Tuesday, October 15, 2002

Past Features  The American Border Patrol Story Californians: Tell Simon to revive prop. 187 to win election

Visalia Times Reconquista gang permitted to operate on Visalia campuses Visalia Unified School District high-school students can choose from on-campus organizations ranging from the Art Club to the German Club to the Christian Club to MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan). In short, there's a club for just about everyone. [Contact the school district]

Newsday Protest Targets Welfare Centers The city's welfare centers are failing to provide translated notices and interpreters to food stamp applicants who speak little or no English, scores of demonstrators contended yesterday. -- About 100 people, including many immigrants, picketed outside the Human Resources Administration's headquarters, accusing the Bloomberg administration of running afoul of a year-old legal settlement that mandated ample language assistance for those seeking food stamps. -- "They make you feel awful," one of the demonstrators, Nilda Morales, of Bushwick, said in Spanish, referring to the city's welfare offices.

Associated Press Simon panders away in L.A. Republican candidate for governor Bill Simon toured the Latino Business Expo on Tuesday, courting Hispanic votes with pledges of support for Latinos and small businesses while attacking Democratic Gov. Gray Davis' business policies. -- "I am committed to inclusion and diversity and I want everyone here to know that my support of the Latino community will not end when I'm elected governor," he said. -- Davis canceled an appearance at a dinner hosted by the Latino caucus, which decided against endorsing him after he vetoed a bill that would have given driver's licenses to some illegal immigrants.

Boston Globe Kerry trolls Arizona, panders to Hispanics, bashes Bush ...While many Hispanics are not US citizens, and many of those who are endure criticism for not voting, George W. Bush signaled the political potency of the voting bloc in the 2000 presidential campaign when he regularly spoke Spanish phrases to his audiences. There is also rampant speculation in Washington that the president will fill any vacancy on the Supreme Court with the nation's first Hispanic justice. --- For his part, Kerry is a regular Spanish speaker, an offshoot of the Italian he learned as a child......

Associated Press FBI Analyst Is Latest Victim - Hispanic or Middle Easterner Sought An FBI terrorism analyst was identified Tuesday as the ninth person killed by the Washington-area sniper, shot in the head in an attack investigators say has yielded the most detailed clues yet. -- For the first time, witnesses were able to give information about license plates on vehicles seen fleeing the scene, including a light-colored Chevrolet Astro van with a burned-out rear taillight. -- A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said another witness gave a description of a dark-skinned man, possibly Hispanic or Middle Eastern, in a white van.

Associated Press House OKs Visa For Border Students Mexicans and Canadians who commute across the border to attend American colleges would gain a new student visa status under legislation approved Tuesday by the House. -- The legislation, said its sponsor, Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., would correct a flaw in U.S. immigration law and ``end years of frustration for colleges and universities'' that enroll students living on the other side of the border. -- Current law does not grant student visas to part-time commuter students. The INS in the past has allowed such part-time students to attend classes with general visitor visas, but has indicated it will end this practice due to heightened security concerns..

Associated Press Illegal alien cheerleaders urge lawmakers to legalize scofflaws Immigration activists in 12 states are rallying and lobbying congressional representatives this week in an election-season effort to generate support for legalizing undocumented workers. -- "We feel like there's been an awful lot of unfair scapegoating of immigrants" since the Sept. 11 attacks, said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, which rallied Tuesday. -- Activists also visited congressional offices and held news conferences and rallies Tuesday in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tennessee, Idaho and New York.

Atlanta Latino (Roughly translated by Google.com)  Norcross English language sign ordinance in court of appeals Roughly translated article describes what's going on with a lawsuit that was filed against the city of Norcross, Georgia some time ago over an ordinance that requires that all signage be in English. Foreigners and reconquistas disagree. The notoriously anti-American MALDEF, co-founded by Mario "California is going to become a Hispanic state, and anyone who doesn't like it should leave" Obledo, is involved in the fracas. [See article in Spanish]

Associated Press Maine governor confident Somali resettlement will work out Gov. King says he's working to keep lines of communication open as Somalis resettle in Maine's second-largest city. -- King, speaking to reporters Tuesday, says he's confident the resettlement will work out as the latest group of immigrants adjusts to life in the United States. As King put it, "This is a situation that is absolutely consistent with American history." -- The governor says efforts are under way to find federal money to help Lewiston meet the expenses of providing services needed by the new arrivals. The city of 36,00 has absorbed more than 1,000 Somalis in 18 months. [Also see: Lewiston mayor offers no apologies to Somalis]

Voice Of America Torture of soldiers alleged A Mexican human rights group says the army has confined 600 soldiers to their barracks and has tortured them as part of an investigation into narcotics trafficking. -- The non-governmental "Mexican Front for Human Rights" Monday said the soldiers of the 65th Infantry Battalion have been detained for nearly two weeks in the northwest Sinaloa state. -- The group says it learned of the alleged mistreatment from the soldiers' wives...

Sauk Valley News [Illinois] Feds tell why on center The Feds finally made an appearance in the battle over a proposed detention center in Ogle County. -- In a two-hour meeting that at times featured heated discussion, about 70 people listened to a representative from the Immigration and Naturalization Service elaborate on why the agency was interested in building the center just south of Oregon. The meeting was called by the Ogle County Jail Research Committee.

Voice Of America Mexico Investigates 48 Members of Anti-Drug Squad Mexican defense officials say 48 members of an anti-narcotics army unit are being investigated for drug-related offenses. -- Officials say a search of the barracks of the 65th Infantry Battalion in northwest Sinaloa state turned up cash that could not be accounted for and marijuana. -- Authorities say 40 of the 48 people being investigated failed drug tests. Mexico's defense secretary General Gerardo Vega Garcia described the situation as "shameful" and said the unit would likely be disbanded.

Kansas City Star Candidate who wants illegal aliens booted out stirs uproar ...Connie Morris, now a candidate for the Kansas Board of Education, began to think it would be best for them, best for the other pupils and best for taxpayers if undocumented children returned to their home countries. It's what God would want, too, said Morris, who has written a book about how Christ has changed her life. -- With her candidacy, Morris entered the immigration debate. She sides with those who see undocumented immigrants as a drain on taxpayers. -- "They have certainly done an excellent job of wrecking California," said Barbara Coe, founder of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform. -- "The Latino community, now the largest minority in the state of Kansas, is not going to stand idly by while people like Connie Morris make these ridiculous statements," said lawyer Ramon Murguia.

News-Register Editorial U.S. Must Control Mexican Border As many as 11 million people living in the U.S. are here illegally. That is double the number of illegal aliens present just a decade ago. -- Illegal aliens present a number of challenges, including competition for jobs. In addition, crime is a concern; more than a few of those crossing the U.S. border from Mexico are "mules" carrying illegal drugs into this country. -- Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, worry over illegal aliens has been heightened because of the possibility that some of them may be bent on killing Americans.

BYU Scroll National computer database to monitor international students In lieu of government crackdowns, the activities of international students at BYU-Idaho and across the nation will be monitored more closely by the federal government through the creation of a national computer database. -- Watchdog groups and international educators worry that this new system may lead to an invasion of privacy, difficulties obtaining student visas and a reversal of a five-year trend of increasing numbers of international students in the U.S.

Arizona Daily Star EPA, Mexico offering plan for "borderlands" The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its Mexican counterpart are scheduled to present a new plan tonight for improving environmental conditions in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. -- Tonight's meeting in Sells is the first of six public hearings on the plan to be held in Arizona and Sonora. -- The plan is called Border 2012, and it sets out five broad goals for the two countries to achieve in the next 10 years.

Associated Press Bush continues pander-fest Getting 5.5 million more African-American and Latino families into their own homes would give the economy a $256 billion shot in the arm over the decade, a Bush administration report predicts. -- The figure represents the combined impact of 4.1 million new jobs tied to new-home construction, the purchase of $19 billion worth of furniture and appliances, $17 billion in home improvements and $70 billion in fees for professional services associated with home-buying, according to Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates. -- The HUD report, to be released today during a White House Conference on Increasing Minority Homeownership which President George W. Bush is headlining, was obtained by The Associated Press.

Joel Mowbray

Washington Times State serves McVisas Now that the world knows that the State Department was responsible for granting visas to the September 11 terrorists - in direct violation of the law - top State Department press flack Richard Boucher is playing political three-card monty: pretending there was nothing wrong with the way things used to be, but then stressing that things are now much better. -- At the daily press briefing last Wednesday, Mr. Boucher dismissed my investigative report - discussed last week on these pages - as "Monday morning quarterback[ing]."

Toledo Blade Study: More Latino staff needed? Toledo Schools are in need of more Hispanic teachers, and administrators and a more diverse curriculum to help Latino students succeed at a higher rate, a study done by the University of Toledo's Urban Affairs Center says. -- The long-awaited study, made public by the Hispanic Affairs Commission yesterday, sparked a list of nine recommendations that the commission gave school officials. --- "We've been waiting for this study for 21/2 years," said Mr. Velasquez. "Whether [the dropout rate] is 70% or 30%, it's still unacceptable. ..."

L.A Times (Free Registration)  Latino Council Majority for Santa Ana? If there's any heat being generated in the race for Santa Ana City Council, it's the friction between Mike Garcia, the candidate supported by the city's Establishment, and maverick Eleazar Elizondo, who brings political experience from working for several state representatives. -- It's not that the two men, who are among six candidates running for the open seat in the city's Ward 6, have many differences on the issues. Elizondo advocates spending more city money on after-school programs; Garcia has begun to support the idea too.

Times-Union Menands man charged with trying to smuggle Chinese nationals A school bus mechanic who lives in Menands was arraigned Monday in Syracuse on charges he tried to smuggle 15 Chinese nationals, including seven children, across the St. Lawrence River from Canada aboard a rented houseboat, authorities said. -- The children allegedly told authorities their families had paid international smugglers between $15,000 and $40,000 for safe passage to the United States, according to Border Patrol Agent Clifford Koenig. -- Randy A. Martindale was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents Saturday afternoon as he piloted the boat into a public dock in Cape Vincent, Jefferson County, about 75 miles north of Syracuse.

L.A Times Immigration legislation put on hold Congress and the White House have abandoned a bipartisan effort to loosen immigration law this year, prompting Democrats to seize on the issue in a bid to lure Latino voters in the upcoming midterm elections. -- The quiet death of the immigration legislation comes even though President Bush had urged passage of a bill to make it easier for certain illegal immigrants to apply for legal residency. -- Over the last year and a half, versions of the legislation have passed twice in the House and once in the Senate.