charges, and more than 1,100 people were arrested on administrative immigration charges at more than 40 IFCO sites in the United States.

In another prominent case, four supervisors for Fischer Homes, a northern Kentucky home builder, have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to harbor illegal immigrants.

Six people already have pleaded guilty in the investigation of the company and its subcontractors.

Federal authorities rounded up nearly 100 suspected illegal immigrants in May. Some continue to be detained in this country as material witnesses in the ongoing case.

[Soldier4Christ]

Police breakup Jonesborough immigration demonstration after scuffle between Hispanics and Tennessee Volunteer Minutemen

JONESBOROUGH - What began as a peaceful illegal immigration demonstration turned briefly physical Saturday morning in Jonesborough after one side charged the other over the presence of a Mexican flag.

Carl Twofeathers Whitaker, a Sevierville resident who is running as an independent candidate for governor, was charged by members of a Hispanic group seeking to take the flag away from him.

Whitaker led the Tennessee Volunteer Minutemen, an organization dedicated to ensuring aliens immigrate to this country legally, in what he said was to be a silent response to a group of Hispanic protesters in front of the Washington County Courthouse.

The Hispanic group of 12 members was speaking out about immigration rights while the group of six Tennessee Volunteer Minutemen watched.

The Hispanic group, led by Azul Christian Caravaggio, is walking to Washington, stopping off in various locations along the way. Group members were holding signs saying "Are We Really Illegal?," "Minute Men + Hatred = Evil" and "We Don't Choose Our Race, 1 Race, The Human Race."

The Tennessee Volunteer Minutemen had signs, too, but group members mainly held American flags and chanted "U.S.A, U.S.A, U.S.A."

"We are doing this because we don't think we are illegal," Caravaggio said. "We don't think the human body can be illegal."

Caravaggio said her group expects to enlist 40 more marchers when it reaches Abingdon, Va.

"We were only three when we started," she said.

She said the group's mission is to encourage voters to vote for Democratic candidates.

Caravaggio also thought seeking a better life in the United States is impossible to do legally, for most. She compared illegal immigrants to European settlers, saying European immigrants killed the indigenous population of North America when they arrived.

"I don't know where else we can go," she said. "It's not a crime to come to this country just because you want to work," Caravaggio said.

Jonesborough police and Washington County sheriff's deputies were on hand to keep the peace.

Tensions mounted and things started to get heated when Whitaker and the Hispanic group began exchanging their views on immigration, something Whitaker said he never intended to happen.

"We have laws," Whitaker said to the other group in response to their presence. "There are laws in this country.

"These people have been agitating Minutemen all the way down the line," Whitaker said.

"They're taking advantage of us here."

He said illegal immigrants are not interested in contributing to the society, they just want a free ride. Whitaker said his protest has nothing to do with race and was adamant about the Tennessee Volunteer Minutemen not being a hate group.

"The only color it is is the color green; money," he said of the motivation for illegal immigration.

"When I grew up the word ‘illegal' meant that there was a law made and you're doing something wrong," he said.

The Hispanic group became angry at Whitaker because he had a Mexican flag tucked in his back pocket. They thought it was a deliberate provocation, aimed at disrespecting them.

Whitaker said he couldn't hold his protest sign properly unless he stuck the flag partially in his pants pocket.

As Whitaker was being interviewed by a WCYB-TV reporter, several of the immigrants charged him in an apparent attempt to grab the flag.

Authorities reacted quickly, separating the two sides and breaking up the rally that had been scheduled to last for an hour.

[Soldier4Christ]

Torture diagnosis helps victims win U.S. asylum
Doctors' network looks for signs that can stand in immigration court


ATLANTA - When they meet with their patients, medical student Brandon Kohrt and doctors with the Atlanta Asylum Network never wear a white coat or carry instruments.

They want to look as little like doctors as possible.

They don't want to remind the men and women who have fled persecution in their native countries of the doctors who often accompany torturers to make sure their victims do not die and the torture leaves few marks.

But if these volunteer doctors can find and document those marks — healed fractures, dead muscle in the soles of the feet, cigarette burns, nerve damage from being suspended by the wrists for hours — the chances that their patients will be able to find permanent refuge in the U.S. increase drastically.

"We look at the body as testimony," said Kohrt, who co-founded the network through Emory University with training from the Physicians for Human Rights, which is based in Cambridge, Mass., and coordinates more than 500 medical volunteers across the country.

Foreigners can be granted asylum in the U.S., and a chance at citizenship, if they can prove persecution or a well-founded fear of it in their native land.

A boost with proof

Some immigration attorneys contend many asylum seekers have been tortured, and volunteer networks of doctors have sprung up around the country to help foreigners document their injuries.

More than 25,000 people, or 38 percent of all applicants, were granted asylum in the U.S. by an immigration court in 2005, slightly less than in past years, according to the government's Executive Office for Immigration Review. The agency said it had no figures on how many won asylum on the grounds that they were tortured.

The approval rate in asylum cases varies greatly across the country.

It is 85 percent in the immigration court in Tucson, Ariz., while in several other courts, including some in New York and California, no asylum at all was granted in 2005.

Physicians for Human Rights said that based on the 300 applications they work on each year, the chances of approval jump to 90 percent when a medical evaluation shows torture.

In Atlanta, nearly half of the 60 applications in which network doctors provided documentation of torture have been approved, Kohrt said.

'Document everything'

"Asylum has an incredible amount of discretion involved," said Washington attorney Anya Sykes, who has worked with poor African immigrants for 18 years. "Some judges think (torture) is not plausible. Well, it is in the Congo. They just can't imagine. I feel you have to document everything."

But the hurdles are often daunting.

Physical evidence of beating and rape, the most common torture against women, has often disappeared by the time torture victims are well enough to travel to the U.S. from faraway places like Zimbabwe and Nepal.

The medical exams can also be traumatic, with doctors looking for evidence of mutilation, electric shocks, broken bones and teeth, as well as severe post-traumatic stress disorder.

[Soldier4Christ]

Security checks adding years to green card wait
 
Unable to leave the United States while her application for a green card crawled through the U.S. immigration system, Rana Sweid watched her six-year application stretch into a line of missed milestones: A sister married back home in Lebanon, then had a baby girl. A brother graduated university, and found a wife.

So when the Citizenship and Immigration Services summoned her to an interview a year ago, she thought her case was finally resolved. Sweid, of Delray Beach, bought a plane ticket to Beirut and rushed out to shop for gifts.

 A federal official then told her the application had snagged on a security check.

"They put the spoon in my mouth, and then they took it out," said Sweid, who runs a marble interior company with her husband, a U.S. citizen. She has waited seven years for permanent resident status.

"If I was a bad person, would they let me be loose [in the United States] that long?"

Sweid's lawyer said his client appears to have been set back by an immigration backlog that slows hundreds of thousands of applications for work permits, green cards and citizenship papers, especially ones federal officials flag for security checks.

The federal government has made long strides in reducing backlogs that cause the delays -- a backlog of 3.8 million applications, in January 2004, has been cut to about 300,000 today. But that figure does not include applications delayed by the FBI and the Labor Department, which clears skilled workers for entry, leaving the U.S. immigration system so clogged that some highly skilled immigrants are going to other countries, lawyers and analysts say.

Chris Bentley, a spokesman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, acknowledged that since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, federal background checks have caused lengthy delays. The hijackings prompted Congress to rewrite screening procedures for all visa applicants, mandating finger scans and interviews. A small percentage of entrants also undergo rigorous background checks, causing significant delays.

Bentley said reducing the delays is a top priority, and that new technologies would reduce the backlog further.

"Right now we're in a paper-driven system, and that system is going by the wayside," he said.

Congressional caps also slow the process for temporary employment visas, and green cards for close kin of those already here. The countries with the longest waits for green cards include China, India and Mexico.

For Sweid, the most painful consequence is the long separation from her close-knit family in Lebanon, now hunkering down under an Israeli bombardment.

"I keep promising my children I'm going to take them to a farm [in Lebanon]. I'm going to buy them sheep and goats ... and I can't explain why I can't go," she said.

Hundreds of thousands find themselves facing similar frustrations, waiting months or years for an answer, and often unable to discern where their paperwork has been sent. In some cases, the bottleneck occurs at the FBI, which runs detailed security checks on higher-risk cases, or at the Labor Department, which clears files of skilled workers applying for green cards.

The technology sector has felt the squeeze acutely. Even as American students continue to score poorly in math and science, high-skilled engineers, computer scientists and researchers from abroad often face long waits to fill jobs. Some industry experts believe the backlogs are blunting the United States' competitive edge.

In a June report to Congress, the CIS ombudsman anticipated the agency would not meet a White House goal of a six-month standard start-to-finish processing time for immigration applications by September 2006. The report also found that less than 1 percent of applications referred for FBI name checks remained pending more than six months.

"I don't know if the one percent is accurate. I've seen that every immigration attorney in town has at least one case," said Palm Beach Gardens attorney Scott Devore.

Devore, president-elect of the South Florida chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said he had considered lumping together unanswered immigration applications to ask a judge to compel the government to resolve some cases.

But that path is too costly for most clients, he said, and many are hesitant to make waves while their cases are pending.

Even more dramatic, he said, are the waits associated with per-country caps on green card applications for next of kin. The State Department's own bulletin shows parents and unwed children of American citizens must wait more than 10 years in some countries. Married applicants can sometimes wait longer.

"Why are there so many people here illegally?" Devore asked. "Because if the wait for the lawful way is so darn long, there's no incentive for someone to lawfully immigrate."

Pointing to Mexico, he noted the country caps have created a 14-year backlog for green cards for unmarried sons and daughters of American citizens.

Devore thinks it's no coincidence that Mexicans are quietly streaming across the border in record numbers.

Others say the problem stems from broad family reunification laws. Legal immigrants can sponsor family members, who in turn can sponsor family members, ballooning applications.

"We have a system that over-promises in many categories," said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which supports lower visa caps and sponsorship for immediate family members only. "It creates the seeds for its own expansion."

President Bush has said any legalization plan would put illegal immigrants "at the back of the line" for citizenship.

With the House and Senate at odds on how to overhaul the immigration system, however, it is unclear changes to federal immigration law would reduce or swell the current backlogs.

[Soldier4Christ]

Latino musicians enter immigration debate

MIAMI (Billboard) - As the immigration debate grips Congress, the issue is inspiring new songs by Latin artists.

The latest high-profile example is "Se Que Triunfare" ("I Will Triumph"), a song recorded June 28 by a group of prominent regional Mexican artists.

Envisioned as a sort of brotherhood hymn, the track boasts straight-ahead lyrics ("I'm the one who fixes your car, without having a driver's license/It's me who night after night asks the heavens for an opportunity") intended to stir an emotional response.

Audiences will probably take it seriously because the people behind the song have all witnessed firsthand the trials and tribulations of immigrant life. Among the singers are Jenni Rivera, Conjunto Primavera lead singer Tony Melendez, Tucanes de Tijuana lead singer Mario Quintero, Los Horoscopos de Durango singers Vicky and Marisol Terrazas and El Chapo.

"El Chapo was a dishwasher," says co-writer Pepe Garza. "Mario Quintero crossed the border several times as a wetback. The Horoscopos girls' father had problems with immigration, and (Rivera's father) Don Pedro Rivera crossed the border with his wife, who was pregnant with Jenni at the time. Basically, the artists themselves are immigrants who have achieved success in the United States, and this is their message."

Garza, program director for regional Mexican KBUE (La Que Buena) Los Angeles, co-wrote "Se Que Triunfare" with producer brothers Omar and Adolfo Valenzuela (known as Los Twiins), who have worked with some of the market's top acts.

Fonovisa Records plans to release the track as part of a compilation related to the issue of immigration. There is no release date yet, but the tentative track listing includes Marco Antonio Solis' "Casas de Carton" ("Cardboard Houses," a song about poverty in Latin America) and Los Horoscopos de Durango's "Adios a Mi Tierra."

Another duranguense group, Patrulla 81, has also included an immigration-themed song as the title track on its latest album, "Tierra Extrana" (Strange Land). It is currently No. 29 on the Top Latin Albums chart.

[Soldier4Christ]

U.S. authorities arrest 25 illegal immigrants at Air Force base
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U.S. authorities arrested 25 illegal immigrants at the Barksdale Air Force Base, in Louisiana, on Friday, media reports said Saturday.

The contract workers were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, with collaboration from the Air Force.

The construction and landscaping workers' names were put on a list by the six companies doing business on the base, Frank Hartnett, a spokesman for 2nd Bomb Wing based at the airport, was quoted as saying.

A news release by the 2nd Bomb Wing said the workers were "foreign nationals" but did not specify a country of origin, the reports said.

The majority of the workers had obtained fraudulent Social Security and alien registration numbers to complete forms, the release was cited as saying.

The Barksdale Air Force Base, home for the Air Force's 2nd Bomb Wing, also provides global combat capability and trains all B-52 combat crews.

[Soldier4Christ]

Employers in 3 States Face Criminal Charges in Illegal Alien Employment Cases

As part of its efforts to combat illegal alien employment schemes through criminal prosecutions, Department of Homeland Security officials on Friday announced the results of three separate investigations that resulted in criminal charges against businesses employing illegal aliens in Kentucky, Ohio, and Arkansas.

On Thursday, two limited liability corporations in Kentucky pleaded guilty to criminal charges of harboring illegal aliens and money laundering in connection with an illegal employment scheme at hotels. They agreed to pay $1.5 million cash in lieu of forfeiture and create internal compliance programs. The sentencing in this case is slated for October 2006.

Meanwhile in Ohio, Immigration agents arrested the owner of a restaurant on felony charges of harboring illegal aliens after 10 of his illegal workers were apprehended. In Arkansas, agents arrested the owner of a construction business on felony charges and apprehended 27 of his illegal workers.

"ICE is taking an increasingly tough stance against egregious corporate violators that knowingly employ illegal aliens. Bringing criminal charges against these unscrupulous employers and targeting their ill-gotten gains is a tactic we are adopting nationwide," said ICE Assistant Secretary Julie L. Myers.

"This is a wholesale departure from the past system of sanctioning corporate violators with minor fines, which were rarely paid in a timely manner or at all."

Already this fiscal year, DHS has arrested 445 individuals on criminal charges in worksite investigations and apprehended another 2,700 of their illegal workers on immigration violations. During all of fiscal year 2005, ICE arrested 176 individuals on criminal charges and another 1,116 illegal alien workers in these cases.

Kentucky companies plead guilty:

Yesterday in London, Kentucky, Asha Ventures, LLC (successor in interest to Asha Enterprises, Inc.) and Narayan, LLC, each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens, one count of conspiracy to launder money and two counts of forfeiture. The companies were hiring illegal aliens to work at the Holiday Inn Express, the Days Inn Motel (Highway 192), the Days Inn Motel (Highway 80), the Sleep Inn and the Super 8 Motel located in London, Kentucky.

Asha Ventures, LLC, and Narayan, LLC are limited liability companies involved in the business of owning and operating hotels. Through their agents, the companies employed numerous illegal aliens at hotels in London. The aliens were sometimes paid by checks made payable to fictitious cleaning companies. The checks were then negotiated at the hotel upon whose account the check was drawn, and the aliens were then paid in cash. These payments were designed to promote the harboring of illegal aliens and to disguise the nature, location, source, ownership, or the control of the proceeds.

There is a mandatory special assessment of $400 per felony count, and the companies agreed to pay a total of $1.5 million cash in lieu of forfeiture at the time of sentencing. The companies could also face fines up to $500,000, or not more than twice the gross gain or twice the gross loss of their offense, whichever is greater.

The plea agreement also requires the companies to implement an effective compliance and ethics program to prevent the employment of illegal aliens in any of their hotels or other businesses. The plea agreement requires such programs to meet the approval of the United States Probation Office in consultation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and includes ongoing education of management on the employment and immigration laws of the United States. The corporations are scheduled to appear for sentencing in London, KY, on October 20, 2006.

Ohio business owner charged:

On Thursday, a Chinese restaurant owner in Fairfield, Ohio was criminally charged in U.S. District Court with encouraging or inducing aliens to illegally reside in the United States after an investigation by ICE agents. Jiang Fei Jiang, 36, a citizen of China is the owner and operater of Bee's Buffet in Fairfield, Ohio.

ICE special agents from the Cincinnati office, assisted by the Fairfield Police Department, executed federal search warrants at Jiang's residence and place of business on June 5 and arrested 10 individuals suspected of immigration law violations. In addition to Jiang, six other aliens were found to be illegally in the United States. The remaining individuals were found to either have cases on appeal or immigration benefits pending.

According to the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio, Jiang admitted to housing, transporting, and employing the individuals identified. Jiang faces a possible 10 years in prison.

Arkansas business owner charged:

Earlier in the week, ICE agents arrested the manager and a crew leader of Arevalo Framing Associates in Springdale, Arkansas, on criminal charges. In addition, agents apprehended 27 illegal alien workers of the company on administrative immigration violations.

Alejandro Arevalo, the manager of Arevalo Framing, was charged with harboring illegal aliens and re-entry after deportation. His crew leader, Rodrigo Arevalo, was charged with re-entry after deportation. The investigation has revealed that Arevalo Framing Associates earned some $1.8 million last year using an illegal alien workforce.

Searches conducted during the investigation resulted in the seizure of four vehicles, $1,943 in U.S. currency and an assault-type shotgun. Additional federal charges are expected in the case.

[Soldier4Christ]

Investigators serve search warrant on cockfighting facility

CARNEGIE, Okla. Federal and state investigators served a search warrant on a large cockfighting facility near Carnegie today.
But it wasn't immediately known if anyone was arrested during the search.

A statement released by the Bureau of Indian Affairs says agents from the B-I-A served the warrant about 1 p-m on property held in Indian trust status by the federal government.

The statement says execution of the warrant is part of an ongoing criminal investigation by the B-I-A and the F-B-I. The B-I-A says the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement were also involved.

Oklahoma voters banned cockfighting in 2002. Louisiana and New Mexico are the only states where the blood sport remains legal.