Free Republic

Michigan dairy farmer gets prison time for hiring undocumented immigrants A Michigan dairy farmer is to spend a couple of years in federal prison and owes a six-figure fine for hiring undocumented immigrants. U.S. District Judge Thomas L. Ludington on Thursday, Jan. 4, sentenced Denis Burke to two years in prison, followed by two years of supervised release. Ludington did not order Burke taken into custody on Thursday, but gave him time to self-report to the U.S. Marshals Services. The judge also ordered Burke to pay a fine of $187,500 and an assessment fee of $100. Burke in September pleaded...

Contractors across Williston got a surprise visit from a team of state inspectors this week, and for a few illegal operators, that meant hefty fines and a visit from Border Patrol. The North Dakota Contractor Compliance Task Force – a group of state officials working for a variety of departments –searched construction sites in Williston on Tuesday and Wednesday, making sure contractors’ papers were in order. “What the attorney general and other elected officials want to do is, in addition to protecting consumers and property owners, to ensure that it is a level playing field for contractors,” said Parrell...

Top conservative leaders have written President Bush telling him to drop his insistence on a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal aliens and instead support the 85 percent of congressional Republicans who want to tighten law enforcement first. Signers include William J. Bennett, Robert H. Bork, Ward Connerly, David A. Keene, Phyllis Schlafly and a number of think-tank academics and pundits. The immigration debate is the first major issue on which Mr. Bush finds himself opposing a majority of Republicans in Congress and depending on Democrats to deliver a victory. In their letter, the conservatives tell Mr....

DAYTON, Tenn. — Hearty applause arose from within the two-story house as white vans rolled up the gravel driveway to pick up a group of Mexican workers to return them to Mexico. "If God is willing, we will all come back next year," 27-yearold Francisco Ocañas said last week, speaking in Spanish. Mr. Ocañas was among the group of 29 men who spent six weeks harvesting fruit at a local farm under a guest worker program. For Mr. Ocañas, the 32-hour bus ride back to the Mexican town of Nuevo Leon is familiar. He first came to work in Tennessee...

BOISE, Idaho - Faced with the costs of coping with illegal immigrants, one county is looking to the courts for help - by filing a racketeering lawsuit against the businesses that hire these workers. The legal theory: that a pattern of immigration violations by employers is costing Canyon County millions for law enforcement, education and social services. The presence of the illegal workers "lowers the labor wage for American citizens and removes employment opportunities," said county Commissioner Robert Vasquez, who just started a bid for Congress. "Certainly it uses tax dollars to provide them with educational services, medical care, unemployment...

DOBBS: The Mexican government has made yet another outrageous demand of the United States. Mexico is demanding the United States relax its immigration policy and standards. CASEY WIAN, CNN : It's the last scheduled meeting between U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and Mexican Interior Secretary Santiago Creel before Ridge leaves office in two weeks. TOM RIDGE: I like being his amigo. SANTIAGO CREEL : The government of President Fox will continue to work with his American counterpart until we can come to an agreement. We have proposed as a government five central points. Those demands are what he calls...

Immigration agents have virtually stopped punishing employers of illegal workers. Instead, they are arresting immigrants coming out of jails, packed into smugglers' vans or working at potential terrorist targets. Nationally, the number of employers fined for hiring illegal workers or failing to verify their paperwork dropped from 808 in 1996 to just 13 last year. No one in Colorado has been fined for hiring illegal workers in three years, although a few employers have been prosecuted criminally. Raids at work sites to round up workers have nearly vanished. Arrests in such cases in the U.S. have fallen from 17,552 to...