IMMIGRATION & THE ILLEGAL ALIEN CRIME WAVE

City Journal ^ | 1/2004 | Heather Mac Donald

[jocon307]

Thanks for posting this.

[RippleFire]

bump

[quack]

Luckily,one of my state Senators is working on this.
http://www.senate.gov/~sessions/headlines/immigration1.html

[MEG33]

Good article,thanks.

[gatorbait]

Any ideas what we can do? Thought about sending a letter (snail mail) to the President, Tom Ridge, our representatives and Governor Schwartzenegger, along with a copy of this article.

Good start!.. and, I do not know if your judges are appointed or elected? If the latter, there's a good place to start asking questions .Sounds like the crime syndicate was a home grown with illegals as mules. Great..

[AmericanVictory]

Well, it seems as if those in California, for example, mostly republicans, who point out the horrendous problems there being caused by out of control illegal immigration, are routinely called racist. For example, this forum, where such matters are routinely discussed with honesty, was itself called racist by a city official of Fresno because of that candor.

[Texasforever]

The only time I have seen anyone called racist it was an honest assessment. There are more than a few that have signed up on FR since this issue became hot that are overtly racist. They have been weeded out fairly quickly but there are still a few around. When you have calls for bounties, shooy and shovel and making plastic recycling stations out of border water stops it goes beyond simple “sovereignty”.

[William Terrell]

The cure I can think of may be worse than the disease.

I believe the president, using his executive powers to declare an emergency, can declare martial law in the affected areas. That would replace 2000 working INS officers with ten of thousands of troops. Identify and deport by military transport, overcome resistence. Release martial law. Rebuild.

Ok, I know it would take one hell of a Buford Pusser, but it appears to me, it's either that or let it esculate to where the people start to handle it, resulting in martial law for sure.

Or we can just give California to Mexico. Give US citizens a month to get out. If it's ignored, it can't help but spread to the entire state with that result anyway.

[Texasforever]

He would be immediately impeached for that. His power for martial law is limited to armed invasion or natural disasters. Ike got away with essentially doing it in 1954 but Bush would be run from office doing it now.

[William Terrell]

Then the only comfort left is that they'll have to get past Arnold.

[JustPiper]

BumPing

[101viking]

I constantly hear that amnesty and employer enforcement will help solve the illegal immigration problem. Unfortunately the underground economy that supports these people won't go away because of employer enforcement, and amnesty is likely to have reverse effect. The minute any legislation is passed giving a blanket style status to these people, they will swarm from all corners of the globe. There will always be work for cash under the table, as long as there are lawns to be mowed, houses to be cleaned, construction to be done, etc. There is, and will never likely be a solution to the problem. It will continue to be exploited by those that benefit from the issue, namely politicians and businesses. The Government will continue to make the problem worse with their pandering and "non-fix" fixes.

[Happy2BMe]

"The LAPD’s ban on immigration enforcement mirrors bans in immigrant-saturated cities around the country, from New York and Chicago to San Diego, Austin, and Houston. These "sanctuary policies" generally prohibit city employees, including the cops, from reporting immigration violations to federal authorities."

** SPECIAL ORDER 40 ALERT - PING **

"Speical Order 40" is in effect. And not just in Los Angeles, California. The gubmint has made it quasi-official throughout the entire United States.

[Happy2BMe]

"The disastrous Citizenship USA project of 1996 was a luminous case of politics driving the INS to sacrifice enforcement to "benefits." When, in the early 1990s, the prospect of welfare reform drove immigrants to apply for citizenship in record numbers to preserve their welfare eligibility, the Clinton administration, seeing a political bonanza in hundreds of thousands of new welfare-dependent citizens, ordered the naturalization process radically expedited. Thanks to relentless administration pressure, processing errors in 1996 were 99 percent in New York and 90 percent in Los Angeles, and tens of thousands of aliens with criminal records, including for murder and armed robbery, were naturalized."

Special Order 40 has been around much longer than when it was formally announced.

Alien Nation - Mexican Hypocrisy, Corruption, and Welfare Fraud

[gatorbait]

Thanks Happy.I'll read this a bit later ;-)

[JustPiper]

William? Is a blue apple a poison apple? -g-

[AnimalLover]

"The LAPD’s ban on immigration enforcement mirrors bans in immigrant-saturated cities around the country, from New York and Chicago to San Diego, Austin, and Houston. These "sanctuary policies" generally prohibit city employees, including the cops, from reporting immigration violations to federal authorities."

Interesting, very next day two articles appeared in the local paper. Anyone have an Excedrin - Extra Strength? Thursday, January 22, 2004

Plan goal: Halt attacks on L.A. officers.. By David Zahniser, Copley News Service

Alarmed by what she described as "open warfare" on the Los Angeles Police Department, Councilwoman Janice Hahn called Wednesday for the city to offer a $75,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of suspects who try to attack uniformed officers.

Hahn and Councilman Martin Ludlow made the reward proposal hours after police were fired on in Watts, the northernmost end of the councilwoman's district.

Attempted shootings of LAPD officers increased 28 percent last year, the largest increase ever re- corded by the department, ac- cording to police officials.

The latest attempt occurred Wednesday about 2 a.m. outside Nickerson Gardens, a city housing project where federal agents and local police made 41 arrests

"It is like the wild, wild west," said Hahn, whose district includes the Harbor Area.

"Literally, it is happening like I've only seen in movies."

The City Council voted 11-0 for the proposal, which was submitted as an emergency measure.

The council instructed City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo to prepare a law increasing the possible reward from $25,000 to $75,000 in cases involving an attack on officers or on witnesses who cooperate with the police.

No officer was injured in Wednesday's attack, which occurred after police attempted to pull over a motorist who was driving erratically, authorities said.

Even before that incident, Police Chief William Bratton had begun warning the LAPD's rank-and-file that they faced greater danger than in previous years, partly because of the department's aggressive push to decrease homicides and gang crimes.

Bratton expressed special dismay at the situation at Nickerson Gardens, where there have been four unprovoked shootings at uni- formed police officers in the past 50 days.

"The idea that in that relatively small community ... four assaults, deadly assaults, unprovoked, (would be made) against members of the Los Angeles Police Department, is outrageous," he said.

The police chief has concentrated much of the department's resources on illegal gang activity taking place in South Los Angeles, asking for support from other local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.

Homicides dropped 22 percent citywide in 2003, but Bratton is pushing for another 20 percent decrease this year.

In Los Angeles, the council routinely offers rewards of $25,000 for information leading to the arrest of suspects in high-profile homicide cases.

Because they are intimidated by gangs, potential witnesses rarely come forward to seek such rewards.

Council members also have begun weighing a proposal to double rewards in other major crimes to $50,000. But they argued that extra steps should be taken to address the increasingly lethal environment faced by police.

"If (suspects) feel it is acceptable to shoot at police officers ... and the witnesses who cooperate with law enforcement, imagine how easy it is for them to shoot at our families," said Ludlow, whose district includes parts of Crenshaw Boulevard.

Gang members are firing not just at police but at paramedics, school security officers and sheriff's deputies, Hahn said.

If the reward jumps to $75,000, witnesses might find the courage to come forward about Wednesday's attack, she said.

"I guarantee you that someone in Nickerson Gardens saw this, knows who those suspects are and could give that information to police officers," Hahn said.

Just in case the other article disappears before anyone can bring it up, I will copy to the next post. http://www.dailybreeze.com/content/news/1464926.html

http://www.dailybreeze.com/content/news/nmwebgannrs.html

[AnimalLover]

THE OTHER ARTICLE! Thursday, January 22, 2004

Authorities arrest 41 alleged members of violent L.A. gang By The Associated Press

Los Angeles authorities arrested 41 alleged gang members Wednesday in a drug raid at the stronghold of one of the most violent gangs in the city.

The early morning operation targeted leaders of the Bounty Hunter Bloods gang, which authorities said has a history of attacking police and bystanders in South Los Angeles.

“It is one of the most violent street gangs in the history of L.A., and this morning we arrested essentially the hierarchy of the gang,” FBI spokesman Matt McLaughlin said.

FBI agents and police stormed Nickerson Gardens public housing complex — the gang’s base of operations — knocking down doors and exploding flash-bang grenades as they rounded up the suspects.

“It’s always good to assault a gang on its home turf,” McLaughlin said. “We hope in so doing we give the good citizens who live in that project more liberty.”

Police shut down nearby schools and cordoned off a wide area, leaving some neighbors temporarily stuck inside their homes.

Federal agents arrested 13 people for investigation of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and other charges. Los Angeles police arrested another 28 suspects, including two teens, on drug-related charges.

The arrests came after a yearlong undercover investigation in which federal and local authorities used wiretaps to monitor an alleged cocaine ring.

Los Angeles police Chief William J. Bratton said the raid was an indication that gang violence “cannot be dealt with just by local police agencies, local jurisdiction, that in fact a federal government presence is necessary.”

Federal officers also raided the housing project in 2000, arresting 30 gang members who were later convicted of distributing crack cocaine.

“The good news for the community is that historically over repeated takedowns like the one from this morning, we have seen a decrease in violence in the affected neighborhoods,” McLaughlin said. “By the same token, we recognize the fight is not over.”

McLaughlin said the agency continues to target street gangs in Los Angeles, even though the agency’s recent focus has been on terrorism.

Last month, police officers were shot at in two separate ambushes at Nickerson Gardens that investigators attributed to the gang.

In 1995, a member of the Bounty Hunter Bloods was sentenced to death for the execution-style murders of two Compton police officers near the complex. A year later, a gang member shot and killed an 82-year-old grandmother as she returned from church, police said.

In an apparently unrelated incident earlier Wednesday, shots were fired at a police squad car during a traffic stop near the complex. Police arrested two suspects and searched for a third person.

[AnimalLover]

The President announced his plan just a week ago and already, look what is happening!

BUSH PLAN A MAGNET

Immigrants cite lure of border proposal

By Joe Cantlupe COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

and Gregory Alan Gross STAFF WRITER

January 23, 2004

WASHINGTON – More than half the people accused of using phony documents to sneak through the San Ysidro port of entry in recent days said they were trying to get into the United States because of President Bush's proposal to give temporary legal status to millions of illegal immigrants.

Of 162 people stopped for using phony documents at San Ysidro since Bush announced his plan on Jan. 7, 94 said they were trying to enter because of the proposed new work program, according to sources present at a Wednesday meeting of a border-security working group in San Diego.

Border Patrol officials have reported a 15 percent increase in the use of phony documents at the San Ysidro port compared with the same period a year ago.

Bush's plan, designed to match willing workers with willing employers, would provide temporary legal status to illegal immigrants working in the United States and to others outside the country if they can show they have a job offer.

His proposal has been widely publicized in Mexico. In some quarters, it is being characterized as an amnesty, despite Bush's contention that it is not.

Some U.S. border enforcement officers and immigration policy experts have predicted that just talking about the proposal would encourage more people to try to get into the country.

"We're getting a lot of people asking about this," said senior border agent Sean Moran, who works in Imperial Beach. "They're asking what they need to do to qualify."

Many of the immigrants are "first-timers," said Moran, who also serves as spokesman for Local 1613 of the agents' union, the National Border Patrol council.

"At the Imperial Beach station where I work, I've noticed a definite spike in apprehensions," he said. "We're also catching more women and children, which we haven't in awhile. We're catching a lot of the same people every day."

Department of Homeland Security officials said the increases began in October, well before Bush unveiled his proposal.

"We were starting to see increases in the beginning of the fiscal year," said Mario Villarreal, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security.

The Border Patrol's San Diego sector headquarters reported 31,204 apprehensions of illegal immigrants between Oct. 1, 2003, which was the start of the fiscal year, and this week. For the same period a year ago, the number was 22,375.

Moran said he saw a surge last fall, but has seen another since Bush's announcement.

"There were a handful compared to several dozen now – an eightfold increase, and it all started with Bush's announcement," Moran said.

"These people are mostly volunteering the information. We are asking them, just out of curiosity, why they are here and they are asking how they qualify for this amnesty."

Wayne Cornelius, director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at UCSD, said he isn't surprised by an upturn in illegal immigration.

"It's not huge, considering the saturation publicity this has gotten in Mexico," Cornelius said. "It's predictable. This will continue until the new rules of the game are crystal clear ... maybe once Congress gets around to acting on the Bush proposal a year or so from now. We're looking at a fairly long period."

Talk of any amnesty-type program "attracts more illegal immigrants and that's not surprising," said Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington.

"The news doesn't necessarily spread accurately in Mexico or even among illegal aliens in the U.S.," Krikorian said. "They suspect there's an amnesty in effect. This is just attracting more illegal aliens and demoralizing our law enforcement personnel."

Immigration lawyers and immigrant rights groups say they, too, are getting inquiries from immigrants hoping to take advantage of Bush's proposal. "News travels quickly," said Angela Kelley of the National Immigration Forum, "and people are yearning for a better life."

Christian Ramirez, of the American Friends Service Committee in San Diego, said his group got at least 50 calls the day after Bush unveiled his proposal, "and it's been a constant flow ever since."

So far, Ramirez hasn't noticed any great influx, but as the immigration debate continues, he expects more people to head for the United States.

The confusion in Mexico about Bush's statements is understandable, Ramirez said, because of the differences between the way government works in Mexico and the way things are done in the United States.

Most Mexicans grew up under a government in which a proposed new policy from the president's office was treated as law.

"Bush made certain allusions, and some media outlets have characterized this as an amnesty, which plays on people's hopes, when in reality there's nothing there for them to grab onto," Ramirez said.

That has happened before, and not exclusively with Mexican migrants.

In the wake of Hurricane Mitch, which left thousands dead in Central America in late 1998, U.S. immigration officials announced that Hondurans and Nicaraguans already in the United States illegally would be granted a temporary legal status.

However, what was meant as a humanitarian gesture from Washington affecting immigrants already here was widely misinterpreted in Central America, especially in hurricane-ravaged Honduras, as a blanket amnesty for the hurricane victims.

Thousands poured across the border through Mexico, heading for the United States, only to be told at the U.S.-Mexico border that they had made the long, dangerous journey in vain.

Members of Mexico's Grupo Beta, which patrols the Mexican side of the border, said it's too early to tell if Bush's announcement is having a major impact on crossings in the Tecate and Mexicali regions.

"These are typically months when a lot of people are crossing," said Marco Antonio Caballero, an agent who works out of the Mexicali region.

Caballero said he recently ran into a migrant who mentioned that he was hoping to work under whatever plan Bush came up with.

But after being caught three times trying to cross the border, being robbed and losing weight, the migrant decided to go home and wait until the plan takes effect.

Dmitri Papademetriou, an analyst with the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., said that by making a public announcement of its intended plans, the United States created "all sorts of expectations across the board."

"The U.S. and Mexico should engage in a public service announcement," he suggested, "explaining there's no advantage to coming across the border illegally."

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