Free Republic

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico – The holiday trip home for many Mexican migrants has gotten easier under President Vicente Fox. Instead of insisting on bribes, some police offer to guide caravans of migrant cars, and customs agents allow gifts that in the past were often confiscated. Since taking office, Fox has made changing government officials' attitudes toward migrants one of his top priorities. He has focused on the annual return trip home before Christmas, a time when the majority of migrant families return to Mexico, clogging highways with pickup trucks and U.S. sedans overflowing with bicycles, television sets and computers. Fox...

NEW BRUNSWICK: Authorities say DNA evidence has linked a 32-year-old city man accused of trying to rape a woman at a French Street music store Dec. 6 to six rapes in New Brunswick. Ricardo Cepates, an illegal immigrant from Honduras who was deported from the United States once before, was charged with being the serial rapist who stalked women in the city since September 2001, authorities said. He was being held today in lieu of $1.25 million bail at Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick. Cepates was chased down through more than a foot of snow on French...

Inside his little Western wear store tucked in a corner on East Riverside Drive, Francisco Javier Aceves can't help but feel a kinship with the angular young men who come in to buy jeans, cowboy boots, phone cards and cell phones. As sure as a regular payday, they come in also to wire money to their families back home in Mexico, in places such as Veracruz, Tabasco, Chiapas and Oaxaca. "Sometimes they come three or four in a car," Aceves said about his customers. "Sometimes they just start lining up to wire money." The young men live and work in...

<p>Hundreds of people angered by the repeal of a law allowing undocumented immigrants to apply for driver's licenses took to the streets of cities around the state Friday to kick off a daylong boycott.</p> <p>The protest came in response to the Legislature's action last week and as part of an effort to highlight the economic contribution of California's Hispanic community, the nation's largest. The protest was planned to coincide with the feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe.</p>

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Advocates are asking Hispanics throughout the state to flex their economic muscle Friday by refusing to go to work, school or stores. The planned statewide boycott, organized by two Southern California advocacy groups, is a response to last week's repeal of a law that would have allowed undocumented immigrants to get driver's licenses. "Latino and immigrant communities don't have to roll over," said Edward Headington, a spokesman for the Mexican American Political Association, one of the organizers of the boycott. "It's saying that there is strength in numbers." At 11.9 million, Hispanics make up about a...

The prospect of millions of Mexicans receiving United States Social Security checks is moving closer to reality. The Gannett News Service reports U.S. and Mexican officials are discussing a "totalization" agreement that would transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in payments south of the border. The plan would allow documented and undocumented immigrants to return home but still collect U.S. benefits. WorldNetDaily reported the idea to merge both countries' Social Security systems was pushed late last year by Mexican President Vincente Fox as payback from President George W. Bush for failing to secure major new immigration reforms beneficial to Mexico...

San Francisco-AP -- Hispanics in California are being urged to stay home from school, work and stores tomorrow to protest the repeal of a driver's license law. The measure, which would have allowed undocumented immigrants to get driver's licenses, was signed by former Governor Gray Davis. However, it has been repealed by Governor Schwarzenegger. A spokesman for the Mexican American Political Association says the strike is a matter of "respect and dignity." Edward Headington says protesters hope to remind legislators that the driver's license issue has not been forgotten. However, some people are expressing reservations about the protest. An official...