USDA: 500,500 workers hired on farms are illegal
Betty Beard
The Arizona Republic
An updated profile of farmworkers estimates there are about 1.1 million hired workers in the U.S. and half of those lack legal authorization to work in the country.
Those 1.1 million hired workers comprise about a third of all agricultural workers. Another 2.05 million are self-employed or unpaid family members.
About 60 percent of all the hired workers do crop work, and the other 40 percent work in the livestock industry. Over the past 20 years, crop farmworkers have shifted to the Southwest and West. Most are located in the Southwest, with California and Texas accounting for almost one-third of the $22 billion spent in 2002 on hired farm labor.
Although hundreds work every fall through winter in the Yuma area picking produce, Arizona did not place among the top 15 states hiring the most workers in 2002.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service said hired farmworkers remain the most economically disadvantaged workers in the country.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
Illegal Alien Shoplifter tries to stuff seafood down shorts
Jennifer D'Ottavio - Aug. 15, 2008 11:37 AM
The Arizona Republic
Chandler police arrested a man on suspicion of shoplifting Thursday afternoon after they say he tried to steal packages of shrimp and octopus by stuffing them down his pants.
The incident occurred at about 2:45 p.m. at El Rancho Market, 1076 N. Arizona Avenue.
Police say Ricardo Arcos-Lopez concealed the packages in his shorts and passed all points of sale before being stopped at the door by the store manager.
Lopez first gave officers a false name, but when police learned his true identity they found he was wanted on two felony warrants and one misdemeanor warrant, police said.
Lopez told police he was in the country illegally and had been deported once before, according to the report.
Lopez has assumed false identities in the past to avoid arrest, and police found a fake beard and mustache in his possession, the report said.
The Arizona Republic
Chandler police arrested a man on suspicion of shoplifting Thursday afternoon after they say he tried to steal packages of shrimp and octopus by stuffing them down his pants.
The incident occurred at about 2:45 p.m. at El Rancho Market, 1076 N. Arizona Avenue.
Police say Ricardo Arcos-Lopez concealed the packages in his shorts and passed all points of sale before being stopped at the door by the store manager.
Lopez first gave officers a false name, but when police learned his true identity they found he was wanted on two felony warrants and one misdemeanor warrant, police said.
Lopez told police he was in the country illegally and had been deported once before, according to the report.
Lopez has assumed false identities in the past to avoid arrest, and police found a fake beard and mustache in his possession, the report said.
Monday, August 11, 2008
ATF: Most illegal guns in Mexico come from US
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/08/11/20080811border-guns0811-ON.html
ATF: Most illegal guns in Mexico come from US
106 comments Aug. 11, 2008 03:56 PM
Associated Press
EL PASO - Nearly all illegal guns seized in Mexico come from the United States, the head of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Monday.
ATF acting director Michael Sullivan said investigators have traced 90 to 95 percent of the weapons found in Mexico to the U.S. Generally, only law-enforcement officers or military personnel can legally possess guns in Mexico.
Sullivan, speaking at the fifth annual Border Security Conference at the University of Texas at El Paso, said the weapons are being traced as part of an effort by the U.S. and Mexico to stop the illegal flow of guns south.
"In Mexico, investigators have provided some tremendous leads ... to weapons trafficking organizations," Sullivan said.
One bust came in May, when the owner of a Phoenix gun shop was arrested on charges that he knowingly sold hundreds of weapons to "straw purchasers" who funneled the weapons to violent drug cartels in Mexico. Two Mexican men accused of helping to set up the sales also were arrested.
Many of the weapons being found in Mexico have been traced to smuggling points in Southern California, Arizona, Texas and New Mexico, Sullivan said. But he added that weapons are being traced to sellers in "virtually every state, as far north as Washington state."
Sullivan said recent successes in tracking guns thought to be fueling an increasingly violent drug cartel war are attributed to an "e-trace" system that allows officials on both sides of the border to quickly track weapons.
"Tracing where these weapons are from is critical in the early stages," Sullivan said.
The weapons tracking program is only part of the U.S. effort to help curb drug violence in Mexico and in the U.S., Sullivan said.
FBI Director Robert Mueller, who also spoke at the border conference Monday, said the FBI is working directly with Mexican officials as part of an anti-kidnapping effort in Laredo and Nuevo Laredo. His agency has also developed a task force to focus on the "very few law enforcement officials who assist drug cartels" in the U.S., as well as helping curb the growth of prison gangs such as the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13.
"We have slowed drug trafficking, tracked down violent fugitives and rescued kidnapping victims," Mueller said.
ATF: Most illegal guns in Mexico come from US
106 comments Aug. 11, 2008 03:56 PM
Associated Press
EL PASO - Nearly all illegal guns seized in Mexico come from the United States, the head of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Monday.
ATF acting director Michael Sullivan said investigators have traced 90 to 95 percent of the weapons found in Mexico to the U.S. Generally, only law-enforcement officers or military personnel can legally possess guns in Mexico.
Sullivan, speaking at the fifth annual Border Security Conference at the University of Texas at El Paso, said the weapons are being traced as part of an effort by the U.S. and Mexico to stop the illegal flow of guns south.
"In Mexico, investigators have provided some tremendous leads ... to weapons trafficking organizations," Sullivan said.
One bust came in May, when the owner of a Phoenix gun shop was arrested on charges that he knowingly sold hundreds of weapons to "straw purchasers" who funneled the weapons to violent drug cartels in Mexico. Two Mexican men accused of helping to set up the sales also were arrested.
Many of the weapons being found in Mexico have been traced to smuggling points in Southern California, Arizona, Texas and New Mexico, Sullivan said. But he added that weapons are being traced to sellers in "virtually every state, as far north as Washington state."
Sullivan said recent successes in tracking guns thought to be fueling an increasingly violent drug cartel war are attributed to an "e-trace" system that allows officials on both sides of the border to quickly track weapons.
"Tracing where these weapons are from is critical in the early stages," Sullivan said.
The weapons tracking program is only part of the U.S. effort to help curb drug violence in Mexico and in the U.S., Sullivan said.
FBI Director Robert Mueller, who also spoke at the border conference Monday, said the FBI is working directly with Mexican officials as part of an anti-kidnapping effort in Laredo and Nuevo Laredo. His agency has also developed a task force to focus on the "very few law enforcement officials who assist drug cartels" in the U.S., as well as helping curb the growth of prison gangs such as the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13.
"We have slowed drug trafficking, tracked down violent fugitives and rescued kidnapping victims," Mueller said.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
U.S. is out $51M for flying 64,000 illegals to Mexico
Can you believe this line from the story: "U.S. officials are satisfied with the results through the first four years". That tells me one thing: It's time we elect some new U.S. Officials!!!!
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.10.2008
The U.S. government has spent more than $51 million over the past four summers flying nearly 64,000 illegal immigrants home to Mexico City.
The flights are intended to break the smuggling cycle and reduce the desert death count. But evidence shows the binational Interior Repatriation Program has not made any substantial difference in border smuggling or desert deaths. And the principal beneficiary is a Mexican airline contracted to operate the twice-daily flights out of Tucson, critics say.
In the 362 days the voluntary flights were offered, during 2004-2007, the bodies of 342 illegal immigrants were discovered along Arizona's stretch of the U.S-Mexico border — nearly one per day, Southern Arizona medical examiners' records show. The yearly totals recorded by the U.S. Border Patrol show that the number of border deaths each year since the program started in 2004 has been higher than in any of the previous years.
Taking just the number of bodies handled by the Pima County medical examiner, and comparing 2001-2003, before the repatriation program started, with 2004-2007, the number of bodies found hasn't decreased.
"The repatriation efforts have not stopped deaths. There's not even a decrease in deaths," said Jennifer Allen, director of Border Action Network, a Tucson-based immigrants-rights organization. "This continues to be this deadly, exorbitantly costly shell game."
The program — launched in July 2004 after the U.S and Mexican governments agreed on terms — is designed to separate illegal immigrants from smugglers by flying them to Mexico City rather than busing them to Nogales, where they are left at the border and susceptible to smugglers awaiting them with offers to try again. Those who participate also get bus transportation from Mexico City to their hometowns in Mexico.
U.S. officials are satisfied with the results through the first four years, said Kelly Nantel, press secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has run the program since 2005.
She doesn't understand how people can knock a program designed to keep people safe. Without it, the death toll could be higher, she said.
"We could be not taking into account that it reaches temperatures of 120 degrees or higher" in the border desert, Nantel said. "But we do because we recognize that there are human beings involved in this process and it's critical we take care of them."
Through the first two weeks of the program this year, 3,615 illegal immigrants have taken the flights home, she said.
"That's 3,600 individuals who we know are not subject to extreme heat in the desert, to traffickers and smugglers who don't have their safety in mind," she said. "We've seen smugglers and traffickers right there at the border who are only interested in making a buck, waiting to see if they can exploit the individuals."
Money to Mexico
Another criticism is that the United States pays nearly the entire tab — in 2007 Mexico paid $190,000 to provide staffing for the program — and a big chunk of the money lands in the hands of a Mexican airline: AeroMexico.
CSI Aviation Services of Albuquerque, which has the federal contract, partners with AeroMexico, which operates the twice-daily flights out of Tucson International Airport, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.
"Why can't we use U.S. carriers?" asked Glenn Spencer, president of the Cochise County-based American Border Patrol, a non-governmental organization that keeps tabs on the Border Patrol. "Probably Mexico won't let us. So, they are profiting off of our nonsense."
The discrepancy is likely explained by two factors, said Judith Gans, immigration-policy program manager at the University of Arizona's Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy.
"Who's paying reflects both the capacity to pay and the interest in stopping illegal immigration," Gans said.
Mexico wants to protect its citizens and keep them from dying in the desert but receives millions of dollars from remittance sent home from Mexicans living in the U.S. illegally, she said.
The program is as much about foreign policy and diplomacy as it is about immigration, Gans said.
"It's about trying to work with the Mexican government and do something cooperatively," Gans said.
The program is a way for both governments to "get off the hook" for bad policies that perpetuate illegal immigration, said Raquel Rubio-Goldsmith, coordinator of the Binational Migration Institute at the University of Arizona, which studies border deaths. The program is nothing more than a small bandage on a much larger wound, she said.
"The repatriation program, both to the Mexico government and the American government, has been a way to respond to political pressure in each country regarding to the number of people who come across and the number of people who die," Rubio-Goldsmith said.
Thousands turn down offer
The program is voluntary, and every year thousands of illegal immigrants turn down the plane ticket home and hop on the bus back to Nogales, presumably to try again.
An average of 176 illegal immigrants per day have taken the flights home in the past four years. That accounts for only 20 percent of the Mexican illegal border crossers apprehended daily in the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector in July-September over the past four years, agency figures show. Illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico cannot take the flights to Mexico City, nor can illegal immigrants with criminal records.
Those numbers don't take into account that many apprehended Mexicans live close to the border, meaning that a flight to Mexico City wouldn't help them, Nantel said. Officials would like to see more take the flights, but Nantel said that 20 percent for a voluntary program is actually pretty good.
Immigrants-rights advocates say the lack of participation demonstrates the ill-advised logic of the program.
"This really shows a shallow understanding of immigration," said Allen, of Border Action Network. "It's this notion that you just move people around, from point A to point B, and that will deter immigration. It underestimates the need for people to migrate. It's much more complex than just the shell game of these deterrent tactics."
Small portion of budget
U.S. officials consider it money well spent because it keeps those who take the flights safe, and, as Nantel says, there is no cost on human life.
"It saves the taxpayers money and addresses a very critical life-safety issue for individuals who are out in the desert in these very dangerous months," Nantel said.
Annual money spent on the program accounts for less than 1 percent of the Department of Homeland Security budget, Gans said. That said, the $51.6 million could have been more wisely spent on a program that targets the root causes of illegal immigration, she said.
The flights home do no harm and likely reduce the odds of dying for the people taking the flights, but the numbers clearly show it hasn't stopped the death toll, Gans said.
"All of these enforcement efforts are going to make a difference at the margin, but anytime the laws are so fundamentally out of alignment with the economic incentives and forces, the economic incentives are going to overwhelm the system," Gans said.
The money could have built as many as 20 miles of fencing on the border or bought camera systems that watch the border, both of which would be more effective deterrents, said Spencer, of the American Border Patrol. The deaths and continued traffic show that the flights don't stop illegal immigrants from trying again, he said.
The problem, he said, is that the Department of Homeland Security doesn't measure its own performance.
Following the first year of the program, the Mexican Foreign Ministry compiled a report on the program. It found that 10 percent of the 14,071 illegal immigrants who took the flights home were apprehended again in the program run, less than the 32 percent recidivism rate in the sector at the time.
Since that report, however, the Interior Repatriation Program has not been studied or analyzed. The Border Patrol doesn't release the current recidivism rate.
"It's a smoke screen," Spencer said. "It makes them appear as if they are doing something."
● Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com.
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.10.2008
The U.S. government has spent more than $51 million over the past four summers flying nearly 64,000 illegal immigrants home to Mexico City.
The flights are intended to break the smuggling cycle and reduce the desert death count. But evidence shows the binational Interior Repatriation Program has not made any substantial difference in border smuggling or desert deaths. And the principal beneficiary is a Mexican airline contracted to operate the twice-daily flights out of Tucson, critics say.
In the 362 days the voluntary flights were offered, during 2004-2007, the bodies of 342 illegal immigrants were discovered along Arizona's stretch of the U.S-Mexico border — nearly one per day, Southern Arizona medical examiners' records show. The yearly totals recorded by the U.S. Border Patrol show that the number of border deaths each year since the program started in 2004 has been higher than in any of the previous years.
Taking just the number of bodies handled by the Pima County medical examiner, and comparing 2001-2003, before the repatriation program started, with 2004-2007, the number of bodies found hasn't decreased.
"The repatriation efforts have not stopped deaths. There's not even a decrease in deaths," said Jennifer Allen, director of Border Action Network, a Tucson-based immigrants-rights organization. "This continues to be this deadly, exorbitantly costly shell game."
The program — launched in July 2004 after the U.S and Mexican governments agreed on terms — is designed to separate illegal immigrants from smugglers by flying them to Mexico City rather than busing them to Nogales, where they are left at the border and susceptible to smugglers awaiting them with offers to try again. Those who participate also get bus transportation from Mexico City to their hometowns in Mexico.
U.S. officials are satisfied with the results through the first four years, said Kelly Nantel, press secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has run the program since 2005.
She doesn't understand how people can knock a program designed to keep people safe. Without it, the death toll could be higher, she said.
"We could be not taking into account that it reaches temperatures of 120 degrees or higher" in the border desert, Nantel said. "But we do because we recognize that there are human beings involved in this process and it's critical we take care of them."
Through the first two weeks of the program this year, 3,615 illegal immigrants have taken the flights home, she said.
"That's 3,600 individuals who we know are not subject to extreme heat in the desert, to traffickers and smugglers who don't have their safety in mind," she said. "We've seen smugglers and traffickers right there at the border who are only interested in making a buck, waiting to see if they can exploit the individuals."
Money to Mexico
Another criticism is that the United States pays nearly the entire tab — in 2007 Mexico paid $190,000 to provide staffing for the program — and a big chunk of the money lands in the hands of a Mexican airline: AeroMexico.
CSI Aviation Services of Albuquerque, which has the federal contract, partners with AeroMexico, which operates the twice-daily flights out of Tucson International Airport, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.
"Why can't we use U.S. carriers?" asked Glenn Spencer, president of the Cochise County-based American Border Patrol, a non-governmental organization that keeps tabs on the Border Patrol. "Probably Mexico won't let us. So, they are profiting off of our nonsense."
The discrepancy is likely explained by two factors, said Judith Gans, immigration-policy program manager at the University of Arizona's Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy.
"Who's paying reflects both the capacity to pay and the interest in stopping illegal immigration," Gans said.
Mexico wants to protect its citizens and keep them from dying in the desert but receives millions of dollars from remittance sent home from Mexicans living in the U.S. illegally, she said.
The program is as much about foreign policy and diplomacy as it is about immigration, Gans said.
"It's about trying to work with the Mexican government and do something cooperatively," Gans said.
The program is a way for both governments to "get off the hook" for bad policies that perpetuate illegal immigration, said Raquel Rubio-Goldsmith, coordinator of the Binational Migration Institute at the University of Arizona, which studies border deaths. The program is nothing more than a small bandage on a much larger wound, she said.
"The repatriation program, both to the Mexico government and the American government, has been a way to respond to political pressure in each country regarding to the number of people who come across and the number of people who die," Rubio-Goldsmith said.
Thousands turn down offer
The program is voluntary, and every year thousands of illegal immigrants turn down the plane ticket home and hop on the bus back to Nogales, presumably to try again.
An average of 176 illegal immigrants per day have taken the flights home in the past four years. That accounts for only 20 percent of the Mexican illegal border crossers apprehended daily in the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector in July-September over the past four years, agency figures show. Illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico cannot take the flights to Mexico City, nor can illegal immigrants with criminal records.
Those numbers don't take into account that many apprehended Mexicans live close to the border, meaning that a flight to Mexico City wouldn't help them, Nantel said. Officials would like to see more take the flights, but Nantel said that 20 percent for a voluntary program is actually pretty good.
Immigrants-rights advocates say the lack of participation demonstrates the ill-advised logic of the program.
"This really shows a shallow understanding of immigration," said Allen, of Border Action Network. "It's this notion that you just move people around, from point A to point B, and that will deter immigration. It underestimates the need for people to migrate. It's much more complex than just the shell game of these deterrent tactics."
Small portion of budget
U.S. officials consider it money well spent because it keeps those who take the flights safe, and, as Nantel says, there is no cost on human life.
"It saves the taxpayers money and addresses a very critical life-safety issue for individuals who are out in the desert in these very dangerous months," Nantel said.
Annual money spent on the program accounts for less than 1 percent of the Department of Homeland Security budget, Gans said. That said, the $51.6 million could have been more wisely spent on a program that targets the root causes of illegal immigration, she said.
The flights home do no harm and likely reduce the odds of dying for the people taking the flights, but the numbers clearly show it hasn't stopped the death toll, Gans said.
"All of these enforcement efforts are going to make a difference at the margin, but anytime the laws are so fundamentally out of alignment with the economic incentives and forces, the economic incentives are going to overwhelm the system," Gans said.
The money could have built as many as 20 miles of fencing on the border or bought camera systems that watch the border, both of which would be more effective deterrents, said Spencer, of the American Border Patrol. The deaths and continued traffic show that the flights don't stop illegal immigrants from trying again, he said.
The problem, he said, is that the Department of Homeland Security doesn't measure its own performance.
Following the first year of the program, the Mexican Foreign Ministry compiled a report on the program. It found that 10 percent of the 14,071 illegal immigrants who took the flights home were apprehended again in the program run, less than the 32 percent recidivism rate in the sector at the time.
Since that report, however, the Interior Repatriation Program has not been studied or analyzed. The Border Patrol doesn't release the current recidivism rate.
"It's a smoke screen," Spencer said. "It makes them appear as if they are doing something."
● Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Phoenix businessman accused of funneling millions
Western Union in butcher shop handled more money than any of the 880 in Arizona
by Sean Holstege - Jul. 13, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Two of Arizona's busiest Western Union branches were not where you might expect: a small Mesa strip-mall store and the back of a west Phoenix butcher shop.
Both places lie in hardscrabble neighborhoods where stores offer cash advances, cheap tacos and low-dollar phone cards.
Bruce Dennis Love ran both stores. He lived in north Scottsdale and in a large $1.3 million home overlooking Paradise Valley from a luxury neighborhood on the side of a mountain park.
State investigators scoured the stores' transactions and interrogated the employees and reached the conclusion that almost all his customers were smugglers of illegal immigrants. The state shut down the stores in 2006.
Now, the state accuses Love, 50, and two partners of funneling $57 million to Mexican smugglers over four years. It's the biggest case of its kind ever brought anywhere on the border.
The Arizona Attorney General's Office seized Love's assets, including a $1.3 million home, more than a dozen other properties and eight cars. Love faces 80 counts of money laundering, conspiracy and participating in a criminal syndicate.
He has not entered a plea yet but is arguing in court that he is not mentally competent to stand trial. His partners, Maria Becerra and Rosa Contreras, pleaded guilty in May to lesser charges.
Here is how investigators allege the operation worked:
Court records lay out in detail how the cash-delivery operation was simple for smugglers and lucrative for Love.
His company, BMN Business Associates Inc., and its predecessor allowed him to build a multimillion-dollar mini-empire of Arizona, California and offshore ventures.
Moving the money
Illegal immigrants paid smugglers to transport them from Mexico to Phoenix. The immigrants were kept in drophouses while smugglers called relatives or friends in other states demanding a wire transfer of more money to release their captives.
Investigators say the smugglers picked up the cash at one of Love's Western Union shops, including a 16-by-16-foot, two-cashier room at the back of a Phoenix butchers' on West McDowell Road.
One suspected smuggler, for example, visited Love's Mesa store between February and June 2005 to collect 19 payments using nine different Social Security cards and addresses.
On June 6, he picked up two $1,000 payments wired from Georgia and one from Michigan. The next day, he picked up $1,000 from Michigan and $550 from Georgia.
The state says that store clerks, who typically earned about $8 an hour, took bribes ranging from $25 to $100 per transaction to overlook coyotes' incomplete or fake documentation. No clerks have been charged, but they have been interviewed by investigators and could be called as witnesses.
Putting profits to work
Love's Western Union shop in Phoenix handled more money than any of the 880 in Arizona. His two shops, between them, grossed up to $32,000 a month in commissions.
But Love's business operations extended well beyond the Western Union franchises.
State investigators have moved to seize the interests of Love, his family and his business associates, Becerra and Contreras, in 41 businesses, 26 bank accounts and 17 properties, worth a total of $42 million, according to prosecutors' court filings.
Property records show he owns $5.6 million in Arizona real estate. State and county records show that many of Love's businesses were registered to his house.
Investigators allege in court filings that he intermingled money among the Western Union shops, an offshore account, property investments and a charity. Love's holdings included:
• Two businesses registered in the Caribbean tax haven Nevis and another in Belize.
• A non-profit property insurance firm, listed on charity Web sites as eligible to receive donated cars.
• A one-third share of a California-based penis-enhancement business. It had contracts to sell pills in GNC and Wal-Mart stores, posting $6 million in sales last year.
• A Peoria car wash.
• Real-estate ventures, including a Litchfield business park and a company that flipped distressed properties.
In 2005, BMN opened a bank account in Chandler, according to subpoenaed records. Bank investigators grew suspicious of a large volume of transactions and learned the company was registered with Love's brother, not Love.
When Bruce Love tried to do business, the bank terminated the account. Bruce Love offered the bank manager $10,000, then $100,000, to reverse the decision, but the manager refused both times, state investigators testified
The crackdown
Love came under scrutiny when state investigators started piecing together how smugglers moved money through Western Union.
2002: The Arizona Financial Crimes Task Force began blocking Western Union wire transfers into the state. From data, investigators identified suspicious patterns and likely offenders.
2004-2005: Western Union turned over compliance documents to the state Attorney General's Office.
May 2005: Western Union conducted inspections of Love's franchise operation. It later sent him warning letters about certain practices.
February 2006: The state Attorney General's Office notified Western Union of a court order to monitor live transactions at some stores, including Love's.
March 2006: Western Union shut down Love's Phoenix and Mesa stores. Love later secured a wire-remitter contract with MoneyGram, but MoneyGram canceled the contract after BMN employees reported improper practices.
August 2006: The Arizona Department of Financial Institutions signed a consent order with Western Union shutting down Love's two stores and fining the company $3 million.
Jan. 18, 2008: Love was arrested after a grand jury issued an 80-count indictment.
Love's defense
Love's attorney argues he suffers from mental problems and was unaware of activities in his stores. He faces a mental competency hearing later this summer.
His attorney, Mark Dwyer of the Maricopa County Public Defender's Office, said Love was diagnosed with paranoia and depression and sought electroshock and surgical treatment.
"I think the man is seriously mentally ill and has been for around 15 years," Dwyer said.
Love was released on bond in January. In a recent court appearance, he sat pensively and silently as he fidgeted with a pen. He declined an interview, upon Dwyer's advice.
by Sean Holstege - Jul. 13, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Two of Arizona's busiest Western Union branches were not where you might expect: a small Mesa strip-mall store and the back of a west Phoenix butcher shop.
Both places lie in hardscrabble neighborhoods where stores offer cash advances, cheap tacos and low-dollar phone cards.
Bruce Dennis Love ran both stores. He lived in north Scottsdale and in a large $1.3 million home overlooking Paradise Valley from a luxury neighborhood on the side of a mountain park.
State investigators scoured the stores' transactions and interrogated the employees and reached the conclusion that almost all his customers were smugglers of illegal immigrants. The state shut down the stores in 2006.
Now, the state accuses Love, 50, and two partners of funneling $57 million to Mexican smugglers over four years. It's the biggest case of its kind ever brought anywhere on the border.
The Arizona Attorney General's Office seized Love's assets, including a $1.3 million home, more than a dozen other properties and eight cars. Love faces 80 counts of money laundering, conspiracy and participating in a criminal syndicate.
He has not entered a plea yet but is arguing in court that he is not mentally competent to stand trial. His partners, Maria Becerra and Rosa Contreras, pleaded guilty in May to lesser charges.
Here is how investigators allege the operation worked:
Court records lay out in detail how the cash-delivery operation was simple for smugglers and lucrative for Love.
His company, BMN Business Associates Inc., and its predecessor allowed him to build a multimillion-dollar mini-empire of Arizona, California and offshore ventures.
Moving the money
Illegal immigrants paid smugglers to transport them from Mexico to Phoenix. The immigrants were kept in drophouses while smugglers called relatives or friends in other states demanding a wire transfer of more money to release their captives.
Investigators say the smugglers picked up the cash at one of Love's Western Union shops, including a 16-by-16-foot, two-cashier room at the back of a Phoenix butchers' on West McDowell Road.
One suspected smuggler, for example, visited Love's Mesa store between February and June 2005 to collect 19 payments using nine different Social Security cards and addresses.
On June 6, he picked up two $1,000 payments wired from Georgia and one from Michigan. The next day, he picked up $1,000 from Michigan and $550 from Georgia.
The state says that store clerks, who typically earned about $8 an hour, took bribes ranging from $25 to $100 per transaction to overlook coyotes' incomplete or fake documentation. No clerks have been charged, but they have been interviewed by investigators and could be called as witnesses.
Putting profits to work
Love's Western Union shop in Phoenix handled more money than any of the 880 in Arizona. His two shops, between them, grossed up to $32,000 a month in commissions.
But Love's business operations extended well beyond the Western Union franchises.
State investigators have moved to seize the interests of Love, his family and his business associates, Becerra and Contreras, in 41 businesses, 26 bank accounts and 17 properties, worth a total of $42 million, according to prosecutors' court filings.
Property records show he owns $5.6 million in Arizona real estate. State and county records show that many of Love's businesses were registered to his house.
Investigators allege in court filings that he intermingled money among the Western Union shops, an offshore account, property investments and a charity. Love's holdings included:
• Two businesses registered in the Caribbean tax haven Nevis and another in Belize.
• A non-profit property insurance firm, listed on charity Web sites as eligible to receive donated cars.
• A one-third share of a California-based penis-enhancement business. It had contracts to sell pills in GNC and Wal-Mart stores, posting $6 million in sales last year.
• A Peoria car wash.
• Real-estate ventures, including a Litchfield business park and a company that flipped distressed properties.
In 2005, BMN opened a bank account in Chandler, according to subpoenaed records. Bank investigators grew suspicious of a large volume of transactions and learned the company was registered with Love's brother, not Love.
When Bruce Love tried to do business, the bank terminated the account. Bruce Love offered the bank manager $10,000, then $100,000, to reverse the decision, but the manager refused both times, state investigators testified
The crackdown
Love came under scrutiny when state investigators started piecing together how smugglers moved money through Western Union.
2002: The Arizona Financial Crimes Task Force began blocking Western Union wire transfers into the state. From data, investigators identified suspicious patterns and likely offenders.
2004-2005: Western Union turned over compliance documents to the state Attorney General's Office.
May 2005: Western Union conducted inspections of Love's franchise operation. It later sent him warning letters about certain practices.
February 2006: The state Attorney General's Office notified Western Union of a court order to monitor live transactions at some stores, including Love's.
March 2006: Western Union shut down Love's Phoenix and Mesa stores. Love later secured a wire-remitter contract with MoneyGram, but MoneyGram canceled the contract after BMN employees reported improper practices.
August 2006: The Arizona Department of Financial Institutions signed a consent order with Western Union shutting down Love's two stores and fining the company $3 million.
Jan. 18, 2008: Love was arrested after a grand jury issued an 80-count indictment.
Love's defense
Love's attorney argues he suffers from mental problems and was unaware of activities in his stores. He faces a mental competency hearing later this summer.
His attorney, Mark Dwyer of the Maricopa County Public Defender's Office, said Love was diagnosed with paranoia and depression and sought electroshock and surgical treatment.
"I think the man is seriously mentally ill and has been for around 15 years," Dwyer said.
Love was released on bond in January. In a recent court appearance, he sat pensively and silently as he fidgeted with a pen. He declined an interview, upon Dwyer's advice.
Human-smuggling rings from Mexico turning to new tactics
Human-smuggling rings from Mexico turning to new tactics
Arizona authorities say other states, feds must help squeeze cash pipeline
by Sean Holstege - Jul. 13, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Mexican human-smuggling rings are sidestepping Arizona's campaign to choke off their pipeline of illegal cash as they collect billions of dollars for sneaking illegal immigrants into the state.
Arizona investigators crack down, and the smugglers counter, shifting where and how they collect payments from illegal immigrants. The two sides repeat their sparring, like two grand masters mapping out their paths on a chessboard.
The cartels' shifting tactics show how the smuggling of people increasingly has become an organized business. Typically, a Mexican immigrant pays a smuggler $1,500 to $2,000 in fees, paying a portion up front to reach and then cross the Mexico border. Then a coyote takes the immigrant to a drophouse in Phoenix and holds him or her hostage until the final balance is wired from a friend or relative in the U.S.
Arizona investigators targeted payments wired to Western Union stores in the state and seized millions of dollars. But since then the smugglers have begun having the money transmitted to certain Western Unions in other states and Mexico. They also launder the cash through quickly closed checking accounts at large commercial banks and ferry bags of cash south across the border.
One way or another, at least $1.7 billion a year flows to Arizona's drophouse rings, federal and state investigators estimate. The money sustains illegal immigration, a big business characterized by gunbattles among smugglers and attacks upon immigrants. Every few months coyotes kill an immigrant.
The money maneuvers have frustrated Arizona investigators. Focusing on unscrupulous Western Union outlets, they had slashed wire transfers to smugglers from a peak of $500 million in 2002 to less than $50 million in 2006.
Western Union says it does everything it can to help. The company monitors its business thoroughly for money laundering and reports any problems to authorities, said Joseph Cachey III, the company's vice president for global compliance.
"We try to run a national anti-money-laundering program, and we feel it is significant and thorough," Cachey said.
The state continues to chisel away at the smugglers' network. Earlier this month, an Arizona Court of Appeals ruling allowed state investigators to open a new front in their campaign: sifting and seizing certain Western Union transactions to Sonora. Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard hailed the ruling as "very important."
But he admits it's not enough. Arizona stands alone in combating illegal profits from smugglers. No other state, nor any federal agency, has systematically targeted coyote money. Goddard has asked other border states to copy Arizona's campaign, but none has.
He now is urging Mexican authorities to clamp down on smugglers and unscrupulous Western Union operators in Sonora, but it's unknown how far any cooperation will go.
Targeting the cash
Arizona's crackdown began in 2001, when undercover agents watched coyotes walk out of Western Union outlets in the state with tens of thousands of dollars in cash. Often, they didn't bring valid ID to get cash and picked up payments wired to dozens of illegal immigrants.
As investigators tightened the net, coyotes starting bringing illegal immigrants to some Western Union shops to sign for the cash in smaller amounts. Store clerks took bribes and kept loose records, investigators testified.
Over the next five years, investigators tracked wired money and chased the evidence that emerged. Detectives pieced together a picture of drophouses, coyotes and smuggling rings. They collected troves of smuggling lists, interrogated thousands of immigrants and coyotes and conducted undercover stings of coyotes and Western Unions in Arizona. All the evidence pointed in the same direction: Vast amounts were being laundered.
The effort led to the largest money-laundering case of its kind. In January a grand jury indicted Bruce Dennis Love, a Phoenix-area Western Union franchisee, on money-laundering and other charges. Love has not entered a plea, pending a ruling on whether he is mentally competent to stand trial.
Statewide, about 5 percent of Western Union outlets were responsible for 80 percent of the most suspicious transactions, investigators with the state financial-crimes task force say. Transaction records and follow-up investigations show that two- to three-dozen stores depended on the coyote business.
"We haven't finished (prosecuting) the highly corrupt Western Union agents," said Cameron Holmes, senior litigation counsel at the Attorney General's Office.
Sonoran connection
In spring 2006, state investigators studied a two-month sample of Western Union transfers from U.S. states to Sonora. They counted $28 million from the same 28 states that had previously wired money to coyotes in Arizona. Money went to Sonora from the same places, in the same amounts and proportions as they had in Arizona.
The transfers showed that families in, say, New York or Atlanta paid Arizona coyotes the way they always had but sent the money farther south.
Further evidence included:
• Most transactions were posted in a handful of small smuggling towns, such as Caborca, Altar and Cananea. A few individuals picked up thousands of dollars in multiple transactions every day. One man picked up $194,000 in two months.
• Money transmissions to Sonoran Western Unions fluctuated with the smuggling season, spiking in spring and late fall, just as they had in Arizona.
• Sonora, a smuggling haven for decades, has 100 Western Union outlets, more than Mexico City, which is four times as populous. Investigators said the imbalance showed Sonoran stores were collecting coyote money rather than legal remittances.
• In one case, investigators used logbook notes and transaction records to link the murder of an immigrant in a Phoenix drophouse to a Western Union branch in Caborca. He was shot in the head, testicles and midriff while complaining on the phone to his brother about being extorted.
The Caborca branch sits at the back of a store that sells appliances and motorcycles. Investigators said it cleared 20 times the amount as the next busiest Western Union in Sonora.
Later in 2006, Arizona investigators got a warrant to seize suspicious transactions from U.S. states to Sonora.
Western Union filed an emergency motion in court to halt the seizures, arguing that data search was too broad and would interfere with the privacy of people who legitimately wire money.
A Maricopa County Superior Court judge agreed, but on July 1 the state Court of Appeals overturned his ruling, saying Arizona could search the data and intercept suspicious transactions. The court said the evidence linked the money in Sonora to crimes in Arizona.
Western Union has not yet said whether it will appeal.
Expanding to other states
Mexican smuggling cartels have countered Arizona's pursuit of Sonora transactions by spreading the risk: They have moved drophouse operations and wired payment of smuggling fees to other states, including Nevada.
In Las Vegas, patrol officers have been stopping more vans full of illegal immigrants on the highways leading to the city, Arizona Department of Public Service officials said.
Immigrants and coyotes have told Arizona investigators that increasingly people are ordered to send money to Western Union stores in the Las Vegas area. Investigators sought but did not receive court permission to seize records of those transactions, so it's not known how much Arizona money has shifted north.
Likewise, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents say an unknown amount of money has shifted to California and New Mexico. Goddard recently asked his counterparts in bordering states to launch parallel investigations, but none has. He did not provide details about any talks with counterparts in other states, and officials in Texas, California and Nevada declined comment to The Arizona Republic.
The New Mexico Attorney General's Office said it has found only small volumes of money wiring.
Federal agencies have limited their actions to administrative fines of Western Union and smaller-scale seizures of coyote money.
Western Union is regulated by the USA Patriot Act, the Bank Secrecy Act and state laws. Store agents are required to file reports of suspicious activity, log withdrawals larger than $2,000 and document efforts to split a single payment into smaller transactions.
In 2003, the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network determined that "Western Union's failures to file suspicious activity reports were willful" and fined the company $3 million.
Regulators in California and New York also found Western Union's methods lacking and fined the company.
Using bank accounts
In more recent cases, evidence has emerged that coyotes are increasingly smuggling money through large commercial banks.
Historically, criminal organizations shied away from banks because reporting requirements are stricter and better enforced.
Since Arizona's crackdown on wire remitters, cartels have turned to checking accounts, suspects and extortion victims told investigators.
A coyote will set up numerous checking accounts with small amounts of cash. When relatives are ready to pay the smuggling fee for an illegal immigrant, coyotes give them the account number and tell them to deposit cash in a drive-through teller. When the money clears, the immigrant is released.
As quickly as possible, money launderers then withdraw the money. It's a high-volume, quick-turnaround operation that draws suspicion from bank security teams, but coyotes usually shut down the accounts after a couple of months, before bankers catch on.
Western Union at center
Western Union says it has been a cooperative partner in cracking down on money laundering.
Cachey, the vice president for global compliance, touted the company's efforts to train its 335,000 franchise agents on how to spot laundering and how to build a better compliance program. He added that regulators have to better warn money-wire firms about emerging risks.
While Arizona presents unique challenges, Cachey said, Western Union tracks money-laundering attempts around the globe, including to terrorist organizations.
Still, he says the company has cooperated with Arizona, and it's helped. He cites the Bruce Love case.
"We reported the problems to the government and terminated our relationship with him," Cachey said.
"We have programs in Sonora and all along the U.S.-Mexico border looking for suspicious patterns of activity so we can deal with that," Cachey said.
Goddard and state investigators take a dimmer view of Western Union's role.
In 2006, the Arizona Department of Financial Institutions found Western Union agents failed to identify 28 customers and had incomplete records for 47 more. The state fined Western Union $3 million and ordered it to shut down eight stores, including two run by Bruce Love, and put on probation six more. Regulators found no willful or intentional wrongdoing.
"It is troubling to me that a major commercial enterprise can facilitate criminal activity the way the money transmitters do," Goddard said. "A greater effort is needed from them to clear up their activities. I've been angry for the last four years."
Goddard agrees with ICE and state investigators that only extensive cooperation beyond Arizona can put another dent in human smugglers' money laundering. They all say that without collaboration, it's getting harder to follow the hidden cash in the never-ending battle of wits and tactics between smugglers and law officers.
"We are the rock in the stream, not the dam," Goddard said of Arizona's enforcement. "We need to get to the dam."
Arizona authorities say other states, feds must help squeeze cash pipeline
by Sean Holstege - Jul. 13, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Mexican human-smuggling rings are sidestepping Arizona's campaign to choke off their pipeline of illegal cash as they collect billions of dollars for sneaking illegal immigrants into the state.
Arizona investigators crack down, and the smugglers counter, shifting where and how they collect payments from illegal immigrants. The two sides repeat their sparring, like two grand masters mapping out their paths on a chessboard.
The cartels' shifting tactics show how the smuggling of people increasingly has become an organized business. Typically, a Mexican immigrant pays a smuggler $1,500 to $2,000 in fees, paying a portion up front to reach and then cross the Mexico border. Then a coyote takes the immigrant to a drophouse in Phoenix and holds him or her hostage until the final balance is wired from a friend or relative in the U.S.
Arizona investigators targeted payments wired to Western Union stores in the state and seized millions of dollars. But since then the smugglers have begun having the money transmitted to certain Western Unions in other states and Mexico. They also launder the cash through quickly closed checking accounts at large commercial banks and ferry bags of cash south across the border.
One way or another, at least $1.7 billion a year flows to Arizona's drophouse rings, federal and state investigators estimate. The money sustains illegal immigration, a big business characterized by gunbattles among smugglers and attacks upon immigrants. Every few months coyotes kill an immigrant.
The money maneuvers have frustrated Arizona investigators. Focusing on unscrupulous Western Union outlets, they had slashed wire transfers to smugglers from a peak of $500 million in 2002 to less than $50 million in 2006.
Western Union says it does everything it can to help. The company monitors its business thoroughly for money laundering and reports any problems to authorities, said Joseph Cachey III, the company's vice president for global compliance.
"We try to run a national anti-money-laundering program, and we feel it is significant and thorough," Cachey said.
The state continues to chisel away at the smugglers' network. Earlier this month, an Arizona Court of Appeals ruling allowed state investigators to open a new front in their campaign: sifting and seizing certain Western Union transactions to Sonora. Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard hailed the ruling as "very important."
But he admits it's not enough. Arizona stands alone in combating illegal profits from smugglers. No other state, nor any federal agency, has systematically targeted coyote money. Goddard has asked other border states to copy Arizona's campaign, but none has.
He now is urging Mexican authorities to clamp down on smugglers and unscrupulous Western Union operators in Sonora, but it's unknown how far any cooperation will go.
Targeting the cash
Arizona's crackdown began in 2001, when undercover agents watched coyotes walk out of Western Union outlets in the state with tens of thousands of dollars in cash. Often, they didn't bring valid ID to get cash and picked up payments wired to dozens of illegal immigrants.
As investigators tightened the net, coyotes starting bringing illegal immigrants to some Western Union shops to sign for the cash in smaller amounts. Store clerks took bribes and kept loose records, investigators testified.
Over the next five years, investigators tracked wired money and chased the evidence that emerged. Detectives pieced together a picture of drophouses, coyotes and smuggling rings. They collected troves of smuggling lists, interrogated thousands of immigrants and coyotes and conducted undercover stings of coyotes and Western Unions in Arizona. All the evidence pointed in the same direction: Vast amounts were being laundered.
The effort led to the largest money-laundering case of its kind. In January a grand jury indicted Bruce Dennis Love, a Phoenix-area Western Union franchisee, on money-laundering and other charges. Love has not entered a plea, pending a ruling on whether he is mentally competent to stand trial.
Statewide, about 5 percent of Western Union outlets were responsible for 80 percent of the most suspicious transactions, investigators with the state financial-crimes task force say. Transaction records and follow-up investigations show that two- to three-dozen stores depended on the coyote business.
"We haven't finished (prosecuting) the highly corrupt Western Union agents," said Cameron Holmes, senior litigation counsel at the Attorney General's Office.
Sonoran connection
In spring 2006, state investigators studied a two-month sample of Western Union transfers from U.S. states to Sonora. They counted $28 million from the same 28 states that had previously wired money to coyotes in Arizona. Money went to Sonora from the same places, in the same amounts and proportions as they had in Arizona.
The transfers showed that families in, say, New York or Atlanta paid Arizona coyotes the way they always had but sent the money farther south.
Further evidence included:
• Most transactions were posted in a handful of small smuggling towns, such as Caborca, Altar and Cananea. A few individuals picked up thousands of dollars in multiple transactions every day. One man picked up $194,000 in two months.
• Money transmissions to Sonoran Western Unions fluctuated with the smuggling season, spiking in spring and late fall, just as they had in Arizona.
• Sonora, a smuggling haven for decades, has 100 Western Union outlets, more than Mexico City, which is four times as populous. Investigators said the imbalance showed Sonoran stores were collecting coyote money rather than legal remittances.
• In one case, investigators used logbook notes and transaction records to link the murder of an immigrant in a Phoenix drophouse to a Western Union branch in Caborca. He was shot in the head, testicles and midriff while complaining on the phone to his brother about being extorted.
The Caborca branch sits at the back of a store that sells appliances and motorcycles. Investigators said it cleared 20 times the amount as the next busiest Western Union in Sonora.
Later in 2006, Arizona investigators got a warrant to seize suspicious transactions from U.S. states to Sonora.
Western Union filed an emergency motion in court to halt the seizures, arguing that data search was too broad and would interfere with the privacy of people who legitimately wire money.
A Maricopa County Superior Court judge agreed, but on July 1 the state Court of Appeals overturned his ruling, saying Arizona could search the data and intercept suspicious transactions. The court said the evidence linked the money in Sonora to crimes in Arizona.
Western Union has not yet said whether it will appeal.
Expanding to other states
Mexican smuggling cartels have countered Arizona's pursuit of Sonora transactions by spreading the risk: They have moved drophouse operations and wired payment of smuggling fees to other states, including Nevada.
In Las Vegas, patrol officers have been stopping more vans full of illegal immigrants on the highways leading to the city, Arizona Department of Public Service officials said.
Immigrants and coyotes have told Arizona investigators that increasingly people are ordered to send money to Western Union stores in the Las Vegas area. Investigators sought but did not receive court permission to seize records of those transactions, so it's not known how much Arizona money has shifted north.
Likewise, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents say an unknown amount of money has shifted to California and New Mexico. Goddard recently asked his counterparts in bordering states to launch parallel investigations, but none has. He did not provide details about any talks with counterparts in other states, and officials in Texas, California and Nevada declined comment to The Arizona Republic.
The New Mexico Attorney General's Office said it has found only small volumes of money wiring.
Federal agencies have limited their actions to administrative fines of Western Union and smaller-scale seizures of coyote money.
Western Union is regulated by the USA Patriot Act, the Bank Secrecy Act and state laws. Store agents are required to file reports of suspicious activity, log withdrawals larger than $2,000 and document efforts to split a single payment into smaller transactions.
In 2003, the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network determined that "Western Union's failures to file suspicious activity reports were willful" and fined the company $3 million.
Regulators in California and New York also found Western Union's methods lacking and fined the company.
Using bank accounts
In more recent cases, evidence has emerged that coyotes are increasingly smuggling money through large commercial banks.
Historically, criminal organizations shied away from banks because reporting requirements are stricter and better enforced.
Since Arizona's crackdown on wire remitters, cartels have turned to checking accounts, suspects and extortion victims told investigators.
A coyote will set up numerous checking accounts with small amounts of cash. When relatives are ready to pay the smuggling fee for an illegal immigrant, coyotes give them the account number and tell them to deposit cash in a drive-through teller. When the money clears, the immigrant is released.
As quickly as possible, money launderers then withdraw the money. It's a high-volume, quick-turnaround operation that draws suspicion from bank security teams, but coyotes usually shut down the accounts after a couple of months, before bankers catch on.
Western Union at center
Western Union says it has been a cooperative partner in cracking down on money laundering.
Cachey, the vice president for global compliance, touted the company's efforts to train its 335,000 franchise agents on how to spot laundering and how to build a better compliance program. He added that regulators have to better warn money-wire firms about emerging risks.
While Arizona presents unique challenges, Cachey said, Western Union tracks money-laundering attempts around the globe, including to terrorist organizations.
Still, he says the company has cooperated with Arizona, and it's helped. He cites the Bruce Love case.
"We reported the problems to the government and terminated our relationship with him," Cachey said.
"We have programs in Sonora and all along the U.S.-Mexico border looking for suspicious patterns of activity so we can deal with that," Cachey said.
Goddard and state investigators take a dimmer view of Western Union's role.
In 2006, the Arizona Department of Financial Institutions found Western Union agents failed to identify 28 customers and had incomplete records for 47 more. The state fined Western Union $3 million and ordered it to shut down eight stores, including two run by Bruce Love, and put on probation six more. Regulators found no willful or intentional wrongdoing.
"It is troubling to me that a major commercial enterprise can facilitate criminal activity the way the money transmitters do," Goddard said. "A greater effort is needed from them to clear up their activities. I've been angry for the last four years."
Goddard agrees with ICE and state investigators that only extensive cooperation beyond Arizona can put another dent in human smugglers' money laundering. They all say that without collaboration, it's getting harder to follow the hidden cash in the never-ending battle of wits and tactics between smugglers and law officers.
"We are the rock in the stream, not the dam," Goddard said of Arizona's enforcement. "We need to get to the dam."
Friday, July 4, 2008
Yuma AZ Border Patrol seizes 940 pounds of pot
Border Patrol seizes 940 pounds of pot
July 4, 2008
YUMA, Ariz. (AP) -- The U.S. Border Patrol says they've seized 940 pounds of marijuana after an agent monitoring a camera near Yuma spotted men emerging from a drainage pipe.
The agent called in a helicopter and other agents, who tracked footprints from the Colorado River to the pipe. They found 26 bundles of pot inside the pipe late Wednesday.
The smugglers apparently escaped back to Mexico.
July 4, 2008
YUMA, Ariz. (AP) -- The U.S. Border Patrol says they've seized 940 pounds of marijuana after an agent monitoring a camera near Yuma spotted men emerging from a drainage pipe.
The agent called in a helicopter and other agents, who tracked footprints from the Colorado River to the pipe. They found 26 bundles of pot inside the pipe late Wednesday.
The smugglers apparently escaped back to Mexico.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Escaped Honduran juvenile crack dealer turns up in San Francisco
(07-03) 18:22 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- One of the eight Honduran juvenile crack dealers who fled from a San Bernardino County group home after being put there by San Francisco officials to shield them from deportation has been arrested back in the city, authorities said Thursday.
"He is in our custody," said William Siffermann, head of juvenile probation in San Francisco. "He was apprehended in San Francisco - there is no surprise there."
He said the youth had been arrested on suspicion of committing a crime, but said he did not know whether the offense was drug-related. The youth's name was not released because he is under 18.
Siffermann said he was working with San Francisco and Oakland police to "accelerate our efforts to return the remaining seven (missing Hondurans) into custody."
The arrest was the latest twist in a case that prompted a nationwide furor over San Francisco's policy of protecting immigrant juveniles caught dealing drugs, first by flying them to their native countries and then by putting them in group homes elsewhere in the state.
Last month, San Francisco juvenile probation officials, unable to continue flying juvenile Honduran illegal immigrants home after federal officials objected, decided to place eight of the offenders in the group homes in Yucaipa (San Bernardino County).
All eight promptly disappeared. San Bernardino County sheriff's officials said the youths had walked away from unlocked homes run by a nonprofit, Silverlake Youth Services, which was billing San Francisco $7,000 a month to house each juvenile.
San Francisco stopped sending youths to group homes, and this week, Mayor Gavin Newsom said the city would shift course and turn over illegal immigrant juveniles found guilty of felonies to federal officials for possible deportation.
Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency, said federal authorities held a "productive" meeting Thursday with San Francisco officials to discuss how the city will hand over offenders.
E-mail Jaxon Van Derbeken at jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com
"He is in our custody," said William Siffermann, head of juvenile probation in San Francisco. "He was apprehended in San Francisco - there is no surprise there."
He said the youth had been arrested on suspicion of committing a crime, but said he did not know whether the offense was drug-related. The youth's name was not released because he is under 18.
Siffermann said he was working with San Francisco and Oakland police to "accelerate our efforts to return the remaining seven (missing Hondurans) into custody."
The arrest was the latest twist in a case that prompted a nationwide furor over San Francisco's policy of protecting immigrant juveniles caught dealing drugs, first by flying them to their native countries and then by putting them in group homes elsewhere in the state.
Last month, San Francisco juvenile probation officials, unable to continue flying juvenile Honduran illegal immigrants home after federal officials objected, decided to place eight of the offenders in the group homes in Yucaipa (San Bernardino County).
All eight promptly disappeared. San Bernardino County sheriff's officials said the youths had walked away from unlocked homes run by a nonprofit, Silverlake Youth Services, which was billing San Francisco $7,000 a month to house each juvenile.
San Francisco stopped sending youths to group homes, and this week, Mayor Gavin Newsom said the city would shift course and turn over illegal immigrant juveniles found guilty of felonies to federal officials for possible deportation.
Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency, said federal authorities held a "productive" meeting Thursday with San Francisco officials to discuss how the city will hand over offenders.
E-mail Jaxon Van Derbeken at jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com
Mexico, Gangs, And NATO
FROM Immigration Daily
http://www.ilw.com/immigdaily/digest/2008,0707.shtm
Various news reports indicate sharply increased violence by drug trafficking gangs in Mexico, including a number of recent assassinations of senior law enforcement officers in Mexico. Some of this violence is spilling over the border into the US. The most egregious incident happened on June 22nd, when a Mexican hit-squad dressed up in Phoenix Police Department uniforms to kill a Jamican smuggler in Phoenix, Arizona. Such incidents will not long remain little known. The reaction will be that the US will get dragged into Mexican law enforcement, whether it likes it or not. Over the coming months and years, unless some fundamental factor in the economics driving Mexican drug lords changes, the US will get increasingly involved with Mexican authorities to, at a minimum, keep the violence away from the US, and more likely, US drug agencies will get directly involved with Mexico's drug cartels in Mexico. Welcome to the interconnected world.
While relatively unknown to the immigration community, the hereinabove does not come as news to those involved in US drug enforcement and border enforcement. Such interconnections go two-way, however, something that few have given much thought to. One of the unexpected twists involved in an eventual legalization program will be that a huge chunk of the Mexican population will acquire a personal connection to the US. Take that together with the increased US law enforcement involvement in Mexican drug wars, and America's historical attitude to its allies, and what have you got? What will most likely happen is that Mexico will increasingly find itself in a situation akin to Canada vis-a-vis its relations with the US. Mexico's defense and foreign policies will get less and less driven by traditional Mexican processess, and increasingly will be responsive to US concerns and priorities. We will not be the least surprised if Mexico joins NATO within 5 years of the enactment of legalization in the US. Again, welcome to the interconnected world.
We welcome readers to share their opinion and ideas with us by writing to editor@ilw.com
http://www.ilw.com/immigdaily/digest/2008,0707.shtm
Various news reports indicate sharply increased violence by drug trafficking gangs in Mexico, including a number of recent assassinations of senior law enforcement officers in Mexico. Some of this violence is spilling over the border into the US. The most egregious incident happened on June 22nd, when a Mexican hit-squad dressed up in Phoenix Police Department uniforms to kill a Jamican smuggler in Phoenix, Arizona. Such incidents will not long remain little known. The reaction will be that the US will get dragged into Mexican law enforcement, whether it likes it or not. Over the coming months and years, unless some fundamental factor in the economics driving Mexican drug lords changes, the US will get increasingly involved with Mexican authorities to, at a minimum, keep the violence away from the US, and more likely, US drug agencies will get directly involved with Mexico's drug cartels in Mexico. Welcome to the interconnected world.
While relatively unknown to the immigration community, the hereinabove does not come as news to those involved in US drug enforcement and border enforcement. Such interconnections go two-way, however, something that few have given much thought to. One of the unexpected twists involved in an eventual legalization program will be that a huge chunk of the Mexican population will acquire a personal connection to the US. Take that together with the increased US law enforcement involvement in Mexican drug wars, and America's historical attitude to its allies, and what have you got? What will most likely happen is that Mexico will increasingly find itself in a situation akin to Canada vis-a-vis its relations with the US. Mexico's defense and foreign policies will get less and less driven by traditional Mexican processess, and increasingly will be responsive to US concerns and priorities. We will not be the least surprised if Mexico joins NATO within 5 years of the enactment of legalization in the US. Again, welcome to the interconnected world.
We welcome readers to share their opinion and ideas with us by writing to editor@ilw.com
Monday, June 30, 2008
Is NAFTA road through here about trade - or treachery?
By Gabriela Rico
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.29.2008
It is a steel and concrete corridor that will run right through the Old Pueblo, connecting Mexico City to Edmonton, Alberta.
Its purpose is to facilitate trade among the three countries and minimize traffic and congestion for residents.
Or is it evidence of a move afoot to intertwine the three North American countries and blur the lines of sovereignty?
That's a matter of opinion.
The Canamex Corridor, as defined by Congress in the 1995 National Highway Systems Designation Act, is a joint effort involving Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Utah and Montana.
The transportation portion calls for the development of a continuous four-lane roadway from Mexico through the U.S. into Canada.
There are two other trade corridors: One runs from the southern Mexico city of Manzanillo, Colima, through Laredo, Texas, to Canada's Prairie-to-Ports Gateway & Inland Port, anchored by Saskatoon, Moose Jaw and Regina in Saskatchewan. The other corridor veers east from Laredo through Kansas City up to Winnipeg, Manitoba.
As officials in all three countries grapple with the logistics of creating such thoroughfares, there is growing concern that the so-called "superhighways" are a visible step toward the blending of economies, cultures and resources.
The source of the fears
Much of that concern is rooted in the founding of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, known as the SPP, in March 2005.
The trinational partnership, headed by the three nations' leaders, is described as an "effort to increase security and enhance prosperity among the United States, Canada and Mexico through greater cooperation and information sharing."
But references in SPP documents to a "North American region" and the "citizens of North America" send a chill through some.
"Like the old story of the frog in the pot, . . . the temperature is being raised 1 degree at a time, and soon we'll be cooked if we don't stop it," said Howard Phillips, chairman of the Coalition to Block the North American Union. "Economic integration precedes political integration."
Phillips believes the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, which removed tariffs on trade between the three countries, was the formal first step to what he now sees ahead.
A borderless region, a North American passport and a new shared currency will emerge from a union plan, along with the highways that connect the countries, he said.
"The general public is oblivious to this," said Phillips, who also is chairman of The Conservative Caucus in Virginia.
He recognizes that some dismiss the coalition's belief as paranoid, but he points to statements made by SPP members as proof of the desire to merge.
In a joint statement released by the White House after the August 2007 SPP meeting, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Mexican President Felipe Calderón and President Bush repeatedly referred to a united "North America" and called for more collaboration among the three countries.
Phillips said that if citizens took the time to read about the trio's activities, which are outlined on the group's Web site, SPP.gov, they would need no further proof.
"Not some big conspiracy"
As the head of the multistate coalition overseeing Canamex, Marisa Walker fields repeated queries from the public about the "real reason" behind the corridor.
"No one is going to ruin our sovereignty," she said with a stifled sigh. "This is not about some big conspiracy."
The Canamex corridor does not involve new U.S. highways but rather upgrades, expansions and improvements to existing ones, Walker said.
The expansion of Interstate 10 and the Hoover Dam Bypass Project — which connects Arizona and Nevada along the federally designated North American Free Trade Agreement route, U.S. 93 — also will benefit citizens' travels, she said.
These corridors will not be off-limits to the public, and inspections at the northern and southern U.S. borders still will be in place — there is no plan that reduces security, said Walker, a former director of Mexico programs at the University of Arizona.
"It's the exact opposite," she said.
Both Canada and Mexico are implementing security standards for goods entering the United States that would expedite the cross-border inspection, not avoid it, Walker said.
Some ridicule the angst over the purported three-country merger.
"Anybody who believes it is about a great North American Union is in the league of people who believe that Elvis is still alive," Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer said during an interview on Fox News after the SPP meeting last summer.
Still, the commotion has prompted the SPP to add a "Myths vs. Facts" portion to its Web site, and it addresses the accusation that the three countries are constructing the highways as part of their master plan.
"Rather than evidence of a secret plan to create a NAFTA superhighway that would undermine our national sovereignty, the FHWA's (Federal Highway Administration) efforts are a routine part of cooperation with all the state transportation departments to improve the nation's highways," the statement says.
It has already started
It might be a question of semantics. Some call it a trade corridor; others call it a NAFTA superhighway.
The truth is, construction and regulation adjustments to ease congestion along the routes connecting the three countries are under way.
At the Arizona-Mexico Commission meeting in Phoenix earlier this month, panel members were briefed by officials from the United States, Mexico and Canada about the progress of the Canamex corridor.
Shirley-Ann George, vice president of international policy for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said Canadian and U.S. officials are working closely to streamline paperwork and permits for goods entering both countries.
Proposals include operating the U.S. ports 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and filing transit paperwork electronically instead of having the truck driver present multiple pieces of paper to multiple agencies.
On the southern end of the route, Mexico is planning to place security along the federal corridor just south of the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales to monitor commercial trucks headed north, said Armando Ceceña, undersecretary of the economy for Sonora.
This fall, a military checkpoint for commercial trucks will be relocated to help reduce the miles-long waiting line on the highway at the current checkpoint. U.S. customs officials are assisting their Mexican counterparts to help secure cargo before it reaches the border.
That cooperation and partnership are what stirs fear and worry.
Kevin O'Shea, deputy director for the The National Law Center for Inter-American Free Trade in Tucson, said that any time people face change, there is bound to be fear.
"I don't like to just blame the people who fear the situation," O'Shea said. "They are owed information and an explanation."
Proponents of trade must better communicate why international relationships are necessary, he said.
For example, when a U.S. company opens an operation in China, all supplies come from Asia, but if that company operates in Canada or Mexico, then U.S. companies benefit by supplying raw materials and transportation, O'Shea said.
As for security concerns, he said that citizens should be more fearful if the U.S. had an adversarial neighbor.
"There's a real national-security interest in developing more solid relations with Canada and Mexico," O'Shea said.
He said commerce and technology don't adhere to borders, and citizens should educate themselves and embrace the movement.
"Trade and globalization are a given," he said. "The whole notion that globalization is something that can be reversed or avoided is not reality. The train has left the station."
● Contact reporter Gabriela Rico at 573-4232 or grico@azstarnet.com.
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.29.2008
It is a steel and concrete corridor that will run right through the Old Pueblo, connecting Mexico City to Edmonton, Alberta.
Its purpose is to facilitate trade among the three countries and minimize traffic and congestion for residents.
Or is it evidence of a move afoot to intertwine the three North American countries and blur the lines of sovereignty?
That's a matter of opinion.
The Canamex Corridor, as defined by Congress in the 1995 National Highway Systems Designation Act, is a joint effort involving Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Utah and Montana.
The transportation portion calls for the development of a continuous four-lane roadway from Mexico through the U.S. into Canada.
There are two other trade corridors: One runs from the southern Mexico city of Manzanillo, Colima, through Laredo, Texas, to Canada's Prairie-to-Ports Gateway & Inland Port, anchored by Saskatoon, Moose Jaw and Regina in Saskatchewan. The other corridor veers east from Laredo through Kansas City up to Winnipeg, Manitoba.
As officials in all three countries grapple with the logistics of creating such thoroughfares, there is growing concern that the so-called "superhighways" are a visible step toward the blending of economies, cultures and resources.
The source of the fears
Much of that concern is rooted in the founding of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, known as the SPP, in March 2005.
The trinational partnership, headed by the three nations' leaders, is described as an "effort to increase security and enhance prosperity among the United States, Canada and Mexico through greater cooperation and information sharing."
But references in SPP documents to a "North American region" and the "citizens of North America" send a chill through some.
"Like the old story of the frog in the pot, . . . the temperature is being raised 1 degree at a time, and soon we'll be cooked if we don't stop it," said Howard Phillips, chairman of the Coalition to Block the North American Union. "Economic integration precedes political integration."
Phillips believes the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, which removed tariffs on trade between the three countries, was the formal first step to what he now sees ahead.
A borderless region, a North American passport and a new shared currency will emerge from a union plan, along with the highways that connect the countries, he said.
"The general public is oblivious to this," said Phillips, who also is chairman of The Conservative Caucus in Virginia.
He recognizes that some dismiss the coalition's belief as paranoid, but he points to statements made by SPP members as proof of the desire to merge.
In a joint statement released by the White House after the August 2007 SPP meeting, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Mexican President Felipe Calderón and President Bush repeatedly referred to a united "North America" and called for more collaboration among the three countries.
Phillips said that if citizens took the time to read about the trio's activities, which are outlined on the group's Web site, SPP.gov, they would need no further proof.
"Not some big conspiracy"
As the head of the multistate coalition overseeing Canamex, Marisa Walker fields repeated queries from the public about the "real reason" behind the corridor.
"No one is going to ruin our sovereignty," she said with a stifled sigh. "This is not about some big conspiracy."
The Canamex corridor does not involve new U.S. highways but rather upgrades, expansions and improvements to existing ones, Walker said.
The expansion of Interstate 10 and the Hoover Dam Bypass Project — which connects Arizona and Nevada along the federally designated North American Free Trade Agreement route, U.S. 93 — also will benefit citizens' travels, she said.
These corridors will not be off-limits to the public, and inspections at the northern and southern U.S. borders still will be in place — there is no plan that reduces security, said Walker, a former director of Mexico programs at the University of Arizona.
"It's the exact opposite," she said.
Both Canada and Mexico are implementing security standards for goods entering the United States that would expedite the cross-border inspection, not avoid it, Walker said.
Some ridicule the angst over the purported three-country merger.
"Anybody who believes it is about a great North American Union is in the league of people who believe that Elvis is still alive," Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer said during an interview on Fox News after the SPP meeting last summer.
Still, the commotion has prompted the SPP to add a "Myths vs. Facts" portion to its Web site, and it addresses the accusation that the three countries are constructing the highways as part of their master plan.
"Rather than evidence of a secret plan to create a NAFTA superhighway that would undermine our national sovereignty, the FHWA's (Federal Highway Administration) efforts are a routine part of cooperation with all the state transportation departments to improve the nation's highways," the statement says.
It has already started
It might be a question of semantics. Some call it a trade corridor; others call it a NAFTA superhighway.
The truth is, construction and regulation adjustments to ease congestion along the routes connecting the three countries are under way.
At the Arizona-Mexico Commission meeting in Phoenix earlier this month, panel members were briefed by officials from the United States, Mexico and Canada about the progress of the Canamex corridor.
Shirley-Ann George, vice president of international policy for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said Canadian and U.S. officials are working closely to streamline paperwork and permits for goods entering both countries.
Proposals include operating the U.S. ports 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and filing transit paperwork electronically instead of having the truck driver present multiple pieces of paper to multiple agencies.
On the southern end of the route, Mexico is planning to place security along the federal corridor just south of the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales to monitor commercial trucks headed north, said Armando Ceceña, undersecretary of the economy for Sonora.
This fall, a military checkpoint for commercial trucks will be relocated to help reduce the miles-long waiting line on the highway at the current checkpoint. U.S. customs officials are assisting their Mexican counterparts to help secure cargo before it reaches the border.
That cooperation and partnership are what stirs fear and worry.
Kevin O'Shea, deputy director for the The National Law Center for Inter-American Free Trade in Tucson, said that any time people face change, there is bound to be fear.
"I don't like to just blame the people who fear the situation," O'Shea said. "They are owed information and an explanation."
Proponents of trade must better communicate why international relationships are necessary, he said.
For example, when a U.S. company opens an operation in China, all supplies come from Asia, but if that company operates in Canada or Mexico, then U.S. companies benefit by supplying raw materials and transportation, O'Shea said.
As for security concerns, he said that citizens should be more fearful if the U.S. had an adversarial neighbor.
"There's a real national-security interest in developing more solid relations with Canada and Mexico," O'Shea said.
He said commerce and technology don't adhere to borders, and citizens should educate themselves and embrace the movement.
"Trade and globalization are a given," he said. "The whole notion that globalization is something that can be reversed or avoided is not reality. The train has left the station."
● Contact reporter Gabriela Rico at 573-4232 or grico@azstarnet.com.
The state Supreme Court upheld the death sentence today for Ramon Salcido
(06-30) 12:37 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- The state Supreme Court upheld the death sentence today for Ramon Salcido, who murdered his wife, two daughters, three other relatives and his supervisor at a Sonoma County winery during a three-hour rampage in 1989.
The justices unanimously rejected defense challenges to Salcido's arrest and transfer from his native Mexico to the United States, his seven murder convictions and his death sentence. Salcido can appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, and has another case pending before the state's high court raising separate issues.
Salcido, now 47, used a gun and knife to murder his wife, Angela Richards Salcido, 24; their daughters, 4-year-old Sofia and 22-month-old Teresa; his mother-in-law, Marion Richards, 47; her daughters, 12-year-old Ruth and 8-year-old Maria; and Tracey Toovey, 35, his supervisor at Grand Cru Winery in Glen Ellen.
He was also convicted of attempting to murder his 2-year-old daughter, Carmina, who survived a slashed throat, and another winery worker, Kenneth Butti, who was shot in the shoulder.
His trial was transferred to San Mateo County because of extensive news coverage in Sonoma County.
Salcido had been arrested for welfare fraud in 1988 but had no record of violent crimes. His trial lawyer said he had been drunk and high on cocaine when he committed the killings, and had been burdened by debt and the possibility he was going to lose his job.
He also offered psychiatric testimony that Salcido had a paranoid personality and had been suffering suffered a psychotic episode at the time of the killings.
Salcido admitted the killings and told officers he had quarreled with his wife after learning he was not the biological father of one of their children, and shot her when she said she would call the police, the high court said. He told police he had also intended to kill himself. He left notes telling his children he loved them and "we will see each other in God's other world," and saying he had been "pushed into doing it."
Salcido fled to his hometown of Los Mochis, Mexico, after the killings in April 1989. He was arrested five days later and returned to California.
In his appeal, Salcido's lawyer contended his client, who was a Mexican citizen, had been transferred to the United States in violation of a treaty that allows the Mexican government to block the extradition of one of its citizens unless U.S. authorities promise not to impose the death penalty, which does not exist in Mexico.
Salcido's lawyer contended agents from Sonoma County and the federal government had induced Mexican officials to transfer Salcido by identifying him as a U.S. citizen.
But the court said law enforcement officials from both countries had believed Salcido was a U.S. citizen based on his own statements and on Salcido's residence in California, where he had a Social Security card and a driver's license.
Even if detectives had misled Mexico into sending Salcido to California, the court said, a defendant has no legal standing to challenge an extradition or transfer that violates the treaty. Such a challenge can be invoked only by the Mexican government, the court said. The justices cited a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing U.S. authorities to prosecute a man after arranging his forcible abduction from Mexico.
"It has not been demonstrated that Mexican officials released (Salcido) to American agents as a result of any misrepresentation," Chief Justice Ronald George said in today's ruling. Also, he said, "it is not our task to redress an asserted violation of an international agreement by a nation party."
The case is People vs. Salcido, S018814.
The ruling is available at www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinons/documents/S018814.PDF.
The justices unanimously rejected defense challenges to Salcido's arrest and transfer from his native Mexico to the United States, his seven murder convictions and his death sentence. Salcido can appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, and has another case pending before the state's high court raising separate issues.
Salcido, now 47, used a gun and knife to murder his wife, Angela Richards Salcido, 24; their daughters, 4-year-old Sofia and 22-month-old Teresa; his mother-in-law, Marion Richards, 47; her daughters, 12-year-old Ruth and 8-year-old Maria; and Tracey Toovey, 35, his supervisor at Grand Cru Winery in Glen Ellen.
He was also convicted of attempting to murder his 2-year-old daughter, Carmina, who survived a slashed throat, and another winery worker, Kenneth Butti, who was shot in the shoulder.
His trial was transferred to San Mateo County because of extensive news coverage in Sonoma County.
Salcido had been arrested for welfare fraud in 1988 but had no record of violent crimes. His trial lawyer said he had been drunk and high on cocaine when he committed the killings, and had been burdened by debt and the possibility he was going to lose his job.
He also offered psychiatric testimony that Salcido had a paranoid personality and had been suffering suffered a psychotic episode at the time of the killings.
Salcido admitted the killings and told officers he had quarreled with his wife after learning he was not the biological father of one of their children, and shot her when she said she would call the police, the high court said. He told police he had also intended to kill himself. He left notes telling his children he loved them and "we will see each other in God's other world," and saying he had been "pushed into doing it."
Salcido fled to his hometown of Los Mochis, Mexico, after the killings in April 1989. He was arrested five days later and returned to California.
In his appeal, Salcido's lawyer contended his client, who was a Mexican citizen, had been transferred to the United States in violation of a treaty that allows the Mexican government to block the extradition of one of its citizens unless U.S. authorities promise not to impose the death penalty, which does not exist in Mexico.
Salcido's lawyer contended agents from Sonoma County and the federal government had induced Mexican officials to transfer Salcido by identifying him as a U.S. citizen.
But the court said law enforcement officials from both countries had believed Salcido was a U.S. citizen based on his own statements and on Salcido's residence in California, where he had a Social Security card and a driver's license.
Even if detectives had misled Mexico into sending Salcido to California, the court said, a defendant has no legal standing to challenge an extradition or transfer that violates the treaty. Such a challenge can be invoked only by the Mexican government, the court said. The justices cited a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing U.S. authorities to prosecute a man after arranging his forcible abduction from Mexico.
"It has not been demonstrated that Mexican officials released (Salcido) to American agents as a result of any misrepresentation," Chief Justice Ronald George said in today's ruling. Also, he said, "it is not our task to redress an asserted violation of an international agreement by a nation party."
The case is People vs. Salcido, S018814.
The ruling is available at www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinons/documents/S018814.PDF.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Illegal immigrants indicted on fake document charges
The Associated Press
PHOENIX — A grand jury indicted nine illegal immigrants on allegations they used false documents to get jobs at two amusement parks now being investigated for possible employer sanction violations.
Prosecutors said Monday that no employer sanctions allegations have been filed against the Golfland Entertainment locations in Mesa and north Phoenix where the nine people worked.
The investigation of the company continues, and the business maintains it was following the law. Arizona's employer sanctions prohibits businesses from knowingly hiring illegal immigrations.
The nine were being held without bond because a voter-approved law denies bail to illegal immigrants accused of committing serious felonies.
All nine were charged with forgery. Six also were charged with taking the identity of another person.
PHOENIX — A grand jury indicted nine illegal immigrants on allegations they used false documents to get jobs at two amusement parks now being investigated for possible employer sanction violations.
Prosecutors said Monday that no employer sanctions allegations have been filed against the Golfland Entertainment locations in Mesa and north Phoenix where the nine people worked.
The investigation of the company continues, and the business maintains it was following the law. Arizona's employer sanctions prohibits businesses from knowingly hiring illegal immigrations.
The nine were being held without bond because a voter-approved law denies bail to illegal immigrants accused of committing serious felonies.
All nine were charged with forgery. Six also were charged with taking the identity of another person.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
15 people found dehydrated in desert near Gila Bend
by Senta Scarborough - Jun. 22, 2008 03:23 PM
The Arizona Republic
Fifteen adults, including three suffering severe dehydration, have been taken to local hospitals after they flagged down motorists for help along State Route 85 near Gila Bend Sunday afternoon, U.S. Border Patrol officials said.
A citizen reported that people were trying to get assistance from passing motorists around noon at mile marker 9, U.S. Border Patrol Spokesman Mario Escalante said.
U.S. Border Patrol responded to the area and found 15 people suffering from dehydration. The temperature was around 109 degrees in Phoenix, according to the National Weather Service website.
"Most of the people were in pretty bad shape," Escalante said. "At this time, their safety and well-being is our first priority."
Three of those people were suffering from severe dehydration and were flown by helicopters to local hospitals for treatment. The others were transported by ambulance to local hospitals, Escalante said. There were no children involved, Escalante said.
It is unknown whether the people are undocumented and have recently crossed the U.S. border. After the people have received proper medical treatment, border patrol officials will investigate and determine their legal status, Escalante said.
The Arizona Republic
Fifteen adults, including three suffering severe dehydration, have been taken to local hospitals after they flagged down motorists for help along State Route 85 near Gila Bend Sunday afternoon, U.S. Border Patrol officials said.
A citizen reported that people were trying to get assistance from passing motorists around noon at mile marker 9, U.S. Border Patrol Spokesman Mario Escalante said.
U.S. Border Patrol responded to the area and found 15 people suffering from dehydration. The temperature was around 109 degrees in Phoenix, according to the National Weather Service website.
"Most of the people were in pretty bad shape," Escalante said. "At this time, their safety and well-being is our first priority."
Three of those people were suffering from severe dehydration and were flown by helicopters to local hospitals for treatment. The others were transported by ambulance to local hospitals, Escalante said. There were no children involved, Escalante said.
It is unknown whether the people are undocumented and have recently crossed the U.S. border. After the people have received proper medical treatment, border patrol officials will investigate and determine their legal status, Escalante said.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Immigration prosecutions rising
Immigration prosecutions rising
Half of caseload made up of offenses related to illegal crossings
Jun. 18, 2008 12:00 AM
Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has sharply ratcheted up prosecutions of illegal immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border in the past year, with increases so dramatic that immigration offenses now account for as much as half of the nation's federal criminal caseload.
In the widening crackdown, administration officials prosecuted 9,350 illegal immigrants on federal criminal charges in March, a 73 percent increase over prosecutions last year and an all-time high, according to statistics released Tuesday. Convicted people have received jail sentences averaging about one month.
The prosecutions are among the most visible steps in a larger effort that includes work-site raids, increased border patrols and the use of technology and fences. Often controversial, the patchwork of measures represents the administration's response to failed congressional attempts last summer to overhaul federal laws.
Administration officials and conservative groups have lauded the surge in prosecutions. But critics say data shows illegal immigrants are still trying to enter the country. And some lawyers contend that the push to criminalize illegal immigrants is overwhelming a federal court system with limited resources and higher priorities.
Even so, administration officials announced this month that they would be funneling more resources toward the effort, called Operation Streamline.
"The results of this criminal prosecution initiative have been striking," said U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
Chertoff's agency and the U.S. Justice Department jointly run Operation Streamline, recently announcing a plan to assign 64 prosecutors and 35 staff members to prosecutions along the Southwest border. "Operation Streamline" began as a pilot around Del Rio, Texas, in 2005, spreading to other areas. Under the program, officers and prosecutors practice "zero tolerance" and jail times can range from two weeks to six months.
"The reason this works is because these illegal migrants come to realize that violating the law will not simply send them back to try over again, but will require them to actually serve some short period of time in a jail or prison setting, and will brand them as having been violators of the law," Chertoff said. "That has a very significant deterrent impact."
The statistical analysis released Tuesday was compiled by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, considered an authoritative source for such figures, which called the increase "highly unusual."
Operation Streamline's larger aim is to give the administration another tool to use in its crackdown on illegal immigration, said Susan B. Long, a TRAC co-director and Syracuse University professor.
"This is an effort to use the federal criminal-justice system in immigration enforcement," Long said. "What it means is that immigration cases are dominating the federal court system these days. The volume of cases is really huge. This is a big deal."
Of 16,298 federal criminal prosecutions recorded nationwide in March, immigration accounted for more than half, Long said. The next highest number of prosecutions were for drug offenses at 2,674, followed by 702 prosecutions for white-collar crime.
Clearinghouse researchers found that all but 142 of the 9,350 new federal immigration prosecutions in March occurred in certain areas along the border with Mexico. Texas was most active, followed by southern California.
California is not formally a part of Operation Streamline. But prosecutions of people who smuggle illegal immigrants into the country along the California border have increased sharply in the past five years, nearly doubling to 118 cases in March.
The deluge of Operation Streamline prosecutions is overwhelming some lawyers involved in the process. Heather Williams, a federal public defender in Tucson, said the operation had a crushing effect when begun this year on a limited basis.
Half of caseload made up of offenses related to illegal crossings
Jun. 18, 2008 12:00 AM
Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has sharply ratcheted up prosecutions of illegal immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border in the past year, with increases so dramatic that immigration offenses now account for as much as half of the nation's federal criminal caseload.
In the widening crackdown, administration officials prosecuted 9,350 illegal immigrants on federal criminal charges in March, a 73 percent increase over prosecutions last year and an all-time high, according to statistics released Tuesday. Convicted people have received jail sentences averaging about one month.
The prosecutions are among the most visible steps in a larger effort that includes work-site raids, increased border patrols and the use of technology and fences. Often controversial, the patchwork of measures represents the administration's response to failed congressional attempts last summer to overhaul federal laws.
Administration officials and conservative groups have lauded the surge in prosecutions. But critics say data shows illegal immigrants are still trying to enter the country. And some lawyers contend that the push to criminalize illegal immigrants is overwhelming a federal court system with limited resources and higher priorities.
Even so, administration officials announced this month that they would be funneling more resources toward the effort, called Operation Streamline.
"The results of this criminal prosecution initiative have been striking," said U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
Chertoff's agency and the U.S. Justice Department jointly run Operation Streamline, recently announcing a plan to assign 64 prosecutors and 35 staff members to prosecutions along the Southwest border. "Operation Streamline" began as a pilot around Del Rio, Texas, in 2005, spreading to other areas. Under the program, officers and prosecutors practice "zero tolerance" and jail times can range from two weeks to six months.
"The reason this works is because these illegal migrants come to realize that violating the law will not simply send them back to try over again, but will require them to actually serve some short period of time in a jail or prison setting, and will brand them as having been violators of the law," Chertoff said. "That has a very significant deterrent impact."
The statistical analysis released Tuesday was compiled by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, considered an authoritative source for such figures, which called the increase "highly unusual."
Operation Streamline's larger aim is to give the administration another tool to use in its crackdown on illegal immigration, said Susan B. Long, a TRAC co-director and Syracuse University professor.
"This is an effort to use the federal criminal-justice system in immigration enforcement," Long said. "What it means is that immigration cases are dominating the federal court system these days. The volume of cases is really huge. This is a big deal."
Of 16,298 federal criminal prosecutions recorded nationwide in March, immigration accounted for more than half, Long said. The next highest number of prosecutions were for drug offenses at 2,674, followed by 702 prosecutions for white-collar crime.
Clearinghouse researchers found that all but 142 of the 9,350 new federal immigration prosecutions in March occurred in certain areas along the border with Mexico. Texas was most active, followed by southern California.
California is not formally a part of Operation Streamline. But prosecutions of people who smuggle illegal immigrants into the country along the California border have increased sharply in the past five years, nearly doubling to 118 cases in March.
The deluge of Operation Streamline prosecutions is overwhelming some lawyers involved in the process. Heather Williams, a federal public defender in Tucson, said the operation had a crushing effect when begun this year on a limited basis.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Man accused in drug-selling case sought by U.S. Marshals
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.16.2008
The Fugitive: Jose Humberto Castro-Valenzuela.
When and Where: Dec. 7, 2002, in the 2700 block of South Thrasher Avenue, near South San Joaquin Avenue and West 36th Street.
Investigators: The U.S. Marshal's Service.
Summary: Castro-Valenzuela, 51, was trying to sell 10 kilograms of cocaine to an undercover agent at his home on Thrasher, said Tom Twohey,a Marshal's Service spokesman.
After he was taken into custody, Castro-Valenzuela agreed to a search of his home, which revealed 5 kilograms of cocaine in a bedroom dresser drawer, Twohey said.
Castro-Valenzuela was booked into jail on suspicion of possession with intent to distribute cocaine and was released on $20,000 bond.
The Latest Information: Castro-Valenzuela was scheduled to be in court in January 2003, but he did not show up.
"(Castro-Valenzuela) is believed to have fled to Mexico but has numerous family members in the Tucson area," Twohey said. "(He) is believed to be traveling back and forth from Mexico to Tucson using an alias."
Castro-Valenzuela is 5 feet, 11 inches tall, weighs 170 pounds and has brown eyes and gray hair.
How You Can Help: Call 88-CRIME, the anonymous tip line of the Pima County Attorney's Office.
The Fugitive: Jose Humberto Castro-Valenzuela.
When and Where: Dec. 7, 2002, in the 2700 block of South Thrasher Avenue, near South San Joaquin Avenue and West 36th Street.
Investigators: The U.S. Marshal's Service.
Summary: Castro-Valenzuela, 51, was trying to sell 10 kilograms of cocaine to an undercover agent at his home on Thrasher, said Tom Twohey,a Marshal's Service spokesman.
After he was taken into custody, Castro-Valenzuela agreed to a search of his home, which revealed 5 kilograms of cocaine in a bedroom dresser drawer, Twohey said.
Castro-Valenzuela was booked into jail on suspicion of possession with intent to distribute cocaine and was released on $20,000 bond.
The Latest Information: Castro-Valenzuela was scheduled to be in court in January 2003, but he did not show up.
"(Castro-Valenzuela) is believed to have fled to Mexico but has numerous family members in the Tucson area," Twohey said. "(He) is believed to be traveling back and forth from Mexico to Tucson using an alias."
Castro-Valenzuela is 5 feet, 11 inches tall, weighs 170 pounds and has brown eyes and gray hair.
How You Can Help: Call 88-CRIME, the anonymous tip line of the Pima County Attorney's Office.
16 migrants, hidden pot found by agents in Arizona
FERNANDA ECHÁVARRI
Tucson Citizen
Sixteen illegal immigrants, two with criminal records; 2,600 pounds of marijuana; and human skeletal remains were found by Border Patrol on Thursday, authorities said.
Agents with the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector found an abandoned Chevrolet truck on the Tohono O'odham Nation Thursday morning, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Rob Daniels said.
The truck was hidden under thick desert brush and had 2,600 pounds of marijuana inside, Daniels said.
Though agents searched the area for a driver, nobody was found.
In the afternoon, agents found 15 illegal immigrants northwest of Sasabe, Daniels said.
Agents took them into custody and database checks showed one had a warrant for his arrest in Alabama, he said.
The man, originally from El Salvador, was wanted on accusations of sexual assault and rape in 2006, Daniels said. He was turned over to Tucson police for extradition to Alabama.
Later Thursday afternoon, agents found another man from El Salvador near Sells.
Daniels said that man was convicted of aggravated child sexual assault in 2000. He was in a Texas jail for five years, and was deported February 2005.
The man will be prosecuted for illegal re-entry after deportation, Daniels said.
The Border Patrol did not release the names of either of the men from El Salvador.
At 8 p.m. Thursday, members of the Border Patrol Search, Trauma And Rescue team found human skeletal remains southwest of Three Points.
"Unfortunately these are the types of things that happen too frequently," Daniels said. "It's the harsh reality of the desert."
Tucson Citizen
Sixteen illegal immigrants, two with criminal records; 2,600 pounds of marijuana; and human skeletal remains were found by Border Patrol on Thursday, authorities said.
Agents with the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector found an abandoned Chevrolet truck on the Tohono O'odham Nation Thursday morning, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Rob Daniels said.
The truck was hidden under thick desert brush and had 2,600 pounds of marijuana inside, Daniels said.
Though agents searched the area for a driver, nobody was found.
In the afternoon, agents found 15 illegal immigrants northwest of Sasabe, Daniels said.
Agents took them into custody and database checks showed one had a warrant for his arrest in Alabama, he said.
The man, originally from El Salvador, was wanted on accusations of sexual assault and rape in 2006, Daniels said. He was turned over to Tucson police for extradition to Alabama.
Later Thursday afternoon, agents found another man from El Salvador near Sells.
Daniels said that man was convicted of aggravated child sexual assault in 2000. He was in a Texas jail for five years, and was deported February 2005.
The man will be prosecuted for illegal re-entry after deportation, Daniels said.
The Border Patrol did not release the names of either of the men from El Salvador.
At 8 p.m. Thursday, members of the Border Patrol Search, Trauma And Rescue team found human skeletal remains southwest of Three Points.
"Unfortunately these are the types of things that happen too frequently," Daniels said. "It's the harsh reality of the desert."
Man arrested in fatal stabbing of rude restaurant patron
John Coté, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, June 16, 2008
(06-16) 18:07 PDT DALY CITY -- A San Francisco man is expected to be charged with murder Tuesday in San Mateo County Superior Court for allegedly stabbing a fellow patron at a Daly City restaurant after the victim made crass comments about a waitress, police said.
Both Jesus Hernandez, 33, and Carlos Padilla-Ovedio, 25, were at the Durango restaurant about 5 p.m. Friday when Hernandez apparently began making "rude comments to the female waitress," police Lt. Jay Morena said.
Both men were "semi-regulars" at the small restaurant, Morena said.
After hearing Hernandez's comments, Padilla-Ovedio stabbed him in the torso and ran out the door, police said. Hernandez was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
It was unclear whether the motive was a desire to be "a knight in shining armor saving the damsel in distress, machismo, or he just got tired hearing this guy popping off," Morena said.
Employees knew Padilla-Ovedio only by his first name and described him as an illegal immigrant from Honduras who was working as a carpet installer, police said.
Detectives, with a sketch of the suspect, were able to track him down Sunday afternoon at a home on Revere Street in San Francisco and arrested him without incident, police said.
Monday, June 16, 2008
(06-16) 18:07 PDT DALY CITY -- A San Francisco man is expected to be charged with murder Tuesday in San Mateo County Superior Court for allegedly stabbing a fellow patron at a Daly City restaurant after the victim made crass comments about a waitress, police said.
Both Jesus Hernandez, 33, and Carlos Padilla-Ovedio, 25, were at the Durango restaurant about 5 p.m. Friday when Hernandez apparently began making "rude comments to the female waitress," police Lt. Jay Morena said.
Both men were "semi-regulars" at the small restaurant, Morena said.
After hearing Hernandez's comments, Padilla-Ovedio stabbed him in the torso and ran out the door, police said. Hernandez was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
It was unclear whether the motive was a desire to be "a knight in shining armor saving the damsel in distress, machismo, or he just got tired hearing this guy popping off," Morena said.
Employees knew Padilla-Ovedio only by his first name and described him as an illegal immigrant from Honduras who was working as a carpet installer, police said.
Detectives, with a sketch of the suspect, were able to track him down Sunday afternoon at a home on Revere Street in San Francisco and arrested him without incident, police said.
Mexican suspected of making fake IDs arrested
Man suspected of making fake IDs arrested
by Lisa Halverstadt - Jun. 16, 2008 06:19 PM
The Arizona Republic
A man suspected of making fake IDs was arrested at about on Saturday in Tempe.
Julio Cesar Carbajal-Cortez, 21, of Mexico, was pulled over in the 300 block of Priest Drive and admitted to having a fake ID, police said.
After searching his vehicle, police found two Arizona drivers' licenses, one Social Security card, three Mexican drivers' licenses and a stack of 200 blank plastic cards, according to police reports. The cards had holograms of the Department of Justice stamp and the words "U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services," according reports.
Carbajal-Cortez told police he was in the process of delivering forged documents that he usually sells for $100 to $120.
After Carbajal-Cortez allowed police to search his residence, they reported finding 500 business cards, a computer and more blank plastic cards, according to reports.
He was arrested on suspicion of possession of forged documents, possession of forged instruments, aggravated taking of identity and trafficking with the identity of another.
by Lisa Halverstadt - Jun. 16, 2008 06:19 PM
The Arizona Republic
A man suspected of making fake IDs was arrested at about on Saturday in Tempe.
Julio Cesar Carbajal-Cortez, 21, of Mexico, was pulled over in the 300 block of Priest Drive and admitted to having a fake ID, police said.
After searching his vehicle, police found two Arizona drivers' licenses, one Social Security card, three Mexican drivers' licenses and a stack of 200 blank plastic cards, according to police reports. The cards had holograms of the Department of Justice stamp and the words "U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services," according reports.
Carbajal-Cortez told police he was in the process of delivering forged documents that he usually sells for $100 to $120.
After Carbajal-Cortez allowed police to search his residence, they reported finding 500 business cards, a computer and more blank plastic cards, according to reports.
He was arrested on suspicion of possession of forged documents, possession of forged instruments, aggravated taking of identity and trafficking with the identity of another.
Mexicans moving across border to flee widespread drug wars
by Chris Hawley - Jun. 16, 2008 12:00 AM
Republic Mexico City Bureau
MEXICO CITY - In February, Salvador Urbina decided he was tired of the shootouts, the kidnappings and the military patrols in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez.
So he put his house up for sale, packed up his car and moved his wife and children to El Paso, Texas, joining a growing stream of professionals who are relocating to the United States to get away from Mexico's drug wars.
"I didn't want to leave," said Urbina, a lawyer. "But there's a very deep psychosis developing in Juárez. Criminals are taking advantage of the situation there. Every day I worried about the safety of my wife and family."
In U.S. cities along the border, middle-class Mexicans are buying homes, renting apartments and even moving their businesses across the border, say real-estate agents, chambers of commerce and city officials.
Arizona cities have been an exception, because neighboring Sonora state has been mostly quiet compared with other parts of the border, said Marco Antonio Garcia, director of economic development for Nogales, Sonora. But in hotspots like Tijuana, Juárez and Nuevo Laredo, business officials say the emigration is picking up.
Falling housing prices in the United States are part of the draw, said Mireya Durazo, a real-estate agent in San Diego, across the border from Tijuana. But the main driver is a wave of violence unleashed by Mexico's 18-month-old crackdown on drug cartels, she said.
"First it was the dentists, then lawyers and doctors . . . now it's teachers, owners of little stores, people from the working class," Durazo said.
Drug gangs are increasingly bringing civilians into the fray as they battle soldiers and each other for control of plazas, or drug-smuggling corridors.
In all, some 4,000 people have died in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderón began sending troops to attack the cartels in December 2006, according to a tally by the Reforma newspaper. Polls released recently by Reforma and the El Universal newspaper show most Mexicans believe the government is losing the battle.
In Tijuana, about 300 physicians rallied on May 21 to protest a string of kidnappings and threats against doctors for treating police and rival smugglers. In all, the city of 1.3 million has seen 118 kidnappings this year, according to Hope Against Forced Disappearances and Impunity in Tijuana, a civic group.
In Ciudad Juárez, a video appeared on YouTube.com on May 27 claiming responsibility for the killing of a nightclub owner and the torching of two bars. The video was signed by "La Línea," a band of enforcers for drug trafficker Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, and it warned businessmen in Juárez that they would soon be contacted for protection money.
Real-estate companies have seized upon such incidents to market homes on the U.S. side of the line.
"Are you looking for a safer place to live?" says the Web site of Latin Credit, a real-estate company in San Diego that caters to Mexican residents. "Live in tranquility!" says an ad for El Paso homes in the Diario de la Frontera newspaper of Ciudad Juárez, which is just across the border from El Paso.
Leaving home
Urbina, a 45-year-old lawyer, occasionally teaches courses at the police academy in Juárez. After Calderón flooded Juárez with troops, Urbina and other lawyers got death threats.
Earlier this year, drug traffickers launched a wave of police killings in Juárez. When some of his former police- academy students started showing up dead, Urbina knew it was time to go. Urbina now commutes to work in Ciudad Juárez every morning and returns to El Paso every night. He spends 20 hours a week stuck in traffic waiting to cross the Rio Grande.
"It's terrible, with the gasoline (prices) and the air pollution," he said. "But a lot of people are doing it now. I think the problem of insecurity is the worst it has been."
Oscar Orozco, a partner in an accounting firm in Juárez, said four of the firm's nine partners now live on the Texas side.
The crisis in the U.S. housing market has made homes more affordable for these upper-middle-class Mexicans, said Clara Jaramillo, president of Latin Credit. Her company has sold about 50 homes in the past year to Mexicans leaving Tijuana.
In recent months, the number of Mexicans calling the company has tripled, she said.
Setting up shop
To avoid the cross-border commute, some Mexicans are trying to bring their businesses with them, said Steve Ahlenius, president of the McAllen Chamber of Commerce in south Texas.
About 70 percent of the people approaching the chamber for help in setting up a business are Mexican nationals, compared with about 30 percent two years ago, he said. McAllen lies across the border from Reynosa, Mexico.
Francisco Monroy, owner of a wholesale company that sells blankets and sheets in Tijuana, said he plans to open a warehouse in San Diego so he can get an investor visa.
Monroy moved across the border in September after being kidnapped for ransom. He said his family paid "a fortune" for his release.
"It totally changes your life," he said. "I said to my family, 'Let's get out of here, because here there's no security, no support from the authorities of any kind.' "
Monroy is in the United States on a tourist visa and is running his company by telephone. An investor visa, which is given to people who open businesses and employ people in the U.S., would allow him to live in San Diego indefinitely.
The number of investor visas, known as E-1 or E-2 visas, issued to Mexicans grew 42 percent from 2005 to 2007, from 1,321 to 1,874.
The violence has also discouraged some Americans from crossing the border to eat or shop in Mexico, Ahlenius said. In response, some Mexican restaurateurs and shop owners are opening U.S. branches to recapture their clientele.
Jesús Martínez, owner of the El Pastor restaurant in Reynosa, said his U.S. customers had declined by 70 percent. He is opening a branch of the same name in McAllen.
The Los Arcos restaurant in Tijuana is doing the same in San Diego, said promotion manager Hugo Vidaurrázaga.
In Laredo, Pavel Hernández said he decided to open his new restaurant, El Real de México, on the U.S. side because he wanted more stability.
"I've seen how businesses, businessmen and their families end up bankrupt from being kidnapped or robbed, and many of them end up emigrating," Hernández said.
"It's sad that investors are investing here and not in Mexico," he said. "My dream was to open a restaurant in Mexico. But I've abandoned that dream because, well, you see how things are."
Reporter Sergio Solache contributed to this article.
Republic Mexico City Bureau
MEXICO CITY - In February, Salvador Urbina decided he was tired of the shootouts, the kidnappings and the military patrols in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez.
So he put his house up for sale, packed up his car and moved his wife and children to El Paso, Texas, joining a growing stream of professionals who are relocating to the United States to get away from Mexico's drug wars.
"I didn't want to leave," said Urbina, a lawyer. "But there's a very deep psychosis developing in Juárez. Criminals are taking advantage of the situation there. Every day I worried about the safety of my wife and family."
In U.S. cities along the border, middle-class Mexicans are buying homes, renting apartments and even moving their businesses across the border, say real-estate agents, chambers of commerce and city officials.
Arizona cities have been an exception, because neighboring Sonora state has been mostly quiet compared with other parts of the border, said Marco Antonio Garcia, director of economic development for Nogales, Sonora. But in hotspots like Tijuana, Juárez and Nuevo Laredo, business officials say the emigration is picking up.
Falling housing prices in the United States are part of the draw, said Mireya Durazo, a real-estate agent in San Diego, across the border from Tijuana. But the main driver is a wave of violence unleashed by Mexico's 18-month-old crackdown on drug cartels, she said.
"First it was the dentists, then lawyers and doctors . . . now it's teachers, owners of little stores, people from the working class," Durazo said.
Drug gangs are increasingly bringing civilians into the fray as they battle soldiers and each other for control of plazas, or drug-smuggling corridors.
In all, some 4,000 people have died in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderón began sending troops to attack the cartels in December 2006, according to a tally by the Reforma newspaper. Polls released recently by Reforma and the El Universal newspaper show most Mexicans believe the government is losing the battle.
In Tijuana, about 300 physicians rallied on May 21 to protest a string of kidnappings and threats against doctors for treating police and rival smugglers. In all, the city of 1.3 million has seen 118 kidnappings this year, according to Hope Against Forced Disappearances and Impunity in Tijuana, a civic group.
In Ciudad Juárez, a video appeared on YouTube.com on May 27 claiming responsibility for the killing of a nightclub owner and the torching of two bars. The video was signed by "La Línea," a band of enforcers for drug trafficker Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, and it warned businessmen in Juárez that they would soon be contacted for protection money.
Real-estate companies have seized upon such incidents to market homes on the U.S. side of the line.
"Are you looking for a safer place to live?" says the Web site of Latin Credit, a real-estate company in San Diego that caters to Mexican residents. "Live in tranquility!" says an ad for El Paso homes in the Diario de la Frontera newspaper of Ciudad Juárez, which is just across the border from El Paso.
Leaving home
Urbina, a 45-year-old lawyer, occasionally teaches courses at the police academy in Juárez. After Calderón flooded Juárez with troops, Urbina and other lawyers got death threats.
Earlier this year, drug traffickers launched a wave of police killings in Juárez. When some of his former police- academy students started showing up dead, Urbina knew it was time to go. Urbina now commutes to work in Ciudad Juárez every morning and returns to El Paso every night. He spends 20 hours a week stuck in traffic waiting to cross the Rio Grande.
"It's terrible, with the gasoline (prices) and the air pollution," he said. "But a lot of people are doing it now. I think the problem of insecurity is the worst it has been."
Oscar Orozco, a partner in an accounting firm in Juárez, said four of the firm's nine partners now live on the Texas side.
The crisis in the U.S. housing market has made homes more affordable for these upper-middle-class Mexicans, said Clara Jaramillo, president of Latin Credit. Her company has sold about 50 homes in the past year to Mexicans leaving Tijuana.
In recent months, the number of Mexicans calling the company has tripled, she said.
Setting up shop
To avoid the cross-border commute, some Mexicans are trying to bring their businesses with them, said Steve Ahlenius, president of the McAllen Chamber of Commerce in south Texas.
About 70 percent of the people approaching the chamber for help in setting up a business are Mexican nationals, compared with about 30 percent two years ago, he said. McAllen lies across the border from Reynosa, Mexico.
Francisco Monroy, owner of a wholesale company that sells blankets and sheets in Tijuana, said he plans to open a warehouse in San Diego so he can get an investor visa.
Monroy moved across the border in September after being kidnapped for ransom. He said his family paid "a fortune" for his release.
"It totally changes your life," he said. "I said to my family, 'Let's get out of here, because here there's no security, no support from the authorities of any kind.' "
Monroy is in the United States on a tourist visa and is running his company by telephone. An investor visa, which is given to people who open businesses and employ people in the U.S., would allow him to live in San Diego indefinitely.
The number of investor visas, known as E-1 or E-2 visas, issued to Mexicans grew 42 percent from 2005 to 2007, from 1,321 to 1,874.
The violence has also discouraged some Americans from crossing the border to eat or shop in Mexico, Ahlenius said. In response, some Mexican restaurateurs and shop owners are opening U.S. branches to recapture their clientele.
Jesús Martínez, owner of the El Pastor restaurant in Reynosa, said his U.S. customers had declined by 70 percent. He is opening a branch of the same name in McAllen.
The Los Arcos restaurant in Tijuana is doing the same in San Diego, said promotion manager Hugo Vidaurrázaga.
In Laredo, Pavel Hernández said he decided to open his new restaurant, El Real de México, on the U.S. side because he wanted more stability.
"I've seen how businesses, businessmen and their families end up bankrupt from being kidnapped or robbed, and many of them end up emigrating," Hernández said.
"It's sad that investors are investing here and not in Mexico," he said. "My dream was to open a restaurant in Mexico. But I've abandoned that dream because, well, you see how things are."
Reporter Sergio Solache contributed to this article.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
4 in big drug-smuggling ring are convicted; 3 are fugitives
4 in big drug-smuggling ring are convicted; 3 are fugitives
By Kim Smith
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.14.2008
Four men accused of being members of one of the county's largest-ever drug-trafficking rings were convicted Friday following a six-week trial and two days of deliberations.
Two of the men never attended the trial, having absconded months ago. Another didn't show up for the verdict and had a warrant issued for his arrest.
The fourth man will be sentenced by Pima County Superior Court Judge Howard Hantman July 18 and is facing decades in prison.
David Sosa-Hernandez was convicted of 16 of 17 counts, Sylvester Alfonso Mitchell was convicted of four of four counts and Ricardo H. Varela was convicted of five of five counts, said Deputy Pima County Attorney Richard Wintory.
Vicente Murrieta Melendez was convicted of three of four charges, Wintory said.
All four men were indicted with 31 others on money-laundering, conspiracy and drug charges in August 2004 after an investigation by the Counter Narcotics Alliance.
Sosa-Hernandez, along with his aunt, Maria Isabel Dominguez, located sources of marijuana in Mexico and then brokered deals between those sources and Jamaican drug traffickers, Wintory told jurors during opening statements May 8.
Members of the Counter Narcotics Alliance spent months monitoring three of Dominguez's telephone lines and determined that Murrieta Melendez was a member of the Dominguez organization, Varela was a supplier and Mitchell was transporting or selling the drug.
Detectives testified the alliance began investigating Dominguez after getting a tip. During the investigation, it was learned the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration was also investigating the Dominguez organization, and the two agencies teamed up.
Dominguez had been scheduled to go to trial along with the four, but she pleaded guilty to money-laundering at the start of the trial and agreed to serve 18 years in prison.
Sosa-Hernandez and Mitchell were tried in absentia because both are fugitives with warrants out for their arrests.
Varela attended the entire trial, but when he didn't show up Friday for the verdicts, Hantman issued a warrant for his arrest, Wintory said.
If ever caught, Mitchell and Varela face decades in prison, Wintory said. Sosa-Hernandez could spend the rest of his life in prison if he's caught.
By Kim Smith
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.14.2008
Four men accused of being members of one of the county's largest-ever drug-trafficking rings were convicted Friday following a six-week trial and two days of deliberations.
Two of the men never attended the trial, having absconded months ago. Another didn't show up for the verdict and had a warrant issued for his arrest.
The fourth man will be sentenced by Pima County Superior Court Judge Howard Hantman July 18 and is facing decades in prison.
David Sosa-Hernandez was convicted of 16 of 17 counts, Sylvester Alfonso Mitchell was convicted of four of four counts and Ricardo H. Varela was convicted of five of five counts, said Deputy Pima County Attorney Richard Wintory.
Vicente Murrieta Melendez was convicted of three of four charges, Wintory said.
All four men were indicted with 31 others on money-laundering, conspiracy and drug charges in August 2004 after an investigation by the Counter Narcotics Alliance.
Sosa-Hernandez, along with his aunt, Maria Isabel Dominguez, located sources of marijuana in Mexico and then brokered deals between those sources and Jamaican drug traffickers, Wintory told jurors during opening statements May 8.
Members of the Counter Narcotics Alliance spent months monitoring three of Dominguez's telephone lines and determined that Murrieta Melendez was a member of the Dominguez organization, Varela was a supplier and Mitchell was transporting or selling the drug.
Detectives testified the alliance began investigating Dominguez after getting a tip. During the investigation, it was learned the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration was also investigating the Dominguez organization, and the two agencies teamed up.
Dominguez had been scheduled to go to trial along with the four, but she pleaded guilty to money-laundering at the start of the trial and agreed to serve 18 years in prison.
Sosa-Hernandez and Mitchell were tried in absentia because both are fugitives with warrants out for their arrests.
Varela attended the entire trial, but when he didn't show up Friday for the verdicts, Hantman issued a warrant for his arrest, Wintory said.
If ever caught, Mitchell and Varela face decades in prison, Wintory said. Sosa-Hernandez could spend the rest of his life in prison if he's caught.
2,700 pounds of pot seized in traffic stop
by Beth Duckett - Jun. 14, 2008 03:33 PM
The Arizona Republic Maricopa County Sheriff's Office deputies seized more than a ton of marijuana Friday during a traffic stop in the southwest Valley.
Deputies seized 2,700 pounds of the drug with a street value of $3 million.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio said the suspect, an illegal immigrant, was under surveillance and pulled over for a traffic violation in Rainbow Valley, about 40 miles outside of Phoenix.
Deputies arrested Carlos Olivas-Melendrez, 22.
Arpaio said the shipment could have been part of a large-scale international drug ring.
The sheriff's office later raided what was believed was a stash house in the area.
Three weapons were confiscated.
The Arizona Republic Maricopa County Sheriff's Office deputies seized more than a ton of marijuana Friday during a traffic stop in the southwest Valley.
Deputies seized 2,700 pounds of the drug with a street value of $3 million.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio said the suspect, an illegal immigrant, was under surveillance and pulled over for a traffic violation in Rainbow Valley, about 40 miles outside of Phoenix.
Deputies arrested Carlos Olivas-Melendrez, 22.
Arpaio said the shipment could have been part of a large-scale international drug ring.
The sheriff's office later raided what was believed was a stash house in the area.
Three weapons were confiscated.
Phoenix office reducing naturalization backlog
by Daniel González - Jun. 14, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
The head of the federal immigration service said Friday that officials in Phoenix are working overtime to naturalize at least 15,000 immigrants this fiscal year as part of an effort to reduce massive backlogs.
The 15,000 naturalizations would represent nearly a 43 percent increase from the previous year, when the Phoenix office naturalized 10,500 immigrants, said Jonathan Scharfen, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.
That would help assure that those who applied last year wanting to vote in the presidential election this November would be able to do so, he said.
Scharfen, who became acting director of USCIS in April, was in Arizona to monitor local efforts by immigration officials to reduce a large backlog of naturalization applications. He was in Phoenix on Friday after stopping in Tucson on Thursday.
"I've been pleased by what I saw," Scharfen said.
Scharfen said the Phoenix office had stepped up the processing of naturalization applications without compromising public safety or national security.
Like other immigration offices around the country, Phoenix was hit last year with a surge of naturalization applications, many from legal immigrants seeking to become U.S. citizens in time to avoid a 70 percent fee hike and to vote in the November election.
The surge boosted the wait time in Phoenix for naturalization applications to be processed to 14 months, among the longest in the nation.
The long waits in Phoenix and around the country prompted a national outcry from immigrants and advocacy groups, some of which accused the Bush administration of intentionally dragging its feet to prevent thousands of immigrants from becoming citizens in time to vote for Democrats in presidential and other elections.
On Friday, Scharfen called those accusations unfounded.
He agreed, however, that the long waits were "unacceptable" and said that immigrants living in the greatest immigrant nation on Earth deserved a first-class immigration service.
Since the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1, immigration officers in Phoenix have put in over 1,000 overtime hours to reduce the backlog. The office also added 36 employees, bringing the total to 107, Scharfen said.
As a result, immigration officials expect the wait time in Phoenix to drop from 14 months to less than 10 months by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
Scharfen said that means most of the nearly 16,000 immigrants who applied to become U.S. citizens during the previous fiscal year should be processed in time to vote on Nov. 4. The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 6.
An immigrant advocate said she was pleased by the government's efforts to reduce the backlogs.
"I'm really glad that the clamoring by organizations . . . and the community in general has had positive results," said Monica Sandschafer, head organizer of Arizona ACORN, a grassroots organization that holds citizenship classes.
The Arizona Republic
The head of the federal immigration service said Friday that officials in Phoenix are working overtime to naturalize at least 15,000 immigrants this fiscal year as part of an effort to reduce massive backlogs.
The 15,000 naturalizations would represent nearly a 43 percent increase from the previous year, when the Phoenix office naturalized 10,500 immigrants, said Jonathan Scharfen, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.
That would help assure that those who applied last year wanting to vote in the presidential election this November would be able to do so, he said.
Scharfen, who became acting director of USCIS in April, was in Arizona to monitor local efforts by immigration officials to reduce a large backlog of naturalization applications. He was in Phoenix on Friday after stopping in Tucson on Thursday.
"I've been pleased by what I saw," Scharfen said.
Scharfen said the Phoenix office had stepped up the processing of naturalization applications without compromising public safety or national security.
Like other immigration offices around the country, Phoenix was hit last year with a surge of naturalization applications, many from legal immigrants seeking to become U.S. citizens in time to avoid a 70 percent fee hike and to vote in the November election.
The surge boosted the wait time in Phoenix for naturalization applications to be processed to 14 months, among the longest in the nation.
The long waits in Phoenix and around the country prompted a national outcry from immigrants and advocacy groups, some of which accused the Bush administration of intentionally dragging its feet to prevent thousands of immigrants from becoming citizens in time to vote for Democrats in presidential and other elections.
On Friday, Scharfen called those accusations unfounded.
He agreed, however, that the long waits were "unacceptable" and said that immigrants living in the greatest immigrant nation on Earth deserved a first-class immigration service.
Since the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1, immigration officers in Phoenix have put in over 1,000 overtime hours to reduce the backlog. The office also added 36 employees, bringing the total to 107, Scharfen said.
As a result, immigration officials expect the wait time in Phoenix to drop from 14 months to less than 10 months by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
Scharfen said that means most of the nearly 16,000 immigrants who applied to become U.S. citizens during the previous fiscal year should be processed in time to vote on Nov. 4. The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 6.
An immigrant advocate said she was pleased by the government's efforts to reduce the backlogs.
"I'm really glad that the clamoring by organizations . . . and the community in general has had positive results," said Monica Sandschafer, head organizer of Arizona ACORN, a grassroots organization that holds citizenship classes.
Both parties duck on immigration issue
By Julie Hirschfeld Davis
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: 06.09.2008
WASHINGTON — The tricky politics of immigration, an issue once seen as a driving force of the 2008 election, have relegated it to a back but hot burner in the presidential campaign debate and paralyzed Congress on the topic.
Both John McCain and Barack Obama support giving legal status to millions of illegal immigrants, a position that strategists see as crucial to winning over Hispanics. But Republican and Democratic candidates are also wary of alienating white conservatives and blacks who oppose granting legal status or benefits to people who broke the law to come to the United States.
The searing rhetoric from opponents who brand that idea as "amnesty" has made the topic virtually untouchable, according to strategists and lawmakers.
"Politicians from both parties are caught between Lou Dobbs voters and Latino voters. Presidential candidates will avoid this issue — both of them — and when they can't avoid it, they'll straddle," said Tamar Jacoby, president of ImmigrationWorks USA, a coalition pushing for an immigration overhaul. "It doesn't pay as an electoral issue."
The high-profile Dobbs is a CNN host who has used his early evening show as a platform to protest illegal immigration.
McCain and Obama have spoken of their support during the campaign for an immigration overhaul, but neither has made the issue a major part of his presidential bid. Each has reason to tread carefully.
McCain's position is a sore point between him and the conservative GOP base. He is caught between shoring up those core constituents and drawing support from Hispanics.
"He's trying to appeal to one group of voters that hates the other," said Cecilia Munoz of the National Council of La Raza.
Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio said it does not pay for McCain or GOP congressional candidates to highlight their party's rift on the issue. Those candidates lag far behind McCain in national polls that asking voters whether they support a Republican or Democrat for Congress.
"Why focus on what divides us?" Fabrizio said.
McCain sometimes has sent conflicting messages on immigration.
He hedged when asked whether, as president, he would sign legislation he helped write to legalize undocumented immigrants, and now says such action should only be taken after border security is strengthened. But he also publicly lamented the defeat of his measure, calling it "my failure, too."
For Obama, who is struggling to win over Latino voters, the predicament is less pronounced but no less puzzling. On immigration issues where he and McCain differ, Obama's views are out of synch with those of most voters, polls show.
Obama's support for giving drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants is a prime example; polls show that the public overwhelmingly opposes it. Obama also supports giving legal status to immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children and have completed two years of college or military service.
Democrats "do want to be out front on it, but they fear alienating those blue-collar, skeptical voters," Jacoby said.
Obama got a taste of that backlash recently. He drew heavy criticism in the blogosphere for suggesting that conservative cable TV hosts who routinely rail against illegal immigrants are partly to blame for an increase in hate crimes against Hispanic people.
"A certain segment has basically been feeding a kind of xenophobia," Obama said at a fundraiser in Palm Beach, Fla. "If you have people like Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaugh ginning things up, it's not surprising that would happen."
The comment was a nod to a widespread feeling among Hispanic voters that bitter rhetoric against illegal immigrants is really veiled racism against U.S. citizens and legal residents who are Latino.
"The volatility of the issue discourages the national candidates from aggressively promoting the need for comprehensive immigration reform," said Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif. "When they're asked, they respond, but I've come to the conclusion that this campaign will not likely be a useful educational tool for demonstrating the compelling need for reform."
Candidates are finding other, less risky, ways to telegraph their sympathy for Hispanic voters.
McCain has a TV ad praising Hispanics' service in Vietnam and Iraq and saying that some "love this country so much that they're willing to risk their lives in its service in order to accelerate their path to citizenship."
Obama spoke Spanish in an ad aired in Puerto Rico that focused on economic concerns.
In Congress, Democratic leaders are skittish about immigration votes. Instead, they are holding House hearings — but no votes — on a measure written by one of their more conservative members, Rep. Heath Shuler of North Carolina, to strengthen border security and crack down on employers who hire undocumented workers.
One Hispanic Democrat, Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, said his leaders were being "spineless." Others argue that Republicans, who have made it a strategy to force politically painful immigration votes on unrelated bills, essentially have blackmailed Democrats into taking tougher stances on the issue.
In February, for example, Democrats joined Republicans to forbid illegal immigrants from getting an economic relief tax rebate.
More recently, Senate Democratic leaders were forced to pull provisions from an emergency Iraq spending bill that would have awarded work permits for immigrant farm and seasonal workers.
"Congressional Democrats are struggling to figure out whether they want to sound like Republicans-lite or whether they want to actually get out in front of the issue and lead," Munoz said.
Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a supporter of a broad overhaul, said candidates in both parties face that dilemma.
"You have to ask yourself, `Do I want to really get out front on an issue that isn't really going anywhere and my opponent can demagogue it and misrepresent my position?"' Flake said. "If you're going to go out on a limb on something, there has to be a payoff, and on this, there just isn't."
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: 06.09.2008
WASHINGTON — The tricky politics of immigration, an issue once seen as a driving force of the 2008 election, have relegated it to a back but hot burner in the presidential campaign debate and paralyzed Congress on the topic.
Both John McCain and Barack Obama support giving legal status to millions of illegal immigrants, a position that strategists see as crucial to winning over Hispanics. But Republican and Democratic candidates are also wary of alienating white conservatives and blacks who oppose granting legal status or benefits to people who broke the law to come to the United States.
The searing rhetoric from opponents who brand that idea as "amnesty" has made the topic virtually untouchable, according to strategists and lawmakers.
"Politicians from both parties are caught between Lou Dobbs voters and Latino voters. Presidential candidates will avoid this issue — both of them — and when they can't avoid it, they'll straddle," said Tamar Jacoby, president of ImmigrationWorks USA, a coalition pushing for an immigration overhaul. "It doesn't pay as an electoral issue."
The high-profile Dobbs is a CNN host who has used his early evening show as a platform to protest illegal immigration.
McCain and Obama have spoken of their support during the campaign for an immigration overhaul, but neither has made the issue a major part of his presidential bid. Each has reason to tread carefully.
McCain's position is a sore point between him and the conservative GOP base. He is caught between shoring up those core constituents and drawing support from Hispanics.
"He's trying to appeal to one group of voters that hates the other," said Cecilia Munoz of the National Council of La Raza.
Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio said it does not pay for McCain or GOP congressional candidates to highlight their party's rift on the issue. Those candidates lag far behind McCain in national polls that asking voters whether they support a Republican or Democrat for Congress.
"Why focus on what divides us?" Fabrizio said.
McCain sometimes has sent conflicting messages on immigration.
He hedged when asked whether, as president, he would sign legislation he helped write to legalize undocumented immigrants, and now says such action should only be taken after border security is strengthened. But he also publicly lamented the defeat of his measure, calling it "my failure, too."
For Obama, who is struggling to win over Latino voters, the predicament is less pronounced but no less puzzling. On immigration issues where he and McCain differ, Obama's views are out of synch with those of most voters, polls show.
Obama's support for giving drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants is a prime example; polls show that the public overwhelmingly opposes it. Obama also supports giving legal status to immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children and have completed two years of college or military service.
Democrats "do want to be out front on it, but they fear alienating those blue-collar, skeptical voters," Jacoby said.
Obama got a taste of that backlash recently. He drew heavy criticism in the blogosphere for suggesting that conservative cable TV hosts who routinely rail against illegal immigrants are partly to blame for an increase in hate crimes against Hispanic people.
"A certain segment has basically been feeding a kind of xenophobia," Obama said at a fundraiser in Palm Beach, Fla. "If you have people like Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaugh ginning things up, it's not surprising that would happen."
The comment was a nod to a widespread feeling among Hispanic voters that bitter rhetoric against illegal immigrants is really veiled racism against U.S. citizens and legal residents who are Latino.
"The volatility of the issue discourages the national candidates from aggressively promoting the need for comprehensive immigration reform," said Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif. "When they're asked, they respond, but I've come to the conclusion that this campaign will not likely be a useful educational tool for demonstrating the compelling need for reform."
Candidates are finding other, less risky, ways to telegraph their sympathy for Hispanic voters.
McCain has a TV ad praising Hispanics' service in Vietnam and Iraq and saying that some "love this country so much that they're willing to risk their lives in its service in order to accelerate their path to citizenship."
Obama spoke Spanish in an ad aired in Puerto Rico that focused on economic concerns.
In Congress, Democratic leaders are skittish about immigration votes. Instead, they are holding House hearings — but no votes — on a measure written by one of their more conservative members, Rep. Heath Shuler of North Carolina, to strengthen border security and crack down on employers who hire undocumented workers.
One Hispanic Democrat, Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, said his leaders were being "spineless." Others argue that Republicans, who have made it a strategy to force politically painful immigration votes on unrelated bills, essentially have blackmailed Democrats into taking tougher stances on the issue.
In February, for example, Democrats joined Republicans to forbid illegal immigrants from getting an economic relief tax rebate.
More recently, Senate Democratic leaders were forced to pull provisions from an emergency Iraq spending bill that would have awarded work permits for immigrant farm and seasonal workers.
"Congressional Democrats are struggling to figure out whether they want to sound like Republicans-lite or whether they want to actually get out in front of the issue and lead," Munoz said.
Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a supporter of a broad overhaul, said candidates in both parties face that dilemma.
"You have to ask yourself, `Do I want to really get out front on an issue that isn't really going anywhere and my opponent can demagogue it and misrepresent my position?"' Flake said. "If you're going to go out on a limb on something, there has to be a payoff, and on this, there just isn't."
Friday, June 13, 2008
Two drop houses raided, 30 in custody
by Matt Culbertson - Jun. 13, 2008 12:33 PM
The Arizona Republic
Authorities raided a Phoenix drop house Thursday night, finding 11 undocumented immigrants and arresting four human smugglers.
A second drop house raid also was conducted Friday, resulting in another 15 detainees.
On Thursday, acting on a tip, a task force known as the Illegal Immigration Prevention and Apprehension Co-op Team, or IIMPACT, investigated a possible drop house near West Indian School Road and North 51st Avenue. The task force entered the house Thursday evening, police said.
IIMPACT consists of the Arizona Department of Public Safety, Phoenix police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Authorities were tipped off by the wife of one of the undocumented immigrants, who talked to officials because she feared for her husband's safety.
She told officials her husband had paid $1,500 to a human smuggling organization to be taken into the United States illegally, Phoenix Det. Reuben Gonzales said.
But when the smugglers took the man to the United States, they instead traded him to another organization, which threatened to kill him if he did not pay an additional $3,500 for his release, Gonzales said.
During the raid, no one was injured and no shots were fired, though officers found weapons inside the house including a shotgun and handgun, Gonzales said.
The 11 undocumented immigrants did not appear to be injured, but their shoes had been confiscated to keep them from escaping, and the house had been fortified, with bolted windows and locked doors to bar them from leaving.
Authorities arrested the four smugglers on counts of kidnapping, extortion and misconduct involving weapons. ICE took custody of the 11 undocumented immigrants to process them and return them to Mexico.
The Arizona Republic
Authorities raided a Phoenix drop house Thursday night, finding 11 undocumented immigrants and arresting four human smugglers.
A second drop house raid also was conducted Friday, resulting in another 15 detainees.
On Thursday, acting on a tip, a task force known as the Illegal Immigration Prevention and Apprehension Co-op Team, or IIMPACT, investigated a possible drop house near West Indian School Road and North 51st Avenue. The task force entered the house Thursday evening, police said.
IIMPACT consists of the Arizona Department of Public Safety, Phoenix police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Authorities were tipped off by the wife of one of the undocumented immigrants, who talked to officials because she feared for her husband's safety.
She told officials her husband had paid $1,500 to a human smuggling organization to be taken into the United States illegally, Phoenix Det. Reuben Gonzales said.
But when the smugglers took the man to the United States, they instead traded him to another organization, which threatened to kill him if he did not pay an additional $3,500 for his release, Gonzales said.
During the raid, no one was injured and no shots were fired, though officers found weapons inside the house including a shotgun and handgun, Gonzales said.
The 11 undocumented immigrants did not appear to be injured, but their shoes had been confiscated to keep them from escaping, and the house had been fortified, with bolted windows and locked doors to bar them from leaving.
Authorities arrested the four smugglers on counts of kidnapping, extortion and misconduct involving weapons. ICE took custody of the 11 undocumented immigrants to process them and return them to Mexico.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
At least one in three Arizona children has at least one immigrant parent
The number of Arizona children who come from immigrant households is soaring.
At least one in three Arizona children now has at least one immigrant parent, up from about one in four 10 years ago, said Nancy Welch,a researcher at the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University.
She co-authored a new report that concluded at least 471,000 children living in Arizona are from immigrant households - or more than the entire population of Mesa.
The report is based on 2006 census data.
These children, whom the report dubbed "Gen G," for Generation Global, pose both opportunities and challenges in the global economy.
"They really bring a lot of assets," Welch said. "For one, they already speak two languages."
They also pose significant challenges.
Children from immigrant households face more obstacles than children with native-born parents: They are more likely to have parents with limited education, they are more likely to grow up in poverty, and they often lack health insurance.
At least one in three Arizona children now has at least one immigrant parent, up from about one in four 10 years ago, said Nancy Welch,a researcher at the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University.
She co-authored a new report that concluded at least 471,000 children living in Arizona are from immigrant households - or more than the entire population of Mesa.
The report is based on 2006 census data.
These children, whom the report dubbed "Gen G," for Generation Global, pose both opportunities and challenges in the global economy.
"They really bring a lot of assets," Welch said. "For one, they already speak two languages."
They also pose significant challenges.
Children from immigrant households face more obstacles than children with native-born parents: They are more likely to have parents with limited education, they are more likely to grow up in poverty, and they often lack health insurance.
'Chandler Rapist' case continues
by Megan Boehnke - Jun. 11, 2008 12:00 AM
The man accused of being the "Chandler Rapist" is expected to appear in a Mesa courtroom this morning for a status conference in another of what will likely be a long series of hearings leading up to the trial.
Santana Batiz Aceves, 39, is charged with 47 counts including child molestation, sexual conduct with a minor, kidnapping, aggravated assault and burglary.
Police say he attacked six young girls from June 2006 to November 2007.
On April 9, Judge Theresa A. Sanders denied Batiz Aceves' request to have the trial moved out of Maricopa County.
The construction worker who called himself Ricardo Lopez was arrested Jan. 13, less than 24 hours after police said DNA test results confirmed that he was a match for a serial rapist who had been stalking and raping young girls in Chandler.
Originally from Sinaloa, Mexico, Batiz Aceves began living in the United States illegally in 1988 and lived in Sacramento for nearly 16 years, where he worked for a construction company.
Three of the victims were students at Andersen Junior High School, police said.
In all but one of the cases, police believe, the rapist followed the victims for weeks, targeting single-parent homes.
In the incidents, the rapist studied the parent's routine, developed a quick escape route and then struck, police said.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Three Arizona businesses targeted over employer sanctions law
Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies served search warrants and subpoenas at a trio of Valley summer fun spots Tuesday morning as part of a sweeping investigation into potential violations of the state's Legal Arizona Workers Act.
Deputies arrived simultaneously at Waterworld on Phoenix, Big Surf in Tempe and Golfland in Mesa about 11 a.m. Tuesday to serve the warrants covering employee files at Waterworld, which the business was expected to comply with immediately.
Subpoenas were also served for other employee records, though Waterworld executives will have time to work out those details, deputies said.
The Sheriff's Office said at an afternoon press conference that there's a strong possibility that 104 of Golfland Entertainment's 198 employees have discrepancies with their Social Security number information. If this plays out to be true, then there will likely be action or investigation against Golfland, making it the first aggressive move to enforce the state's employer sanctions law, authorities say.
The investigation into potential violations of Arizona's employer-sanctions law began after deputies received a tip in February from a former Waterworld employee that included detailed, specific information on employees who were using fraudulent documents to work at the family fun centers.
After months of surveillance and investigation, detectives targeted six employees Tuesday morning, most of whom were apprehended on their way to work.
Another Waterworld employee who detectives targeted was arrested without incident at the water park Tuesday, and another was apprehended after he jumped the fence and tried to flee the park before he ran into sheriff's deputies who formed a perimeter around the scene.
The Sheriff's Office has arrested eight workers during a handful of investigations into violations of the state's employer sanctions law, but has yet to target any business owner for prosecution.
An employer found to have knowingly hired an undocumented worker after Jan. 1 would lose a business license for up to 10 days on the first offense, and could permanently lose an Arizona business license for a second offense.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Arizona : Leading by example
Arizona has been a leader in immigration-related laws, mostly legislation that would crack down on illegal immigrants. Although there have been numerous legislative proposals, most of the laws have been approved by voters. A few examples:
AT THE BALLOT BOX
No public welfare benefits for people in the country illegally. Approved November 2004.
No bail for illegal immigrants arrested for serious crimes. Approved November 2006.
No punitive damages to illegal immigrants in lawsuits. Any financial reward is limited to actual damages. Approved November 2006.
Mandates English is the official language of government, with various exceptions. Approved November 2006.
No state-subsidized programs for illegal immigrants in the areas of adult education and child care, among other programs. Approved November 2006.
AT THE LEGISLATURE
Penalties for employers who hire illegal workers. Passed June 2007; amended May 2008.
Create penalties for people who block public rights of way while seeking and/or hiring day labor. Vote pending in the state Senate; approved by the House of Representatives.
Create a temporary-worker program for those Arizona businesses that could demonstrate a worker shortage in their industry. Workers could be brought in through Mexico. Initial vote pending in the state Senate; if approved, would need House OK.
Refer to the ballot a measure that would require local police agencies to inquire about the immigration status of people they stop in the course of law-enforcement duties. Awaiting a final vote in the House; then must go to the Senate for approval.
Three sanctions cases
What Arizona and other states are doing
Three laws spelling out a role for local and/or state enforcement of immigration law have been contested in federal court and are each now before a federal appeals court. First up is Arizona's Legal Arizona Workers Act, which will be heard by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday.
The Arizona Legislature approved the Legal Arizona Workers Act in June 2007 and signed into law by Gov. Janet Napolitano on July 2, 2007.
The law gives Arizona the right to act on any of a business' state-issued licenses if the employer is found to have willingly or knowingly hired an illegal worker.
Eleven days after Napolitano acted on the bill, a coalition of business groups, led by the Arizona Contractors Association, sued in federal court. After some legal twists and turns, the law was upheld in February by U.S. District Court Judge Neil V. Wake.
The Hazleton (Pa.) City Council approved the Illegal Immigration Relief Act in July 2006.
It set out penalties for employers who hired illegal workers, as well as for landlords who rented to those in the country illegally.
A year later, a federal judge overturned the city ordinance, saying it was unconstitutional because it wrongly gave the city power over immigration issues, which are in the federal domain.
The case is on appeal to the Third 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and a hearing is expected later this summer.
The Valley Park (Mo.) City Council approved the Illegal Immigration Relief Act in July 2006, but later amended it to drop sanctions against landlords who rent to people in the country illegally.
A lawsuit challenging the ordinance argued that the city has no authority to penalize employers found to have hired illegal workers.
In January, 2008 a federal district court judge upheld the city ordinance. It has been appealed to the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is expected to hear the case later this year.
Meanwhile, the Missouri General Assembly approved a state law that mirrors the Valley Park ordinance.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Illegal alien crime statistics come complete with a velvet glove
The Arizona Republic newspaper
neglects to note that ALL illegals are criminals,
breaking the law as they enter
In an article titled, Migrant rate of crime even with numbers, the daily once again makes its case on behalf of its favorite Arizonans: illegal aliens–citing a 10 percent rate of crime committed by illegals.
Posing as a straight news article printed on the front page, it carries a conspicuous editorial flavor, both with its advocacy for illegals and disparaging comments regarding the people elected by Arizona citizens to enforce the law.
When discussing Maricopa County’s elected law enforcement officials, County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the daily blatantly slices through their statements with a dull blade.
This is a classic example: (Thomas) “grudgingly issued a statement.”
Although the written slur intended to deprecate, the county attorney’s words ring true: “The link between crime and illegal immigration is well known and was recognized by the 78 percent of Arizonans who voted for Proposition 100 in 2006,” said County Attorney Andrew Thomas.
Yet carefully selected and sympathetic words are repeatedly used for the illegals entering our country in callus disregard of our national sovereignty and laws: “Migrant,” “undocumented,” “undocumented immigrants,” and “entrants,” reliably get quite a workout on the pages of the Fish wrapper.
Conspicuously missing is any mention of the rampant identity theft and businesses operating within the illegal community dealing in forged and counterfeit documents, which facilitate newly entering illegals in areas of employment, banking, medical care, schooling and housing.
Other serious and violent felonies, including homicides, home invasions and auto theft are swept under the same rug that the young, murdered police officers who were victims of illegal criminals.
Haven’t we had enough?
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