Immigration News

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White House to back Pence reform bill
Will show support for proposal criticized as 'amnesty lite'

The White House plans tomorrow to make a show of support for Rep. Mike Pence's proposed immigration compromise, which has been criticized by some conservatives as another form of amnesty.

Washington sources told WND the Bush administration will send to the Texas border Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff; Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas; and Pence, R-Ind., for a press conference.

The White House intends to make a push to get some form of immigration reform passed by the Senate and House so President Bush can sign the legislation before the November elections, those sources tell WND.

The plan championed by White House election strategist Karl Rove is to avoid having Republican senators and congressmen face the voters without being able to take credit for any immigration reform passed by the GOP-controlled 109th Congress.

Jim Gilchrist, founder of the volunteer border-watch group Minuteman Project, called Thursday's event "a staged public relations ploy by the White House to give the voting public the illusion that the administration is going to do something about border security."

"The plan the Bush administration has is to sell 'amnesty' to the American public as 'comprehensive immigration reform,'" Gilchrist told WND.

In July, Pence first announced he planned to introduce a bill he then was calling the "No Amnesty Reform Act." The bill now is listed on Pence's website as "The Hutchinson-Pence Plan: No Amnesty Immigration Reform."

The Pence plan as originally proposed would require all illegal aliens to leave the United States and apply at "Ellis Island Centers," operated by private companies in Mexico under a license from the U. S. government. They would then obtain a "Good Neighbor Safe Visa" qualifying them to re-enter the U.S. as "guest workers."

As reported previously by WND, a group of 43 influential opinion leaders – including Alan Keyes, Phyllis Schlafly, David Horowitz and swiftboat-vet activist John O'Neill – have signed a declaration pledging to withhold support for any candidate, Democrat or Republican, who votes for legislation providing "amnesty" or a guest-worker program for illegal aliens.

The members of a group called the Secure Borders Coalition specifically opposed Pence's "Ellis Island" proposal, labeling the plan "amnesty lite." Calling the proposal "unacceptable," the group argues it would provide for the "wholesale importation of aliens and a path to citizenship for them."

Gilchrist told WND he believes the result of the Hutchinson-Pence plan will be to flood the U.S. with millions more illegal immigrants.

"Probably within hours of the Ellis Island Centers opening, counterfeit copies of the required documentation to re-enter the U.S. will be available on the streets of Los Angeles and dozens of other U.S. cities," he said.

Tomorrow's press conference at the Texas border is mentioned on Pence's website, though without reporting the White House's support for the plan.

[Soldier4Christ]

Candidates challenged on support for borders
Group says immigration laws key to future, and voters should know

Two Republican candidates who want to replace Ted Kennedy and Joe Lieberman in the U.S. Senate have signed on to the "America First Contract" that commits them to enforcing the nation's immigration laws, a group has announced.

AlamoAlliance.org officials confirmed that Ken Chase, who is challenging Kennedy's long tenure in the Senate, and Alan Schlesinger, who wants to replace one-time Democratic vice-presidential candidate Leiberman, support the nation's immigration laws.

And they've said so in writing.

"I think it's time American voters had a clear and distinct choice when they go to the polls in November," Paul Goedinghaus, alliance president, told WorldNetDaily. "They should be able to choose a candidate they know will fight for the rights of Americans."

The pledge is simple; it just asks candidates to assure voters in writing that, if elected, they will vote to appropriate funds to enforce existing immigration laws, never vote for any measure to increase immigration and oppose plans for amnesty or guest worker programs.

The announcement comes on the heels of a forecast from Washington, D.C., that government spending will rise by as much as $126 billion over the next decade under the Senate's immigration proposal.

The Congressional Budget Office report forecasts the hiring of 31,000 more federal employees over five years, and the construction of fences and barriers with a price tag of $3.3 billion.

And, the report suggests, another $50 billion would be needed to cover the demands on Medicaid, Social Security, earned income and child tax credits.

Goedinghaus, however, said his group's estimate was closer to $440 billion, because of the many millions of immigrants who would qualify for federal tax benefits.

"When they find out what's available to them, they're all going to manipulate the system for the maximum benefits," he said.

As WorldNetDaily reported earlier, a group of 43 influential opinion leaders including Alan Keyes, Phyllis Schlafly, David Horowitz and Swiftboat activist John O'Neill have agreed to withhold support from candidates voting for "amnesty" plans.

That group, called the Secure Borders Coalition, said the need is to protect the U.S. borders, not "the wholesale importation of aliens and a path to citizenship for them."

Their declaration notes that the Heritage Foundation estimates one Senate plan could bring in at least 60 million additional foreigners to the United States over 20 years.

Those people, mostly, will be high school dropouts working low-paying jobs that pay little or no income tax and they will be 50 percent more likely to get government benefits than non-immigrants, the declaration notes.

The AlamoAlliance plan is intended to give voters the assurance that candidates they support will protect the nation.

"In all fairness, every candidate should have the opportunity to sign the Contract," the organization said in its announcement.

The group said its foundations are "that the traditions, customs and language of the United States of America represent a distinctive American culture that is unique to the United States."

Those, the group said, are a result of the fundamentals of self-government, self-reliance, liberty and justice contained in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

"It is our belief that in the United States today are 20 to 30 million illegal aliens. Our government has willfully neglected and completely failed in its Constitutional duty to protect the States from invasion and has willfully neglected and completely failed in its duty to enforce the duly enacted laws of the United States Congress," the group said.

The organization does endorse a "systematic" immigration policy requiring proficiency in English and government.

"With growing impatience, the American people in overwhelming numbers have asked our government to secure our borders," the group said. "They now demand it and we as a party agree with the American people."

[Soldier4Christ]

Firms Who Hire Illegal Immigrants Sued

LOS ANGELES -- Frustrated by lax enforcement of immigration law, businesses are taking their fight against illegal immigration to court, accusing competitors of hiring illegal workers to achieve an unfair advantage.

Businesses and anti-illegal immigration groups said the legal action was an attempt to create an economic deterrent against hiring illegal employees.

"We see the legal profession bringing to this issue the kind of effect it's had on consumer product safety," said Mike Hethmon of the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a Washington D.C.-based group backing the efforts.

In the first of a series of lawsuits, a temporary employment agency that supplies farm workers sued a grower and a two competing companies on Monday.

Similar cases claiming violations of federal anti-racketeering laws have yielded mixed results. The California lawsuit is believed to be the first based on a state's unfair-competition laws, legal experts said.

Santa Monica-based Global Horizons claimed in the lawsuit that Munger Brothers, a grower, hired illegal immigrant workers from Ayala Agricultural Services and J&A Contractors. All the defendants are based in California's farm-rich Central Valley.

The suit alleges that Munger Brothers had a contract with Global Horizons to provide more than 600 blueberry pickers this spring, but nixed the agreement so it could hire illegal immigrants.

"Competitors hiring illegal immigrants is hurting our business badly," Global Horizons President Mordechai Orian said. "It's to the point that doing business legally isn't worth it."

Ayala Agricultural Services manager Javier Rodriguez had not seen the suit but said the company does not hire undocumented immigrants.

"If somebody doesn't have a green card or work documents, we don't hire them," he said.

Munger Brothers lawyer Theodore Hoppe said the contract with Global Horizons fell apart because the laborers they provided couldn't pick blueberries at the rate the company had promised. He said Munger Brothers hired workers through temporary agencies, which had the responsibility to hire legal workers.

J&A Contractors did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

With an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, undocumented workers are a large part of the nation's work force.

But immigration law enforcement at work sites is limited. In fiscal year 1999, authorities arrested 2,849 people at work sites compared with 1,145 arrests last year, according to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

To prove competitors hire illegal immigrants, businesses could use public records involving prior violations, testimony from former employees who have worked alongside illegal immigrants, and recovered W-2 tax forms that show people working under fake names and Social Security numbers, said David Klehm, the lead lawyer for cases in Southern California.

Companies planning to file additional lawsuits include farms and factories that depend heavily on immigrant labor, Klehm said.

Legal experts said the cases could be difficult to win. Under the California statutes, plaintiffs must prove a competitor directly harmed their business.

"Unless you've got smoking gun evidence, it's hard to tie economic loss of one business to another's practices," said Niels Frenzen, a law professor at the University of Southern California.

He believes it is the first time the unfair-competition law has been used to target illegal immigration.

The Global Horizons lawsuit came after a settlement was reached in a Washington state class action suit involving employees of Zirkle Fruit Co. who sued their employer for driving down wages by hiring undocumented workers.

Based on federal anti-racketeering laws, the case was settled for $1.3 million in January after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court decision to dismiss it.

Howard Foster, the lead plaintiffs' lawyer in the Washington case, said he expects more such suits as business owners learn their competitors hired illegal immigrants.

"So many people talk openly about using false documents to assemble an illegal workforce," Foster said. "And when you have IDs with upside down numbers and backward pictures, you know they are fake."

[Soldier4Christ]

Bill’s cost expected in billions
Analysts eye immigration


WASHINGTON – The Senate’s embattled immigration bill would raise government spending by as much as $126 billion over the next decade, as the government begins paying out federal benefits to millions of new legal workers and cracks down on the border, a new Congressional Budget Office analysis concludes.

Law enforcement measures alone would necessitate hiring nearly 31,000 federal workers in the next five years, while the building and maintenance of 870 miles of fencing and vehicle barriers would cost $3.3 billion. Newly legalized immigrants would claim nearly $50 billion in federal benefits such as the earned income and child tax credits, Medicaid and Social Security.

The CBO report is the most detailed analysis to date of legislation that has divided the Republican Party, energized millions of Hispanics and become a focal point of congressional campaigns from southern Arizona to upstate New York. Under the legislation, passed this spring by a bipartisan Senate coalition, tough border-security measures would be coupled with a path to legal work and citizenship for most of the nation’s 11 million undocumented workers and a new guest-worker program for prospective migrants.

President Bush applauded its passage, but House GOP leaders have dug in their heels against it, favoring a House-passed measure that would make illegal immigrants felons, build hundreds of miles of fencing on the southern border and offer no new guest-worker programs.

The non-partisan CBO analysis is sure to offer fuel for the fight.

“The cost aspect of the Senate plan has never been taken into consideration,” said Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a firebrand opponent of illegal immigration who is leading the resistance to the Senate bill. “When combined with the policy implementations, this should certainly stick a fork in it.”

Supporters of the legislation cautioned that the CBO’s total needs to be put into context. For instance, most of the $78 billion in discretionary spending that the Senate bill authorizes through 2016 would pay for law enforcement measures that conservatives are pushing for anyway.

The CBO’s five-year cost estimates include $800 million to hire 1,000 additional Border Patrol agents; $2.6 billion to build detention facilities for 20,000; $3.3 billion to build and maintain 370 miles of border fencing and 500 miles of vehicle barriers along the U.S.-Mexico frontier; and $1.6 billion to establish a computerized system to verify the eligibility of applicants for employment.

“Most people recognize there is going to be a price tag for fixing a broken immigration system, no question about that,” said Ben Johnson, director of the Immigration Policy Center, which favors the Senate bill. “It still comes down to the moral question of ‘How do we create a new, workable immigration policy?’ ”

In the long run, tax revenue generated by new workers would ease the baby-boom generation’s burden on Social Security and offset virtually all of the additional spending, said James Horney, a senior fellow at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

“People who don’t like the bill will jump on the 10-year number,” he said. “But I hope others will look at the longer term and realize in the end, the answer is still the same. It’s all a wash.”

[Soldier4Christ]

U.S. announces end
of 'catch and release' 
Chertoff says new 'detain' policy means
all non-Mexicans will be returned home

The U.S. "catch-and-release" immigration policy officially has ended, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said today.

Law enforcement authorities are holding nearly all non-Mexican illegal immigrants caught in the U.S. until they can be deported to their home countries, Chertoff declared.

The new "catch and detain" policy, he noted, does not apply to Mexicans, who are to be sent back immediately after being stopped by Border Patrol agents.

"Although we're not ready to declare victory – we've got a lot more work to do – it is encouraging and it is something that ought to inspire us to continue to push forward," Chertoff told reporters.

Chertoff said a crackdown this summer bolstered by National Guard troops has deterred thousands from illegally crossing the Mexican border.

The Border Patrol provided statistics showing a drop of about 20,000 illegals caught crossing the border compared to last year.

Responding to today's announcement, immigration expert David Mulhausen of the Heritage Foundation said, if true, it is an important advancement in detering illegal immigration.

"However, something still needs to be done about the catching and releasing of Mexican illegal immigrants — the majority of all illegal immigrants," he said in an e-mail to National Review editor Kathryn Jean Lopez. "Hiring thousands of new Border Patrol agents will do little to deter illegal immigration without providing sanctions."

Mulhausen said that "because there is little or no cost to being apprehended by the Border Patrol, the research on illegal immigration suggests that illegal immigrants will make as many trips as necessary to cross the border successfully."

Last October, Chertoff told a Senate hearing the Department of Homeland security had a goal to "completely eliminate the 'catch and release' enforcement problem, and return every single illegal entrant, no exceptions."

"It should be possible to achieve significant and measurable progress to this end in less than a year," he said at the time.

Chertoff told the Senate in October "a non-Mexican illegal immigrant caught trying to enter the United States across the southwest border has an 80 percent chance of being released immediately because we lack the holding facilities."

But the agency, through a "comprehensive approach, was moving to end this 'catch and release' style of border enforcement by reengineering our detention and removal process," he said.

Nevertheless, Chertoff has been pessimistic toward calls to deport illegals who have been living and working in the country for some time.

In a November 2005 interview, defending President Bush's so-called "guest worker" program for illegal aliens, Chertoff said it's just not practical to deport the millions of foreigners in the country illegally.

"The cost of identifying all of those people and sending them back would be stupendous. It would be billions and billions of dollars," Chertoff told Sean Hannity on the Fox News Channel program "Hannity & Colmes."

"One of the reasons I think that we've been focusing on the idea of a temporary worker program as part of a larger strategy for border security is because it would be a way to siphon off people who really want to do nothing more than work here, put them into a regulated program – we would know who they are – we would then be able to send them back at the end of a period of three years or six years. They would have made some money, they could take it back home, and then we could focus our other resources on the people that don't want to do it the right way, and we could get those people sent out."

As WorldNetDaily reported today, the White House plans tomorrow to make a show of support for Rep. Mike Pence's proposed immigration compromise, which has been criticized by some conservatives as another form of amnesty.

Washington sources told WND the Bush administration will send Chertoff to the Texas border for a press conference, along with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas; and Pence, R-Ind.

The White House intends to make a push to get some form of immigration reform passed by the Senate and House so President Bush can sign the legislation before the November elections.

[Soldier4Christ]

Sting rounds up 25 foreigners for sex crimes
3-day operation results in arrests in L.A. area

A three-day sting operation resulted in the arrest of 25 foreign nationals who, authorities say, preyed on children sexually in the Los Angeles area.

All of those arrested have prior convictions for sex offenses, and four of them have previously been deported, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials announced yesterday.

Eleven were found to be living in the country illegally. The other 14 were legal permanent residents but face deportation for their criminal convictions.

"These pedophiles pose a serious threat to the well-being of our children, our families and our communities," said Robert Schoch, special agent-in-charge for the ICE office of investigations in Los Angeles, said in a statement. "We can not only take them off the streets, but we can seek to have them sent out of the country."

Those arrested include:

    * Jose Angel Pakas-Murcia, 46, a Honduran national deported in 1995 after serving time for sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl in Florida. He faces prosecution for re-entering the U.S. after deportation – a felony that carries up to 20 years in prison.

    * Gabino Chavez-Rosales, a 43-year-old Mexican national with a prior conviction for lewd acts with a minor, also was arrested on suspicion of attempting to kidnap a girl playing in the parking lot of a laundry business. The Glendale resident faces deportation.

    * Jose Luis Rodriguez-Lucatero, 41, who entered the country illegally from Mexico after his conviction for the attempted rape of a 15-year-old girl.

The arrests are the latest to be announced as part of Operation Predator. Since July 2003, the program has led to the arrest of more than 8,200 sex offenders nationwide.

[Soldier4Christ]

Feds drop immigration ball,
towns across U.S. pick it up 
Local governments pass measures making it harder
for illegal aliens to live, work in their communities

Frustrated by the federal government's immigration policy, small cities across the nation are taking enforcement into their own hands, passing laws that make it harder for illegals to live and work in their communities.

Dozens of towns have followed the path of Hazelton, Pa., which passed an ordinance July 13 to deter housing owners from renting to illegals. Riverside, N.J., quickly passed a similar measure, which fines landlords $1,000 per day for renting to illegals and removes business licenses from employers who hire illegals.

Already, legal action has been taken by opponents who insist the new laws usurp federal authority.

The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, which is challenging Hazelton in court, says four communities have passed similar measures and another 17 are considering them, according to Stateline.org.

On the state level, legislatures have considered a record 550 pieces of immigration-related legislation and passed at least 77 new laws in 27 states, Stateline.org said, citing the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In Georgia, a massive immigration reform package passed in May sanctioned employers who hire illegals and anyone who offers them access to public services. Colorado's legislature later passed similar measures.

In Pennsylvania, Hazelton Mayor Louis J. Barletta, an immigrant's grandson, says he wants to make his town "the toughest place on illegal immigrants in America."

"What I'm doing here is protecting the legal taxpayer of any race," he told the Washington Post. "And I will get rid of the illegal people. It's this simple: They must leave."

While the law doesn't take effect for another month, the Republican mayor already sees progress, according to the Post.

"I see illegal immigrants picking up and leaving -- some Mexican restaurants say business is off 75 percent," Barletta said. "The message is out there."

Elsewhere:

    * In Valley Park. Mo., earlier this month, landlords began evicting residents who don't have legal status in the country.

      Landis, N.C., unanimously passed an ordinance that requires residents to conduct business with the town in English only, the local Kannapolis Independent Tribune reported. Alderman James Furr said the reason for the ordinance is to get everyone on the same page.

      "We want to welcome immigrants to Landis and want to understand them," Furr said. "When someone comes before the board, I want to know them."

    * A nearby town, Mint Hill, N.C., is considering an ordinance that would go a step further, making English the official language but also punishing business owners that hire illegal workers or provide them services. Business owners would face loss of licenses for up to five years on the first offense, the Kannapolis Independent Tribune said.

      In Escondido, Calif., city leaders voted 3-2 last week to draft an ordinance to punish people who provide jobs and housing to illegal immigrants.

      Councilman Ed Gallo said the council's charge is to "provide for the health and safety of the residents of Escondido. Is it wrong then to ask them to be here legally?"

      Hispanics make up 42 percent of the town's 142,000 people.

    * In Farmers Branch, Texas, a city councilman plans to propose similar measures and also wants to stop publication of any documents in Spanish and eliminate subsidies for illegal immigrants in the city's youth programs, according to KWTX-TV in Waco, Texas.

    * In Riverside, N.J., the city council already has adjusted to court challenges, approving several amendments to reinforce an ordinance that bans hiring or housing illegal immigrants, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

    * In Arcadia, Wisc., the new mayor, John Kimmel, is being accused of racism for plans to make English the official language and to create an "illegal alien task force" that would forward complaints to federal authorities and hold landlords accountable for renting to illegal immigrants, reported the Associated Press.

    * The city council of Altoona, Pa., introduced an ordinance Wednesday calling for fines and revocation of licenses for employers who hire illegal aliens and landlords who house them.

      Officials there, however, will not include making English the official language because they fear it would not be legally defensible, the Altoona Mirror newspaper reported.

      Councilman Ron Reidell said the ordinance is justifiable because illegal aliens "breaking the law sap our resources, and they show themselves unwilling to go through channels others have navigated at great expense and effort."

Meanwhile, some employers themselves are cracking down on the hiring of illegals.

Companies in California are using the state's unfair competition statutes to sue competitors, claiming their rivals gain an unfair advantage by hiring illegals at lower wages, without pensions or workers compensation.

Groups that oppose illegal immigration are helping finance the legal actions, the Associated Press reported, believing the tactic could prompt a wave of litigation across the country that would deter hiring of illegals.

Statistics compiled by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement show immigration law enforcement at work sites is limited. Last year, just 1,145 work site arrests were recorded, compared to 2,849 in fiscal 1999.

Federal borders agents in at least one sector also are taking initiative, cooperating with local governments to m make a 210-mile stretch along the Texas-Mexico border a "zero-tolerance zone" for illegals.

Rather than being immediately sent home, illegals caught in this area – surrounding Del Rio, Texas – are arrested, prosecuted and sometimes sentenced to prison before being formally deported, the AP reported.

Federal officials, in fact, have praised the effort as a creative combination of local and federal resources to curb illegal entry.

Other border sectors have not engaged in such a practice because of limited resources. In the Del Rio sector, however, authorities have found bed space elsewhere in the region and assigned federal agents to help prosecute cases, the AP said.

"There's nothing we're doing that wasn't already on the books," said Hilario Leal Jr., a supervisory Border Patrol agent in the Del Rio sector. "It's nothing new. We just started enforcing the law."

[Soldier4Christ]

AK-47-wielding home invaders illegal aliens
South Texas teen held for drive-by shooting, sexual assault


One of two teen-agers arrested in South Texas for a string of home invasions while wielding AK-47s has been identified as an illegal alien, previously deported who lied about his age being tried as an adult for the attacks, which also include a drive-by shooting and a sexual assault.

The sheriff's department in the Rio Grande Valley now believes one of the attackers is a 19-year-old adult and not the 16-year-old juvenile he claimed when he was arrested. His accomplice is believed to be 16.

The suspect's fingerprints matched that of a 19-year-old Mexican national who had been previously deported for illegally entering the country, said Sheriff Lupe Treviño.

Treviño added the teen had illegally entered the country two other times under an alias and used a birth date saying he was a minor to avoid incarceration and prosecution for multiple illegal entries.

Treviño said the 16-year-old is also an illegal immigrant from Mexico.

The two suspects were arrested Aug. 10 in connection with a 24-hour crime wave that included three home invasions, a drive-by shooting and a sexual assault. Treviño said the teens entered the three homes with what victims identified as AK-47 assault rifles.

The two are each facing possible charges of attempted murder, aggravated robbery, aggravated sexual assault and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. 

[Soldier4Christ]

Mobile consulate issues IDs to Mexicans in Illinois
Hundreds line up for matricula consular – card accepted by banks to open accounts

Hundreds of Mexican immigrants lined the sidewalk at Bardwell Elementary School Thursday, awaiting a chance to get identification cards from their native country.

The school's gymnasium is playing host to the mobile operation of the Mexican Consulate in Chicago, which will be available to assist Mexican citizens there through Saturday.

The vast majority of people waiting in line were seeking to get a matricula consular, a photo ID card designed by the Mexican government primarily for its millions of citizens living in the United States without American documentation.

American immigration hawks criticize the matricula cards for making it easier for illegal immigrants to continue living in the United States.

The small green cards are accepted by some local government agencies and can be used to obtain driver's licenses in some states, although not Illinois.

Some of the immigrants waiting in line Thursday acknowledged that they are undocumented, while others said they are legal.

Missael Andrade, a West High freshman, came to get a card with his mother and 3-year-old brother.

The toddler was born here, but Andrade and his mother said they are both legal immigrants who have been waiting for their American citizenship applications to be approved for years.

Because the citizenship process has been so slow, they decided to get the Mexican ID card as a back-up.

Most immigrants waiting in line Wednesday said they wanted to get a matricula because the cards are accepted as valid IDs for setting up bank accounts.

Banks are keen on selling their services to the estimated 5 million undocumented immigrants in America.

"You're missing the boat if you're not serving that population," said Sandy Lorenz, a regional manager for Fifth Third Bank.

She and several of her staffers offered information on setting up bank accounts and other financial services to the hundreds of immigrants waiting in line Thursday at Bardwell.

The mobile consulate, which visits a different city each week, is scheduled to open again from 1 to 6 p.m. today and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Those who show up toward the end of those hours may find themselves turned away. On Thursday, petitioners began lining up three hours before the doors opened, and more than 150 applications for the matricula consular had been issued within an hour.

Jesus Quiroga, a consulate staffer, said the mobile office could probably only issue 200 matriculas that day.

[Soldier4Christ]

Local officials to Congress: We're swamped by illegals
'If you break the law to get here, you're not going to respect the law once you're here'

A federal effort to enlist local law enforcement officers to help identify and deport criminal illegal immigrants is a mere stopgap in the face of a much bigger problem, officials told a congressional panel Friday.

"I and many others strongly disagree with President Bush's policy, or lack of, on illegal immigration," Mecklenburg County Sheriff Jim Pendergraph told four House members at a hearing on empowering local law enforcement to combat illegal immigration.

"The Congress of the United States has let us down by the lack of action on the illegal immigration issue for decades," Pendergraph told the panel that included North Carolina Republican Reps. Virginia Foxx, Patrick McHenry and Sue Myrick.

Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., chairman of the subcommittee of the House Committee on Government Reform, also attended the hearing at Myrick's Gastonia office.

Pendergraph's department last winter signed a memorandum of understanding with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The agreement allowed 12 deputies to be trained to screen the immigration status of people arrested in Mecklenburg, home to North Carolina's largest city, Charlotte.

The 287(g) program, as it is known, gives local officers access to ICE's database of fingerprints and photographs, which Pendergraph and others say is the only reliable way to identify the immigration status of an arrested person.

Since screening began May 1, Pendergraph said, his department has found that most of the immigrants who pass through his jail are here illegally.

"So many illegal immigrant criminals have been identified through my 287(g) program, it is causing me a jail space problem," Pendergraph said.

Pendergraph's department is one of only seven departments in five states with such agreements and access to ICE's database.

Gaston County Sheriff Alan Cloninger told the panel his department received approval Thursday to join the program, but Pendergraph said many other law enforcement leaders who have tried repeatedly to participate in it tell him they have been turned down or ignored.

An estimated 405,000 illegal immigrants live in North Carolina, McHenry said.

Michael Lands, district attorney for Gaston County, said the federal government doesn't have enough agents to handle an illegal immigrant population of that size.

"Ultimately, and I mean no disrespect, this is a federal government problem that you need to address," he told the panel.

The government's approach to illegal immigrants, Lands said, has been "to wait until they commit a state crime and then determine if it's serious enough to deport them."

Souder responded that federal, state and local governments will have to cooperate to improve the system.

"Somehow we've got to figure out how to do this together," he said.

The mother of a Gaston County teacher who died in a July 2005 hit-and-run crash in Brunswick County caused by an illegal immigrant pleaded with the panel for a solution.

Scott Gardner was on vacation with his family when their car was struck by a truck driven by Ramiro Gallegos, who was intoxicated and had a history of drunken driving arrests.

Wife Tina Gardner remains in a vegetative state at a nursing home, her mother-in-law Emily Moose said Friday. The couple's two young children are effectively orphaned.

"I believe the cost of human life is too high to pay for cheap labor," Moose said, near tears.

Gallegos was sentenced earlier this year to 14 to 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to a charge of second-degree murder.

"If you break the law to get here, you're not going to respect the law once you're here," McHenry said.

That comment, plus a statement by Moose that "millions" of lives have been lost to illegal immigration and a complaint by Foxx that the media obsesses about the number of U.S. deaths in Iraq while saying little "about the people being killed by illegal immigrants every day," appeared to motivate Lands to interject.

"I think it needs to be said - and you all know - illegals aren't the only ones out there committing crime," he said. "There's plenty of crime by American-born citizens."

[Soldier4Christ]

Texas Immigration Proposal Draws Protest

 Clutching American flags and signs that read "America was formed by immigrants," more than 300 protesters on Saturday denounced a city proposal that would prohibit landlords from leasing to illegal immigrants.

About two dozen counter-protesters staged a demonstration nearby.

The proposal by City Councilman Tim O'Hare would also make it tougher for illegal immigrants to work in the Dallas suburb, penalize businesses that employ undocumented workers and make English the city's official language.

Protesters branded the proposal a racist initiative that would single out Hispanics, who make up about 37 percent of the city's population, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures from 2000.

"If we're of a certain color, they're going to point their finger at us," said Jose Gomez, a 42-year-old naturalized citizen.

Organizers of the rally emphasized that immigrants, regardless of status, pay taxes when they shop, rent or buy a home in Farmers Branch.

Families with children and college students rallied in temperatures topping 100 degrees.

O'Hare, who was not seen at the rally, and a city spokesman did not immediately return calls to The Associated Press.

Counter-protesters carried signs reading "I place all persons in the USA illegally under citizen's arrest" and "Como se Dice illegal en Espanol?", which translates to "How do you say illegal in Spanish?"

Supporters of the proposal said the measure would address problems with health care, education and crime in the city.

"They're taking our jobs, our homes," said Debbie Rawlins, 48. "There's unemployment partly because of the Hispanics. The lady that took my job is Hispanic and she's bilingual."

City Council members heard from constituents earlier this week on whether Farmers Branch should approve the measures, but no decision was made.

[Soldier4Christ]

NAFTA superhighway to mean
Mexican drivers, say Teamsters 
Union warns of drug-taking truckers,
unsafe rigs on planned trade routes

The NAFTA superhighway, a north-south interstate trade corridor linking Mexico, Canada and the U.S., would mean U.S. truckers replaced by Mexicans, more unsafe rigs on American roads and more drivers relying on drugs for their long hauls, charges the International Brotherhood of Teamsters – the latest group to weigh in against the Bush administration plan.

The August issue of Teamster magazine features a cover story on the plan for an enlarged I-35 that will reach north from the drug capital border town of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, 1,600 miles to Canada through San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Kansas City, Minneapolis and Duluth, while I-69 originating at the same crossing will shoot north to Michigan and across the Canadian border.

Public proposals for the superhighway calls for each corridor to be 1,200 feet wide with six lanes devoted to cars, four to trucks, with a rail line and utilities in the middle. Most of the goods will come from new Mexican ports being built on the Pacific Coast – ports being run by Chinese state-controlled shipping companies.

Tens of thousands of unregulated, unsafe Mexican trucks will flow unchecked through out border – a very real threat to the safety of our highways, homeland security and good-paying American jobs," writes Teamster President Jim Hoffa. "The Bush administration hasn't given up on its ridiculous quest to open our border to unsafe Mexican trucking companies. In fact, Bush is quietly moving forward with plans to build the massive network of highways from the Mexican border north through Detroit into Canada that would make cross-border trucking effortless."

So incensed was the union over the plan for the NAFTA superhighway that it sent investigative reporter Charles Bowden to Mexico for its August magazine report on the problems affecting Mexican drivers – problems that could soon come home to Americans with the plans for the new intercontinental highways.

Drivers interviewed for the magazine report say they are exploited by companies that force them to drive 4,500 kilometers alone over the course of five or six nights without sleep. How do they stay awake on such long hauls?

One driver says, "professional secret." Another laughs, "magic dust." Others mention "special chemicals."

"And then they are off, a torrent of words and quips and smiles, and a knowing discussion of that jolt when a line of cocaine locks in," writes Bowden. "They are all family men who run the highways at least 25 days a month and they are adamant about two things – that nobody can run these long hauls without cocaine and crystal meth, and now and then some marijuana to level out the rush. And the biggest danger on their endless runs comes from addicted Mexican truck drivers, which means all truck drivers."

Mexican drivers, of course, earn considerably less than their U.S. counterparts – about $1,100 a month. Hoffa says the NAFTA superhighway plan would "allow global conglomerates to capitalize by exploiting cheap labor and non-existent work rules and avoiding potential security enhancements at U.S. ports."

The drivers interviewed for Teamster magazine say they are completely at the mercy of their employers, the Mexican government and police – who are the first to rob them. All of those interviewed said they have killed people with their trucks on the highways and fled the accident sites.

Hoffa calls NAFTA an "unqualified disaster" up to now – and wonders why the nation continues to pursue the "free trade" agenda. Instead of creating new jobs, he said, it has cost 3 million in manufacturing alone. Instead of creating trade surpluses, America's trade deficit is the worst ever, he says.

"If there's a positive side to the disastrous legacy of NAFTA, it's that it has made it a little harder for the free trade cabal to wrap their lies around subsequent job-killing deals," says Hoffa. "While the White House and Senate still have a majority who continue to support the free trade agenda, their ranks have shrunk over the years – sometimes due to members of Congress changing their minds and sometimes due to voters changing their member of Congress."

He adds: "If the Bush administration succeeds (with the NAFTA superhighway), American drivers and their families will be forced to share the roads with unsafe, uninsured trucks and millions of good-paying American jobs will be lost. And just one weapon of mass destruction in an unchecked container will be too many."

[Soldier4Christ]

She sought sanctuary, became a symbol
Immigrant living inside a church stirs U.S. debate over the fairness of immigration law


CHICAGO - Elvira Arellano, the illegal immigrant who has sought sanctuary in a storefront church, says only God knows her destiny.

In the compact room where she sleeps above the church, she has converted a desk into a shrine of gifts from many of the people who support her attempt to defy a deportation order.

Her case of disobedience is gaining attention from international news organizations, American church alliances and activists on many sides of larger immigration issues.

Last week, Arellano clutched a rose-scented rosary next to a key chain with pictures of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI and a prayer card of St. Toribio, the unofficial saint of undocumented migrants from Mexico.

"God is great, and I maintain my faith in this church," Arellano, 31, said in an interview in Spanish.

She has spent her time there since Aug. 15, the day set for her deportation to Mexico by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

No legal protections
The single mother has become a stirring symbol in the immigration debate, supporters said, giving a voice to the janitors, nannies and field workers who normally live and work in the shadows. Arellano, in fact, had a cleaning job at O'Hare International Airport before she was found to have used a false Social Security number.

Federal officials said they can apprehend and deport Arellano at any time. Her taking up residence in the church with her 7-year-old son, Saul, a U.S. citizen by birth, gives her no legal protections, they said.

"She willfully flaunted the law by not showing up (Aug. 15)," Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Gail Montenegro said. "She in fact became an immigrant fugitive."

But immigration officials have confided to reporters that they have no plans to remove Arellano from Adalberto United Methodist Church.

Her supporters argue that it is inhumane to separate a mother from her child and that immigration reform is needed to protect millions of other children across the country who have at least one undocumented parent.

"We believe that a moratorium (on such deportations) is the humane thing to do," said the Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor of the church, where Arellano has been a parishioner the past three years. He has granted her lodging indefinitely.

Chicago attorney Joseph Mathews last week sought a court injunction against the woman's removal from the United States, arguing that the government would be forcing the illegal deportation of a U.S. citizen — her son.

If the child stayed behind, he would most likely become a ward of the state, Mathews explained. Arellano has no relatives in the United States and insists that she won't be separated from her son. The court request is pending.

Fighting since 2000
In a few other high-profile immigration cases, federal lawmakers have sponsored a private relief bill seeking to block an immigrant or immigrant family's removal. Illinois' senators, Democrats Dick Durbin and Barack Obama, have expressed sympathy for Arellano but declined to get involved.

Durbin had sponsored a bill for Arellano when her son had a medical emergency two years ago. Immigration officials said the move temporarily halted her removal, but that the bill never passed and the deportation case can continue.

In 1997, Arellano was caught by immigration officials and deported when she tried to cross the Mexico border northward. A later unauthorized crossing succeeded and she migrated to Washington state, where her son was born. She moved to Chicago in 2000 and was arrested at her airport job two years later.

She has been fighting deportation ever since and has been a public critic of U.S. immigration policy. She founded a group called United Latino Family and has helped organize protests and rallied for immigration reform.

Local Latino politicians have offered support. Cook County Commissioner Roberto Maldonado announced plans to introduce a resolution to make the county a legal sanctuary for immigrants.

"We know it doesn't have legal teeth but it has moral value," Maldonado said.

U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., has asked President Bush to block the deportation.

Arellano's church refuge is along Division Street in the heart of Chicago's Puerto Rican community. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens by birthright.

"Before God, we're all equal. We're all mothers, too. We have to think of her son," said supporter Carmen Rodriguez, 68, who is of Puerto Rican heritage.

Arab-Americans have donated food and water. Croatian-Americans left behind a banner of support. From across town, a Mexican restaurant sends lunch every day for Elvira and volunteers at the church.

A donor provided 50 watermelons; others gave toy trucks and games for the boy and a refrigerator and vacuum cleaner for the church.

Some angered
Arellano's case, though, may have created friction with some blacks.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell, who is black, took public offense to comparisons of Arellano with civil rights hero Rosa Parks.

Mitchell wrote that the comparison fails because Arellano is not a victim of an unjust system.

"Her chutzpah makes her a folk hero to some, but her blatant exploitation of Parks' legacy undermines the fragile coalition between some blacks and Hispanics that has formed around the immigration issue," according to the columnist.

Arellano said she has received supportive messages from blacks.

She is uncertain how long she will live in the church apartment. The living room of her apartment, set up like a command center, is where volunteers have a computer and a list of reporters who have requested interviews from all over the world.

Volunteers sleep in the church, keeping watch for any arrival of immigration agents.

But she said she would do whatever she has to do to raise Saul in the country of his birth.

"What mother wouldn't do the best she could for her son?" she asked.

[Soldier4Christ]

Court to hospital: Wrong to deport injured illegal
Florida facility spent more than $1 million to care for Guatemalan

An appeals court Wednesday announced that an man who was extradited to Guatemala in 2003 by Martin Memorial Medical Center will have his day in court after all.

In 2004, when Luis Alberto Jimenez's guardian attempted to sue the hospital for transporting his severely brain-damaged cousin, the judge threw out the case because another judge approved the move.

The decision to move Jimenez was overturned by a circuit court judge, but it was too late for the Guatemalan, who had been sent back home via a private plane the day after the first ruling. Montejo appealed the court's decision dismissing his lawsuit and won.

'We have not made a specific monetary demand at this point, and we want to make it clear that we have a great deal of sympathy for the situation that hospitals are in, having to provide care for non-U.S. citizens, but the solution to those problems is not to kidnap people, put them on an airplane and illegally deport them,' said Jack Scarola, the West Palm Beach attorney representing Jimenez.

Since being deported, Scarola said, Jimenez has been living in a hut in a remote area of Guatemala, cared for only by his mother.

Lisa McCluskey, Martin Memorial's director of marketing and communication, said the hospital stands by its decision.

'We are disappointed in today's ruling on Mr. Jimenez, who was an undocumented worker, and whom we gave medical care for more than two years,' McCluskey said Wednesday.

The hospital has not received the court's ruling or made a decision on what it will do next, McCluskey said.

They could decide to take this latest ruling and appeal instate Supreme Court.

Jimenez was in a serious car accident in 2000 that left him with severe brain injuries and in need of long-term care. He remained at the hospital for two years, but officials there wanted him moved after they determined he needed a long-term facility.

'Martin Memorial is not a long-term care facility,' McCluskey said. 'It is unrealistic that the local hospital is going to care for or to expect that the local hospitals and community is going to bear the cost for undocumented aliens. It is a global and national issue that many states are facing.'

The hospital spent more than $1 million from a charity fund on Jimenez's care, McCluskey said. But Scarola said he doubted the hospital spent its own money.

'It's an obligation they had to provide care,' Scarola said. 'We have an excellent case, and I'm hoping Martin Memorial will resolve it quickly, and amicably, recognizing their responsibility.'

[Soldier4Christ]

Spanish firm to build Texas superhighway 
Construction scheduled to begin early next year

Grupo Ferrovial, Spain’s construction, infrastructure and services giant, had a busy summer acquiring airports in the UK and Peru. Now it has a concession to build and operate a Texas superhighway.

Construction of the new toll road project, designed to develop an alternative route to Interstate 35 as part of the planned Trans-Texas Corridor is due to start early next year.

This is has been agreed by the Texas Department of Transport under a comprehensive development deal with the Spanish company Cintra - Concesiones de Infrastructuras de Transporte, a member of the Ferrovial group.

Cintra’s partner for the five-year road building programme is the San Antonio-based contractor Zachry Construction Corp, but Ferrovial’s construction company Agroman is getting a share in the business.

Zachry joined with Cintra in a scheme to provide private investment worth $6 billion.  The assignment is to design, build and operate a four-lane toll road covering the 500 km distance between Dallas and San Antonio, bypassing the State capital at Austin.

For this concession Cintra is paying the State of Texas $1.2 billion. It gives them the right to build and operate this initial segment of the intended Trans-Texas Corridor.

This would be part of the ‘super-highway’ spanning the United States from the Mexican border at Laredo, making its way through Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma and connecting with the Canadian highway system north of Duluth, Minnesota.

Because it would provide a connection all the way between Canada and Mexico, the project is also described as the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) super highway.

The project as conceived by Cintra and its partners and endorsed by the Texas transport department is certainly ambitious. They have talked about developing a corridor providing two lanes for high speed trucks and three for passenger vehicles in each direction, plus high speed and freight railway lines, possibly also telecommunication cables and oil, gas and water pipelines in an adjacent utilities corridor.

But a corridor of this overall width – maybe as much as 360 m - has alarmed people who stand forced to surrender property in land and buildings to the project. This concern has been sharpened by the disclosure that, citing a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the developers intend to exercise the principle of ‘eminent domain’ in land acquisition proceedings on the grounds that they are acting as agents of a public authority.

The developers apparently believe that such rights, once established in Texas, could then be applied across the entire 6,500 km length of the NAFTA highway. Whether that proves to be so depends on the outcome of any challenge that might be launched against such a claim.

The Cintra-Zachry partnership is however in a strong position because they have already secured an agreement granting them the right to develop the new highway in Texas. They have also put money down for the privilege.

The first concession within the Trans-Texas Corridor has already been awarded to Cintra. According to a statement by parent company Ferrovial, construction is expected to start early in 2007 once environmental and other permits have been obtained.

These initial contracts, to build two segments of the new toll road 64 km between Austin and Seguin will be performed 50 per cent each by Ferrovial’s construction subsidiary Agroman and Zachry, which has won around $180 million worth of road contracts already this year from the Texas Department of Transport.

Total construction investment in the new contracts is said to be $1.3 billion.

“The new highway”, the statement explained, “will offer an alternative to I-35 between San Antonio and north Austin, making it possible to avoid the highly congested area of central Austin on medium and long-distance journeys.

“The new high capacity road will absorb growth in long-distance truck traffic expected as a result of trade agreements between the United States, Mexico and Canada.”

Cintra has also recently taken over management of the Indiana Toll Road (ITR) after paying $3.8 billion to the State’s finance authority for the transfer of the asset. In a 50:50 consortium with the Australian bank Macquarie, Cintra now has charge of this 250 km highway which links Chicago with the eastern seaboard of the United States.

The concession will run over 75 years.

The company commented:  “The project reinforces Cintra’s presence in the U.S., a strategic market for the company: it has a 99-year concession to operate the Chicago Skyway ($1.83 billion) which links with the Indiana Toll Road, and it is a strategic partner of the State of Texas for 50 years to develop the Trans-Texas Corridor, one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the United States.”