Tuesday, December 2, 2003

Drug Smugglers Run Off Road Near Border American Border Patrol Arrives on Scene Minutes After Bust Hawkeye Report Leads Spencer to Scene Palominas, Ariz. -- 12/1/03 (ABP) It was a little after 5 p.m. when a call came in to American Border Patrol headquarters about a major chase taking place on Arizona State Route 92. a few miles south of Sierra Vista. The Hawkeye said the chase had been east of Hereford road and then south on SR 92. Glenn Spencer jumped in an ABP pickup and raced to the scene. Just as he passed Valley View School and the Coronado Monument road he observed numerous law enforcement vehicles on the side of the road about a half mile ahead. Heading for Mexico Arriving on the scene, Spencer could see that a vehicle had left the road and been stopped, either by law enforcement or by mechanical failure (pieces of the vehicle could be seen along its path). It was clear that the vehicle was headed for Mexico, about two miles south. "Drug smugglers are getting brazen and crazy," Spencer said, "we've got to stop them at the border before they kill innocent people." An undercover agent asked that no close-up pictures be taken. Past Features    American Border Patrol Updates Countdown: 10 Days to Nativo Lopez's Phony 'Huelga' Nativo Lopez, currently the big cheese at MAPA, but best known for his alleged involvement in vote fraud during the Dornan-Sanchez Congressional race, has called for invaders to strike on December 12 to protest the repeal of SB60, the law that would have allowed uninspected invaders to get valid California driver's licenses. We predict that this huelga (strike in Spanish) will be a monumental flop.

POLL	What Next for Illegal Alien Licenses in California? Scroll Down, Poll on Right Side of Page -- Current Results

Knight Ridder Newspapers Fraud charges denied by family members The son and sister of a Texas woman accused of selling phony green cards pleaded not guilty Tuesday to federal conspiracy charges related to an immigration scheme. -- Maria Rosalinda Bautista and Enrique Elizondo, both of Kemp in North Texas, were indicted last month on one count each of conspiracy to commit mail fraud.

Christian Science Monitor Editorial Next Steps for Illegal Aliens California's legislature, facing the wrath both of voters and a new governor, has repealed a law it passed just three months ago that would have granted driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. -- The law, passed in a moment of desperate ethnic politics, didn't save Gov. Gray Davis (D) in a recall vote.

Arizona Daily Star Update  [Very short-lived link]  Federal charge dropped against Ranch Rescue member A federal charge of flight to avoid prosecution leveled against a member of an organization that patrols border-area ranches was dropped Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Tucson. -- Casey James Nethercott, a member of Ranch Rescue, was arrested late last month in Cochise County in connection with a case in Texas....

El Paso Times Eastsiders plead guilty to smuggling illegals A married East Side couple pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to smuggling between 25 and 99 undocumented immigrants [criminals], officials with the U.S. attorney's office in El Paso, said. -- Samuel Rojas Hernandez transported four immigrants at a time in the sleeper compartment of the cab of his tractor-trailer, until they approached the Border Patrol checkpoint...

Asbury Park (New Jersey) Press Troublesome 'immigrant' day laborers rant at council meeting Freehold -- Nearly 300 people rallied outside the municipal building last night to protest the Borough Council's decision to close the gathering spot for day laborers starting Jan. 1. -- The rally was sponsored by Monmouth County Residents for Immigrant Rights, a newly formed group that wants the council to repeal its order to arrest, fine and report undocumented workers [criminals]...

El Paso Times New Mexico couple accused of smuggling illegals A Berino, N.M., couple has been charged with smuggling more than 100 undocumented immigrants [criminals] into the U.S. in the past year and of holding a Guatemalan woman and her two sons in their trailer to secure payment. -- Rosa Armendariz on Monday was denied bail in federal court in El Paso, while her husband, Ramon Armendariz, waved his right to a bail hearing.

KVIA-TV -- El Paso / Las Cruces Drug smugglers resort to Old West style of using horses Border Patrol Agents said it was truly a scene from the Old West; drug smugglers on horseback in the thick of the night. -- Agents in a helicopter spotted four horses and two riders early Monday morning in a desert field in Fort Hancock. It was dark, but thanks to night vision goggles, the men on horseback's attempt to outrun the helicopter...

Los Angeles Times (Free Registration)   County's Poor Areas Tripled, Study Finds ...The study, titled "The Trajectory of Poor Neighborhoods in Southern California, 1970-2000," reports that immigration and the region's economy are responsible for a steady increase in the area's poverty rate and a shift in the location of poor neighborhoods. [Also see: Importing Poverty]

Nogales (Arizona) International  [Short-lived link] Smuggler evades cops after chase ...A suspected drug smuggler led police on a high-speed chase Thursday morning, Thanksgiving Day, before smashing through the gate at the old Lochiel border crossing east of Nogales and escaping into Mexico. -- The chase began on Highway 82 in Sonoita when a Santa Cruz County Sheriff's deputy attempted to pull over the driver of a white Chevrolet Yukon....

Los Angeles Times (Free Registration)  U.S. to End Immigrant Registration Program The Bush administration announced Monday that it was ending a "special registration" program launched last year as an anti-terrorism measure that led to the arrests of hundreds of Middle Eastern men, mainly on immigration violations. -- Initiated by the Justice Department after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks...

Indianapolis Star Mexican busted as BMV license fraud probe widens The investigation into how more than 100 foreign citizens managed to obtain driver's licenses illegally has expanded to include nine Central Indiana counties, authorities said Monday. -- And investigators now say a Westside ring made phony Social Security cards and other identification that some people from Mexico used to get driver's licenses....

Newsday -- New York One Answer for Farmingville Day Workers: Unions Of all the approaches to the vexing problem of immigrant day workers clustering in Farmingville, one of the most positive and constructive is the one that the Empire State Regional Council of Carpenters has taken: trying to organize some of them as members of a union. -- This explosive issue has elicited responses from kind to violent. [Also see: Aiding, abetting illegals]

Stein Report -- L.A. Times Look for a surge in Mexican invasion in 2004 While immigration to the United States surged over the past few years despite a slumping U.S. economy, an even greater wave of illegal immigration from Mexico may be looming. The Mexican peso has lost 26 percent of its value since the spring of 2002 meaning that already impoverished Mexicans have even less purchasing power....

Sierra Vista (Arizona) Herald Review  Army took look at American Border Patrol's UAV setup Sierra Vista -- Army officers and civilian technicians have come to Arizona to scope out the American Border Patrol's Border Hawk and control vehicle. -- It is unknown if the Army will end up with an unmanned aerial vehicle system... --"We were contacted. They were interested in our system," said Glenn Spencer, who heads the American Border Patrol.

Invasion

Sierra Vista (Arizona) Herald Review  Illegal immigration numbers don't show drop in county Cochise Co., Ariz. -- Slightly more than 58 percent of the illegal immigrants apprehended in the first two months of the new federal fiscal year in the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector occurred in Cochise County. -- And more than one out of three people taken into custody were by agents from the Naco Station...

Chan

Contra Costa Times Bad Law Bites Dust: Chan says SB60 was 'good legislation' As the state Assembly voted Monday to repeal a controversial law allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and key Democrats pledged to work together on a new version that addresses national security concerns. -- Assemblywoman Wilma Chan said, "The legislation we passed was a good piece of legislation."

Tucson Citizen Retrial sought for 2 convicted of assault If two men convicted of assault get a new trial because a victim's immigration status was revealed in court, it would be "open season" on illegal immigrants, prosecutors say. -- Defense attorneys say the prosecution's conduct, not immigration policy, should decide the case. -- Rene Escobar Garcia and Rene Fuentes were found guilty...

Arizona Daily Star -- Tucson Raids once common at business sites Years have piled up since immigration agents last raided Alejandro's Tortilla Factory in Tucson, but the memories remain bitter for owner Ricardo Cázares. -- Three times in the 1990s, Cázares watched as Immigration and Naturalization Service agents stormed his business at 5330 S. 12th Ave. and workers scattered....

Arizona Republic -- Phoenix 3 'coyote' suspects nabbed at motel Phoenix police and federal agents arrested three people Monday on suspicion of smuggling after they discovered 49 undocumented immigrants crowded into rooms at a motel along Interstate 17. -- Sgt. Michael Rivera said investigators were drawn to the Super 8 Motel at 4021 N. 27th Ave. by reports of a possible sexual assault in one of the rooms...

Washington Times Driver's license crucial for 'security' A senior homeland security official said yesterday that if states issue driver's licenses to illegal aliens, the licenses would lose their acceptance as de facto identity cards by the government and the private sector. -- "Historically, we've looked at it that [applicants for a driver's license] ought to be able to prove citizenship, because we've relied upon those driver's licenses," said Asa Hutchinson...

Lopez

Los Angeles Times (Free Registration)   Nativo Lopez rants after invader license law goes down in flames ..."This will be the beginning phase in the movement of immigrants and our families to use economic tactics to secure our rights in California," said Nativo Lopez, national president of both the Mexican American Political Assn. and Hermandad Mexicana (of Dornan-Sanchez vote fraud fame), an immigrants rights group.... [Also see this La Opinion item]

Cedillo

San Francisco Chronicle Cedillo promises rewrite of dreaded SB60 ...Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, who has worked on getting driver's licenses for illegal immigrants for five years, said Monday that he expects to work with Schwarzenegger during the next few weeks and have a compromise bill to introduce when lawmakers return for their regular session in January. -- "I want that proposal to be something the governor has signed on to," he said.