Texas Republicans wary of Bush’s plans for Mexico

WASHINGTON — President Bush’s attempt to win $560 million in aid this year to assist Mexico’s anti-narcotics efforts has run into a rebellion from some Texas Republicans worried about corruption, inefficiency and now defections among Mexican police officials.

Wednesday’s disclosure that three Mexican police chiefs are seeking asylum in the United States prompted the Texans to push Thursday for congressional hearings on the bloody border war among Mexico’s drug cartels and a reassessment of U.S. anti-drug assistance to the country.

“Our first priority must be to secure our own border and equip our own personnel before we even discuss sending one nickel to the corrupt Mexican government,” said Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston.

Bush has asked Congress to approve emergency assistance for the Merida Initiative, the first installment of a three-year, $1.4 billion project to send American equipment and training to Mexican security forces battling powerful drug cartels.

But Texas lawmakers from both parties have balked at supplying the Mexican government with equipment that they say U.S. law enforcement agencies lack. And congressional Democratic leaders, eager to hand Bush yet another legislative setback, are likely to embrace the Texans’ efforts.

Zogby Poll: More than half of voters unhappy with Presidential Picks

Kathryn Hauser

Are you happy with the current crop of presidential candidates this election year? A new Zogby poll answers that very question - saying many voters are not.

Trevor Alfrod of Albany has been closely following the upcoming presidential elections and feels that no candidate can possess the same political views that he has.

“No way there is going to be a person who’s got exactly what you want. You’ve just got to pick someone who mirrors it closely in the issues you most believe in.”

As we get closer to determining the top two presidential candidates in this year’s election the poll says that nearly half of voters are unhappy with the likely choices.

Chris Joannides of Middletown is one of those voters, “I don’t know who I want to vote for or if I may vote because I’m not that satisfied with who we have running right now.”

49% of those polled say they would never vote for Senator Hillary Clinton while 44% say they would never vote for Senator Barack Obama. 42% say Senator John McCain would never get their support.

The poll also shows that republicans and conservative voters are the*most unhappy with the candidate choices.

Local area residents, like Alfrod feel the most important issue the candidate’s face in this year’s election is, “the war, definitely the war.”

Other top issues include the economy, healthcare and immigration. As for final word on who will snag the democratic nomination… only time will tell.

$2.5B Human smuggling industry examined

Associated Press

Human smugglers have built sophisticated criminal enterprises generating an estimated $2.5 billion annually through their Arizona operations alone, authorities say.

Working in league with Mexican drug cartels, human smuggling kingpins have set up networks of drivers, warehouse operators, distribution specialists and enforcers to move their loads from northern Sonora through the Phoenix metropolitan area and to their final destinations throughout the United States.

The smugglers, or “coyotes,” call the immigrants “pollos” - chickens - human cargo without value beyond what it can bring on the open market, the East Valley Tribune reported in a series on the human smuggling industry.

What Does Granting Amnesty Have to Do With Funding Our Troops in Iraq?

Ira Mehlman

There is an unwritten rule in Congress that the appropriations process should not be used to pass major legislation. So when the Senate Appropriations Committee makes an exception to this rule, you can bet that they are doing so only to deal with some burning crisis.

For the Senate Appropriations Committee to break with tradition, the interests at stake must be so compelling that circumstances demand that the cumbersome legislative process be bypassed and that the issue be dealt with immediately. And when the legislation gets tacked on to not just any old appropriations bill, but an emergency supplemental appropriations bill to fund our servicemen and women fighting in Iraq, one can assume that the most vital national interests hang in the balance.

What were the compelling interests that led the august Senate Appropriations Committee to include major legislation as part of the military spending bill on Thursday? Amnesty for illegal aliens, and lots of new foreign workers for powerful business interests.

La Raza Speech Bad For McCain

He Should Cancel It

Some angry conservatives will tell you they have a good reason to call the Republican presidential candidate “Juan” McCain>. He has alienated many conservative voters with his position on immigration, and he apparently plans to worsen the problem in July with a speech before the National Council of La Raza, the vociferously anti-American and leftist pro-immigration group.

As bad as the Democrats are when it comes this kind of blatant pandering, Republicans will, apparently, try their best. Problem is, pandering to radical Hispanics won’t help McCain get to the White House, and may likely hurt him among those who will actually vote for him: conservatives opposed to illegal immigration. For those in the dark, La Raza, which means “The Race,” is a leftist Hispanic lobbying group that openly agitates for erasing our southern border, even as it abets the work of radical Mexican activists struggling for the reconquista, or reconquest, of the American Southwest for Mexico. Simply put, La Raza and its allies and votaries do not consider themselves Americans. In that, they are correct.

Mo. lawmakers approve anti-illegal immigrant bill

(AP) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo - Missouri lawmakers gave final approval Friday to a bill that adds new restrictions and requirements for illegal immigrants, the cities in which they live and the businesses that employ them.

The bill would require people to prove they are U.S. citizens or are legally in the country when applying for food stamps, housing and other public benefits; penalize businesses that knowingly hire illegal immigrants; order the Missouri State Highway Patrol to seek special federal immigration training; and bar Missouri cities from refusing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

The measure also allows fines of up to $50,000 for some employers who misclassify their workers as “contractors” instead of “employees.” It would apply to businesses with at least five employees performing public works. When workers are contractors, employers don’t have to pay withholding taxes, provide other benefits or take responsibility if the worker is an illegal immigrant.

Razor-sharp concertina wire installed at U.S.-Mexico border

The U.S. says its use on an eventual 5-mile stretch of existing fence is to protect agents. But critics say it disregards immigrants’ safety.

By Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO — – The U.S. Border Patrol is installing razor-sharp concertina wire atop border fencing between San Diego and Tijuana, marking a major shift in approach along a frequently violent stretch of the frontier.

The triple-strand wire, meant to keep smugglers from attacking agents, will stretch five miles when completed this summer — the longest expanse of this type of wire ever used on the Southwest border.

Federal authorities in the past have avoided using fortifications with such negative symbolism. Hundreds of miles of barriers going up in other areas have had to meet “aesthetically pleasing” federal design standards.

Critics say the new approach is inhumane and could leave illegal immigrants bloodied.

Illegal Aliens Cost Americans More than Taxes

Gregory D. Lee

I don’t know what the intent of the Left-leaning Los Angeles Times was when they reported that “Healthcare gap could be fatal for ill immigrants,” but it got my attention.

The article explained how an illegal Mexican immigrant snuck her infant daughter, Puente, to Los Angeles to seek treatment for a liver ailment. True to form, the infant received not one, but two liver transplants 10 years apart at an average cost of $520,000 a pop, including anti-rejection medication. Ten years later, she received a third liver transplant, all courtesy of the California taxpayers through a state health care program for indigent children under the provisions of Medi-Cal.

Now she’s 21 years old and the state refuses to pay for a fourth liver transplant because she’s too old for a specific child program. To me, the “health care gap” that could be fatal for ill illegal immigrants was certain death for the three American taxpaying residents of California that were deprived of one because they were passed over for an illegal alien. There are only so many livers available for transplants, and obviously three deserving Americans were deprived of them.

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik has added two U.S. Border Patrol agents to the Sheriff’s Department border crime unit.

The move makes some queasy. The two agencies have different jobs: Border Patrol agents enforce federal immigration laws; sheriff’s deputies enforce Arizona laws. The worry is that blending the agencies erodes the distinction, and that each might end up functioning as the other.

That would create the dreaded “chilling effect,” which, the argument goes, would deter illegal immigrants from reporting crimes committed against them.

They might suspect that if they call the Sheriff’s Department, they could become targets of investigations that could result in their being sent back to their homelands.

We understand and support the need to keep the Border Patrol separate from state law enforcement agencies. But in this case, worries about repercussions resulting from a melding of the two agencies are unfounded.

Mexicans arrested at filthy ’drop house’ charged

(AP) LOS ANGELES - Three Mexican men held dozens of illegal immigrants in a squalid “drop house” in South Los Angeles, where one woman was raped and others say they were threatened with sexual assault, authorities said Friday.

Jose Teul, 23, Daniel Pena, 18, and Saul Mendez, 35, were charged with harboring illegal immigrants at the two-story home that immigration agents raided Wednesday, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice.

The three were arrested along with 57 immigrants, including teenagers and toddlers, from Central and South America, Kice said. It wasn’t immediately clear where the three was being held or if they had attorneys.

Border union sues Chertoff over fence

By Stephen Dinan

Members of the Texas Border Coalition yesterday said Department of Homeland Security officials “lied” about reaching out to Texas landowners over the U.S.-Mexico border fence, and filed a class-action lawsuit against Secretary Michael Chertoff demanding he give landowners more say before the fence is built.

Under the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, the group of border mayors, county judges and community leaders said the federal government violated the rights of landowners and intimidated them into signing away, for a $100 payment, rights to come on their land and prepare for building the fence.

“What’s being forced upon us is not the American way,” Brownsville Mayor Pat M. Ahumada Jr. told reporters and editors at The Washington Times.

Lawsuit: Immigration raid violated workers’ rights

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The nation’s largest single immigration raid, resulting in nearly 400 arrests earlier this week, violated the constitutional rights of workers at a meatpacking plant, a federal lawsuit says.

The lawsuit accuses the government of arbitrary and indefinite detention. It seeks to prevent the government from moving the arrested workers out-of-state as their cases wend through the system.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office said he couldn’t comment on the lawsuit filed Thursday on behalf of about 147 of the workers rounded up Monday at an Agriprocessors Inc. meat processing plant.

EL PASO, Texas — U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers from El Paso complaining about poor working conditions and border security plan to picket Friday. Union leaders for CBP told KFOX morale at El Paso’s international bridges are at an all-time low.

They said employees are overworked and national security is compromised as a result. However, department officials told KFOX that’s not true and bridges are safer than ever. Long hours are not uncommon for CBP officers at El Paso bridges, but Thursday the union for the officers said they are working too many hours and are planning a picket. “What they are doing is preordering overtime, so the inspectors are working as many as 12 days straight without a day off,” said Jose Gonzalez, a representative of the union.

100 West Washington,
Suite 1900,
Phoenix, Arizona 85003
Phone: (602) 876-1801
Fax: (602) 258-2081

Media Contact: SheriffsMediaRequests@MCSO.Maricopa.Gov

Date: May 16, 2008

SHERIFF’S SWITCHBOARD FLOODED. . . PEOPLE GIVING THEIR OWN MONEY FOR ARPAIO’S FIGHT AGAINST ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

New Phone Line Set Up to Accept Contributions

(Phoenix, AZ) Hours after the Arizona Governor announced she was taking away a $1.2 million dollar grant used by the Sheriff to fight illegal immigration, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office switchboard went ablaze with phone calls.

Irate citizens called volunteering their own money to help Sheriff Joe Arpaio continue his fight against illegal immigration. Local Phoenix radio stations have reportedly raised money and the Sheriff’s Office itself has now had to dedicate a phone line to accept all the calls and provide the necessary information.

“I am not asking for anyone to contribute money to make up for what the Governor took away,” says Arpaio. “But I’m grateful to those who want to support my efforts so much that they are willing to give their own money.”

According to office staff, phones have been coming in from throughout Arizona and other states as well, including one call from a group in California representing 10,000 people who wish to donate.

Donations can be mailed to the downtown Sheriff’s Office and made out to the MCSO Donation Fund and must be earmarked “for illegal immigration.”

Checks must be mailed to
100 West Washington,
Suite 1900,
Phoenix, Arizona
85003.

Keep the Immigrants, Deport the Multiculturalists

JASON L. RILEY

So, whatever happened to immigration as a presidential campaign issue?

In the early caucus and primary states – Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina – the media assured us that immigration was foremost on the minds of voters. You couldn’t watch a Republican debate without the issue dominating a good chunk of the discussion. And when Hillary Clinton appeared to endorse a proposal in New York state to give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, it was considered a major stumble, and the senator spent weeks trying to clarify her remarks.

The public, we were told, was fed up with illegal immigrants, especially those coming from Latin America. These foreign nationals were stealing jobs, depressing wages, filling our jails and prisons, refusing to learn English, and not assimilating like past immigrant groups. The conventional wisdom was that any presidential candidate who stood a chance of being elected would have to take a hard-line stance on illegal aliens.

Yet somehow the issue seems to have faded, if not disappeared entirely. The presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, isn’t a fire-breathing “seal the border” restrictionist. Rather, he’s the candidate most closely associated with a comprehensive immigration reform proposal that would have given most undocumented immigrants a shot at becoming legal residents if they met certain requirements. As for the Democrats, when’s the last time you saw the term “illegal immigrant” appear in a story about Mrs. Clinton and Barack Obama?

So what happened?

Texas says immigration checks, hurricanes don’t mix

CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN / Associated Press

Federal border agents say they will search for illegal immigrants at inland Texas checkpoints even during a hurricane evacuation, a plan state and local officials say could lead to disastrous delays and discourage some people from getting out.

Texas and federal officials have argued about the checkpoints roughly 75 miles from the border for years, but emergency managers only recently learned that the Border Patrol also plans to check the immigration status of people boarding buses at evacuation hubs in the Rio Grande Valley.

Close the border message comes to Susanville

Some Americans are staunchly dedicated to keeping illegal aliens and potential terrorists out of the United States.

Two of those people, Chris Simcox, president of Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, and Dan Logue, a Republican candidate for the California Third Assembly District seat, brought the Secure Our Borders Tour to Susanville at noon on Thursday, May 8 in order to raise public awareness about the issue. About 50 local residents attended the town hall meeting at the Commerce Building at the Lassen County Fairgrounds.

Most of those in attendance seemed to agree with Logue and Simcox that enough is enough.

As he introduced Simcox, Logue said the budget was an important issue, but stopping the tide of illegal immigration is “an issue crucial to the future of our nation.”

According to Logue, it’s time to “turn off the magnet benefits that draw them across the border.” He said there are an estimated 3 million illegal aliens in California and an estimated 20 million nationwide, including “1 million from terrorist countries, and nobody knows where they’re at.”

He said Simcox’s group is made up of “citizen soldiers” who protect the nation and support the rule of law.

ICE fugitive operations team arrests 39 illegals

Jim Cross/KTAR

More than three-dozen illegal immigrants have been arrested in the Valley during an operation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Officers from ICE, the U.S. Marshal’s Office and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office fanned out to arrest people who have ignored final orders of deportation or who have returned to the United States illegally after being deported. Seven of those arrested had criminal histories.

“They’ve been in the wind for several years. We’ve been looking for them for several years. It can be kind of tough, when you’re talking about fugitive operations, to follow up on leads, find these people,” said Vincent Picard with ICE. “It’s a huge job.”

GOP Lawmaker Can See ‘20 point loss’ For McCain

Susan Davis reports on the presidential race.

In an interview today with Bloomberg Television, Virginia Republican Rep. Tom Davis reiterated the views he outlined in a memo to his House Republican colleagues this week warning of electoral disaster this November.

A former chairman of the House Republicans’ campaign operation, Davis is generally widely respected in Washington for his political acumen. He is retiring at the end of his term in November.

California to Cut “Immigrant” Support — No More Free Money

Facing a budget deficit that is at least $17 billion and growing, California Governor Schwarzenegger has taken the drastic step of proposing to cut more than 36,000 families headed by illegal aliens or drug felons off the CalWORKS welfare program. Under CalWORKS, a single parent family receives about $525 in cash per month. This is in addition to other programs such as food stamps, Medi-Cal, welfare to work, child care and public housing. Some critics call the grants “walking around money.”

The free fall of the budget mirrors the decline in California home prices that saw a whopping 26% decline in February, or a rate of $2,788 per week. Home prices in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana fell more than 20% in the first quarter.

Schwarzenegger is proposing to borrow another $15 billion by using state lottery money as a source of repayment, a clear violation of the law that created the lottery.

If voters reject his idea, which is likely, the governor says sales taxes might have to be raised by an added 1% to total 8.25%, and in some cases as high as 9.75%. California already has the highest sales tax rate in the nation.

“This meltdown of California is so severe the liberal media don’t even want to talk about it because they are afraid of the questions it raises.” said Glenn Spencer of AmericanPatrol.com .

USCIS nationalizes record numbers; critics say not enough
Feds continue investigation in IA raid saga (3 stories)
USBP to check identification of hurricane evacuees
U.S.-trained security personnel tied to drug cartel murders
Senate panel attaches amnesty to Iraq spending bill (2 stories, 2 links)
House committee moves on low key imm. issues (link)
Tancredo pledges to continue his activism
Brazil opens new consulate in CT community
Mexican police chiefs flee escalating drug violence
MO state senate passes contentious imm. measure (story, 2 links)
SC state senate in crunch to finish an imm. bill
IL state house okays bill giving detainees access to clergy
MO legislators target illegals with voter ID bill
AZ Indian Nation decries effects of illegals
AZ county sheriff vows to continue crackdown
NY county verification draws mixed reactions (2 stories)
TX mayors, businesses sue against border fence
San Francisco identification rule challenged
CO town cuts illegals from scholarship scheme
NC college decision shocks academic world (story, link)
Advocates note economy hitting Hispanics hard
Activists protest NJ county detention contract
CA Chinese fret aftermath of major earthquake (story, link)
NH Indians seek site for new Hindu temple
Smugglers suspected of raping their clients
Kurdish man facing deportation receives reprieve
WI illegal charged in fatal bus crash gets boost
California bistro raid nets 18 arrests (link)

Five illegal aliens with guns, marijuana apprehended

Jim Edwards, Fox 11 News

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents arrested five illegal aliens and seized five guns, ammunition, and some marijuana near Arivaca on Tuesday, May 13. Agents discovered the five men at around 7 p.m. in a remote area known for bandit activity.

The suspects were carrying three automatic rifles and two shotguns plus six bundles of marijuana with a street value of over $200,000. The men were turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for prosecution.

Michelle Obama takes heat from Tennessee GOP

(CNN) — In a preview of the political onslaught Michelle Obama may face in the fall, the Tennessee Republican Party unveiled a Web video Thursday highlighting her comment that she was proud of America “for the first time in my adult life.”

Michelle Obama is the target of a video by the Tennessee Republican Party ahead of her visit there.

The four-minute video coincides with a visit to the state by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama’s wife for a Democratic Party event Thursday evening.

It features several Tennesseans saying why they are proud of America while repeatedly cutting to Michelle Obama’s comments.

“The Tennessee Republican Party has always been proud of America. To further honor the occasion of Mrs. Obama’s visit, the Tennessee Republican Party has requested the playing of patriotic music by radio stations across the state,” said a statement on the party’s Web site that accompanied the video.

“While Mrs. Obama has trouble being proud of the country where she earned degrees from Princeton University and Harvard Law School and then became a multimillionaire, her husband makes statements that belittle average Americans’ response to the difficulties of life.”

Fight Illegal Immigration DIRECTLY: Support Your “Local” Sheriff

Earlier this week Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano diverted almost $2 million dollars in funding from Joe Arpaio and the county sheriff’s office - by executive order. The funding had been originally appropriated by the Arizona state legislature specifically for the sheriff’s activities relating to enforcement of state human smuggling laws.

In a press conference Wednesday, Napolitano stated that Sheriff Joe was using state money to cause stess in the “illegal community”, and that money would no longer be available. Since beginning the “crime prevention sweeps”, Arpaio’s office has busted over 900 illegal aliens and smugglers - many of them with existing felonies.

Here you have a state governor openly admitting she wants to protect the “illegal community”. The MCSO is one of a few local law enforcement agencies in America (if not the only) aggressively going after the illegal invaders.

It’s time to fight back against the and send a few bucks to the Maricopa Country Sheriff’s office to DIRECTLY fund the crime sweeps. Even if you don’t live in Arizona, this is put-up-or-shut-up time. Your contribution will render actual results in fighting illegal immigration - as opposed to giving money to a political candidate or PAC.

Specify on your check “to fight illegal immigration” and make payable to:

“MCSO Donation Fund”
100 W. Washington 19th floor Suite 1900
Phoenix, AZ 85003

The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis. You are free to disseminate this information, but we request that you credit NAFBPO as being the provider.

Milenio (Mexico City) 5/15/08

The Bogota, Colombia, daily El Tiempo today editorialized that the Mexican drug gangs have copied the tactics used 20 years ago by the late Colombian narco-trafficker Pablo Escobar. The Medellin Cartel aimed to “intimidate society and blackmail the State by means of vehicle bombs and indiscriminate terrorism” and this is what the Mexican criminals aim to do. It added “The government of Felipe Calderon confronts a war ever so more tenacious against the drug cartels”. It pointed out that the United States “proposes the design of a type of Plan Colombia to help Mexico in its fight which also affects the border and illegal immigration.” (Continuing to quote from the Colombian paper) “No one argues that economic and technical assistance is needed. But, as long as the illegal narcotraffic business continues to be the world’s most lucrative, the present war strategy against drugs has been shown to be ineffectual.”

“The recent and hard Colombian experience evidences this and the tragedy which Mexico is undergoing today confirms it. There are more than enough candidates to replace each and every drug boss who falls.”

It commented that “the large cartels are dismembered but others appear, more mobile, relentless and sophisticated. Which confirms the urgency of seeking new forms of confronting this phenomenon and weakening its economic base and its capacity to generate violence and corruption.” “As happens with the coca, marihuana or poppy plantations, the illegal economic activity and the violence associated with this crime move from place to place. So much so, that in Peru they are alarmed by the presence of money and weapons coming from the north. But they don’t call in Colombianization but Mexicanization.”

According to the paper, the war being fought by President Calderon against the mafias has found a reply by the narcotraffickers and mainly in the Gulf and Sinaloa Cartels.”
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