lframerica.com Blog

SACRAMENTO, CA

AB 2089 would bar the state from giving contracts to businesses who hire illegal immigrants.  Legislation introduced by Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine) would prohibit state agencies from awarding any contracts for the construction on any public work projects, or for acquisition of goods and services to any employer who hires illegal aliens.

It also would require state agencies to verify that all employees of a bidder or contractor have been subject to the Basic Pilot Program.

In edition it would also require a bidder or contractor who discovers that its employing an unauthorized alien to inform the state agency within three days of this discovery.

http://www.immigrationwatchdog.com/?p=6129

Federal immigration authorities converged on a Prince William County construction company just before sunrise yesterday, arresting 34 Latin American nationals for being in the country illegally.

Workplace raids are rare in the Washington area, and the roundup at CMC Concrete Construction in the Manassas area appears to be the largest in the region in nearly two years, according to a review of news releases on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Web site.

The workers — who come from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica and El Salvador — are being charged administratively and are in ICE custody undergoing deportation proceedings, said Ernestine Fobbs, a spokeswoman for the customs agency.

News of the arrests spread quickly through an immigrant community already on edge after a county law took effect this month allowing Prince William police to check the immigration status of people stopped for other infractions.

Fobbs said the agency had executed two search warrants in connection with the operation. Because those warrants were under seal, Fobbs said, she could not discuss how or why the company had drawn federal attention, nor confirm that CMC Concrete Construction was the agency’s target.

James Rybicki, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said no employers had been charged. But he added, “Obviously, we’ll be reviewing the case for possible criminal charges.”

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/hubble-city-property-2005239-laborers-placentia

Public Works Director Gerry Hubble Cited For Allegedly Hiring Two Illegal Immigrants

PLACENTIA – Public Works Director Gerry Hubble is facing trespassing charges for allegedly driving into a Lake Forest strip mall and hiring two immigrants as day laborers.

A sheriff’s report alleges that Hubble stopped his truck on private property at 25252 Jeronimo Road in Lake Forest Sept. 15 and “made no attempt to patronize any of the business on the property.”

A security guard hired by the property owner called sheriff’s deputies, who pulled over Hubble’s truck and arrested him and two men described as illegal immigrants.

Hubble, a Modjeska Canyon resident, has pled not guilty to the trespassing charge. A pre-trial date has been set for April 2. A conviction carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison and a $1,000 fine.

Activists associated with the Minuteman Project verbally confronted Hubble at Placentia’s most recent City Council meeting and have posted pictures of Hubble trying to hire the workers on their website.

Hubble sat quietly shaking his head as six activists took turns criticizing him during the public comments portion of the meeting, calling him a “criminal,” “pathetic” and a “piss-poor American.”

A woman sat in the back of the chambers holding a sign, “Gerry Hubble Law Breaker,” and Minuteman bloggers posted photos of the scene online.

“It was kind of tough having to sit there and listen without being able to respond,” Hubble said.

Activists organized the protests after Hubble appeared in front of Lake Forest’s City Council March 4 to protest the city’s decision to prosecute.

Lake Forest has been trying to halt day laborer hires at the Jeronimo site, arresting workers and residents for trespassing and some workers for having illegal documents.  The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the city on behalf of the workers.

“I think it would be a great time to hold a rally in front of Placentia City Hall and let Mr. Hubble know what you think about his actions in front of his peers at the City Council meeting,” read a message board entry on saveourstate.org. “If this man gets away with this, we have lost.”

According to transcripts from the Lake Forest council meeting, Hubble said that he was on the property “to hire a couple of day laborers but second to pick up a couple bottles of water,” debating the sheriff’s claim that he did not attempt to patronize any of the business.

“I kind of liken it to shopping at Mervyn’s or Macy’s where you go to look for a shirt, you don’t see what you want so you don’t buy it,” the transcript reads. He also stated that he was hiring the laborers to help “load a couple units of railroad ties.” The truck that was pulled over was registered to Hubble.

After getting pulled over and questioned, Hubble allegedly told the deputy: “My intent was to hire day laborers.”

According to the sheriff’s report, two men that Hubble had picked up on the property were arrested for trespassing and having counterfeit Matrícula Consular cards, an identification card issued by the Mexican government.

Hubble declined comment on the allegations themselves, only pointing out that he had not been read his Miranda rights before talking with the officer.

Placentia Mayor Scott Nelson thanked the activists for their input and said that further investigation was needed before the city made any sort of comment. City Administrator Bob Dominguez declined to comment on any potential actions taken by the city.

March 11, 2008

NEWS RELEASE

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - The convictions of two former owners of The Galley Restaurant in Vinton, Iowa, who hired illegal aliens to work in their restaurant, were upheld today by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. U.S. Attorney Matt M. Dummermuth, District of Iowa, made the announcement; the convictions resulted from an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Sadik Seferi, 43, and Nicole Tipton, 25, of Vinton, Iowa, were sentenced Nov. 30, 2006 following a May 10 jury verdict finding them guilty of hiring and harboring illegal aliens, and for conspiring to hire and harbor illegal aliens. Seferi was sentenced to 30 months in prison; Tipton was sentenced to 27 months.

Seferi and Tipton operated The Galley Restaurant from about September 2005 through March 2006. Evidence presented at the trial showed that during this time they knowingly hired at least six illegal aliens to work in the restaurant. One of the workers was 14 years old and another was 17.

The illegal aliens employed by the restaurant were paid cash at far below minimum wage, and taxes were not withheld from their pay. However, records presented in court showed that Seferi and Tipton paid U.S. citizens and properly documented alien employees by check and withheld taxes from their wages.

Seferi and Tipton appealed their convictions, and Tipton appealed her sentence. The Court of Appeals Tuesday affirmed the convictions and Tipton’s sentence, finding the evidence was sufficient to convict both on all three charges, and Tipton’s sentence was properly imposed since she harbored six illegal aliens, two of them minors. Both Seferi and Tipton are serving their sentences in federal prison.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Reinert, District of Iowa. The case was investigated by ICE with assistance from the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, and the Vinton Police Department.

If Canada understands the sheer cost of illegal immigration to the fate of the United States, why is it so difficult for our own government to grasp what is logical?   

Canadafreepress 

Why Illegal Immigration is a Threat to the United States and How Local Communities are Fighting Back.

by Tom Deweese, Wednesday, March 12, 2008

n June, 2007 a solid eighty percent of the American people let Congress know they wanted the government to put the brakes on illegal immigration; they turned thumbs down on the President’s guest worker amnesty plan; and they wanted tax-paid services to illegals stopped.

Most Americans understand that new laws are not needed to stop illegal immigration. What is necessary is repeal of some laws granting taxpayer-financed services to illegals along with enforcement of existing laws. These two acts would be enough to stop the migration. In simple fact, they are called “illegal” because they are breaking the law.

In truth, the battle over the Senate’s guest worker-amnesty plan is really a battle over attempts to open the border as called for in programs such as North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). Both plans call for open borders and economic integration of North America. Open borders are required to fully implement the plans.

The Bush Administration and those promoting illegal immigration were frankly stunned at the force and determination of U.S. citizens to reject the Senates immigration plan. Proponents played a very heavy hand in attempting to force the scheme on a resisting citizenry. Such powerful forces are not used to losing. Today they continue to seek new ways to work around the opposition and pass the legislation, as a whole or incrementally.

However, the anti-illegal fervor refuses to abate and in fact, dramatic new developments are taking place in local communities across the nation that may well stop the unpopular Federal schemes.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to weaken the resolve of opponents, they are called fringe fanatics. A common tactic employed by immigration proponents is to accuse opponents of racism. They charge that opponents want to deny a new breed of immigrant the chance to become Americans as many of our immigrant forefathers did. They paint a Norman Rockwell-type picture of honest, hard working immigrants, planting gardens, working in fields, doing the work “no Americans want to do.”

So, in town after town across the nation the battle rages. And that is really the point. Illegal immigration is not just a border issue. It is a national issue affecting every large city and almost every small town. It must be understood that illegal immigration is not just a matter of some unhappy peasants hoping to seek a better life. It is a $300 billion a year industry, combining the interests of multinational corporations with those of drug cartels and Latino street gangs. Caught in between are American communities and the American way of life. Some cities, especially those along the points of entry at the border have become dangerous no-mans lands, where no property is safe, no American citizen is able to leave their home unarmed and some politicians turn a blind eye as they profit under the table. As a result American civilization is beginning to break down. That is why so many Americans refuse to back down on the issue, continuing to demand a crack down, no matter what name calling they must endure.

THE ECONOMIC COST OF ILLEGALS

Federal law (the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act) mandates that all hospitals with emergency-room services must treat anyone who shows up - including illegal aliens. In most cities across the nation, illegals now use the emergency rooms as free primary care. And the hospitals have to keep taking them.

Health Care

The annual cost for uncompensated emergency care to Mexican Border States (California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas) is $200 million. California taxpayers paid $79 million for illegal alien health care. Four major Los Angeles hospitals were bankrupted and shut down in 2004. Texas paid $74 million. Georgia ran a $63 million deficit for 64,000 unpaid doctor visits in 2002. Cochise County, Arizona spent 30% of its annual budget on uncompensated care to illegal aliens. University Medical Care in Tucson, Arizona spent $10 million on uncompensated care to illegal aliens. 77 hospitals in the four Border States now face financial emergencies. Legal citizens are forced to fly emergency patients to other cities for treatment. Taxes are going up to compensate.
Meanwhile, as a result of the Federal Emergency Medical Act, Mexican ambulance drivers are transporting hospital patients unable to pay for medical care in Mexico to facilities in the United States. The ambulances are driving through unguarded potions of the border with “little resistance” at the instruction of Mexican officials.

Education

Federal laws and a Supreme Court decision mandate that schools cannot deny free education to illegal aliens. Over 300,000 pregnant women enter the nation illegally every year. Taxpayers pay for food, housing medical care and school. The average annual cost per child for education is $7,161, totaling $109 billion to educate illegal aliens annually. The average cost of bilingual education is $1,200 per illegal student. U.S. schools annually educate 1.1 million illegal children. Schools have become over crowded and unruly. Teacher shortages (especially those who speak Spanish) are a growing problem for local school districts.

One teacher has reported what it is like in the classrooms in schools where federal tax dollars pay for free medical, free baby sitters for student mothers as young as thirteen, and free breakfasts (where “the waste of food is monumental, with trays and trays of being dumped in the trash uneaten”), new computers are “carved with graffiti by students.” “I have had to intervene several times for young and substitute teachers whose classes consist of many illegal immigrant students here in the country less than three months who raise so much hell with the female teachers, calling them “Putas” (whores) and throwing things that the teachers were in tears” she reports. Such is the atmosphere in today’s schools which are overrun by illegal aliens who speak no English and there is no ability to control or discipline.

Moreover, state run colleges and universities are being forced to allow illegal aliens to receive in-state tuition discounts that are supposed to be reserved for residents of that state. In California, a law, (Assembly Bill 540) allows undocumented high school graduates who have been in residence for three years to enroll in community colleges and the California State University and University of California systems without paying nonresident tuition. The same is true in many other states across the country.

The Jobs Americans Don’t Want

In 2003, illegal aliens displaced American workers at a cost in excess of $133 billion, while American college and high school students can’t find summer jobs in yard care, landscape, fast food or service jobs – because illegal aliens work those jobs at a third of the wage – often under the table.

Crime

Crimes committed by alien criminals, such as rape, murder or drug distribution costs U.S. taxpayers $1.6 billion in prison costs alone. The figure doesn’t include the cost of lost property, medical bills of the victims, time lost from work to recover, higher insurance costs, etc. Today, illegal aliens make up twenty nine percent of the U.S. prison population - or 500,000 illegals.

Latino gangs like Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS13) constitute most of the crime from the ranks of the illegals. They originated in El Salvador and today their U.S. leadership still comes from there. They steal cars and use them to run drugs over the border. They terrorize local citizens with violence. They are the chief source of drug sales for the cartels. And they are racists.

MS13 is the largest and most violent of all gangs in the US today. They have overtaken the Crips and the Bloods both in size and violence. MS13, which began its operations in Los Angeles has now moved east and is prominent on the East Coast.

In Los Angeles, Mexican gangs declared “ethnic cleansing zones” in specific parts of the city. They kill whites and blacks. In New Jersey, recently, MS13 gang members killed three college students in execution style.

NO MANS LAND AT THE BORDER

No legal citizen of the United States of America, living under the Constitution and the Bill of Rights should have to live as those who reside near the U.S. / Mexican border. Here there are no property rights, no ability to be safe in their homes, and no peace. One dare not go to the movies, the grocery or visit a relative without carrying a weapon for protection. Through out the community the streets are teaming with drug dealers, loiterers and gangs bent on violence.

The illegals flood across their property having just crossed the border. As they pass over the ranches and private property they leave a trail of trash, human waste and dead farm animals and pets. Found in the trash that is dropped all along the trail are pieces of paper containing contact phone numbers. Also found are Korans dropped by obvious Muslims who have made their way across the border.

Sometimes the illegals walk right in to the living rooms and steal what they want. Many homes on the border are now little more than prisons for the residents, surrounded by barbed wire, searchlights, with loaded guns at the ready.

The Tucson, Arizona area is one of the prime crossing points for illegals. The organization for transporting illegals is almost a precision military operation. On the Mexican side of the border is a landing strip where planes fly in on a regular basis with their cargo. Some of it human; some drugs. It’s all the same to those providing the transportation.

The planes land and the cargo is loaded onto busses with the windows whited out. Young girls prepare for the trip by taking birth control, for they know what awaits them on the trip across the border from their “travel assistants” - rape. It’s just part of the price for crossing the border into the promised land of America.

The busses drive to a specific location on the border. Here the cargo is unloaded and the process of walking across the border begins. Each of the human cargo is given information on what to do once they reach the other side, including a phone number of someone to call. The number is not necessarily a local number. It may be a location in Virginia, or Maine or Utah. Anywhere in the U.S. The person on the other end gives instructions on how to gain transportation to their location where they will be brought into the illegal community in that city.

And so the journey across the border begins. Somewhere in the middle, between Mexico and the U.S. is a tree. From the branches of that tree hang women’s panties. It’s called the panty tree. Why? Trophies from the raped women of previous journeys. It’s just the cost of doing business with the “Coyotes,” the murderous thugs who run the illegal immigrant trade. They don’t care who lives or dies. These are the ones who will leave illegals locked in trucks without food or water or ventilation. They charge enormous fees – up front. To them the cargo is all the same. They carry the drugs with the humans. They make deals with terrorists for the same trip. They rape, maim and kill. And go back for another load. Business is booming.

Once the cargo is inside the U.S., more buses are there to pick them up and transport them to drop off points. Here the phone calls are made for arrangements of more transportation across the nation. And in that highly organized manner, illegal aliens make their way into American cities.

Some are “Sanctuary Cities” where politicians have decided it’s good for the community to encourage illegals to live. In such communities no one can ask for the country of origin, even if a crime as horrible as murder is committed. The sanctuaries permit 20 million illegals, drug smugglers, child sex rings, ID forgery networks, and an assortment of run of the mill criminals to live lawlessly inside the United States. They are provided with income, identification, driver’s licenses, credit, housing, education, and medical care at taxpayer expense.

As stated, it’s a $300 billion a year industry. That buys a lot of politicians. Along the Border States no one talks about it. And, no surprise, a lot of politicians do nothing to stop it. Our fear and their greed are destroying the American dream.

MEANWHILE IN YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY…

How a community treats the illegals is key as to how many come there. The main magnet is the establishment of a day labor center. The nation-wide illegal network knows where to send them. If a community opens its arms, of course they flock there. If a community stands up to them, they leave.

But that is easier said than done. First, federal laws or lack of enforcement hampers efforts against the illegals, no matter the sentiment of the community. Federal courts strike down local laws, such as just happened in Hazleton, Pennsylvania when a federal judge degreed that laws the community had passed to crack down on illegals were unconstitutional. Federal agencies say it is illegal for local police to ask if anyone is an illegal. The federal government argues that immigration is a federal issue and for local communities to take action interferes with U.S. foreign policy.

On the local level too, there is great pressure on elected officials to do nothing. Strong lobbying arms protect the illegals. The ACLU, of course, threatens lawsuits. But many Americans would be surprised to learn of the Hispanic forces behind much of the pressure applied to their local officials.

Many immigrant groups are joined together through the La Raza movement. These are the groups which organized the massive demonstrations in cities across the nation last year. It is past time for all Americans to know what is at the root of those demonstrations and the extent to which our nation is at risk to the La Raza movement.

One of the most prominent Hispanic organizations pushing for “immigrant rights” is the National Council of La Raza – the Council of “the Race.” The mainstream media and most members of Congress depict La Raza as little more than a Hispanic Rotary Club. In 2005, La Raza received $15.2 million in federal grants, of which $7.9 million was in U.S. Department of Education grants for Charter Schools, and undisclosed amounts to get-out-the-vote efforts supporting La Raza political positions including lobbying for open borders and amnesty for illegals. Had the Senate’s immigration bill passed, several million more dollars were budgeted for La Raza.

Behind the respectable front of the National Council of La Raza lies the real agenda of the La Raza movement. This radical agenda, pushed by secondary groups contains the reasons behind the demonstrations and the strong lobbying efforts in our communities.

Key among those secondary groups is the radical racist group Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, or Chicano Student Movement of Astlan (MEChA). MEChA seeks to carve a racist nation out of the American West. MEChA opposes assimilation into American society. MEChA is a leader in the effort to “Reconquista” or reconquest our western states.

MEChA’s founding principles state: “In the spirit of a new people that is conscious not only of its proud historical heritage but also of the brutal gringo invasion of our territories, we, the Chicano inhabitants and civilizers of the northern land of Aztlan from whence came our forefathers, reclaiming the land of their birth and consecrating the determination of our people of the sun, declare that the call of our blood is our power, our responsibility, and our inevitable destiny…Aztlan belongs to those who plant the seeds, water the fields, and gather the crops and no to the foreign Europeans…For La Raza to do. Fuera de la Raza nada.” That closing two-sentence motto is chilling to everyone who values equal rights for all. It says: “For The Race everything. Outside The Race, nothing.”

These words don’t come from a fringe radical element. These come straight from the official MEChA sites at Georgetown University, the University of Texas, UCLA, University of Michigan, University of Oregon, and many other colleges and universities around the country.

Another leading Hispanic group involved in community organization, promoting the pro illegal position is Mexicanos Sin Fronteras. The translation of the name means “Mexicans Without Borders.” This group is active throughout the country and many times works with the “Zapatista Army of National Liberation.” These groups seek to radicalize the Latino community. The official website of the Mexicanos Sin Fronteras states that it is “anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist in the capital of the most terrorist country of world-wide history” (Washington, DC). It goes on to say it pledges its support to “other campaigns” of the radical illegal Hispanics with material and financial assistance.

In Manassas, Virginia the Mexicanos Sin Fronteras and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation are the two most prominent “pro-Hispanic” voices. In fact, these two groups are spearheading the illegal alien lobby in Prince William County, where Manassas is located. This is the “mainstream opposition” to efforts to curb illegal immigration in that community. Together, these groups are holding rallies and calling for boycotts and even the violent overthrow of the United States. Again, these groups are not fringe radicals. They are the most prominent voices for the illegals.

The photo on this page is of a meeting in Mexico with many of these groups. It is interesting to note that speaker in this picture, with his face covered, is Arnoldo Borjas a member of Mexicanos Sin Fronteras and a resident of Woodbridge, Virginia. He is one of the main leaders in that local movement. Further, in Prince William County, there are several candidates running for local office as well as the state legislature who are closely aligned with these two radical organizations.

FIGHTING BACK

While Congress fiddles and the Bush Administration issues meaningless pronouncements on “get tough” programs it never intends to enforce, local communities and state legislatures are beginning to fight back. And they are meeting with success.

State Legislatures, forced to deal with the failure of the federal government to fix the immigration laws, have considered 1,404 immigration bills this year and enacted 170 of them. These laws are aimed at curbing employment of illegals and making it more difficult to obtain state identification documents like driver’s licenses.

In May, Oklahoma passed the “Taxpayer and Citizen protection Act” which denies illegals state identification, and requires all state and local agencies to verify citizenship status of all applicants before authorizing benefits.

On the local level incredible success is being achieved in Northern Virginia. Last year two residents of Herndon, Virginia, with no prior political experience, began an effort called Save Herndon. The issue was the establishment of a day labor center in the community. The center would give illegals a gathering place in the community to help them get jobs, identification and benefits from the community.

The two began a campaign that at once made a major issue out of the establishment of the center. When the mayor and the city council moved forward and voted to establish the center over the objections of a majority of the citizens, Save Herndon began a campaign to assure these representatives were not re-elected. They succeeded beyond their wildest expectations, helping to out the mayor and everyone on the city council who voted for the center.

Now the movement is growing across the Northern Virginia area. There is now Help Save Manassas, Help Save Loudoun (County), Help Save Fairfax, Help Save Virginia and Help Save Maryland. Together these purely grassroots movements have succeeded in enacting legislation in Loudoun County (the nation’s fastest growing county) and in its neighbor, Prince William County which stops county tax-payer services to illegals. Incredibly, under challenge from federal and state officials, the members of county commissioners are holding tough behind the laws.

The key, as stated earlier, is the day labor centers. If your city has one, then the message has gone out to the illegal infrastructure that your community welcomes them. Get rid of it and send the message that they are no longer welcome. If faced with lawsuits from the ACLU and La Raze, welcome them. Tell them you will gladly have a news conference to discuss their suit in front of the cameras. Do not be afraid.

Here are a few guidelines to help organize locally and face the coming onslaught of charges of racism.

DON’T express anger at what is happening to your community. DON’T express annoyance because illegals refuse to assimilate into your community or abide by your customs. DON’T make the issue economic and safety issues. Overcrowded housing and commercial vehicle zoning violations or that specific individuals are illegal aliens.

The pro-illegals will try to tell the public that there is uncertainty as to who is illegal, creating doubt. They will talk about how impossible it is to check everyone’s legal status. It will be easy to charge racism.

Instead, make the issues about the abrogation of law. Focus your efforts against the individuals, businesses and politicians who create this problem and cheat honest business owners and workers by allowing illegal hiring practices under the table. In short, make the issue about enforcement of the law, cost and corruption. It’s working in Virginia.

Today, we have the chance to not only stop the flood of illegal aliens, but in the process, deflate the size and power of the federal government in the process. It’s time to organize Help Save America.

Why is the business that is also breaking the law being ignored? Most likely answer is because UPS is so well known and so badly needed by big businesses that they would hate to see anything jeopardize their bottom dollar profit. 

(Thoughts in BOLD)

Seattletimes 

UPS Crackdown Hits Workers, Spares Business

By Lornet Turnbull: Seattle Times Staff Reporter

A year after one of King County’s biggest work-site raids, fully two-thirds of the 51 illegal immigrants arrested have either been deported or told to leave the country.

But no charges have been brought against Spherion, the employment agency that hired the immigrants, or UPS Supply Chain Solutions, the UPS subsidiary that operated the two Auburn warehouses where they worked.

The results are consistent with an ongoing enforcement pattern: Even as the Department of Homeland Security talks big about cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants — grabbing headlines in some high-profile cases — it’s generally the workers who take the hardest hit. Actions against employers are still relatively rare.

Nationally, arrests of undocumented workers more than tripled between 2005 and 2007. And last year, while such arrests increased more than 11 percent from the year before, the number of employers criminally charged declined.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials explain that it’s far tougher to build a criminal case showing an employer knowingly hired an illegal immigrant than to prove that an immigrant is working in the U.S. illegally.

That’s in part because current federal law does not require employers to verify the immigration status of prospective workers, so many simply accept at face value the documents workers show them.

Only 53,000 of the nation’s estimated 10 million employers are signed up to use the E-Verify federal database, through which they can verify the Social Security numbers of newly hired workers.

Critics say immigration officials shouldn’t allow employers to hide behind legal loopholes.

E-Verify should be mandatory for all businesses to have. This does create a big “grey area” loophole that should not be allowed if our Government is serious about cracking down on illegals and illegal hiring employers. 

“In general, if they really want to send a strong message about illegal immigration, they’ll start marching some suits out of buildings in handcuffs,” said Ira Mehlman, Seattle-based spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which supports strong immigration controls.

“When some of the executives start facing criminal prosecution, the employer down the street will say maybe I don’t want to take that chance.”

Promises of action

In recent weeks, Homeland Security has been vowing anew to crack down on employers of illegal immigrants.

The U.S. attorney general joined the department recently in announcing a 25 percent increase in penalties — the first in more than a decade — for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

Under the plan, which takes effect March 27, the minimum penalty for willingly hiring an unauthorized worker will go from $275 to $375. The maximum penalty will jump from $2,200 to $3,200, and the maximum for multiple violations will increase from $11,000 to $16,000.

And Homeland Security expects soon to announce new rules to force employers to act when they receive notices about employees whose Social Security numbers don’t match their names. Currently there are no penalties for ignoring such notices.

All this comes as several states, including Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and West Virginia, have passed laws penalizing employers of illegal immigrants. The states were responding to Congress’ failure to pass immigration legislation, and some are now seeing a gradual exodus of illegal immigrants.

“Pursuing criminal charges is a major priority for us,” said Lorie Dankers, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “We look at the evidence available to determine if it’s enough to pursue criminal charges [against employers].”

And sometimes it is.

Last summer, immigration agents raided a Fresh Del Monte Produce complex in Portland where only 48 of the nearly 600 employees had valid Social Security numbers.

Agents had carefully built a criminal case that focused on an employment agency, American Staffing Resources, detailing how its managers helped some of the workers get phony Social Security numbers so they could work.

More than 160 illegal-immigrant workers were arrested, and two managers from the staffing agency are facing criminal prosecution. One has already been sentenced.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle has attorneys working on such cases, and “there are investigations under way here,” said spokeswoman Emily Langlie.

Such cases are labor-intensive for several reasons, she said.

“One defense is the good-faith belief that employees had legitimate documentation when they obtained their jobs,” Langlie said.

And because knowingly hiring an illegal immigrant is a misdemeanor — not a felony — building a case that carries serious penalties means investigators must determine whether crimes such as money laundering or identity theft were committed, and then find substantial evidence to show that.

“So while it might seem to outsiders that we should be able to pursue them criminally, these are not simple cases to put together,” Langlie said.

In the UPS case, Dankers said while there might not be enough information to bring charges now, that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t happen at some point. “If you ask me if any investigation is ever closed, the answer is no,” she said.

Spherion, which continues to staff the UPS plants, did not return telephone calls seeking comment. At UPS, a spokeswoman said operations were back to normal within a day of the raid and the company continues to contract with Spherion to staff its facilities.

“We went back and certainly reviewed our measures and had discussions with Spherion to ensure workers at our facility are authorized to work,” spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg said.

“We’ve had no other issues with work force in that location. Really, it was a nonevent for us … .”

20 deported

Not so for the workers.

“The whole community was spooked,” recalls Dianne Aid of St. Matthew Episcopal Church in Auburn, where some of the workers worshipped.

It was on Valentine’s Day last year that immigration agents swarmed the two UPS plants, arresting workers who had used a number of counterfeit identity documents, including fraudulent Social Security numbers, to obtain their jobs.

Among them was a mother of six who had been at the UPS job seven months when agents arrested and detained her and the other 50 workers from Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala.

Twenty people were deported over the next few months, and an immigration judge allowed another 13 to leave the country voluntarily.

Over the next few weeks, those released on bond are to appear before an immigration judge to plead their cases for remaining in the U.S. Most are seeking a common form of relief called cancellation of deportation.

To make this claim, immigrants must have been in the country at least 10 years and be able to prove that their deportation would cause extreme hardship to an immediate family member who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.

The standard for proving such cases is high, but the Tacoma mother is hoping she can meet it.

Five of her six children, ranging in ages from 5 to 21, were born in the U.S. and her 17-year-old has a child of her own. All would be out of place in Mexico, she said.

“My children were born here, and I wouldn’t want to take them to a country they know nothing about,” she said in Spanish.

The woman, who owns a small home in Tacoma, said a friend had recommended her for the UPS job and she had used a fake Social Security number to apply for and get it.

It was steady work, and the pay, at $9 an hour, wasn’t bad.

Since the raid, she’s had odd jobs and most recently has worked at a recycling plant.

“When I’m working, things are good,” she said. “I don’t need handouts for my children. We don’t take public assistance because if I work, I can support them and we do well.”

Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com

They committed ID theft and fraud, American citizens who committed those same crimes would be sitting in a jail cell and paying a hefty fine for their actions. 

This woman has five out of six children ages 5-21, a 17 year old child with a child of her own, and at NO time during that period did any of them attempt to apply for legal citizenship in this country?  If the woman has been here for 10 years, she should have filed paperwork before she ever stepped foot on U.S soil.  This squatters rights mindset it getting extremely old.

I can’t help but comment on this recent “bleeding heart” Associated Press article.  More and more it seems the Associated Press is pushing for illegal immigration then for American citizens and rule of law.  A day barely goes by before yet another “poor illegal” story is issued by them.  My thoughts are in BOLD.
Associated Press 

ROGERS (AP) Hispanic immigrant workers who toil on red-clay construction sites and cut flesh from bone on poultry plant lines in northwest Arkansas, helping to fuel the region’s economic growth, say they’ve become targets for local police who are conducting raids once left to a few federal agents stationed here.

Those here legally have only their fellow illegal aliens to thank for this hardship. It was them that made this mess that needs to be cleaned up in the first place.  Perhaps by discouraging rather then supporting illegal immigration, those here legally would not be subjected to such issues they are facing currently.

After changes in state and federal law, local police, sheriff’s deputies and state troopers throughout Arkansas can help enforce federal immigration laws. Recent raids in northwestern Arkansas rounded up a handful of illegal immigrants but even those with a legal right to be in the United States face questions.

If they are here legally, why not be for these raids, which could provide law enforcement with names of those in this country legally, so they know automatically that those individuals are welcome in this country? 

“It feels like it is dangerous to be Hispanic,” activist Jim Miranda said.

Hispanic no, illegal alien aka illegal immigrant aka undocumented worker, yes.  Dangerous no, only if you consider deportation dangerous, but then if you are here illegally, you already broke the country laws and should be treated as such. 

And police acknowledge that some legal residents will wind up temporarily detained.

“Through these investigations, there’s going to be collateral damage,” said Washington County Sheriff Tim Helder. “If there’s 19 people in there who could or could not be here illegally, they are going to be checked. Although those people who might not be conducting criminal activity, they are going to get slammed up in the middle of the investigation.”

Exactly, though the support of illegal immigration, the innocent get caught up in the mess as well. The only way to avoid this issue is to not support illegal immigration and discourage it in the first place.  One must consider illegal immigration like the dog in the old saying “one can not lie down with a dog without expecting to wake up with fleas”.
Through the 1990s, Arkansas’ Hispanic population grew at the nation’s second-fastest rate. Fewer than 17,000 people of “Spanish origin” lived in Arkansas in 1980, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures, but the total today is at more than 141,000 about 5 percent of the population. Most of the state’s Hispanics live in northwestern Arkansas, home to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Tyson Foods Inc. and trucking company J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc.

Healthy corporate bottom-lines offered new jobs for those already living in the region and opened jobs in poultry plants and on construction sites for newly arrived Hispanics.

Yep they hire them whether legally or illegally in the country, much against the federal laws stating this is an unlawful act. These employers should not be supported at all for their actions, they are stealing from American’s through stealing of American jobs.  It is as bad as if they were digging directly into pocket books, which would have ALL American’s shouting and screaming then. 

“They are good workers, they work hard for the most part,” said Benton County Sheriff Keith Ferguson. “Hispanic people are just like any other nationality of people. You’ve got the good and you’ve got the bad.”

The bad caught the attention of Rogers Mayor Steve Womack. He said the shooting of an undercover Rogers police officer while serving a warrant on an illegal immigrant spurred him to push for inclusion in the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s 287(g) program. The program, named after the section of law it occupies, allows local and state police officers to perform immigration checks and take part in operations in the field.

Good for Mayor Womack, to bad it took a act of violence to actually wake him up to the problem this country is facing by unprotected borders and unenforced immigration laws. 

Interest in the program grew as political remedies to illegal immigration failed in Congress. More than 30 police agencies take part in the ICE program, in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

ICE began 2008 with 90 additional requests, including one from the Arkansas State Police. Legislators here authorized troopers for immigration work in 2005, but state police only recently applied to join the program.

The cities of Rogers and Springdale, along with Benton and Washington counties, sent 19 officers to several weeks of training last year and Helder says the Hispanic community has noticed tougher enforcement. Illegal immigrants suspected of drug trafficking or falsifying identification documents bail out of homes after officers show up for a “knock and talk” before pursuing warrants, Helder said.

Further avoiding and snubbing the laws of this country, which they have no respect for already. 

“What have seen is a recognition by that community we are serious about this task force,” Helder said. “By the time (the officers) get back, there’s nothing left in the house but swinging hangers.”

Those arrested go through a process that takes more than four hours at a time, including having their fingerprints and a photograph scanned into a computer. An interview follows and officers create a packet of papers to be given to a judge. An inmate’s fingerprint dot the bottom right-hand corner of every page in packet, which includes aliases, addresses and supporting affidavits of arrest.

Helder said Washington County had seen more than 70 arrests from the task force through January. Benton County jail officials said they processed more than 100 illegal immigrants in the same period.

Miranda, an immigration activist who lives in Bella Vista, said the advertised goal of the task force changed once the officers began making arrests.

“This program was sold to us as targeting serious crime,” Miranda said. However, he said, police seem to be intent on “crippling” Hispanic business owners, noting immigration raids on Mexican restaurants in December. ICE agents said they arrested 23 people during the raids, fueled by criminal complaints signed by the head of the immigration task force.

Miranda said restaurants and groceries stores aimed at Hispanic customers suffered a drop in sales after the raids.

“It’s really throwing this community into turmoil,” he said.

Then stop pandering to illegal aliens, put your foot down and say NO to illegal immigration. Begin discouraging the practice and stop advocating for what you know is against U.S. Code of Law.  Until that time, deal with and expect what you get for pandering to law breakers. 

But the concerns don’t stop with the task force. In December, police say a man beat and kicked a Hispanic man to death in Lowell after his nephew spoke Spanish to his girlfriend. The nephew said he had only cooed at the woman’s infant

In Bentonville, officers say another man burned down a hotel under construction in November after he saw Hispanic workers there. Police say the man told detectives he decided to burn down the hotel after seeing a Hispanic man pull $20 out of a coin-pusher arcade game the Hispanic man had just played.

People are angry and tired.  They have repeatedly been snubbed in their efforts to uphold the laws of this country from the top down.  While no one condones these actions eventually there is a breaking point for everyone, and many American’s are rapidly reaching theirs.
As far south as Little Rock, radio announcers on Spanish-language stations caution listeners against driving at night. Police stress they will not racially profile Hispanic drivers, noting how the city of Rogers settled a lawsuit by Hispanic motorists who claimed racial profiling by police in 2003.

On New Year’s Eve, Benton County sheriff’s deputies arrested 14 illegal immigrants at a sobriety checkpoint on New Year’s Eve. Deputies said only four had been drinking while the rest didn’t have driver’s licenses.

Miranda said a recent meeting among business owners resulted in $22,000 in promised money toward the legal and education fund for minorities in northwest Arkansas. Miranda said some of that money likely would go to help defend those arrested in the recent restaurant raids.

Still, the fear that pervades the community touches Miranda as well. Miranda showed three unsigned greeting cards he received at his home since speaking out at civic meetings. Each card holds police blotters listed with Hispanic names and newspaper articles mentioning his name.

“Obviously, the message is we know who you are, we know where you are and we don’t like what you’re doing,” he said. “It is worrisome.”

Perhaps the message is, these are the individuals you are supporting, they have committed a crime and you are encouraging others to do the same. This is not acceptable in this nation.”

In much the same way that a bad marriage is not healthy if one partner is in it for what they can get out of it, and the other is co-dependent on that partner. Illegal immigration is unhealthy for the co-dependent country involved.

Almost daily we hear how our crashing economy is causing an exodus of illegals returning to their homelands when the work, money, and handouts runs out. Many of these are represented in the media as hardship stories built to display the “poor undocumented worker”, “poor businesses”, and in some cases “poor community” who are being affected by the loss. While no one can dispute the effect this loss has on those elements, they are in essence, no different then those who are co-dependent marriage partners who suddenly find themselves struggling to learn to survive.

What needs to be understood, and understood firmly, is that illegal immigrants are not here “for better or for worse”. They will not hang around when this country struggles. They will not hang around if the country falls. Their loyalty is not to this country at all and they will return home to the place their loyalty lies, or move on to another country that has what they desire. In this case money, work, and someone to take care of them.

American citizens and many legal immigrants have a deep loyalty to the United States. No matter how hard it gets in the nation, they will hold on, they will struggle through, and they will work to improve the situation of the home they love unconditionally. “For better or for worse” is not even a thought for them, it’s a way of life.

Just as one would not support a loved on, or friend in an unhealthy relationship. America needs to not support this unhealthy relationship that’s been created by illegal immigrants and their advocates. Americans need to support and advocate for healthy relationships with Citizens and legal immigrants who had a deep unseated love for this country. Who will stick with her through thick and thin, no matter how thin it gets. It is that, and that alone that makes for a healthy relationship and a healthy nation.
As for the “woe is me” tales, well just like the co-dependent partner learns to live again. These co-dependent individuals, businesses, and communities will also learn to live again. In many cases they will learn to be stronger, stabler, and healthier then before when they were in the unhealthy relationship. In some cases they might not ever break the bonds of co-dependency but above all they will learn what the signs of co-dependency are and be able to advocate against it, while helping awake other co-dependents to be able to survive the “life without” too.

Hispanic exodus is under way
Workers leave Lee as jobs disappear
The News Press
March 9, 2008

In this case, cold, hard statistics don’t tell the story.

“I am not aware of anyone who would track that locally,” said Glen Solier, business development specialist for the Lee County Department of Economic Development.

“Those people are off the grid. Undocumented,” said Susanna Patterson, economic analyst for the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation.

But the oh-so-human snapshots of everyday living are revealing.

Like a weekend soccer league down from 32 teams to 25 because more than 100 players have had to leave.

Or a church that has cut two Sunday services to one because about 200 former members have returned to their homeland.

Or the western-wear clothier who gave up one of his three shopping center units and said business is off by 40 percent because customers are gone.

Put these and other pictures together and the collage tells the story of Hispanics who are leaving Southwest Florida to find work or to return to the support of their families back home.

“There is a loss in the number of Hispanics in our communities,” said Robert Selle, director of the Amigos Center, which aids Hispanics with immigration issues and offers other services in Lee County. “The underlying reason is economic; the same reason they came here in the first place.”

Population drain

The loss comes from a good portion of Lee County’s population. The U.S. Census Bureau listed the county’s Hispanic population at more than 90,000 - about 16 percent of Lee’s 571,000 population - in 2006.

What the statistics further show is that work is gone. Unemployment in the Fort Myers-Cape Coral region has risen this past year, from 2.7 percent to 6.3 percent.

Many of the lost jobs are in construction, which has been put on hold as the sluggish market struggles with a glut of unsold houses.

Because many Hispanic construction workers are believed to be illegal immigrants, because construction and agricultural workers are a mobile population anyway, because many are single with families back in their native lands, and because their leaving was often spur-of-the-moment, no governmental or social service agency is keeping accurate records of this exodus.

Lee County School District reported a loss of Hispanics in all grades totaling 388 pupils through January of this school year - this after growing by almost 3,000 Hispanic students a year earlier.

But the white student population dropped as well. The big difference was while dropout rates tend to increase as the year goes on in the upper grades, the Hispanic population was the only one also to lose ground in the kindergarten through fifth-grade range. It fell by 87 pupils - an indication their families moved from the district, according to Michael Smith, director of planning, growth and school capacity.

“Many workers in the construction industry and related industry are leaving the area and following the money,” said Barbara Hartman, spokeswoman for the state’s Career and Service Center in Fort Myers. “It seems to be an increasing number of people who are temporarily relocating. I wish we did track that.”

Hartman said she knows people are leaving because they tell counselors when they come in seeking work, saying they need the higher construction industry wages, which begin at $10 to $11 an hour for the most unskilled, to maintain their standard of living……..

Jose Calhelha and his daughter Diana pleaded guilty to charges of hiring illegal workers in his Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in Connecticut.

Calhelha was recruiting workers in Portugal and then bringing them to Connecticut to work at one of his ten Dunkin’ Donuts stores.  But Calhelha went further than that. He would work them 7 days a week with no days off.  True slave labor at it’s best.

What did he do with those he brought into this country illegally? He harbored them in his enormous home.

He is sentenced to 10 months in prison for his actions.

Diggersrealm

The question of the day is why did the ACLU refuse to meet with American Day Laborers, yet had no issue with speaking with Illegal Alien day laborers during a “teach in” session?

“A group of American Day Laborers went to discuss a recent day laborer “teach in” with the head of the Orange County ACLU Hector Villagra. Unfortunately, unlike the illegal alien day laborers, the ACLU threatened to call the police on these American “day laborers”. Meanwhile the ACLU continues to demand that private business owners just deal with the day laborers that hang out and interrupt their business.”

And if this is not enough to add insult to injury, these same illegal day laborers file a lawsuit to stop police from questioning their legal status, or asking them even to move from blocking a place a business.

“The ACLU’s “teach in” for the day laborers on the street was to inform them that they don’t have to talk to police. Day laborers, code word for illegal aliens, actually had the gall to file a lawsuit - with the ACLU’s help of course - against Lake Forest saying that police cannot disrupt them trying to get work and that the workers can remain silent when questioned by even federal agents.”