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SEATTLE -- With mariachis, tequila and parades, Cinco De Mayo will be celebrated this week in parties across the nation, kicking off a commemoration of Mexican heritage in the United States as a pseudo-holiday that has been adopted by the general population. But for Dagoberto Reyes, a Salvadorian immigrant living in Los Angeles, May 5 is more a reminder of the dominance Mexican culture has in a country that is home to immigrants from many Latin American countries. His prime example: Los Angeles-area public schools. "Our kids go to this school system, and the school system is more preoccupied with...

One of the occasional frustrations of being a police officer is having to sit idly by as the law is subordinated to transient political expediency. Here in Los Angeles, for example, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has made no secret of his sympathies for the cause of illegal aliens. Those sympathies are reflected in the management ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department — perhaps out of genuine conviction but far more likely out of careerism. Recall that when things went awry during an immigrants’-rights demonstration at L.A.’s MacArthur Park two years ago (discussed here, here, and here), one of the senior...

MIAMI – Immigrants and their families began gathering at rallies across the country Friday to push for changes to U.S. immigration policy, but as a swine flu outbreak continued to spread, attendance at some events was smaller than what organizers had hoped. The area hardest hit by the swine flu is Mexico, also the native home of many rally participants. .. ... Organizers are seeking to channel the political muscle Hispanics showed last fall in support of then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. ..

Randy Lenac said ever since he moved to Campo eleven years ago, he's lived in constant fear of fire. "As long as [illegal immigrants] are coming through this area, the threat of fire from their campfires is going to persist." Up to 50 immigrants a day travel onto Lenac's property. "We live with a daily intrusion of illegal immigrants on our property...it looks like a military camp when they leave." He worries that one will start a camp fire and not put it out properly. Lenac has spent $40-50,000 on his own fire extinguishing system, just in case. "I'm prepared"...

Another Planned "RALLY" for "Immigrants" is scheduled for May 1st.....Are You Ready!!!???

Wading into the politically charged immigration debate, a group of colleges and universities is urging Congress to give illegal immigrants tuition aid and a path to citizenship in light of efforts in several states to block them.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Many non-English speakers will soon be able to read prescription drug instructions in their primary language. Five companies announced Tuesday that pharmacies at more than 700 stores statewide will translate the information.

The most recent U.S. census reveals that abortion clinics are engaged in an insidious form of racial and sex-based discrimination. In a report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Columbia University economic researchers Douglas Almond and Lena Edlund said they found a significant gender imbalance between males and females within immigrant populations in the United States, which they think provides "evidence of sex-selection, most likely at the prenatal stage." The data revealed unnatural sex-ratio imbalances within segments of certain immigrant populations, including those originating from India, Vietnam, Thailand, Armenia and especially China, where government-enforced "one child"...

LANGLEY PARK, Md. — Class at the youth center had just let out, and a gaggle of teenagers moved toward the door, turning saggy pants and ring tones thrumming with reggaetón hits into adolescent statements of Latino cool. Some had rap sheets, and some had babies. Some had gang tattoos. Most had immigrant parents with menial jobs who survived on sweat and worry. They were children of the Washington suburbs, but the poverty and violence around them rivaled that of urban cores. Jesselyn Bercian paused to rub the belly of a pregnant staff member. “I’m not very happy with my...

The Oslo Police have over the past three years investigated 41 cases of aggravated sexual assault, which resulted in rape. All of them were carried out by non-western immigrants to Norway. The police now urge that more efforts be put into preventive measures among men with immigrant background. The police have investigated all reported cases of aggravated sexual assault over the past three years, and have gained a clear imprssion of the offenders: Most of the rapists have a Kurdish or African background, NRK reports. The cases of aggravated sexual assults all have one thing in common, namely the use...

Three Fourths of illegal immigrants also have "anchor babies." more Starling numbers From the Pew Research Center.

Growing numbers of children of illegal immigrants are being born in this country, and they are nearly twice as likely to live in poverty than those with American-born parents... Overall, illegal immigrants' children account for one of every 15 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. In 2008, California had the most illegal immigrants at 2.7 million, double its 1990 number, followed by Texas, Florida, New York and New Jersey.

NPR.org, April 4, 2009 · Jiverly Wong was upset over losing his job at a vacuum plant, didn't like people picking on him for his limited English and once angrily told a co-worker, "America sucks." It remains unclear exactly why the Vietnamese immigrant strapped on a bulletproof vest, barged in on a citizenship class and killed 13 people and himself, but the police chief says he knows one thing for sure: "He must have been a coward."

A gunman walked into an immigration services center in downtown Binghamton on Friday, killing an unknown number of people, wounding at least six and taking as many as 41 hostage, officials said.

MONTEREY, Calif. -- For years, interpreter Yu Ching ended many calls by saying, "Congratulations. You have been approved," as she helped credit-card companies and mortgage lenders reach a growing share of the Mandarin-speaking market in the U.S. But on a recent morning, the call-center interpreter didn't have the last word. "You're sending me off a cliff," shrieked a woman, after Ms. Ching relayed a bank official's refusal to let the woman avert foreclosure by selling her house for less than the value of her mortgage. Ms. Ching, and legions like her, occupy unique listening posts in a changing economy. During...

One of the most important races in America - Tuesday's neck-and-neck special election to fill the upstate congressional seat left vacant by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand - could be decided by an increasingly powerful, often-overlooked constituency: immigrant voters. That would be sweet irony in a country where, all too often, immigrants are treated as an afterthought at best, a menace at worst. It may come as a shock to those who are obsessed with illegal immigrants that there are lots of legal immigrants who have dreams, brains, citizenship - and, increasingly, the political power that comes with the right to vote....

This has probably been posted on FR...take your BP meds before you watch this.

THE HAGUE, 18/03/09 - Two out of three serious teenage criminals are children of parents born outside the Netherlands. In most cases, no prison sentence is imposed, it emerges from a study sent to parliament by Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin. In the research, 447 case files of youngsters aged from 12 to 17 were studied. All the files involved cases in which the perpetrator was convicted of a crime for which the maximum jail sentence is 8 years or more. These were murder, manslaughter, robbery with violence, extortion, arson, public acts of violence and sexual crimes. Only just over...

Immigrants Can Help Fix the Housing Bubble By RICHARD S. LEFRAK and A. GARY SHILLING The Obama administration should seriously consider granting resident status to foreigners who buy surplus houses in this country. This makes more sense than the president's $275 billion housing bailout plan, which Americans greeted with a Bronx cheer. The federal bailout forces taxpayers to subsidize overextended homeowners who bet on ever-rising house prices and used their abodes as ATMs, and it doesn't get to the basic problem -- the huge inventory of excess houses. We estimate that 2.4 million houses over and above normal working inventories...

The sponsor of a bill to give illegal immigrants in-state tuition says the legislation won't move forward until it becomes clear whether Congress is taking similar action nationally. Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, said he wanted to see the latest draft of the so-called DREAM Act, which would give illegal immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children ... Out-of-state tuition can often be two to four times as much as the in-state rate. A Senate education committee approved the bill after a contentious hearing, but Romer's bill hasn't hit the floor of the Senate chamber yet. But Romer said the...

FALFURRIAS — A pair of emergency beacons has been placed in South Texas to help stranded illegal immigrants as they try to head north from the border along a popular desert trail, the U.S. Border Patrol said. The beacons, .. are designed to alert authorities if an immigrant or anyone else finds themselves in distress in the rugged terrain. ... The beacons have instructions in English, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, ... Border Patrol officials already have placed 18 beacons in the desert in Arizona.

An immigration advisory panel on Tuesday finished a report on immigrants in New Jersey and is sending it to Governor Corzine, who had asked for guidance on how to serve and integrate the state's foreign-born population, one of the largest in the nation. Among the recommendations that the panel had considered were allowing illegal immigrants, who at present are not allowed to obtain driver licenses, to drive with a so-called driver privilege card, and to attend college at in-state tuition rates. It is unclear, however, whether those items, which were among the most controversial recommendations the panel was considering, survived...

A bill to allow illegal immigrants to qualify for in-state college tuition may have the best chance of passing in years because of the support of some key Colorado Republican businessmen. The latest effort, pushed by state Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, would allow illegal immigrants ... to get the in-state tuition rate at state colleges and universities, which would save the undocumented students thousands of dollars. The bill is scheduled to get its first committee hearing Thursday. A bill passed last year clarified that U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants are Colorado residents and thus eligible for in-state tuition. Romer's bill...

Politics Home » First100Days Chicago Man Arrested for Allegedly Targeting Obama With HIV-Infected Blood It's only the second time ever that HIV-infected blood has been sent with malicious intent through the U.S. mail system, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said. By Mike Levine FOXNews.com Friday, February 27, 2009 0 x in order to recommend a story, you must login or register. 6 Comments | Add Comment ShareThisA man from President Obama's hometown of Chicago has been arrested for allegedly sending Obama and his staff envelopes containing HIV-infected blood, in the hopes of killing or harming them. It's...

"My country has let me down." That's the assessment of an Arizona rancher who was sued by six illegal immigrants he detained on his property and turned over to the Border Patrol in 2004. On Tuesday an eight-member federal jury in Tucson threw out the claim brought by the six illegal aliens that Roger Barnett violated their civil rights when he detained them at gunpoint on his ranch nearly five years ago. The panel also ruled against the plaintiffs' claims of battery and false imprisonment. But the jury did find Barnett liable on four claims of assault and four claims...

        The Left is only too happy to suppress free speech. It doesn’t know what it’s getting itself into. One thing in particular struck me last week when I was in London for the showing of Geert Wilders’ Fitna in the House of Lords. Well, apart from the fact that Mr. Wilders was banned from entering the country.It was the press’ uniform designation of the Dutch politician as “right-wing” or even “extreme right-wing”.What precisely has Geert Wilders done or said that makes him deserving of this epithet? For make no mistake: whereas “left-wing” is considered an accolade and smacks...

A federal jury in Tucson ruled Tuesday that an Arizona rancher did not violate the civil rights of 16 Mexican nationals he stopped after they sneaked illegally into the United States, but awarded $78,000 in actual and punitive damages on claims of assault and the infliction of emotional distress. The jury of four men and four women returned the verdict Tuesday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Tucson after a day and a half of deliberation. The jury, after a nine-day trial, also threw out charges of false imprisonment, battery and conspiracy against Douglas, Ariz., rancher Roger Barnett.

TUCSON, Ariz. — A jury in Tucson has found that a southern Arizona rancher didn't violate the civil rights of a group of illegal immigrants who claimed he detained them at gunpoint in 2004. The federal jury also found Roger Barnett wasn't liable on claims of battery and false imprisonment. But the jury did find him liable Tuesday on four claims of assault and four claims of infliction of emotional distress. The jurors ordered Barnett to pay nearly $78,000 in damages. The bulk of that is punitive.

In the story of the emperor with no clothes, it took someone whose observations are rarely heeded -- a child -- to point out the obvious fact that no one else could acknowledge. In the case of drug policy, it takes people who are usually ignored by Washington policymakers -- Latin Americans -- to perform the same invaluable service. Last week, a commission made up of 17 members, from Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa to Sonia Picado, the Costa Rican who heads the Inter-American Institute on Human Rights, did nothing but admit the truth: The war on drugs is a...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military will begin recruiting immigrants with special skills who are in the United States on temporary visas, offering a chance to become citizens in as little as six months, The New York Times reported. A report on the newspaper's website on Saturday said it would be the first time since the Vietnam War that the armed forces would be open to temporary immigrants, provided they have lived in the United States for at least two years. Immigrants with permanent resident status, or "green cards," are eligible to enlist in the U.S. military.

As an organizer from Nashville searched for housing and services for about 50 Egyptian men and their families who want to move to Shelbyville to be close to their new jobs at Tyson Foods, the county mayor said that the food giant should hire Bedford County residents first. But personnel at the state employment office say they must accept job applications from everyone who shows up, no matter where they are from. Concerns have once again risen in Shelbyville about immigrants and refugees coming to Bedford County to apply for jobs at the Tyson Foods poultry plant. Law enforcement were...

As an organizer from Nashville searched for housing and services for about 50 Egyptian men and their families who want to move to Shelbyville to be close to their new jobs at Tyson Foods, the county mayor said that the food giant should hire Bedford County residents first. But personnel at the state employment office say they must accept job applications from everyone who shows up, no matter where they are from. Concerns have once again risen in Shelbyville about immigrants and refugees coming to Bedford County to apply for jobs at the Tyson Foods poultry plant. Law enforcement were...

The debate over offering in-state college tuition to undocumented immigrants is making its way through the state Capitol again... It's the fourth time this decade Colorado's Legislature has taken up the issue, which crosses party lines. Democratic Sen. Chris Romer, the bill's sponsor, said he hopes lawmakers see it as an educational and economic matter instead of an immigration issue. Ten states have passed legislation since 2001 granting in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants who meet certain requirements. Those states include California, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, New York, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, Oklahoma and Texas. New Jersey has tried several times.

THE HAGUE, 10/02/09 - Kolenkit in Amsterdam is according to the government the number one 'problem district' in the Netherlands. The largest number of districts where people would rather not go are in Rotterdam. In 2007, the housing ministry selected 40 districts throughout the Netherlands to be transformed in the next eight years from 'problem districts' to 'dream districts.' The government did give the names of the districts but refused to disclose the ranking order of the Top 40. The Top 20 of this list has now been obtained by RTL Nieuws and been published by this TV programme. There...

Joe Johnson's family has lived and worked on the same property near Columbus, N.M., for almost 100 years. "Our grandfather came here in 1918, right behind Pancho Villa," he says proudly. Yet he also admits, "If it wasn't home, I would move away from it." The Johnson ranch lies right up against the Mexican border, and illegal immigration has turned what was already a hard way to make a living on drought--plagued rangeland into a nightmare of stolen cattle, broken water lines,ruined fences and grass fi res. "In 2005, we had 500-plus people crossing our ranch every day," explains housewife,...

Labour's obsession with an open-door immigration policy has hit its core vote hardest... The Labour leadership seems finally to be waking up to the fact that the party's immigration policy has not been popular with what has traditionally been seen as its core vote: Britain's white working class. The development appears to have taken Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary, by surprise. She reacted to a report commissioned by her department that found that many working class whites feel "betrayed" by saying that "the report shows there are real complexities around perceptions [of Government] held by the white working class." "Real...

WASHINGTON (CNN)—Arizona Senator John McCain is adopting a major 2008 campaign slogan for a new political action committee designed to support not only his own planned re-election run in two years, but help him put his stamp on the rebuilding of the Republican Party. The formation of the “Country First” PAC is to be announced Wednesday, two sources familiar with the plans tell CNN. One of the sources called it the “first official step” of the GOP Senator’s re-election campaign. McCain made it clear not long after losing the presidential election that he intended to seek re-election to the Senate...

Issue hardly earned mention during presidential campaign There were no mass protests on the streets of North County or heated congressional hearings in Washington, but that doesn't mean the perennially controversial subject of illegal immigration did not grab headlines here and at the national level in 2008. Local immigrant rights activists criticized driver's license checkpoints as traps in Escondido. The San Diego Minutemen, a North County-based anti-illegal immigration group, successfully sued the state to keep its name on a highway sign. And immigrant workers weathered an economic storm that has led some to think hard about going home for good....

Though he has lived with his family for two years at The Meadows, an apartment complex in Dillon Valley, Rafael is desperately looking for a new home. Rafael, 25, who asked not to reveal his last name because he is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, said he will not be able to pay what the new owners are asking to renew his lease for the two-bedroom apartment — $1,250 instead of the $950 he pays now. “We are going to wait until the lease expires in March, and we’ll go to another place,” said Rafael, who works painting houses. “We’re...

I am amased that the news on new years day celebrates the first born of the new year has illegal immigrants for parents, payment to hospital goes to you and i the taxpayers of houston tx.Reporters would not even comment on parents or let them speak im sure because no englishhhh.

White families on the country's poorest estates believe they have been 'betrayed' and 'abandoned' by politicians who favour newly-arrived immigrants, a Government report acknowledged today. It found that people on council estates think they always come second to immigrants for housing and benefits. Many feel they have been shoved aside by politicians who use political correctness and allegations of racism to stifle honest discussion, it said. The report for the Department of Communities and Local Government drew an admission from Communities Secretary Hazel Blears that white working class people 'sometimes just don't feel anyone is listening or speaking up for...

Sad news from the pages of this morning's New York Times: Behind the red-brick walls encircling the Convent of Mercy in Brooklyn, generations of nuns have taught the illiterate, sheltered the homeless and raised orphans. They are known as the Walking Sisters, ministering in the community as well as inside their convent. Now, after 146 years, it is time for the small band of sisters, most of them retired, to walk away from the convent. The leadership of their order, the Sisters of Mercy, decided to shutter the place and scatter the sisters to other homes and nursing facilities after...

DENVER – After going months without a full-time job, Daniel Ramirez has decided it's time to return to family in Mexico. Vicenta Rodriguez Lopez .. can't afford to live in Colorado any more because her husband was deported. Roberto Espinoza is going back, too. ...

A new survey by the University of Massachusetts at Boston's Institute for Asian American Studies attempts to fill what the authors say is a gaping hole in the research on immigrants. "There's been a lot of attention paid to immigration rights and policy," said the institute's director, Paul Watanabe, at the survey's unveiling last month. "But the fact is, there is virtually no [statistical data] based upon Asian immigrants and the Asian community." The institute's study, "Interest and Action: Findings from a Survey of Asian American Attitudes on Immigrants, Immigration, and Activism," found that 80 percent of the 412 Asian-Americans...

Four illegal immigrants sneaked into the country hidden in a 32ft artificial Christmas tree, it was claimed. They were discovered inside a lorry at a council depot in Northampton. The aluminium and nylon tree - and two other smaller ones - were destined for the town centre's Christmas display. But staff at the depot opened the vehicle to discover the men, and immediately dialled 999. A spokesman for Northamptonshire Police confirmed that four men - two from Iraq, two from Iran - were arrested and are being questioned by officers from the UK Border Agency. Click on the link above...

For months, CBS News has been following the deepening troubles of tiny Postville, Iowa, population 2,200. Now the shutdown of the town's main employer following a federal immigration raid has Postville at the point of desperation... Postville, Iowa was just decorated with holiday cheer. But looks can be deceiving. "In the last few weeks - it's really gone downhill dramatically," says Mayor Bob Penrod. With empty streets - and shuttered shops - this small town is facing economic calamity. Penrod is taking steps this weekend to declare a state of emergency here - but not a natural disaster - rather...

The Texas House of Representatives' Mexican American Legislative Caucus will hold a hearing Thursday to discuss border fence, in an early attempt to bring the issue to the attention of President-elect Barack Obama and his administration. The hearing chairman, Rep. Eddie Lucio III, D-San Benito, wants to act quickly to inform Obama's transition team of the issue that has weighed heavily on many border residents. "We may have a fresh set of ears (in Washington)," Lucio said. "Hopefully, they'll have an interest in the issue." The hearing will be attended by South Texas landowners, border mayors, including Brownsville Mayor Pat...

JERICHO, N.Y. — For school officials here, the numbers did not add up. Even as enrollment swelled to 3,200, from 2,600 a decade ago, attendance at Parent-Teacher Association meetings shriveled by half. Even as more students got accepted to Ivy League schools, turnout for the guidance department’s information nights was so anemic that counselors cajoled students to come — and bring along their parents. Then teachers and administrators noticed something else: Jericho High School’s 90-member orchestra had become 70 percent Asian-American (the student body over all is about 30 percent Asian-American), but it still played for a mostly white audience...

Dozens of immigrant advocates from across the country convened in Washington today to call on President-elect Barack Obama to halt immigration raids, fulfill campaign pledges to revamp the nation's immigration system and offer the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants a path to citizenship within his first year in office. The coalition, which includes activists from Los Angeles, New York and the Washington area, also announced plans to mobilize tens of thousands of immigrants and their supporters for a demonstration on the Mall on Jan. 21, the day after Obama's inauguration. "We voted in the millions and now we're going...

While waiting to get on a city bus with her three children Tuesday evening in South Austin, police say, Aurelia Gallardo beat and berated her oldest daughter before throwing her into the path of an oncoming vehicle. The driver of the brown Suburban braked and did not strike the 4-year-old . Gallardo, 24 , of Austin, has been charged with child endangerment, a state jail felony, and could face up to two years if convicted. Bail was set at $25,000.....