Sunday, December 21, 2003

Al-Quaida Planning Big Attack Ridge Says Americans Must be "Vigilant" People and resources sent to U.S. borders. Threat Level Raised 12/21 -- Ridge: "These credible sources suggest the possibility of attacks against the Homeland around the holiday season and beyond. These strategic indicators, including Al-Quaida's continuing desire to carry out attacks against our homeland are perhaps greater now than at any point since September 11, 2001. The information indicates that extremists abroad are anticipating near term attacks that they believe will either rival or exceed the attacks that occurred in New York, in the Pentagon and the fields of Pennsylvania nearly two years ago." Watch Past Features    American Border Patrol Updates

Eastern Arizona Courier Illegal alien caught with 200 lbs. of marijuana U.S. Border Patrol agents found more than 200 pounds of marijuana in the trunk of a vehicle heading west on Hwy. 70 near Fort Thomas on Wednesday morning. -- The driver of the vehicle, Juan Marquez-Perez is an undocumented alien from Chihuahua, Mexico. -- He attracted the attention of Border Patrol agents working the area looking for alien smugglers by "acting nervous" as he drove by.

H. Millard

Orange, Schmorange, It's a Federal Job The Department of Homeland Security has just raised the terrorist threat level from yellow to orange. Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge has asked that all citizens be on the alert for, and to report, suspicious activity. -- Who should we report it to? The out to lunch bunch government types who have been letting our nation be invaded by millions of illegal aliens?

FAIR Ridge Endorses "Legal Status" for Illegal Aliens Your help is needed to fight off an apparent attempt by the Bush Administration to get the amnesty wheels turning. Please contact the White House and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge today and through the next week to voice your strong objection to granting legal status to people who have broken our immigration laws...

Milford (Mass.) Daily News Editorial: A failure to communicate There's been a lot of talk about immigration in Framingham in recent weeks, but precious little communication. -- It started when a new organization was formed to call for stricter enforcement of immigration laws. But its leaders spoke in tones that were intimidating and offensive to some....

Associated Press Four charged in scam that provided illegal driver's licenses Four people who worked for the Bureau of Motor Vehicles have been charged with taking bribes to help hundreds of foreign nationals get Indiana driver's licenses and state identification. -- The charges filed Saturday are the first against past or current BMV workers in an investigation of fraud at license branches in central Indiana.

Los Angeles Times (Free Registration)  Backers of Prop. 187 Push for New Initiative Organizers who a decade ago wrote Proposition 187 - a landmark ballot measure that divided California - are now gathering signatures for a new initiative that again would attempt to prohibit illegal immigrants from receiving a broad array of public services. -- Proposition 187 is considered a watershed in state politics, having galvanized activism among opponents and cost Republicans support from some Latinos.

Palm Beach Post DOJ probing claim of slavery in Florida The U.S. Justice Department has begun to investigate a new case of slavery in Florida involving a group of undocumented Mexican farmworkers who say they were forcibly detained and threatened with violence by labor contractors. -- The facts of the case were first made public in an article in The Palm Beach Post Dec. 7, part of the newspaper's recent series, Modern-Day Slavery.

L.A. Times via the Arizona Republic 'Multispeak' is clouding immigration discussion In less than a week, the Bush administration has sent out what at first appear to be conflicting signals over how to deal with an estimated 8 million to 11 million illegal immigrants, mainly Hispanics. -- Answering questions at a south Florida town hall meeting last week, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said granting undocumented immigrants some form of legal status would make sense.

Arizona Republic -- Phoenix Marijuana seizures set record along Arizona-Mexico border Nogales, Ariz. - Federal agents confiscated a record amount of marijuana along the Arizona-Mexico border last fiscal year. -- Seizures in 2003 along the state's border jumped 25 percent, to 706,453 pounds, according to Department of Homeland Security statistics. Nearly a third of the marijuana confiscated along the entire 2,000-mile Southwestern border passed through Arizona...

Sierra Vista (Arizona) Herald Review More on surveillance of civilian groups by open border zealots While the Cochise County Sheriff's Department has maintained that it is not investigating the activities of the civilian border interdiction group Ranch Rescue, e-mail correspondence obtained Thursday reveal local and federal law enforcement have been closely watching the paramilitary organization since its move to Douglas in September....

Washington Post LTE.. Rep. Lamar Smith: 'Undocumented Worker' Means 'Illegal Alien' The Post uses the phrases "undocumented immigrants" or "undocumented workers" to describe illegal aliens. These terms are not legally accurate and seem to be used to soften the nature of what is really occurring. -- Our federal immigration laws do not refer to those who came into this country illegally as "undocumented immigrants" or "undocumented workers."