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EL PASO, Texas — An alleged Mexican gang leader named to the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list may have surgically altered his face and changed his finger prints to hide his identity, federal investigators said Wednesday. Eduardo "Tablas" Ravelo was added earlier this week to the wanted list that includes the likes of Osama Bin Laden and Boston crime lord James "Whitey" Bulger. "From what I've heard, it's my understanding he may have had ... plastic surgery and manipulated his finger prints," said Samantha Mikeska, the FBI's lead investigator in a 5-year-old probe of Ravelo's Barrio Azteca gang. If Ravelo...

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's chief counsel, Thomas Saenz, has been tapped to become president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the organization announced Tuesday. Saenz has been one of Villaraigosa's closest advisors since taking the post in August 2005, recently serving as the mayor's lead representative in negotiations with city labor unions over salary and benefit concessions to help close the city's $530-million budget gap. And he helped to successfully defend a city ordinance that required hotels near Los Angeles International Airport to pay a "living wage" to workers. Saenz also was one...

Homeland Security: The open-borders crowd is angry the president ditched its radical choice to run the nation's civil-rights division. And it's blaming this paper for his "faintheartedness."Obama was expected to appoint Thomas Saenz as his top civil-rights cop at the Justice Department, where he would have had power to investigate issues related to illegal immigration, such as voting rights, redistricting, worker documentation and police conduct. But then, at the last minute, the president deselected him in the face of vocal opposition to Saenz's extremist work for an illegal alien group, whose co-founder has made racist remarks against whites. The New...

In a little-noticed act of political faintheartedness, the Obama administration has pulled back from nominating Thomas Saenz, a highly regarded civil-rights lawyer and counsel to the mayor of Los Angeles, to run the Justice Department’s civil rights division. Saenz, the former top litigator in Los Angeles for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, or Maldef...The floating of his name led to fierce outbursts from anti-immigrant groups and blogs, which detest him for being so good at what he does. He was a leader of the successful fight to block California’s Proposition 187...He has defended Latino day laborers who...

Civil Rights: The open-borders crowd eagerly awaits the nomination of one of its own to a key Justice Department post, a man who has dedicated his life to promoting illegal immigrant "rights."President Obama is expected to appoint Thomas Saenz as the nation's top civil-rights enforcer. It's a key appointment because Obama has promised to "reinvigorate" the division Saenz will lead. And the Civil Rights Division carries a wide-ranging portfolio, covering everything from hate crimes and police misconduct to voting rights and redistricting laws. All this power will likely be turned over to Saenz, who was a top lawyer for a...

This just in: The Los Angeles Daily Journal is reporting that President Obama has tapped Thomas Saenz to head the civil rights division at the Department of Justice. Saenz, 42, the former vice president of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Los Angeles, is currently serving as counsel to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. ... Civil rights attorneys and academics in southern California praised the choice. “I don’t think the president or attorney general could make a better selection,” said Mark Rosenbaum, legal director of the ACLU of Southern California. “He’s a throwback to the...

Hutchison holds tense meeting with Perry supporters in El Paso EL PASO (AP) — U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison reacted angrily recently after several El Paso business leaders suggested that she not challenge Gov. Rick Perry in 2006 because their large campaign contributions to state leaders have increased the city's influence in Austin. During the private luncheon last week, Hutchison, R-Texas, was asked to instead run for re-election for the Senate. She responded by denouncing the role large contributions play in state government, some of those attending said. The meeting was organized as a briefing by the senator on various...