politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina-- John McCain the presidential candidate suddenly sounded like the John McCain of 2005 on Monday, touting two pet issues that have generated considerable heartache among grassroots conservatives: the “Gang of 14” compromise and comprehensive immigration reform (Amnesty).
michellemalkin.com
By Michelle Malkin
I told you yesterday about John McCain’s plans to speak to the National Council of La Raza (The Race) in July. Here are the top 10 reasons he should repudiate the radical open borders, speech-squelching group that he has long embraced:
foxnews.com
The latest battle in the war on illegal immigration isn't over the smuggling of undocumented workers, it's over the trash they leave behind.
Government officials and border activists say the garbage dumped in the desert by illegal immigrants and their smugglers is staggering.
And the cleanup is costing taxpayers millions.
In 2006 alone, more than 1.18 million pounds of trash was collected along southern Arizona border, many in the meeting spots where immigrants rest, change clothes and wait to hitch a ride further north with a smuggler.
Associated Press
ST. ANTHONY, Idaho -- A suspected illegal immigrant has been charged with raping a 10-year-old girl who later gave birth in eastern Idaho.
The girl gave birth less than two weeks ago by caesarian section at Madison Memorial Hospital in Rexburg, Fremont County Sheriff Ralph C. Davis and other authorities said. Officials would not disclose the gender, date of birth or paternity of the baby.
"I wouldn't have believed a 10-year-old could conceive in the first place," Davis said.
A hospital spokeswoman would not discuss the condition of the girl or the baby and would not say whether either was still in the hospital Wednesday.
The story was first reported by KIDK Television in Idaho Falls.
St. Anthony police began investigating on April 28 after medical officials reported a pregnant child, and Guadalupe Gutierrez-Juarez, 37, of St. Anthony, was arrested the same day, Police Chief James Smith said.
"We had good information from witnesses," Smith said.
nbcsandiego.com
SAN DIEGO, California -- Border Patrol officials said Monday that they arrested more than 60 illegal immigrants over the weekend during a traffic stop.
Authorities said they stopped the semi truck in East County at a checkpoint near the Kitchen Creek Road exit on Interstate 8 on Saturday at about 9:15 p.m. Border Patrol officials said they interviewed the driver, who admitted being an illegal immigrant.
Border Patrol agents brought in a K-9 to search the truck, and officials said they found 61 illegal immigrants hiding behind bales of cardboard. Investigators said they believe the immigrants entered the trailer through a trap door in the floor of the trailer.
Officials said they seized the big rig and will prosecute its 29-year-old driver, identified as Jose Pina Flores, for immigrant smuggling.
wspa.com
SOUTH CAROLINA -- Interstate roundup. More than a dozen people were put in handcuffs after immigration agents say a group, suspected of being illegal immigrants, passed through the upstate Monday.
The scene unfolded on I-85 near Highway 9 in Spartanburg County, where 16 people were taken into federal custody.
But this is part of a larger immigration debate in South Carolina; one that is going to come to a head tomorrow in Columbia.
Agents said those arrested were headed from Phoenix to Charlotte. A county deputy stopped their van and called federal agents.
Albany Democrat-Herald
ALBANY, Oregon -- Albany police have arrested five people related to an abduction last month that investigators now say was a “kidnapping for money.”
On the evening of April 7, an Albany woman was taken from her home while her family was tied up and left behind. The kidnappers threatened to kill the woman if police were notified.
Police said the accused kidnappers had received information that the woman, Leticia Villa-Perez, had money and was a good target.
The woman turned up, unharmed, almost 24 hours later in Dallas, Polk County, where someone had dropped her off. Both law enforcement and the woman’s family picked her up.
One man was arrested that day, but the charges were later dropped.
Police said this morning that the woman was kidnapped for money. There was a ransom demand and “there was some level of money that was exchanged,” said Capt. Eric Carter, a spokesman for the Albany Police Department.
He said that he is not aware of any similar kidnappings ever happening in Albany.
The four suspects from Monmouth were arrested Saturday morning in Salem after they were found inside a stolen car. They are Ausli Vazquez-Perez, 18; Arnulfo Lopez-Perez, 28; Gilberto Vazquez-Perez, 26; and Dayver Vazquez-Perez, 23.
The jail said today all four had immigration holds on them, suggesting they are illegal immigrants. They were each charged with robbery, kidnapping, burglary, and conspiracy to commit those offenses, and unlawful use of weapon. They were brought to the Linn County Jail.
The fifth suspect, Ignacio Mendoza-Baltazar, 42, of Salem, faces conspiracy charges and was lodged in the Marion County jail.
The kidnapping happened at the victim’s home in the 700 block of 24th Avenue S.E.
examiner.com
PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Virginia -- Prince William County overwhelmed the federal government’s ability to remove illegal immigrants in the first year of their partnership by trying to deport many more inmates than anticipated, the nation’s immigration enforcement director said.
In a letter committing to redoubled efforts to execute the crackdown with the county, Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief Julie Myers said the jail tried to deport between 75 percent and 150 percent more inmates each month than agreed on last year.
“Everyone agreed that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of aliens who are being processed through your facilities. This number, however is well beyond the original projected caseload that was agreed upon,” wrote Myers, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The Manassas jail quickly began starting deportation cases against 70 to 100 inmates each month, well above the 40 estimated last year.
worldnetdaily.com
WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain, the de facto Republican presidential nominee, announced today he will attend the national convention of La Raza, a radical Hispanic lobby tied to the movement to reconquer the Southwestern U.S. that was part of Mexico before the Mexican-American War that ended in 1848.
The convention will be held in San Diego July 14.
Though La Raza bills itself as a civil rights organization, the group's name literally means "The Race."
scnow.com
SOUTH CAROLINA -- Eleven illegal aliens pleaded guilty in federal court to being in the U.S. without authorization and for attempting to pass counterfeit payroll checks, according to a press release issued Friday by acting U.S. Attorney Kevin McDonald.
Prosecutors say Alfredo Bautista-Bello, Miguel Antonio Mayen-Cardona, Daniel Chacon, Mario Macias-Hernandez, Viridiana Macias-Hernandez, Oscar Lopez, Pablo Noe Maldonado-Larios, Pedro Mundo-Cruz, Victor Sanchez, Sergio Perez and Hugo Vega were involved in a counterfeit check cashing scam at a Piggly Wiggly in Johnsonville in October.
The U.S. Secret Service later discovered the same group had passed more than $6,000 in counterfeit checks in Marion and had done the same thing in other U.S. cities, according to the release.
The maximum penalty each person could receive is a $250,000 fine and 10 years in prison. All face deportation after serving their sentences.
ktla.com
LOS ANGELES, California -- L.A. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich says the county spends more than $1 billion a year on benefits to illegals.
According to new data from the Department of Public Social Services, nearly twenty five percent of Los Angeles County 's welfare and food stamp benefits goes directly to the children of illegal aliens, at a cost of $36 million a month -- for a projected annual cost of $432 million.
"The total cost for illegal immigrants to County taxpayers far exceeds $1 billion a year - not including the millions of dollars for education," said Antonovich.
"With $220 million for public safety, $400 million for healthcare, and $432 million in welfare allocations, illegal immigration continues to have a devastating impact on Los Angeles County taxpayers."
The supervisor said, in March, illegals collected over $19 million in welfare assistance and over $16 million in food stamp allocations.
The Washington Times
Sen. John McCain said yesterday that Republicans have shed support among Hispanic voters because of the party's get-tough approach to illegal immigration, but he predicted that his enforcement-then- legalization approach will rebuild those bridges.
Using a Mexican holiday, Cinco de Mayo, as a launching point, Mr. McCain's presidential campaign announced a Spanish-language Web site (www.johnmccain.com/ espanol), and said the senator from Arizona will speak to this year's National Council of La Raza convention in San Diego in July to try to court Hispanic voters.
The Virginian-Pilot
NORFOLK, Virginia -- A federal judge sent a message to the commercial fishing community on Wednesday that getting caught employing illegal immigrants will land you in jail.
Despite calls for leniency from prosecution and defense attorneys, U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson gave Yvonne Michelle Peabody, operator of the Peabody Corp., 90 days in prison for employing undocumented workers over a four-year period.
Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas -- Federal agents have arrested 24 suspected illegal immigrants working on a construction project near the Little Rock National Airport -- but not inside the airport's secured areas.
Officials of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said ICE agents raided a construction project at the site of Supermarine. That company provides fuel and supplies to corporate and private aircraft. Temple Black, a spokesman for ICE at New Orleans, said the raid came as local police served an arrest warrant on a U.S. citizen facing a drunken-driving charge. Black said ICE had gotten a tip about illegal immigrants working at the construction site, and decided to carry out their raid at the same time local police went to make the DWI arrest.
Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho — Rep. Bill Sali, R-Idaho, is urging Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to hold off opening a Mexican consulate in Idaho until the government can show the office won't aid illegal aliens.
Sali, a conservative first-term congressman, sent Rice a letter Wednesday saying Idaho residents deserve guarantees that Mexican consular offices will not help illegal aliens obtain identification cards that can be used to receive government services or other benefits.
"Our government has the moral and constitutional duty to take into consideration how foreign consulates affect our fellow citizens here in our own country," Sali wrote in the letter to Rice that was made available to news media.
"While I appreciate the important role that the Mexican and other foreign consulates play in facilitating trade and assisting their citizens in distress just as our foreign consulates do, that is not the issue at stake here," he added.
Sali asserted that the State Department has done little to assure residents that a consular office would not be used to aid illegal immigration.
wtov9.com
NEW MARTINSVILLE, West Virginia -- New Martinsville's Police Chief Tim Cecil said his officers took two suspected illegal aliens into custody Saturday night, just 11 days after immigration officials detained a group of suspected illegal aliens in Wheeling and New Martinsville.
Cecil said a resident called police concerned because two people in a white van were circling Paducah Drive.
They said the duo may have been trying to break into a Paducah Drive apartment, where officials took seven suspected illegal aliens into custody just 11 days ago. Police said the apartment hasn't been touched since.
buffaloreflex.com
BUFFALO, Missouri -- Officers from the Springfield Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division apprehended four suspected Mexican illegal aliens in Buffalo on Friday, April 25. The four were members of a crew from Taylor Made Roofing of Springfield that were working to repair a roof at the home of Jerry Cantlon, 28 North Fir. Cantlon's roof was one of many that was damaged by the March 31 tornado.
Mike Spinella, resident agent in charge, said he received a call from the Dallas County Sheriff's Department on Wednesday, April 23 regarding a number of possible illegal aliens working on the roof of a Buffalo residence. Sheriff's deputies helped with the arrests. The four illegal aliens were transported to the ICE RAC Springfield office where they were processed for removal from the United States. As of Monday the four remained in ICE custody pending an appearance before an immigration judge.
wapakdailynews.com
Waynesfield, OHIO -- Ten illegal immigrants were transported out of Auglaize County after a routine traffic stop Saturday night by officers with the Waynesfield Police Department.
Waynesfield Police Lt. Nathan Motter said he saw the van they were driving, which had no tail lights, go through town previously when he was off duty. When he stopped it at 10:40 p.m. Saturday in the 300 block of Wapakoneta Street he became suspicious when the driver of the vehicle and passenger handed him international identification from the same country that looked completely different. Five of the men were in the van that Motter stopped. A Honda Civic following, with another five men inside, also stopped.
After conversations with Immigration Custom Enforcement (ICE) officials out of Cleveland Motter said all 10 men were determined to be illegal aliens and were transported with the assistance of deputies from the Auglaize County Sheriff’s Office to the Auglaize County Jail, where they remained until Monday morning.
Holders were placed on them so they would not be released until immigration
officials could arrive, Motter said.
wearecentralpa.com
BOGGS TOWNSHIP, CENTRE COUNTY, Pennsylvania -- 13 illegal aliens nabbed in Centre County are facing deportation.
Police say around 7:30 last night, they pulled a van over on Interstate 80 in Boggs Township for an equipment violation. Police say none of the 13 people inside the van had identification or spoke english. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials took them into custody and they say all of them will be deported.
The Virginian-Pilot
NORFOLK, Virginia -- A Guatemalan national made it easy for illegal immigrants on the Eastern Shore to drive, according to the FBI.
The FBI arrested Felipe Jesus Mazariegos-Perez at his home Tuesday on federal charges of buying hundreds of Tennessee and Mississippi license plates and car titles and selling them to immigrants who cannot prove their residency, as Virginia requires.
The FBI raided Mazariegos-Perez's home in Nelsonia, Accomack County, on Tuesday morning, looking for the out-of-state plates and titles. He was arrested and taken into U.S. District Court that afternoon, where a magistrate ordered him jailed pending a bond hearing Thursday.
Mazariegos-Perez, speaking through an interpreter, told the judge he could not afford to hire his own lawyer. His wife, Elvia Elizabel Soto-Ortiz, also was charged, but she was allowed to turn herself in by Monday.
Associated Press
CHICAGO -- Immigration activists and civil rights leaders are gearing up for rallies and marches in cities across the nation, hoping to revive the stagnant immigration debate in time for the presidential election.
Activists predict turnout for the more than 200 events planned Thursday from Seattle to Miami will be far less than in years past. But they say efforts demanding comprehensive immigration legislation — including pathways to citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. — have extended beyond the streets.
yumasun.com
PHOENIX, Arizona -- Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed legislation Monday to require police departments and sheriff's deputies to do more to crack down on illegal immigration despite its bipartisan support.
The Seattle Times
LORETITO, Mexico — It's the end of the day here. Down one lonely street two young boys kick a ball between them, as an elderly woman slowly makes her way nearby.
On most days, this little town about 300 miles northwest of Mexico City feels like the set of a Hollywood movie — its narrow streets and alleyways silent, stark, deserted.
From the sidewalk outside his small liquor shop, Edmundo Cruz takes in the vast emptiness, pointing out one house after another left vacant when families headed north — to Seattle.
It is said more Loretito people now live in the Seattle area than currently live here.
Center For Immigration Studies
By Norman Matloff
In pressuring Congress to expand the H-1B work visa and employment-based green card programs, industry lobbyists have recently adopted a new tack. Seeing that their past cries of a tech labor shortage are contradicted by stagnant or declining wages, their new buzzword is innovation. Building on their perennial assertion that the foreign workers are “the best and the brightest,” they now say that continued U.S. leadership in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) hinges on our ability to import the world’s best engineers and scientists. Yet, this Backgrounder will present new data analysis showing that the vast majority of the foreign workers — including those at most major tech firms — are people of just ordinary talent, doing ordinary work. They are not the innovators the industry lobbyists portray them to be.
Associated Press
WELLINGTON, Texas -- A 42-year-old Honduran national suspected of raping three women over 60 in the past two months remained in a Panhandle jail Monday.
Jose Ayala Nunez was arrested Sunday night in Wellington after investigators developed leads from the three attacks, which allegedly occurred March 17, April 10 and April 25.
Each time, the perpetrator broke into the homes, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.