Valley's Mexican population booming
People of Mexican ancestry flocked to the San Fernando Valley during the 1990s at a rate seven times higher than the rest of the city in pursuit of better education, housing, jobs and their ancestral roots, new U.S Census Bureau data show.

While the rest of Los Angeles' Mexican population grew less than 3 percent during the decade, the Valley's grew by more than 57 percent to just over 370,000 people of Mexican ancestry. More.....

North County Times

Advocates announce legislation to help immigrants
Immigrant rights groups gathered Friday in front of U.S. Rep. Bob Filner's office to support legislation he has introduced that would restore rights eliminated under a 1996 immigration reform law. -- Filner's House Resolution 87, called the Keeping Families Together Act of 2001, would repeal provisions of the Illegal Immigration and Reform Responsibility Act of 1996 that were meant to speed the deportation of "criminal immigrants," both legal and illegal. Immigration advocates, and the families of those facing deportation, say the 1996 law went too far because it removed the right to appeal a deportation. It broadened the definition of deportable offenses to include minor crimes....

The Brunswick (GA) News

The land of opportunity - Hispanics find jobs, unity, language
Ricardo Cruz Mendez was apart from his wife and children in Mexico for four years. He was away in the United States, working and saving money for his family. -- He brought them over a few at a time and now the whole family of six -- Mendez, his wife, their three sons and one daughter -- live near the King and Prince Seafood Co., where Mendez says he makes enough money to afford a $300 - a- month apartment, a car and a future for his children -- things they couldn't have in his southern Mexico hometown of Tenocique Tabasco. "I had friends who said there was work in Brunswick, so I thought, maybe I'll go over there and see how things are," Mendez explained in his native Spanish.

El Imparcial - Mexico

"Mexico is recovering lost territories via immigration"
The Mexican writer Elena Poniatowska asserted today (7/3) that Mexico is at this moment recovering territories it lost in the past to the United States thanks to emigration. " The common people - the poor, the dirty, the lice ridden, the cockroaches are advancing on the United States, a country that needs to speak Spanish because it has 33.5 million Hispanics who are imposing their culture ", affirmed Poniatowska while unveiling her new novel " La piel del cielo" in Caracas.

BBC

China miffed over spy plane offer
China has expressed its "utmost dissatisfaction" with Washington's offer of $34,000 for expenses incurred during the three-month seizure of a US Navy surveillance plane, state media reported. Beijing had demanded $1 million to cover its "costs" in the affair, which was triggered in April when a US reconnaissance plane made an emergency landing in China after colliding with a Chinese fighter jet. China wants compensation for feeding the 24 US crew members, held for 11 tense days on Hainan Island.....

Boulder Daily Camera

Lyons quarry under fire
When they came to this country by bus, a group of Mexican immigrants headed for the sandstone-rich mountains of Colorado with the American dream of saving thousands of dollars for their families back home. Instead, some of the workers at Perdue Sandstone Quarry say they spent the last four months without a paycheck, living in broken-down school buses and drinking and bathing in water from a hose. They have spent the past three weeks on strike. On Wednesday, American and Mexican authorities stormed the property, served the owner with a search warrant and examined what they called conditions nearing a slave camp. [Reader Note]

San Diego Union-Tribune

Guest-worker plan offers jobs beyond farms
If Mexico sends guest workers to the United States, those workers likely will be allowed to do more than work on farms, a top Mexican official said yesterday. -- Some sort of guest worker plan is expected to be a key element in the immigration reform and border safety proposal President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox expect to discuss early next month. Some speculate the plan will allow hundreds of thousands of Mexicans to enter the United States temporarily to work.-- "We want to open up the borders to whatever is needed in the United States," Juan Hernández said in an interview with The San Diego Union- Tribune.

Sam Francis - VDare.com

Racial Gangrape: Another Diversity Disaster
No doubt because of the influence of xenophobia and nativism in this country, America has not yet had an opportunity to welcome a new sport that the glorious multiracial diversity of the new millennium has already created. But in more cosmopolitan centers like Paris and Australia, the game is blossoming. It consists in the ritual gang rape of white women by non- white immigrants. Back in April, 11 young black males went on trial in Paris for the gang rape of a 14- year- old white girl seven years ago. Rapes happen all the time, of course, but this one was unusually notable.

New York Times

Group Seeks Black-Latino Joint Effort for Mayor
A group of black elected Democrats, led by Representative Charles B. Rangel of Harlem, has decided against endorsing any of the white Democrats running for New York mayor, and will instead seek to create a black-Latino coalition that is likely to support Fernando Ferrer's bid to become the city's first Puerto Rican mayor, Mr. Rangel said yesterday. Mr. Rangel said he had informed Mark Green, Alan G. Hevesi and Peter F. Vallone that his coalition of Harlem Democrats had decided, after a series of unannounced meetings, against supporting any of them in the Sept. 11 primary.

Omaha World Herald

5 Face Fraud Charges Over Workers' Papers
Five Grand Island, Neb., residents have been arrested on suspicion of creating and providing fraudulent identification papers for undocumented workers. The four men and one woman face a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The four men and one woman face a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The arrests, which occurred Thursday, were the result of a yearlong investigation by agents of the INS. [There is a message board on this site]

Idaho Statesman

Police, Hispanic community meet, look for solutions
City police officers say their procedures are not biased, but Hispanics argue that racial profiling is alive and well in the community. About 30 officers, most of them Jerome police, met with about 50 Hispanic residents from Jerome, Twin Falls and Rupert this week. -- Hispanics said officers' practice of asking for immigration papers and calling federal officials "for no good reason" when they pull over undocumented Hispanics is proof of prejudice. [Message Board]

Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

Amnesty does newcomers harm by giving false impression of America
In debating illegal immigration, I always seem to be out of sync. What troubles other Americans, I accept; and what worries me doesn't bother them at all. -- I would have thought that Americans would never support amnesty for undocumented Mexican immigrants residing in the United States. But now that a task force headed by Secretary of State Colin Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft has recommended letting 1 million to 2 million undocumented Mexican immigrants apply for permanent legal status, the backlash has been minimal.

Chicago Sun-Times

The driver behind the Dan Ryan crash
The man who drove the truck that spilled its chemical load on the Dan Ryan Expy. earlier this week is an illegal immigrant who bought a fraudulent trucker's license, state officials charged Friday. Fernando Guzman Ruiz, who lives with his wife and daughter, was charged with felony counts of possession of a false driver's license and making a phony application for a driver's license. He is being held in Cook County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail. The INS has requested that he be detained for deportation proceedings.

New York Times

White House Favors Keeping an Affirmative Action Policy
In its first opportunity to take a stance on affirmative action, the Bush administration asked the Supreme Court tonight to uphold a Transportation Department program intended to help minority contractors. In a brief filed with the court, the Justice Department took the same position as the Clinton administration had in the case, which grew out of a challenge brought years ago by a white- owned construction company in Colorado Springs. [Free Republic item]

El Paso Times

New U.S. stamp honors Mexican artist
U.S. and Mexican officials unveiled a new U.S. postage stamp Friday honoring Frida Kahlo, a female Mexican artist who fought for the rights of women in the 1930s. In special ceremonies at the Mexican Consulate in Downtown El Paso, Mexican Consul General Antonio Meza and El Paso Postmaster Félix Guerra paid tribute to Kahlo, wife of famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. The image on the stamp was made from one of Kahlo's works, "Self Portrait With Collar," now owned by Jacques and Natasha Gelman, noted collectors of Mexican art.

Austin, TX

County GOP seeks Hispanic
Cameron County Republicans are making a concerted effort to find a strong Hispanic candidate to run against Democratic incumbent state Rep. Jim Solis in a new GOP- leaning Texas House. Frank Morris, chairman of the Cameron County Republican Party, said Friday he wanted a short list of one for the Republican primary in District 38 to help satisfy the party's local and state-level desire to reach out to Hispanics. "If the Republican Party is going to continue to expand in Texas, we have got to start electing Hispanics and we certainly should be doing it in the Valley," said Morris.