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Thread: Homeland Security

  1. #11
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    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.

  2. #12
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    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."

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    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.)

  4. #14
    Senior Member Getting Dirty cico7's Avatar
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    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.
    Last edited by cico7; 06-28-2010 at 08:54 AM.

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    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.

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    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.

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    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.

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    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.''

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    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.

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    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.

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