Free Republic

On Wednesday, police in Slidell, LA, arrested an illegal alien for slashing the throat of his 84-year-old neighbor with a razor blade. The attack left an 8-inch gash in the woman’s throat, her assailant stole about $65 in cash. The octogenarian victim survived the attack and later identified the man who did odd jobs for her, Ricardo Tenorio-Palma, 20, as the man who tried to kill her. Slidell Police Capt. Kevin Swann said: "It wasn't like he demanded money; he stabbed her first. He slashed her first, before he robbed her. He intended to kill her,” Police allege that on...

SALEM, Ore. (AP) - An illegal immigrant who drove away after hitting a toddler in a Salem parking lot has been sentenced to one year and five months in prison. Juan Lopez-Perez pleaded guilty Thursday morning to failing to perform the duties of a driver in a crash. Defense attorney Steven Walls said his client left the scene Nov. 24 because a crowd was gathering, he feared for his safety and he was in the country illegally. Before his conviction, the district attorney’s office said Lopez-Perez told witnesses he knew he’d struck and killed a child and that he tried...

MCALLEN - The U.S Consul General at Matamoros visited McAllen today. U.S. Consul Michael Barkin says Mexico is a safe place visit, but security is also the number one concern for Americans traveling there. Barkin was honored today at a reception at the McAllen Chamber of Commerce. He has been on the job as U.S. Consul General in Matamoros since September. CHANNEL 5 NEWS asked him, given the ongoing shoot-outs and violence in Mexico, is it safe to visit? We wanted to know what people who call his office are most concerned about. Barkin says, "People are concerned about the...

One of three men accused of the weekend rape of a Southern Methodist University student apparently used the victim's cellphone in the hours after the attack, leading investigators tracking its signal to his southern Dallas neighborhood, according to police documents. When officers arrested Luis Zuniga, 26, on a drug possession charge as he walked along a Buckner Terrace street Saturday, they found the 20-year-old sexual assault victim's phone in his pocket, the documents said. ... snip ... Zuniga, his relative, Alfonso Zuniga, 28, and Arturo Arevalo, also 28, face sexual assault charges in the attack early Saturday morning in Old...

HAVANA — Suspected drug smugglers used spikes to deflate the tires of a U.S. Border Patrol unit during a pursuit Tuesday night — at least the second incident in which area authorities have discovered the devices in a week. Border Patrol would not confirm whether the spikes deflated the tires of an agency vehicle Tuesday night, but court documents reveal agents also found the homemade devices after an agent fired gunshots during a confrontation last week. Meanwhile, authorities are concerned the spikes could cause further incidents on Rio Grande Valley roadways. The spikes, or caltrops, consist of several metal points...

Millions of undocumented people in the U.S. should be given a path to legal status after the country finds a way to stop illegal immigration, business and government leaders said in a report Wednesday. The University of Denver report argues that legalizing as many of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants as possible could strengthen the economy and national security. But it should come with conditions, such as requiring new immigrants to learn English, pass criminal and medical background checks, and pay any taxes that they owe, the document states. The report is the product of a year of discussions...

Gabriel Alfonso Gil-Tzun, 23, has been charged by police in Novato, Calif., with lewd and lascivious acts on a minor. He is also facing multiple charges, as he allegedly molested the 13-year-old girl on several occasions. Novato police Lt. Rich Hill said the arrest is the result of an investigation which began several months ago. According to Hill, Gil-Tzun met the girl through a friend and has engaged in intercourse with her at his house. Months ago, a warrant was issued for Gil-Tzun’s arrest. Last week, an off-duty officer noticed Gil-Tzun at a Terra Linda shopping mall. San Rafael police...

In an indictment handed down Nov. 20 ....accused 15 individuals of being involved in the trafficking of cocaine and other narcotics in the Chicago area. .... aimed at dismantling the drug trafficking network of La Familia Michoacana (LFM), a mid-sized and relatively new drug cartel based in Michoacan state in southwestern Mexico. The U.S. investigation of LFM has revealed many details about the operation of the group in the United States and answered some important questions about the nature of Mexican drug trafficking and distribution north of the border. .....leaders are known to distribute documents to the group’s members that...

Seven women were murdered in Mexico, including one who was beheaded in the southern beach resort of Cancun, authorities reported Monday. Four of the women were killed in Ciudad Juarez, where two were shot to death, another beaten with a baseball bat and a fourth, a school teacher, also was beaten to death. The northern border city is at the center of a raging drug war that has claimed 2,300 lives so far this year. In Baja California state, two women were found shot to death in Mexicali, also on the US border, the Attorney General's office said. In the...

PHOENIX — The Arizona Supreme Court refused late Wednesday to block enactment of a new state law that requires public employees to report illegal immigrants. Without ruling on the merits of the law, the justices said that the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, which had asked that the law be struck down as illegal, had not shown that the issue merited being taken directly to the state's high court. Ken Strobeck, executive director of the league, said he was "shocked and disappointed"' that the justices did not see fit to weigh in on the question, at least at this...

Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) has released the “core principles” of the amnesty bill he is planning to introduce in Congress later this year. The bill will be similar to other pieces of amnesty legislation from previous sessions of Congress, including (1) several different amnesty programs aimed at legalizing the 12 million illegal aliens currently living in the United States and (2) empty promises of enforcement. The three amnesty programs included in Rep. Gutierrez’s proposal are: • An amnesty for illegal alien “workers.” In Gutierrez’ own words: “We need a bill that says if you come here to hurt our communities,...

Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants could receive health care coverage from their employers under the bills winding their way through Congress, despite President Obama's explicit pledge that illegal immigrants would not benefit. The House bill mandates, and the Senate bill strongly encourages, businesses to extend health care coverage to all employees. But the bills do not have exemptions to screen out illegal immigrants, who usually obtain jobs by using false identities and are indistinguishable from legal workers.

Las Vegas Metro Police Officer and Marine veteran Trevor Nettleton was murdered by alleged gang members during a robbery of his home, and there's some moving video of his funeral services. My question is how come this country is so behind the eight-ball in tackling the gang problem that is so pervasive. I do a lot of research into gangs, and I know that law enforcement is dedicated to the issue and routinely is bringing them down; however, it seems like the hydra's head and for every gang enterprise that gets busted another 100 pop up. A lot of innocent...

t began in 2007 with the sale of stolen cell phones and PlayStation 2 systems to a fencing operation in Detroit, one with alleged links to the extremist organization Hezbollah. Over two years, the ring bought more than 20,000 stolen phones, hundreds of video consoles, and counterfeit Nike shoes. The group's appetite grew. It began to order laptops and military gear destined for Beirut. It even paid for stolen BMWs to be shipped overseas. And for nearly two years, an undercover agent in Philadelphia kept selling the ring whatever it wanted, patiently laying the trap. On Saturday, the FBI said,...

The truth is out. Illegal immigrants commit crimes at a much higher rate than Americans and legal immigrants. A new Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) report nails it. It proves the lies and smashes the myths of the “noble” illegal immigrant who only wants to “do the jobs Americans won’t do.” Using Freedom of Information Act requests to access otherwise embargoed government data on immigrant crime, the CIS establishes the fact that illegals commit “relatively high rates of crime.” The phony “academics” that’ve made careers of lying about the destructive impact of illegal aliens on our society are proved wrong....

On Wednesday, a Charlotte, NC man and woman -- illegally residing in the U.S. -- were charged in federal court with conspiracy to kidnap two children in Mecklenburg County, NC in 2009, according to reports obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. According to the indictment, Ruben Garcia-Rosario, 25, and Linda Gonzalez, 21, aided and abetted one another in the attempted kidnapping through the use of cellular telephones and a motor vehicle. Garcia-Rosario is also charged in three additional counts alleging possession of a firearm by...

John McCain's problems inside his own party were hardly overcome by his place as its nominee, Rasmussen reports. The new poll shows McCain up just two points, 45% to 43%, in a hypothetical contest with former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, now a popular local radio talker, who's mulling a bid.

A federal judge in Pittsburgh on Tuesday sentenced an illegal immigrant to time served in jail for his 10th illegal entry into the country. Uziel Jesus Lopez-Jiminez, 28, of Mexico has been deported nine other times between 1998 and 2007, prosecutors said. He was last deported in March, re-entered the country in May or June and was arrested in Beaver County on Aug. 16.

A story was just released by 10News.com that really upset me. It concerns "a desolate corner of San Diego County" that is "so dangerous 10News crews had to put on bulletproof vests before entering the area." "The violence in this area is so bad that a 12-year-old was raped to death." This kind of news make me sick. It makes me angry. And makes me wonder what can we do to stop it. News10 reports "They're ruthless; they'll come over here, they'll pick one out that they want, they drag her off onto the rocks, they'll rape her and they...

On Wednesday, police in Brewster, New York arrested a 24-year-old illegal alien for molesting an 8-year-old boy. The abuse was discovered during an October 30 medical exam by the boy’s pediatrician. The little boy told his doctor that Mendez-Depaz was responsible. Nelson Mendez-Depaz has been charged with first-degree sexual abuse, and is being held in the Putnam County Jail without bail. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has also placed a retainer on the suspect. The following facts help illustrate the growing epidemic of child molestation being committed by illegal aliens: -Deborah Schurman-Kauflin Ph.D. of the Violent Crimes Institute reports that the...

The Northern Virginia Regional Gang Task Force just released a report which claims that due to tougher laws and a concerted effort by law enforcement, many illegal alien gangs are leaving Virginia for the safe havens of Maryland. The report said: "Many gang members from Northern Virginia are moving or driving to Prince George's and other Maryland counties, into the District of Columbia or further south and west into Virginia to avoid dealing with police departments that are unrelenting in their efforts to keep gangs under control.” The report also found that there are 5,000 gang members in Northern Va.,...

Federal program checks fingerprints of local crime suspects D.C. police will be the next department to take part in a federal program whose ultimate aim is to check the immigration status of every person booked into a local jail, homeland security officials announced Thursday. The program, known as Secure Communities, matches inmates' fingerprints against a federal database so that federal authorities can identify and possibly remove deportable illegal immigrants before they are released from custody. Similar checks are done at all 1,200 federal and state prisons. But authorities have lacked the ability to do them across the nation's 3,100 local...

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - A gang of gunmen killed an off-duty U.S. airman and five other people early today at a bar in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez. Authorities say four other men were killed outside an elementary school in another part of town. That raises to 30 the number of homicides in Ciudad Juarez in just four days. There was no immediate information on a motive for the early morning attack at the Amadeus bar, which also left a seventh person wounded. But Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for prosecutors in northern Chihuahua state, says the methods bore...

El Salvadoran leaders of the MS-13 gang allegedly put out a contract on the federal agent responsible for a crackdown on its New York factions, the Daily News has learned. * * * Federal prosecutors have indicted numerous MS-13 gang members on racketeering, murder and drug trafficking charges. The targeted agent was the lead investigator on many of the cases. puts_out_hit_on_fbi_agent_assigned_to_crackdown.html#ixzz0Vtl5KNTj

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A new charge has been issued against a man police describe as a suspected serial rapist. Mauricio Morales is already in jail and charged with raping two Nashville women in separate cases. Metro police believe Morales is the man behind the rape of a 10-year-old girl in her own South Nashville home near Old Hickory Boulevard and Nolensville Pike. The alleged incident happened back in April. Crime Scene investigators collected evidence from her room and the TBI crime lab determined the DNA matched Mauricio Morales. A Grand Jury indicted him Friday on the new charges. Morales had...

Cuban refugees are dominating arrests in Florida's indoor marijuana trade in what investigators call a nearly punishment-free crime. ....young Cubans throughout the state are turning to the lucrative business of raising ultra-potent pot worth up to $4,500 a pound, without fear of deportation or lengthy prison sentences. Probation is a common sentence for anyone convicted in state court of running a growhouse, drug agents say. And, unlike other foreign-born felons, U.S. policy prevents the deportation of Cubans. South Florida groups identified by law enforcement as Cuban Drug Trafficking Organizations control hundreds of growhouses that have sprung up from Miami to...

(Note: This is posted here for archival purposes.) # Note: The following text is a quote: YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Warden Message: Ciudad Juarez (Mexico) Drug Cartel Violence Threat CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS Americas - Mexico 28 Oct 2009 U.S. Consulate General Ciudad Juarez issued the following Warden Message on October 28: This Warden Message is being issued to inform American citizens traveling to or residing in the Mexican state of Chihuahua that the US Consulate General in Ciudad Juarez received information on October 28, 2009 that drug cartels operating in the city...

Call it sanctuary on wheels: San Francisco is about to give a big break to people, many of them illegal immigrants, who are caught driving without a license. Beginning Sunday, cops will no longer impound cars the first time drivers are pulled over without a license. The reason: Many such drivers are in the United States illegally - and thus unable to get a license - and the officials pushing the change think that impounding their cars is an unfair hardship.

STAMFORD (AP) — A second man has pleaded guilty in Connecticut to kidnapping and raping a Connecticut jogger in 2003. Forty-year-old Jose Amaya pleaded guilty Thursday in Stamford Superior Court. The plea bargain calls for him to serve 20 years in prison. Sentencing is set for Jan. 21. Darien police say Amaya and Alejandro Mendez assaulted the then-38-year-old woman and forced her into their vehicle as she was jogging, then drove to a secluded spot and sexually assaulted her. Police say the woman later escaped. Amaya was extradited from Mexico last April. Mendez was sentenced in 2005 to 15 years...

Hundreds of people have been arrested in Texas and around the country what officials say is the largest single strike at a Mexican drug cartel in the U.S WASHINGTON (October 22, 2009)—U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder calls the arrests of more than 300 people in a series of drug raids in Texas and across the country the largest single strike at a Mexican drug cartel operating here. Holder said at a news conference Thursday that the arrests over the past two days were aimed at the U.S. operations of the La Familia cartel. Click here to find out more! Holder...

DALLAS — Drug Enforcement Administration agents — helped by an army of local and state police — raided homes and businesses across North Texas on Wednesday, targeting what they called one of the largest methamphetamine rings in the nation. DEA says a notorious and violent drug cartel called "La Familia" was distributing the meth and cocaine out of Dallas. SWAT teams arrested dozens of people, confisicated numerous weapons and drugs. Sources said the La Familia gang is extremely violent, and known to torture their victims. Law enforcement agents hit 38 locations in the Dallas area, including DeSoto, Duncanville and Grand...

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors took the first step yesterday to prohibit the reporting youths accused of drug crimes to Federal immigration authorities. The measure, will pass next week, will be vetoed by Mayor Newsom, and be overridden by the Board, is packed with intriguing politics. First, from my debate on PBS’s KQED-FM, with the supervisor who has led the fight for the measure, Supervisor David Campos, I believe he is sincere in his concern for the “children”. as he calls them. He himself was an illegal entrant at the age of 14, and went on to earn a...

Calling himself “the poster boy” for those who oppose the enforcement of federal immigration laws, Sheriff Joe Arpaio said he will continue to arrest individuals who are in the country illegally, even if Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does not renew the 287(g) agreement that the Maricopa County (Ariz.) Sheriff’s Office has operated under for the past two years. “We’ve been doing it for two years and have been very successful, but I guess they don’t like to enforce illegal immigration laws,” Arpaio told CNSNews.com. “[It] doesn’t make any difference. I’m still going to continue my programs, regardless of what...

Police are looking for a man convicted of an Arlington rape more than 10 years ago in connection with the recent rape an 11-year-old girl in Oklahoma City. Melvin Urbina, 33, was sentenced to two years in prison for the 1998 sexual assault of an Arlington woman. He was deported to Mexico after his release in 2001. He returned to the United States illegally and worked in Oklahoma City. Police want to question Urbina about the July 25 sexual assault of a girl who was trying to find some extra chairs for the guests at her godfather’s wedding anniversary party...

HIDALGO COUNTY, TEXAS -- The Hidalgo County Sheriff's Department busted a ring of men posing as fake cops Thursday. Deputies are still looking for more suspects. They arrested Eduardo Varela and Rafael Saenz. The men are accused of storming into a home north of Mercedes earlier this month and posing as FBI agents. The suspects allegedly took a 2003 BMV. Investigators said Varela and Saenz implicated five other men. "Ricardo Guzman known as 'El Borrado' may be a former Mexican police officer who also had a district job to recruit illegal immigrants to participate in these home invasions," explained Sheriff...

The sun is beating down as Elizabeth Padilla is laid to rest in the Garden of Eternity cemetery. She lies under a pane of glass. Her pretty face has been made up one last time. "Open your eyes, my darling," her mother cries. "There is something I wanted to tell you." "Princess," her sister wails. "I'll never forget the way you danced and sang." "Why you?" her mother screams. "You were so good." Elizabeth Padilla was 29 and had been a policewoman for eight months when she died. She was killed one Wednesday just before 1:30pm while on her way...

HIDALGO, MEXICO - Thirty-one police officers have been arrested in the state of Hidalgo, on suspicion of collaborating with a gang of drug cartel hit men. The officers were arrested as part of an almost year-long investigation into alleged ties between police and the Zetas cartel. The investigation began last October, when federal authorities arrested seven suspected Zeta accountants and found evidence of monthly payments from the gang to officers. Back in June, 92 officers were arrested on similar charges.

Says boyfriend doused her with gasoline and lit her on fire after an argument SEBASTIAN CO., Ark. - On August 9, Corporal Hobe Runion was called to a home on the Sebastian County line with Oklahoma on a domestic disturbance call that he says was very disturbing. "I've worked a lot of different cases in years in law enforcement, but I've never worked a case where someone caught somebody on fire," Runion said Friday. He said the resident, Petrina Mendez, had called a local EMS unit after an argument with her boyfriend, which ended when investigators say he doused her...

An illegal alien serving a 15-year prison sentence for the hit-and-run murder of a Wisconsin teenager demanded a judge free him because he encountered discrimination when his immigration status was repeatedly referenced in court. In August 2007 the intoxicated illegal immigrant (Eddie Carbajal-Lile) with a previous drunk-driving conviction ran a stop sign and caused a crash that killed a 17-year-old boy. Two other teenagers were injured in the accident and Carbajal-Lile fled the scene but was arrested a month later in Ohio. Incredibly, the illegal immigrant already had open container and drunken driving convictions in Wisconsin, a notorious sanctuary state...

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - Gunmen broke into a drug rehabilitation center, lined people against a wall and shot 17 dead in a particularly bloody day in Mexico's relentless drug war. The brazen attack followed the killing of the No. 2 security official in President Felipe Calderon's home state. The attackers on Wednesday broke down the door of El Aliviane center in Ciudad Juarez, lined up their victims against a wall and opened fire, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the regional prosecutors' office. At least five people were injured. Authorities had no immediate suspects or information on the victims. Ciudad...

The Drug Enforcement Administration Friday announced that it found 14,500 marijuana plants growing in a Colorado national park, authorities say are linked to Mexican drug cartels...... they have seen an increase in outdoor marijuana operations run by Mexican drug cartels. In the most recent Colorado case, the marijuana was found in "the remote, rugged terrain" of Pike National Forest, which is about 60 miles southwest of Denver. "The persons who were involved in this criminal activity had no regard for the damage caused to the forest and environment by the waste they left behind," said Jeffrey D. Sweetin, special agent...

Federal Judge refuses to certify class action lawsuit against Sheriff Arpaio and his office for alleged racial profiling during saturation patrols. Phoenix, AZ - The United States District Court in Manuel de Jesus Ortega Melendres vs. Arpaio denied the motion to certify the lawsuit for class action treatment against Sheriff Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. The judge determined that the motion failed to present sufficient evidence of the fact that a real and immediate threat of future constitutional injury from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office exists to bring their lawsuit in the form of a class action. The...

Los Angeles is now checking the immigration status of inmates as they are released. Link only to L.A. Times

Mexican authorities have been sending more alleged criminals north to the U.S. for trial since President Felipe Calderon took office. Now a Mexican official is worried about a flow in the other direction. Rommel Moreno, attorney general of Baja California state, expressed concern Friday about a plan in California to release thousands of inmates from that U.S. state's overcrowded prisons as a way to help relieve a budget crunch. Moreno noted many inmates in the California prison system are undocumented migrants, and some could be deported once released. A statement issued by his office said that "the repatriation of ex-convicts...

On Wednesday, August 19, 2009, Washington County Sheriff’s Detectives arrested 18-year-old Ramiro Vargas-Ramos and 19-year-old Francisco Lopez-Mendez, both men from the Community of Aloha. Both were arrested for having sexual contact with a 12-year-old girl with whom they were acquaintances. The sexual contact happened once in each case and on different dates. In each case the suspect had befriended the girl and later had sexual contact with her. This is not a computer-related sex abuse case. Detectives are concerned that these men may have befriended other young girls and victimized them as well. They are asking anyone with information regarding...

PHOENIX - One day prior to President Barack Obama's visit to the Valley, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has a message for the president: "I don't believe in amnesty. That's what all this is about." Arpaio says Obama and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano are off the mark when it comes to illegal immigration reform. "Why doesn't he say, "Let's get rid of all the illegals taking these jobs, so our citizens can have the jobs.' Why are they saying that we should only arrest the employer and not the employees that are here illegally? Now, if I...

SOUTH OF SAN JUAN — A group of suspected drug smugglers attacked two U.S. Border Patrol agents with rocks during a chase near the Rio Grande on Thursday evening. Agents were following a vehicle loaded with marijuana when the driver stopped at the riverbank and fled on foot, Border Patrol spokesman John Lopez said. As agents approached the vehicle to retrieve the drugs, five men emerged from the dense brush and began hurling large rocks at them. “For what reason, that’s unknown to us,” Lopez said about the group’s possible motive. “But the danger presented by a rock in that...

Date: August 15, 2009 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FIRE INVESTIGATORS DETERMINE CAUSE OF LA BREA FIRE GOLETA, CA... A week-long investigation by U.S. Forest Service Special Agents, Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Narcotics Unit and Fire Investigators has revealed the cause of the La Brea Fire. Investigators revealed that the La Brea Fire was started by a cooking fire in a marijuana drug trafficking operation. The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Narcotics Unit has confirmed that the camp at the origin of the fire was an illegal marijuana operation believed to be run by a Mexican National Drug Organization. The Narcotics Unit has...

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Gunmen attacked a vehicle carrying a prison director in the northern Mexico state of Chihuahua, killing three bodyguards and wounding two more seriously, authorities said Wednesday. Prison director Gerardo Hernandez was unharmed in the attack late Tuesday, but has been replaced in the post for his own safety, Chihuahua state Public Safety Secretary Victor Valencia said. He started the job in June. Valencia said the two surviving guards are in serious condition at local hospitals. The attack occurred in the state capital, also known as Chihuahua. In the border city of Nuevo Laredo, city police found...

An Atlanta jury on Wednesday found a 23-year-old man guilty of aiding terrorist groups after a trial that explored a subculture of youthful extremists who used the Internet to plot attacks and form a loose network connecting North America, Europe and South Asia. Ehsanul Sadequee, the U.S.-born son of Bangladeshi immigrants, faces up to 60 years in prison after being convicted of conspiracy to materially support terrorists. The jury found that he had discussed attacks with accused militants in Toronto and Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Along with another Georgia man convicted in June, Sadequee drove to Washington in 2005 to film the...