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Monday, November 19, 2001

Utah Sheriff Says Locals Can Enforce Immigration Laws Sheriff Smith Airs Views in Civil Rights Commission Forum
	Transcript from Nov. 16 meeting. Michael Martinez: So if you believe that someone has committed the crime of being in the country without documentation, your officers are told they can arrests them. Sheriff Smith: We are not telling them, we are allowing them to do it and we are not correcting them. They understand as we do, the appellate was very clear in its decision. If you stop a person for a speeding violation and through the course of your investigation you determine that that person or someone in the vehicle for that matter then you do have the authority [ to arrest them for violation of immigration laws.] See this November 5 item form the Deseret News
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Upcoming Events

Protest at Anaheim City Council Meeting - 11/27

Protest Mexican ID Acceptance at Anaheim City Hall - 12/8

Friday, Nov. 23 -- Glenn Spencer on the Alex Jones Show - 10 AM Pacific

Associated Press
Homeland Security Director Praises Mexico's Anti-Terrorism Measures
The Bush administration praised Mexico's counterterrorism efforts as the two countries held talks Monday on ways to further strengthen cooperation. -- Senior Mexican officials met with Tom Ridge, the director of homeland security, and also held talks with U.S. immigration, customs and aviation officials. -- Ridge thanked the Mexicans for taking steps to stem the flow of terrorist money and strengthening control of Mexican airspace, his spokeswoman, Susan Neely, said. Both sides agreed they have a shared interest in tightening border security without disrupting trade, she said.

USA Today
States reworking laws on getting ID
Several states are revamping their laws on obtaining driver's licenses to make it more difficult for a potential terrorist to get that form of identification. Authorities say the terrorist attacks Sept. 11 were committed by foreigners who used U.S. driver's licenses to open bank accounts and rent cars and apartments. -- ''We don't need a new national ID card. We already have one. We just have to make it better,'' said Jason King of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.

Boston Globe
Illegal alien pleads guilty to helping hijacker obtain false ID card
An illegal alien from El Salvador pleaded guilty Monday to helping one of the Sept. 11 hijackers fraudulently obtain a Virginia identification card. -- Victor Lopez-Flores also pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., to illegally re- entering the United States after being deported. He faces a maximum sentence of 35 years in prison and fines of $500,000. Sentencing was set for next Feb. 2. [Discuss on the Free Republic]

AZ Republic (Free Registration)
Canadian border no longer idyllic
Jeff Tessier owns a country store about 100 yards south of the Canadian border, in a picture-perfect landscape of rolling green pasturelands and forests of maple, birch and pine. He talks of the border in terms that would be familiar to many residents at the southern edge of the United States. -- "To us here, it's just a line," he said. "People come up and down all the time. There are a lot of families with people on both sides."

Buffalo News
D.C. fails to deliver customs agents
Congress and President Bush have failed to back with hard cash the new anti-terrorism law, which calls for tripling the number of federal agents guarding the country's border with Canada. -- Instead of adding 4,600 agents, as required in the Patriot Law passed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Congress last week appropriated money for only a few hundred more to patrol what critics warn is a 4,000- mile- ong pathway for terrorists.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mexicans applaud effort to legalize workers in U.S.
Peasant farmers in this town cheered and waved American flags Sunday as two top Democrats in Congress vowed they would push to legalize some of the millions of undocumented Mexicans working in the United States. -- Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt made the pledge during a trip Sunday to Mexico's eastern Puebla state. -- Puebla has a population of about 6 million people, but an estimated 1 million others have abandoned the state to go to the U.S. --- either legally or as undocumented workers.

NewsMax.com
Bloomberg: I Won't Enforce Immigration Laws
New York City Mayor-elect Michael Bloomberg said Monday that he would make permanent his predecessor Rudy Giuliani's temporary waiver of U.S. immigration laws for the families of Dominicans who were killed last week on American Airlines Flight 587 -- saying he would extend the waiver to all undocumented aliens in the city.

Stein Report Exclusive
A Fox In The Henhouse?
We have learned that the INS is considering hiring an immigration lawyer for a senior position in the office of Policy and Planning. This lawyer has extensive experience working for the AILA in lobbying the INS for policies aimed at opening the immigration door wider. Our source of this information commented that "How a move like this can be made at a time when INS needs to take a serious look at fixing the damage done by years of listening to AILA is just beyond my understanding."

Dallas Morning News
Along the border, security is fluid
If security along the border is critical in the fight against terrorism, Victor Valdez's shallow- bottomed rowboat on the Rio Grande is on the front lines. -- The boat is hardly a warship, but rather a ferry carrying passengers across this isolated, rugged stretch of international border in Big Bend National Park. -- No one searches people clambering off the boat on the U.S. side. No one checks documentation. No authorities are in sight.

Associated Press
Stricter driver's license rules start
New Jersey's Division of Motor Vehicles is putting foreigners' driver's license applications under closer scrutiny. -- Starting this week, only four motor vehicles offices in the state will accept applications from foreigners who are not naturalized U.S. citizens. -- Previously, foreigners could go to any of the state's 45 DMV offices to apply for a driver's license. -- Immigrants now must apply for a license at one of the state's regional service centers in Wayne, Eatontown, Trenton or West Deptford. [Also see this Free Republic item]

Tucson Citizen
Border talks resume today
Less than a week before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Vicente Fox challenged President Bush to reach an immigration agreement by the end of the year. -- That proposal, considered unrealistic by U.S. officials at the time, became even more so after Sept. 11 as the administration switched its attention to combating terrorism. Other issues, including immigration overhaul, were relegated to the back burner. -- This week, however, high-level talks on immigration- related issues are resuming with Mexico...

Fox News
Congressman Takes Aim at 'Slur'
Siesta and Caramba are now racial slurs. At least on Capitol Hill. -- What began as a routine case of dueling partisan press releases this week ended in acrimony and finger-pointing over what one congressman termed "racial slurs." -- Apologies were demanded. None were offered, however. -- Republican Congressman J.C. Watts' sarcastic use of a number of Spanish phrases in a press release criticizing Democrats for heading off to Mexico while work remains undone in Washington drew howls of protest...

Bad enforcement leads to terror
I have some experience here. I have been in the food-service business and have extensive knowledge of the scams and cons which illegal immigrant Hispanics have perpetrated. Have real knowledge of car-theft rings involving several ex-employees of mine.

Sun Sentinel
Farmers fret shortage of illegals
Florida farmers and growers are worried there might not be enough workers for upcoming harvests because of the U.S. clampdown at the Mexico border since Sept. 11. -- "It's no secret that a lot of farmers hire illegals,'' said Walter Kates, director of labor relations for the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association in Orlando. "It could be a problem finding workers this year.'' -- By some estimates, as much as 90% of Florida's agricultural workers are working illegally in this country.

Newsday
Flight-School Owner in Custody
A Lindenhurst man, one of more than 1,100 detained nationwide during the aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center, operated a flying school in Farmingdale, bought two airplanes and obtained a commercial pilots' license despite having been ordered deported back to his native country of Egypt, authorities say. -- Authorities say there is no evidence that Ahmed Abdulla Elashmouny was involved in any terrorist activities or violated any laws...

Deseret News
Profiling in Washington County? Accusations are false, sheriff's office says
If you're Hispanic, don't speak English well, live in Washington County and get pulled over by a sheriff's deputy, there's a good chance you'll have to prove you're not an illegal immigrant, members of the Hispanic community told a state civil rights panel Friday. -- "I was told by a sheriff's deputy if he meets someone who can't speak English good enough he will call the INS," said Xochitil Cuara, one of two members from Hispanos Unidos, a local advocacy group for Spanish- speaking residents. [Also see this item from American Patrol]

Denver Post
Capitol Hill tunes in to Tancredo
The Republican congressman from Littleton was a lone voice of protest as President Bush had Mexican President Vicente Fox to a state dinner. The political question of amnesty for illegal immigrants seemed not so much if, but when. -- But on a recent day in the emerald confines of his office, it's clear the steamroller is now going in the other direction. Huddling with his staff, chief of staff Jaqueline Ponder tells him "immigration is a huge issue right now."

Houston Chronicle
Illegal immigrant arrests along border plunge
The arrests of undocumented immigrants along the vast southwest border, already in decline since the beginning of the year, have plummeted in the past six weeks, according to the U.S. Border Patrol. -- The drop in apprehension of immigrants is drastic: decreases of 60% to 69% in border hot spots in Arizona and California. [The article attributes this to an economic slowdown , etc.]

Washington Times
Multiculturalism represents a multiple threat to liberty
Commentary columnist Paul Craig Roberts is correct to say that some cultures are simply incompatible with our own ("Multiculturalism's nascent stress points," Nov. 16). Consider the idea another way: How many Americans would choose to live in Saudi Arabia? Who would want to raise a daughter there?

Denver Post
Tighter borders may hit schools
Tightened border controls could mean that Latin American children in U.S. schools who go south for a traditional Christmas break can't come back. -- Large numbers of students could be affected in districts such as Denver and Commerce City that have concentrations of undocumented Mexican immigrants [illegal aliens], as well as rural areas with itinerant workers.

The News - Mexico City
Dems pander in Mexico
The top Democrats in the U.S. Senate and House met Sunday with relatives of Mexicans killed or missing in terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center to express condolences during a trip meant to promote immigration reform. -- "Our hearts go out to them and we will help them any way we can," said Representative Richard Gephardt, the House Minority Leader.

Associated Press
Survey: Hiring Activity to Reach Lows [We need 'guest workers'?]
Hiring will stay flat nationwide during the first three months of next year, nearing levels not seen since the last two recessions, according to a survey released Monday. -- Sixteen percent of the firms interviewed said they planned to add jobs during the first quarter of next year, while another 16 percent said they anticipated cutting staff during the same time, according to Manpower Inc.'s quarterly survey of 16,000 American businesses.

N.Y. Times (Free Registration)
Top Democrats Politic Through Rural Mexico
Thousands of miles away from their own constituents, the two top Democrats from the U.S. took a morning ride today through a rural stretch of central Mexico that had all the trappings of a campaign. -- Senator Tom Daschle, the majority leader from South Dakota, and Representative Richard A. Gephardt, the minority leader from Missouri, visited villages in Puebla State that are connected to the U.S. by the blood and money of immigrants. [Discuss on the Free Republic]

L.A. Times
High Tech, Low Effort at INS
It is hidden on the back of the new U.S. green card: a digital fingerprint, written with a laser, virtually immune to copying, readable only through a special scanning device. -- Experts say the optical stripe -- capable of encoding information about a person's hands, eyes, face and voice -- is one of the most secure identity- card features ever invented. But the INS, which has issued more than 5 million such cards to noncitizens living permanently in the U.S. since 1998, has never installed machines that read them.

AZ Republic (Free Registration)
Mexico to offer help in securing border
The Mexican government will propose to U.S. Homeland Security czar Thomas Ridge a coordinated approach to border security that could include harmonizing visa requirements for visitors from third countries, Mexican officials say. -- In meetings today in Washington, Mexican officials want to explore ways to share information about visitors arriving in their nation so that potential terrorists can be spotted quickly, a senior Mexican official said.

Bloomberg
U.S. Congress to suspend drug certification program for a year
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said Congress will suspend the United State's drug certification process for a year, a gesture that may please countries that regard the program as a violation of national sovereignty. -- The U.S. has since the 1980s annually evaluated the major drug-producing and transit countries for compliance with international counter-narcotics standards. Countries that are denied certification may lose U.S. financial aid or face trade sanctions.

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