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WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democrats are hoping Hispanic voters will help them win control of Congress in midterm elections next month, and are promising help for immigrants in return. Turnout is historically low for this swelling segment of the US electorate, but the community showed its political potential with massive demonstrations on immigration reform earlier this year -- and the Republican-controlled Congress has delivered little joy on their top issue. "The key is getting Hispanic voters out to vote," Democratic Party president Howard Dean said ahead of November 7 elections in which all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and...

President Bush shoehorned a plug for his guest worker program between making a joke about an award winner and listening to love songs at a White House celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. Bush said that as lawmakers debate immigration policy, they need to remember that while enforcing U.S. borders is important, it is only one step in the struggle to stop illegal immigration. He pressed Congress to pass his guest worker program to legally bring in new foreign workers and give some of the country's illegal immigrants a shot at U.S. citizenship. "We must understand that you can't kick 12...

Gearing Up, and Girding for, Protests Around the U.S., cities brace for marches. In L.A., a huge crowd is expected along Wilshire. By Rong-Gong Lin II and Arin Gencer Times Staff Writers May 1, 2006 As organizers and police made final preparations Sunday for immigration protests and possible boycotts around the nation today, residents and business owners in the path of marches in Los Angeles were bracing with a mix of excitement, anxiety and even some anger. Los Angeles police expect the largest of the demonstrations to occur this afternoon on Wilshire Boulevard. Authorities are preparing for hundreds of thousands...

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico warned Thursday that the U.S. proposal to build miles of border fence will damage relations between the two countries. The Foreign Relations Department said it was "deeply worried" about the proposal, which is working its way through the Senate, adding it will "increase tension in border communities." "These measures will harm the bilateral relationship. They are against the spirit of co-operation that is needed to guarantee security on the common border," the department said in a statement. The House of Representatives and Senate are maneuvering to speed construction of a 700-mile fence along the United...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Police here operated for years under what amounts to a "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward illegal immigrants. As elsewhere in the United States, law enforcement officers did not check the immigration status of people they came into contact with, and in the vast majority of cases, a run-in with the law carried little threat of deportation. But that accommodation for the burgeoning illegal population ended abruptly in April, when the Mecklenburg County sheriff's office began to enforce immigration law, placing more than 100 people a month into deportation proceedings. Some of them had been charged with...

Officer fatally shot by suspect in patrol carSuspect is illegal immigrant with past criminal history (9/22/06 - HOUSTON) - A 12-year Houston police officer was shot and killed as he sat in the front seat of his patrol car during a traffic stop, police said. Now Eyewitness News has learned that suspect should not have even been in the United States. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Also on ABC13.com: Send news tips | RSS | ABC13 E-lert | Info mentioned on air | Search abc13.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The suspect, Juan Quintero, accused in the murder of Officer Rodney Johnson, 40, appeared in court early Friday...

FREEPORT — Velasco Elementary School’s principal said he has been taken aback by a controversy that has arisen from his campus’ Mexican Independence Day celebration, and he apologizes for offending parents. During a short school assembly Friday, several parent volunteers read a pledge of allegiance to the Mexican flag. Since a parent complained on the Chris Baker show on NewsRadio 740 KTRH that afternoon, the issue has become a focal point of some Houston talk radio shows. “It’s been overwhelming,” said longtime Principal Sam Williams. “It’s been a real trying ordeal and all I can say is I deeply apologize...

LOS ANGELES - Former President Bill Clinton praised President Bush on Saturday for supporting reforms that would allow millions of illegal immigrants to seek citizenship but said the debate in Congress is being fomented by Republicans who want to divide America. "I'm proud of him for doing it and I thanked him for doing it," he said of Bush during a "Cafe con Clinton" breakfast speech to the annual conference of the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights advocacy group. Clinton said Bush's roots in Texas — which has one of the nation's largest Hispanic...

Bush Administration Quietly Plans NAFTA Super Highway By Jerome R. Corsi Human Events 6-14-6 Quietly but systematically, the Bush Administration is advancing the plan to build a huge NAFTA Super Highway, four football-fields-wide, through the heart of the U.S. along Interstate 35, from the Mexican border at Laredo, Tex., to the Canadian border north of Duluth, Minn. Once complete, the new road will allow containers from the Far East to enter the United States through the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas, bypassing the Longshoreman's Union in the process. The Mexican trucks, without the involvement of the Teamsters Union, will drive...