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As the Immigration and open border issues heats up in Arizona I noticed that other states are now beginning to speak up for themselves too. Feel free to share articles and comment on this issue here.
Remember to keep it civil, racial comments will not be allowed, members making such comments will be warned and continued violations could resolt in a temporary or permenante ban.
Neb. town to vote on illegal immigration measure (June 20th, 2010 @ 6:29pm)
FREMONT, Neb. (AP) - Angered by a recent influx of Hispanic workers attracted by jobs at local meatpacking plants, voters in the eastern Nebraska city of Fremont will decide Monday whether to ban hiring or renting property to illegal immigrants.
The vote will be the culmination of a two-year fight that saw proponents collect enough signatures to put the question to a public vote. If the ordinance is approved, the community of 25,000 people could face a long and costly court battle. Either way, the emotions stirred up won't settle quickly.
"Even if we say 'no' ... we still need to say, 'How do we get along with each other now?'" said Kristin Ostrom, who helps oversee a campaign against the measure.
Across the nation, people have been outraged by- and demanded action against- the poor enforcement of federal laws to prevent illegal immigration. A law recently introduced in Arizona requires police to question people on their immigration status if there's a "reasonable suspicion" they are illegal.
A man who helped write the Arizona law is helping to fight for the ordinance in Fremont, which has seen its Hispanic population surge in the past two decades. That increase is largely because they were recruited to work for the Fremont Beef and Hormel plants, and the city maintains an enviably low unemployment rate.
Nonetheless, residents worry that jobs are going to illegal immigrants who they fear could drain community resources.
Clint Walraven, who has lived in Fremont all his 51 years, said the jobs should go to legal residents who are unemployed- something he believes the ordinance would help fix. Discussions on the issue can get heated, he said, particularly if racism is mentioned.
"It has nothing to do with being racist," he said. "We all have to play by the same rules. ... If you want to stay here, get legal."
When he worked at the Hormel plant in the 1980s, Walraven said, he had one Hispanic co-worker.
From about 165 Hispanics- both legal and illegal- living in Fremont in 1990, the total surged to 1,085 in 2000, according to census expert David Drozd at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He said an estimated 2,060 Hispanics lived there last year. In May, Fremont recorded just 4.9 percent unemployment, in line with the statewide rate and significantly lower than the national average of 9.7 percent.
If approved, the measure will require potential renters to apply for a license to rent. The application process will force Fremont officials to check if the renters are in the country legally. If they are found to be illegal, they will not be issued a license allowing them to rent.
The ordinance also requires businesses to use the federal E-Verify database to ensure employees are allowed to work.
Supporters of the proposal say it's needed to make up for what they see as lax federal law enforcement. Opponents say it could fuel discrimination.
Results are expected Monday night.
Ron Tillery, executive director of the Fremont Chamber of Commerce, which opposes the measure, said businesses are concerned the E-Verify system isn't reliable and that they would be subject to fines if forced to rely on it. He pointed out that the main targets of the ordinance- the Fremont Beef and Hormel plants- would not be covered by it anyway because they are located outside the city.
Walraven said the measure is necessary because workers send their salaries to family in Mexico instead of spending it in the city.
"I understand supporting your family," he said, "But it's very much at our expense. We're footing the bill."
Those costs include spending on education and medical care, said Jerry Hart, a Fremont resident who petitioned for the vote. He said the ordinance would help curb that spending and protect jobs.
He said it would also end the divisiveness that's taken over.
"The division is because the illegal aliens are here and nobody's taken care of it," he said. "If it does not pass, it's going to get worse."
The Fremont Tribune has reported several instances of legal Hispanic residents being told to return to Mexico, including a woman who was shoved and yelled at by an elderly white man in a grocery store.
Hart said he's been called a Nazi.
"Fear is kind of guiding," said Ostrom, adding that frustration about immigration issues nationwide ignites a misconception that all Hispanic immigrants in Fremont are illegal.
Sandra Leffler, 69, who owns a downtown antique store with her husband, Marv, said she knows not all Hispanics are illegal immigrants, but that it's hard not to think that way. She said she scrutinizes her Hispanic customers.
"I have to admit, when I see them come into the store ... I can't help wondering if I'm profiling someone who's completely honest," she said.
The Fremont City Council narrowly rejected a policy similar to the proposed ordinance in 2008, but proponents got it to a public vote and the state Supreme Court refused to block it.
The Nebraska chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has threatened a lawsuit, and the city worries about the cost of defending the policy. The city has estimated the legal action would cost $1 million per year to fight- costs that would have to be covered by property tax raises and city job cuts.
Kansas City, Mo.-based attorney Kris Kobach, who worked on the Arizona law and has been in legal battles over local ordinances elsewhere, said Valley Park, Mo. paid between $250,000 and $300,000 in legal fees in a similar case. Valley Park, like Fremont, is covered by the 8th Circuit.
State Sen. Charlie Janssen of Fremont, who has said he may introduce an Arizona-style bill in the Legislature next session, said it's unfortunate residents have to decide how to vote amid threats of a lawsuit. He has declined to give his position on the ordinance, saying residents need to decide on their own.
"A vote for or against the ordinance does not make you more or less patriotic," he said in a posting on his legislative blog. "Just as a vote for or against the ordinance does not make you racist or not."
___
Associated Press writer Nate Jenkins in Lincoln, Neb., contributed to this report.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qv_zjGTs9E
Little Evil
06-21-2010, 04:33 PM
X2 100% agree with the Sheriff!!!
NeilSmith
06-21-2010, 04:35 PM
Did you guys happen to catch this ? Scroll down and check out the pics. WHOA !!!
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?179317-Mexicos-Army-finds-Zetas-cartel-training-camp-large-weapons-cache
Did you guys happen to catch this ? Scroll down and check out the pics. WHOA !!!
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?179317-Mexicos-Army-finds-Zetas-cartel-training-camp-large-weapons-cache
A co-worker sent me that in an e-mail, that is a lot of guns!
Neb. city votes to restrict illegal immigration (June 22nd, 2010 @ 3:59am)
FREMONT, Neb. (AP) - This small Nebraska meatpacking town has joined Arizona at the center of a national debate about illegal immigration after voters approved a ban on hiring or renting property to illegal immigrants, but an expected court challenge could keep the measure from ever taking effect.
The American Civil Liberties Union already has promised to file a lawsuit to block enforcement of the proposal roughly 57 percent of Fremont voters supported Monday.
"In a community of 25,000, it's going to be hard to take on the whole country, and it will be costly to do so," said Fremont City Councilman Scott Getzschman, who opposed the measure but said city leaders would support the results.
Fremont's vote is the latest chapter in the tumult over illegal immigration across the country, including a recently passed Arizona law that will require police investigating another incident or crime to ask people about their immigration status if there's a "reasonable suspicion" they are in the country illegally.
The Fremont measure will require would-be renters to apply for a license from the city. Officials must refuse to issue a license to applicants found to be in the country illegally. The ordinance also requires businesses to use the federal E-Verify database to ensure employees are allowed to work.
The city, which is about 35 miles northwest of Omaha, has watched as its Hispanic population surged in the past two decades, largely due to the jobs available at the nearby Fremont Beef and Hormel meatpacking plants.
Supporters argued the measure is needed to make up for what they see as lax federal law enforcement. Opponents said it could fuel discrimination.
Linda Nafziger said she voted for the ordinance because she doesn't think the community should be supporting illegal immigrants. But she acknowledged the measure won't end illegal immigration.
"They'll just move somewhere else and be somebody else's problem," she said.
Trevor McClurg said the measure is fair because it's aimed at people who aren't legally in the U.S.
"I don't think it's right to be able to rent to them or hire them," McClurg said. "They shouldn't be here in the first place."
Some residents worry that jobs are going to illegal immigrants who they fear could drain community resources.
Kristin Ostrom, who helped organize opposition to the measure, said she was never convinced of that. Fremont's unemployment rate matches the Nebraska rate of 4.9 percent, and both remain well below the national rate of 9.7 percent.
"It's unfortunate that the majority of voters didn't understand that we really don't have an illegal immigration problem in Fremont," she said.
The Hispanic population in Fremont, including both legal and illegal residents, surged from about 165 in 1990 to 1,085 in 2000, according to census expert David Drozd at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He said an estimated 2,060 Hispanics lived there last year.
Communities that have passed similar laws have struggled to enforce them because of legal challenges. Hazleton, Pa., passed an ordinance in 2006 to fine landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and deny permits to businesses hiring them. The Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch also has tried for years to enforce a ban on landlords renting to illegal immigrants. Federal judges struck down both ordinances, but both are on appeal.
The ACLU of Nebraska promised to sue over the Fremont measure even before Monday's vote.
"Not only do local ordinances such as this violate federal law, they are also completely out of step with American values of fairness and equality," said Laurel Marsh, executive director of ACLU Nebraska.
Kansas City, Mo.-based attorney Kris Kobach, who helped write the Arizona law, worked on the ordinance in Fremont and has said he thinks it could withstand a court challenge. He is also running for secretary of state in Kansas.
Groups want to get 50K new Latino voters
by Associated Press (June 22nd, 2010 @ 6:04am)
PHOENIX - Immigrant-rights groups say they're launching what they call a massive effort to register and turn out Latino voters because of a new Arizona law targeting illegal immigrants.
The groups want to turn out 50,000 Latinos who otherwise would not vote in November's election. They say they're mobilizing 2,000 volunteers to reach that goal.
The groups include Mi Familia Vota, Democracia USA, Border Action Network and the Arizona Center for Empowerment.
They say they want to help guide Arizona away from divisive policies and politicians.
Border officers seize 108 illegal Disney pinatas
by Associated Press (June 22nd, 2010 @ 6:03am)
DOUGLAS, Ariz. - It was no fiesta on the Arizona-Mexico border for the driver of a shipment of pinatas that looked like Disney characters.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Rob Daniels says officers at the Douglas port of entry stopped a tractor-trailer coming from Mexico for further inspection on Friday.
Officers found the tractor-trailer was loaded with papier-mache items, including 108 pinatas in the likeness of Disney characters on their way to Thornton, Colo.
Officers seized the shipment for violation of intellectual property rights.
Assistant port Director Eli Villareal says the pinatas may seem innocent, but shipments of illegal merchandise on a national scale can undermine the U.S. economy and ``is a vital element in national security.''
White House disputes Kyl's account by KTAR Newsroom, Associated Press (June 21st, 2010 @ 4:07pm)
WASHINGTON - The White House on Monday disputed a Republican senator's claim that President Barack Obama refuses to secure the Mexican border until Congress agrees to a wide-ranging overhaul of immigration laws.
Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona told a Tea Party gathering in north Phoenix on Friday (see video below) of his recent private meeting with Obama in the Oval Office. Kyl, the Senate's second-ranking GOP leader, said he pressed Obama to secure the border against illegal immigrants.
Kyl told the group: ``The problem is, he said, 'If we secure the border, then you all won't have any reason to support comprehensive immigration reform.'''
``They want to get something in return for doing their duty,'' Kyl told the group.
The White House denied the account over the weekend, and Obama spokesman Bill Burton restated that position Monday when questioned by reporters.
``The president didn't say that,'' Burton said of Kyl's account. ``Sen. Kyl knows the president didn't say that.''
Asked if Kyl was lying or indulging in ``political exaggeration,'' Burton replied: ``I'll let other folks make that determination.''
Obama has taken steps to improve border security, while also saying security must be part of a broader approach to immigration. He recently pledged to spend an additional $500 million on security and to send 1,200 National Guard troops to the border.
The White House website says Obama ``believes that our broken immigration system can only be fixed by putting politics aside and offering a complete solution that secures our border, enforces our laws, and reaffirms our heritage as a nation of immigrants.''
Obama told CNN's Larry King on June 3, ``We've already put more resources into border security than we ever have.''
He added: ``But without comprehensive immigration reform that is Congress' responsibility we are not going to solve this problem, and that's what we have to do.''
Kyl spokesman Ryan Patmintra said the senator stands by his remarks. He said the White House position ``that we must have comprehensive immigration reform to secure the border only confirms Sen. Kyl's account.''
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE0aYrdsESM&feature=player_embedded
CNN: Mexican cartels threaten AZ police
by KTAR Newsroom (June 22nd, 2010 @ 10:19am)
NOGALES, Ariz. -- Mexican drug cartels are making direct threats against U.S. law enforcement officials in Nogales, Ariz., CNN reported.
The network said it's the first time that U.S. officials on the border have confirmed long-rumored threats against them.
The threats began two weeks ago after off-duty Nogales police officers who were horseback riding on the eastern edge of town came across a drug-smuggling operation. Several hundred pounds of marijuana were seized, CNN reported.
"We are taking the threats very seriously," Nogales Police Chief Jeffrey Kirkham told CNN. "We have received information from informants who work in Mexico that the drug cartel running that operation was unhappy about our seizure. They told our informant that they understand uniformed police officers have a job to do, but anyone out of uniform who gets involved in their operation will be targeted."
An increased presence by Customs and Immigration officers has been ordered, CNN reported.
Immigrant families leave Arizona and tough new law (June 22nd, 2010 @ 9:01pm)
By AMANDA LEE MYERS Associated Press Writer
PHOENIX (AP) - "Cuanto?" asks a young man pointing to four bottles of car polish at a recent garage sale in an east Phoenix neighborhood.
The question, Spanish for "How much?" sends Minerva Ruiz and Claudia Suriano scrambling and calling out to their friend, Silvia Arias, who's selling the polish. "Silvia!"
Arias is out of earshot, so Suriano improvises.
"Cinco dolares," she says. "Five dollars." And another sale is made.
As the women await their next customer in the rising heat of an Arizona morning, they talk quietly about food and clothes, about their children and husbands. They are best friends, all mothers who are viewed as pillars of parental support at the neighborhood elementary school.
All three are illegal immigrants from Mexico.
They're holding the garage sale to raise money to leave Arizona, like many others, and to escape the state's tough new law that cracks down on people just like them.
The law's stated intention is unambiguous: It seeks to drive illegal immigrants out of Arizona and to discourage them from coming here.
There is no official data tracking how many are leaving because of the new law. "It's something that's really tough to get a handle on numerically," said Bill Schooling, Arizona's state demographer. "It's not just the immigration bill. It's also employer sanctions and the economy. How do you separate out the motivating factors?"
But anecdotal evidence provided by schools and businesses in heavily Hispanic neighborhoods and by healthcare clinics suggest that sizable numbers are departing. Ignacio Rodriguez, associate director for the Phoenix Roman Catholic diocese's Office of Hispanic Ministries, said churches in the area are also seeing families leave.
Priests are "seeing some people approach them and ask for a blessing because they're leaving the state to go back to their country of origin or another state," he said. "Unless they approach and ask for a sending-off blessing, we wouldn't have any idea they're leaving or why."
Ruiz and Suriano and their families plan to move this month. Arias and her family are considering leaving, but are waiting to see if the law will go into effect as scheduled July 29, and, if so, how it will be enforced.
The law requires police investigating another incident or crime to ask people about their immigration status if there's a "reasonable suspicion" they're in the country illegally. It also makes being in Arizona illegally a misdemeanor, and it prohibits seeking day-labor work along the state's streets.
Ruiz, Suriano and Arias are representative of many families facing what they consider a cruel dilemma. To leave, they must pull their children from school, uproot their lives and look for new jobs and homes elsewhere. But to stay is to be under the scrutiny of the nation's most stringent immigration laws and the potentially greater threat of being caught, arrested and deported. They also perceive a growing hostility toward Hispanics, in general.
On the quarter-mile stretch of Phoenix's Belleview Street where both Ruiz and Suriano live, more than half the apartments and single-family homes have "for rent" signs out front.
Alan Langston, president of the Arizona Rental Property Owners & Landlords Association, said his group doesn't track vacancy rates but that his members believe they will be affected by people leaving because of the new law.
The friends say most of the vacancy signs went up after the new law was signed in late April.
"Everyone's afraid," Arias says.
The three friends are key members of a parents' support group at their children's school down the street, said Rosemarie Garcia, parent liaison for the Balsz Elementary School District.
"They are the paper and glue and the scissors of the whole thing," Garcia said. "I can run to them for anything."
With two of the women leaving and the other thinking about it, Garcia is concerned about the school's future.
"It'll be like a desert here," she said. "It's a gap we'll have all over the neighborhood, the community, our school."
Ruiz, Suriano and Arias met three years ago at cafecitos, or coffee talks, held at the school. Now their families hold barbecues together and their children have sleepovers.
Arias, 49, and her day laborer husband paid a coyote to come to Arizona 15 years ago from Tepic, Nayarit on Mexico's central-western coast. Their children, ages 9, 11 and 13, are U.S. citizens.
"I don't want to leave but we don't know what's going to happen," she says.
Ruiz, 38, and her husband, who builds furniture, came to the U.S. from Los Mochis in the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa about six years ago on tourist visas, which expired long ago. Two of their kids, ages 9 and 13, are here illegally, while their 1-year-old was born here. The family is moving to Clovis, N.M., where they have family. "It's calmer there," Ruiz says.
Suriano, 28, and her husband crossed the desert six years ago with their then-toddler. The boy is now 9, and the couple has a 4-year-old who was born here. They're moving to Albuquerque, where they don't know anyone but already have lined up an apartment and a carpentry job for him.
"I don't want to go," Suriano says, wiping away tears. "We're leaving everything behind. But I'm scared the police will catch me and send me back to Mexico."
Some people in the neighborhood are not sympathetic.
"Bye-bye, see you later," says 28-year-old Sarah Williams, who lives two blocks south of Ruiz and Suriano with her 5- and 7-year-old children and her aunt. "They're taking opportunities from Americans and legal citizens."
However, Williams, says she doesn't support Arizona's new law because she believes it will lead to racial profiling.
The law still faces several pending legal challenges. The U.S. Justice Department also is reviewing the statute for possible civil rights violations, with an eye toward a possible court challenge.
The law's backers say Congress isn't doing anything meaningful about illegal immigration, and so it's the state's duty to step up. They deplore the social costs and violence they say are associated with illegal immigration.
The law's critics say it will lead to racial profiling and discrimination against Hispanics, and damage ties between police and minority communities.
As the debate plays out, dozens of healthcare clinics in central and southern Arizona say many of their Hispanic clients aren't showing up for scheduled appointments. They say they're either afraid to leave the house or they're moving away, said Tara McCollum Plese, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Association of Community Health Centers, which oversees 132 facilities.
"Some are actually calling the clinics and asking if it's safe to come, if they need papers," since the new law passed, she said.
Sick people avoiding treatment can become a public health problem, she said. "We're actually worried about communicable diseases."
If enough people stop going to the clinics, she said, some services could be cut, and some clinics, especially in rural areas, could be forced to close.
Schools may face laying off teachers and cutting programs because of fewer students, educators say.
Parents pulled 39 children out of Balsz Elementary, which has a 75 percent Hispanic student body, since April 23, the day the law was signed by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer. In the small, five-school district, parents have pulled out 111 children, said district Superintendent Jeffrey Smith, who cites the new law as the leading factor.
Smith said each student represents roughly $5,000 in annual funding to the district, so a drop of 111 students would represent roughly a $555,000 funding cut.
Many schools across Arizona have seen a steady decline in Hispanic students in recent years, although some district superintendents say the current drop is more dramatic. Schools attribute the declining numbers to the recession and to the state's employer-sanctions law, which passed in 2007 and carries license suspensions and revocations for those who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
Area businesses also say they're seeing the effects of people leaving the state.
Steve Salvato, manager at the family-owned World Class Car Wash, just around the corner from Belleview Street, said business is down 30 percent. Salvato said the car wash relies mostly on Hispanic customers and points to the new law for the recent decline in business.
"A lot of people have just packed up and moved," he said, adding that a strip mall across the street used to be bustling on weekends. "Now it's like a ghost town."
A nearby Food City grocery store reports a 20 percent to 30 percent drop in business.
Back at the garage sale, the three friends have a row of tables strewn with Barbie dolls, bicycle helmets, old movies and a Jane Fonda workout video. A laundry basket is overflowing with children's toys, and a shopping cart is filled with clothes.
They are selling off pieces of their lives.
Their easy banter, mostly in Spanish, quickly turns to tears when they're asked about their impending separation. Ruiz and Suriano have pleaded with Arias to follow them to New Mexico.
"They're my companions," Suriano says of the other two women. "We do everything hand-in-hand."
Feds to discuss border with Brewer
by Bob McClay/KTAR and Associated Press (June 28th, 2010 @ 7:43am)
PHOENIX - Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer will meet Monday in Phoenix with federal officials dispatched by President Barack Obama to provide specifics for Arizona regarding his plans to tighten security along the U.S.-Mexico border.
"Governor Brewer's main priority is to get Arizona specifics," said spokeswoman Tosha Peterson. "How many of the 1,200 National Guard border troops is Arizona getting? How much of the $500 million is Arizona getting? She wants details on Arizona, the plan to secure the border for Arizona. That's her main priority."
The meeting in Brewer's office stems from Brewer's June 3 visit to the White House where she and Obama discussed border security and immigration. Brewer has asked for specifics on how the plans apply to Arizona.
A White House spokesman says the delegation is headed by John Brennan, deputy national security adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism.
The meeeting comes as Arizona officials await word on a possible federal challenge to the state's controversial immigration enforcement law.
"We have certainly been, more than patient, the governor feels, on awaiting details on not only a plan, but juse a response from the federal government on what they're going to do with our problems on the border."
Prior to the meeting, the Department of Homeland Security said it will deploy additional Border Patrol and ICE agents to Arizona, along with more air surveillance. It did not, however, provide numbers.
(Copyright 2008 Bonneville International Corporation. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. AP contributed to this report.)
cico7
06-28-2010, 08:47 AM
The other states oppose the law because it will send more illegals thier way.
The one article suggests this law will damage thier economy which is already hurting
because of the illegals taking jobs from legal immigrants.
It is a no win situation unless we embrace and adopt the changes.
Many of these people have taxes deducted from thier salaries but cant collect tax
returns because of thier status.
The illegals get free care because the insurance companies cant sell to illegals. The
clinics are funded by - who? Hospitals cant turn people away for injuries,
insurance or no insurance. So how does that affect the government?
It is the hospital that bears the cost. Not an insurance company or the Fed.
This is only one piece of the issue, I understand that. But this is what I hear
about the most.
I bet if the FED would do more for the state as far as security goes, AZ would back off
the law.
Weapons, ammunition seized at border
by KTAR.com (June 28th, 2010 @ 10:41am)
NOGALES, Ariz. -- A Mexican national has been arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers for allegedly trying to smuggle weapons and ammunition into Mexico from the United States.
The 49-year-old man was run down on foot after officers signalled for his car to stop at the Mariposa Port of Entry last Wednesday, the Border Patrol said. Agents were screening travelers headed into Mexico.
The man sped past officers, then abandoned his vehicle and ran toward Mexico, but was stopped, authorities said. A search of his vehicle turned up 10 AK-47 assault rifles, 70 AK-47 assault rifle magazines, six bayonets, 5,610 rounds of high-caliber ammunition and other weapons, police said.
The man, who was in the United States without proper documents, was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Obama meets with immigration activistsby Associated Press (June 28th, 2010 @ 1:52pm)
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is meeting with activists who are pressing him for action on immigration legislation and Arizona's tough new enforcement law.
The meeting Monday at the White House includes prominent labor leaders and Hispanic activist organizations, according to participating groups. It comes as Obama faces calls to move forward on comprehensive immigration legislation, something he's pledged to act on despite long odds of success.
Activists were also expecting an update on the administration's plans to challenge Arizona's contentious new law that requires police officers to question a person's immigration status if there's reason to suspect they're in the country illegally.
Obama is meeting Tuesday with Hispanic lawmakers.
524 Guard soldiers headed to Arizona-Mexico border (June 28th, 2010 @ 3:22pm) By PAUL DAVENPORT
Associated Press Writer
PHOENIX (AP) - Federal officials told Arizona's attorney general and a congresswoman on Monday that 524 of the 1,200 National Guard troops headed to the U.S. Mexican border will be deployed in the state by August or September.
U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and Attorney General Terry Goddard, both Democrats, met with Obama administration officials in Tucson along with dozens of law enforcement officials and community leaders. The federal officials included John Brennan, deputy national security adviser for homeland security.
Giffords spokesman C.J. Karamargin said the 524 troops are now being trained for deployment in August, and Goddard said two drone aircraft also will be used in Arizona. Goddard says the commitment is a first step.
Brennan, Goddard said, has the job of evaluating "the whole picture. He never said this is all. He said this is what we're going to do right now."
The federal officials, sent by President Barack Obama, were to meet later Monday with Gov. Jan Brewer in her office in Phoenix. The meeting resulted from Brewer's June 3 visit to the White House where she and Obama discussed border security and immigration. Brewer asked for specifics on how the plans apply to Arizona.
The president previously announced that he plans to send 1,200 troops to the border, and he asked Congress for $600 million to pay for 1,000 more Border Patrol agents, 160 new federal immigration officers and two unmanned aircraft.
Arizona in the U.S. state with the most illegal border-crossings.
Brewer had called on Obama to deploy the National Guard to help stem the flow of illegal immigrants and drug smugglers across the border, and she reacted to Obama's initial announcement by saying 1,200 Guard personnel wouldn't be enough. She also urged Obama to send National Guard helicopters and surveillance drones to the border to help tight.
The meetings follow months of heated debate over illegal immigration sparked by the passage of a new Arizona law on April 23. The law generally requires police investigating another incident or crime to ask people about their immigration status if there's a "reasonable suspicion" they're in the country illegally.
The meetings were taking place as Arizona officials awaited word on a widely anticipated federal legal challenge to the measure. Obama has called the law "misguided." Brewer has said its enactment was necessary because of federal inaction on border enforcement.
Courts need $40M for border plan
by Associated Press (June 29th, 2010 @ 2:06pm)
PHOENIX - President Barack Obama's $600 million border security plan seems to have it all: More than 1,000 agents, seven gunrunner teams, five FBI task forces and more prosecutors and immigration judges.
But it doesn't include $40 million to help the already overwhelmed federal courts along the U.S.-Mexico border that will likely be inundated with additional drug and other criminal cases, a judiciary official tells The Associated Press.
Increased patrols will mean more arrests and more cases sent to the five district courts on the border, from California to Texas. The courts handle cases including drug trafficking and illegal immigrants charged with other serious crimes.
``The current workload in our Southwest border courts is staggering,'' said James Duff, director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.
Duff said the judiciary asked Congress for the $40 million on June 22 after realizing it wasn't sent with Obama's plan. He said judiciary requests are usually included with the president's budget proposals, but wasn't in this case.
White House spokesman Luis Miranda said the request wasn't submitted with the president's because it's a separate branch of government.
Obama's plan does include more money for immigration judges, which operate in the executive branch. But those judges deal almost exclusively with civil deportation matters, not criminal cases, like the district courts.
The chief judge for the District of Arizona in Tucson, located in what's become the busiest corridor for illegal immigration and drug smuggling, said he fears that increased patrols will bring even more cases to his already swamped court.
``If you have more agents in the field, they're going to make more apprehensions. ... Being here on the ground in the middle of everything happening, we would have to have more resources if they're going to bring us more cases,'' Judge John Roll told The AP.
Last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, nearly 2,700 of the district's more than 5,200 criminal cases involved immigration, Roll wrote in a letter this month to a handful of lawmakers on appropriations committees. He said judges work long hours and take cases home on weekends and while they travel.
Judges in the five border courts handle hundreds more cases than most of their counterparts in the rest of the country.
The system became so overrun with pot busts, for example, that until recently federal prosecutors in Arizona generally declined to press charges against marijuana smugglers caught with less than 500 pounds.
The increase in immigration cases since 2005 can be attributed to increased law enforcement and a Border Patrol initiative to arrest and prosecute illegal immigrants in federal courts on charges of illegal entry, rather than send them to an immigration judge for civil deportation proceedings.
In Arizona, nearly 23,000 people were charged with immigration offenses in fiscal year 2009, almost triple the 7,700 people charged with such offenses in fiscal year 2005, according to Duff's office.
Immigration offenses more than doubled in that time in New Mexico and the southern district of California, and nearly doubled in the western district of Texas. Such cases grew by 70 percent in the southern district of Texas, which saw the most total cases at 26,700.
Combined, the border districts handled nearly 75 percent of criminal immigration cases in the nation's 94 districts in fiscal year 2009 and almost 40 percent of all the nation's federal criminal case filings, Duff said.
Duff said his office was not trying to get the $40 million to ``feather our own nests. We're doing this basically out of desperation for our courts.''
``It's going to overwhelm the system,'' Duff said. ``It undermines the effectiveness of law enforcement if the system can't handle all the cases. The system can't work without additional resources being given to the judicial branch, as well.''
He said the $40 million would go toward a new judge in each border district, attorneys for indigent defendants, court security officers and other staff.
David Leopold, a Cleveland immigration lawyer and the incoming president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said he's worried that justice will be compromised in federal courts unable to keep up with the caseload.
``If you get a lot more defendants than you have lawyers to represent them, you get into situations where people feel pressured to plead out their cases without adequate investigation,'' he said. ``You're overloading the system and it has to break somewhere.''
50 people found inside Phoenix drop house
by Associated Press (June 29th, 2010 @ 1:43pm)
PHOENIX - Phoenix police and the Department of Public Safety are investigating the discovery of a drop house in southwest Phoenix.
DPS spokesman Bart Graves told The Associated Press Tuesday that Phoenix police followed a suspicious looking Chevrolet pickup truck with a large piece of plywood in the truck bed.
Smugglers often use plywood to hide people in truck beds.
The driver and another occupant drove to a house in a newer Phoenix neighborhood near 83rd Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road.
Police followed and when they got to the house, officers discovered 46 men and seven women inside.
They were described as thirsty but in relatively good shape. It's unclear how long the group had been inside the U.S.
Graves said police are trying to determine if a smuggler or smugglers is mixed in with the group.
Deputies seizes guns and $250 K in cash
by Associated Press (June 30th, 2010 @ 6:20am)
PHOENIX - Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies raided a suspected drug house in west Phoenix over the weekend.
Deputies, acting on a tip, put the home under surveillance near 67th Avenue and Indian School Road.
One of the occupants drove off and was later pulled over by deputies and arrested. During a search of the vehicle deputies uncovered a large amount of cash and three firearms.
Back at the house and armed with search warrants, deputies entered and found more cash and guns.
Deputies recovered close to $250,000, an AK-47 assault rifle and two handguns.
The Sheriff's Office arrested an alleged 20-year-old illegal immigrant.
In speech, Obama to argue for immigration overhaul (July 1st, 2010 @ 2:14am) By DARLENE SUPERVILLE
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama hopes to rally new momentum behind the push for an immigration overhaul by explaining why he thinks a comprehensive approach is the only way to fix what he and others say is a system badly in need of repair.
Obama was laying out his rationale in a speech Thursday, his first as president on the issue.
Obama wasn't expected to announce any new proposals or policy changes. But feeling pressure from a range of supporters, he was aiming to jump-start the effort he had promised to make a priority in his first year and which advocates had hoped would be completed by now.
The speech follows up on back-to-back meetings Obama had with advocates and lawmakers at the White House this week.
Obama has said a comprehensive solution means "accountability for everybody"- from the U.S. government meeting its obligation to secure the border, to businesses facing the consequences of knowingly employing illegal immigrants, to those who enter the country illegally owning up to their actions before they can begin the process of becoming citizens.
Recent developments on immigration influenced his decision to give a speech, White House officials say, most notably Arizona's enactment of a tough anti-immigrant law and protests across the country against it.
"He thought this was a good time to talk plainly with the American people about his views on immigration," spokesman Bill Burton said.
Still, prospects appear bleak for getting a bill to Obama's desk before lawmakers leave town in the fall to campaign for re-election in November, and the president could be partly responsible for that. In April, he gave lawmakers some wiggle room when he said Congress may not have the appetite to deal with immigration this year following a tough legislative year in 2009.
The political reality is that to get a bill Obama needs Republican support, mostly in the Senate, where Democrats fall short of the 60 votes needed to overcome GOP stalling tactics. Obama has mentioned that lack of cross-party support in his recent comments on immigration.
"I've got to have some support from Republicans," he said at a May news conference with visiting Mexican President Felipe Calderon.
Obama has endorsed a proposal by Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., that would require illegal immigrants, among other things, to admit they broke the law, pay fines and back taxes and perform community service to eventually obtain legal status. But Graham since has balked at acting on immigration this year, and no other Senate Republican has come forward.
Some Republicans want to act first on measures to tighten security along the U.S.-Mexico border, but Obama disagrees with that approach. His administration has acted to improve border security, including increasing personnel and equipment along the border.
Obama recently ordered 1,200 National Guard troops to the border to boost security and asked Congress for an additional $600 million to support personnel and improve technology there. More than 500 of those Guard troops are to be sent to Arizona.
The Arizona law requires police enforcing another statute to clarify a person's immigration status if there's reason to believe the individual is in the U.S. illegally. Several states and communities are considering similar legislation, which Obama says is an understandable byproduct of the public's frustration over the federal government's inability to tighten the immigration system.
But Obama also has criticized the law as "misguided" and said it is potentially discriminatory. He has asked the Justice Department to review its legality and immigrant advocates are hoping the government will sue Arizona to block the law from taking effect later this month.
Obama blames politics for delay on immigration (July 1st, 2010 @ 9:47am)
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama on Thursday blamed immigration policy gridlock on "political posturing and special interest wrangling."
In a speech, Obama took Republicans to task, in particular 11 GOP senators who supported recent efforts to improve the immigration system. He did not name any, but told his largely supportive audience at American University that those lawmakers had succumbed to the "pressures of partisanship and election-year politics."
Seeking to build new momentum on an issue many advocates hoped would be resolved by this point, Obama laid out his rationale for a comprehensive approach to fixing what he and others, Republicans included, say is a broken immigration system.
He said the problem cannot be solved "only with fences and border patrols" but said the government should be held accountable for its responsibility to secure the border. Obama also said that businesses should face consequences for knowingly employing illegal immigrants. And he said those who enter the country illegally should own up to their actions before they can begin the process of becoming citizens.
"The question now is whether we will have the courage and the political will to pass a bill through Congress, to finally get it done," the president said. "I'm ready to move forward, the majority of Democrats are ready to move forward and I believe the majority of Americans are ready to move forward. But the fact is that without bipartisan support, as we had just a few years ago, we cannot solve this problem."
"Reform that brings accountability to our immigration system cannot pass without Republican votes," he said. "That is the political and mathematical reality."
In response, Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, one of the 11 Republican senators Obama alluded to in his talk, said he had a good reason for his position this time around.
"My constituents have said do everything you can to secure the border first," Kyl told Fox News Channel. "It's our job to secure the border, whether or not we end up passing so-called comprehensive immigration reform."
White House officials say recent developments influenced Obama's decision to give his first formal speech on the issue as president, most notably Arizona's enactment of a tough anti-immigrant law and the reaction to it across the country. But advocates also have been pressing him to give such a speech as a demonstration of his commitment to seeing the effort through.
Obama didn't dwell on the Arizona law in the speech. He called it an understandable byproduct of public frustration with the government's inability to tighten the system, but also said the law is ill-conceived, divisive and would put undue pressure on local authorities.
The law requires police enforcing another statute to clarify a person's immigration status if there's reason to believe that person is in the U.S. illegally. Immigrant advocates want the Justice Department, which is reviewing the law, to sue Arizona to block it from taking effect this month.
In the speech, Obama extolled America's history as a melting pot of immigrants and lauded their many contributions to the nation.
But an Associated Press-GfK Poll conducted in May found 57 percent saying illegal immigrants are mostly a drain on society and 38 percent said they believe immigrants make a contribution. Eight in 10 said the federal government should do more to keep immigrants from illegally entering the U.S.
Obama has endorsed a proposal by Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., that would require illegal immigrants to admit they broke the law, pay fines and back taxes and perform community service to eventually obtain legal status. But Graham since has balked at acting on immigration this year, and no other Senate Republican has come forward.
Some Republicans, like Kyl, are pushing a "border security first" approach focused on enforcement.
"It won't work," Obama said. He said there now are more "boots on the ground" on the U.S.-Mexico border than ever before and that "our borders are just too vast for us to be able to solve the problem only with fences and border patrols."
Obama recently ordered 1,200 National Guard troops to the border to boost security and asked Congress for an additional $600 million to support personnel and improve technology there. More than 500 of those Guard troops are headed for Arizona.
Brewer: Obama immigration speech "helpless"by Jim Cross/KTAR and Associated Press (July 1st, 2010 @ 11:06am)
PHOENIX -- Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer says President Barack Obama's speech on immigration reform provided no answers to the problem.
"What a helpless speech," Brewer told News/Talk 92.3 KTAR by phone from Sedona, where she had a speaking engagement Friday.
"Where's the action?" Brewer asked. "He described perfectly my opinion of the complete failure of the federal government, something that has been failing the people of America for a decade or more."
She added, "The bottom line is that we are a nation of laws and they have to be complied with. And, if they are not, we will fall. We have chaos in Mexico, and we are beginning to experience the same kind of chaos in Arizona."
She said, "The system is broken, the border is broken. We all know what we need... People in Arizona have made it very, very clear. Let's talk about the problem that is at hand. Let's secure the border."
The Arizona governor, a Republican, met with Obama at the White House last month after she signed a tough immigration enforcement law, which requires police enforcing other laws to clarify a person's immigration status if there's reason to believe that person is in the U.S. illegally. The law, which goes into effect July 29, is being challenged in court and the Justice Department is reviewing it to decide if the feds will join the challenges.
Brewer said said if Obama "is going to leave it up to the states to do what the feds should be doing, then maybe that's what's going to have to take place. First things must come first and that is securing our border, all the way from California through Texas."
Brewer said she would appreciate a little respect from the President by having him come to Arizona "to look at our border and see what we are putting up with on a daily basis."
In his speech Friday, Obama did not dwell on the Arizona law, although he called it an understandable byproduct of public frustration with the federal government's inability to address the problem. But, he said the Arizona law is ill-conceived, divisive and would put undue pressure on local authorities.
A prominent Arizona legislator said he was "offended" by the President's speech.
Republican Rep. John Kavanagh called Obama's address at American University in Washington, D.C., a ``political speech'' that, in Kavanagh's words, ``probably annoyed everybody.''
According to Kavanagh, Obama was trying to convince Hispanics that he's doing something about immigration when he really isn't. And Kavanagh says the speech was a disappointment to those who want increased border security and internal enforcement.
Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl agreed with Brewer that the border must be secured before Congress overhauls the immigration system. Kyl said the president blamed Republicans for stalling immigration reform.
"It was very political," Kyl told Fox News. "On the one hand, he says we need bipartisanship, and then he slams Republicans."
He added, "It's our job to secure the border, whether or not we end up passing so-called comprehensive immigration reform."
Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for governor in this fall's elections, called the president's plan long overdue and urgently needed.
"Based on the president's outline this morning, it appears he's proposing a responsible plan that deserves the immediate attention of Congress," Goddard said.
"The President is offering a common sense path for illegal immigrants to get right with the law by passing a criminal background check, paying a fine, paying back taxes and learning English. These are all steps I have long endorsed," Goddard said.
He said the failure of Congress to act long ago is part of what led to Arizona's new law and the divisiveness it has generated.
Goddard said the President didn't go far enough, however, in addressing border security.
"He said the border is more secure now than it has been in 20 years, but drug cartel murders and other violence south of the border are peaking and present a growing threat to the people of Arizona. The president needs to do more to support our efforts to fight the cartels and increase border security."
Goddard called on the President to work closely with members of Congress and give them an immediate timetable to consider his proposals. He added that Arizona's congressional delegation "should provide bipartisan leadership to pass the reforms that Arizona so desperately needs."
National Guard at the border?
Laurie Roberts, columnist for The Arizona Republic.
30 guys After months of waiting, President Barack Obama’s vow to put the National Guard on the border comes true today, sort of.
You will recall that on May 25, Obama announced he was sending 1,200 National Guard troops to the border.
On July 19, we learned that Arizona would be getting 525 of those troops and that they would be deployed Aug. 1.
Today, 30 soldiers are to arrive at the Arizona-Mexico border.
Thirty.
Lt. Valentine Castillo, a spokesman for the Guard in Phoenix, told The Republic’s Dennis Wagner that additional troops will be deployed every Monday until the number reaches 532.
“Everything is right on track to be fully operational by the beginning of October,” Castillo said.
At which time the National Guard will not be able to actually, you know, guard the border. Instead, they will handle surveillance and call the Border Patrol if they spot intruders. This is essentially the same job given the Guard during Operation Jump Start, during the Bush administration.
In June 2006, Bush put 6,000 troops on the border then hampered them by not allowing them to enforce the law. Instead, they were there strictly to support the Border Patrol. You may recall that memorable night in January 2007, when the National Guard spotted a group of men, armed with AK-47s, coming across the rugged desert terrain under the gleam of a full moon. Drug runners, probably. One of them came within 16 yards of a Tennessee guardsman standing watch. The soldiers did all they could. They called for help from the Border Patrol, backed away and let the gunmen pass, just as the politicians had decreed that they must.
Still, by most accounts, Jump Start was a rousing success, despite the handcuffs put on our soldiers. The Guard assisted in catching nearly 170,000 illegal immigrants during the two-year deployment and helped seize more than 300,000 pounds of incoming marijuana and 5,000 pounds of cocaine. So, of course, Bush began winding down the program in early 2008, amid pleas from then-Gov. Janet Napolitano to leave troops at the border until the “virtual fence” was completed in 2011. (Something we now know will not happen in 2011 -- or ever.)
“The federal government has no excuse to scale back the program,” Napolitano wrote to then Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in March 2008. “Common sense dictates that the drawdown should stop and that a continued high National Guard presence should be maintained.”
A month later, she warned congressional leaders that halting the operation would be "irresponsible."
These days, Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano believes the border is “as secure now as it's ever been.” This afternoon, she'll have a telephone press conference with reporters to discuss the Obama administration’s progress in ”implementing new security measures to combat transnational criminal organizations that smuggle weapons, cash and people across the Southwest border.”
Hopefully, it'll involve more than 30 guys with binoculars.
This was funny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgOHOHKBEqE&feature=fvw
This is just too funny to miss:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1T75jBYeCs
Border agents seize $63,000 in cashby Associated Press (October 5th, 2010 @ 7:02am)
https://theultimatejeep.com/images/imported/2010/10/176373-1.jpg
PHOENIX -- Agents in Nogales in southeastern Arizona made two big cash seizures from people crossing the border with Mexico.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents said Monday that the first seizure occurred around noon Friday when officers noticed abnormalities with the clothing of a 54-year-old man from Nogales, Mexico.
After a pat-down, officers found 10 bundles of currency around his waistline. He was carrying $20,000.
About eight hours later, officers boarded a southbound bus and a service dog altered them to a piece of luggage. Inside was $43,500 in cash.
The 22-year-old Mexican man who brought the luggage on board and the man from the earlier seizure were both turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Drug tunnel found under US-Mexico border
by Associated Press (November 3rd, 2010 @ 1:05pm)
SAN DIEGO -- U.S. authorities have discovered a drug tunnel connecting warehouses on either side of California's border with Mexico.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lauren Mack says Wednesday that the tunnel ran 600 yards under the border. It had lighting, ventilation and a rail system for sending carts of drugs into the United States.
Mack says authorities also found 20 tons of marijuana near the tunnel, which ended close to California's Otay Mesa port of entry.
Officials have found 125 tunnels since they started recording them in the early 1990s. Of those, 75 have been found in the past four years, most along the California and Arizona border with Mexico.
An East Valley man who was shot in the head by a Maricopa County Sheriff's Deputy last week after pointing an assault rifle at a the deputy died Monday from his injuries, officials said.
Felipe Ramirez Castellanos, 43, who sheriff's officials said was an illegal immigrant, was shot once in the in the head and once in the hip after he pointed an AK-47 assault rifle at a deputy responding to a domestic violence incident Friday, Sheriff Joe Arpaio said.
"I praise my deputy for taking proper, professional action," Arpaio said.
The 26-year-old deputy, whose name was not released, has been with MCSO five years, Arpaio said. He was placed on administrative leave while the investigation continues.
Sheriff's deputies were called about 10:30 p.m. Friday, after several gunshots were fired outside a home in the 9100 block of East Crescent Avenue, southwest of Broadway and Ellsworth roads, in an unincorporated area of east Mesa.
Investigators learned Castellanos had been in an argument with his wife and fled the home while firing several shots from a .9mm handgun into the air, the sheriff's office said. He returned several minutes later to retrieve an AK-47 and several rounds of ammunition.
Castellanos was inside a vehicle and leaving the home when deputies arrived. When deputies searched the car, they found Castellanos with the assault rifle, a handgun and 120 rounds of ammunition, the sheriff said.
While sitting inside the vehicle, Castellanos pointed the rifle at two deputies and one of the deputies opened fire, he added.
He died Monday at Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix.
Arpaio said Castellanos served 90 days in jail for a human-smuggling charge in 1986. He legally returned to the United States under a worker's Visa in 1997, but apparently overstayed that Visa.
Castellanos was stopped for a traffic violation April 3, and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Additional details were not immediately available.
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/2011/01/17/20110117mesa-deputy-shooting-man-dies.html#ixzz1BLutlJVw
Feds say $10 million in drugs seized at Nogales
by Associated Press (February 3rd, 2011 @ 9:38am)
NOGALES, Ariz. - Federal officials say inspections of inbound vehicles and people passing through the Nogales Port of Entry led to the seizure of $10 million in illegal drugs including cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that between Friday and Monday federal agents seized almost 10,000 pounds of pot and 104 pounds of cocaine hidden inside vehicles and strapped to travelers' bodies.
Authorities arrested a 15-year-old boy from Nogales, Mexico, Friday with more than two pounds of methamphetamines strapped to his waist.
The narcotics and vehicles used for smuggling were seized and the suspects were turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for further investigation.
DPS makes largest pot seizure in agency history
by KTAR.com (February 2nd, 2011 @ 2:31pm)
PHOENIX - The Department of Public Safety made the largest marijuana seizure in agency history last week when they stopped a cattle truck loaded with more than two tons of pot.
The truck, which was loaded with 68 head of cattle and 4,535 pounds of marijuana, was stopped while it was traveling on the Interstate 10, east of Tucson.
The DPS officer arrested Juan Francisco Aguayo, a Mexican citizen with permanent resident alien status who was driving the truck.
The largest marijuana seizure following a traffic stop used to be about 4,100 pounds, according to the Arizona Highway Patrol Division.
Adondo
02-04-2011, 04:01 PM
From my state, Washington:
Source: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2011/02/04/1354719/legislature-drivers-license-bill.html?mi_email=Tri-City%20Herald_PM+%26+Breaking+News
LEGISLATURE: Driver’s license bill called racist, anti-immigrant
By The Spokesman-Review
A legislative hearing over a proposal to make driver’s license applicants give the state a Social Security number and a verifiable residence was abruptly halted after some members of the audience called the plan racist and anti-immigrant.
Senate Transportation Chairwoman Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, ended the Thursday hearing when several people in the audience tried to shout her down over the purpose of Senate Bill 5407.
The panel had listened to a full hour of testimony, with some witnesses saying the bill would make the state safer by preventing terrorists from obtaining licenses and others who said it would make the state less safe because undocumented immigrants would still drive, but without licenses or insurance.
Haugen insisted several times the bill wasn’t about immigration: “To work in this country, you have to have a Social Security Number. We’re just asking for a Social Security number.”
When she asked Department of Licensing staff to explain how the bill would work, they said applicants would be asked for the number, as they are now. If there’s any question about residence, licensing staff must “establish whether they are lawfully present” in the state.
The panel will return to the issue later, she said.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I am an enrolled American Indian. When I renew, I have to show just about everything except my BIA ID card. Heck, if I want a library card, I need a utility bill with my name/address on it. No wonder the illegals are flocking here to to get ''legit'' driver's licenses. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what they can do in other states armed with an official ID from good ol' lax WA state. :mad:
Sheriff: Suspect in officer's death was illegal immigrant
by Colin Smith/KTAR (May 10th, 2011 @ 12:48pm)
PHOENIX -- The suspect in the shooting death of a Buckeye police officer was an illegal immigrant who should have been deported years ago, authorities said Tuesday.
The suspect, Cesar Leon, 27, was killed in the same gun battle that left Officer Rolando Tirado dead and Officer Christopher Paz wounded outside a Phoenix swap meet-party place on May 1. The officers were off-duty, but in uniform and working security at El Gran Mercado.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Leon was in the United States on a visitors' visa and was a convicted felon who should have been deported when he was released from a Los Angeles County jail.
"Many officers have been killed by illegal immigrants," Arpaio said. "Start checking the record. If they weren't here, these incidents wouldn't be occurring."
The sheriff added that Leon was a known gang member with an extensive record.
The executive director of the Arizona Police Association, Brian Livingston, said Leon was a known gang member in the Los Angeles area and asked why he was not deported when he was released earlier this year from a California state prison where he served time for violating terms of his green card.
"We have to know and nobody in California is speaking up and advising us why it wasn't done the first time," Livingston said.
"It was more than a mistake. This person should have been deported back in 2005 when his criminal activity originally started."
Livingston said the attack on the officers may have been premeditated. He said the manner in which Tirado was shot was similar to the way members of Leon's gang were trained to kill.
PHOENIX -- An illegal immigrant used a fake ID to get past security and entered the Palo Verde Nuclear plant west of Phoenix, according to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
"We have arrested an illegal alien who has penetrated and gone into the Palo Verde nuclear plant," Arpaio said Thursday, adding that he is outraged at another example of the lack of security along the Arizona-Mexico border.
Cruz Loya Alvares was taken into custody by Sheriff Deputies Wednesday and interrogated by the Sheriff's Human Smuggling detectives.
Cruz admitted to deputies he has been in the U.S. for most of the past 15 years. He was detained and deported in 2000 but paid a coyote re-entry into the U.S.
Also, he was cited by Mesa Police last month for driving with a suspended license.
According to Sheriff Arpaio, Cruz tried to gain access to the Nuclear power plant on Monday but was denied entrance because his Mexican Driver's license was expired.
"To some extent security at this nuclear power plant worked," Arpaio said in a released statement. "But still, an illegal immigrant was permitted to gain access to this facility. This raises the question: how safe is Palo Verde really if an illegal alien can gain access to this nation's largest nuclear power facility?
"This suggests to me that sadly, like our nation's borders, our most critical public utilities/installations are perhaps not nearly as safely guarded as they need to be."
Two different people working in security at the power plant also told Sheriff's officials that drivers of contractor's vehicles can "vouch" for the passengers if no identification documents are on hand at the time of entry.
"In post 9/11 times, "vouching" for employees who contractor's know little about is not good practice for a facility as critical as a nuclear power plant," Arpaio added.
Jim McDonald with APS said the highly secured areas were properly protected.
"No question about the safety of the plant or of the public as a result of this," he said. "Reactors, control rooms, any kind of vital system," employees have to have extensive background checks to gain access.
Palo Verde is the nation's largest nuclear plant. It is 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix.
May 2, 2012
600 lbs. of Marijuana Seized and 49 Illegal Aliens Arrested over the last five days by Sheriff’s Deputies
Arpaio continues to crack down on illegal immigration and drug trafficking
(Maricopa County, AZ) Sheriff Joe Arpaio says Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office deputies seized over 600 lbs. of marijuana over the last 24 hours and arrested seven illegal aliens during a drug suppression investigation. Sheriff’s Human Smuggling detectives have also arrested 42 illegal aliens in the act of being smuggled into Maricopa County over the past five days.
While working a drug suppression operation in the Southwest area Sheriff’s deputies, with the assistance of the Border Patrol, seized over 600 lbs. of marijuana and arrested seven illegal aliens who were attempting to smuggle the marijuana into the U.S.
Sheriff Arpaio says “Drug trafficking is increasing involving illegal aliens and I am preparing for another drug and illegal alien crime suppression operation.”
In the last month, Maricopa County Sheriff’s deputies have arrested more than 27 illegal aliens and seized over two tons of marijuana.
Over the past 5 days, Sheriff’s detectives have arrested 42 illegal aliens in the act of being smuggled into Maricopa County. 15 were arrested just this morning near Fountain Hills. Detectives are still investigating this incident.
On Tuesday afternoon, Sheriff’s detectives were investigating two vehicles near Fountain Hills for human smuggling. The first vehicle contained 10 illegal aliens,
including the coyote, which were heading to New York, Delaware, Louisiana, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, and Kentucky. Six were identified as Mexican Nationals and three were from Guatemala. The coyote claimed that this was his first time that he had done this type of thing.
The second vehicle contained 10 to 12 illegal aliens who all ran into the desert from Sheriff’s detectives. After a lengthy search of the area using air support and with the assistance of DPS, only three were found and arrested. This group was heading to Ohio.
On Friday, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s detectives discovered a vehicle near Gila Bend which was being used to smuggle illegal aliens into the country. It was carrying 6 illegals and a coyote. While searching the vehicle an AK47 was located under the back seat. This group was heading to Phoenix.
On Saturday night, Sheriff’s detectives were investigating a drop house in Gila Bend and found 9 more illegals. This group was also heading to Phoenix.
These groups admitted to crossing the border near Altar, Sonoyta, and Sasabe.
Of all those arrested, seven illegal aliens were booked into the 4th Avenue Jail on drug charges, while 19 illegal aliens and one U.S. citizen, Jared Moran (01/11/1993), were booked into the 4th Avenue Jail on Human Smuggling related charges. Six juveniles and 2 others were turned over to ICE officials. The investigation continues for the 15 arrested today.
Sheriff Arpaio says “Illegal aliens continue to cross the border into the United States, violating the law, whether it is the illegal immigration or drug laws.”
To date the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has arrested over 5,500 illegal aliens involved in human smuggling.
Is this enough security?
https://theultimatejeep.com/images/imported/2012/05/IMAG0039-1.jpg
Sal-XK
05-08-2012, 06:39 PM
Aw man now I have to add a AT4 to my stock pile :D
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