Strip-mining America

Mexican President Vicente Fox to Talk Investment, Trade During Tour of Several U.S. States
Mexican President Vicente Fox traveled to Idaho on Friday, beginning a five-day U.S. tour to woo investors, tackle trade disputes and highlight his country's contributions to the region. Fox is a keynote speaker at an information and technology conference in Sun Valley and plans to start his day Saturday meeting with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. He was also to meet with the heads of Intel and Hewlett Packard in an attempt to strengthen Mexico's ties with technology companies. This was found on FreeRepublic.com

Globalist News

Henry Hyde Proposes Commonwealth of Americas
In a speech delivered today to graduates of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, U.S. Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-IL) called for the creation of a Commonwealth of the Americas, "a permanent zone of peace, prosperity, and security throughout the entire Western Hemisphere." - Hyde, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, made the remarks at Ft. Benning, GA. to the first graduating class of the Democratic Sustainment Course. Follow the above link to read the entire Hyde press release. [Free Republic Forum item, also found here]

Chicago

Mexicans in the U.S.: 8 million votes too alluring
Mexican migrants to the United States cannot vote without returning to their home country, and for them there is no absentee ballot. But Lazaro Cardenas knows it is a good idea to court his countrymen in the U.S. because someday soon that could change. The Mexican senator from the central state of Michoacan went on a two-week tour of the United States, including a stop in Chicago last month, to test the political waters. Almost half of Michoacan's population has migrated to Illinois, California and Washington.........

Letter To The Times

Re: Dim View of Mexico Migration
To the Editor -- An article from your July 13 issue ("Dim View of Mexico Migration", Patrick McDonnell) describes a new study from the non-partisan Center for Immigration Studies. The study's economic statistics portray high levels of poverty, uninsured families, and welfare use by Mexican immigrants. Frank Sharry and Cecilia Muñoz (NCLR), who represent groups that directly benefit from high levels of immigration, brush aside these statistics and the costs they impose on the taxpayer as meaningless. Sharry says the study "trash(es) Mexican immigrants."

The Stein Report

Smugglers get creative as INS crackdown intensifies
The Salt Lake Tribune reports that INS agents are discovering more and more people in various hidden compartments of vehicles crossing the border. For instance, at the San Ysidro port of entry, 1,236 cases of immigrants found in trunks or other spaces have been reported. The photo (right) is one of two we received showing one man apparently sewn into a van or bus seat. Larger photos are available on a separate page. | Also see this artikle in The Times - U.K.

Boston

Salvadoran illegal safe after abduction
Marleni Santos-Perlera's dream of coming to Boston came true yesterday, but she had to go through Alabama to get here. By the time the illegal Salvadoran arrived in East Boston on a bus yesterday afternoon, she had traveled up through Guatemala and Mexico to Arizona, driven up to East Boston, down to Alabama, and then back up to East Boston. Santos-Perlera was abducted early Monday by men hired to take her from Arizona to East Boston after her family apparently couldn't afford to pay their fee, authorities said. [Why isn't this illegal enroute back to her homeland?]

San Diego

Tijuana police officer arrested for drug smuggling
A police officer from Tijuana was arrested for attempting to smuggle marijuana into the United States, a U.S. Customs official said Friday. Francisco Javier Lopez Uriarte was arrested at the Otay Mesa border crossing in San Diego after inspectors found 36 pounds of marijuana hidden in a secret compartment above the gas tank of his car, said Customs spokesman Vince Bond. In February, authorities arrested two other Tijuana police officers for smuggling marijuana in separate incidents at the San Ysidro border crossing in San Diego.

Dan Walters

Is the National Guard trying to suppress a state readiness probe?
The Guard's internal discord surfaced publicly last year when a former California Guard commandant, Maj. Gen. Frank Schober, wrote a letter to Gov. Gray Davis alleging that the Guard had fallen to a "very sorry condition" and blaming Davis' appointee as commander, Adjutant General Paul Monroe, for the deterioration. "The present leader does not deserve either the title of leader or general officer," Schober said. "He is neither and should be replaced with all deliberate speed." Schober's letter touched off bitter debate within the Guard's officer corps and a series of revelations, many based on official documents, about the Guard's poor condition.

Letter to the S.F. Chronicle

U.S. - Mexico border
   Editor -- Peter Laufer's ludicrous Open Forum piece, "Tearing down the U.S.- Mexico border" (July 11), can't be dealt with in one short letter. But let me make just a couple of points. -- Mexico is a disease- ridden country. This means tuberculosis, that once was eliminated from the United States, is once again being spread here by illegal immigrants. -- And on Laufer's point that illegal immigrants don't avail themselves of our social services, President Fox not only supplies his citizens with survival kits for crossing the Arizona deserts, they include a list of hospitals where they can get free medical services.

Cudahy, CA

Vendors Allege Misconduct by City Officials
Authorities have opened an investigation into alleged abusive practices by Cudahy code enforcement officers against illegal corn vendors, who say they have been roughed up and forced to turn over their earnings. The L.A. Co. Sheriff's launched the probe after a young vendor complained that he was beaten then dumped in Santa Monica with orders never to come back to Cudahy. -- The vendors, most of them young, recent immigrants from Puebla, Mexico, say they risk being cited because they sell more corn in Cudahy than other cities. [Cudahy is bloated with illegals.]

Mexican Junker Trucks

Bill orders Mexican truck checks
The controversy in Congress over whether to allow Mexican trucks and drivers to operate beyond the U.S.-Mexico border area is far from over. The Senate Appropriations Committee voted Thursday in favor of a $60 billion transportation spending bill that includes a provision that would require Mexican trucks and drivers to abide by the same rules as their U.S. counterparts to gain full access to the U.S. market. Mexican trucks would have to undergo safety checks by U.S. inspectors, who would be added to the border. Training inspectors could take a year.

Las Animas, CO

Mexican national drunk when boat capsized, sheriff says
The operator of a boat was under the influence of alcohol when it capsized, killing four people, a sheriff's affidavit says. Jose Alejandro Avila, 18, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.105 on a breath test administered by Bent County sheriff's deputies after the accident, the affidavit says. Avila, who was born in Mexico, will face a deportation hearing after the criminal case is over, said Nina Pruneda Muniz, an INS spokeswoman.

Washington

Advocates urge benefits for legal migrants
Immigration advocates from across the country were on Capitol Hill on Thursday to lobby Congress to restore federally funded health benefits for millions of legal immigrant children and pregnant women. At a crowded rally with advocates from New York, New Jersey, Florida and Texas, several lawmakers, including Sens. Bob Graham, D-Fla., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., promised to lead the charge for passage of the Immigrant Children's Health Improvement Act of 2001.

El Paso

U.S., Mexico agree to make things safer for foreign criminals
Top-level U.S. and Mexican officials on Thursday recommitted to joint lifesaving efforts aimed at reducing the number of immigrants at risk while attempting to cross the border. The effort involves training U.S. and Mexican border agents in search-and-rescue techniques. Amid increased U.S. patrols around key border cities, undocumented immigrants have increasingly attempted crossings in isolated desert terrain along the nearly 2,000-mile frontier.

San Diego

INS Notes Downside of Tighter Border
There is a growing trend of undocumented immigrants cramming themselves into intricate, and potentially deadly hidden compartments of vehicles to sneak into the United States from Mexico, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Migrants are trying to gain entry to the United States by hiding in hollowed-out gasoline tanks, strapping themselves to undercarriages and cramming themselves into a small space smugglers have made in an engine compartment or behind a dashboard.

Richard Salvatierra

Bush cave-in on Vieques panders to Hispanics
When he was campaigning for the presidency, George W. Bush said one of his priorities would be to shore up combat readiness and provide all of the armed services with support that had been lacking during the Clinton presidency. However, in proposing that the U.S. Navy abandon its live-ammunition training range on Puerto Rico's Vieques Island, Bush has caved in - and no doubt done so for a purely political reason: To try to strengthen his support among Hispanics in this country, siding with what has been a handful of protesters on the island, many of whom don't even inhabit the place.

L.A. Daily News/AP

Strict immigration controls urged
Large-scale migration of Mexicans to Southern California and the United States undermines the economy, overtaxes schools and other services, and creates a permanent underclass of uneducated and unskilled poor, a nonpartisan think tank said in a report issued Thursday. - The report by the Center for Immigration Studies cited Southern California as the epicenter of social and economic ills related to Mexican immigration, which rose by nearly 1,000% nationwide from 1970 to 2000. [Reader comment: It is shocking to see this in the Daily News since illegal immigration has been a "sacred cow" for years and newspapers have refused to print anything on it.]

We Get E-Mail - Mexican Junk Trucks

Who the hell does Bush work for, anyhow?
Years ago, I lived in Tucson, AZ for 2 1/2 years. Tucson is heavily populated with Mexicans and only forty or so miles from the Mexican border at Nogales. -- In those 2 1/2 years, I suffered more flat tires than in the entire rest of my driving life of over 40 years. The reason? Junk dropped on the road from Mexican pickups and other vehicles. -- Understand that in Mexico, the standard items for repairs are a roll of bailing wire, duct tape, and any bolt, screw or nut they can stick in a hole; nevermind whether it's the right thread, the right size, etc.

Washington

U.S.: Nations not doing enough to stop trafficking
Israel, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Greece are among nearly two dozen nations criticized yesterday by the State Department for not doing enough to combat trafficking humans, a problem viewed as a major global law enforcement issue. Those U.S. allies were lambasted in the first "Trafficking In Persons Report" as failing to "meet the minimum standards" for dealing with trafficking or not making an "significant" effort to confront the problem within their borders.

Washington Post

California: Affirmative Action Fails Again
In a 1996 referendum, California voters outlawed racial preferences. Or did they? At the University of California, a lovely backdoor has been found for beating the ban. The maneuver appears wholly innocuous. --- Ah. But the beauty of this odd change is that it gets underqualified Hispanic students into the UC system. In one predominately Hispanic high school, among the worst in the state, reports the Wall Street Journal, the number of graduates accepted to UC schools increased by more than 50% this year. How did they do it? They aced the Spanish language SAT II. Being fluent in Spanish, they breezed through, often without study or preparation, a test designed to measure second language acquisition.

L.A. Times on Camarota Report

Study casts Mexicans as burdens
A controversial study by a Washington group favoring reduced levels of immigration draws a grim picture of the economic and social consequences of large-scale immigration from Mexico. The continuing influx of poor settlers from Mexico provides marginal economic benefits while burdening public services and schools and creating generations of poverty, according to the report. "If you step back and look at the interests of the United States as a whole, unskilled Mexican immigration doesn't look like such a great deal," said the author, Steven A. Camarota..... [Published in the Evansville Courier-Press] [L.A. Times Version]

Reconquista Crooks?

Hermandad Mexicana Nacional Indicted Over Use of Funds
The grand jury alleges that Hermandad Mexicana National Legal Center failed to account for millions of dollars in U.S. Department of Education funds and about $140,000 of Federal Emergency Management Agency funds, authorities said. The Legal Center is part of Hermandad, one of the oldest Latino immigrant rights groups in the nation. No one from Hermandad could be reached for comment. Between 1995 and 1998, Hermandad received about $6 million in Department of Education grant funds. Only about half of the funds were used for "approved purposes," said Assistant U.S. Atty. Lee Arian. [More on these vehement reconquistas][See O.C. Register item]

Do they count Mexicans giving birth in U.S.?

Mexico's birthrate drops, but population still high
Mexico has reduced its birth rate over the least three decades from 6.8 to 2.4 children per family, Rodolfo Turian, Secretary General of the National Population Council (Conapo), said recently. Regardless, the Mexican population will reach 101 million people this year, making it the eleventh most populated country in the world. Migration statistics are also quite disturbing, as the migratory flow to the U.S. has increased 1,000% over the last 40 years. In the 1960s, 30,000 people migrated north on an annual basis. Currently, 300,000 Mexicans leave Mexico annually for the U.S.

Boston

Drive targets immigrant voters
Community leaders and about 100 newly registered voters helped the city kick off a voter drive yesterday, targeting Boston's immigrant communities. The New Bostonians Vote 2001 campaign hopes to build on a similar drive last year that yielded 5,000 new voters. The new campaign will bring together 300 community- based organizations to distribute voting kits that include a video showing how to register and vote. -- Representatives from the Chinese, Haitian, and Latino communities spoke of the importance of registering members of their communities to vote.

Hartford Courant Editorial - 245(i) Sham

A Break For Illegal Immigrants
Congress is wise in heeding Bush's call to enact legislation that would extend the deadline during which illegal immigrants may seek to legalize their status. Last month, the lawmakers voted to give some 200,000 illegal immigrants a further grace period of four months within which to apply for legal residency. Given the large number of affected immigrants, the deadline should have been extended by a year. -- Under a tough immigration law passed in 1996, immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally or overstay their visa may not apply for legal status without returning to their home country.