Saturday, December 28, 2002

L.A. Isn't a Third-World City? N.Y. Times (Free Registration) Federal Judge Rules Los Angeles Violates Clean Water Laws   ...In court documents, Baykeeper, which was joined in the suit by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board and several community groups, contends that the city has a "chronic, continuing and unacceptable number of spills from its sewage collection system." From 1993 to January 2002, according to documents, the city reported 3,000 spills from its pipes.    "This isn't a third-world city. We should be able to do a lot better," said Fran B. Diamond, chairman of the regional water quality board. Mayor Hahn says that L.A. is a Mexican city, remember? File Image Past Features   ABP Updates

Sunday Nights 8 Pacific

The Terry Anderson Show KRLA - 870 AM - Los Angeles -  Listen

Associated Press University plans workshop for foreign students after arrests The arrests of six Middle Eastern men for not taking enough college courses to satisfy their visa requirements has prompted Colorado State University to start a class to educate foreign students about immigration laws. -- A CSU student was among those arrested by the INS over the past two weeks for enrolling in less than 12 hours of college credit. The other five attend University of Colorado campuses in Denver and Boulder.

Associated Press Increase in Crime Endangers Park Rangers National Park Service rangers still guide nature walks and offer information and advice to millions of visitors each year. These days, they also frequently are called upon to put their lives on the line to stop drug smugglers and apprehend violent criminals. --- Kristopher Eggle became the third ranger shot to death on the job since 1998 when he was ambushed at Organ Pipe in August while helping Border Patrol agents catch two men suspected by Mexican officials in a drug-related killing.

Associated Press Pancho Villa Inspires Mexican Protesters There's a Pancho Villa revival going on, but it's not the books, the new Antonio Banderas movie or the nostalgia wave that worries some Mexicans. It's the real-life reawakening of Villa's violence. -- Rising social unrest swept to the pinnacles of power Dec. 10 when protesters on horseback broke down the ornate wooden doors of Congress and surged into the lower legislative chamber to demand subsidies...

The Arizona Republic They just sneak in to work Detectives for the Peori a Police Department seized $29,000 in cash and 500 pounds of marijuana from a house in the 4600 block of North 78th Avenue, a police spokeswoman said Friday. -- A tip from a citizen led to surveillance of the house, and marijuana was found in two vehicles leaving the scene. Police served a search warrant at the house, arrested seven undocumented Mexican nationals...

N.Y. Times (Free Registration) Feature on the Arizona Mechista congressman-elect ...Mr. [Raul] Grijalva is deeply rooted in the Mexican immigrant community of Tucson's south side, where he lives in a modest stucco house in a neighborhood dotted with check-cashing outlets and 99-cent stores. His father came to the United States to work as a ranch hand on the Mexican border; his mother insisted the family move to Tucson so her children could attend city schools. -- ...Mr. Grijalva warned that his agenda of environmentalism and immigrant rights might not play well in Republican Washington. "The administration is going to try to steamroll us," he declared.

Carl F. Horowitz

VDare.com Immigration Policy Importing Slavery ...In the late 1990s, federal intelligence estimated that an astonishing 50,000-100,000 women each year come to this country only to find themselves in a state of servitude to an employer and/or family. The Protection Project, an anti-human trafficking program based at Johns Hopkins University,  estimates that up to 750,000 such women have been brought to the U.S. in the last decade. -- Trafficking in human bodies can be much more than a Mom-and-Pop operation...

Connecticut Post Turkish illegal to get the boot Shelton, CT -- Immigration officials Friday began the next step toward deporting the Turkish national who fatally ran down the mayor's father. -- Gencaga Kupuc did not file an appeal of his deportation before the midnight Thursday deadline. As an illegal alien, he must now leave the nation, immigration officials said. -- Mayor Mark A. Lauretti welcomed the news. He has been following the case closely since Kupuc's car struck and killed 78-year-old John F. Lauretti Sr. as he crossed Howe Avenue in July 2000.

Associated Press Lawyers eye old cases to prevent deportation of felons Immigration lawyers have found a new way around a 1996 one-strike-and-you're-out law that mandates deportation for noncitizens convicted of a felony: Reopening criminal cases. -- Armando Baptista, whose rap sheet includes guilty pleas for cocaine possession and several assault and battery charges, was placed in detention three years ago while the Immigration and Naturalization Service prepared to deport him to his native Cape Verde. But he's still here.

The Times (New Jersey) Lawmaker seeks to become lawbreaker Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) will explore how the federal government can help reform labor conditions for immigrant workers toiling in warehouses and farms in the Mercer County area, a spokesman said yesterday. -- A series of articles in The Times described a large labor pool of immigrants, many of them undocumented, who find low-paying work in warehouses and farms through local agencies and agencies in New York City. [See: Aiding and abetting illegals is a crime]

Associated Press We need 'guest workers'?: 800,000 unemployed to lose benefits Already facing a sputtering economy and slow hiring, nearly 800,000 unemployed Americans face a new woe Saturday when their federal unemployment benefits end. -- Democrats and labor unions, sensing political opportunity, are blaming the cuts on President Bush and Republicans in Congress. Bush, in a late show of support for an extension, urged Congress last week to get it done when lawmakers return to work next month. -- Congress left for the year without extending the federal benefits, meaning that 750,000 to 800,000 unemployed workers will get cut off Saturday.

Letters to the Editor

Tucson Citizen (2 Published) Did illegal aliens elect Mechista Grijalva? Lance Altherr writes: I wonder who Raúl Grijalva is actually representing? He was elected by Arizonans in the United States. But he spends much of his time representing illegal aliens from Mexico, instead of law-abiding citizens of this country. -- George Kiefer writes: ...If rookie congressman Grijalva thinks people are racist because they believe in protecting their property from illegal border crossers then he doesn't understand the definition of a racist....

El Paso Times Accused FBI attackers going to court Federal officials said on Friday that despite the release of 13 people in connection with the Sept. 12 attack on two FBI agents at the Sunland Park-Anapra area, prosecutors are proceeding against the four suspects charged with the most serious crimes in the case. -- U.S. District Judge William P. Johnson of New Mexico on Tuesday granted a U.S. government motion to dismiss charges against 10 of the 13 suspects. The charges included entering a train to commit a crime and entering the U.S. illegally.

Gannett News Service Arizona tops for border-crossing Four in 10 illegals arrested in October along the U.S.-Mexican border were captured in Arizona, evidence the state remains the top choice of those attempting to enter the country illegally. -- The latest Border Patrol figures show that agents in the Tucson sector, which patrols much of Arizona, apprehended 21,352 people. Officials in Yuma, whose office patrols the rest of the Arizona border, reported 3,698 arrests, raising the overall number of people apprehended in Arizona to more than 25,000.

Boston Globe Salvadoran gang said to span the nation Los Angeles -- The Crips and Bloods may be this city's best-known gangs, but investigators nationwide are shifting their attention to MS-13, a ruthless Salvadoran gang formed in the 1980s that has spread to at least 28 states, including Massachusetts. -- ''MS-13 may hands down be the most dangerous gang out there,'' said Wes McBride, president of the California Gang Investigators Association and a veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. ''They have no compunction about killing. MS-13 will kill a cop at the drop of a hat. They just don't mess around.''

Washington Post People of Color Who Never Felt They Were Black ...E. Francisco Lopez Lopez, the Afro-Venezuelan lawyer, who lives in Columbia Heights, said there was prejudice even in such Hispanic civil rights organizations as LULAC, MALDEF and the National Council of La Raza, where, he said, few dark-complexioned Latinos work in the offices or sit on the board. "La Raza? Represent me? Absolutely not," Lopez said. -- [We Get E-Mail: LULAC, MALDEF and LaRaza call racist anyone who favors enforcing the border rules. Please join me in indulging in pleasure that their own claimed constituency is calling them racist. Nice to see 'em on the defensive.]

KNBC-TV News Run For The Border: Family values don't stop at the Rio Bravo A 12-year-old girl apparently was kidnapped by a friend who left a note pledging to take care of her, police said Friday. Petra Ponce was last seen at 1 p.m. Thursday at a McDonald's restaurant with Geronimo Luevanos Galvan, whom she had known for six months, Officer Jason Lee said. -- Galvan, 30, left a note with Petra's brother saying he would take care of the youngster, Lee said. -- A witness said he saw Galvan packing belongings in a car and was told that Galvan was going to Mexico, Lee said. (On-air reports said that Galvan apparently has been involved in a sexual relationship with the victim for some time.) [They just sneak in to do jobs Americans won't do.]

Associated Press Rapper's deportation blocked A federal judge blocked the deportation of rapper Ricky "Slick Rick" Walters Friday, giving him fresh hope of winning his battle to stay in the United States. -- Judge Kimba Wood's decision allows Walters, 37, to fight a deportation order stemming from his attempted murder conviction for shooting a cousin, the cousin's pregnant girlfriend and a bystander. --- An immigration judge earlier decided that Walters should be allowed to stay because he had rehabilitated himself.

Sacramento Bee Editorial Paper says legalize Mex. invaders Before 9/11, the U.S. and Mexico seemed to be moving warily toward an agreement to give some form of legal status to many of the Mexican workers already in this country illegally. The terrorist attacks put that idea in the deep freeze. -- Despite justified concerns about relaxing immigration controls in the face of the terrorist threat, it's in both countries' interest to normalize an abnormal situation whose worst elements are intolerable in human terms... [Related item]

Sham ID Cards

Associated Press Report: N.Y. No to Mexican Consular IDs New York City and the state refuse to accept identification cards issued by the Mexican consulate as valid forms of ID for Mexican immigrants, a published report said. -- The cards, issued by Mexico's 43 consulates in the United States, are rejected by the city's Police Department and state Department of Motor Vehicles because of security concerns, The New York Times reported Saturday. [Mexico is one of the world's most corrupt nations, and they are issuing these phony cards.] [Also see this New York Times article.]