Free Republic

Some of the anti-Israel protests taking place at U.S. college campuses, including the recent demonstrations at Columbia University, have been supported by organizations that traveled to communist Cuba to receive resistance training, an ADN investigation has uncovered. ADN’s investigation coincides with a recent Sunday report published by the New York Post that revealed a radical NYC based organization known as The People’s Forum familiarized anti-Israel activists with Black Lives Matter protest techniques just hours before they stormed Hamilton Hall at Columbia University, and that the group was incited by Manolo De Los Santos–a radical activist organizer with deep ties to...

CHICAGO - A Mexican woman says she is "picking up the torch" from another illegal resident who became a symbol for immigration reform when she took shelter in a Chicago church for a year before being deported. Flor Crisostomo, 28, who paid a smuggler to drive her across the U.S. border in 2000, spurned a deportation order Monday and moved into Adalberto United Methodist Church. Crisostomo hopes her actions send a message similar to Elvira Arellano, who became a beacon of hope for millions of illegal immigrants and a lightning rod for those who saw her brazen refusal to leave...

Does America need a terrorist financier to secure its “freedom”? Sami al-Arian thinks so. His National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom poses as a watchdog for the Constitution, but he has focused his lobbying efforts on repealing anti-terrorist legislation. While Sami al-Arian himself has been arrested for being a prime financier for Palestinian Islamic Jihad (and likely one of its three founders), his political movement continues to threaten homeland security. Al-Arian founded the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom (NCPPF) in 1997 as a reaction to the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1996. The coalition’s stated goal “is to help change the...

ALBANY, N.Y. - Five former managers from a major crate and pallet manufacturer that employed illegal immigrants pleaded guilty Tuesday, 10 months after federal agents staged sweeping raids at company sites in 26 states. James Rice, 37, of Houston, an executive regional general manager of IFCO Systems, pleaded guilty to conspiring to employ illegal workers. Robert Belvin, 43, of Stuart, Fla., a former general manager of the Albany IFCO plant, pleaded guilty to two felony conspiracy charges. The two executives could face up to two years in prison and a $250,000 fine, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tina Sciocchetti said. Netherlands-based IFCO...

An undocumented immigrant arrested and sent back to Mexico two months ago during a large-scale raid in San Antonio was arrested again Friday after having crossed back into the United States. Daniel Hernández López, 37, was arrested Friday morning at his San Antonio home and charged with illegal entry, said Jerry Robinette, second in command of investigations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Antonio. Hernández faces a maximum prison sentence of six months. He was one of 27 undocumented workers rounded up April 19 at IFCO Systems, a Houston-based crate and pallet construction company that was the subject...

When Peter Smith, a senior immigration enforcement agent in upstate New York, led the raid on a cavernous IFCO Systems wood products plant just outside of Albany this week, he was taken aback by what he saw. "There was a lot of drilling, cutting, dismantling of old pallets, pneumatic nail guns, power saws. Most of these guys were working in jeans, tennis shoes, short-sleeve shirts; some had sawdust in their hair," he said. "No legal facility would let workers work in those conditions." The plant, which opened in 2004, specializes in pallet retrieval and recycling, and has listed Target Corp....

Statement by IFCO 21.04.2006 16:09:00 IFCO SYSTEMS today released the following statementregarding information presented yesterday at a U.S. Immigration andCustoms Enforcement press conference in Washington: As it is IFCO's policy to comply with all federal and stateemployment provisions, we take the allegations made by U.S.Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) very seriously and arecommitted to resolving this matter as soon as possible. We are verydisturbed by these allegations and have immediately begun a thoroughinvestigation of the facts. The activities and attitudes outlined in the allegations arecounter to everything we stand for at IFCO. We have the highestrespect for our nation's employment...

38 Commerce City workers arrested, part of national investigation The multistate investigation that led to the arrest of seven current and former IFCO Systems managers and more than 1,110 of its workers, including 38 locally, signals a new crackdown on illegal immigrants and their employers, a top federal official says

Federal authorities have refused to identify the 36 Mexican men arrested Wednesday morning during a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in Biglerville. Thirty-four of the alleged illegal immigrants were released from York County Prison on their own recognizance. One of the two individuals being kept at the facility, said ICE special agent Linda Valentine, has a warrant for deportation, and another re-entered the country after being deported. “There’s not enough room at the prison to keep everyone. It’s full,” said Valentine, when reached at her Philadelphia office Thursday afternoon. “We are only able to hold criminal aliens there.”

Company's success was 'curious' to competitors Feds think illegal labor key to Houston division's record profits By ROBERT CROWE Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle When Houston-based IFCO Systems North America Inc. reported record profits last year, others in the unglamorous business of recycling wooden pallets couldn't help but wonder how the company did it. "We were all very curious about this," said Chaille Brindley, assistant publisher of the trade magazine Pallet Enterprise. "They were able to do things that other companies just couldn't do." Federal investigators think a significant portion of those profits came on the backs of illegal immigrant workers...

Department of Homeland Security Unveils Comprehensive Immigration Enforcement Strategy for the Nation’s Interior For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary Contact: ICE Public Affairs, 202-514-2648 April 20, 2006 Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Julie L. Myers, Assistant Secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), today unveiled a comprehensive immigration enforcement strategy for the nation’s interior. The new interior enforcement strategy represents the second phase of the Secure Border Initiative (SBI), which is the Department of Homeland Security’s multi-year plan to secure America’s borders and reduce illegal migration. The first phase of the SBI remains focused on gaining...

A nationwide crackdown on illegal immigrant workers netted some arrests in the Capital Region on Wednesday. And now, one of the workers is speaking out about the raid. All the men are either from Honduras and Mexico and have been living at a home on Western Avenue -- a home they said IFCO provided for them for about $50 a week. While many of the men don't speak English, one of them did. He didn't want his name used, but he said he is 28 years old, from Mexico, and has been living and working in the U.S. illegally for...

U.S. Immigration Sweep Nabs 1,000 Last Update: 4/20/2006 7:31:27 AM United Press International A national U.S. immigration sweep has netted more than 1,000 illegal workers and resulted in the arrests of at least nine people who employed them. U.S. Attorney Glenn Suddaby in Albany, N.Y., said the raid focused on IFCO Systems, which is a manufacturer of wooden pallets, crates and containers. Arrests were made in nearly 40 locations including Houston, Cincinnati, Phoenix and Albany. A customs official said federal authorities checked a sample of 5,800 IFCO employee records last year and found that 53 percent had Social Security numbers...

Federal agents raided a west Jackson business Wednesday morning. It was part of a nationwide crackdown on suspected illegal immigrants. While politicians continue to debate immigration reform, so-called "ICE" agents launched the crackdown on undocumented workers. Surprise raids were carried out at a number of 'IFCO' businesses. One bust was right here in Jackson. The well-organized early morning crackdown by "ICE" agents took place in several locations. Among them, Houston, Texas, Albany, New York, Portland, Oregon and Jackson, Mississippi. Agents arrested suspected illegal immigrants working for 'IFCO Systems' based in Houston, Texas. One man whose brother was taken into custody...

Immigration Officials Raid Evendale Business Federal immigration agents and local police raided an Evendale business Wednesday and arrested more than 30 people. The raid happened at IFCO Systems on Evendale Drive in Evendale and police say they were looking for illegal immigrants. After about an hour, agents left escorting two white vans but they declined to say who or how many people are in their custody. A spokesperson for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement only released this statments: "Today's arrests and detentions are part of an ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement worksite enforcement investigation. Because the enforcement actions are ongoing, we...

Immigration officials made a surprise visit to a northeast Houston business this morning and questioned about two dozen workers in what may be only one of several immigration raids in the city today. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement bus was parked in front of IFCO Systems on North McCarty Drive where several officials had gathered the workers. The company makes and repairs pallets, wooden structures used in shipping. A woman stopped by to check on relatives who work at the company, including a cousin. "He doesn't have papers. They say he'll be deported back to El Salvador,'' said Ana...

Dana Milbank and Alan Cooperman do a pretty good job of making John J. Tierney look like an alarmist nut based on their report of his presentation at the Heritage Foundation yesterday. His upcoming book apparently researches the funding and momentum behind the burgeoning anti-war protest industry and finds a lot of evidence that it primarily consists of unreconstructed communists. The Washington Post report of the event has Tierney painting a pretty broad brush on this score, however, and starts out by using what it believes to be a killer emotional rebuttal: Cindy Sheehan: anti-American communist? That was the accusation...

Not In Our Name and the World Wide Terrorism WebBy Michael TremoglieFrontPageMagazine.com | March 19, 2003 In the run-up to this war, Not In Our Name became one of the major “peace” organizers and coalitions in the United States. Not In Our Name has spared no cost purchasing ads in newspapers around the world to publish its anti-American Statement of Conscience.  Its signatories include scores of Hate America bigwigs, like Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti, Gloria Steinem and Barbara Kingsolver.  Hollywood icons (and many more has-beens) like Danny Glover, Jessica Lange, Tyne Daly, Martin Sheen and Ed Harris have...

Outrageous! Communist NION is saying toppling of the statue of Saddam Hussein is a US staged media event for the media. http://www.nion.us/ http://www.nion.us/IMAGES/saddam3.jpg They will always use a conspiracy theory to get their evil aims across - lies, deceit, agitation and propaganda.