Free Republic

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0903/090309la.htm Leader of ring that moved thousands of illegal aliens across U.S. sentenced to more than 6 years in prison LOS ANGELES - A Guatemalan national who helped run a Los Angeles-based organization that harbored and transported more than 9,000 illegal aliens was sentenced today to 78 months in federal prison. Francisco Andres-Francisco, 40, was sentenced by United States District Judge George H. King in Los Angeles. Andres-Francisco has been in custody since he was arrested 14 months ago in Pennsylvania after being found driving a van allegedly loaded with illegal aliens. Andres-Francisco...

If you come to downtown New Bedford tomorrow and happen to see the flag of Portugal flying in front of City Hall, it is because March 15 is recognized in Massachusetts as Peter Francisco Day, commemorating the Hercules of the American Revolution immortalized by the U.S. Post Office in 1975 with an 18-cent commemorative stamp: "Contributors to the Cause ... Peter Francisco, fighter extraordinary." Peter Francisco lived in Virginia since age 5, when he was found abandoned at City Point, now Hopewell, on June 23, 1765. Left there by Moorish pirates, he was kidnapped from his parents' backyard on a...