Illegal Immigration

[nChrist]

I have a HUGE crush on Sheriff Joe!   

           ROFL!

Sister, I don't have a crush on Sheriff Joe, but I do think that we need several thousand more just like him.

I'll just say:

ATTA BOY JOE!

 

[Soldier4Christ]

More border cities see signs of MS-13
Officials say presence of U.S. crime groups makes it harder to infiltrate U.S.

The recent arrest of a man tied to Mara Salvatrucha doesn't mean the ruthless Central American street gang is on the verge of gaining a foothold in El Paso, law enforcement authorities say.

However, it may portend a growing trend of incursions into other U.S. cities by the gang, which has a reputation for extreme violence, including hacking victims with machetes, controlling prisons and threatening the stability of some Central American countries.

The gang member arrested in El Paso was among a dozen Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, members stopped in September and October during heightened law enforcement operations along the Texas-Mexico border, the Texas governor's office said recently. Gang members, which have cliques in Houston and Dallas, also were captured in Maverick, Webb and Hidalgo counties.

Although the presence of a Mara Salvatrucha gang member in El Paso is unusual, said Javier Sambrano, El Paso police spokesman, police don't have reason to believe the gang will become a major factor locally.

"There have been some people arrested," he said. "They are associated or members of that (MS-13) gang, but we really haven't seen any activity."

The Mara Salvatrucha was founded by Salvadoran immigrants in Los Angeles.

The gang, which is the target of a multi-agency MS-13 National Gang Task Force based at FBI Headquarters, has about 10,000 members in 33 states and Washington, D.C.

Because there are already about 500 street gangs, party crews and other gangs in El Paso, local law enforcement officials have said it would be difficult for MS-13 to muscle its way in. They say their security efforts along the border also are intended to make it more difficult for gangs to expand their turf.

Thirty members of gangs have been arrested this year in warrant roundups, traffic stops and vehicle checks that were part of the border security projects Operation Linebacker and Operation Border Star, said El Paso County Sheriff's Office spokesman Deputy Eduardo Placencia.

Most of the gang members arrested in El Paso County were from the Barrio Azteca and Folk gangs and not necessarily undocumented immigrants, Placencia said. A new round of Operation Border Star began Wednesday.

The operations have been criticized by immigrant-rights activists as targeting undocumented immigrants.

"It's basically putting more deputies out on the street. We are not looking for undocumented people. We are just there in numbers," Placencia said.

Placencia said deputies may ask for a Social Security number because it is part of the form filled in for traffic tickets.

Figures released from the governor's office also showed arrests of members of the Mexican Mafia and Tango Blast prison gangs as part of the crackdown.

Tango Blast is a fast-growing, but loosely organized prison gang found in Austin, Houston and Dallas, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

"Gang intel said they are not having any problems with Tangos yet," Placencia said. "They have confirmed several of them being inmates" at the El Paso County Jail.

[Soldier4Christ]

10 suspected Sur-13 members hit with racketeering charges
Florida crackdown targets group transplanted from Southern California

Authorities announced Friday the first indictment of 10 South Florida members of Sur-13, a dangerous gang that started in Southern California and has taken root in the Westgate neighborhood, west of West Palm Beach, authorities said.

The arrests are the first of the 18th statewide grand jury - a multi-agency task force convened to study the growth of gang violence in South Florida - using racketeering charges.

The 10 are Ernesto Campos, 25; Isaias Jacobo, 24; Victor Castillo, 24; Enrique Medran, 20; Dennis Medrano, 19; ; Kevin Medrano 19; Efran Ortiz, 25; Carlos Martinez, 21; Roberto Trejo, 18; and a 17-year-old who the South Florida Sun-Sentinel is not naming because of his age.

Each member will be charged with racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering and could each spend up to 60 years in a state prison.

Judge Kathleen Kroll, who is presiding over the 18th statewide grand jury, ordered a $1 million bond for the ten suspects being held at Palm Beach County Jail.

Authorities said they are using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO act, to crack down gang activity in the state.

The RICO act is a federal law that provides for extended penalties for criminal acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.

[Soldier4Christ]

Crossing border tougher for Americans in '08
'As of Jan. 31, you are required to have proof of citizenship – a birth certificate and ID'

It's easy to step across the border into Mexico. But beginning Jan. 31, 2008, it will be harder to cross back into the United States. You can't just smile and say, "U.S. citizen."

"As of Jan. 31, you are required to have proof of citizenship - a birth certificate and ID," said Ann Barrett, deputy assistant secretary for Passport Services of the U.S. Department of State.

Contrary to rumors, you won't need a passport yet, Barrett said. That requirement probably won't kick in until next summer and the department will give 60 days of notice.

Barrett came to Rio Rico on Tuesday, Dec. 11, for a conference sponsored by the Border Trade Association and the City of Nogales. She and Colleen Manaher from U.S. Customs and Border Protection explained how the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) would be implemented at ports of entry.

For years, U.S. travelers to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean did not need a passport to reenter the U.S., Barrett said. But in 2004, Congress passed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act that gradually peeled back that exemption.

Participants at the conference worried that stricter requirements at ports of entry would dampen cross-border trade and travel that feed the economies of Nogales, Ariz., and Nogales, Sonora.

"People are very confused (about the passport requirement) here in the U.S.," said Norah Lily Galindo, a councilwoman from Nogales, Sonora.

Her city of 450,000 relies on U.S. tourist dollars, and tourism has declined, Galindo said. "Even though they're earning less, they (Sonorans) still spend their pesos in the United States."

The state of Sonora has done a lot to make day travel easy for U.S. citizens, said Robert Kip Martin, a Nogales attorney. But if U.S. tourists spend less money in Sonoran pharmacies, restaurants and craft shops, those vendors will have less to spend on shopping trips to malls on the U.S. side.

"Our community derives approximately 60 percent of our local sales tax from folks in Nogales, Sonora," said Nils Urman, director of community and economic development for the city of Nogales. "Anything that impedes that flow will have a profound effect on our communities."

WHTI aims to reduce the number of documents the port of entry personnel will need to recognize, Barrett said. Currently, more than 8,000 types of birth certificates are issued in the U.S.

"(Border personnel) do a great job with what they have, but they don't have enough," said Luis Ramirez, co-chair of the BTA travel and immigration committee.

"We can envision an environment in the future to allow people to travel more easily across the borders, but how do we handle this period of uncertainty between then and now?"

Margie Emmermann, director of the Arizona Office of Tourism, said she wrote to federal officials to ask for a low-cost alternative to a passport that meets the WHTI requirements.

"Not everybody can afford a passport."

Next spring, the State Department will issue a low-cost passport card for land and sea travel abroad, but it will not be valid for air travel, Barrett said.

"It was designed with the border population in mind," she said.

She encouraged Americans who want to travel to Mexico or Canada in the future to get a passport now. Everyone in the family, including children and babies, have to get the document, Barrett said.

"This is our slow time," she said. More people apply in the spring for travel during the summer.

But Delfina Bach, clerk of the Santa Cruz County Superior Court, said her office has been overwhelmed with applications since people began to hear about the passport requirement.

In 2003, her office processed 384 passports, Bauch said. This year, as of Dec. 10, the number of applications stood at 6,529.

The State Department processed 8 million passports in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2004, Barrett said. In the year ending Sept. 30, 2007, the number was 18.4 million. The department has authorized more than 9,000 agencies to accept passport applications.

An applicant must present a birth certificate and photo ID plus two passport photos. The cost is $97 for an adult and $82 for a youth 16 and under. It takes about four to six weeks to get the passport, Barrett said. For locations and required documents, visit www.travel.state.gov

Santa Cruz County residents can apply at the Clerk of the Superior Court on the second floor of the County Complex or at the Nogales Post Office.

What would disqualify a person from getting a passport?

If you are not a U.S. citizen or are using false ID, Barrett said. If you have an outstanding federal warrant or owe a certain amount of child support, you would also be barred.

[Soldier4Christ]

An Immigrant to Embrace

There are immigrants and there are immigrants, and a wise nation distinguishes between those it wants to keep out and those it welcomes with open arms. Unfortunately, however, we Americans don’t seem to be much good at making distinctions.

Thus as we’ve debated immigration policy over the last few years, some have argued that virtually all immigration — legal or illegal — is bad and should be curtailed, while others have seemed to think that anyone who can crawl, swim or sneak across our borders ought to be welcome here.

As Christmas approaches, we should take a minute to think about those who have in one way or another proved themselves worthy of acceptance and make sure that as we strengthen our borders and redouble our efforts to bar entry to criminals, terrorists and those who would flaunt our laws, we don’t punish those we should welcome with open arms.

Those who read The Hill regularly may remember that some months ago I wrote a column about the young Iraqi who served as a contract interpreter to my daughter’s Army unit during her year in Iraq.

His decision to work with us to build a better Iraq cost “Timmy” his family and made him a target of the terrorists who plague his country. While she was there, my daughter saw him in action. He saved the lives of several members of her unit, never flinched in the face of danger or threats and took on the most dangerous assignments as a matter of course. By the time she left Iraq, she reported that Timmy was unable to walk the streets of Baghdad without an armed escort because he was so well-known as a friend of the U.S. and because he, like others working for us, is an attractive terrorist target.

She and other members of her psy-ops unit want Timmy out of Iraq lest he be killed for the help he’s provided, but quickly discovered that it is virtually impossible for an Iraqi in his position to come to the U.S. Interpreters like Timmy can theoretically enter a lottery that allows a few of them to come here, but it turns out that those in the field like Timmy have little chance of even qualifying for the lottery.

Our ambassador to Iraq, among others, has been pleading for a change in a policy that makes it appear that if things go bad we will abandon precisely those Iraqis who have put their lives on the line for us. One suspects that a few of them have seen film footage of the U.S. evacuation of our embassy in Saigon at the end of the war we fought there while those who helped us were left to the tender mercies of our communist enemy.

Ambassador Ryan Crocker has suggested that it is difficult to recruit Iraqis because of the not unreasonable fear that if things turn out badly, they’ll be left on their own. His own government hasn’t listened very carefully either to what he’s been saying or been much moved by the heroism and sacrifices of those we depend on in Iraq, but some in Congress deserve our congratulations for trying to do something about what I consider a shameful situation.

Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) authored an amendment to the 2008 Defense Authorization Act that was adopted unanimously by the conferees with support from the right, left and middle and that would essentially move those Iraqis who have worked for us and who can demonstrate that as a result of doing so their lives are in danger to the head of the refugee line and allow them to apply for refugee status from Iraq. (Right now, they have to leave Iraq and sneak into either Jordan or Syria to apply.)

They would, of course, still have to undergo the security screening required of other refugees to verify their status and make sure they are what they claim and not potential enemies of this country.

This would seem to solve Timmy’s problem, but the good folks at the Department of Homeland Security, apparently operating on the theory that if they don’t let any Iraqis at all into this country they can’t be blamed if a terrorist makes it in, are proposing new hurdles that will make it even more difficult for people like Timmy to make it over here.

DHS, which hasn’t been able to do much to keep anyone who wants to sneak across our southern border from doing so, seems willing to go to any length to make sure that those willing to fight and die beside our troops will be forever barred.

These guys deserve coal for Christmas.

[Soldier4Christ]

I have seen and heard of many Timmy's. They indeed are very brave individuals that have faced unbelievable odds and dangers for believing in a system they thought was going to bring them the freedoms that many Americans enjoy without giving a single thought about them. They put their trust and loyalty in us. We cannot in good conscience just abandon them to ruthless killers.

Timmy and those like him deserve our support and our prayers. Please join with me in contacting your representatives in support of him and in prayers that he remain safe until something can be done to get him to a safer area.

[Soldier4Christ]

'MS-13' vandals deface
Vietnam War memorial 
Veterans angered by spray-paint attack
attributed to violent Hispanic street gang

Vandals claiming a relationship to the violent Hispanic street gang MS-13 defaced a Vietnam War memorial in Connecticut with graffiti, angering local veterans.

"Kill whites MS 13" were among the threatening words spray-painted on the Vietnam War Memorial at Long Wharf, Conn., reported WTNH-TV in New Haven.

"This irks me. This hurts me deep to my heart," Vietnam Army veteran Emery Linton Sr. told the station.

Linton, who served in Vietnam from 1969 to 1972, noted he lost friends there and called the mess on the memorial a slap in the face to veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

"People here respect these names. They gave their lives for everything, for the freedoms they have," Linton said.

Police are investigating whether the vandalism is the work of the violent MS-13 gang.

As WND reported, the El Salvador-based MS-13 operates in 44 U.S. states, according to the FBI.

WND reported as early as 1995 the gang reportedly was meeting with representatives of al-Qaida and smuggling operatives into the United States from Mexico.

An attorney prosecuting MS-13 members said the gang follows the "rape, kill and control" philosophy," using guns, knives and machetes. The group traffics in drugs, weapons and humans. Last summer, police in the Boston area conducted a major round-up of MS 13 members.

New Haven police told WTNH they have not documented any MS-13 activity in the city.

Another veteran said she was heartbroken over the vandalism.

"I don't know who would want to do this," Lori Grenfell told the New Haven station. "They have the right to say what they want to say. They can thank these guys for that right."

Linton had a message for the perpetrators.

"If it is a gang related thing, and if you guys really think you're bad, join the service, get in the action and see what it's really like," she said.

Members of the New Haven County Vietnam Veterans Group vowed to clean up the mess.

[Shammu]

Members of the New Haven County Vietnam Veterans Group vowed to clean up the mess.

These vet's shouldn't have to clean this mess. The punks (MS-13) that made the mess SHOULD clean it!!!!!!!!!  I'd like to see how well these punks would fair, in Sheriff Joe's jail!!

[nChrist]

These vet's shouldn't have to clean this mess. The punks (MS-13) that made the mess SHOULD clean it!!!!!!!!!  I'd like to see how well these punks would fair, in Sheriff Joe's jail!!

Brother, I just now read this and it's sickening. Punks would be an elevated term for "MS-13", and they would look great in pink cleaning up their mess before being deported. We can thank our politicians for leaving our borders insecure and allowing these idiots to be here in the first place. We need someone like Sheriff Joe to secure our borders and be in charge of deporting illegal aliens, especially the ones like MS-13 and other cowardly terrorists.

[Soldier4Christ]

I wouldn't want them to be allowed anywhere near this memorial or any other one for that matter. Sheriff Joe and being dressed in pink sounds like a good idea though along with some really extended hard labor. Deporting them after that sounds good, too, if the borders are secured first where they can't get back across.

[Soldier4Christ]

MS-13 hits Vietnam vets' memorial again 
Authorities now investigating presence of violent gang

Authorities in New Haven, Conn., have launched an investigation into the establishment of the radically violent MS-13 street gang in their city after a second case of apparently gang-related vandalism within a week.

According to reports from WTNH-TV, part of the effort may be to set up surveillance cameras at a Vietnam memorial that has been vandalized twice in just days.

"You don't like to have a camera out here where people come and pay respects but certainly you don't want to have something like this to happen to something so meaningful," a New Haven spokesman, Rob Smuts, told the television station.

The MS-13 graffiti on the Vietnam memorial had appeared first only days earlier, when spray-painted "Kill whites MS 13" defaced the memorial at Long Wharf, Conn., the station reported.

"This irks me. This hurts me deep to my heart," Vietnam Army veteran Emery Linton Sr. told the station then. Linton, who served in Vietnam from 1969 to 1972, noted he lost friends there and called the mess on the memorial a slap in the face to veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

"People here respect these names. They gave their lives for everything, for the freedoms they have," Linton said.

As WND reported, the El Salvador-based MS-13 operates in 44 U.S. states, according to the FBI.

WND reported as early as 1995 the gang reportedly was meeting with representatives of al-Qaida and smuggling operatives into the United States from Mexico.

An attorney prosecuting MS-13 members said the gang follows the "rape, kill and control" philosophy, using guns, knives and machetes. The gang members traffic in drugs, weapons and humans. Last summer, police in the Boston area conducted a major round-up of MS 13 members.

New Haven police told WTNH they have not documented MS-13 activity in the city, but they are investigating in light of the recent vandalism.

The newest vandalism also features the "MS-13" logo, appearing this time in black spray paint on the memorial.

"This is a sad scene for me to see that this is happening now," another veteran, Jimmy V, told the station.

"It's a kick in the gut to all Vietnam veterans. Again our brothers will serve as a reminder not only to a war but to the way society is now with no respect," he said.

The earlier vandalism was with bright orange paint, used to write "MS-13." Jimmy noted it actually was the third case of vandalism at the memorial; he says he cleaned white spray paint off the stone "V" in the memorial several weeks ago.

"I don't know who would want to do this," Lori Grenfell told the New Haven station. "They have the right to say what they want to say. They can thank these guys for that right."

Linton's message to the vandals was direct. "If you guys really think you're bad, join the service, get in the action and see what it's really like."

[Soldier4Christ]

Citizens blast tax-funded 'sanctuary' for illegals
'The town of Jupiter is a symbol of what is wrong in this country'

    The next time you need someone experienced in lawn care, landscaping, general labor, moving, construction cleaning, house cleaning, and many other jobs, whether for a few hours or a few days, come to EL SOL. You will be glad you did.

    – Friends of El Sol Neighborhood Resource Center

That's the pitch being used to bring illegal aliens together with prospective employers in Jupiter, Fla.

The El Sol Neighborhood Resource Center was the town's solution for stopping ''migrant workers'' from lining the streets each day to wait for employers to drive by and hire them.

Sometimes as many as 100 ''day laborers'' gathered each morning. Neighborhood residents complained they blocked traffic, scared people and created a public nuisance.

So, backed by legal opinions that said the center did not violate any laws, the town of Jupiter bought a building next to town hall and the police station for $1.9 million and encouraged Catholic Charities, along with the migrant advocacy group Corn Maya and community volunteers, to lease it for $1 a year, reports the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Since then, the center has registered more than 1,730 workers and 2,577 employers and claimed an average daily hiring rate of 25 percent, according to Catholic Charities.

"The town is not trying to make a statement," Mayor Karen Golonka told the Florida paper. "It is simply trying to find a way at our level to provide a local solution to our community."

South Florida talk radio host and anti-illegal immigration activist Joyce Kaufman is an outspoken critic of the center and others like it.

"The rationale is that there's something endearing and American about allowing these people to come to the U.S. That's true. It's called immigration and we have legal channels to do that. It doesn't mean that everyone who crosses the border at night has the right to a job," Kaufman told WND.

"We've got guys who take photos of contractors and homeowners who pick these people up. They're breaking the law."

The center's website features testimonials from El Sol's happy customers:

   1. Jeff A. (business owner): ''There's nothing better as far as I'm concerned. I will continue to use them. They work hard and they do a good job and I wish more people would use them.''

   2. Mark S. (Hired workers for clearing debris, removing trees, etc.): ''They do an outstanding job. They work hard and if I need help again, I'll definitely be there because there are no problems.''

   3. Anonymous: ''We the friends and workers of the El Sol Resource Center of Jupiter declare this occasion as an appreciation time to you Mayor and your supporters and staff for making the dream of El Sol a reality!''

   4. Doug (flooring company owner): ''I keep going back to El Sol because they're good workers. Guatemalans are the best workers I've had work for me and I've worked all over the country.''

   5. Candy (electrical contractor): ''We enjoy using El Sol because it is so handy and the workers have done very well – absolutely!''

According to the Sentinel, the center intentionally does not ask laborers for documentation regarding their immigration status. The center's services are free and employers pay the workers directly.

But now, a little more than a year since the center first opened, the same street that once teemed with ''day laborers'' is now occupied by protesters demanding the center be shut down.

Though the town's attorneys and the center disagree, the protesters believe it is flouting the law, reports the Sentinel.

''The town of Jupiter is ignoring the laws to allow immigrants to do things at this center, and we wonder how can the city leaders expect us to follow the laws when they don't?'' John Ryznic told the Jupiter Courier. He said he was also concerned by the proposed for the United States, Mexico and Canada to create a North American Union.

''With this union, there would be one law, and the U.S. could lose her sovereignty, which would mean that the U. S. couldn't stop illegals from coming into this country.''

''We need our borders sealed right now,'' said Jim Schmoyer of Stuart. ''The lobbyists, the Catholic Church and the Chamber of Commerce don't care about the American people, but the bottom line. If the borders were sealed, we could assimilate these people, but we can't assimilate them if there are 50 million more who come in.''

Jupiter's attorneys told the city if it closed down Center Street, the traditional location for workers to gather, without an alternate venue, it would open itself to a lawsuit for denying people their right to assemble, Mayor Golonka told the Sentinel.

"We do not have powers to round up and deport people," she added. "That is something the federal government does."

However, the activists involved in the protests see things differently.

"The town of Jupiter is a symbol of what is wrong in this country," said Dave Caulkett, vice president of the grass-roots group Floridians for Immigration Enforcement. "Jupiter is blatantly complicit in felonious hiring transactions. In a democracy, you cannot have towns violating federal laws," he told the paper.

The town and the center say the protesters are wrong.

"Nothing unlawful is occurring at the center," said El Sol President Mike Richmond. "[It] serves as a safe, supervised location for workers to be matched with employers, and where free English, computer classes and job training are given to all residents."

Elected officials in Jupiter, with a population of about 40,000, claim their project is a huge success and now the neighboring communities of West Palm Beach, Lake Worth and several others are considering creating similar centers.

"Here you have one of the hottest issues in the country right now, but day-by-day the pro-open borders people get these places up and running behind the taxpayers' backs, and they're now going to use El Sol as a model for the whole country," radio host Kaufman told WND.

"They've figured out how to get the Hispanic community to petition the government and make these local municipalities do something for them that our government wouldn't even consider doing for American teens. Would they build a similar center for teenagers to gather? The sons and daughters of taxpayers? Teens don't have a place to hang out in Jupiter either!"

Kaufman, a Spanish speaker with Puerto Rican roots, hosts a talk program on Fort Lauderdale's WFTL-AM (850). After experiencing a frustrating ''Press 1 for English'' phone call, she began complaining on the air and the floodgates opened up.

''English is the glue that holds our melting pot together. If we don't insist that it be the language of commerce, we are lost,'' Kaufman told listeners at the time.

She gained national notoriety when she traveled to Washington, D.C., with other talk-show hosts from around the country for the recent "Hold Their Feet to the Fire" immigration rally. Kaufman said she would represent her listeners there by bringing their "soles" to the Capitol. In the 10 days before the rally, she collected more than 5,000 pairs of shoes at designated parking lots in South Florida and took them with her to D.C.

Some, including Kaufman, credit talk radio for the latest immigration bill's June demise. As WorldNetDaily reported, the rally was also used as a forum to call for the release of imprisoned border agents Ramos and Compean and many of the hosts who led the charge against illegal immigration are self-described conservatives. Kaufman says she's someone with far-left instincts who happens to find herself allied with conservatives on this issue, she says.

"We pay for their health care, their educations, their crimes. You and I are funding everything," she told WND.

Outside the El Sol center last Saturday, Robert McCormack of Jupiter was also angry.

"No more tax dollars," he shouted at passing cars. "Throw out Mayor Golonka."

McCormack, an electrician, told the paper that undocumented workers undercut construction jobs.

"You can't allow people in office that aren't going to protect us and spend $1.9 million of my tax money to bring in people that are going to take my jobs," McCormack told the Sentinel.

Inside, Edmundo Castillo said he believed more people in Jupiter supported the laborers than didn't.

"We did not come to America to be delinquents. We came here to work," added Castillo, 27, a former schoolteacher who said he supports his father, his brothers and their six children in Guatemala with the construction job he found through El Sol. "We are humans and no matter what country we are from, we should help each other."

[Soldier4Christ]

Oakland schools to defend students in U.S. illegally
Resolution forbids immigration officers on campus without lawyers being called 1st

The Oakland school board on Wednesday night took a stand in support of its immigrant students, including those whose families are living in the country illegally.

The policy passed at the board meeting — the first of its kind in the Oakland school district — was written in response to an incident at Melrose Bridges Academy, an elementary school in East Oakland. On the morning of Dec. 18, immigration officers accompanied a pregnant mother, Maria Ramirez, into the school and detained her for questioning after her tearful 6-year-old daughter went to class.

Noel Gallo, the school board member who introduced the resolution, said he hoped the new policy would assure Oakland's immigrant population that the district was committed to educating all of its students.

He also said he hoped it would prevent such events from happening again.

"I'm trying to establish a good relationship with local law enforcement," Gallo said. "I'm also appealing to them to not conduct their business at a school site unless there's an imminent danger."

The policy forbids school staff to ask about a student's immigration status or to require families to provide a Social Security number during registration. It also directs schools to contact the district's legal counsel before allowing immigration officers to enter a school, on the grounds that such a visit would cause a disruption to the educational environment.

Because the district does not collect information which would reveal students' immigration status, the number of undocumented children attending Oakland schools is unknown.

Moyra Contreras, principal of the predominately Latino Melrose Leadership Academy, the sister middle school of Melrose Bridges, said she was encouraged by Gallo's resolution, and that she hoped Oakland city officials would take a similar stance.

"I think it's very important that the school district take a position on this," Contreras said. "Families need to feel safe coming to school and sending their children to school."

Parents and staff at Melrose Bridges Academy and at Melrose Leadership Academy were shaken by what unfolded that rainy December morning. Contreras and others said they feared attendance and school participation would suffer as a result.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice said the agents accompanied Ramirez into the school to make sure her daughter arrived safely to her classroom.

Kice said Ramirez was questioned about her husband's small business, Pepe's Cabinets, and was released hours later. Ramirez's husband, Jose De Jesus Guzman-Baez, faces federal criminal charges of knowingly hiring illegal immigrants for his business. Both parents face deportation.

[Shammu]

Border Agent Killed by Fleeing Vehicle in California

Saturday , January 19, 2008

AP
YUMA, Ariz. —
A Border Patrol agent trying to stop a vehicle that had illegally entered the U.S. was struck and killed Saturday in southeastern California, agency officials said.

The agent was killed about 20 miles west of Yuma in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, a spot along the border that is popular with off-road vehicle enthusiasts and frequently used by smugglers.

The agent attempted to impede the vehicle's progress before he was hit, but the Border Patrol did not immediately have more information, said agent Eric Anderson, a spokesman for the agency's Yuma sector.

The name of the agent killed was not immediately released because his family had not been notified.

Witnesses told the Yuma Sun newspaper that agents were chasing a Hummer and a Ford pickup on Interstate 8 when the vehicles turned into the dunes and fled toward Mexico. The agent was trying to place spike strips in their path and was struck by the Hummer, they said.

The Imperial Sand Dunes are the largest dunes in California, extending north of the border for 40 miles and averaging five miles wide.

Border Agent Killed by Fleeing Vehicle in California

[Shammu]

[scarsm]But illegal entry into the US is not a problem. They'll probably give the illegals a medal of honor or something, you know, since they put two agents in prison for doing their job.[/scarsm]

These people have no respect for human life and yet, we have our borders open wide for them.

They will say, that he "either did his duty wrong"  or "he had no right to stop that vehicle". This is disgraceful  put up the fence already and give the agents the authority to actually protect us!!

We lose many Border Patrol Officers each year while in the line of duty, whether air, land or sea interdiction. Most of the time you never hear about it. But it's a huge deal to us and we lower our flags.

I would also like to see Officers Ramos and Compeon be set free. In my opinion, they are political prisoners.