Illegal Aliens Bring TB to Bay Area
Want sickness, both physically and emotionally, defend the use of illegal aliens for exploitive purposes.
Now we have an outbreak of illegal aliens. Too bad the San Jose Mercury News is refusing to tell the truth about the situation. The article says, "The current jump is due to a tuberculosis outbreak among Mexican day laborers in the Mission District, and has given San Francisco the highest TB rate in the state."
These are not Mexican day laborers—they are illegal aliens. If the newspaper can not tell its readers the truth about a TB outbreak, how can anyone trust them to tell the truth about crooked politicos (they should be called redistributive welfare workers?)
This article shows why we have a problem, the media, which we count on to tell us the truth is lying to us every day. Why buy a newspaper that you know lies in their news stories? This paper is committing suicide in front of us everyday. shame on the reporters and editors, they have turned from being journalists into old fashion propaganda artists. Would you hire someone that doesn’t tell the truth?
Report: Bay Area counties see major jump in TB cases
By Mike Swift, San Jose Mercury News, 3/13/08
In a trend that worried public health officials can’t fully explain, Santa Clara County and all other large Bay Area counties saw a substantial jump in new tuberculosis cases in 2007, even as California saw its overall caseload decline.
TB increased substantially in Santa Clara, San Francisco, Alameda and San Mateo counties, and those four Bay Area counties collectively had almost one-quarter of California’s 2,726 cases in 2007, according to new data released by the California Department of Public Health.
San Francisco experienced its first significant jump in cases since the AIDS-related TB outbreak in the early 1990s. The current jump is due to a tuberculosis outbreak among Mexican day laborers in the Mission District, and has given San Francisco the highest TB rate in the state. But Santa Clara County is close on its heels - ranking third in its rate of the airborne communicable disease.
Santa Clara County had more total cases - 241 - than San Francisco, trailing only much larger Los Angeles and San Diego counties within California. This is the first time since 1996 that Santa Clara County’s case totals have climbed two years in a row - the number of cases are up 21 percent over the past two years. While 2007 national data has not been released, Santa Clara County had more TB cases than 35 states in 2006.
"The trend is up. Will it continue? I don’t know, we certainly have a lot of new cases," said Dr. Marty Fenstersheib, Santa Clara County health Advertisement officer. "The sense is we’re still on track for this year, and it’s March. It continues to be a significant issue."
While California’s total TB caseload declined by 1.9 percent between 2006 and 2007, county TB controllers and statewide advocates said they are concerned about federal, state and local budget cuts that they say could weaken the state’s defenses against a global epidemic of a disease that causes 1.7 million deaths each year.
"We can’t afford to let our guard down or be lulled into a false sense of security," said Gwendolyn Young, chairwoman of the American Lung Association of California. "We are at the crossroads of a global epidemic, and this is going to have a significant impact on our state."
Two weeks ago, the World Health Organization reported the highest rates ever recorded of multi-drug resistant TB, strains of the illness that do not respond to several of the primary array of antibiotics used to treat the bacterial disease. WHO said there were cases of extremely-drug resistant TB (XDR) in 45 countries, cases that are resistant to all front-line drugs and that in come cases can be virtually incurable with current drugs. California has had 19 cases of XDR tuberculosis since 1993, lung association officials said.
Across the Bay Area, county TB officials said this week that they are worried about state and county budget cuts that they say could puncture California’s defenses against the evolving drug-resistant threat in the rest of the world, particularly in the former Soviet Union, China and India. TB officials say that in the early 1990s, the last time TB funding was substantially reduced, the cutbacks contributed to the major outbreaks in AIDS-related TB cases.
"The funding levels are dropping and so that worries me," Fenstersheib said, "that we’re going to have increased cases of multi-drug resistance, because we have no control over the rest of the world."
"I fear that with cutbacks in the state general fund, and cutbacks to the state’s TB program and to our local assistance grants, we will be increasingly less able to keep the numbers down," said Dr. Robert Benjamin, TB control officer for Alameda County. "It’s an insidious disease because it just lays dormant, and then it springs up to bite you."
As has been the pattern for more than a decade, the preponderance of Bay Area cases were in people who are foreign-born, including about 90 percent of the cases in Santa Clara County. While most TB cases are diagnosed soon after an immigrant, student or temporary worker arrives in the United States, people can live for decades with latent TB infection before getting sick and becoming infectious.
TB officials in both Alameda County and San Francisco said they had noticed an increase in geriatric cases among people who developed active TB as their aging immune systems weakened. One-third of TB cases in people over 65 in San Francisco were fatal in 2007, a trend the city TB controller, Dr. Masae Kawamura, called "really disturbing."
"They are fragile people, and TB just takes them down," she said.
The Bay Area has large populations of the five countries with the highest burden of TB - China, India, Vietnam, Mexico and the Philippines - but Kawamura and other local and statewide TB experts said public health officials will need to do more investigation to understand the Bay Area’s TB jump.
"I noticed the increase in the Bay Area, and it’s really concerning," Kawamura said. "It means we just need to increase our vigilance."
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Chinese teens picked up by border patrol...
Chinese teens picked up by border patrol
Group found walking along M-29
By BOBBY AMPEZZAN
Times Herald
Three teenage Chinese nationals are being housed in the St. Clair and Washtenaw county jails after being arrested in Clay Township shortly after officials said they illegally crossed the border.
The teens -- ages 16, 17 and 18 -- were picked up by border patrol about 11 p.m. Saturday while walking along M-29 about two miles north of the Walpole Island ferry crossing, agent Kurstan Rosberg said. They were wearing wet clothes, Rosberg said. He didn't know where they crossed the St. Clair River.
The 17- and 18-year-old told officials they are from the city of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, an area just south of Shanghai. The youngest refused to give a hometown. All three spoke poor English, Rosberg said. They had passports but no other travel documents.
The case has been turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, Rosberg said, which will move the group out of the jails to a contracted immigration detention facility. Rosberg did not know when the three will have an immigration hearing.
Rosberg said catching illegal immigrants from China is unusual. Last year, only seven of the 904 illegal immigrants picked up by the Detroit sector of U.S. Customs and Border Protection were Chinese.
Sector Detroit has monitoring stations along Michigan's eastern border from Sault Ste. Marie to Trenton. More than three-quarters of the people arrested by the sector last year were Mexicans, Rosberg said. The majority of the others arrested were from Central American countries such as Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Rosberg did not have specific information about arrests made by agents from the local border patrol station in Marysville.
The Saturday arrests highlight a trend of human smuggling into Michigan that begins in Toronto, Rosberg said.
"In general terms, what we've seen is a pattern for crossings in this area (that begins) in Toronto. It's a 'decision point.' From there, they go here or Buffalo or Vermont," he said.
http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article
?AID=/20080325/NEWS01/803250305/1002
Group found walking along M-29
By BOBBY AMPEZZAN
Times Herald
Three teenage Chinese nationals are being housed in the St. Clair and Washtenaw county jails after being arrested in Clay Township shortly after officials said they illegally crossed the border.
The teens -- ages 16, 17 and 18 -- were picked up by border patrol about 11 p.m. Saturday while walking along M-29 about two miles north of the Walpole Island ferry crossing, agent Kurstan Rosberg said. They were wearing wet clothes, Rosberg said. He didn't know where they crossed the St. Clair River.
The 17- and 18-year-old told officials they are from the city of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, an area just south of Shanghai. The youngest refused to give a hometown. All three spoke poor English, Rosberg said. They had passports but no other travel documents.
The case has been turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, Rosberg said, which will move the group out of the jails to a contracted immigration detention facility. Rosberg did not know when the three will have an immigration hearing.
Rosberg said catching illegal immigrants from China is unusual. Last year, only seven of the 904 illegal immigrants picked up by the Detroit sector of U.S. Customs and Border Protection were Chinese.
Sector Detroit has monitoring stations along Michigan's eastern border from Sault Ste. Marie to Trenton. More than three-quarters of the people arrested by the sector last year were Mexicans, Rosberg said. The majority of the others arrested were from Central American countries such as Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Rosberg did not have specific information about arrests made by agents from the local border patrol station in Marysville.
The Saturday arrests highlight a trend of human smuggling into Michigan that begins in Toronto, Rosberg said.
"In general terms, what we've seen is a pattern for crossings in this area (that begins) in Toronto. It's a 'decision point.' From there, they go here or Buffalo or Vermont," he said.
http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article
?AID=/20080325/NEWS01/803250305/1002
Illegal immigrant jailed for attempting to use fake Social Security card...
Man jailed for attempting to use fake Social Security card
The Post Star (Glen Falls, NY), March 24, 2008
FORT EDWARD -- A homeless illegal immigrant who tried to use a fake Social Security card to get public assistance benefits has been arrested and jailed, police said.
Pablo Martinez-Gutierres, 49, was charged Friday, after the Washington County Sheriff’s Office was contacted by the county Department of Social Services about possible fraud by someone applying for public assistance, officials said.
Martinez-Gutierres was with his wife at the social services office, and police determined that there was an order of protection against him barring him from having contact with her because of an assault charge filed against him in Virginia that accused Martinez-Gutierres of abusing his wife, police said.
A check with federal immigration officials found that Martinez-Gutierres had been arrested several times for being an illegal immigrant and deported each time, the Sheriff’s Office said. He had used fake names, dates of birth and social security numbers several times, officials said.
They did not name the country to which he was native.
Martinez-Gutierres was charged with second-degree criminal contempt, a misdemeanor, for allegedly violating the order of protection. The U.S. Department of Immigration and Naturalization Services has filed a detainer warrant against him for the apparent violations of immigration laws.
He is being held in Washington County Jail after arraignment in Kingsbury Town Court.
Sheriff’s Deputy Mike McWhorter made the arrest.
http://www.poststar.com/articles/2008/03/24/news/la
test/doc47e7ffd99f2c7674812918.txt
The Post Star (Glen Falls, NY), March 24, 2008
FORT EDWARD -- A homeless illegal immigrant who tried to use a fake Social Security card to get public assistance benefits has been arrested and jailed, police said.
Pablo Martinez-Gutierres, 49, was charged Friday, after the Washington County Sheriff’s Office was contacted by the county Department of Social Services about possible fraud by someone applying for public assistance, officials said.
Martinez-Gutierres was with his wife at the social services office, and police determined that there was an order of protection against him barring him from having contact with her because of an assault charge filed against him in Virginia that accused Martinez-Gutierres of abusing his wife, police said.
A check with federal immigration officials found that Martinez-Gutierres had been arrested several times for being an illegal immigrant and deported each time, the Sheriff’s Office said. He had used fake names, dates of birth and social security numbers several times, officials said.
They did not name the country to which he was native.
Martinez-Gutierres was charged with second-degree criminal contempt, a misdemeanor, for allegedly violating the order of protection. The U.S. Department of Immigration and Naturalization Services has filed a detainer warrant against him for the apparent violations of immigration laws.
He is being held in Washington County Jail after arraignment in Kingsbury Town Court.
Sheriff’s Deputy Mike McWhorter made the arrest.
http://www.poststar.com/articles/2008/03/24/news/la
test/doc47e7ffd99f2c7674812918.txt
Immigration Agency Arrests 34 Workers At Construction Firm...
Prince William County
Immigration Agency Arrests 34 Workers At Construction Firm
By N.C. Aizenman Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 25, 2008; Page B05
Federal immigration authorities converged on a Prince William County construction company just before sunrise yesterday, arresting 34 Latin American nationals for being in the country illegally.
Workplace raids are rare in the Washington area, and the roundup at CMC Concrete Construction in the Manassas area appears to be the largest in the region in nearly two years, according to a review of news releases on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Web site.
The workers -- who come from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica and El Salvador -- are being charged administratively and are in ICE custody undergoing deportation proceedings, said Ernestine Fobbs, a spokeswoman for the customs agency.
News of the arrests spread quickly through an immigrant community already on edge after a county law took effect this month allowing Prince William police to check the immigration status of people stopped for other infractions.
Fobbs said the agency had executed two search warrants in connection with the operation. Because those warrants were under seal, Fobbs said, she could not discuss how or why the company had drawn federal attention, nor confirm that CMC Concrete Construction was the agency's target.
James Rybicki, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said no employers had been charged. But he added, "Obviously, we'll be reviewing the case for possible criminal charges."
Public records identify Felisberto J. Magalhaes as the president of CMC and Maria Brandao Magalhaes as its secretary and treasurer. A relative of the owners who entered the company's administrative suite in a Manassas office complex yesterday afternoon to meet with several ICE agents declined to comment.
A few miles away, at a large lot where CMC workers come to pick up equipment before heading out to job sites each day, about a dozen remaining workers stood in groups discussing the morning's events.
A 32-year-old Mexican man, who asked that his name not be published for fear of retaliation from his bosses or the government, said he and three others had driven off the lot in one of the company's pickup trucks when they noticed a silver van behind them flashing police lights.
"We thought maybe we had run a light or there was something wrong with the plates -- we figured at worst we were going to get a traffic ticket," he said.
Instead, the man said, an armed immigration agent leaned in the window and demanded identification.
"Everyone grew very quiet. We were horribly sad, but more than anything, resigned," the man said.
He said agents were able to retrieve records demonstrating that CMC had successfully sponsored him for legal permanent residency years ago. But he said two colleagues in the truck had no such proof to offer and were handcuffed, along with five workers riding in a pickup behind them.
Minutes after the roadside detentions, other workers said, immigration agency vehicles entered the lot and more than a dozen agents fanned out in pursuit of several fleeing workers.
When the Mexican worker finally reached the lot, he learned that his younger brother was among those taken away.
"You feel so impotent, to see someone you know, who is just trying to work, go through this and to not be able to help him," he said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/articl
e/2008/03/24/AR2008032402649.html
Immigration Agency Arrests 34 Workers At Construction Firm
By N.C. Aizenman Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 25, 2008; Page B05
Federal immigration authorities converged on a Prince William County construction company just before sunrise yesterday, arresting 34 Latin American nationals for being in the country illegally.
Workplace raids are rare in the Washington area, and the roundup at CMC Concrete Construction in the Manassas area appears to be the largest in the region in nearly two years, according to a review of news releases on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Web site.
The workers -- who come from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica and El Salvador -- are being charged administratively and are in ICE custody undergoing deportation proceedings, said Ernestine Fobbs, a spokeswoman for the customs agency.
News of the arrests spread quickly through an immigrant community already on edge after a county law took effect this month allowing Prince William police to check the immigration status of people stopped for other infractions.
Fobbs said the agency had executed two search warrants in connection with the operation. Because those warrants were under seal, Fobbs said, she could not discuss how or why the company had drawn federal attention, nor confirm that CMC Concrete Construction was the agency's target.
James Rybicki, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said no employers had been charged. But he added, "Obviously, we'll be reviewing the case for possible criminal charges."
Public records identify Felisberto J. Magalhaes as the president of CMC and Maria Brandao Magalhaes as its secretary and treasurer. A relative of the owners who entered the company's administrative suite in a Manassas office complex yesterday afternoon to meet with several ICE agents declined to comment.
A few miles away, at a large lot where CMC workers come to pick up equipment before heading out to job sites each day, about a dozen remaining workers stood in groups discussing the morning's events.
A 32-year-old Mexican man, who asked that his name not be published for fear of retaliation from his bosses or the government, said he and three others had driven off the lot in one of the company's pickup trucks when they noticed a silver van behind them flashing police lights.
"We thought maybe we had run a light or there was something wrong with the plates -- we figured at worst we were going to get a traffic ticket," he said.
Instead, the man said, an armed immigration agent leaned in the window and demanded identification.
"Everyone grew very quiet. We were horribly sad, but more than anything, resigned," the man said.
He said agents were able to retrieve records demonstrating that CMC had successfully sponsored him for legal permanent residency years ago. But he said two colleagues in the truck had no such proof to offer and were handcuffed, along with five workers riding in a pickup behind them.
Minutes after the roadside detentions, other workers said, immigration agency vehicles entered the lot and more than a dozen agents fanned out in pursuit of several fleeing workers.
When the Mexican worker finally reached the lot, he learned that his younger brother was among those taken away.
"You feel so impotent, to see someone you know, who is just trying to work, go through this and to not be able to help him," he said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/articl
e/2008/03/24/AR2008032402649.html
Illegal immigrant is guilty in fatal crash...
Illegal immigrant is guilty in fatal crash
Eddie Carbajal-Lile ran Town of Lima stop sign, killed boy, 17, then fled on foot
By Eric Litke
The Sheboygan Press (WI), March 25, 2008
A Mexican citizen in the United States illegally was convicted Monday of killing a Port Washington boy in a hit-and-run crash in the Town of Lima last summer.
Eddie Carbajal-Lile, 27, accepted a plea deal that could put him behind bars for more than 20 years, though the prosecution will recommend 10 years in prison under the terms of the agreement.
According to a criminal complaint, Carbajal-Lile ran a stop sign at county Highway V and state Highway 32 and struck a car with three teenagers inside Aug. 14, injuring two and killing Paul B. Watry, 17. Carbajal-Lile fled the scene on foot and was captured two weeks later in Ohio, authorities said.
'We could get more or even less from the judge, but I think the 10 years is fairly consistent with (fatal hit-and-run crashes) we've had in the past,' said Sheboygan County District Attorney Joe DeCecco. 'It's not intentional, it's negligent.'
A friend testified that Carbajal-Lile had been drinking at a nearby bar before the crash, but he was not charged with drunken driving since no blood could be drawn to prove intoxication.
Carbajal-Lile was charged with felony counts of homicide by negligent operation of a motor vehicle, hit and run resulting in death and reckless driving causing great bodily harm, as well as misdemeanor reckless driving causing injury. Under the plea agreement, he pleaded no contest to the felonies and the misdemeanor was dismissed.
Following the pleas, Carbajal-Lile was found guilty on the three felony counts by Judge Timothy Van Akkeren. The charges carry potential penalties of up to 21.5 years in prison.
Carbajal-Lile, whose last known address was his brother's home in Fredonia, has been held since his arrest on a $100,000 cash bond. He appeared in court Monday in a red jail jumpsuit with his hands shackled in front of him and spoke through a translator, entering the no contest pleas and answering questions from the judge with one-word responses.
Carbajal-Lile will appear before Van Akkeren for sentencing May 19. The delay allows time for officials to conduct a pre-sentence investigation into Carbajal-Lile's past.
'We know little about the defendant — he has several different aliases,' DeCecco said.
According to the complaint and witness testimony:
Carbajal-Lile, who was alone in his car, struck the right side of the other car, knocking both teens on that side of the car unconscious. Watry was in the front seat, and Jillian Fitzmaurice, 18, of Oostburg, was seated behind him.
The driver of the teens' car, Scot Mueller, 18, of Port Washington, suffered a broken left clavicle, left wrist and left hand, and Fitzmaurice suffered a broken jaw and ribs as well as numerous cuts to her face and a loss of hearing in one ear.
Watry died soon after the crash at a Milwaukee-area hospital.
Carbajal-Lile was captured Aug. 29 in Ohio after he and a friend were arrested for harassing a bartender in Mt. Orab, east of Cincinnati, officials said.
http://www.sheboygan-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articl
e?AID=/20080325/SHE0101/803250474/1973
Eddie Carbajal-Lile ran Town of Lima stop sign, killed boy, 17, then fled on foot
By Eric Litke
The Sheboygan Press (WI), March 25, 2008
A Mexican citizen in the United States illegally was convicted Monday of killing a Port Washington boy in a hit-and-run crash in the Town of Lima last summer.
Eddie Carbajal-Lile, 27, accepted a plea deal that could put him behind bars for more than 20 years, though the prosecution will recommend 10 years in prison under the terms of the agreement.
According to a criminal complaint, Carbajal-Lile ran a stop sign at county Highway V and state Highway 32 and struck a car with three teenagers inside Aug. 14, injuring two and killing Paul B. Watry, 17. Carbajal-Lile fled the scene on foot and was captured two weeks later in Ohio, authorities said.
'We could get more or even less from the judge, but I think the 10 years is fairly consistent with (fatal hit-and-run crashes) we've had in the past,' said Sheboygan County District Attorney Joe DeCecco. 'It's not intentional, it's negligent.'
A friend testified that Carbajal-Lile had been drinking at a nearby bar before the crash, but he was not charged with drunken driving since no blood could be drawn to prove intoxication.
Carbajal-Lile was charged with felony counts of homicide by negligent operation of a motor vehicle, hit and run resulting in death and reckless driving causing great bodily harm, as well as misdemeanor reckless driving causing injury. Under the plea agreement, he pleaded no contest to the felonies and the misdemeanor was dismissed.
Following the pleas, Carbajal-Lile was found guilty on the three felony counts by Judge Timothy Van Akkeren. The charges carry potential penalties of up to 21.5 years in prison.
Carbajal-Lile, whose last known address was his brother's home in Fredonia, has been held since his arrest on a $100,000 cash bond. He appeared in court Monday in a red jail jumpsuit with his hands shackled in front of him and spoke through a translator, entering the no contest pleas and answering questions from the judge with one-word responses.
Carbajal-Lile will appear before Van Akkeren for sentencing May 19. The delay allows time for officials to conduct a pre-sentence investigation into Carbajal-Lile's past.
'We know little about the defendant — he has several different aliases,' DeCecco said.
According to the complaint and witness testimony:
Carbajal-Lile, who was alone in his car, struck the right side of the other car, knocking both teens on that side of the car unconscious. Watry was in the front seat, and Jillian Fitzmaurice, 18, of Oostburg, was seated behind him.
The driver of the teens' car, Scot Mueller, 18, of Port Washington, suffered a broken left clavicle, left wrist and left hand, and Fitzmaurice suffered a broken jaw and ribs as well as numerous cuts to her face and a loss of hearing in one ear.
Watry died soon after the crash at a Milwaukee-area hospital.
Carbajal-Lile was captured Aug. 29 in Ohio after he and a friend were arrested for harassing a bartender in Mt. Orab, east of Cincinnati, officials said.
http://www.sheboygan-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articl
e?AID=/20080325/SHE0101/803250474/1973
Anti-illegal immigration bills proposed in California...
Anti-illegal immigration bills proposed
By Edward Sifuentes
The North County Times (Escondido, CA), March 25, 2008
A package of bills designed to crack down on California's estimated 3 million illegal immigrants will be unveiled by Republican lawmakers in Sacramento today.
Two North County representatives are among the sponsors of the bills, which cover a wide range of topics, including elimination of in-state tuition benefits for illegal immigrant students at state colleges and universities, requiring proof of legal status to receive state benefits, and barring companies that hire illegal immigrants from receiving state contracts.
An immigrant rights advocate called the bills divisive.
Similar bills have been introduced in recent years without much success. The lawmakers who sponsored the 20-bill package said in a news release Monday that their proposals aim to eliminate enticements that attract illegal immigrants to the state.
Included in the package is Assembly Bill 1882, sponsored by Assemblyman Martin Garrick, R-Carlsbad. His bill would require police to contact immigration authorities when a person suspected of being an illegal immigrant is arrested for driving under the influence.
Garrick said he believes the package offers 'common sense' ideas to address illegal immigration.
'I am encouraged that reason will prevail,' he said.
Assemblywoman Mimi Walters, R-Oceanside, sponsored Assembly Bill 2102, which would require state agencies to check all new employees' work eligibility through a federal electronic database called E-Verify.
Walters said the news conference that is scheduled to take place in Sacramento today is designed in part to put pressure on Democrats to take illegal immigration more seriously. She said the state's illegal immigrants cost taxpayers an estimated $9 billion each year.
'We are truly in a crisis,' Walters said.
While some analysts say illegal immigrants are a huge burden on taxpayers, others say they contribute much to the state and the nation's economy.
Pedro Rios, director of the San Diego office of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker human rights organization, said he was troubled by the proposals. Dealing with immigration policy is a federal responsibility, he said.
'This is an attempt to bring the immigration debate to the state level, as they've done in Arizona and other parts of the country, and it doesn't belong there,' Rios said. 'It only creates more division and tension.'
Rios said he does not see much chance of these bills passing through the Legislature due to the Democrats' large majority in the Assembly, 48 to 32. He added that Republicans may be 'testing the waters to see how far they can go.'
Among the other bills are:
# Assembly Bill 39 would require the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to tally the cost of jailing illegal immigrant inmates each year and bill the federal government
# Assembly Bill 1928 would require local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with federal immigration authorities when they arrest suspected illegal immigrants
# Assembly Bill 2420 would prohibit cities from declaring themselves 'sanctuary cities' for illegal immigrants and not allowing their police to cooperate with federal immigration authorities
# Assembly Bill 648 would add 10 years to the sentence of anyone convicted of a felony who has a previous felony conviction in California for which they were deported
# Assembly Bill 2812 would allow the governor to cite illegal immigration as a cause to declare a local or state emergency
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/03/25/news/top
_stories/10_58_493_24_08.txt
By Edward Sifuentes
The North County Times (Escondido, CA), March 25, 2008
A package of bills designed to crack down on California's estimated 3 million illegal immigrants will be unveiled by Republican lawmakers in Sacramento today.
Two North County representatives are among the sponsors of the bills, which cover a wide range of topics, including elimination of in-state tuition benefits for illegal immigrant students at state colleges and universities, requiring proof of legal status to receive state benefits, and barring companies that hire illegal immigrants from receiving state contracts.
An immigrant rights advocate called the bills divisive.
Similar bills have been introduced in recent years without much success. The lawmakers who sponsored the 20-bill package said in a news release Monday that their proposals aim to eliminate enticements that attract illegal immigrants to the state.
Included in the package is Assembly Bill 1882, sponsored by Assemblyman Martin Garrick, R-Carlsbad. His bill would require police to contact immigration authorities when a person suspected of being an illegal immigrant is arrested for driving under the influence.
Garrick said he believes the package offers 'common sense' ideas to address illegal immigration.
'I am encouraged that reason will prevail,' he said.
Assemblywoman Mimi Walters, R-Oceanside, sponsored Assembly Bill 2102, which would require state agencies to check all new employees' work eligibility through a federal electronic database called E-Verify.
Walters said the news conference that is scheduled to take place in Sacramento today is designed in part to put pressure on Democrats to take illegal immigration more seriously. She said the state's illegal immigrants cost taxpayers an estimated $9 billion each year.
'We are truly in a crisis,' Walters said.
While some analysts say illegal immigrants are a huge burden on taxpayers, others say they contribute much to the state and the nation's economy.
Pedro Rios, director of the San Diego office of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker human rights organization, said he was troubled by the proposals. Dealing with immigration policy is a federal responsibility, he said.
'This is an attempt to bring the immigration debate to the state level, as they've done in Arizona and other parts of the country, and it doesn't belong there,' Rios said. 'It only creates more division and tension.'
Rios said he does not see much chance of these bills passing through the Legislature due to the Democrats' large majority in the Assembly, 48 to 32. He added that Republicans may be 'testing the waters to see how far they can go.'
Among the other bills are:
# Assembly Bill 39 would require the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to tally the cost of jailing illegal immigrant inmates each year and bill the federal government
# Assembly Bill 1928 would require local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with federal immigration authorities when they arrest suspected illegal immigrants
# Assembly Bill 2420 would prohibit cities from declaring themselves 'sanctuary cities' for illegal immigrants and not allowing their police to cooperate with federal immigration authorities
# Assembly Bill 648 would add 10 years to the sentence of anyone convicted of a felony who has a previous felony conviction in California for which they were deported
# Assembly Bill 2812 would allow the governor to cite illegal immigration as a cause to declare a local or state emergency
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/03/25/news/top
_stories/10_58_493_24_08.txt
Arizona Attorney General touts anti-smuggling efforts...
Arizona AG touts anti-smuggling efforts
United Press International, March 24, 2008
Phoenix (UPI) -- A new era of cooperation between U.S. and Mexican authorities will target cross-border smuggling and money-laundering operations, Legal Newsline reported.
Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said when western state attorneys general and Mexican authorities met this month it marked a turning point in the wars against drugs and human trafficking.
'I can't say enough about what a big step forward this was,' Goddard said.
He told the legal news service as many as 1 million illegal immigrants each pay about $2,500 to human smugglers, known as coyotes, to get into the United States annually.
'The cartels, we believe, are profiting immensely from the human smuggling activities,' he said. 'Transporting human beings is even profitable and less risky than transporting drugs.'
As a result, he said, coyote gangs on both sides of the border are fighting over smuggling routes and so-called drop-houses, where illegal immigrants are taken once brought into the United States.
Goddard said with the improved cooperation the U.S.-Mexico border will 'cease to be a refuge' for criminals who escape one way or another.
'This has implications for both countries that are very positive,' he said.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/03/24/ar
izona_ag_touts_anti-smuggling_efforts/5756/
United Press International, March 24, 2008
Phoenix (UPI) -- A new era of cooperation between U.S. and Mexican authorities will target cross-border smuggling and money-laundering operations, Legal Newsline reported.
Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said when western state attorneys general and Mexican authorities met this month it marked a turning point in the wars against drugs and human trafficking.
'I can't say enough about what a big step forward this was,' Goddard said.
He told the legal news service as many as 1 million illegal immigrants each pay about $2,500 to human smugglers, known as coyotes, to get into the United States annually.
'The cartels, we believe, are profiting immensely from the human smuggling activities,' he said. 'Transporting human beings is even profitable and less risky than transporting drugs.'
As a result, he said, coyote gangs on both sides of the border are fighting over smuggling routes and so-called drop-houses, where illegal immigrants are taken once brought into the United States.
Goddard said with the improved cooperation the U.S.-Mexico border will 'cease to be a refuge' for criminals who escape one way or another.
'This has implications for both countries that are very positive,' he said.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/03/24/ar
izona_ag_touts_anti-smuggling_efforts/5756/
Little-known Senate candidate's key issue: illegal immigration...
Little-known Senate candidate's key issue: illegal immigration
The Associated Press, March 24, 2008
Rapid City, SD (AP) -- He won't divulge his age or talk much about what he does for a living. But Republican U.S. Senate candidate Charles Lyonel Gonyo of Trent will say what makes him angry: illegal immigration.
'I'm doing nothing but fighting to save our country from being taken over by illegal aliens,' he said.
Gonyo was the first to gather 2,070 valid petition signatures confirmed by the secretary of state. His petitions were approved March 7, which made him the first GOP Senate hopeful to qualify for the June 3 primary ballot.
'I've been spending the last 12 years fighting illegal immigration,' Gonyo said in a telephone interview with the Rapid City Journal last week. 'I'll be the only one (in the campaign) that's pro-American. Everybody else will be along the lines of open up the borders, bring in all the foreigners.'
Gonyo did say he attended South Dakota State University in Brookings and that he worked as a veterinarian before focusing on illegal immigration.
He said he has been involved in the Minutemen, a civilian group formed to draw attention to illegal immigration, and Wake Up America, a group concerned about illegal immigrants and foreign ownership of property in the United States.
Gonyo said his will be a low-budget campaign and that he probably will serve as his own campaign treasurer.
A primary was assured last week when state Rep. Joel Dykstra of Canton qualified for the ballot.
Two others who have said they plan to run for the GOP nomination Sam Kephart of Spearfish and Bert Tollefson of Sioux Falls have until the close of business Tuesday to submit their nominating petitions or send them via registered mail by that time.
Secretary of State Chris Nelson said Monday that he hopes to have a final candidate list by Thursday morning.
The winner faces Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson, whom Gonyo called a 'nice Norwegian American, the same as me.'
http://www.yankton.net/stories/032508/new_261388874
.shtml
The Associated Press, March 24, 2008
Rapid City, SD (AP) -- He won't divulge his age or talk much about what he does for a living. But Republican U.S. Senate candidate Charles Lyonel Gonyo of Trent will say what makes him angry: illegal immigration.
'I'm doing nothing but fighting to save our country from being taken over by illegal aliens,' he said.
Gonyo was the first to gather 2,070 valid petition signatures confirmed by the secretary of state. His petitions were approved March 7, which made him the first GOP Senate hopeful to qualify for the June 3 primary ballot.
'I've been spending the last 12 years fighting illegal immigration,' Gonyo said in a telephone interview with the Rapid City Journal last week. 'I'll be the only one (in the campaign) that's pro-American. Everybody else will be along the lines of open up the borders, bring in all the foreigners.'
Gonyo did say he attended South Dakota State University in Brookings and that he worked as a veterinarian before focusing on illegal immigration.
He said he has been involved in the Minutemen, a civilian group formed to draw attention to illegal immigration, and Wake Up America, a group concerned about illegal immigrants and foreign ownership of property in the United States.
Gonyo said his will be a low-budget campaign and that he probably will serve as his own campaign treasurer.
A primary was assured last week when state Rep. Joel Dykstra of Canton qualified for the ballot.
Two others who have said they plan to run for the GOP nomination Sam Kephart of Spearfish and Bert Tollefson of Sioux Falls have until the close of business Tuesday to submit their nominating petitions or send them via registered mail by that time.
Secretary of State Chris Nelson said Monday that he hopes to have a final candidate list by Thursday morning.
The winner faces Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson, whom Gonyo called a 'nice Norwegian American, the same as me.'
http://www.yankton.net/stories/032508/new_261388874
.shtml
Man accused in Jamiel Shaw Jr.'s slaying is in U.S. illegally...
Man accused in teen's slaying is in U.S. illegally
By David Zahniser
Los Angeles Times, March 23, 2008
An alleged gang member accused of killing a 17-year-old high school student just one day after being released from jail has been living in the country illegally, possibly for more than a decade, federal immigration authorities said Saturday.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has filed paperwork naming 19-year-old Pedro Espinoza, the suspect in the March 2 killing of Los Angeles High School football star Jamiel Shaw Jr., as a potential candidate for deportation.
Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the immigration agency, said an immigration hold was issued for Espinoza on March 13, nearly a week after he was arrested in connection with Shaw's death.
No such hold was placed on Espinoza on March 1, the day he was released from a Los Angeles County jail after serving roughly four months for exhibiting a firearm and resisting arrest, said Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore.
'We are going to follow up to determine whether or not we have had prior interactions with this individual,' Kice said.
The federal immigration agency confirmed the deportation filing on the same day that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa participated in a ceremony dedicating a memorial in Arlington Heights where Shaw was killed.
A highly regarded running back for his school's football team, Shaw was named the Southern League's most valuable player in 2007. He had drawn the interest of recruiters from Stanford and Rutgers universities, his family said.
The killing outraged civic leaders and reignited a citywide debate over the role that race has played in a recent spate of homicides.
Both the immigration agency and the Sheriff's Department have employees who interview jail inmates about their immigration status. Those interviews can be undermined when inmates give aliases or inaccurate places of birth, authorities said.
After his most recent arrest, Espinoza was 'uncooperative,' telling immigration investigators he did not know where he was born or the whereabouts of his family, Kice said.
The next day, investigators found a relative of the suspect who said Espinoza had been smuggled into the United States from Mexico when he was 4, Kice said.
In the greater Los Angeles area, the immigration agency files several thousand immigration holds each month on inmates who are considered deportable, Kice said. Those inmates are identified as deportable if they are living in the country illegally or if they are legal residents who have been convicted of certain crimes.
The immigration hold placed on Espinoza will mean little if he is convicted of first-degree murder.
'If this prosecution goes forward and he's convicted, in all likelihood he's looking at a very, very severe sentence,' Kice said.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/californi
a/la-me-shaw23mar23,1,5451309.story
By David Zahniser
Los Angeles Times, March 23, 2008
An alleged gang member accused of killing a 17-year-old high school student just one day after being released from jail has been living in the country illegally, possibly for more than a decade, federal immigration authorities said Saturday.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has filed paperwork naming 19-year-old Pedro Espinoza, the suspect in the March 2 killing of Los Angeles High School football star Jamiel Shaw Jr., as a potential candidate for deportation.
Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the immigration agency, said an immigration hold was issued for Espinoza on March 13, nearly a week after he was arrested in connection with Shaw's death.
No such hold was placed on Espinoza on March 1, the day he was released from a Los Angeles County jail after serving roughly four months for exhibiting a firearm and resisting arrest, said Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore.
'We are going to follow up to determine whether or not we have had prior interactions with this individual,' Kice said.
The federal immigration agency confirmed the deportation filing on the same day that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa participated in a ceremony dedicating a memorial in Arlington Heights where Shaw was killed.
A highly regarded running back for his school's football team, Shaw was named the Southern League's most valuable player in 2007. He had drawn the interest of recruiters from Stanford and Rutgers universities, his family said.
The killing outraged civic leaders and reignited a citywide debate over the role that race has played in a recent spate of homicides.
Both the immigration agency and the Sheriff's Department have employees who interview jail inmates about their immigration status. Those interviews can be undermined when inmates give aliases or inaccurate places of birth, authorities said.
After his most recent arrest, Espinoza was 'uncooperative,' telling immigration investigators he did not know where he was born or the whereabouts of his family, Kice said.
The next day, investigators found a relative of the suspect who said Espinoza had been smuggled into the United States from Mexico when he was 4, Kice said.
In the greater Los Angeles area, the immigration agency files several thousand immigration holds each month on inmates who are considered deportable, Kice said. Those inmates are identified as deportable if they are living in the country illegally or if they are legal residents who have been convicted of certain crimes.
The immigration hold placed on Espinoza will mean little if he is convicted of first-degree murder.
'If this prosecution goes forward and he's convicted, in all likelihood he's looking at a very, very severe sentence,' Kice said.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/californi
a/la-me-shaw23mar23,1,5451309.story
After deportation, migrants determined to return...
After deportation, migrants determined to return;
U.S. crackdown to secure borders pitted against strong desire to flee poverty, crime
By Emily Bazar
USA Today, March 24, 2008
Oscar Ordooez, 56, pleaded guilty to attempted theft in Colorado, he didn't realize he could lose his right to live in the USA. Now he sits on his sister's balcony overlooking the green Salvadoran hills, dreaming of the life he left behind and plotting his illegal return.
Estella Lemus, 27, cries as she describes the hunger, danger and injuries of her illegal border crossing and says she won't do it again.
The seamstress, who earns up to $5 a day in her poor neighborhood north of San Salvador, worries about how she will repay the $3,000 that her family borrowed for her trip.
Nearby, Pedro Berrios, 25, reads to his 5-year-old son in their cinder-block home next to the filthy Tomayate River. Berrios will keep trying to enter the USA illegally, he says, because 'I don't see another way out of here.'
The lives of Ordooez, Lemus and Berrios converged on Feb. 28 when they boarded a plane in Texas with 116 other men and women. They were being deported to El Salvador, targets of the U.S. government's crackdown on illegal immigrants.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been raiding job sites, renewing its efforts to track down illegal immigrants with criminal records and stepping up deportations. Last year, a record 282,548 illegal immigrants were sent home, more than double the number in 2001.
The government limits legal immigration to roughly 1 million people each year, giving preference to relatives of U.S. citizens. On top of that, it admits 800,000 or more people on temporary work visas. Those limits mean immigrants such as Ordooez, Lemus and Berrios take their chances and try to cross illegally, sometimes again and again.
The government ramped up deportations after 9/11 as part of a broad effort to secure U.S. borders. Yet, as the Salvadorans' stories show, the policy is up against the economic reality of life in developing countries. The three say they went to the USA to escape poverty and crime. Now that the deportation flight has left them back in their homeland, they say the same things may spur them to try again.
'I don't want to stay here,' Ordooez says. 'In the U.S., you have a chance to work and buy whatever you need.'
Charles Kuck, president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, says illegal immigrants such as Ordooez won't stay in their homelands.
'They have no reason to stay,' he says. 'Regardless of how hard it is to make it here as an immigrant, it is still better than being back home.'
Kuck says Congress should allow more people to enter legally.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who oversees ICE, advocates expanding temporary worker programs.
'Many of these people would be happy to work and go home again,' he says. 'It would satisfy our economic needs and be humane and law-abiding.'
But for now, Chertoff says, his department has no choice.
'When we find somebody who's here illegally, we deport them,' he says. 'To fail to do that essentially would be turning a blind eye to a violation of the law.'
Chertoff says he knows most people who enter the country illegally come to work and many are fleeing difficult circumstances. 'But I can't condone their violation of the law,' he says. 'However heart-wrenching the motive is, it is still a violation of the law to sneak in.'
72,000 deported by plane
ICE deports illegal immigrants by land and air. Most Mexican deportees are bused across the border. Others are sent home on commercial flights or government charters. Last year, nearly 72,000 illegal immigrants were deported by plane.
'For many of them, it's the first time they've ever been on an airplane,' says Michael Pitts, chief of the ICE Flight Operations Unit.
Flying its nine planes will cost ICE $135 million this year, up from about $100 million last year.
'We're really serious about enforcing immigration laws and securing our borders,' ICE spokeswoman Kelly Nantel says.
On the last Thursday morning of February, three buses roll up to a Boeing 737 in Harlingen, Texas.
One by one, 38 women and 81 men step off the buses, hands behind their heads, laces removed from their shoes and belts from their pants so they can't be used as weapons. ICE officials frisk them and check their shoes and mouths for drugs and weapons.
Although one of ICE's highest priorities is deporting people with felony records, most of these people had no criminal convictions. Most were caught in Texas trying to enter illegally and 23 had been in the USA before, Nantel says.
The flight, less than three hours, is quiet. The passengers eat sandwiches and get up, with supervision, for bathroom breaks.
The plane lands at the San Salvador airport at about 11 a.m. One man steps into the tropical air, throws his arms out wide and yells 'Home!' in English.
Economic, public safety effects
The deportees are funneled into a processing center at the airport, offered tetanus shots and given a traditional Salvadoran meal of pupusas, stuffed corn tortillas. After being interviewed, photographed and fingerprinted, they're given up to $6 for bus fare and are free to go.
The rising flow of people deported from the USA has had a dramatic effect on the economy and public safety of this Central American country of about 7 million people. Nearly 20,000 Salvadorans were sent home last year, up from about 11,500 in 2006.
'The capacity of the United States to catch people who are undocumented in the country or who have committed crimes has increased,' says Rene Leon, El Salvador's ambassador to the USA.
There are about 2 million Salvadorans in the USA, he says. Three-quarters are in the country legally, he estimates.
Last year, Salvadorans working abroad, most in the USA, sent $3.69billion home, equal to about 18% of El Salvador's gross domestic product, the central bank reported.
Rising deportations 'will affect employment here,' immigration official Balbino Velasquez says. 'It will affect the economy.' Salvadorans who no longer receive monthly wires of money from relatives in the USA have less to spend, and returning immigrants have trouble finding jobs, he says.
The tide of deportees also affects public safety. Nearly one quarter of the immigrants deported to El Salvador last year had criminal records in the USA, from theft and drug possession to violent crime. Leon says there's a 'positive, clear-cut correlation' between the rise in criminal deportees and a rise in crime in El Salvador. Of particular concern are gangs and organized crime networks, he says.
Bob Dane, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates more border security and less immigration, applauds the aggressive deportation of immigrants with criminal records.
'Countries can't expect to export their criminals without us sending them back,' he says. 'America can't be a sanctuary for the world's bad guys.'
Jose Castaneda, 34, was sent back to El Salvador last April after getting out of jail. He had joined his mother in Los Angeles when he was 13. He became a legal permanent resident but lost that status after he was convicted of possessing crystal meth. 'When I got here last year, I was lost,' he says. 'I'm from here, but I was raised in the USA.'
Castaneda lives with his aunt in the picturesque town of Ataco and earns $3 a day unloading trucks. He left behind four children and a girlfriend in Las Vegas. 'I'm going to have to go back,' he says. 'That's where my family is.'
'I don't have a choice'
About half of Salvadoran deportees lived in the USA more than five years, says Jesus Aguilar, head of CARECEN International in El Salvador, which advocates for migrants.
Aguilar believes most deportees try to return to the USA because jobs at home are scarce and many left family behind. But the stakes are high. An illegal immigrant who has been deported before risks a felony conviction and up to 20 years in prison if caught.
Ordooez, who lived in the USA more than 18 years, isn't giving up. 'My life is not here,' he says of El Salvador. 'My life is there.'
Ordooez finished the sixth grade and started working at age 12. In his early 30s, he went to the USA for the first time and was caught three days later, kicking off a cycle of illegal entries and run-ins with the Border Patrol. He says he was sent home 18 times, but government records show he was officially deported just once.
What tenacity couldn't do for him, marriage did. Ordooez met Jean Gibson, an American who helped Salvadorans fleeing civil war. When he returned to El Salvador in 1987, she followed and they married. He got a waiver to immigrate the next year and became a legal permanent resident.
His immigration troubles began not when the couple divorced in 1994 but when he was convicted of a felony in Colorado.
Ordooez was working as a janitor at a Cripple Creek casino. In 1996, his landlords accused him of stealing two rings and other items. He says he didn't steal the jewelry but that his landlady gave it to him to sell. Acting on what he says was bad advice from a public defender who didn't advise him of the consequences to his immigration status, Ordooez pleaded guilty in 2002 to attempted theft.
An attorney helped Ordooez get the case dismissed and the felony erased from his record in 2005, but it was too late. He lost his legal status and returned to El Salvador to live with his sister in Santa Tecla.
He didn't stay long. Last year, he was caught twice trying to cross the border. He spent four months in jail. Despite the threat of a longer sentence if he's caught again, he says he'll return. He wants to earn money for his family in Santa Tecla.
'I don't have a choice,' Ordooez says. 'Right now, I don't have a life in this country.'
A family's dream
Desperate circumstances prompted Lemus to head for the USA. Her father, Jorge Hernandez, 50, needs a $1,200 operation to remove a tumor from his groin. Her mother, Maria Reyna Lemus, 48, has diabetes and needs insulin.
At 14, Lemus began working as a seamstress in her parents' home in Apopa, which has no running water and at times is a haven for roosters. On good days, she says, she earned $5. She wanted to stay in school, she says, but didn't have the money for books and supplies.
Her younger brother, 24, went to the USA two years ago to escape neighborhood gang violence that once took 11 lives in two months, she says.
Lemus' decision to strike out alone on Jan. 25 was part of her family's dream. She planned to find work, send money home regularly and return after a few years.
'Some Salvadoran families see the United States as their only option for survival,' her father says. 'Once Estella made it to the other side, everybody was going to be better off.'
Lemus crossed through Guatemala and Mexico on foot, by bus and by hitching rides. Just south of the U.S. border, she found a smuggler taking a group of migrants to Houston. She paid him $4,000: $1,000 from her boyfriend, and $3,000 her family borrowed on their house at 20% interest.
She recounts a harrowing trip: She walked for days without food. She slept in temperatures so cold her hair froze. She drank from cow troughs. She has scars from horsefly bites, thorns and wire fences. A woman in the group nearly drowned crossing the Rio Grande.
The Border Patrol caught her near Falfurrias, Texas, on Feb. 8.
Lemus says it all soured her on going to the USA illegally. 'I don't want to take my chances again on the trip, but I might change my mind down the road because of this mortgage,' she says through a translator. 'If they take away the house, where will we live?'
Motivation remains strong
Berrios, Lemus' neighbor, says he has mounting debts. Because visas are too difficult to get, he says, he'll keep trying to sneak into the USA.
A construction worker who was on the same deportation flight, Berrios can make $20 a day, but sometimes he goes months without work.
'Look at the reality of our house and how we live,' he says of his crime-infested neighborhood and unfinished home, which overlooks a river whose polluted water runs purple, red and brown. When family members go to the grocery, he says, they run to minimize chances of being robbed.
For now, the home's windows are boarded with plywood, and the walls and floors are bare, but Berrios says he dreams of making it a beautiful sanctuary for his family: girlfriend Luz Cardenas, 31; her daughters Stefany, 12, and Katherine, 9; and their son, Anthony, 5.
In January, his mother took a $7,000 mortgage on her house to finance his trip to join four brothers and a sister in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was caught in Texas. 'I'll try again because I have no other way to pay back the money,' he says through a translator.
Berrios says he doesn't want to stay in the USA. He wants to earn money for his family and return to El Salvador to open a business. He's unapologetic about his plans. He says people like him just want to give their families a chance to rise out of poverty.
As he surveys his threadbare home, Berrios says he's missing a key ingredient for happiness: 'I have love and health, but I'm missing money. ... That's what's motivating me to try to cross again.'
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-03-23-dep
ortees_N.htm
U.S. crackdown to secure borders pitted against strong desire to flee poverty, crime
By Emily Bazar
USA Today, March 24, 2008
Oscar Ordooez, 56, pleaded guilty to attempted theft in Colorado, he didn't realize he could lose his right to live in the USA. Now he sits on his sister's balcony overlooking the green Salvadoran hills, dreaming of the life he left behind and plotting his illegal return.
Estella Lemus, 27, cries as she describes the hunger, danger and injuries of her illegal border crossing and says she won't do it again.
The seamstress, who earns up to $5 a day in her poor neighborhood north of San Salvador, worries about how she will repay the $3,000 that her family borrowed for her trip.
Nearby, Pedro Berrios, 25, reads to his 5-year-old son in their cinder-block home next to the filthy Tomayate River. Berrios will keep trying to enter the USA illegally, he says, because 'I don't see another way out of here.'
The lives of Ordooez, Lemus and Berrios converged on Feb. 28 when they boarded a plane in Texas with 116 other men and women. They were being deported to El Salvador, targets of the U.S. government's crackdown on illegal immigrants.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been raiding job sites, renewing its efforts to track down illegal immigrants with criminal records and stepping up deportations. Last year, a record 282,548 illegal immigrants were sent home, more than double the number in 2001.
The government limits legal immigration to roughly 1 million people each year, giving preference to relatives of U.S. citizens. On top of that, it admits 800,000 or more people on temporary work visas. Those limits mean immigrants such as Ordooez, Lemus and Berrios take their chances and try to cross illegally, sometimes again and again.
The government ramped up deportations after 9/11 as part of a broad effort to secure U.S. borders. Yet, as the Salvadorans' stories show, the policy is up against the economic reality of life in developing countries. The three say they went to the USA to escape poverty and crime. Now that the deportation flight has left them back in their homeland, they say the same things may spur them to try again.
'I don't want to stay here,' Ordooez says. 'In the U.S., you have a chance to work and buy whatever you need.'
Charles Kuck, president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, says illegal immigrants such as Ordooez won't stay in their homelands.
'They have no reason to stay,' he says. 'Regardless of how hard it is to make it here as an immigrant, it is still better than being back home.'
Kuck says Congress should allow more people to enter legally.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who oversees ICE, advocates expanding temporary worker programs.
'Many of these people would be happy to work and go home again,' he says. 'It would satisfy our economic needs and be humane and law-abiding.'
But for now, Chertoff says, his department has no choice.
'When we find somebody who's here illegally, we deport them,' he says. 'To fail to do that essentially would be turning a blind eye to a violation of the law.'
Chertoff says he knows most people who enter the country illegally come to work and many are fleeing difficult circumstances. 'But I can't condone their violation of the law,' he says. 'However heart-wrenching the motive is, it is still a violation of the law to sneak in.'
72,000 deported by plane
ICE deports illegal immigrants by land and air. Most Mexican deportees are bused across the border. Others are sent home on commercial flights or government charters. Last year, nearly 72,000 illegal immigrants were deported by plane.
'For many of them, it's the first time they've ever been on an airplane,' says Michael Pitts, chief of the ICE Flight Operations Unit.
Flying its nine planes will cost ICE $135 million this year, up from about $100 million last year.
'We're really serious about enforcing immigration laws and securing our borders,' ICE spokeswoman Kelly Nantel says.
On the last Thursday morning of February, three buses roll up to a Boeing 737 in Harlingen, Texas.
One by one, 38 women and 81 men step off the buses, hands behind their heads, laces removed from their shoes and belts from their pants so they can't be used as weapons. ICE officials frisk them and check their shoes and mouths for drugs and weapons.
Although one of ICE's highest priorities is deporting people with felony records, most of these people had no criminal convictions. Most were caught in Texas trying to enter illegally and 23 had been in the USA before, Nantel says.
The flight, less than three hours, is quiet. The passengers eat sandwiches and get up, with supervision, for bathroom breaks.
The plane lands at the San Salvador airport at about 11 a.m. One man steps into the tropical air, throws his arms out wide and yells 'Home!' in English.
Economic, public safety effects
The deportees are funneled into a processing center at the airport, offered tetanus shots and given a traditional Salvadoran meal of pupusas, stuffed corn tortillas. After being interviewed, photographed and fingerprinted, they're given up to $6 for bus fare and are free to go.
The rising flow of people deported from the USA has had a dramatic effect on the economy and public safety of this Central American country of about 7 million people. Nearly 20,000 Salvadorans were sent home last year, up from about 11,500 in 2006.
'The capacity of the United States to catch people who are undocumented in the country or who have committed crimes has increased,' says Rene Leon, El Salvador's ambassador to the USA.
There are about 2 million Salvadorans in the USA, he says. Three-quarters are in the country legally, he estimates.
Last year, Salvadorans working abroad, most in the USA, sent $3.69billion home, equal to about 18% of El Salvador's gross domestic product, the central bank reported.
Rising deportations 'will affect employment here,' immigration official Balbino Velasquez says. 'It will affect the economy.' Salvadorans who no longer receive monthly wires of money from relatives in the USA have less to spend, and returning immigrants have trouble finding jobs, he says.
The tide of deportees also affects public safety. Nearly one quarter of the immigrants deported to El Salvador last year had criminal records in the USA, from theft and drug possession to violent crime. Leon says there's a 'positive, clear-cut correlation' between the rise in criminal deportees and a rise in crime in El Salvador. Of particular concern are gangs and organized crime networks, he says.
Bob Dane, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates more border security and less immigration, applauds the aggressive deportation of immigrants with criminal records.
'Countries can't expect to export their criminals without us sending them back,' he says. 'America can't be a sanctuary for the world's bad guys.'
Jose Castaneda, 34, was sent back to El Salvador last April after getting out of jail. He had joined his mother in Los Angeles when he was 13. He became a legal permanent resident but lost that status after he was convicted of possessing crystal meth. 'When I got here last year, I was lost,' he says. 'I'm from here, but I was raised in the USA.'
Castaneda lives with his aunt in the picturesque town of Ataco and earns $3 a day unloading trucks. He left behind four children and a girlfriend in Las Vegas. 'I'm going to have to go back,' he says. 'That's where my family is.'
'I don't have a choice'
About half of Salvadoran deportees lived in the USA more than five years, says Jesus Aguilar, head of CARECEN International in El Salvador, which advocates for migrants.
Aguilar believes most deportees try to return to the USA because jobs at home are scarce and many left family behind. But the stakes are high. An illegal immigrant who has been deported before risks a felony conviction and up to 20 years in prison if caught.
Ordooez, who lived in the USA more than 18 years, isn't giving up. 'My life is not here,' he says of El Salvador. 'My life is there.'
Ordooez finished the sixth grade and started working at age 12. In his early 30s, he went to the USA for the first time and was caught three days later, kicking off a cycle of illegal entries and run-ins with the Border Patrol. He says he was sent home 18 times, but government records show he was officially deported just once.
What tenacity couldn't do for him, marriage did. Ordooez met Jean Gibson, an American who helped Salvadorans fleeing civil war. When he returned to El Salvador in 1987, she followed and they married. He got a waiver to immigrate the next year and became a legal permanent resident.
His immigration troubles began not when the couple divorced in 1994 but when he was convicted of a felony in Colorado.
Ordooez was working as a janitor at a Cripple Creek casino. In 1996, his landlords accused him of stealing two rings and other items. He says he didn't steal the jewelry but that his landlady gave it to him to sell. Acting on what he says was bad advice from a public defender who didn't advise him of the consequences to his immigration status, Ordooez pleaded guilty in 2002 to attempted theft.
An attorney helped Ordooez get the case dismissed and the felony erased from his record in 2005, but it was too late. He lost his legal status and returned to El Salvador to live with his sister in Santa Tecla.
He didn't stay long. Last year, he was caught twice trying to cross the border. He spent four months in jail. Despite the threat of a longer sentence if he's caught again, he says he'll return. He wants to earn money for his family in Santa Tecla.
'I don't have a choice,' Ordooez says. 'Right now, I don't have a life in this country.'
A family's dream
Desperate circumstances prompted Lemus to head for the USA. Her father, Jorge Hernandez, 50, needs a $1,200 operation to remove a tumor from his groin. Her mother, Maria Reyna Lemus, 48, has diabetes and needs insulin.
At 14, Lemus began working as a seamstress in her parents' home in Apopa, which has no running water and at times is a haven for roosters. On good days, she says, she earned $5. She wanted to stay in school, she says, but didn't have the money for books and supplies.
Her younger brother, 24, went to the USA two years ago to escape neighborhood gang violence that once took 11 lives in two months, she says.
Lemus' decision to strike out alone on Jan. 25 was part of her family's dream. She planned to find work, send money home regularly and return after a few years.
'Some Salvadoran families see the United States as their only option for survival,' her father says. 'Once Estella made it to the other side, everybody was going to be better off.'
Lemus crossed through Guatemala and Mexico on foot, by bus and by hitching rides. Just south of the U.S. border, she found a smuggler taking a group of migrants to Houston. She paid him $4,000: $1,000 from her boyfriend, and $3,000 her family borrowed on their house at 20% interest.
She recounts a harrowing trip: She walked for days without food. She slept in temperatures so cold her hair froze. She drank from cow troughs. She has scars from horsefly bites, thorns and wire fences. A woman in the group nearly drowned crossing the Rio Grande.
The Border Patrol caught her near Falfurrias, Texas, on Feb. 8.
Lemus says it all soured her on going to the USA illegally. 'I don't want to take my chances again on the trip, but I might change my mind down the road because of this mortgage,' she says through a translator. 'If they take away the house, where will we live?'
Motivation remains strong
Berrios, Lemus' neighbor, says he has mounting debts. Because visas are too difficult to get, he says, he'll keep trying to sneak into the USA.
A construction worker who was on the same deportation flight, Berrios can make $20 a day, but sometimes he goes months without work.
'Look at the reality of our house and how we live,' he says of his crime-infested neighborhood and unfinished home, which overlooks a river whose polluted water runs purple, red and brown. When family members go to the grocery, he says, they run to minimize chances of being robbed.
For now, the home's windows are boarded with plywood, and the walls and floors are bare, but Berrios says he dreams of making it a beautiful sanctuary for his family: girlfriend Luz Cardenas, 31; her daughters Stefany, 12, and Katherine, 9; and their son, Anthony, 5.
In January, his mother took a $7,000 mortgage on her house to finance his trip to join four brothers and a sister in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was caught in Texas. 'I'll try again because I have no other way to pay back the money,' he says through a translator.
Berrios says he doesn't want to stay in the USA. He wants to earn money for his family and return to El Salvador to open a business. He's unapologetic about his plans. He says people like him just want to give their families a chance to rise out of poverty.
As he surveys his threadbare home, Berrios says he's missing a key ingredient for happiness: 'I have love and health, but I'm missing money. ... That's what's motivating me to try to cross again.'
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-03-23-dep
ortees_N.htm
No Coyote Needed...
No Coyote Needed
New Paper Examines Visa Overstays
WASHINGTON (March 2008) – While presidential candidates promise to secure the border, the other major source of illegal immigration is largely ignored – lax visa policies. Visa overstays account for between one-quarter to one-half of the illegal-alien population, and fencing, unmanned aerial vehicles, National Guard patrols, etc., are irrelevant to controlling this part of the immigration problem.
To shine some light on this neglected weakness, the Center for Immigration Studies has published a new paper, “No Coyote Needed: U.S. Visas Still an Easy Ticket in Developing Counties,” written by former State Department official David Seminara, examining the systemic problems in our “nonimmigrant” (i.e., temporary) visa system.
The complete paper is online at http://www.cis.org/articles/2008/back208.html
U.S. law places the burden of proof on the visa applicant to demonstrate that he won’t remain in the United States as an illegal alien after his permission to remain has expired. Despite the law’s tough language, 74 percent of nonimmigrant applications are granted, mostly from countries with much lower standards of living than the United States, where few residents should truly be able to qualify.
The new paper identifies some of the reasons for this laxity, including:
# The crushing volume of applications. Most visa-processing posts are woefully understaffed, resulting in very brief interviews. Managers value speed over clarity of decision making, so many applications that deserve closer scrutiny instead end up being approved.
# Foreign Service officers tend to have a diplomatic rather than a law enforcement mindset.
# Developing countries place great importance on visas in bilateral discussions.
# State Department managers are required to review only visa refusals – not issuances – forcing consular officers to routinely justify denials.
# DHS has not implemented meaningful exit controls or shared entry/exit data with consular officials overseas, leaving them without adequate information on visa renewal applicants.
# Officers evaluate how well-off visa candidates are by the standards of their home country, rather than by U.S. standards, and thus often fail to understand how a nurse from Ecuador, say, would prefer to wash dishes at a restaurant in New York.
# Refused applicants, their relatives, and members of Congress routinely pressure consular officials to overturn visa refusals.
# The simple reality that it is far easier to say “yes” to applicants than to dash their hopes by telling them that they don’t qualify to come to America.
New Paper Examines Visa Overstays
WASHINGTON (March 2008) – While presidential candidates promise to secure the border, the other major source of illegal immigration is largely ignored – lax visa policies. Visa overstays account for between one-quarter to one-half of the illegal-alien population, and fencing, unmanned aerial vehicles, National Guard patrols, etc., are irrelevant to controlling this part of the immigration problem.
To shine some light on this neglected weakness, the Center for Immigration Studies has published a new paper, “No Coyote Needed: U.S. Visas Still an Easy Ticket in Developing Counties,” written by former State Department official David Seminara, examining the systemic problems in our “nonimmigrant” (i.e., temporary) visa system.
The complete paper is online at http://www.cis.org/articles/2008/back208.html
U.S. law places the burden of proof on the visa applicant to demonstrate that he won’t remain in the United States as an illegal alien after his permission to remain has expired. Despite the law’s tough language, 74 percent of nonimmigrant applications are granted, mostly from countries with much lower standards of living than the United States, where few residents should truly be able to qualify.
The new paper identifies some of the reasons for this laxity, including:
# The crushing volume of applications. Most visa-processing posts are woefully understaffed, resulting in very brief interviews. Managers value speed over clarity of decision making, so many applications that deserve closer scrutiny instead end up being approved.
# Foreign Service officers tend to have a diplomatic rather than a law enforcement mindset.
# Developing countries place great importance on visas in bilateral discussions.
# State Department managers are required to review only visa refusals – not issuances – forcing consular officers to routinely justify denials.
# DHS has not implemented meaningful exit controls or shared entry/exit data with consular officials overseas, leaving them without adequate information on visa renewal applicants.
# Officers evaluate how well-off visa candidates are by the standards of their home country, rather than by U.S. standards, and thus often fail to understand how a nurse from Ecuador, say, would prefer to wash dishes at a restaurant in New York.
# Refused applicants, their relatives, and members of Congress routinely pressure consular officials to overturn visa refusals.
# The simple reality that it is far easier to say “yes” to applicants than to dash their hopes by telling them that they don’t qualify to come to America.
Friday, March 21, 2008
State seeks proposals for border cameras...
State seeks proposals for border cameras
By Kelley Shannon
The Associated Press, March 20, 2008
Austin (AP) -- Texas is seeking bids for a video camera network on the Mexican border, similar to an earlier state pilot program that allowed the public to help spot illegal activity on the Internet.
Gov. Rick Perry's emergency management division calls it a 'virtual border neighborhood watch' designed to help crack down on drug running, human trafficking and other crime along the 1,200-mile border between the state and Mexico.
A request for private companies to submit bids was posted March 7 by the Texas Department of Public Safety on behalf of the governor's division. Proposals are due April 7.
'The governor believes in the deterrent effect of the these cameras, and it puts more eyes on the ground,' said Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle. 'This is another tool in our tool box, leveraging technology to be able to ensure the safety of Texans.'
The contract request calls for fixed and mobile cameras and Internet feeds in border counties and some adjacent counties. The cameras are to transmit images to local sheriffs' offices and to the public, with most cameras addressing 'the surveillance needs of private property and ranch land,' the document states.
Those watching on the Web will be able to contact law enforcement about suspicious activity using the Internet or a toll-free telephone number.
Perry's office has identified $2 million in federal grants to re-establish the border video surveillance camera program on private property.
The aim was to get the project up and running by this past January, but Castle said that was an aggressive early estimate.
'Unfortunately, in this case the wheels of government have turned slowly,' she said.
Perry's office launched a pilot border camera program in 2006. Hoss Equipment Co., Sentrus Inc., TRG-EMS, Night Vision Systems, TRGear, Lockard and White Inc. and Cornerstone Wireless Communications participated in the 28-day, 21-camera program based largely on donations of cameras, Castle said.
The new project involves an estimated 200 cameras. It provides for a one-year contract that can be renewed for three optional one-year periods.
Large numbers of viewers tuned in during the pilot, though there were technical problems with some cameras. Images were grainy, and some cameras were placed so high it was hard to distinguish what was going on in the video.
The state program is intended to complement federal border surveillance operations, according to Texas officials.
The federal government has had some border cameras in place in Texas for years.
More powerful cameras, radar and other advanced equipment are to be part of a 28-mile stretch of high-tech 'virtual fence' in Arizona that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced was approved last month. The government plans to extend that technology to some areas of Texas.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5636928.
html
By Kelley Shannon
The Associated Press, March 20, 2008
Austin (AP) -- Texas is seeking bids for a video camera network on the Mexican border, similar to an earlier state pilot program that allowed the public to help spot illegal activity on the Internet.
Gov. Rick Perry's emergency management division calls it a 'virtual border neighborhood watch' designed to help crack down on drug running, human trafficking and other crime along the 1,200-mile border between the state and Mexico.
A request for private companies to submit bids was posted March 7 by the Texas Department of Public Safety on behalf of the governor's division. Proposals are due April 7.
'The governor believes in the deterrent effect of the these cameras, and it puts more eyes on the ground,' said Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle. 'This is another tool in our tool box, leveraging technology to be able to ensure the safety of Texans.'
The contract request calls for fixed and mobile cameras and Internet feeds in border counties and some adjacent counties. The cameras are to transmit images to local sheriffs' offices and to the public, with most cameras addressing 'the surveillance needs of private property and ranch land,' the document states.
Those watching on the Web will be able to contact law enforcement about suspicious activity using the Internet or a toll-free telephone number.
Perry's office has identified $2 million in federal grants to re-establish the border video surveillance camera program on private property.
The aim was to get the project up and running by this past January, but Castle said that was an aggressive early estimate.
'Unfortunately, in this case the wheels of government have turned slowly,' she said.
Perry's office launched a pilot border camera program in 2006. Hoss Equipment Co., Sentrus Inc., TRG-EMS, Night Vision Systems, TRGear, Lockard and White Inc. and Cornerstone Wireless Communications participated in the 28-day, 21-camera program based largely on donations of cameras, Castle said.
The new project involves an estimated 200 cameras. It provides for a one-year contract that can be renewed for three optional one-year periods.
Large numbers of viewers tuned in during the pilot, though there were technical problems with some cameras. Images were grainy, and some cameras were placed so high it was hard to distinguish what was going on in the video.
The state program is intended to complement federal border surveillance operations, according to Texas officials.
The federal government has had some border cameras in place in Texas for years.
More powerful cameras, radar and other advanced equipment are to be part of a 28-mile stretch of high-tech 'virtual fence' in Arizona that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced was approved last month. The government plans to extend that technology to some areas of Texas.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5636928.
html
Immigration agents step up enforcement at NW jails...
Immigration agents step up enforcement at NW jails
By Pat Dooris
The KGW News (Portland, OR), March 19, 2008
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrive in Hillsboro before dawn. They’ve come to gather up a handful of illegal immigrants who were held at the Washington County Jail and will now be processed by ICE for deportation.
This is part of a new effort by ICE to cull county jails with a zero policy for illegals.
“Up until august of 2007 there was kind of a bench mark based on criminal charges, “ said jail commander Marie Tyler, “where inmates, if they reached a certain level for a seriousness of charge then ICE would want to be contacted. '
After August, ICE wanted to know about every illegal booked into the jail.
“During that time, there’s been a really significant change,” said Tyler.
Her statistics back that up. Washington County jail records show “holds” put on prisoners by ICE in 2005 hit a high of 78 prisoners for one month. In 2006 the ICE holds hit a high of 91. In 2007 the ICE holds high a high of 183 in September, the month after ICE changed its policy.
You can also see the impact in the number of “ICE Transfers”, people who were physically moved to federal custody from the Washington County jail:
2005: 213 transfers
2006: 304 transfers
2007: 696 tranfers
Commander Tyler has also noticed a decline in the number of illegals immigrants showing up at her jail, with 633 fewer booked into the jail in 2007 than 2005.
The illegal immigrants collected from Hillsboro are driven to an aging federal building in downtown Portland. There, they are photographed and fingerprinted and interviewed.
One is 21 year old Dalin Acosta-Echeverria, a slight woman from Mexico who arrived in the U.S. illegally 8 years ago. She said she cleaned hotel rooms in the Hillsboro area and earned $400 a week, much more than the $100 a month she expected to earn if returned to Mexico.
Police arrested her in March, 2008, after a fight with her boyfriend. The charge was dropped by Washington, County, but she’s being deported.
She stands with her head lowered, ankles handcuffed at the federal detention facility. She says she’s nervous and afraid of being deported.
Also here, Jesus Valencia-Valencia. He’s not afraid. He says he’s been in the U.S. 30 of his 43 years. He has three children, all born in America and automatically citizens. Through a translator he says “his whole family is now here in Oregon. They’re gonna send him back? He’ll be back tomorrow, cause he has to. His family is here,” he said.
Valencia has a criminal record in America that includes assault, menacing, interfering with making a police report, harassment and parole violation.
His claim of a quick return may be wishful thinking. Federal officials say he was deported June 22, 2005. Now he may face federal prison time of two years or more before he’s deported again.
The agent in charge says ICE is stepping up enforcement across the country.
'I think we're making a significant impact,” said Neil Clark, Field office Director for Detention and Removal Operations.
“Last year we had 160,000 charging documents issued thru the criminal alien program as compared to 60-thousand the year before that. This year we expect to issue more than 200-thousand charging documents,” he said.
“So if we havent made an impact as of today we're going to make a significant impact as the future comes,' said Clark.
http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_031908_n
ews_ice_deportation.897e209.html
By Pat Dooris
The KGW News (Portland, OR), March 19, 2008
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrive in Hillsboro before dawn. They’ve come to gather up a handful of illegal immigrants who were held at the Washington County Jail and will now be processed by ICE for deportation.
This is part of a new effort by ICE to cull county jails with a zero policy for illegals.
“Up until august of 2007 there was kind of a bench mark based on criminal charges, “ said jail commander Marie Tyler, “where inmates, if they reached a certain level for a seriousness of charge then ICE would want to be contacted. '
After August, ICE wanted to know about every illegal booked into the jail.
“During that time, there’s been a really significant change,” said Tyler.
Her statistics back that up. Washington County jail records show “holds” put on prisoners by ICE in 2005 hit a high of 78 prisoners for one month. In 2006 the ICE holds hit a high of 91. In 2007 the ICE holds high a high of 183 in September, the month after ICE changed its policy.
You can also see the impact in the number of “ICE Transfers”, people who were physically moved to federal custody from the Washington County jail:
2005: 213 transfers
2006: 304 transfers
2007: 696 tranfers
Commander Tyler has also noticed a decline in the number of illegals immigrants showing up at her jail, with 633 fewer booked into the jail in 2007 than 2005.
The illegal immigrants collected from Hillsboro are driven to an aging federal building in downtown Portland. There, they are photographed and fingerprinted and interviewed.
One is 21 year old Dalin Acosta-Echeverria, a slight woman from Mexico who arrived in the U.S. illegally 8 years ago. She said she cleaned hotel rooms in the Hillsboro area and earned $400 a week, much more than the $100 a month she expected to earn if returned to Mexico.
Police arrested her in March, 2008, after a fight with her boyfriend. The charge was dropped by Washington, County, but she’s being deported.
She stands with her head lowered, ankles handcuffed at the federal detention facility. She says she’s nervous and afraid of being deported.
Also here, Jesus Valencia-Valencia. He’s not afraid. He says he’s been in the U.S. 30 of his 43 years. He has three children, all born in America and automatically citizens. Through a translator he says “his whole family is now here in Oregon. They’re gonna send him back? He’ll be back tomorrow, cause he has to. His family is here,” he said.
Valencia has a criminal record in America that includes assault, menacing, interfering with making a police report, harassment and parole violation.
His claim of a quick return may be wishful thinking. Federal officials say he was deported June 22, 2005. Now he may face federal prison time of two years or more before he’s deported again.
The agent in charge says ICE is stepping up enforcement across the country.
'I think we're making a significant impact,” said Neil Clark, Field office Director for Detention and Removal Operations.
“Last year we had 160,000 charging documents issued thru the criminal alien program as compared to 60-thousand the year before that. This year we expect to issue more than 200-thousand charging documents,” he said.
“So if we havent made an impact as of today we're going to make a significant impact as the future comes,' said Clark.
http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_031908_n
ews_ice_deportation.897e209.html
New immigration boss in Arizona plans to focus on illegal hirings...
New immigration boss in Arizona plans to focus on illegal hirings
By Jacques Billeaud
The Associated Press, March 21, 2008
Phoenix (AP) -- The new leader of a federal immigration agency in Arizona said Thursday that a key element in his plans to confront the state's border woes is cracking down on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
Matthew Allen, the new chief of investigations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Arizona, said illegal immigrants would be less likely to come to the state if they knew employers wouldn't offer them jobs.
'We can't arrest our way out of this problem,' Allen said. 'No one in the U.S. government whether that's (the Department of Homeland Security) or (Department of Justice) has the capacity to arrest, go out and physically arrest, every alien who is here illegally.'
That's why it's important to focus on the root cause of much of America's illegal immigration jobs offered to immigrants, said Allen, who previously oversaw such efforts while serving at the agency's headquarters in Washington.
Allen investigated drug and immigrant smuggling groups as an agent in Nogales from 2000 to 2004. He said he also plans to take steps to combat drop houses.
Drop houses are where immigrant smugglers hide their customers and collect payments before sending them to spots across the country. Metropolitan Phoenix is believed to have about 1,000 drop houses.
Allen said he wants his staff to develop relationships in the real estate industry so they can provide advice on spotting drop house operators.
Other plans include balancing the daily needs of assisting state and local police agencies on immigration calls while continuing the federal agency's long-term investigations.
Allen replaces Alonzo Pena, who is moving to another post in the Department of Homeland Security.
Pena's 16-month tenure in Arizona was marked by his efforts to repair the agency's damaged relationships with state and local leaders.
Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano, who had been critical of Pena's predecessor and the federal agency's staffing levels in Arizona, said the agency's operations in the state improved under Pena's leadership.
'We had real problems working with ICE under his predecessor,' Napolitano said. 'And (Pena) came in and was very good to work with overall, with the resources he was given. He can only do so much with what Washington, D.C., gives him, but I thought he did a very good, professional job. I enjoyed working with him.'
http://www.fox11az.com/news/topstories/stories/tuc
son-20080320-immigration-boss.d8edad5.html
By Jacques Billeaud
The Associated Press, March 21, 2008
Phoenix (AP) -- The new leader of a federal immigration agency in Arizona said Thursday that a key element in his plans to confront the state's border woes is cracking down on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
Matthew Allen, the new chief of investigations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Arizona, said illegal immigrants would be less likely to come to the state if they knew employers wouldn't offer them jobs.
'We can't arrest our way out of this problem,' Allen said. 'No one in the U.S. government whether that's (the Department of Homeland Security) or (Department of Justice) has the capacity to arrest, go out and physically arrest, every alien who is here illegally.'
That's why it's important to focus on the root cause of much of America's illegal immigration jobs offered to immigrants, said Allen, who previously oversaw such efforts while serving at the agency's headquarters in Washington.
Allen investigated drug and immigrant smuggling groups as an agent in Nogales from 2000 to 2004. He said he also plans to take steps to combat drop houses.
Drop houses are where immigrant smugglers hide their customers and collect payments before sending them to spots across the country. Metropolitan Phoenix is believed to have about 1,000 drop houses.
Allen said he wants his staff to develop relationships in the real estate industry so they can provide advice on spotting drop house operators.
Other plans include balancing the daily needs of assisting state and local police agencies on immigration calls while continuing the federal agency's long-term investigations.
Allen replaces Alonzo Pena, who is moving to another post in the Department of Homeland Security.
Pena's 16-month tenure in Arizona was marked by his efforts to repair the agency's damaged relationships with state and local leaders.
Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano, who had been critical of Pena's predecessor and the federal agency's staffing levels in Arizona, said the agency's operations in the state improved under Pena's leadership.
'We had real problems working with ICE under his predecessor,' Napolitano said. 'And (Pena) came in and was very good to work with overall, with the resources he was given. He can only do so much with what Washington, D.C., gives him, but I thought he did a very good, professional job. I enjoyed working with him.'
http://www.fox11az.com/news/topstories/stories/tuc
son-20080320-immigration-boss.d8edad5.html
4 illegal aliens charged in case tied to sale of 'green cards'...
4 illegal aliens charged in case tied to sale of 'green cards' remain jailed
ICE, ATF joint investigation results in their arrest and seizure of $12,000 cash, pickup truck
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Four Mexican nationals - two married couples - were ordered detained without bond in federal court here today after they were arrested in connection with a bribery case involving the illegal purchase of legitimate resident alien cards. Special agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) investigated the case and made the arrests Saturday.
One of the illegal aliens, Luis Daniel Miramontes-Morales, is accused of paying $12,000 in cash to a federal agent he believed to be a corrupt government employee in exchange for four resident alien cards, commonly referred to as "green cards." The arrests were part of a joint six-month investigation.
ICE and ATF special agents on March 15 arrested Miramontes-Morales, 44, and his wife, Guadalupe Miramontes-Morales, 43. Miramontes-Morales' sister, Margarita Ordoñez-Quintana, 33, and her husband, Francisco Javier Ordoñez-Morales, 44, are also in custody.
All four are in the country illegally, and were living in Evans, Colo. Miramontes-Morales is charged with bribing a public official; the other three are charged with illegally entering the United States.
"ICE relentlessly works to detect, investigate and prosecute anyone who tries to circumvent our immigration laws to obtain an immigration benefit," said Roberto G. Medina, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in El Paso. "We remain vigilant, and we will continue to strengthen our partnerships with other law enforcement agencies to maintain the integrity of our immigration system."
The joint investigation began in October when ATF and ICE special agents developed information about Luis Daniel Miramontes-Morales' interest in obtaining four legitimate resident alien cards by fraudulent means for his wife, sister-in-law, brother-in-law and himself.
On Saturday, all four drove from Colorado to Albuquerque, N.M., to pick up their green cards. Instead, they were arrested by federal agents. The government also seized $12,000 in cash and a Ford pickup truck.
http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/08
0319albuquerque.htm
ICE, ATF joint investigation results in their arrest and seizure of $12,000 cash, pickup truck
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Four Mexican nationals - two married couples - were ordered detained without bond in federal court here today after they were arrested in connection with a bribery case involving the illegal purchase of legitimate resident alien cards. Special agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) investigated the case and made the arrests Saturday.
One of the illegal aliens, Luis Daniel Miramontes-Morales, is accused of paying $12,000 in cash to a federal agent he believed to be a corrupt government employee in exchange for four resident alien cards, commonly referred to as "green cards." The arrests were part of a joint six-month investigation.
ICE and ATF special agents on March 15 arrested Miramontes-Morales, 44, and his wife, Guadalupe Miramontes-Morales, 43. Miramontes-Morales' sister, Margarita Ordoñez-Quintana, 33, and her husband, Francisco Javier Ordoñez-Morales, 44, are also in custody.
All four are in the country illegally, and were living in Evans, Colo. Miramontes-Morales is charged with bribing a public official; the other three are charged with illegally entering the United States.
"ICE relentlessly works to detect, investigate and prosecute anyone who tries to circumvent our immigration laws to obtain an immigration benefit," said Roberto G. Medina, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in El Paso. "We remain vigilant, and we will continue to strengthen our partnerships with other law enforcement agencies to maintain the integrity of our immigration system."
The joint investigation began in October when ATF and ICE special agents developed information about Luis Daniel Miramontes-Morales' interest in obtaining four legitimate resident alien cards by fraudulent means for his wife, sister-in-law, brother-in-law and himself.
On Saturday, all four drove from Colorado to Albuquerque, N.M., to pick up their green cards. Instead, they were arrested by federal agents. The government also seized $12,000 in cash and a Ford pickup truck.
http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/08
0319albuquerque.htm
Illegal aliens sentenced on immigration, fraud and identity-theft charges...
March 17, 2008
Illegal aliens sentenced on immigration, fraud and identity-theft charges
DAVENPORT, Iowa - The last two of 20 former employees of a West Burlington, Iowa, concrete company were sentenced here today in U.S. District Court on immigration, identity-theft and document-fraud charges. These sentences resulted from an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The 20 former employees of Iowa Pre-Stressed Concrete (IPC) in West Burlington were illegal aliens who were indicted May 16, 2007 on various charges, including: fraud and misusing documents, using false immigration identification documents, making false statements in immigration documents, misusing a Social Security number, illegally re-entering the United States after deportation, aggravated identify theft, and falsely claiming U.S. citizenship to obtain employment. All 20 are from Mexico.
Beginning in early 2007, ICE agents began investigating IPC employees' use of bogus documents, such as Social Security cards and resident alien cards, and use of bogus identifiers, including names, Social Security numbers and alien registrations numbers, to illegally gain employment.
Following the investigation, ICE agents identified 20 aliens who had used false documents and identifiers, including identifiers stolen from other persons. On April 19, 2007, ICE agents, with assistance from the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General and local law enforcement agencies, executed 17 criminal arrest warrants. Three other employees were subsequently arrested.
U.S. District Court Judge John A. Jarvey imposed the following sentences:
Eleuterio Garcia-Gil, 46, pleaded guilty to misusing an immigration document and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced March 17 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Victor Manuel Peregrino-Solis, 35, pleaded guilty to making a false statement in an immigration document and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced March 17 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Sergio Guillen-Figueroa, 35, pleaded guilty to misusing a social security number and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Jan. 28 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Juan Antonio Lopez-Martinez, 28, pleaded guilty to misusing an immigration document and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Jan. 28 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Eliazar Garcia-Vega, 28, pleaded guilty to fraud and misusing documents, illegal re-entry after deportation, and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Jan. 18 to 30 months in prison.
Reinaldo Garcia-Munoz, 21, pleaded guilty to fraud and misusing documents, misusing a Social Security number, and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Jan. 18 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Carmelo Moreira-Martinez, 20, pleaded guilty to making false statements in an immigration document, falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen to gain employment, misusing a Social Security number, and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Jan. 18 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Ezequiel Oronia-Vera, 31, pleaded guilty to fraud and misusing documents, and was found guilty of aggravated identity theft at a bench trial before U.S. District Court Judge John Jarvey. He was sentenced Jan. 18 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Adalberto Ayala-Fuentes, 23, pleaded guilty to misusing a Social Security number and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Dec. 17, 2007 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Jesus Quiroz-Lopez, 24, pleaded guilty to misusing a Social Security number and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Dec. 17, 2007 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Jose Javier Munoz-Camarillo, 54, pleaded guilty to misusing a Social Security number and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Dec. 17, 2007 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Lorenzo Garcia-Ignocencio, 47, pleaded guilty to misusing a Social Security number and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Dec. 17, 2007 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Jose Martinez-Hernandez, 28, pleaded guilty to misusing a Social Security number and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Dec. 17, 2007 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Pablo Lopez-Martinez, 20, pleaded guilty to misusing a Social Security number and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Dec. 17, 2007 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Juan Gabriel Garcia-Vasquez, 23, pled guilty to misusing a Social Security number and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Dec. 17, 2007 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Jesus Munoz-Lopez, 33, pleaded guilty to fraud and misusing documents and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Dec. 10, 2007 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Daniel Ayala, 27, pleaded guilty to fraud and misusing documents. He was sentenced Nov. 26, 2007 to time served. Ayala was remanded to ICE custody for removal proceedings.
Francisco Raul NaJera-Gonzalez, 24, pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud and misusing documents and was sentenced Nov. 26, 2007 to time served. NaJera-Gonzalez was remanded to ICE custody for removal proceedings.
Ruben Moncada-Munoz, 28, pleaded guilty to fraud and misusing documents, and was sentenced Nov. 26, 2007 to time served. He was remanded to ICE custody for removal proceedings.
Adelino Nunez-Martinez, 38, pleaded guilty to fraud and misusing documents, and misuse of a Social Security number. He was sentenced Oct. 11, 2007 to time served. Nunez-Martinez was remanded to ICE custody for removal proceedings.
All these aliens are processed for deportation following their release from prison.
These cases were prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Iowa. The investigation was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, the Burlington Police Department, and the West Burlington Police Department.
http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/08
0317davenport.htm
Illegal aliens sentenced on immigration, fraud and identity-theft charges
DAVENPORT, Iowa - The last two of 20 former employees of a West Burlington, Iowa, concrete company were sentenced here today in U.S. District Court on immigration, identity-theft and document-fraud charges. These sentences resulted from an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The 20 former employees of Iowa Pre-Stressed Concrete (IPC) in West Burlington were illegal aliens who were indicted May 16, 2007 on various charges, including: fraud and misusing documents, using false immigration identification documents, making false statements in immigration documents, misusing a Social Security number, illegally re-entering the United States after deportation, aggravated identify theft, and falsely claiming U.S. citizenship to obtain employment. All 20 are from Mexico.
Beginning in early 2007, ICE agents began investigating IPC employees' use of bogus documents, such as Social Security cards and resident alien cards, and use of bogus identifiers, including names, Social Security numbers and alien registrations numbers, to illegally gain employment.
Following the investigation, ICE agents identified 20 aliens who had used false documents and identifiers, including identifiers stolen from other persons. On April 19, 2007, ICE agents, with assistance from the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General and local law enforcement agencies, executed 17 criminal arrest warrants. Three other employees were subsequently arrested.
U.S. District Court Judge John A. Jarvey imposed the following sentences:
Eleuterio Garcia-Gil, 46, pleaded guilty to misusing an immigration document and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced March 17 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Victor Manuel Peregrino-Solis, 35, pleaded guilty to making a false statement in an immigration document and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced March 17 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Sergio Guillen-Figueroa, 35, pleaded guilty to misusing a social security number and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Jan. 28 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Juan Antonio Lopez-Martinez, 28, pleaded guilty to misusing an immigration document and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Jan. 28 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Eliazar Garcia-Vega, 28, pleaded guilty to fraud and misusing documents, illegal re-entry after deportation, and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Jan. 18 to 30 months in prison.
Reinaldo Garcia-Munoz, 21, pleaded guilty to fraud and misusing documents, misusing a Social Security number, and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Jan. 18 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Carmelo Moreira-Martinez, 20, pleaded guilty to making false statements in an immigration document, falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen to gain employment, misusing a Social Security number, and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Jan. 18 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Ezequiel Oronia-Vera, 31, pleaded guilty to fraud and misusing documents, and was found guilty of aggravated identity theft at a bench trial before U.S. District Court Judge John Jarvey. He was sentenced Jan. 18 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Adalberto Ayala-Fuentes, 23, pleaded guilty to misusing a Social Security number and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Dec. 17, 2007 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Jesus Quiroz-Lopez, 24, pleaded guilty to misusing a Social Security number and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Dec. 17, 2007 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Jose Javier Munoz-Camarillo, 54, pleaded guilty to misusing a Social Security number and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Dec. 17, 2007 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Lorenzo Garcia-Ignocencio, 47, pleaded guilty to misusing a Social Security number and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Dec. 17, 2007 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Jose Martinez-Hernandez, 28, pleaded guilty to misusing a Social Security number and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Dec. 17, 2007 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Pablo Lopez-Martinez, 20, pleaded guilty to misusing a Social Security number and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Dec. 17, 2007 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Juan Gabriel Garcia-Vasquez, 23, pled guilty to misusing a Social Security number and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Dec. 17, 2007 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Jesus Munoz-Lopez, 33, pleaded guilty to fraud and misusing documents and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced Dec. 10, 2007 to 24 months and one day in prison.
Daniel Ayala, 27, pleaded guilty to fraud and misusing documents. He was sentenced Nov. 26, 2007 to time served. Ayala was remanded to ICE custody for removal proceedings.
Francisco Raul NaJera-Gonzalez, 24, pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud and misusing documents and was sentenced Nov. 26, 2007 to time served. NaJera-Gonzalez was remanded to ICE custody for removal proceedings.
Ruben Moncada-Munoz, 28, pleaded guilty to fraud and misusing documents, and was sentenced Nov. 26, 2007 to time served. He was remanded to ICE custody for removal proceedings.
Adelino Nunez-Martinez, 38, pleaded guilty to fraud and misusing documents, and misuse of a Social Security number. He was sentenced Oct. 11, 2007 to time served. Nunez-Martinez was remanded to ICE custody for removal proceedings.
All these aliens are processed for deportation following their release from prison.
These cases were prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Iowa. The investigation was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, the Burlington Police Department, and the West Burlington Police Department.
http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/08
0317davenport.htm
ICE launches new law enforcement information sharing service...
March 17, 2008
ICE launches new law enforcement information sharing service
Program designed with protecting individual privacy and legal considerations in mind
SAN DIEGO, Calif.- Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Julie L. Myers announced today a law enforcement information sharing service that provides the country's largest border community access to federal database information.
At a press conference with Ambassador Ted McNamara, U.S. Attorney Karen Hewitt and local law enforcement partners, Myers provided an overview of how the service works and the specific benefits to San Diego including the enhancement it will bring to border security.
"This launch significantly enhances our communication and data-sharing capabilities with our law enforcement partners in San Diego. Our partnership will ensure greater public safety by bringing together critical law enforcement information," said Myers. "Expanding technology to support improved information sharing will allow all our law enforcement partners to investigate crimes in a smarter, faster and more effective manner."
The capabilities of LEISS and the information law enforcement can gather from the use of the service are critical in a border community like San Diego, where the incidence of border violence and crimes are at their greatest.
Law enforcement investigators will now have access to more than 23 million records of data relating to persons of interest from completed ICE investigations. These include persons of interest in child pornography, drug smuggling, alien smuggling and fraud, and immigrations and customs investigations.
This automated system allows investigators a faster, more efficient approach to the manual process they have being doing all along. This service does not perform predictive analysis. Instead, it presents information that is already available in a clear, organized and responsible fashion.
"New technologies, and the open sharing of information, greatly enhance our ability, as a department, to investigate crimes in a smarter, quicker and more efficient manner," said Myers.
Addressing privacy concerns, ICE and Ambassador Ted McNamara, the Program Manager for Information Sharing Environment at the Directorate of National Intelligence, said, "This service was established in a manner that recognizes the criticality of improving our information sharing capabilities and at the same time ensuring that the information privacy and legal rights of Americans are and continue to be protected."
The law enforcement agencies that will be using this information in the course of their investigations are keenly aware of the need to protect individual rights. From day one and in every step of the LEISS, privacy was, and remains, our greatest concern.
This service enables investigators non-obvious relationships, or patterns, between individuals or organizations in a manner that quickly highlights those connections. A partnership such as this is a vital step in our nation's approach to improving the flow of information as directed by the President in the National Strategy for Information Sharing.
http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/sa
ndiego080317.htm
ICE launches new law enforcement information sharing service
Program designed with protecting individual privacy and legal considerations in mind
SAN DIEGO, Calif.- Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Julie L. Myers announced today a law enforcement information sharing service that provides the country's largest border community access to federal database information.
At a press conference with Ambassador Ted McNamara, U.S. Attorney Karen Hewitt and local law enforcement partners, Myers provided an overview of how the service works and the specific benefits to San Diego including the enhancement it will bring to border security.
"This launch significantly enhances our communication and data-sharing capabilities with our law enforcement partners in San Diego. Our partnership will ensure greater public safety by bringing together critical law enforcement information," said Myers. "Expanding technology to support improved information sharing will allow all our law enforcement partners to investigate crimes in a smarter, faster and more effective manner."
The capabilities of LEISS and the information law enforcement can gather from the use of the service are critical in a border community like San Diego, where the incidence of border violence and crimes are at their greatest.
Law enforcement investigators will now have access to more than 23 million records of data relating to persons of interest from completed ICE investigations. These include persons of interest in child pornography, drug smuggling, alien smuggling and fraud, and immigrations and customs investigations.
This automated system allows investigators a faster, more efficient approach to the manual process they have being doing all along. This service does not perform predictive analysis. Instead, it presents information that is already available in a clear, organized and responsible fashion.
"New technologies, and the open sharing of information, greatly enhance our ability, as a department, to investigate crimes in a smarter, quicker and more efficient manner," said Myers.
Addressing privacy concerns, ICE and Ambassador Ted McNamara, the Program Manager for Information Sharing Environment at the Directorate of National Intelligence, said, "This service was established in a manner that recognizes the criticality of improving our information sharing capabilities and at the same time ensuring that the information privacy and legal rights of Americans are and continue to be protected."
The law enforcement agencies that will be using this information in the course of their investigations are keenly aware of the need to protect individual rights. From day one and in every step of the LEISS, privacy was, and remains, our greatest concern.
This service enables investigators non-obvious relationships, or patterns, between individuals or organizations in a manner that quickly highlights those connections. A partnership such as this is a vital step in our nation's approach to improving the flow of information as directed by the President in the National Strategy for Information Sharing.
http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/sa
ndiego080317.htm
Organization moved more than 5,000 illegal aliens across the United States...
Twelve indicted in connection to human smuggling ring
Organization moved more than 5,000 illegal aliens across the United States
LOS ANGELES - A federal grand jury today indicted 12 defendants for their roles in an alien smuggling ring that brought illegal aliens to the Los Angeles area and, for hefty fees, arranged to move those people around the country. Paperwork recently collected in the investigation indicates that the organization transported at least 5,400 illegal aliens since mid-2004.
The indictment follows the arrest of six of the defendants nearly two weeks ago by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Today's indictment charges all 12 defendants with conspiracy to harbor, conceal, and transport illegal aliens for commercial advantage and private financial gain.
ICE's investigation into the operation - dubbed the "three Franciscos" smuggling ring because the three lead defendants are named Francisco - began in May 2005 when the Los Angeles Police Department discovered two smuggling "drop houses" in a 24-hour period in South Los Angeles. More than 140 illegal aliens were packed into those houses.
While a group of illegal aliens was being transported from Arizona into the Los Angeles area last year, a driver for the organization crashed the minivan he was driving into a highway median near Barstow, according to the indictment. The driver and 10 illegal aliens were ejected from the vehicle and suffered serious injuries, including crushed internal organs and cerebral hemorrhaging.
According to court documents previously filed in the case, ICE agents uncovered an organization run by Guatemalan nationals who provided housing and transportation to illegal aliens who had previously been smuggled into the United States from Mexico, Central American and South America. The smuggled aliens were brought to drop houses in Los Angeles and Lancaster, where they were housed until they or family members paid up to $5,600 each for the domestic portion of their journey.
"Organizations that operate like this one see people as nothing more than currency," said Jennifer Silliman, acting special agent in charge of the ICE office of investigations in Los Angeles. "ICE remains committed to shutting down vulnerabilities in our immigration system by attacking and dismantling the organized networks that illegally transport illegal aliens for profit."
Those indicted today are:
Francisco Andres-Francisco, 39, a Guatemalan national, who is one of the leaders of the organization and is in custody in Pennsylvania after being found driving a van allegedly loaded with illegal aliens;
Francisco Andres-Pedro, 35, a Guatemalan national, who is another suspected ringleader and who allegedly arranged the long-range transportation of smuggled aliens;
Francisco Pedro-Francisco, 29, a Guatemalan national, the third suspected leader of the organization, who leased the drop house where the 88 illegal aliens were found and who allegedly owned and drove several of the vehicles used to transport illegal aliens;
Elvira Bartolo Sebastian, 37, a Guatemalan national and wife of Andres-Francisco, the fourth alleged leader of the organization;
Juana Domingo Juan, 39, who is linked to multiple smuggling vehicles registered at a Lancaster address;
Angel Gonzalez-Pelico, 29, a Guatemalan national who is fugitive and who allegedly also signed the lease for the drop house;
Gilberto Francisco-Lorenzo, 26, a Guatemalan national who is a fugitive and who is accused of being a driver for the organization;
Juan Jimenez-Pascual, 23, who claims to be a Mexican national, is accused of being a driver for the organization and allegedly was the driver of the van that crashed in Arizona, injuring 10 illegal aliens (he is currently in custody in Utah on federal charges of being a deported alien who illegally re-entered the United States);
Isaias Vasquez-Mendoza, 23, a Guatemalan nation who is a fugitive and is accused of being a driver for the organization;
Henry Rodriguez-Sanchez, 27, a Guatemalan nation who is currently in custody in Pennsylvania and is accused of being a driver for the organization;
Anibal Francisco, 25, a Guatemalan national who is currently a fugitive and allegedly drove aliens from Phoenix to Los Angeles; and
Luis Lopez-Moncho, age unknown, who claims to be a Mexican national, is a fugitive and is charged with being a driver for the organization.
If convicted, each of the defendants faces a maximum statutory sentence of 10 years in federal prison.
The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.
-- ICE --
http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/losan
geles080312.htm
Organization moved more than 5,000 illegal aliens across the United States
LOS ANGELES - A federal grand jury today indicted 12 defendants for their roles in an alien smuggling ring that brought illegal aliens to the Los Angeles area and, for hefty fees, arranged to move those people around the country. Paperwork recently collected in the investigation indicates that the organization transported at least 5,400 illegal aliens since mid-2004.
The indictment follows the arrest of six of the defendants nearly two weeks ago by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Today's indictment charges all 12 defendants with conspiracy to harbor, conceal, and transport illegal aliens for commercial advantage and private financial gain.
ICE's investigation into the operation - dubbed the "three Franciscos" smuggling ring because the three lead defendants are named Francisco - began in May 2005 when the Los Angeles Police Department discovered two smuggling "drop houses" in a 24-hour period in South Los Angeles. More than 140 illegal aliens were packed into those houses.
While a group of illegal aliens was being transported from Arizona into the Los Angeles area last year, a driver for the organization crashed the minivan he was driving into a highway median near Barstow, according to the indictment. The driver and 10 illegal aliens were ejected from the vehicle and suffered serious injuries, including crushed internal organs and cerebral hemorrhaging.
According to court documents previously filed in the case, ICE agents uncovered an organization run by Guatemalan nationals who provided housing and transportation to illegal aliens who had previously been smuggled into the United States from Mexico, Central American and South America. The smuggled aliens were brought to drop houses in Los Angeles and Lancaster, where they were housed until they or family members paid up to $5,600 each for the domestic portion of their journey.
"Organizations that operate like this one see people as nothing more than currency," said Jennifer Silliman, acting special agent in charge of the ICE office of investigations in Los Angeles. "ICE remains committed to shutting down vulnerabilities in our immigration system by attacking and dismantling the organized networks that illegally transport illegal aliens for profit."
Those indicted today are:
Francisco Andres-Francisco, 39, a Guatemalan national, who is one of the leaders of the organization and is in custody in Pennsylvania after being found driving a van allegedly loaded with illegal aliens;
Francisco Andres-Pedro, 35, a Guatemalan national, who is another suspected ringleader and who allegedly arranged the long-range transportation of smuggled aliens;
Francisco Pedro-Francisco, 29, a Guatemalan national, the third suspected leader of the organization, who leased the drop house where the 88 illegal aliens were found and who allegedly owned and drove several of the vehicles used to transport illegal aliens;
Elvira Bartolo Sebastian, 37, a Guatemalan national and wife of Andres-Francisco, the fourth alleged leader of the organization;
Juana Domingo Juan, 39, who is linked to multiple smuggling vehicles registered at a Lancaster address;
Angel Gonzalez-Pelico, 29, a Guatemalan national who is fugitive and who allegedly also signed the lease for the drop house;
Gilberto Francisco-Lorenzo, 26, a Guatemalan national who is a fugitive and who is accused of being a driver for the organization;
Juan Jimenez-Pascual, 23, who claims to be a Mexican national, is accused of being a driver for the organization and allegedly was the driver of the van that crashed in Arizona, injuring 10 illegal aliens (he is currently in custody in Utah on federal charges of being a deported alien who illegally re-entered the United States);
Isaias Vasquez-Mendoza, 23, a Guatemalan nation who is a fugitive and is accused of being a driver for the organization;
Henry Rodriguez-Sanchez, 27, a Guatemalan nation who is currently in custody in Pennsylvania and is accused of being a driver for the organization;
Anibal Francisco, 25, a Guatemalan national who is currently a fugitive and allegedly drove aliens from Phoenix to Los Angeles; and
Luis Lopez-Moncho, age unknown, who claims to be a Mexican national, is a fugitive and is charged with being a driver for the organization.
If convicted, each of the defendants faces a maximum statutory sentence of 10 years in federal prison.
The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.
-- ICE --
http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/losan
geles080312.htm
ICE fugitive receives a 60-month sentence for illegally re-entering the country after being deported...
March 12, 2008
ICE fugitive receives a 60-month sentence for illegally re-entering the country after being deported
MIAMI - A 42-year-old Jamaican national, with an extensive criminal history, was sentenced here Thursday to 60 months' imprisonment for illegally re-entering the country after being deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation officers.
Donovan Wayne Tucker's criminal history includes arrests and convictions for attempted burglary, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, extortion, procurement, child pandering, living off the earnings of prostitution, possession of narcotics and forgery.
Tucker was arrested by ICE's Miami Fugitive Operations Team on Oct. 1, 2007. ICE subsequently presented the case to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida for criminal prosecution based on Tucker's illegal re-entry into the country.
Officers also discovered that Tucker resided in Canada for most of his adult life.
Upon a motion by the United States Attorney's Office, the court departed upward from a sentencing guideline of 12 to 18 months, and found that Tucker's criminal history category substantially under-represented the seriousness of the his criminal history or the likelihood that he would commit other crimes. The court departed upward to the maximum sentence based on his numerous Canadian criminal convictions, his use of aliases, his history of absconding on bonds to avoid prosecution in connection with nine arrests dating as far back as 1988, and his fraudulent acquisition and use of the identification of others.
According to court records, Tucker was arrested for the first time in Dec. 2005 following an anonymous tip that he would be attempting to board a flight for Las Vegas from Fort Lauderdale International Airport using the identity of "Jason Camberg." At the time of his arrest, Tucker was in possession of a birth certificate and a Florida driver's license in the name of "Jason Camberg." Tucker had been ordered deported in absentia in May of 2000 when he failed to appear for an immigration deportation proceeding and absconded on a $50,000 bond. He was subsequently deported to Jamaica on April 5, 2006.
According to court statements made in open court, investigators linked Tucker to nine arrests in various cities across the United States, including New York, San Francisco, Albany, Las Vegas, and Camden County, Georgia on various different charges. Tucker was able to avoid prosecution on all of these charges by using assumed aliases and absconding on bonds before authorities could verify his true identity.
R. Alexander Acosta, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, commended the investigative efforts of ICE. This case was prosecuted by Scott Behnke, Assistant United States Attorney.
-- ICE --
http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/08031
2miami.htm
ICE fugitive receives a 60-month sentence for illegally re-entering the country after being deported
MIAMI - A 42-year-old Jamaican national, with an extensive criminal history, was sentenced here Thursday to 60 months' imprisonment for illegally re-entering the country after being deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation officers.
Donovan Wayne Tucker's criminal history includes arrests and convictions for attempted burglary, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, extortion, procurement, child pandering, living off the earnings of prostitution, possession of narcotics and forgery.
Tucker was arrested by ICE's Miami Fugitive Operations Team on Oct. 1, 2007. ICE subsequently presented the case to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida for criminal prosecution based on Tucker's illegal re-entry into the country.
Officers also discovered that Tucker resided in Canada for most of his adult life.
Upon a motion by the United States Attorney's Office, the court departed upward from a sentencing guideline of 12 to 18 months, and found that Tucker's criminal history category substantially under-represented the seriousness of the his criminal history or the likelihood that he would commit other crimes. The court departed upward to the maximum sentence based on his numerous Canadian criminal convictions, his use of aliases, his history of absconding on bonds to avoid prosecution in connection with nine arrests dating as far back as 1988, and his fraudulent acquisition and use of the identification of others.
According to court records, Tucker was arrested for the first time in Dec. 2005 following an anonymous tip that he would be attempting to board a flight for Las Vegas from Fort Lauderdale International Airport using the identity of "Jason Camberg." At the time of his arrest, Tucker was in possession of a birth certificate and a Florida driver's license in the name of "Jason Camberg." Tucker had been ordered deported in absentia in May of 2000 when he failed to appear for an immigration deportation proceeding and absconded on a $50,000 bond. He was subsequently deported to Jamaica on April 5, 2006.
According to court statements made in open court, investigators linked Tucker to nine arrests in various cities across the United States, including New York, San Francisco, Albany, Las Vegas, and Camden County, Georgia on various different charges. Tucker was able to avoid prosecution on all of these charges by using assumed aliases and absconding on bonds before authorities could verify his true identity.
R. Alexander Acosta, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, commended the investigative efforts of ICE. This case was prosecuted by Scott Behnke, Assistant United States Attorney.
-- ICE --
http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/08031
2miami.htm
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Illegal immigrant accused of raping two teens...
Man accused of raping two teens
By Janice Morse
The Cincinnati Enquirer, March 19, 2008
ST. CLAIR TWP. -- A man suspected of being an illegal immigrant is accused of raping two teen girls in Butler County.
Teodoro Martinez, 37, was indicted today on two counts of rape and two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. He is being held in the Butler County Jail.
The alleged incidents happened at his home here late last year and early this year, involving girls ages 13 and 14, said Assistant Prosecutor Greg Stephens.
Stephens declined to reveal how the allegations came to light and also wouldn't discuss how the girls met Martinez.
Martinez is a native of Mexico whose immigration status is under investigation by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, jail officials said.
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=
/20080319/NEWS01/303190005
By Janice Morse
The Cincinnati Enquirer, March 19, 2008
ST. CLAIR TWP. -- A man suspected of being an illegal immigrant is accused of raping two teen girls in Butler County.
Teodoro Martinez, 37, was indicted today on two counts of rape and two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. He is being held in the Butler County Jail.
The alleged incidents happened at his home here late last year and early this year, involving girls ages 13 and 14, said Assistant Prosecutor Greg Stephens.
Stephens declined to reveal how the allegations came to light and also wouldn't discuss how the girls met Martinez.
Martinez is a native of Mexico whose immigration status is under investigation by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, jail officials said.
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=
/20080319/NEWS01/303190005
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