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Missouri Town Rallies Around Illegal Immigrant
AP ^ | 10/7/5 | Alan Scher Zagier

Posted on 10/08/2005 2:44:36 AM PDT by Crackingham

From the Little League fields to the Habitat for Humanity boardroom, everyone in this central Missouri town seemed to know Manuel "Paco" Lopez. A devoted father and civic volunteer, the Mexican immigrant served as a translator at the local hospital, schools, crime scenes and anywhere else people asked. So when police asked for help interrogating a Spanish-speaking murder suspect, he dutifully agreed — even though it meant revealing he was actually an illegal immigrant named Francisco Xavier Inzunza.

Once Marshall police reported him, immigration officers made the 43-year-old an offer: work as a confidential informant for the federal immigration agency in exchange for an annual work permit. But his informant career was a spectacular flop. Drug dealers and fake identification peddlers didn't want much to do with a church leader and school volunteer. Soon after the murder suspect's conviction in 2002, Inzunza was informed he faced deportation from the place he has called home for a dozen years.

The Marshall mayor, police chief, school superintendent — even the prosecutor who Inzunza helped — pledged to support a man who for years hid his true identity.

"Most of the illegal aliens stay in the background. They don't get out," said Chuck Hird, a retired Marshall meatpacking plant manager. "Paco was different. That's what got him in trouble."

Sixteen supporters appeared at a Kansas City immigration hearing in September, prepared to ask a federal judge to let Inzunza stay. The judge instead postponed the hearing until February 2007 because of a case backlog, but Inzunza's supporters suspect judicial sympathy played a role.

Even Gregory Gagne, spokesman for the Justice Department's executive office for immigration review in Washington, reacted with surprise. He said the delay was longer than normal.

In an interview in the cramped apartment he shares with his wife, Suzy, and sons Francisco Javier, 17, and Anthony, 10, Inzunza said he has no regrets about helping Saline County prosecutors convict Juan Antonio Rodriguez of stabbing a housemate to death.

"I did it because it was the right thing to do," he said. "They needed me."


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; US: Missouri
KEYWORDS: illegalimmigration
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1 posted on 10/08/2005 2:44:37 AM PDT by Crackingham
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To: Crackingham
The "right thing to do" is to become a citizen of the United States. I did not see any mention of his intention to do that in this article.

What is the reason for NOT becoming legal?
2 posted on 10/08/2005 2:59:40 AM PDT by msnimje (If you suspect this post might need a sarcasm tag..... it does!)
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To: msnimje

Fear of deportation, no doubt.


3 posted on 10/08/2005 3:00:54 AM PDT by Crackingham
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Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: Crackingham

Way more backgound on the story:

http://www.columbia-missouri.com/news/story.php?ID=11257


5 posted on 10/08/2005 3:09:43 AM PDT by endthematrix (Those who despise freedom and progress have condemned themselves to isolation, decline, and collapse)
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To: Crackingham
Fear of deportation, no doubt.

I suppose I should look into how Legal immigration is handled in this country.
My ancestors came here in 1641 from Sweden so it is not something of which I have any personal knowledge.
I just assumed you could apply for Citizenship and you would get it.

6 posted on 10/08/2005 3:15:59 AM PDT by msnimje (If you suspect this post might need a sarcasm tag..... it does!)
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To: Crackingham

Why didn't someone just sponsor him for his green card?


7 posted on 10/08/2005 3:17:37 AM PDT by cyborg (I'm on the 24 plan having the best day ever.)
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To: msnimje

The problem is protectionist Democrats are too busy pandering to the unions, so they successfully lobby to keep legal immigration and visa caps low.

What this creates is a criminal class of illegal immigrants who mooch off the government, are not held accountable for the crimes they commit, and cannot hold a job, while nothing is done to address the real problem.


8 posted on 10/08/2005 3:17:48 AM PDT by RepublicanWithIntegrity
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To: Crackingham
Missouri Town Rallies Around Rapist

Missouri Town Rallies Around murderer

Missouri Town Rallies Around drug dealer

Missouri Town Rallies Around thief

Missouri Town Rallies Around pedophile

Missouri Town Rallies Around bigamist

Missouri Town Rallies Around adulterer

9 posted on 10/08/2005 3:20:31 AM PDT by expatguy (http://laotze.blogspot.com/)
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To: cyborg
Actually since his wife and son entered the US fraudulently and overstayed (I assume) a Tourist Visa, then all bets are off. That's a huge problem as noted here:

How to Be an Illegal Alien
It worked for me! Six steps for crashing George Bush's America in two weeks flat

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0513,york,62456,2.html

"The vast majority of illegals I've met have merely overstayed their tourist visas, meaning they entered this country in a perfectly legitimate fashion."
10 posted on 10/08/2005 3:27:04 AM PDT by endthematrix (Those who despise freedom and progress have condemned themselves to isolation, decline, and collapse)
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To: RepublicanWithIntegrity

Spot on! And that class funnels HUGE cash flow into the coffers of the DNC. SEIU is culprit #1


11 posted on 10/08/2005 3:29:05 AM PDT by endthematrix (Those who despise freedom and progress have condemned themselves to isolation, decline, and collapse)
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To: endthematrix

By MARINA WALKER In 1991, Francisco Xavier Inzunza floated across the Rio Grande from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on an inner tube. Then, dodging surveillance cameras and border patrol agents, he crossed a busy highway and leaped over a 6-foot wall into the United States. With only the clothes on his back, Inzunza made his way to Colorado to join his wife and 3-year-old son, who had come to the United States on tourist visas.

Francisco Xavier Inzunza was reissued a temporary work permit in August. He had been without one since September 2003, when he was told that deportation proceedings would be initiated against him.


12 posted on 10/08/2005 3:29:57 AM PDT by dennisw (You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you - Bob Dylan)
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To: msnimje
What is the reason for NOT becoming legal?

Absolutely apalling stupidity about the immigration process. You people act as if it is a simple trip to the consulate. Did you READ the article? The person had WAY more help in obtaining legal status that the average illegal resident and still could not avoid deportation. Yet the normal cabal of slackjawed drooling xenophobes on FR continue to bawl about "close and deport" rather than simply looking for a solution that would allow millions of good people like this to stay and BECOME legal. There have been people who have rebuked me for "playing the race card" in these threads, but I swear, I cannot see for the life of me how your response can be attributed to anything but a thin skin of "law and order" priorities smeared over a deep reservoir of simple dislike for Hispanics. If I am wrong, please read the article again and tell me what there is to dislike about this guy, except for him hopping the border originally?

People who advocate turning the US into a police state by instituting police action to round up and expel these people are asking for a repeat of this story in the millions. Of course, they will blame the "liberal" media for inciting sob stories, rather than their own fatally stupid prescriptions for fixing a problem.

The problem is our border laws with Mexico, which are designed primarily to protect our socialist, redistributionist "safety net" programs, rather than acknowledge freedom of markets and people, allowing in legally people who can and will work. Freepers who argue for closing the borders are on the clear side of the socialists here, although they are almost uniformly too dense to see it.

13 posted on 10/08/2005 3:34:29 AM PDT by chronic_loser
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To: cyborg
Why didn't someone just sponsor him for his green card?

See the first line in post 13.

14 posted on 10/08/2005 3:36:24 AM PDT by chronic_loser
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To: expatguy
Missouri Town Rallies Around Rapist

Missouri Town Rallies Around murderer

Missouri Town Rallies Around drug dealer

Missouri Town Rallies Around thief

Missouri Town Rallies Around pedophile

Missouri Town Rallies Around bigamist

Missouri Town Rallies Around adulterer

There have been people who have rebuked me for "playing the race card" in these threads, but I swear, I cannot see for the life of me how your response can be attributed to anything but a thin skin of "law and order" priorities smeared over a deep reservoir of simple dislike for Hispanics.

Thank you for making my case better than I ever could.

15 posted on 10/08/2005 3:40:57 AM PDT by chronic_loser
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To: chronic_loser

good post


16 posted on 10/08/2005 3:43:38 AM PDT by cyborg (I'm on the 24 plan having the best day ever.)
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To: dennisw
I'd like to know the reasoning behind the reissue of that work visa! It has to be the protection of an INS informant or just the inept handling via US immigration policy. Why wasn't his wife and child violations of overstaying (again assumption) on a Tourist Visa?
17 posted on 10/08/2005 3:48:19 AM PDT by endthematrix (Those who despise freedom and progress have condemned themselves to isolation, decline, and collapse)
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To: RepublicanWithIntegrity
The problem is protectionist Democrats are too busy pandering to the unions, so they successfully lobby to keep legal immigration and visa caps low. What this creates is a criminal class of illegal immigrants who mooch off the government, are not held accountable for the crimes they commit, and cannot hold a job, while nothing is done to address the real problem.

DINGDINGDINGDING!!!! We do have a winner, folks!

18 posted on 10/08/2005 3:49:01 AM PDT by chronic_loser
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To: chronic_loser
If I am wrong, please read the article again and tell me what there is to dislike about this guy, except for him hopping the border originally?

He had many of the same policies and attributes as this guy, also a respected member of his community...


19 posted on 10/08/2005 3:49:52 AM PDT by pageonetoo (You'll spot their posts soon enough!)
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To: pageonetoo
He had many of the same policies and attributes.......

Which policies and attributes, specifically?

20 posted on 10/08/2005 3:54:36 AM PDT by chronic_loser
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