Wednesday, August 7, 2002

INS Tells Illegals How To Avoid Arrest Rosemary Langley Melville, INS Regional Director, Atlanta - Contact Info An article on the MundoHispanico.com website on Wednesday says that the INS' Atlanta regional director Melville (pictured left) told the paper that INS agents can't enter residences where illegals are known to be to arrest them unless they have search and arrest warrants. Melville indicates that this isn't the case if people inside the residence let agents in. What's the message here? Read entire article (Google translation, no frames) Read entire article in Spanish Past Features

Media Watch

Tom Tancredo - 8 AM Pacific - Thursday, August 8 Mike Rosen Show - KOA - 850 AM - Denver - Listen on the internet

UPI US targets 300,000 absconders The operation against illegal immigrants in the United States has entered its second phase, with U.S. officials now focusing on deporting absconders, a term used to define those who have been ordered to leave the country but refuse to do so. -- The first government crackdown following Sept. 11 focused on those suspected of having links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida network. More than 1,200 people were arrested during this phase, which lasted from Sept. 21 to Nov. 30, 2001. -- Out of these 1,200, the INS short-listed 170 people as "material witnesses," a term used to define people who could provide information about the hijackers and other suspects.

FAIR Congressional recess action plan Over the last several days, weeks and months, your invaluable assistance has made it possible to fight off our opponents best efforts on a host of issues. Your efforts have blocked amnesties such as the Section 245(i) extension and the so-called "Dream" Act introduced by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) as well as its counterpart in the House offered by Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT). These latter bills would grant in-state tuition and amnesty to illegal alien students. In addition you have helped apply the breaks to legislation introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) to grant relief from deportation....

Arizona Republic - E.J. Montini Too few know English because too few must The guy called to disagree with my opinion, stated in writing, in English, that too many Spanish-speaking immigrants aren't trying hard enough to learn English. It was based on a story about firefighters learning Spanish in order to better assist clients. Which led me to ask: Why? Why do so many residents of this magnificent American community not speak English? -- More importantly, why aren't the most prominent members of the local Latino community doing more to help them learn English? [Message board]

Arizona Daily Star Veteran wants soldiers watching border Jim Behnke looks across the picturesque San Rafael Valley from atop Montezuma Pass and sees the perfect place for the military to taper off a stampede of illegal entrants. -- Behnke says it's time for the federal government to put soldiers along the remote hills and canyons that stretch farther than the eye can see from this pass 6,575 feet up the southern tip of the Huachuca Mountains. -- "We have to say it's a national emergency," Behnke says as he proceeds cautiously around switchbacks along a steep dirt road. "You either believe it, or you don't."

Chicago Tribune Sham IDs draw crowds Staffers at Chicago's Mexican consulate have spent the last two months issuing identification cards in areas where they knew a lot of immigrants live: Aurora, Cicero, Elgin, Joliet and Waukegan. -- But this week, they have set up shop in a spot that had been off their radar: Woodstock. -- People need a photo ID, a Mexican birth certificate and proof of U.S. residency to obtain the card. They do not need to prove that they're here legally, which makes the matricula especially valuable to undocumented immigrants.

KMBC-TV / AP Police Claim Massive Drug Bust More than 30 people were charged Tuesday in what police say is the breakup of a massive drug ring in St. Louis. -- Police say the ring brought cocaine by the kilo and marijuana by the ton into the area and used violence to protect its trade. -- Alleged ringleader Juan Gonzales and six co-defendants pleaded not guilty to a series of federal drug counts Tuesday. -- Gonzales was arrested in June in Kansas. Police said they were afraid he was going to Mexico and didn't want to take the chance that he wouldn't come back.

Denver Post Thornton imports workers For years, city officials in Thornton have gone to job fairs, placed ads in newspapers, on radio, even in movie theaters, trying unsuccessfully to recruit enough workers to mow, clip and manicure the city's 350 acres of parks and sports fields for the summer. -- This year, the city is trying a unique solution, importing 24 workers from central Mexico to do a job city officials say Americans don't seem to want. -- "I'd like to hire U.S. citizens," said Noel Busck, Thornton's mayor, "but the bottom line is I have a responsibility to manage the parks at a level of service people expect.

L.A Times (Free Registration)   Meddling Fox sets up new illegal alien advocacy office President Vicente Fox, answering criticism that he had tuned out the voices of Mexican immigrants in the United States, announced the creation of a Cabinet-level agency Tuesday to lobby for the interests of Mexico's 22 million citizens abroad. -- Fox told 400 Mexican American leaders that he would head the new National Council of Mexican Communities Abroad and soon appoint a Mexican living outside the country to coordinate its advocacy and assistance programs. The council will take advice from a panel of other Mexican expatriates, he said. -- "The government ... will approach our compatriots with a fraternal, agile hand," Fox declared...

H. Millard

Little displeaseures of living in a city full of illegal alien fashion models I took my six year old son to the National Night Out event held at a local grade school the other night. -- As we arrived, I saw two cops wearing "Gang Unit shirts talking in a relaxed and friendly way with a Latino male fashion model [a local lefty politician says the city doesn't have gangs; it just has people who dress that way as a fashion statement]. This fashion model was very fashionable and had a shaved head, gang attire and a large gang tattoo on his arm. Other fashion models were swaggering around the parking lot. After all, this was their turf, not mine. I'm only a U.S. citizen who owns property in the area.

Harald Martin to the San Francisco Chronicle (Published) The high cost of illegal dishwashers Why would The Chronicle ask Americans to choose to die via cancer or a bullet? That's about all the logic there is to their comparison of Osama bin Laden to Mexican dishwashers (Editorial, "Focus on the real enemy," Aug. 5). Americans thoughtfully and rightfully refute either choice. -- America's borders should be secure. Intruders are not welcome unless we choose to invite them in... [Also ree: Reconquista agitator attacks Martin over Mexi-sham IDs]

Dan Walters - Sacramento Bee Bill is aimed at port smog, but... ...Those idling trucks are, local air quality control people say, a major source of health-threatening pollution, particularly in the communities immediately adjacent to the ports, and port planners believe the truck traffic will more than double in a few years. It's a cultural as well as an economic matter since many of the container haulers are recent immigrants paid by the load, and their trucks tend to be older, high-polluting models. Nobody questions that having so many trucks idling throughout the day is wasteful and potentially dangerous.

China Daily Mexicans risk death sneaking in ..."Operation Gatekeeper is the policy of death," Tohono O'odham Vice Chairman Henry Ramon said of the effort that has made the border almost impenetrable in populated areas, pushing migrants into more dangerous terrain. -- "We are very opposed to any kind of policy that would cause harm toward human beings," said Ramon, adding that his tribe has lived in the Sonoran Desert since before there was a Mexico or a United States. -- "Our people do not recognise this imaginary line that is an international boundary," he said.

L.A Times (Free Registration)  L.A. Is Least Diverse Area in State, Study Finds Californians are more likely to live among people of different races than they were in 1990, but the Los Angeles area stands out as the most segregated part of the state, according to an analysis of census data. -- The percentage of California residents living in largely segregated neighborhoods dropped by almost half from 1990 to 2000, while the percentage of those in racially mixed areas more than doubled, according to the study by the Public Policy Institute of California, a San Francisco-based nonprofit research group.

Washington Times GOP pushes minority candidates The Republican Party says it has its largest-ever field of non-incumbent minorities seeking top offices this fall, with party leaders touting 20 black and 39 Hispanic candidates in federal and major state elections. -- The political hopefuls include candidates for Congress and for such statewide offices as governor and secretary of state, and they come in a political season that will find blacks and Hispanics with a strong voice in deciding the winners. -- "This is unprecedented, this kind of effort from Republicans..."

Texas Cable News Channel 73 illegals found in big rig More than 70 undocumented immigrants were found hidden in a northbound tractor-trailer this week as it went through inspection at the Sarita checkpoint, about 100 miles north of Brownsville, U.S. Border Patrol officials said Tuesday. -- Agent Xavier Rios, a Border Patrol spokesman, said a Border Patrol canine alerted authorities about 3 a.m. Monday to the tractor-trailer. -- The truck was pulled aside for a secondary inspection when authorities found 73 men, women and children among boxes of rotting watermelons.

L.A Times (Free Registration)  Meltdown: Major medical facility may close ...In the windowless emergency room at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, there is one way to tell the sun is rising. Doctors pick up their already frenetic pace as the sick, slouched in plastic chairs, nervously watch the clock. -- If no new money is found, departments would close as the cash dries up. First would be the psychiatric emergency room. Then the general emergency room. Then the surgical wards. Then support for the research labs that developed such commonly used medical procedures as the blood test for cholesterol. Then the intensive-care units that treat the sickest of the sick. Finally, the hospital would be converted to an outpatient clinic. [Also see this feature]

Associated Press Report: Immigrant Prosecutions Rise The number of people prosecuted in federal court for immigration offenses more than doubled between 1996 and 2000 - coinciding with a big increase in the number of BP agents. -- The number of prosecutions rose from 6,605 in 1996 to a record-high 15,613 in 2000, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported Tuesday. -- About 75% of the immigration offenders referred in 2000 were charged with unlawfully entering or re-entering the US; 20% were charged with alien smuggling; and 5% were charged with offenses...

EFE Bilingual debate about over in Colorado The results of the latest academic tests from Colorado public schools show that bilingual education is a failure in the state, a spokesperson for a group trying to eliminate bilingual programs said here Monday. -- But for local education officials, that conclusion is not only false, it lacks any real basis. -- Rita Montero confirmed that the grades received by Hispanics on the Colorado Student Assessment Test demonstrated that students learning in two languages score lower than those learning English and have all their classes only in English.