Hauppauge, NY - A pro-illegal immigration rally was held Friday at noon Eastern at the Dennison Bldg., in part to protest the weekend Sachem conference. The SEIU and other groups were represented. Observers say that there were more reporters than rally participants. (More photos)

Unbelievable

Bush puts Mexicans first
President George W. Bush said Friday that he hopes the United States and Mexico will reach an agreement by early September that would pave the way for up to 3 million illegal Mexican immigrants to remain in the United States and "serve as a precedent for other nationalities." Bush, in an interview with several Florida newspapers, said he puts relief for illegal Mexicans ahead of immigrants from other countries. -- "Remember, we've got hard-working citizens who are willing to walk 400 miles of desert in blistering heat to find work. And our nation must treat these folks with respect and help them when they're hurting," the president said.

We Get E-Mail

Re: Via Christi sues INS over suspects medical bill
It is hypocritical to say the least that the Catholic hospital Via Christi is complaining to the INS about an expensive illegal alien in its care. After all, the Catholic Church is one of the biggest proponents of open borders, unlimited immigration and social services for all regardless of citizenship. --- Of course, in advocating more immigration, the Church is serving its own interests, since most immigrants now come from Latin America and are therefore Catholic.

Steve Sailer

Analysis: Mexican-Americans and the vote
Pundits have been hailing the Bush administration's reported proposal to offer legalization to many, although not all, illegal Mexican immigrants as a political masterstroke. -- Yet, new data now available on the Census Bureau's Web site, although not yet formally issued to the press, shows that the voting strength of Mexican-Americans remains surprisingly limited -- people identifying themselves as being of Mexican ethnicity cast only 3.0 percent of the vote in the 2000 election.

Tucson

Migrant convicted in 1999 attempted murder of officer
A man from Sonora, Mexico, has been convicted in the 1999 attempted murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent. Armando Garcia Muñoz, of Hermosillo, Son., was found guilty yesterday by a federal jury of attempted murder of a federal officer, assault on a federal officer with a deadly weapon and brandishing a firearm. Muñoz is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 10. He faces a maximum of 40 years in prison and up to $750,000 in fines. The incident occurred near Double Adobe on June 7, 1999.

German Migration Woes

Anti-Deportation Protests at Frankfurt Airport Turn Violent
Protests aimed at pressuring Frankfurt airport to close its deportation center for refugees turned violent Saturday as riot police used clubs to beat back demonstrators who tried to burst into the main terminal. More than 2,000 activists had protested peacefully for much of the day before the last minute clash... -- The demonstrators are part of a group called No One is Illegal, supporting open borders, eased immigration laws and the immediate halt to deportations of illegal aliens. [Photo]

Washington

Bush: 'Wet foot-dry foot' policy will stay in place
President Bush said Friday that the controversial policy of the Clinton administration to send Cubans rescued on the high seas back to Cuba remains in place. -- "We will analyze all policies with Cuba, but right now, the same policy that my predecessor had in place stands,'' Bush said during a wide- ranging interview in the White House with The Herald and seven other newspapers. --- On a major immigration issue, Bush said he was hopeful the United States and Mexico will reach an agreement by early September that would pave the way to legalize the status of up to 3 million Mexicans and "serve as a precedent for other nationalities. "I fully recognize, particularly in Miami and a lot of other places, there are workers here from other nationalities,'' said Bush.

N.Y. Daily News

Rally Backs Mex Workers
Human rights activists, union organizers and religious leaders joined forces in Hauppauge yesterday to rally against a community group's efforts to deport Mexican day laborers from Long Island. Tensions flared in front of the Dennison Building when several leaders of the Sachem Quality of Life organization spoke out against the influx of undocumented Mexican workers in Farmingville. -- The Sachem group's president, Margaret Biancoulli, told reporters that the Mexican men are causing home values to drop, and they should be forced to go back to Mexico. -- Louis Montalvo shouted at Biancoulli, "Why do you deserve to live here and not them?" [Because they're illegals?]

Another Look

Demographic changes spark sentiment against immigrants, particularly Hispanics
A group in North Carolina plans to protest the "overwhelming number of illegal Hispanic workers invading the area." A California coalition urges people to lobby against giving legal status to undocumented immigrants. And on New York's Long Island, the topic at a conference this weekend is the "illegal immigration disaster." [This article first ran yesterday, and today it is running in papers all over the world. A Mexican newspaper is running it with the photo of an American with the following caption: Snappily- dressed redneck Dave Drew holds a sign protesting day laborers in Farmingville, New York.]

Mexico-Guatemala Border

Mexico's Open Southern Border Lures Migrants Headed to U.S.
For illegal immigrants the world over, the narrow river that marks Mexico's southern border has long been a backdoor to the United States. All it takes to understand why is an afternoon view of the homemade rafts that swarm across the lazy currents. At the river's edge in Guatemala, immigrants board the rafts along with housewives and day laborers going across the border to shop or work. The passengers get off less than 10 minutes later on the banks of Mexico, and never pass a single checkpoint or customs station.

Marietta, GA

CRACKDOWN: Sign warns of day labor law
A flashing sign warning contractors not to pick up day laborers is the newest weapon in Marietta's battle against the daily gatherings of men. The sign on wheels repeatedly flashes the message: "Illegal to P/U Day Laborers." It was put in place Thursday afternoon on Powder Springs Road, near the Garrison Road intersection, one of the city's main thoroughfares. Men, most of whom are Mexican immigrants, gather every day along Powder Springs and on some side streets to wait for contractors to offer them jobs.

Los Angeles Times

4th, 8th Grades Still Come Up Short in Math
Despite a decade of progress in mathematics, only about one in four students in the 4th and 8th grades demonstrates a solid grasp of math topics normally taught in those grades, new data show. Moreover, the "achievement gap" in math proficiency is widening between white and Asian American students on one hand and their black and Latino counterparts on the other, according to results of a test known as the "nation's report card." On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, 34% of white 4th- graders demonstrated grade- level proficiency while only 5% of black 4th- graders and 10% of Latino 4th- graders did so.

Boise, ID

Experts not surprised: Hispanics overrepresented in prisons
The proportion of Hispanics in Idaho's prisons and jails is double the proportion of Hispanics in the statewide population. Census 2000 figures released this week show that Hispanics make up about 16% of the people in the state's correctional system, but only about 8% of the overall population in Idaho. The numbers come as no surprise to Hispanic leaders or people with an eye on the criminal justice system. "That's nothing new to us," said Humberto Fuentes, executive director of the Idaho Migrant Council. "We've known for a long time that our people seem to be hit harder when it comes to prison terms."

Notimex

Border Patrol to boost helicopter patrols
The U.S. Border Patrol will assign helicopter rescue teams along the U.S.- Mexico border in California, Arizona and Texas to better spot and aid stranded Mexican migrants, officials here said. The new teams will make surveillance runs near El Centro, Calif., Yuma, Ariz., and Marpha [sic], Texas, in league with Operation Guardian, the U.S. government's beefed up patrol project of its southern border. Border Patrol National Director Gustavo de la Vina said in a statement that recent academy graduates will make up the helicopter rescue teams and will receive special instruction from Mexican law enforcement officers.

The News - Mexico City

Mexico wins White House backing on trucks spat
The White House on Friday voiced support for President Vicente Fox's threat to close Mexico's border to U.S. trucks until U.S. legislators give Mexican trucks equal and unfettered access to the U.S. "The Congress has to expect that if they take an action that is unfair to one of America's neighbors, America's neighbors will respond," White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters during a media briefing. Fleischer said Bush "shares" Fox's concerns and would work to extinguish a raging U.S. congressional firestorm over whether to bar Mexican trucks from entering the U.S.

Valdez, AK

ROUNDUP: 82 Mexican illegals arrested
In the largest roundup of illegal aliens in Alaska in three years, 82 Mexicans working in Valdez fish- processing plants were arrested this week and will face deportation hearings. Eight INS agents arrived in Valdez on Sunday to audit employment records of Peter Pan Seafoods, Sea Hawk Seafoods and Nautilus Seafoods. Agents, acting on tips the plants employed illegals, found dozens of counterfeit documents employees had used to try to prove their right to work in the U.S., said Robert Eddy, INS district director for Alaska. [There is a message board on this site for your comments]

Atlanta Journal - Constitution

States making it easier for illegals
President Bush and his advisers are talking about a possible amnesty for 3 million illegal immigrants, but Georgia and several other states already have taken steps to edge undocumented immigrants into the mainstream. Various states have let undocumented immigrants get driver's licenses, pay in- state college tuition and access health care more easily. Such actions would have been unthinkable a few years ago. They reflect a shift from the anti-immigrant mood of the early and mid- 1990s, when some state legislatures and Congress passed laws restricting services for legal and illegal immigrants.

Bisbee, AZ

Citizens For Border Solutions look for healing ways
A group of area residents have banded together to raise public awareness about the suffering, injustice and risk of death facing undocumented immigrants trying to illegally cross the border into the U.S. Citizens for Border Solutions says it is working to end the discrimination and fear along the border including changing the terms often used to refer to the illegal crossers. "They are not aliens from another planet, they are people and they are our neighbors," said one of the members.

Wichita, KS

Hospital sues INS over suspects medical bills
Via Christ hospital in Wichita is suing the Immigration and Naturalization Service to force it to take custody of an illegal alien who is also a murder suspect. Authorities say Juan Acevedo shot to death his wife, Pearl Acevedo, last December in front of a carload of her co-workers in Garden City. Juan Acevedo, then shot himself in the head, but survived. From December until May, the illegal alien was hospitalized at Via Christ Regional Medical Center in Wichita, where he ran up a quarter- million- dollar hospital bill.

New York Times

Supporters of Immigrant Laborers [read: illegals] Hold Rally
As they gathered here for a protest rally, advocates for the rights of Long Island's immigrants insisted today that an anti-immigrant teach- in this weekend would amount to no more than a circus sideshow of right- wing extremists. But in the next breath, many said they worried that the event could help sway mainstream public opinion in this stretch of Suffolk County, where the presence of Hispanic day laborers has incited fears about crime and property values, leading to legislation and even violence. -- Across the parking lot, however, Debbie Lippis, said she had two words for the illegal immigrants: "Deport them." (NY Times - Free Reg.)

Long Island

Groups Rally For Immigrants [illegal aliens]
A coalition of immigrant rights and anti- hate groups gathered Friday to denounce the Long Island appearance of an anti- immigration guru who says Mexicans are engaged in a vast conspiracy to conquer the United States. Center for Constitutional Rights in Manhattan and at least six other groups said this weekend's scheduled "Day of Truth" conference will be filled with misleading and divisive rhetoric about the consequences of mostly Latino immigration. The meeting is sponsored by the Sachem Quality of Life Organization in Farmingville...... [Photos from protest in Hauppauge]