Illegals in Louisiana

The four stowaways who jumped from a Panamanian-flagged tanker into the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet in St. Bernard Parish have all been captured. Three of the men, believed to be from the Dominican Republic, were found near Hopedale Marina on Saturday, according to a St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office report. Deputies went to the scene after receiving a report of suspicious people in the area. A St. Bernard deputy nabbed the fourth stowaway as he walked on a road Friday, according to Johnny Back, acting chief of the U.S. Border Patrol office in New Orleans. Authorities with the two agencies identified the stowaways as Juan DeJesus- Jimene, David Vasquez-Suero, Ramon Moreno-de la Rosa, and Carlos Paulino- Murillo.

Glenn Spencer

Re: L.A. Times Editorial, "Federal Responsibility -- Period"

The Times argues that our local police have no role in immigration law enforcement. Not so. In 1994, by an overwhelming majority, the people of California passed Proposition 187 which created California Penal Code 834 (b). This penal code section lays out in detail exactly how local law enforcement must work hand-in-hand with the Immigration & Naturalization Service to enforce immigration laws. In the 1998 "Vasquez" case (D.C. No. 98-CR-45-R), the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court decision that there was a "preexisting general authority of state or local police officers to investigate and make arrests for violations of federal law, including immigration laws."

Narco State Next Door

Vicente Fox will host a fellow rancher and president, George W. Bush, in a summit Friday at the family estate 246 miles northwest of Mexico City. This first official visit will set the tone for their administrations on perennial issues that define and divide the two countries' relations: migration, drugs and trade. Outside the crumbling church, Fox says, ''This meeting will leave us with great clarity about the future. We're going to talk about each one of the problems, but above all we'll talk about each one of the opportunities.'' -- Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, predicts Bush will remove Mexico from this year's [drug certification] list. ''It's a constant source of friction. It achieves no productive purpose. I think that's going to happen,'' Gramm says. U.S. drug policy expert Raul Hinojosa adds, ''If (Bush) doesn't do that, they're going to have a rocky summit, frankly.''

Brownsville, Texas

It's mid-February, usually a time when Border Patrol agents are busy corralling thousands of undocumented Mexican migrants [illegals] returning to the United States after a long Christmas holiday. But from South Texas to Southern California, the traditional after-New Year's blitz has fizzled. And for the first time in years, there is a 22 percent drop in the arrests of illegal immigrants [aliens] by the U.S. Border Patrol over the last four months, U.S. authorities say. In Washington, D.C., agency officials have theories and little else. They speculate that unusually bad weather, beefed-up enforcement at key border crossings or the promise of widespread reforms by a newly installed Mexican president may account for the drop. Or all of the above, or none of the above.

MEChA Boy In The News

An increasingly muscular L.A. labor movement is poised to play a defining role in the upcoming mayoral election, a move that could sharpen the unions' influence in city politics. The powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, an umbrella organization that represents 800,000 workers-- 175,000 of them registered voters in the city of L.A. -- will vote today on who will receive its coveted endorsement and the accompanying political ground troops. The federation's support has been the subject of fierce behind- the- scenes campaigning between the two of the six major candidates with the strongest labor support: former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, a onetime union organizer, and City Atty. James K. Hahn, a longtime labor ally. (Hear amnesty comment by the SEIU's Juan Jose Gutierrez, June 10, 2000)

Illegal Alien Bloated Orange County

It's disturbing, and it smacks of racial profiling, that some police departments in Orange County are still detaining and taking steps to deport people they suspect of being illegal residents[aliens]. This is a practice that enlightened police agencies dropped long ago. U.S. Border Patrol records show that various Orange County police departments are taking suspected illegal immigrants[aliens] to the Immigration and Naturalization Service checkpoint in San Clemente and turning them over for deportation. This is not a practice that the federal government invites; the INS would rather such decisions generally be left to federal officials. [In short, the Times sides with the illegals. The Times also owns a major stake in 'La Opinion'.] Also see Glenn Spencer's recent letter to the Times.

Bush's Mexican Foray

Mexican Americans are particularly interested in the new president's views. "Bush is talking about Latino voters and helping Mexicans . . . in the U.S., but when I see him give amnesty to more of them in the U.S., that's when I'll say, 'Arriba, Bush!' " said Jose Perez, a native of the neighboring state of Zacatecas who returns to Mexico regularly from his adopted home in Berkeley. Perez, who runs a small ice cream business in the Bay Area, in addition to being a home health aide, sends $500 a month to support his mother here [in the narcostate]. Perez said. - "Mexico is the only foreign country he knows," said California's Lt. Gov. , a Democrat [and fanatical Mexican nationalist.]

Reconquistas In The News

Cardinal and former California Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa [ a vehement Mexican nationalist] said Monday that they regretted whose sentence was commuted on President Clinton's last day in office. Clinton's commutation of Carlos Vignali's 15- year federal prison sentence for his role in a multistate cocaine ring was detailed Sunday in the Los Angeles Times. On Monday, the Times disclosed that Mahony and several local political figures, including two mayoral candidates, had lobbied for the presidential gesture.

Lukeville, Arizona

A U.S. Border Patrol agent may have prevented an assault and robbery against a group of migrants by allowing them temporary refuge in the United States on Sunday. Border Patrol spokesman Rene Noriega gave the following account: About 7 p.m. Sunday, an agent working the border near the port of entry at Lukeville watched three people approach his position from the Mexican side. They remained in plain view, making no effort to hide from him. Curious, the agent approached them and asked if there was a problem........

Rickety Mexican Trucks

Leaders of the nation's transportation unions are urging President Bush to reject a trade dispute panel's decision that could lead to opening America's borders to what they say are unsafe and poorly regulated Mexican trucks. ''American public safety and health is at risk if we allow Mexican trucks and buses that have a 99 percent chance of never being checked at the border to travel freely throughout our country,'' said Sonny Hall, president of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO. The Transportation Trades' executive committee, here for the AFL-CIO's winter meeting, unanimously supported the resolution Monday.

Reconquista In The News

Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, who has made improvement of race relations a cornerstone of his public career, referred to African Americans by a racial slur at a Black History Month speech, a word he characterized as a "slip" and said he regretted. Many of the black labor activists who heard Bustamante use the word walked out of the speech Friday night in Emeryville and were still angry yesterday, saying an apology the lieutenant governor issued at the end of his talk wasn't enough. "I was appalled he would even say it as a slip," said Gwendalyn Bello, who attended the event. "You don't make a slip like that unless it is something you say normally. It simply shouldn't have been said. In any context, it shouldn't have been said."

Glenn Spencer to the L.A. Times

Re: Make a Green Card the Real Payoff

In arguing for legalization of millions of Mexicans, Donnelly quotes Senator Phil Gramm of Texas: "It is delusional," he said on a recent trip to Mexico, "not to recognize that illegal aliens [from Mexico] already hold millions of jobs in the United States with the implicit permission of governments at every level, as well as companies and communities." (emphasis added). -- Immigration is the responsibility of the federal government. The implicit permission for massive illegal immigration came from eight years of the Clinton Administration. The most effective practitioner of this sham was Dr. Robert Bach, head of Policy and Planning for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Washington Post

It was July 1995, and President Ernesto Zedillo needed a boost. Mexico's economy was in tatters, saved only by an emergency loan from Washington, and world leaders were conspicuously staying away. But not George W. Bush. Then governor of Texas, he came to lunch with Zedillo, then held a high-profile news conference at the presidential compound here [in the narcostate] to declare confidence in Zedillo and Mexico: "I think it's important for him to know what's in my heart about Mexico," Bush said of Zedillo. "I came here as a friend." That moment, perhaps more than any other, has defined President Bush's relationship with Mexico, where he will make his first foreign trip as president on Friday.

Orange County, Calif.

Some of Orange County's largest law-enforcement agencies said Monday that they sometimes turn over criminal suspects to INS agents, but denied using racial profiling to identify illegal immigrants [aliens]. Police officials in Santa Ana, Orange, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and the Orange County Sheriff's Department said they have long cooperated with federal immigration officials in investigating the residency status of crime suspects. -- The policy in Orange has drawn praise from immigration- reform activists who say police should be doing more to stem the tide of illegal immigration. "I think it's fantastic," said Barbara Coe, founder of .