For "Thunder on the Border," click this picture:
Posted on 07/08/2005 12:16:37 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The Minutemen are coming to Houston.
Leaders of the controversial group dedicated to stopping the flow of illegal immigration said they will patrol the streets of the Bayou City beginning in October, as part of a campaign that will extend north from the Mexican border. Houston volunteers will gather near day labor centers and corners where immigrant workers solicit work, in an effort to draw critical attention to the city's hands-off policy toward illegal immigrants.
"We will be videotaping the (day laborers) and we will be videotaping the contractors who pick them up," said Bill Parmley, a Goliad County landowner who heads the Texas chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. The Minutemen will only observe to draw attention to the problem and will not attempt to make arrests, he said.
News of the potential patrols in Houston drew a muted response from Mayor Bill White, who said he did not want to engage in a "pointless public relations battle."
"I'm not in a position to dictate to private organizations other than that they should obey the law," White said.
But others were more outspoken.
"This is a welcoming community, and (the Minutemen) should let the law do its job," said City Councilman Gordon Quan, a longtime advocate for immigrants. "They would be a polarizing influence that would bring out latent prejudice."
"These people who hunt immigrants are only thinking of themselves," added Maria del Carmen Yupe, a leader of The Metropolitan Organization. "They don't think of the suffering of these immigrants who stand on the corner hoping to work for something to eat."
Even some supporters of the Minuteman project were initially ambivalent about the idea of bringing the effort onto city streets.
"I just don't see how it could work in Houston," said Wanda Schultz, a West University Place resident who participated in patrols in Arizona last April. "How would anybody know who is illegal or legal?"
But Schultz, after talking with her husband, said later she would gladly participate in an operation to observe and photograph day laborers who gather along Westpark and other streets.
City Councilman Adrian Garcia said he worries that in an increasingly Hispanic city, the Minutemen would have trouble distinguishing illegal immigrants.
But Garcia said he agrees with the Minutemen that the federal government needs to do more to protect the borders. "I respect the message that they're sending," he said.
The Minutemen started with a monthlong citizen patrol along the border in Arizona in April, which led to plans to patrol the entire Mexican border from San Diego to Brownsville beginning in October. But Parmley said he now wants to extend the Texas effort far inland. He said he was particularly concerned by what he has learned about the city of Houston's policies toward illegal immigrants.
No questions about status
Houston Police Department policy forbids officers from asking about immigration status in most cases. The city also funds day labor sites used by immigrants, including illegal immigrants, to find work.
"Aren't they aiding and abetting illegal immigrants?" asked Parmley. "Isn't that against the law?"
White defended current policy.
"The protection of our borders is essentially a federal function," the mayor said. "I am not going to take our police out of the neighborhoods" to start looking for illegal immigrants. "Our police priority is going to be public safety."
Local law enforcement agencies have particular reason to be gun-shy about rounding up illegal immigrants.
In 1994, the Katy Police Department decided to conduct a raid for illegal immigrants, but it led to the detention of some Hispanics who were in the country legally. That led to a federal lawsuit resulting in a settlement under which Katy police promised to no longer enforce immigration law.
The lawsuit also led to an injunction that forbids even federal immigration officers from entering some local institutions like hospitals and schools, said Luisa Deason, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Houston.
Deason said the bureau would accept any information the Minutemen bring forward about illegal immigrants. But she noted that the limited number of federal agents in Houston spend most of their time looking for immigrants who are also child molesters, violent criminals, gang members or terrorists.
"We have to prioritize," she said, and rounding up day laborers "is not at the top of our list."
It was not immediately clear what reaction the Minuteman effort would have in greater Houston, which is home to an estimated 350,000 to 400,000 illegal immigrants, according to demographers. Polling finds Houstonians generally support immigration.
Nearly 60 percent of Houstonians do not think illegal immigrants are a major cause of unemployment in the area, and 67 percent think the diversity brought by immigration is a good thing, according to recent data from the Houston Area Survey, annual studies conducted by Rice University sociologist Stephen Klineberg.
Lawmakers voice opinions
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, has called on Gov. Rick Perry to let the Minutemen know they are not welcome in Texas. She described the Minutemen as an "unofficial, untrained and uncontrolled militia."
But U.S. Rep. John Culberson, a west Harris County Republican, called the Minutemen "patriots" and said he would not discourage them from coming to Houston. Culberson criticized the city's policy against asking about immigration status. "Failure to enforce the law invites anarchy, and it is deadly dangerous in this war on terror," he said.
Just this week, HPD came under pressure by The Metropolitan Organization and other groups to stop photographing day laborers. An HPD spokesman said it has temporarily stopped the practice.
edward.hegstrom@chron.com
Houston police Capt. Juan Trevino made the pledge to 400 people who attended a meeting Tuesday night organized by The Metropolitan Organization, an interfaith grass-roots political action group.
Trevino said that "an isolated handful of officers" took immigrants' photographs after a business owner on North Shepherd recently complained that they "were walking on private property."
Addressing the TMO gathering in Spanish and English, Trevino said that the Houston police department will work with the organization to encourage immigrant workers to seek work at the east side day labor center.
"We have initiated a policy where, at this time, we are instructing all officers that they cannot photograph any of the day laborers that are currently out in the field," Trevino said.
After the meeting at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Trevino said the photographs of immigrants involved "an isolated handful of officers — it was maybe only one or two."
"But currently the department has given directions down through the captains to instruct all officers to cease that practice until our legal services investigation ... until that matter has been clarified," Trevino said. ..........................***
Ping. . .
For "Thunder on the Border," click this picture:
Well I live in Houston in Queenie Jackass Lee's Congressional district. and as far as Im concerned the Minutemen are more than welcome here. In fact I'll probably wind up helping them this fall or at least buy lunch for a few of them. Given the fact that fully a third of all Federal prisoners are illegals, I would say that 'public safety'as defined by Mayor White clearly includes keeping an eye on illegals
"I just don't see how it could work in Houston," said Wanda Schultz, a West University Place resident who participated in patrols in Arizona last April. "How would anybody know who is illegal or legal?"Here's a hint: they'll be standing at the intersection of Bellaire and Hillcroft waiting for a contractor to offer them an under-the-table job.
Hint #2: If you approach them and ask them their name and they respond, "¿Que?" you've got your hombre.
This feigned ignorance on the part of the illegal apologists is quite ridiculous.
"These people who hunt immigrants are only thinking of themselves," added Maria del Carmen Yupe, a leader of The Metropolitan Organization. "They don't think of the suffering of these immigrants who stand on the corner hoping to work for something to eat."
Leave it to the idgets who work for the lib groups to drag out the 'suffering' line. What about the suffering of poor taxpayers who have to pick up the tab for these poor "suffering" illegals' free medical care in the Houston hospitals? Or the poor suffering taxpayers who have to pay for the illegals' kid at school through free lunch and extra teachers? Or the poor suffering taxpayers who pay higher insurance premiums because illegals don't have any?
Bump!
But if an American Citizen gets pulled over for a minor traffic violation one of the first things the cop (read dougnut hunter on wheels drawing a public funded salary) asks is- "are there any guns or drugs in the car?"
So?
Veteran won't face charges in ID theft
***AUSTIN - Identity theft charges have been dropped against an undocumented Mexican immigrant who bought a stolen Social Security card for $2,000 then joined the Air Force and served in the Iraq war.
The charges against Liliana Plata, 25, were dropped last month because she had been discharged from the Air Force and didn't use the stolen information to defraud anyone, Travis County Assistant District Attorney Claire Dawson-Brown said.
"She took a shortcut she shouldn't have taken, but it was an intent that served a value for all of us," Dawson-Brown said. "She wanted to go and fight for her country, and she was a good soldier."
Plata's attorney, Samuel Bassett, called the decision appropriate. "To take it out of the criminal justice system is appropriate under these circumstances," he said. "She is a decorated veteran in the military."
In an interview last year, Plata told the Austin American-Statesman that she and her mother left Mexico City and illegally entered the United States when she was 10.
Plata grew up in California and said she bought a Social Security card for $2,000 on the black market in Los Angeles after recruiters told her she needed one to join the military.
Using the identity of Cristina Alaniz, Plata joined the Air Force and served as an airman with the 822nd Security Forces Squadron in 2003.
Alaniz, of Austin, realized her identity had been stolen after noticing in a credit check that someone from Moody Air Force Base in Georgia had been using her Social Security number. She also discovered $51,000 in outstanding charges, according to court documents.
Alaniz contacted Air Force officials, who launched an investigation but declined to prosecute Plata because she had been a model airwoman.
In April 2004, Travis County authorities charged her with fraudulent use or possession of identifying information, punishable by up to two years in prison. But Dawson-Brown said prosecutors eventually determined that someone else besides Plata had run up the charges using Alaniz's identity.
She said Plata has since paid Alaniz $2,500 for the time and money spent clearing her credit. Alaniz did not object to the charges being dropped, Dawson-Brown said.
Bassett did not have details on the nature of Plata's discharge, but said she is living in Pennsylvania and "has moved on with her life."
Plata's immigration status was not clear.***
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3257545
What I'm saying is why don't the cops ask about the legality of somebody being in the U.S.?
The "war on drugs" is a failed attempt to keep funding the politicians that are involved in smuggling them into the U.S. and to keep us under the PD's (Presidential Directives) that have been keeping us just shy of Martial Law for the last 70 or so years.
What don't you understand about the 2A?
Nice talking with you.
How old are you?
Thirteen?
You've been nipping on pant-legs tonight.</p>
Norm is that you?
No wait, I forgot you are not a "mod"...
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