Christmas - Wednesday, December 25, 2002

Past Features   ABP Updates

Social Security Benefits for Mexicans? Contact Bush - Tell him: No Benefits for Non-Citizens Comments on Bush's proposal

Associated Press LA Woman Arrested for Allegedly Setting Up Fake Marriages for Immigrants Seeking Citizenship A woman pleaded innocent to charges that she brokered dozens of fake marriages for men from the Middle East and North Africa seeking U.S. citizenship. -- Sharon Whiteside of Los Angeles was arrested Dec. 19 by police detectives and FBI agents assigned to a Joint Terrorism Task Force. -- "We have no indications that any of these people have terrorist connections," police Lt. Adam Bercovici said. "But it is an area we are looking at because we know other people, with similar operations, have been linked to terrorism."

The Arizona Republic Chandler woman to stay jailed over conspiracy charges A Chandler woman will remain in custody in New Mexico in connection with a reported crime ring that involved contract killings and racketeering by the so-called Mexican Mafia. -- U.S. District Judge M. Christina Armijo turned down an appeal from Lorena Cisneros to be released pending trial. -- Cisneros' husband, Luis Cisneros, his brother and four associates are accused in the indictment of plotting and carrying out the contract murders of a Hobbs prison guard and his son.

WESH-TV News 727 lbs. of pot seized, 2 busted Tallahassee - Agriculture inspectors at an inspection station on I-10 in north Florida found 727 pounds of marijuana in a truck of vegetables. Two Miami men were arrested on federal drug charges. -- The truck came from Mexico and was headed to Miami. -- Juan Lopez and his brother, Hugo Lopez, were charged with drug trafficking and jailed in Suwannee County.

Herald News (New Jersey) Men plead not guilty to murder Two Passaic men accused of stabbing a city woman to death Sunday pleaded not guilty Tuesday to murder and weapons charges. -- Hector Martinez [an apparent Mexican illegal] and Jose Juan Ramirez appeared in state Superior Court in Paterson a week after they were arrested in connection with the death of Nancy Martinez, who is not related to Hector. Both suspects were held on $500,000 bail.

Washington Post FBI asks colleges to offer data on foreigners The FBI is asking colleges and universities around the country to provide the government with personal information about all foreign students and faculty, prompting objections from some schools and higher education groups that view the request as illegal. -- The FBI says it needs the information to determine whether foreign students or teachers have ties to known or suspected terrorists.

Associated Press Lexington, KY: They invade, we pay Advocates for Hispanic workers are voicing concerns that Lexington is not meeting the needs of a burgeoning population of immigrants. -- Mayor-elect Teresa Isaac, reacting to those concerns, said the city will revamp or at least fine-tune initiatives for the immigrants. -- More than three years ago, the Urban County Government commissioned a task force to determine how Lexington could best respond to the growing Hispanic population and awarded a $450,000 grant to Catholic Social Services for programs to help immigrants adapt to their new surroundings. -- Now, several key advocates acknowledge that hardly anyone is satisfied with the result.

KPVI News Alien to get the boot An Idaho Falls family is about to be ripped apart this holiday season. Federal officials are forcing the father to leave the country in two weeks! The mother and the kids are all American citizens, but the father is a Mexican national. Now, the family is frantically looking for an answer before their time is up. NBC Newschannel Six's Carrie Bohnsack has this heart-breaking story.

Arizona Daily Star Border Edition  Water tanks vandalized Humane Borders installed a motion-sensing camera near one of its water stations after two tanks were discovered vandalized this past weekend. -- The tanks are on Pima Co. property near Arizona 286, about 12 miles north of the Mexican border at Sasabe. Tanks at the same location have been damaged twice before in the same way, said the Rev. Robin Hoover, the president of Humane Borders.

Arizona Daily Star Border Edition  Pima Co. employee an agent for invading foreign government Two local attorneys [including Isabel Garcia, a reconquista and invasion cheerleader on the Pima County payroll] will form part of a 100-member council created by Mexico's government to represent Mexicans living in the United States. -- Glenn Spencer said he views the formation of the council as an attempt by Mexico to advance its power in the United States. Spencer, founder of American Border Patrol, calls the new group a "colonization council" and its members "a group of Mexican agents."