Free Republic

NEAR MISSION - Police say a suspected illegal immigrant working for a Democratic state representative brutally beat another man to death with a bat Monday morning. Froylen Casares, 24, was working at a ranch owned by state Rep. Kino Flores near the intersection of North Tropser and Yukon Roads when he killed a young Hispanic male whose name authorities have not released, said Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño. "It was a very bloody, very bloody, very gruesome crime scene," Treviño said. Authorities continue to search for Casares, of Honduras, who fled the scene before they arrived at about 5:30 a.m....

It’s a strange election year when one of the most important issues for voters is avoided by both presidential candidates. But that is exactly what has happened in 2008 with illegal immigration. Recently, some people have suggested that the Republican Party Platform should be similarly silent, or at least equivocal, on the issue. They are dead wrong. Think back to February 2008. Most of the contenders for the Republican presidential nomination were wrestling with one another to wear the mantle of “toughest on illegal immigration.” As Congressman Tom Tancredo correctly observed, the rest of the field “was trying to out-Tancredo...

Chicago Public Radio presented an article not calling an alien an alien and got called on it. Now, they have this poll and want to know what the public thinks. http://apps.wbez.org/blog/?p=470. "We reported this week about a family that asked for an independent autopsy to rule out medical negligence in the death of a relative whom we identified as “an undocumented Mexican immigrant.” Our story led to a call from a listener in west suburban Oak Park who said it’s wrong to identify people as “undocumented” if they lack legal status to be in the United States. The fitting term,...

Union bosses in this region of rural Mississippi have long grumbled that the largest factories here hire illegal immigrants, and that the immigrants were starting to get more overtime and supervisory positions. Friction between the union and immigrant workers, along with a tipoff at an electrical manufacturing plant, boiled over this week into the biggest workplace immigration raid in the nation's history. When the first of the 595 suspected illegal immigrants was taken into custody Monday, some fellow workers broke into applause. Union members said they resented immigrants, who were often allowed to work as much as 40 hours of...

A showdown over drug money between suspected Mexican illegal aliens in Alabama ended with four men in prison and four shipped back to Mexico in body bags. Three suspected illegal aliens from Mexico and another man have been arrested and charged with capital murder for electrocuting, stabbing, suffocating and beating five men to death in a murder-for-hire. The four suspects were paid between $400,000 and $450,000 to torture the victims with electric shock and slit their throats in an Alabama apartment, police said Tuesday. The murders have been tied to a drug cartel that transports cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana, the...

LAUREL, Miss. (AP) - Federal officials say nearly 600 suspected illegal immigrants were detained in a raid on a manufacturing plant in southern Mississippi, making it the largest such sweep in the country. A spokeswoman says more than 100 of those caught up in Monday's raid on Howard Industries were released based on humanitarian concerns, mostly because they have children.

<p>LAUREL, Miss. (AP) - A day after the largest single-workplace immigration raid in U.S. history, Elizabeth Alegria was too scared to send her son to school and worried about when she'd see her husband again.</p> <p>Nearly 600 immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally were detained, creating panic among dozens of families in this small southern Mississippi town.</p>

Kaiser Permanente is contacting 960 mothers whose babies may have been exposed to a health care worker in San Francisco who has an active case of tuberculosis. The worker was assigned to the postpartum unit in the maternity ward of Kaiser's San Francisco Medical Center to care for mothers and infants. Kaiser officials say the infection risk for patients is very low, but testing will be provided along with treatment if necessary. Kaiser also is notifying 115 employees who may have been exposed. The Oakland health maintenance organization learned of the worker's infection Aug. 18. The part-time night shift employee...

Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite's call for a federal probe received a curt reply from the Hillsborough sheriff's office. TAMPA - Politically motivated and naive is how Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee described a congresswoman's call for a federal investigation after last week's arrest of a Mexican national in rape cases. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite said Sunday that she wants a review of the interactions between local law enforcement and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in connection with the arrest of Rigoberto Moron Martinez. Investigators said that Martinez, 20, was responsible in the Aug. 15 attack at The Docks restaurant in Apollo Beach...

Remember the hot immigration debate? The topic won't be headlining either presidential convention this year — and the border security issue barely drew a crowd Monday to a daylong anti-illegal immigration rally in Denver aimed at keeping immigration before politicians this fall. A rally by the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps featuring Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr drew just a few dozen people...

PORT ANGELES, Wash. (AP) - Watch for more impromptu U.S. Border Patrol immigration checkpoints around the north Olympic Peninsula, an agent says. One such checkpoint was set up Friday near the Hood Canal Floating Bridge. Another was used about six months ago near Forks. The latest checkpoint, set up a mile west of the bridge, operated for five hours Friday. The main objective of the temporary checkpoints is to catch terrorists and illegal immigrants, Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Michael Bermudez said. They're also used with local law enforcement to arrest felons and seize drugs and weapons, he said. Friday's checkpoint...

Environmentalists say flooding caused by a new border security fence in southwestern Arizona shows the structure is being built too quickly and without regard for the environment. Critics say the design of the border fence caused debris and water backup during a July 12 storm that led to flooding at the port of entry at Lukeville and Sonoyta, Mexico, and at the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. "One of the reasons for it was the debris that accumulated on the fence itself," said Lee Baiza, superintendent of the monument, a 517-square-mile lush desert tract overseen by the National Park Service....

U.S. officials have arrested a man in East Los Angeles who is suspected in the gruesome 1998 killing of 19 men, women and children in Baja California...... Mancada, 33, is accused of being one of several military-clad gunmen who stormed a ranch in El Sauzal, near Ensenada, on Sept. 17, 1998, pulled victims from their beds, herded them onto a patio and shot them to death. Among the victims were children ages 2 and 1. ... Mancada, 33, told U.S. immigration officials that he crossed into San Ysidro in December 1998 and spent the last decade living in California and...

A predominantly Latino audience trickled into the half-filled venue as Jorge Hernandez, “El Guero (Blondie),” took the stage just after 7 p.m. Sunday at the Nebraska State Fair. In contrast, people had packed around the fence surrounding the Open-Air Auditorium Friday before country musician Miranda Lambert had played her first note. A capacity crowd of 6,200 had filled the benches on Friday, and 5,800 came Saturday to hear two other country artists. Theories on why Sunday’s crowd was smaller and slower to form ranged from fear of immigration officials to the different cultural tradition of Latinos. Hernandez, the performer, speculated...

TIJUANA, Mexico - The towering black gate opens silently to an alley with walls of corrugated metal. Scrawled in large white letters on one wall is: "The End." For those deported from the United States, the words are an unnecessary reminder. Nearly every hour of the day, guards unlock this gate that leads back into Mexico, clicking open the padlocks hung on each side, in each nation.

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office reports that at least a dozen undocumented immigrants have been detained after wandering near a US Air Force Base in southwestern Arizona Sunday. Sheriff's deputies are working with border patrol agents and DPS officers in an effort to locate five to seven more undocumented immigrants who are believed to be in the area of the Barry M. Goldwater Range about 13 miles south of Gila Bend. Two undocumented immigrants have died, likely from dehydration, according to MCSO. The range, which is active with armed military aircraft, has been shut down as authorities search for other...

SPRINGFIELD - The owner of Toni's Family Restaurant in Mount Clare pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to unlawful employment of illegal aliens. Besim Tabaku, 34, who co-owns the restaurant with his wife, Gentiana, 31, is scheduled to be sentenced before U.S. District Court Judge Byron C. Cudmore on Oct. 23. Authorities confirmed to The Telegraph in May that two federal search warrants were executed (at Toni's Family Restaurant and a Benld residence) on May 28, resulting in four Mexican nationals being taken into the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on suspicion of immigration violations. However, ICE spokeswoman...

<p>TIJUANA, Mexico – The towering black gate opens silently to an alley with walls of corrugated metal. Scrawled in large white letters on one wall is: "The End."</p> <p>For those deported from the United States, the words are an unnecessary reminder. Nearly every hour of the day, guards unlock this gate that leads back into Mexico, clicking open the padlocks hung on each side, in each nation.</p>

SAN CRISTOBAL, Mexico -- Eighteen months after leaving office, former President Vicente Fox is taking a page from Jimmy Carter's playbook and engineering his legacy as a champion of democratic values and government transparency at home and abroad. In a wide-ranging interview at his ranch near historic Guanajuato, Fox discussed his new projects and chided the United States for abdicating its role as global leader, questioned presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's position on free trade and dismissed Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez as ``a loudmouth.'' The United States no longer initiates ambitious projects such as the Marshall Plan that rebuilt...

IRVING, Texas -- Some members of the Hispanic community are calling for a boycott of Frank Parra dealerships after a broken car deal led to an undocumented immigrant's arrest. Frank Parra Dodge insists it is the victim of an immigration smear campaign brought on by community activist Carlos Quintanilla. Quintanilla is calling for a boycott after the sales staff at the dealership had customer Oscar Urbina arrested. Urbina admitted to being in the country illegally and using a fake Social Security number to buy a truck when the finance company flagged the deal. "That's when we said, 'Just give us...

91 percent of readers think S.F. mayor should be charged VICTORVILLE — Local leaders are condemning the San Francisco mayor’s decision to dump illegal alien probationers in the San Bernardino Group homes, and some believe he should be criminally charged. “The actions of Mayor (Gavin) Newsom are unconscionable and a violation of this oath of office where he swore to; uphold and defend the constitution of the United States,” said Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Santa Clarita. “As to whether he should be charged with obstruction of justice, that’s a legal question better answered by the United States Attorney General.” Rep....

SAN FRANCISCO -- A suspected illegal immigrant - free after being shielded from deportation by San Francisco officials despite committing two gang-related assaults as a juvenile - is now facing charges that he tried to stab a man to death in San Mateo County, authorities say. The case of Eric Antonio Uc-Cahun, now 19, is the second in which a youth offender protected from deportation in San Francisco has gone on to be arrested for a violent crime as an adult. The San Mateo County stabbing was especially vicious, authorities said - a top prosecutor said the victim had been...

HAYWARD — Walking to and from school has been a nightmare for Amoni Packnett, an eighth-grader at Cesar Chavez Middle School. The 13-year-old and other girls are the target of daily whistles and hard stares from day laborers, who often also stalk the girls, along Tennyson Road in south Hayward. "It can get uncomfortable, and I feel violated," Packnett said. "We just want something to be done to prevent this from happening again." Helping children feel safe along a stretch from Ruus Road to the railroad tracks on Tennyson Road — an area dominated by day laborers — was the...

Immigration Enforcement? Yes, We Can!   By Mark KrikorianCenter for Immigration Studies | Wednesday, August 20, 2008 What to do about illegal immigration? Too many people are paralyzed by the magnitude of the problem, and figure that since we can’t deport them all, we’ll have to bite the bullet and let them all stay legally — i.e., give them amnesty.But this is a digital (on-or-off, one-or-zero) approach to an analog problem. Our goal should not be a magical solution that eliminates illegal immigration, but rather a real-world solution that reduces it over time.This approach — which has come to...

Santa Ana, CA (AP) -- Day laborers reached a tentative settlement with the Orange County Sheriff's Department in an unusual harassment lawsuit that saw workers take their case to federal court, an attorney said. . . . Trial had been set to begin Tuesday in the suit filed by more than 50 laborers who claimed deputies violated their right to free speech by telling them they couldn't seek work on a street corner in Lake Forest.

President George W. Bush, in China attending the Olympic Games, responded promptly to Russia's invasion of Georgia with the caveat that "territorial integrity must be respected." We're still waiting to hear the Bush administration's response to this month's invasion of Arizona's territorial integrity by the Mexican military. More than 40 times this year, the Mexican military has crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. The Mexicans even held a U.S. border guard at gunpoint. How long are we going to put up with Mexican impudence and federal neglect of duty? One of the most emphatic duties set forth in the U.S. Constitution is...

Hillsborough, N.C. — Officials are investigating a bus pulled over for safety violations Wednesday afternoon at a weigh station near the merger of Interstate 40 and Interstate 85, the Highway Patrol said. The bus, traveling from Wilson to Mexico, was stopped at mile marker 143 because a suspension problem was noticed with the bus. Officials are checking the documentation of some people on the bus who did not produce passports. Interpreters were brought to the scene to help police communicate with passengers. The bus was towed from the scene and passengers were placed on another bus. The Highway Patrol had...

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) responded to reports that a Border Patrol agent was held at gunpoint by members of the Mexican military in Arizona by reaffirming the necessity for border fencing and other infrastructure. According to a State Department Spokesman, the encounter “stemmed from a momentary misunderstanding as to the exact location of the U.S.-Mexican border.” "I disagree with the State Department’s characterization of this incident," said Congressman Hunter. "The fact that members of the Mexican military are routinely operating in such close proximity to the border, with no identifiable purpose, raises serious questions about their...

"Where you from?" An illegal alien from Mexico, Pedro Espinoza, allegedly asked that of Jamiel Shaw Jr., 17 -- before Espinoza shot and killed him. Shaw, a promising high-school student athlete wooed by Stanford and Rutgers, was gunned down at 8:40 p.m. just three doors from his Los Angeles home, where his father, Jamiel Shaw Sr., awaited his arrival from the mall. Shaw's mother, Anita, learned the news of her son's March 2 shooting death while serving as an Army sergeant in Iraq. Edwin Ramos, an illegal alien from El Salvador, on June 22 allegedly gunned down and killed Tony...

Big-box, home-improvement stores in Los Angeles will have to set aside space for day laborers under an ordinance passed by the City Council on Wednesday... The shelters must be easily accessible and include drinking water, bathrooms, tables, seating and trashcans. The stores may be required to work with Los Angeles police in developing a security plan, according to the unanimous vote by the 15-member lawmaking body...

DULLES, Va. - Forty-two men in the U.S. illegally have been rounded up and arrested at Dulles International Airport. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested the illegal aliens Wednesday morning on airport grounds at a checkpoint established to verify the identity and immigration status of workers entering a service gate. Most of the men were working construction projects at the airport. Mark McGraw, special agent in charge of ICE's Washington field office, says it's important Homeland Security knows who enters sensitive areas like airports, military bases and power plants. "This operation illustrates ICE's ongoing efforts in partnership with federal...

At this moment there are more than 300 million people living in the United States. How many are here illegally is uncertain and the estimated number changes depending on the political or social persuasion of the numerator. While liberal or “compassionate” Americans like to denounce any objections to the presence of illegal aliens as racism or bigotry over just a few, indeed as little as 12 million, cooler heads place the number closer to double and maybe even triple that amount. While those same high-minded theologians and social reformers also claim that the few illegal aliens are only here for...

Immigration reform activist Susan Tully says it's completely outrageous that the Los Angeles City Council is considering an ordinance that would require large, new home-improvement stores to set aside space for day laborers seeking employment from customers. According to the LA Daily News, the proposed ordinance has already been approved by the Planning and Land Use Management Committee, but must still be approved by the entire council. It would mandate that new home-improvement stores that meet the size criteria provide a shelter that is easily accessible to the day laborers and equipped with drinking water, bathrooms, tables with seating, and...

DENVER (AP) ― Denver voters passed a ballot measure that would give police the authority to seize cars driven by illegal immigrants. Initiative 100 requires police to impound vehicles of unlicensed drivers, an authority they already have. It also adds language to the city code that targets illegal immigrants.The measure says that when a driver is an illegal alien or "may be reasonably suspected of being an illegal alien" police can impound the car.

It has the makings of international intrigue. Less than two weeks before the Democratic National Convention a man has been found dead in a Denver hotel room with a container of what authorities initially suspect to be the deadly poison cyanide. Adding to the intrigue is that the dead man, Saleman Abdirahman Dirie, 29, appears to be from outside the U.S. No passport was found on Dirie, who is believed to have entered the country from Canada. A large container of a white powdery substance was found in the man's room on the fourth floor of the Burnsley Hotel at...

irredentist - One who advocates the recovery of territory culturally or historically related to one’s nation but now subject to a foreign government. [alphaDictionary.com] It must come as a shocking news to all those who preached: “We are one global community, now. We are all the citizens of the world. As freedom and democracy are spreading all over the globe, there will be wars no more.” Despite their dire predictions based on such absurd inventions as “diversity is strength”, “nation states are anachronism in today’s world”, and “a key to peace and prosperity is a lack of border and immigration...

Contact Your Lawmakers in Support of Immigration Reform FAIR Lobby Days 2008 Held in conjunction with Hold Their Feet to the Fire September 8-11, 2008 in Washington, DC There's an old expression that if you want to get legislators to see the light, make them feel the heat. FAIR is urging all its members, activists and friends interested in true immigration reform to participate in FAIR’s Lobby Days. This event will be held in conjunction with the Hold Their Feet to the Fire Radio Row. This national grassroots effort seeks to counter the push by special interests groups and the...

WESLACO, Texas -- In the archives of local institutions, Juan Aranda's life is firmly rooted in this small south Texas town. His birth certificate says he was delivered unto Weslaco 38 years ago, and church records say he was baptized here soon after. School files list him as a student in the local district from kindergarten through high school, and voter rolls show he votes for president here. But to the U.S. State Department, all that black and white looks a lot like gray. It recently refused to issue Mr. Aranda a passport; the government isn't sure he's an American....

EDINBURG, TEXAS -- Adelmina Rios has waited 19 long years for her brother's killer to be put to death. Now, after a trial, appeals and an international incident that threatened to delay the process for years, Hector Torres Garcia may be one step closer to execution. Torres, 47, injured Rios and fatally shot her brother in 1989 during a convenience store robbery north of Edinburg. An Hidalgo County jury imposed the death penalty on Torres a year later. But Mexico has challenged his sentence and that of more than 50 fellow Mexican nationals currently on death row in the United...

The man who calls himself "America's Toughest Sheriff," Joe Arpaio, has a dire prognostication for those hoping for a crackdown on illegal immigration. Hear what he tells Newsmax correspondent Ashley Martella

Tucson, Ariz. (AP) -- Four Mexican soldiers crossed into a remote area of Arizona and briefly held a U.S. Border Patrol agent at gunpoint before realizing where they were and returning to Mexico, U.S. authorities said. Border Patrol spokeswoman Dove Crawford said the incident early Sunday on the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation, about 85 miles southwest of Tucson, was in an area where the border likely was marked only with barbed wire.

Eliminating the Illegal Alien Magnet   By Tom FittonFrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, August 06, 2008 My organization, Judicial Watch, has filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) lawsuit filed by Canyon County, Idaho, against four large employers of illegal aliens (Canyon County v. Syngenta Seeds, Inc., et al.).  Canyon County alleges that during their employment, some of these illegal aliens committed crimes, thereby costing the county millions of dollars for criminal justice services as well as health and welfare services.  The district court and the 9th Circuit Court of...

A U.S. Border Patrol agent was held at gunpoint Sunday night by members of the Mexican military who had crossed the border into Arizona, but the soldiers returned to Mexico without incident when backup agents responded to assist. Agents assigned to the Border Patrol station at Ajo, Ariz., said the Mexican soldiers crossed the international border in an isolated area about 100 miles southwest of Tucson and pointed rifles at the agent, who was not identified.

Federal agents have arrested a Riverside man who they say made $5 million by charging illegal immigrants for fraudulent work visas and employment records. Alexander Sales Vista, arrested Wednesday, is accused of filing almost 1,000 fraudulent documents with the U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to court documents. The scheme involved false businesses, fake pay stubs and forged documents for 555 applicants. The case is larger and more elaborate than any the U.S. attorney's office has had for some time, spokesman Thom Mrozek said. "It's been a few years since we've seen one dealing with...

San Diego, CA (AP) -- When crews finish lining part of the All-American Canal with concrete, the waterway will be deeper, faster — and possibly more of a death trap for migrants crossing the border illegally from Mexico. The agency responsible for lining 23 miles of the canal to conserve water for Southern Californians is having second thoughts about whether it has done enough to prevent drownings on a waterway that has claimed more than 500 lives since it was built in 1942. The Imperial Irrigation District is scheduled to consider Tuesday whether to install ladders on each side and...

Last May’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid of kosher meatpacking plant Agriprocessors in Postville, IA, not only found that nearly half the employees at Agriprocessors were found to be illegal immigrants, and 20 of the 389 who were rounded up were under-age - some as young as 13-years old, reports The New York Times:[I]n the aftermath of the arrests, labor investigators have reaped a bounty of new evidence from the testimony of illegal immigrants, teenagers and adults, who were caught in the raid. In formal declarations, immigrants have described pervasive labor violations at the plant, testimony that could result...

Tijuana is a chaotic Mexican border city of 1.5 million people and seen as a direct threat to the United States through its AIDS crisis, officials say. When Mexican President Felipe Calderon opens the 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City on Sunday, he can boast that his country has one of the lowest HIV rates in the Americas. But, he can't include Tijuana, one of the busiest border crossings in the world, in that category, The Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) said. Tijuana, located 20 miles south of San Diego, has an HIV infection rate that's nearly triple the national average...

If Mayor Gavin Newsom is serious about tightening up San Francisco's sanctuary laws, he might want to take a look at the case of Marco Martinez - a 26-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador who has been arrested by police five times in the past year and a half for allegedly selling crack cocaine but has never wound up in the feds' hands. According to police records, Martinez first appeared on the radar here Oct. 6, 2006, when he sold crack to an undercover officer in United Nations Plaza. He was booked into jail, but quickly posted $35,000 bail and...

As San Francisco's juvenile justice system shielded young illegal immigrant felons from possible deportation, Mayor Gavin Newsom's office gave grants totaling more than $650,000 to nonprofit agencies to provide the underage offenders with free services - everything from immigration attorneys to housing assistance to "arts and cultural affirmation activities," city records show. Newsom has said the city began its policy of not referring young immigrant offenders to federal authorities for deportation under previous mayors, and that he reversed the practice after he became aware of it this year. However, in 2006, the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice - a community...

German Andrade for about 15 years lifted, loaded and carried out other physically demanding jobs as an illegal immigrant. Then came the bucket. It crashed from a skid loader onto Andrade's left foot at a landscaping work site. Fractures led to a lingering limp, which led to back problems and, said a judge, a 45 percent loss of earning capacity. At the time of the accident, Andrade, a husband and father in his early 30s, was earning $12 an hour. Andrade's case took a public twist when his Sarpy County employer balked at forking over injury-related workers' compensation - and...