Thursday, January 27, 2011

This Raises a Serious Question: Does our government really hate us? Washington Post -- January 27    ~~~ ||| ~~~ Immigrant database failed to detect suspect before rape of young girl     Salvador Portillo-Saravia, a member of the MS-13 street gang, was charged with raping an 8-year-old girl at her Fairfax County home last month. But he never should have been in Fairfax in the first place.     Federal officials deported Portillo-Saravia, of Sterling, to El Salvador in 2003, and he sneaked back in illegally. Now, officials are wondering why a much-touted federal program didn't catch him before the rape.     Four weeks before the crime, Portillo-Saravia was in the Loudoun County jail for public intoxication. That's when the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) program, called Secure Communities, should have identified him as an illegal immigrant and he should have been taken into custody.     Loudoun authorities ran Portillo-Saravia's fingerprints through a federal database, but despite the 2003 deportation, nothing was found. He was released after 12 hours behind bars.     Portillo-Saravia, 29, is now the subject of a manhunt by local police and federal marshals.  Comment on This Feature     Past Features

Media Research Center         sc      Lauer to Giuliani: Did Obama miss an opportunity to push for more gun control?  It appears NBC's Matt Lauer is not happy about Barack Obama's failure to exploit the Tucson shooting to push for more gun control as on Wednesday's Today show, he seemingly expressed disappointment to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani that the President "missed" an "opportunity" to address it in his State of the Union speech...

Gregory Kane -- Washington Examiner     Illegal aliens already have a choice    ...In one breath [Obama] said he wanted to enforce our immigration laws, and then in the next he cavalierly dismissed them. Expelling illegal [aliens] is precisely what we do to enforce our immigration laws. Perhaps that's what we should expect from an administration that busted Arizona's hump for passing a law designed to help enforce those immigration laws...

Paul Joseph Watson -- Prison Planet -- Austin, Texas      World gripped by anti-government riots; America next?     The planet is in a never-ending cycle of anti-government revolt as riots that plagued Europe last year now spread like wildfire through the Middle East and beyond, threatening to accelerate bloody clashes and force the hand of authorities as the risk of a new Tiananmen Square-style massacre grows ever likelier... [See Obama Watch]

Jim Galloway -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution      Farmers get half their way in illegal immigration bills    You'll remember that last month, delegates to the Georgia Farm Bureau's annual convention met in Lyons, Ga. – hometown of a certain Senate president pro tem – and entered the coming debate in the Legislature over illegal immigration. -- The farmers approved a resolution to oppose any measure that "discriminates against the farm worker" and puts farmers at a competitive disadvantage...

National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers          Latest NAFBPO update from south of the border    Two buses went up in flames this morning (Wed) when unknown attackers threw a firebomb in one, and sprayed the other in gasoline before torching it also. The buses belong to a man being investigated for a bombing on January 3rd which killed nine people...

Gus Lubin -- Business Insider      Frightening satellite tour of America's foreclosure wastelands    RealtyTrac is out with the total foreclosure numbers for 2010. On the whole things are getting worse. -- 72 percent of major metro areas saw an increase in foreclosure volume. Although some of the worst hit areas in Nevada, California and Florida improved from 2009, the foreclosure rate in these areas remains shockingly high... [How's all this 'hope and change' working out for you?]

Palm Springs Desert Sun      One hurt in shooting involving Border Patrol agent  A person has been hospitalized after a shooting east of the Coachella Valley that involved a U.S. Border Patrol agent from the Indio station, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman said Thursday morning. -- As of about 8 a.m., the agency was not yet saying who fired on whom, but spokesman Aaron Van Zee said...

Rasmussen Reports      50% now oppose Obama's new spending proposals     The president's Tuesday night State of the Union speech had little impact on support for his new spending proposals in areas like education, transportation and technological innovation. -- Rasmussen Reports asked voters the same three questions about the president's economic proposals on the two nights prior to the speech and then again on Tuesday and Wednesday nights... [See Obama Watch]

Newsweek      White House to push gun control    At the beginning of his State of the Union address, President Obama tipped his hat to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who's now recuperating in a Houston medical facility. But throughout the hourlong speech, he never addressed the issue at the core of the Giffords tragedy -- gun control -- and what lawmakers would, or should, do to reform American firearm-access laws... [See Gun Grabber Watch]

Palm Beach Post     Florida governor continues to back Arizona-style law     Gov. Rick Scott is holding fast to his support for an Arizona-style immigration reform for Florida despite recent comments from state GOP leaders, including Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, that it could be bad for business. -- Scott, who campaigned on the issue, said this morning that law enforcement officers should be able to ask for immigration documentation, including during routine traffic stops...

Texas Tribune     Texas lawmakers file far-ranging immigration bills    The voter ID legislation passed by the Texas Senate on Wednesday night may be controversial, but it's a familiar debate, as is the issue of "sanctuary cities." Gov. Rick Perry has declared both to be "emergency items" that demand immediate attention by the Legislature...

The News Virginian      Illegal alien pleads to deadly Waynesboro stabbing    A 22-year-old illegal [alien.... criminal] pleaded guilty Wednesday to the summertime murder of a Waynesboro man and ended a case riddled with questions about the actions of authorities. -- Waynesboro Circuit Court Judge Humes J. Franklin Jr. convicted David Luna Sanchez of second-degree murder in the June 27 stabbing death of Eduardo "Piku" Herrera... [See Crime Watch]

Ventura County (Calif.) Star      Gallegly says administration not tough enough on illegals    With the light tap of a gavel, Rep. Elton Gallegly began his reign as chairman of a congressional immigration panel on Wednesday and immediately attacked the Obama administration's efforts at cracking down on [illegal aliens] in the workplace. -- Gallegly and other Republicans on the panel charged that, under President Barack Obama, [ICE] has relaxed the get-tough approach...

Fox News      Report: Muslim cleric arrested by U.S. border agents    San Diego -- The Los Angeles Times reports a Muslim cleric who was deported from Canada to Tunisia has been arrested near San Diego after allegedly sneaking across the border from Mexico and hiding in the trunk of a BMW. -- Said Jaziri is a material witness in a case against two men charged with [illegal alien] smuggling earlier this month...

Rick Oltman of The Immigration Tea Party -- The Examiner    The State of the Union is worrisome    President Obama's State of the Union speech on Tuesday night was charming and positive. He spoke, among other things, of developing clean energy and rebuilding the infrastructure and reinventing the energy policy. I didn't believe a word of it... [More from Rick Oltman] [Examiner items]

Jerry Seper -- Washington Times      34 face gunrunning charges in Arizona    Federal grand juries in Arizona have returned multicount indictments in five cases against 34 persons accused of assisting Mexican drug-trafficking cartels with illegally smuggling firearms, including AK-47 assault rifles, from the U.S. to Mexico. -- Beginning early Tuesday morning, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), a multiagency law enforcement task force arrested 20 of those...

Associated Press      Usual suspects decry immigration raid     Several dozen people in central Washington are voicing their support for [illegal aliens] who were arrested during an immigration raid in Ellensburg. -- More than 50 people, many of them high school students, chanted and carried signs Tuesday as they marched in front of Yakima's federal courthouse...

Dave Gibson -- The Examiner       Illegal alien pleads guilty to rape and abduction in Virginia Beach     On Wednesday, Carlos Hernandez, 24, pleaded guilty to a September rape and abduction which began at the Virginia Beach oceanfront. -- According to Virginia Beach Commonweatlh's Attorney Harvey Bryant, the victim was walking through a McDonald's parking lot... when she was abducted at knifepoint by Hernandez and his accomplice, Santiago Jiminez, also an illegal alien... [See Crime Watch]

San Francisco Appeal       sc Open borders-zealots unhappy with Obama's State of the Union speech    Bay Area immigration activists commended President Obama for addressing immigration in tonight's State of the Union speech despite the country's focus on the economy and partisan politics, but some were disappointed the president didn't take a clearer stand on his next steps...

Times of India     Hundreds of Indian students may be deported from U.S.    Hundreds of Indian students , mostly from Andhra Pradesh , face the prospect of deportation from the US after authorities raided and shut down a university in the Silicon Valley on charges of a massive immigration fraud. -- The Tri-Valley University in Pleasanton, a major suburb in San Francisco Bay Area, has been charged by federal investigating authorities with...

Prison Planet -- Austin, Texas      Bill would protect Big Sis' citizen spies from lawsuits     New York Republican Peter King has introduced a bill that would protect the army of citizen spies Homeland Security hopes to recruit under Janet Napolitano's "See Something, Say Something" snoop campaign from lawsuits brought by innocent people wrongly accused of being terrorists or extremists... [See Obama Watch & Big Brother Watch]

Dave Gibson -- The Examiner      ACLU sends message to local law enforcement with suit on behalf of invader On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in both state and federal courts against the Lake County Sheriff's Office and the city of Tavares, Florida. The suit alleges that the constitutional rights of an illegal alien were violated when she was detained and turned over to federal authorities in February 2009...

One News Now      Mehlman: Let Border Patrol do its job    An immigration enforcement activist says U.S. Border Patrol agents have a right to defend themselves because their job requires them to put their lives on the line. -- The parents of 15-year-old Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereka recently announced they are seeking $25 million in damages from the U.S. government in response to the death of their son...

Fox News     Calif. Republicans split over push to create Arizona-style immigration law    While the State of Arizona struggles to enact strict immigration legislation, California, along with 19 other U.S. states, may attempt to pick up the pieces and enact similar laws. -- However, the California GOP's persistence on this issue could spell defeat at the polls...

Michelle Malkin -- GOPUSA.com      Cash for education clunkers    "We're going to have to out-educate other countries," President Obama urged this week. How? By out-spending them, of course! It's the same old quack cure for America's fat and failing government-run schools monopoly. The one-trick ponies at the White House call their academic improvement agenda "targeted investing" for "winning the future."

Dave Gibson -- The Examiner      Previously deported illegal alien arrested in deadly hit-and-run investigation    On Tuesday, Denver police arrested Eliu Montes-Garcia, 28, in connection with a Saturday night hit-and-run that left a parking valet dead outside a Denver nightclub. -- According to witnesses, 21-year-old Jose Medina was helping a woman exit her car when a white GMC pickup truck hit him... [Related item] [See Crime Watch]

Fox News      Iranian book celebrating suicide bombers found in Arizona desert    A book celebrating suicide bombers has been found in the Arizona desert just north of the U.S.- Mexican border, authorities tell Fox News. -- The book, "In Memory of Our Martyrs," was spotted Tuesday by a U.S. Border Patrol agent out of the Casa Grande substation who was patrolling a route known for smuggling illegal immigrants and drugs... [See this 2004 feature]

Reuters    U.S. missionary shot in Mexico, dies in Texas    El Paso -- An American missionary was shot by a gunmen in northern Mexico and died shortly after her husband raced her back across the border into Texas seeking emergency treatment, authorities said on Wednesday. -- Nancy Shuman Davis, 59, was rushed to a hospital in McAllen, Texas, with a gunshot wound to the head...

Dave Gibson -- The Examiner          Smugglers caught using catapult to hurl drugs over the border    On January 21, smugglers on the Mexican side of the border were spotted using a large catapult to hurl bundles of marijuana over the Arizona border near the town of Naco. -- U.S. Border Patrol agents notified Mexican authorities and a Mexican army unit seized 45 pounds of marijuana, a sport utility vehicle as well as the catapult... [Related item] [Video]

Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star      Trial set over Fremont's immigration law     Omaha -- A federal judge has set a trial date in a challenge to a Fremont ordinance that would bar landlords from renting to illegal [aliens] or businesses from hiring them. -- Voters approved the ordinance in June, and it was supposed to take effect in July. But the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska and the Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund sued...