America versus the Media

Both defendants Daily News, and Los Angeles Times being in the "newspaper business" knew very well that plaintiff's political advertisement was appropriate and not barred by any copyright laws, whatsoever. Plaintiff's political advertisement constituted "FAIR USE' of the news articles which, pursuant to Title 17, United States Code § 107, barred and removed from copyright protection the news articles. This fair use of what would otherwise be infringement is permissible even where a party using the article, along with his political statement...

Times says American Patrol deprived it of freedom of speech. Phony use of anti-SLAPPs

Reuters

Latinos Urge Amnesty for Illegal, Bush Says No
Hispanic leaders urged President Bush on Thursday not to shelve a promise to legalize millions of foreigners with no documents, saying a fast growing Latino electorate could punish Republicans. Bush repeated that there would be no across- the- board legalization. The national leaders of the largest U.S. minority proposed legalization of all immigrants who have worked in the United States for at least three years. "We are talking millions. If not we don't have anything approaching what we would be interested in," said Raul Yzaguirre, president of the National Council of La Raza. [More about 'Bush says no'.]

Houston Chronicle

Mexico's border czar says best solutions are economic
Mexico's border czar said today a guest worker program will give Mexico time for economic development so people don't have to leave to seek jobs. Ernesto Ruffo gave the opening remarks on the second day of the three- day U.S.- Mexico Border Summit, which brought together high-level U.S. and Mexican officials and business leaders to discuss the accomplishments of the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada, and its related problems.

Washington Post Editorial

A Chance and a Challenge
The tone of the immigration debate has changed in remarkable and welcome ways. President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox have brought new focus and new attitudes, formed by their understanding of the issue and their recognition of the potential political gains in finding better ways to deal with the millions of Mexican immigrants working illegally in the United States. An evolution in policy by American labor unions, plus growing support from business and religious groups, has helped.

Arizona Republic

Jury convicts Mexican in '99 cop killing
Police officers and the family of slain Phoenix officer Marc Atkinson cheered today as a jury returned with a guilty verdict against one of the three men accused of killing him. Freddi Flores- Zavada may face the death penalty as the driver of the car that led Atkinson to a west Phoenix neighborhood where he was shot dead. Atkinson's widow, Karen, cried as the verdict was read. Jury foreman Randy Filipic of Phoenix said the jury spent most of more than four hours deliberating the felony murder charge. [Also see earlier article in The News - Mexico City](AZ Rep. - Free Reg.)

Reuters

Three American Girls and Mother Murdered in Mexico
Three young American girls and their Mexican mother were murdered and their bodies dumped in a cornfield outside Mexico's western city of Guadalajara, officials said on Thursday. -- Police said the victims had been shot in the head and chest. Their bodies were found on Wednesday, yards away from an abandoned car that had been reported stolen. The three girls, aged 9, 10 and 13, all had identification cards from a school in Brownsville, TX, and their U.S. birth certificates were found in the trunk of the car....

Laredo Morning Times

All in the families: 13 plead guilty to illegal alien, drug smuggling
Thirteen members of two Encinal families pleaded guilty to federal immigrant- and drug- smuggling charges after a 19- month undercover investigation exposed their trafficking rings. The two operations charged up to $1,500 to transport undocumented immigrants from LaSalle County to locations throughout Texas and to Florida, where they were employed as farm workers by members of one family. An INS and the DEA investigation lead to a series of arrests April 18 in both Encinal and Lake Worth, Fla. Those arrested include nine members of the "Lopez Organization".

Associated Press

Authorities Think Sacramento Killer Was Part Of Extortion Ring
Fugitive Nikolay Soltys, accused of killing six family members, allegedly had a history of extortion and may be carrying a large amount of cash. And a Ukrainian newspaper reported he once attacked his wife with an axe. Soltys, an unemployed Ukrainian immigrant, is believed to still be in the Sacramento area. He is suspected of killing his pregnant wife, his son, and four other family members. Police said they believed Soltys' reported role in an extortion ring gave him access to large amounts of money and could put him "in a better position than we otherwise believed."

Corpus Christi Caller-Times

51 illegals found in trailer of 18- wheeler
Sarita, TX -- Fifty- one immigrants were found crammed into the trailer of an 18-wheeler Wednesday morning at the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint south of here, in part of what agents suspect is a large-scale smuggling ring. When the truck pulled in for inspection around 5 a.m., a Border Patrol dog alerted agents to something in the trailer, said Supervisory Agent Rey Hernandez. Agents opened the trailer and found 50 of the immigrants squeezed in near the front of the trailer. There was no other cargo, aside from a few empty palettes, Hernandez said.

L.A. Times

Bush Favors Eased Legal Status
President Bush wants to make it easier for Mexicans to acquire legal status in the United States out of economic and humanitarian concerns, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said Wednesday. "President Bush is very concerned about people who've lost their lives trying to find a better life coming to the United States," Fleischer told reporters. "President Bush recognizes that there are many employers in many parts of our society that benefit from having immigrants come to the United States and work in this country. We are a richer nation for it."

Washington Times

GOP bid for Hispanic vote 'quixotic,' study says
The Republican Party is pursuing a lost cause in attempting to woo Hispanic voters, and the continuing Hispanic immigration will increasingly boost Democratic ranks as the traditional Republican voting base shrinks, says a CIS report. "Across all nationality groups except Cubans," Democrats have a 20 percentage point advantage "in nearly all states," according to last week's report by James Gimpel and Karen Kaufmann, University of Maryland political scientists who specialize in immigration policies.

Associated Press

Bush: No Blanket Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants
President Bush on Thursday promised illegal immigrants a worker program of some type to legalize their labor here, but he ruled out any blanket amnesty. "There's going to be no amnesty," the president said as he took time from his vacation to visit an elementary school near his ranch. Bush is due to announce proposed immigration changes, which Mexico wants, when Mexican President Vicente Fox makes a state visit to the White House on Sept. 5.
[See Free Republic thread]

From FAIR

Oltman to testify before Little Hoover Commission
Rick Oltman, Western Field Director for FAIR testifies to the Little Hoover Commission in the State Capitol today. The questions he has been asked to address: Should the State be a proactive, lead partner with counties and community organizations by directly providing services to immigrants? Should the state create an entity such as an Office of Immigrant Assistance to provide specialized services to immigrants, such as facilitating access to state programs? More......     

San Diego Union-Tribune

Border-crossing deaths down
From Mexico City to Capitol Hill, the United States law-enforcement crackdown along the border -- including Operation Gatekeeper in San Diego County -- faces increasing blame for what has been called a soaring incidence of immigrant deaths since the mid-1990s. But the latest INS figures reveal for the first time a pattern of decreasing fatalities along most of the Southwest border since the U.S. Border Patrol first began tracking the deaths in 1998.

BBC

Malaysia's illegal immigrants face cane
The Malaysian Government has announced that illegal immigrants could be caned in future if they are caught. Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi said legal amendments to allow the use of the cane would be submitted to the cabinet to try to deter the growing numbers of those entering the country unlawfully. Government statistics estimate there are around 600,000 illegal immigrants in Malaysia but unofficial figures put the total much higher. Most have come from poorer neighbours like Indonesia and the Philippines in search of work. [See Free Republic thread]

Rense.com

International 'Ecstasy' Kingpin Arrested In Spain
Oded Tuito was alleged to be a global pill-pusher, whose Israeli mafia group was the biggest operator in a booming international trade in the lucrative "hug drug". Now Mr Tuito, who allegedly stamped his ecstasy pills with the Star of David and the Tweety Bird cartoon character that reminded him of his own name, is sitting in a Spanish prison. Picked up in the eastern coastal town of Castelldefels, just outside Barcelona, his arrest has provoked a deluge of extradition requests and police inquiries from four continents.

NewsMax.com

Loophole Let Fugitive Slip Into U.S.
The Ukrainian immigrant accused of slaughtering six family members entered the United States through a legal loophole intended to shelter persecuted religious refugees. And he was shepherded along the way by a do-good group in New York that was clueless about his history of domestic violence, mental instability and rejection from the military back in the old country. As of Wednesday, police were still trying to track down Nikolay Soltys, who they believe went on a killing rampage in Sacramento, California....

Dallas Morning News

Border issues get top billing at summit
It could have easily been a neighborhood gathering where residents met to catch up and exchange hellos. But this wasn't your average block party. The neighbors here were Mexico's and the United States' top lawmakers and corporate leaders. And, the talk was all about the needs of the U.S.- Mexico border in areas such as transportation, water and housing matters. "It is very important ... to share [our] points of view and our common worries and common problems," said Gov. Tomás Yarrington of the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas.

Boulder Daily Camera

U.S. helps Mexican quarry workers
Mexican workers who lost their jobs in a Lyons quarry may get back to work soon under a special exemption granted by the U.S. Department of Labor. At least 13 Mexican men have been without jobs since an investigation uncovered health code violations and payment practices at Perdue Trucking and Flagstone Co. The Labor Department has agreed to transfer their work visas to another employer in less than two weeks. Some employers have already contacted the Mexican Consulate in Denver, seeking to employ the men. [Reader note]

Associated Press

Bush, Fox Talk Economy, Immigration
President Bush spoke Wednesday with Mexican President Vicente Fox about economic and immigration issues as Bush prepares for the first state visit of his administration. The two presidents agreed in their 20- minute call that the United States needs a new system for welcoming Mexican immigrants "in a safer, a more legal, and a more humane manner,'' Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said. They are due to make a joint announcement on proposed reforms when they meet in Washington Sept. 5.

Dallas Morning News

Hispanic groups lobby to salvage amnesty ideas
Worried that the Bush administration may be tiptoeing away from a proposal to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants, representatives of several major Latino organizations headed to the White House on Wednesday to warn that such a move would backfire politically with Hispanic voters. The groups, which are members of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, met with two White House aides involved in the immigration policy deliberations under way between the United States and Mexico.

The News - Mexico City

Amnesty Int'l pleads to stop execution of Mexican
A leading international human rights group on Wednesday called on the state of Oklahoma to commute the death sentence of a Mexican man convicted of murder but denied his international rights by state authorities. In a statement released from London, Amnesty International said Oklahoma should uphold the recent suggestion by the International Court of Justice to cancel the execution of Gerardo Valdez, sentenced to die by lethal injection for the 1989 murder of a gay man he claimed made sexual advances toward him.

The News - Mexico City

Mexican won't face as many charges
A judge ordered a partial acquittal in the trial of a Mexican man who allegedly was the driver when a police officer was killed during an attempted drug arrest. A jury still was to decide the outcome in a felony murder charge and two others against Fredi Bladimir Flores- Zavada, also known as Oscar Garcia- Martinez. Flores-Zavada was acquitted on a charge of intentional killing of a law officer. He also was acquitted on charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault stemming from an attack on a bystander.....

The News - Mexico City

More Meddling: Mexico launches program to inform migrants of rights in U.S.
Mexico will begin broadcasting Spanish-language radio programs in the United States to educate undocumented immigrants about their legal rights under U.S. law, the Presidential Office for Mexicans Living Abroad said Wednesday. In the latest bid to promote migrants' rights in the United States, the broadcasts would provide advice on legal matters such as U.S. labor laws "so they don't become victims of corruption or mistreatment," said Dr. Juan Hernandez.

Parasailor halts immigration

NEW YORK -- (VCT Comment) Fed up with an immigration policy that is destroying America, a bold parasailor draped the wing of his craft over the lamp that guides immigrants into the United States. According to legal experts, this act, while deplorable to many, does, in fact, end immigration into the United States. "It's the fifty-first amendment," lawyer B. Feeder said, "If at any time the lamp is obscured, immigration ends." Feeder, whose first name is Bottom, is employed by the firm, Duey, Chitum & Howe based in Mexico City.

Associated Press

Total Number of Jobless Workers Hits Nine-Year High
New claims for state unemployment insurance rose last week to the highest level since mid-July while the number of laid-off workers drawing unemployment benefits rose the highest level in nine years. The number of workers filing new applications for jobless benefits increased by a seasonally adjusted 8,000 to 393,000 for the week ending Aug. 4, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

KCBS News

Accused Serial Rapist Charged With Barroso Murder
The man accused of a string of rapes in Simi Valley was charged Monday with the murder of 20- year- old Megan Barroso. Vincent Sanchez (pictured, left) has been in jail awaiting trial on the rape charges. He is accused of attacking 11 Simi Valley women over the past five years. During the rape investigation, detectives found evidence linking him to Barroso's murder, CBS2 News reported.

Washington Post

More Mexican Meddling: U.S. Deprived Killer of Fair Trial, Appeal Says
Defense lawyers have complained for years that the United States violates international law when foreign citizens are tried here for capital crimes but aren't told they have the right to contact their home countries for help. Now, the government of Mexico is aggressively pressing that argument in the case of a Mexican national on Oklahoma's death row. And an appeal filed yesterday in the case poses a legal challenge that, if successful, could test convictions and sentences of more than 100 foreign nationals awaiting execution in the United States.