Appeals court agrees Farmers Branch law on illegal immigrants is unconstitutional

Dallas Morning News reports: A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court’s ruling that a Farmers Branch ordinance banning illegal immigrants from renting in the city is unconstitutional. The decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Wednesday echoed a lower court ruling that the power to control immigration rests only with the federal government — not states or cities.

“This is a national problem, needing a national solution. And it impacts the nation’s relations with Mexico and other nations,” the decision said. The appeals court judges said that the ordinance was more than a housing regulation and was “designed to burden aliens, both documented and undocumented, in Farmers Branch. As such, the ordinance serves no legitimate city interest.”

Farmers Branch Mayor Bill Glancy said he hadn’t read the decision or spoken to the city’s outside lawyers about it. But he said, “I have supported our stance on illegal immigration because I feel something must be done.” Glancy said he couldn’t say whether the city would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court — something former Mayor Tim O’Hare vowed the city would do. So far, the city has spent more than $4 million on legal fees fighting for the ordinance.

“The federal courts have made clear that cities cannot make their own immigration laws and target residents for expulsion simply because of their race or nationality. This ordinance was intended to discriminate against Hispanics.”

The appeals court noted other attempts to regulate illegal immigration in Arizona, Alabama and in Hazleton, Pa. “This increasing treatment — some might say mistreatment — of illegal immigrants around the country only reinforces what the Supreme Court has said in explaining why a national policy on immigration unimpeded by the whims of the various states is paramount,” said the decision, written by Judge Thomas Reavley.

Kris Kobach (of John Tanton's Hate Group F.A.I.R, and on Mitt Romney's campaign team), is part of the legal team for Farmers Branch. He said he was disappointed. He crafted many pieces of legislation around the country that would crack down on illegal immigration.

Breaking News: President Obama Endorses the Passage of the Dream Act

WASHINGTON--President Obama met with Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Sen. Robert Menendez and Rep. Nydia Velazquez at the White House on Thursday to discuss an upcoming Senate vote on immigration legislation--which includes the DREAM Act, designed to provide students who are not in the country legally a way to continue their studies. The DREAM Act allows undocumented students who came to the US before age 16 to become legal residents after five years by completing higher education or military service.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he will attach the non-controversial DREAM Act to the more controversial defense authorization bill which includes the repeal of the military’s "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy to be considered at some point next week in the Senate.

Mitch McConnell, the top Senate Republican said on Tuesday that the "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" repeal and the DREAM Act were “extraneous measures that have nothing to do with defense,” making the bill “needlessly controversial.”

Sen. Menendez defended the move today following the Oval Office meeting, saying it is “appropriate” and he hopes Republicans will join Democrats on this. In a paper statement following the meeting, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, the bill’s sponsor, said he’s certain the House has the 218 votes to pass it if the Senate can. "With the White House standing with us and the Senate poised to act, I think we are seeing the immigration reform effort begin to bear fruit. There are at least 218 votes in the House to pass the DREAM Act. The House is ready to act. We call on the Senate to pass the bill," he said in a statement.

At the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Dinner on Wednesday evening the president personally vouched for the bill. “The Senate is going to have a chance to do the right thing over the next few weeks when Senator Reid brings the DREAM Act to the floor. Keep in mind, in the past, this was a bill that was supported by a majority of Democrats and Republicans. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t receive that same kind of bipartisan support today.” The president said he will do “whatever it takes” to help pass the bill so he can sign it into law, “It’s the right thing to do. We should get it done."
Reference:
Obama Promises to Push for the DREAM Act

GOLDEN TICKET: US Army Offers Instant Citizenship to Temporary Immigrants in US who know One or More of 35 Languages Excluding Spanish

Breaking News: The US Army is offering A Golden Ticket, Instant (6 mos) Citizenship, to Temporary Immigrants in the U.S. who know one or more of 35 languages excluding Spanish!

PTINEWS.com reports:

New York, Feb 15 (PTI) The US military, stretched thin in Afghanistan and Iraq, will recruit about 550 temporary immigrants, including those from India who know Hindi and Tamil, offering them a golden chance to become US citizens in as little as six months.The pilot programme, for the first time since the Vietnam War, will open the armed forces to temporary immigrants if they have lived in the United States for a minimum of two years, The New York Times reported quoting military officials familiar with the plan.The Army's one-year pilot programme will begin in New York City to recruit about 550 temporary immigrants who speak one or more of 35 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Igbo (a tongue spoken in Nigeria), Kurdish, Nepalese, Pashto, Russian and Tamil. Spanish speakers are not eligible. It will also include about 300 medical professionals to be recruited nationwide. Recruiting will start after Department of Homeland Security officials update an immigration rule in coming days. Immigrants who are permanent residents, with documents commonly known as green cards, have long been eligible to enlist. Recruiters expect that the temporary immigrants will have more education, foreign language skills and professional expertise than many Americans who enlist, helping the military to fill shortages in medical care, language interpretation and field intelligence analysis.

Reference:

U.S. Military Will Offer Path to Citizenship

Top 2008 Viewer Favorite: Who is Who in the Immigration Debate!

As many of my long time viewers know, I started my blog in May 2007 and write about Immigration issues and Politics in our country. I have written many posts defining who´s who in the Immigration Debates. Recently, some of my newest viewers have been asking for my definition of PRO vs ANTI. For that reason, I am reposting my most popular illustration: "Who is Who In the Immigration Debate."
click HERE for larger view of this picture.

Kick In the Head Case Update: Shenandoah Mayor Resigns Due to ANTI´s Stirring Trouble!

Danger is brewing in Shenandoah, PA.

Groups like "Save Shenandoah", and other groups from around the country including "Voice of the People USA", "Illegal Protest", "PA Pundits" and other groups with Skinhead and KKK affiliations are stirring up the pot. Last Saturday, the group rallied in a local park, members demanding the resignation of the Honorable Mayor Thomas F. O’Neill for his peace keeping efforts during the "Kick in the Head" trial.

Last evening at the Borough Council Meeting, audience members demanded the mayor´s resignation. By the end of the meeting the mayor, tired of the fight, submitted his resignation saying in part he is resigning due to "obvious political conflicts that have led to my decision to spend my retirement in peace.”

Now that the bullies have gotten their way, the ANTI blogosphere is cheering their victory saying this is a "huge score for Americans standing up for themselves." These hate groups are frothing! One commenter said, "One down a few thousand to go across america. So many twerps so little time!"

What will happen next in this troubled small town?

Republican Herald.com reports:

Shenandoah mayor resigns

SHENANDOAH — Mayor Thomas F. O’Neill submitted a letter of resignation to the borough council during Monday’s meeting. The resignation, which was accepted 4 to 1 with Councilman Donald Segal voting against it, will take effect Jan. 1. O’Neill said the primary reason for the resignation is the health and medical needs of his wife, which require the couple to relocate to a handicap-equipped residence. O’Neill said secondary to his family priorities are the “obvious political conflicts that have led to my decision to spend my retirement in peace.”
O’Neill has come under pressure to resign by several borough residents who expressed their opinion at public meetings. O’Neill is blamed by some for supporting illegal immigration in the borough, an issue that has been at the forefront in Shenandoah for some time and even more so following the July 14 death of Luis Eduardo Ramirez Zavala, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who died from wounds he suffered in a beating two days earlier. Some have alleged the beating was racially motivated and four teens have been charged in connection with the incident.About 30 people, some non-residents, attended the September borough council meeting, again raising the issue of illegal immigrants in the community and accused O’Neill of supporting illegal immigrants after he spoke at a Unity Rally held to counter the Voice of the People USA rally Aug. 30.

At the September meeting, O’Neill said he supported borough council in its attempt to pass an illegal immigration ordinance. Shenandoah advertised its ordinance in September 2007, but held off after Hazleton’s ordinance was challenged. O’Neill will have completed three years as mayor in December. He served on borough council from 2002-2005. “I have been faithful to my campaign promises by serving the citizens of the Borough of Shenandoah to the best of my ability by keeping their interests at the forefront of my decisions,” O’Neill read from the letter. “I have always put the people first. Unfortunately, during the past three years as mayor, my eyes have been opened to the realities of politics and it is a very disappointing picture.”

In other business, Joe Green, representing Save Shenandoah, asked the council about a crime watch.Voice of the People USA facilitated a meeting Sept. 20 at the Anthony P. Damato American Legion Medal of Honor Post 792 to set up a crime watch. During the meeting, Miller agreed to take charge of setting up the next meeting and addressing the council. Borough Manager Joe Palubinsky said he should set up a meeting with the mayor and police department to develop a policy for the crime watch. Palubinsky said no one was against it as long as it is done in a reasonable fashion and proper procedure.

Note: Latino Citizens of Shenandoah, Please be safe! Be aware that the Save Shenandoah group is rallying their members for this "Crime Watch." We hope and pray they do NOT use their measures to racially profile all Latinos in the area! Also, please ensure you are registered to vote in the Mayorial election to replace Mayor O´Neill. Please check the Save Shenandoah Website to keep yourselves informed of this group´s activities.

Postville: Angry At ICE and Realing from the Devastation the ICE Raid Caused! Part 2: Postville: Nobody Can Tell Me to Shut Up!!

ICE Raids, the Band-Aids meant to soothe the anger of the ANTI Immigration Reform zealots and to fill the crony owned Detention Centers. Supporters of the ICE raids believe these raids help create jobs for American Citizens. They believe the small towns will return to their visions of Mayberry, a lily-white fairy tale that was not real to begin with. Instead, these raids create devastation for the workers and for the towns. A primary example: The Town of Postville, Iowa:

The citizens of Postville are angry at ICE and the mess they made when ICE raided their town in May, 2008. According to Mayor Bob Penrod, the town has been turned "topsy turvy" since hundreds of heavily armed federal immigration agents storm-swooped in a few months ago and raided its main employer, Agriprocessors, the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant. "It makes a person feel kind of angry," Penrod says. "It's been nothing but a freaky nightmare since May."

At the time, the Postville raid was the largest workforce raid in U.S. history -- the start of a series of large raids across the country. Helicopters buzzed the town, an airplane circled it and agents canvassed the area. Another 300 undocumented workers who weren't at the plant at the time of the raid soon split town with their spouses and children, officials say. In essence, the town lost nearly a third of its residents in a matter of days. "When you have a raid like that, it's just beyond your recognition," Penrod says. "It was nothing like you ever dream of. Believe me. To me, they took a problem that needed a 22-caliber bullet and they dropped a nuclear bomb on us," says Aaron Goldsmith, a Hasidic Jew and former Postville city councilman. "They made a poster child out of Postville." Goldsmith says he believes immigration policy should be dealt with. But if federal officials wanted to correct the immigration situation in Postville, he says, they should've done it step-by-step, not with brute force. "They turned people into cattle," he says. "If they wanted to stop this problem, if they wanted to scare everybody away, all they had to do is go into Los Angeles, California and they could've taken out 1 million people in a day. But they don't because there's too much political clout. "So they go to a place where there's no political backbone. They go to a place where the government's willing to throw us to the dogs."
Down a picturesque tree-lined street off Lawler Street sits St. Bridget's Catholic Church whose pastor, Father Lloyd Paul Ouderkirk, is both soft-spoken and outspoken. It is his church that became a refuge for the town's immigrants the day of the raid and the weeks afterward. "They had attacked this town with a military-style raid -- brought in 900 immigration police to arrest 389 people. I mean, what is that other than a military raid on this town?" he says. Ouderkirk scans his church now, the sun beaming through stained-glass windows. "Can you just imagine all these pews here full of people, sleeping 300-400 people a night?"

Postville residents who spoke say those at Agriprocessors need to be punished if the allegations they face are true. But residents also say the debate over illegal immigration is far more complex than the rhetoric often heard over AM radio or cable TV. They say the Latino residents were productive members of the community who paid taxes, even if under false pretenses, and had been here for years, and that Agriprocessors is key to the survival of the town and region.

"If I had to say anything to anybody about the whole deal: Don't let it go so long that it becomes a huge problem," says Brian Gravel, the principal of Postville High School. But he adds, "Picking on a town of 2,500 people in northeast Iowa is not my idea of a naturalization or immigration policy. You can corner this one plant with federal agents and deport people. That's one way to do it, but that's a good way to ruin towns -- ruin a small northeast Iowa place."
Since that day in May, the Latino population has dwindled, replaced with the homeless, legal immigrants, refugees and legal visitors from countries including Somalia, the Pacific Islands, Russia, and many middle Eastern, non-Christian countries.
The vice president of Palau has journeyed thousands of miles to Postville and offered about 160 of his countrymen for the open jobs at Agriprocessors. Residents of the island nation can legally live and work indefinitely in the United States under a special arrangement with the U.S. government. Some from the Pacific island, where the average temperature year-round is 82 degrees, have already begun arriving. The rest will be coming soon, just in time for the frigid Iowa winter where temperatures dip below zero. Another 125 Somali Muslims, legally classified as refugees, have already moved in. Many have come via the Minneapolis area, as well as Illinois and Texas.
"All of the Somalis came here to work at the plant," says Abdi Hasan, who came to the United States from Somalia five months ago. "I came to look for a job here." He says they've been welcomed by the locals -- "no problems, no mistreatment, no nothing." Hasan gets paid $10 an hour at the "kill house" at Agriprocessors, he says. His only complaint: Not being allowed to say Muslim prayers while at work. "They don't allow it," he says. "That's a problem at times."
Mayor Penrod stands on the sidewalk outside his office. He looks out over Lawler Street, where big rigs rumble and cars freely move about. "What do I love about my city? I love the progress we've made," he says. But now, he says, "Everything is tension based. You can just sense the friction," he says. "I hope I'm wrong."

PART 2: "NOBODY CAN TELL ME TO SHUT UP!

"Nobody can tell me to shut up," says Rev. Lloyd Paul Ouderkirk, the pastor of St. Bridget's Catholic Church in the tiny town of Postville, Iowa. Ouderkirk is outraged at the way federal agents swooped into town and rounded up nearly 400 illegal immigrants on May 12 in a raid on the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant, Agriprocessors. He's angry at the bosses of the plant who are accused of mistreating workers, including children, and using a workforce that the government contends was 75 percent illegal immigrants. And he's upset that Iowa Gov. Chet Culver and other top state officials haven't set foot in Postville since the raid left the town of 2,400 "bleeding to death." "I think every elected politician -- no exceptions -- should bow their heads in shame," Ouderkirk says. "Upset?! Yeah, I'm upset. I mean give me a break ... If the elected politicians couldn't do any better than this to come up with a good, just immigration law, they should hang their heads in shame."

Ouderkirk isn't the only one complaining. Mayor Bob Penrod said his town has been turned "topsy turvy" since the raid. He too wondered why he hasn't heard from the governor. "Basically all we wanted was some advice on how to deal with some of the situations that keep arising," Penrod says.

"This is no way as a democracy to treat people. I don't care if they are legal or illegal. You don't tear families apart like this," Ouderkirk says. "The women and children we're taking care of right now are no more criminal than people driving down the street breaking the speed limit"...Ouderkirk says he'll keep speaking his mind. He invites vocal opponents of illegal immigration to come to his church and "walk in the shoes" of the immigrants he's helping. He says he's "gotten hate letters like you wouldn't believe. If people have a right to spout off like that, then I have a right to speak in defense of these poor people," he says. "This is a free country. I have a right to speak what I believe in, and I have a right to speak up for poor people whose voice is being denied."

Reference:

CNN.com Mayor: Feds turned my town 'topsy turvy'

CNN.com "Nobody can tell me to shut up!"

National ID Cards: Should we have them? Should they contain Biometric Data? Will they Violate our Civil Liberties?

Britain is unveiling a new National ID card. This card includes an electronic chip containing biometric data of the holder, including fingerprints and digital facial images.

Question to viewers: Should we have a new National ID card in America for all Americans, Immigrants and Guest Workers containing fingerprints and digitial facial images? What about DNA? What do you think? Would these cards have a down side? Example: Infringe on our Civil Liberties? Make us a Police State? What do you think?
Britain unveils ID cards for foreign nationals
2008-09-26 05:59:46
LONDON-- Britain's Home Office unveiled on Thursday the identity cards to be issued to foreign residents in the country. The plastic wallet card shows the holder's photograph, name, date of birth, nationality and immigration status. A secure electronic chip holds their biometric details, including fingerprints, and a digital facial image, said a Home Office press release. The first cards are scheduled to be issued in November 25. Within three years all foreign nationals applying to enter or remain in Britain will be required to have a card. And by 2014, 90percent of foreign residents in Britain should have identity cards. The introduction of national identity cards for foreign residents will be followed by the first ID cards for British citizens from 2009, targeting workers in sensitive roles such as airports. One year after that, ID cards will be available to young people who want them, and from 2011, cards will be available to the general opulation. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the announcement of the cards for foreign residents shows the government is fulfilling its commitment to protect identity.

Rand Study Mischaracterized by LA Times Op-Ed and Blog

A Rand Study is being mis characterized by an LA Times Op-Ed and LA Times ANTI Blog. The study says "Deportable immigrants released from the Los Angeles County jail system were no more likely to be rearrested than similar nondeportable immigrants released during the same period" yet the LA Times Blog and an LA Time Article say: "Illegal immigrants who have been deported at least once from the United States are far more likely than other immigrants to repeatedly commit crimes." The LA Times Op-Ed and Blog took one bullet from the study and spun it in order to create their mischaracterization. See both articles below.
RAND.org Reports:
Recidivism No Higher Among Deportable Immigrants Than Similar Nondeportable Immigrants
Deportable immigrants released from the Los Angeles County jail system were no more likely to be rearrested than similar nondeportable immigrants released during the same period, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today. Researchers say the findings suggest that illegal and other immigrants subject to deportation who are released into the community from a local jail do not pose a greater threat to public safety than non-deportable immigrants released at the same time. Researchers studied nearly 1,300 male immigrants released from jail over a 30-day period and followed them for a year to see whether there were differences in recidivism between the deportable and nondeportable immigrants. Immigrants who were deportable — deemed so because they entered the United States illegally, overstayed their visas or committed other violations — were no more likely to be rearrested during the study period when compared to similar legal or naturalized immigrants. “Our findings run counter to the notion that illegal immigrants are more likely than other immigrants to cycle in and out of the local criminal justice system,” said Laura Hickman, assistant professor with the Criminal Justice Policy Research Institute at Portland State University and a researcher at RAND, a nonprofit research organization.
The LA Times took were able to SPIN their articles based on one line in this report.
Hickman and co-author Marika Suttorp of RAND found that a higher percentage of deportable immigrants were rearrested at least once during the following year — 43 percent compared to 35 percent. But when researchers compared deportable immigrants to similar nondeportable immigrants — considering factors such as age, ethnicity, country of birth, and type of criminal arrest — the differences disappeared. Criminal justice research has shown that some groups are more likely than others to be rearrested. For example, younger people and those jailed on drug charges have higher rates of recidivism than other groups.
The results of this study are significant because the researchers were able to show that the difference in the simple percentages of rearrest between the groups (43 versus 35) was due to the influence of the other factors like age, ethnicity, and criminal history related to recidivism. When these factors were accounted for in the analysis, immigration status had no influence on rearrest.
Here is the LA Times Article. It takes one Leap from the point of the article and begins the mischaracterization:
LATIMES.com Op-Ed:
Illegal immigrants who return after deportation commit more crimes, study finds
In L.A. County, 75% of inmates who reenter the U.S. engage in more criminal activity within a year. The rate is less for illegal immigrants who have never been ordered to leave.
By Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer September 8, 2008
Illegal immigrants who have been deported at least once from the United States are far more likely than other immigrants to repeatedly commit crimes, according to a study by the nonprofit Rand Corp.The data indicated that illegal immigrants, overall, were not a greater crime risk, according to the study, which looked at all inmates released from Los Angeles County Jail for a month in 2002.
Here is the LA Times Blog that totally skews the actual Study:
LA Times Blog writes:
Title: Illegal immigrants in our jails: Fuel to the fire
L.A. law enforcement officials have focused increasing resources on identifying and deporting illegal immigrants in the jail system. Now, there is some fresh evidence on the problem: According to a Rand study, illegal immigrants deported from the jail are highly likely to commit more crimes.
Anna (OpEd Author) did an interesting story this summer going inside the jail and looking at the process for deporting illegal immigrants. The report is likely to add to the debate over Jamiel's Law, which would permit Los Angeles police officers to arrest gang members for breaking U.S. immigration law.

It is no wonder that Arizonian, a commenter on my blog brought the LA Times Blog to me and asked me to blog about it. The entire study is mischaracterized and spun in an opposite direction. If we are going to use studies in our discussions, we need to look at the studies, make sure they are unbiased then discuss them from an open, honest perspective.

Signs Indicate Minutemen "National Movement" ALMOST OVER!

For weeks, I have been receiving emails from someone with the email id "Patriotic Minuteman." He has been sending me emails with titles including "Mountain Minutemen forced off the Border" saying "The notorious Mountain Minuteman Robert Crooks has left his position at the border, amid rumors he was removed at the request of local law enforcement. Locals have confirmed law enforcement have been looking for him and another full time member was asked to leave the immediate area by the sheriff. Another member, Leland or "bigulgyjerk" has also left the site which is reportedly vacant "most of the time."
I didn´t write an article about this right away as my email contact wanted. I was hesitant about posting more Minutemen articles since my slew of them a few months ago. I hadn´t heard too much about them in the media recently. I´ve been under the impression they have been trying to lay low or adopt a more politically correct approach.
Then today, I read an article where former MM leaders have a lawsuit against Chris Simcox and are wanting to expand the lawsuit to include angry former members from across the nation.
Coincidentally, Chris Simcox and the MCDC hosted a "National MM Rally" at Congress Park. Very few people showed up. (see bottom article)
I decided to post both articles and the email information from Patriotic Minuteman.
Article 1 summary, "Although the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps has boasted of raising $600,000 to build a fortified border fence, it has only built a few miles of a barbed-wire cattle fence. Now, some donors are calling for a criminal investigation."
Stacey O'Connell, the former Arizona state director for the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC), has joined a Fountain Hills, Ariz., resident who donated $100,000 to the MCDC and now claims he was a victim of fraud. The two men are calling for a criminal investigation of the troubled nativist group's fundraising practices.
"The government demands that these [non-profit] organizations provide tax documents based on truth and here [the MCDC] is clearly not truthful," O'Connell told the Sierra Vista Herald. O'Connell was one of 14 MCDC state directors fired in May 2007 by MCDC founder Chris Simcox after they questioned his financial accountability and demanded that he make available the organization's financial records. That purge took place the same month that retired homebuilder and Air Force veteran Jim Campbell filed a $1.2 million lawsuit against MCDC, alleging fraud and breach of contract. The previous spring, Campbell mortgaged his home to obtain $100,000 that he donated to MCDC after receiving fundraising materials from Simcox's organization. Simcox was soliciting money for the construction of a 10-mile-long, high-tech "Israeli-style" border fence on private ranch land in Texas. One year after accepting that money, the MCDC had constructed only a few hundred yards of five-strand barbed wire cattle fence. Campbell says Simcox refused to give him back his money or account for what happened to it.
Among the evidence Campbell personally submitted to federal authorities is a 2006 IRS Form 990-EZ for the Minuteman Foundation, Inc., the MCDC subsidiary formed to raise money for the fence project. It lists only $87,500 in donations for 2006, the same year Campbell alone donated $100,000.
MCDC officials claimed in fundraising materials dated August 2006 that they had raised $600,000 for the fence project. "There is something wrong with that," says O'Connell, who is also calling for a mail fraud investigation. "There is smoke there, and we believe where there is smoke, there is fire."

Article 2: The MCDC National Rally at Congress Park in Denver (very few were there):
Congress Park in Denver: It was billed as an all-day rally—their 8-hour agenda featured speakers like Tom Tancredo, Bob Barr and Alan Keyes, but it was more like a subdued suburban picnic with lots of coded hate speech tossed around in alternating lofty and heated tones. Chris Simcox, president of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, called the event a “third party convention for the conservatives—the real conservatives.” The folks in the audience were nearly all white and middle aged, a relaxed crowd leaning back in their USA lawn chairs as if they were watching Independence Day fireworks.

The emails, the law suit, the tiny national rally and the limited media coverage the minutemen are now receiving lead me to believe the "National Minutemen Movement" is all but over.

BREAKING NEWS: Judge sets bail for two of the accused in Shenandoah Kick in the Head Fatal Beating

Unbelievably, the jocks who prosecutors say "ganged up on Ramirez in an alley because he was Mexican.. all three kicked Ramirez after he was down, causing him to slip into a coma, convulse and foam at the mouth" are let out on Bail. I wonder if their consciences will allow them to live within the the bounds of their Bail agreement which are "7 p.m. curfew, a prohibition against using drugs or alcohol and periodic random monitoring by the county adult probation office." This means no football, no games, no movies, no parities, no alcohol or drugs, no hanging out with each other after 7. Will they be able to do it? Only time will tell. We ask all alert citizens in the area to be sure they are abiding by their Probation terms and if they break them, call the police.

Meanwhile, Ramirez´s children are still crying for their Daddy. We know he will NOT be coming home to them, playing football or playing games with his children ever again!

The Judge sets bail for two of the teens accused in Shenandoah fatal beating.

Pottsville, PA -
Bail was set this morning in Schuylkill County Court for two of the teenage boys charged in the beating death of an illegal Mexican immigrant in Shenandoah. Senior Judge William Baldwin set bail at $50,000 each for Brandon Piekarsky, 16, and Colin Walsh, 17. They are charged with criminal homicide — which could include third-degree murder, voluntary or involuntary manslaughter — along with ethnic intimidation and related offenses in the July 12 beating of Luis E. Ramirez, 24. Piekarsky’s attorney, Fred Fanelli, said his client’s family will try to get money together to bail out Piekarsky. Fanelli had argued Piekarsky is an honor student and a standout athlete. He added Piekarsky is not a flight risk because he is dependent on his mother and he has no family outside Shenandoah. Nonetheless, Baldwin set several conditions on the bail for the two, including a 7 p.m. curfew, a prohibition against using drugs or alcohol and periodic random monitoring by the county adult probation office.

A third defendant, Derrick Donchak, 18, is charged with aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation and related offenses. He is free on $75,000 bail. All three were ordered held for court last week during a preliminary hearing. During that hearing before District Judge Anthony J. Kilker, prosecutors added a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon against Donchak, who is accused of holding a metal device in his fist (brass knuckles) while he punched Ramirez. Prosecutors have declined to say why Donchak was not charged with manslaughter.
Assistant District Attorney Robert Frantz said the three ganged up on Ramirez in an alley because he was Mexican. Frantz said all three kicked Ramirez after he was down, causing him to slip into a coma, convulse and foam at the mouth. Ramirez never awoke, officials said. He died two days later in Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, Montour County, of multiple skull fractures, according to medical officials.
The case has drawn national attention, in part because prosecutors and witnesses have said the beating was prompted because the suspects resented that Ramirez was in the U.S. illegally. Defense attorneys have denied that race or ethnicity played a role in the crime, which they called a two-sided fight instead of an attack.They also said the scene was so chaotic that it was unclear what blow killed Ramirez, or who delivered which blows.

Trail of Fears : Illegal Immigrants Heading Home in Record Numbers Due to Fear and Soft Economy!

Record numbers of Illegal Immigrants are returning to their home countries. Many of their American Children prefer to stay in the U.S.

While this may mean some families are torn apart, perhaps this is their only recourse versus staying in the U.S. living in Fear.

May God guide them to make the right decision for themselves and for their families!
Illegal Immigrants Returning to Mexico in Record Numbers
By Kris Gutierrez 08/22/2008 --
Illegal immigrants are returning home to Mexico in numbers not seen for decades — and the Mexican government may have to deal with a crush on its social services and lower wages once the immigrants arrive.
The Mexican Consulate's office in Dallas is seeing increasing numbers of Mexican nationals requesting paperwork to go home for good, especially parents who want to know what documentation they'll need to enroll their children in Mexican schools. "Those numbers have increased percentage-wise tremendously," said Enrique Hubbard, the Mexican consul general in Dallas. "In fact, it's almost 100 percent more this year than it was the previous two years." The illegal immigrant population in the U.S. has dropped 11 percent since August of last year, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. Its research shows 1.3 million illegal immigrants have returned to their home countries. Some say illegal immigrants are leaving because a soft economy has led to fewer jobs, causing many laborers to seek work elsewhere. Others argue that a tough stance on immigration through law enforcement has spread fear throughout the illegal population. "There's no question there's a variety of suggestions that people are in fact returning," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. "Remittances, which is the money immigrants send home to Mexico, have gone down dramatically over the past year. Again, probably part the economy, but also part enforcement, leading to fewer people being here." Advocates for immigrants are disturbed by the trend. Albert Ruiz, an organizer for the League of United Latin American Citizens, agrees that more undocumented immigrants are going home — but says families are being torn apart in the process. If a father is deported, Ruiz says, his family members in America are forced either to fend for themselves or follow him to a country where they've never even lived. "So the mother is saying we should return home with the breadwinner of the family to Mexico, and the children are saying, I don't want to leave, I'm a U.S. citizen, I don't know that country," said Ruiz.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon plans to help returning nationals by providing food, medical care and temporary shelter if needed. But reports are already out in Mexico that the large number of illegal immigrants returning home could drive down wages and put pressure on social services — the same concerns many Americans have with illegals living and working in the U.S.

Peaceful Border March to Protest the Border Wall Aug 27 - Aug 31, 2008

A peaceful March is being called by the Citizens Against the Border Wall starting Wed. Aug 27 through Sunday Aug 31, 2008. They have asked all PRO Bloggers to help announce this event and ask all citizens that oppose the Border Wall to March in Peace with them. God Bless America!

Here is a breakdown of the August 27-31protest march against the border wall.
August 27(Wed). Kick off cultural event in Fort Hancock.
August 28 (Thu). From Fort Hancock, walk to Alamo Alto.
August 29 (Fri). From Alamo Alto, walk to Tornillo, hold community event. End in Fabens.
August 30 (Sat). From Fabens, walk to San Elizario, hold community event. End in San Ysleta del Sur with the Tiguas community.
August 31(Sun). Morning ceremony in San Ysleta del Sur . Then to El Paso. After arriving in El Paso, a bi-national event will be held in Anapra, Chihuahua and Sundland Park, NM.


For More Information about the March, contact Javier Perez (915) 474-4930 or via email chamucos00@hotmail.com

As our President chastises China for their Human Rights Abuses,Americans familiar with Migrant Detention Centers are asking "What has America become?"

As all of America learns more and more about Crony owned Detention Centers, they are appalled and outraged, asking themselves "How can this be happening in America?"
What Have We Become?
Medical Neglect in Immigrant Prisons Reveals America at Its Worst
New America Media, Posted: Aug 17, 2008
BOSTON -- On the eve of the Beijing Olympics, while Bush was preparing to express his "deep concerns" over China's human rights record, Chinese immigrant Hiu Lui Ng was dying in the custody of our great nation's own U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. For months 33-year-old Mr. Ng had complained of excruciating back pain. Officials accused him of faking it. When a judge finally ordered that Mr. Ng be brought to a hospital, it was discovered that he had a fractured spine, cancer all over his body, and very little time to live. He died five days later, leaving behind a wife and two young sons. Even as President Bush scolds the Chinese government for its human rights abuses, he is presiding over a humanitarian disaster in his own country. Millions of migrants, authorized and unauthorized, have come to the U.S. in recent years to exercise their unalienable rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." What many of those migrants have encountered is a society that is unrecognizable from its founding ideals.If a U.S. citizen were to die of medical neglect in a Chinese prison it would be an international incident. The death of Mr. Ng is just business as usual for the Bush administration. Mr. Ng is just one of dozens of migrants in the past few years who have died from apparent medical neglect in ICE's sprawling detention system. In a case very similar to Mr. Ng's, Salvadoran migrant Francisco Castaneda went for almost a year in detention without treatment for a very painful penile lesion. When finally allowed to go to a hospital, Castaneda had to have his penis amputated, and he eventually died from cancer that had spread all over his body. A federal judge described the treatment of Castaneda as "beyond cruel and unusual".While Bush was expressing his "firm opposition" the detention of dissidents in China, his administration was imprisoning migrant children in family detention centers like the Don Hutto Residential Facility. In 2007, then Kevin Yourdkhani, wrote this in crayon from Don Hutto: "I don't like to stay in this jail. I'm only nine years old. I want to go to my school in Canada. I'm sleeping beside the wall...his place is not good for me. I want to get out of the cell. Just pleace give visa for my family."It's cases like these that have led many U.S. citizens like myself to ask, "What have we become?".

Politicians in the Heartland Agree! Say NO to MASS Deportation!!

Politicians across the Heartland from ALL political parties are in agreement. They ALL are saying NO to Mass Deportation!

Agrinews Reports: Immigration: Barkley said the nation needs to bring immigration out of the closet and deal with it. It would be impossible to deport 12 million people. The only thing building a 21-foot-tall fence along the border with Mexico will do is create a demand for 21-foot-tall ladders, he said. The only people who need to be deported are members of the ruling party in Washington, Williams said. The nation's economy would collapse if all illegal immigrants were deported. He proposes a program where illegal immigrants register as guest workers and that the company hiring them pay their health insurance costs and a 10 percent tax on their wages to pay for costs associated with integrating them into the United States. Many Minnesota dairy farmers rely on guest workers to milk their cows and those workers need to be put on a path to citizenship, Franken said.
"We need comprehensive immigration reform," he said. Coleman said the priority should be secure borders. He doesn't support a required path to citizenship, but he does support a guest worker program.

Postville Update: ACLU Uncovers PROOF of Justice Denied in Speedy Cattle Barn Trials!

The truth has come to light and is now before a Congressional Hearing! The ACLU has uncovered the Government "manual" distributed to Iowa defense lawyers to commit their swift cattle barn injustice in Postville. Workers were hauled to Cattle Barns. The judge and the prosecutor agreed to the prescripted hearings and preordained guilty pleas. Lawyers were handed the scripts and told to support dozens of clients, with little to no preparation but the scripts. End Result: Guilty Verdicts and Injustice for All!

The New York Times reports: (summary)

The legal blueprint for those extraordinarily swift proceedings (in Postville) has come to light, and it is raising questions about the close collaboration in the months before the raid between the federal court in Iowa and the prosecutors who pressed the charges. The blueprint is a 117-page compendium of scripts, laying out step by step the hearings that would come after the raid at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, the largest immigration enforcement operation ever carried out at a single workplace. The documents suggest that the court had endorsed the prosecutors’ drive to obtain the guilty pleas even before the hearings began. The scripts included a model of the guilty pleas that prosecutors planned to offer as well as statements to be made by the judges when they accepted the pleas and handed down sentences. “This was the Postville prosecution guilty-plea machine,” said Lucas Guttentag, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Project of the A.C.L.U. “The entire process seemed to presume and be designed for fast-track guilty pleas.”
One defense lawyer who received the scripts from prosecutors on the day of the raid said he became convinced that the hearings had been organized to produce guilty pleas for the prosecution. As a result, the lawyer, Rockne Cole, declined to represent any of the arrested immigrants and “walked out in disgust,” he wrote in a letter to a Congressional subcommittee that is scrutinizing the raid and the legal proceedings that followed. Mr. Cole wrote that he was most dismayed to see that the scripts specified the particular plea agreements that would be offered to the defendants. “What I found most astonishing,” he wrote, “is that apparently Chief Judge Reade had already ratified these deals prior to one lawyer even talking to his or her client.” The hearings were conducted in emergency courtrooms set up in the National Cattle Congress, a fairground in Waterloo. Magistrate judges took guilty pleas from immigrants in groups of 10, then the immigrants were immediately sentenced, five at a time. Only a handful of the workers, mostly illegal immigrants from Guatemala, had prior criminal records. The scripts specified that prosecutors would offer a particular type of plea agreement that leaves no discretion to judges to raise or lower sentences. Some defense and immigration lawyers said the inclusion of these plea agreements was a sign of overly close cooperation between the court and prosecutors. “Here you have a court communicating with one side and not the other about substantive issues,” said Robert R. Rigg, a Drake University law professor who is president of the Iowa Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “The court had bound itself to the agreement before the plea was accepted.” Professor Rigg and other legal scholars said such plea agreements were generally negotiated between prosecutors and defense lawyers after a defendant was charged, and were later approved by the judge. The rule governing the plea bargaining says, “The court must not participate in these agreements.”

"Come Hell or High Water, I´m Building the Fence!"

Michael Chertoff, head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says, "Come Hell or High Water! I´m Building the Fence before the end of this year!" Never mind if the fence crosses college campuses, private property, sacred Native American sites or dividing livestock - resulting in chaos for the property owners and the community. He says he is building it whether it makes sense or not.

US races to erect controversial steel fence on Mexican border Aug 5 09:27 AM US/Eastern

The US Department of Homeland Security is racing to meet a December 31 deadline to raise 670 miles of steel fences and vehicle barriers along the 3,200 kilometer (2,000 mile) long southern border. About half has been completed, including this six kilometer (four mile) segment at New Mexico's Santa Teresa Port of Entry.
But DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff faces a flurry of lawsuits by environmentalists and border communities that could stop construction cold. To meet his deadline, Chertoff is using sweeping authority Congress granted in 2005 to waive 36 federal laws protecting water, air quality, endangered animals, and native American sites. The fence "is a political initiative meant to satisfy conservatives in Congress who have played to fears about all immigrants being terrorists, criminals, and living off the dole," El Paso County Attorney Jose Rodriguez fumed. The El Paso lawsuit argues that Chertoff's authority to waive federal law is unconstitutional. Dozens of groups have joined the suit, including the Tigua Indian tribe, which for centuries has held religious ceremonies on the banks of the Rio Grande, which marks the border between Texas and Mexico.
In El Paso, Chertoff's waiver overrides local rules on managing land use, air quality, and river water. "We have no idea to what extent we can enforce our own (US City) laws," said Rodriguez.

The Changing Face of American Immigrants

The faces of American Immigrants are changing. This year, thousands of refugees are being flown in from Somalia (from NY Times report). They have been flown to 22 cities across the United States, the first wave of one of the government's largest recent refugee resettlement efforts. By the end of next year, officials plan to resettle nearly 13,000 Bantu, who were enslaved and persecuted for generations in Somalia until civil war scattered them to desolate and violent refugee camps in Kenya in the early 1990's.
Over the past decade, State Department officials have increasingly shifted their focus toward Africa as wars there have displaced millions of people. The end of the cold war has resulted in a sharp decline in refugees from the former Soviet Union and Vietnam. Today, Africans are among those filling the gap.

It is well known the Somalian refugees come from desolate circumstances and are rejoicing in the escape from their homelands. Mr. Yarrow, one new Somalian Immigrant said: ''I want to work. I want to learn English. I want to leave all my problems behind in Kenya.'' His enthusiasm is clear, but challenges await him. The Bantu here are practicing Muslims in a country that has become increasingly ambivalent about Arab and Islamic immigrants. Mr. Yarrow and his family do not speak English and cannot read or write in their own language. They are farmers looking for jobs anywhere they can find them.

Some Somalians found work in Meat Packing plants. Two recent articles indicate they found work at Tyson Foods in Tennessee and at Agriprocessors in Postville.

AP Reports: SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. - Workers at the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Shelbyville will no longer have a paid day off on Labor Day but will instead be given the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr as a holiday. According to a news release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a new five-year contract at the plant included the change to accommodate the hundreds of Somali Muslims who work at the plant .
Eid al-Fitr — which falls on Oct. 1 this year — marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.Union leaders say implementing the holiday was important for the nearly 700 Muslims, many of them Somalis, who work at the plant that employs a total of 1,200 people. The Shelbyville Times-Gazette newspaper quotes union spokesman Randy Hadley as saying the negotiating team felt this change was "extremely crucial, since this holiday is as important to Muslims as Christmas is to Christians." The newspaper also quotes the union as saying two prayer rooms have been created at the Shelbyville Tyson Foods' plant " to allow Muslim workers to pray twice a day and return to work without leaving the plant."

Des Moines Register reports: Postville, Ia. – African immigrants are adding to Postville’s multi-cultural story, but their chapter could wind up being short. Scores of people from Somalia have arrived here in recent weeks to work at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant. Most of them are young men who are filling jobs previously held by hundreds of Guatemalan and Mexican workers seized in an immigration raid May 12. Several of the Somalians said they came to the United States legally as refugees from the chaos and death that civil war brought to their east-African homeland. They said many of them were living in the Minneapolis area when labor-recruiting firms or word-of-mouth recommendations drew them to Postville. Several expressed displeasure with what they found here, and predicted they and most of their countrymen would leave.

New E Verify Bill Due for Vote! What Do YOU Think?

A new e-Verify bill is due for a Vote in Congress. The bill is HR6633. The Employee Verification Amendment Act of 2008. (Go to Thomas to review it).

Congress Daily Reports: House Lawmakers Reach Deal On Bill To Renew E-Verify
Thu. Jul 31, 2008by Chris Strohm
House lawmakers have reached an agreement on legislation that would renew a program that allows employers to verify the legal status of their workers, breaking a stalemate between two committees over concerns about funding for the Social Security Administration. The bill emerged from behind-the-scenes negotiations among lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee and the Ways and Means Committee. The two sides had been at odds over writing language that would both reauthorize the Homeland Security Department's E-Verify program and preserve Social Security's ability to meet its core mission of providing services to seniors and the disabled. The bill would reauthorize for five years the E-Verify program, which is an online tool that employers can use to confirm a worker's information against Homeland Security and Social Security databases. The Senate still must come to an agreement on companion legislation. Without congressional action, the program will expire in November. The House bill would maintain E-Verify as a voluntary program, even though some states have mandated its use....The bill, which was discussed briefly on the floor Wednesday night, might come up for a vote as early as today. "I think that this bipartisan bill is necessary to pass," said House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif., chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, said E-Verify has proven to be an effective tool in stopping illegal immigrants from getting jobs.

I am hearing there is bi-partisan (Rep, Dem, ANTI and PRO) support for this bill and that some in the Business Community support it as well. I am very curious as to why. I am going to leave my opinion out of it and let you, the viewers, tell me why it should or should not be supported.

MUST SEE: Bordertown Tells True Story of NAFTA´s Maquiladores and Deaths in Juarez!

Anyone interested in the Immigration Debate should visit Blockbuster and rent the movie "Bordertown." This movie tells the powerful true story of life in the border town of Juarez, MX. It is based on the book written by Diana Washington Valdez, an El Paso journalist.

Ms. Valdez spent years investigating and documenting the deaths of thousands of women murdered in Juarez since 1993. These murders are called femicides, or gender murders. Hundreds of women working in American-owned factories (maquiladoras) were brutally raped and murdered in Juarez, a city gripped by fear. The attacks have been covered up by the local authorities, and still continue today.

This movie details the inner work processes of the Maquiladores and their link to NAFTA (and CAFTA). It explains the working conditions, low pay and exploitation of workers all so Big Business in Mexico and the USA can reap larger profits. It also details the corruptness of both the Mexican and the American government, the greed of Global Corporations and the role/reason for the cover ups of these murders which are still going on today.

I ask that all commenters who see this movie provide us your feedback and share your thoughts with us.

Caution: You may feel guilty watching TV, using your monitor or PC after you see this film!

Note: User Reviews gave this film very, very high ratings, yet it was not widely distributed. I believe Corporate America and Mexico did not want you to see this movie.

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon Calls Joe "Shakiest Gun in the West!"

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon has laid down the gauntlet! He said, "I think with law enforcement, the last thing anybody wants is somebody with a gun, both that is angry and shaking... Arpaio is increasingly engaging in bizarre behavior, erratic ramblings and misstatements, contradicting himself within the same statement." This is quite a statement from the honorable Mayor. Will Joe take this sitting down or is he bent on revenge. We will see (and I will report) in the days and weeks ahead!

KPHO News Reports:Gordon-Arpaio Feud Escalates, Debate Swirls Over Enforcement Of Immigration LawsPOSTED: 1:05 pm MST July 15, 2008

PHOENIX -- Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio squared off again Tuesday in their ongoing battle over enforcement of immigration laws. Gordon said the sheriff has lost his focus and is not helping the county at all with reducing crime. "The continuing bizarre behavior of the sheriff, including last night's demonstration of anger and sarcasm, is continuing evidence that the stress and criticism of the office is affecting the sheriff's judgment," Gordon said. Arpaio said Gordon is not an expert on law enforcement and represents only one vote on the City Council. He also said Gordon lies and misrepresents statistics.

Asked whether he would have Arpaio working for him if he were the sheriff's boss, Gordon said no. "I think with law enforcement, the last thing anybody wants is somebody with a gun, both that is angry and shaking," the mayor said. "You'll see Arpaio is increasingly engaging in bizarre behavior, erratic ramblings and misstatements, contradicting himself within the same statement."

Arpaio said Gordon has no business criticizing him for doing his job and that he has overwhelming public support compared with the mayor. "He constantly criticizes me with my 48 years of law enforcement," Arpaio said. "A poll came out today. It said 86 percent support me, 14 percent support the mayor. He better look at what the people think. We are politicians. We serve the people." "I don't know when he became an expert on law enforcement," Arpaio said. "He's just a mayor with one vote."
Gordon said Arpaio, who continued another one of his controversial crime suppression efforts in Mesa on Tuesday, is putting too much emphasis on immigration issues. "You see rising crime rates in the county. You see the response times that have gone sky high where he's responsible. And you see the arrest rates going down," Gordon said. "Any other chief wouldn't be there."
Arpaio said his deputies have made thousands of felony arrests and conducted thousands of investigations and that 3,000 members of the Phoenix police union have endorsed him for re-election in November.
He said Gordon has attacked him with "petty statistics." "I'm not going to debate this guy," Arpaio said. "I'm going to keep doing my job. The people support me. I'm the elected sheriff and I back up my officers."