lframerica.com Blog

http://ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=793698

Gov. Janet Napolitano urged Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and Sheriff Joe Arpaio to resolve their differences over immigration enforcement Wednesday as Hispanic leaders called for an end to the sheriff’s immigration patrols, claiming they are dividing the community and could lead to violence.

The governor, speaking at her weekly media briefing, said the problems “should be resolved professionally,” adding, “I think law enforcement ought to be focused on how public safety is most enhanced.”

She said the dispute over notification between the city and the sheriff over their operations needs to be settled.

“You run the risk of somebody getting hurt,” she said. “If you don’t know what other undercover operations or other things are going on out there, you really could have people running into each other… The second question is making sure that you are not violating people’s civil rights as you do these activities.”

Meanwhile, Hispanic leaders said the sheriff’s crackdowns on illegal immigrants are creating fear and unrest in the community.

“As a community, we see him going out setting up his troops and stopping people at random — racial profiling,” said Hector Yturralde, president of We Are America. “After they find out they can’t speak English or they have no identification, then they stop them for immigration.”

Yturralde added, “He is causing a division within this community that is not good. And that is not his job.”

He said the sheriff is using his title to grandstand at taxpayers’ expense.

In the past two weeks, Arpaio has conducted patrols at two Phoenix locations where day laborers gather, using some 200 deputies and posse members. Last week, more than 50 people were arrested in the area around Cave Creek and Bell Roads. More than a dozen were illegal immigrants. Arpaio has vowed to continue the operations.

Yturralde, Lydia Guzman with Respect Respecto and immigrants’ activist and former state lawmaker Alfredo Gutierrez expressed concerns that Arpaio’s patrols, which have drawn large groups of protesters and criticism from Phoenix police and the mayor, will end up in violence.

“We’re seeing people come out of the shadows who are very angry because at some point they feel victimized,” said Guzman. “And other people are coming out of maybe the other side of the shadows and saying we want something done.”

Gutierrez said most “decent” people do not believe the sheriff’s operations are accomplishing anything, except dividing the community.

“He chose to take this extraordinary provocative approach,” Gutierrez said, adding that during last week’s operation, “We were able to maintain control, but barely.”

He said more patrols could lead to formal resistance, i.e. civil disobedience on the streets of Phoenix.

“I think that will begin to occur at his next excursion, the next time he brings 200 or 300 people into a neighborhood to arrest people,” Gutierrez said.

Guzman and Gutierrez said everyone believes that immigration reform is absolutely necessary, but it is the responsibility of Congress and the federal government.

http://www.taftmidwaydriller.com/articles/2008/04/01/news/news04.txt

Midway Driller Editor

It started out as a simple code enforcement assignment for Kern County Sheriff’s deputies and code enforcement officers Thursday afternoon.

It ended up as a major raid by deputies and federal immigration agents that led the apprehension and deportation of 38 undocumented aliens, all from Mexico, living at four locations in Ford City.

Deputies and code enforcement officers went to 216 Monroe St. to investigate code enforcement issues and found 18 men, all in this county illegally, living in a large room at the house.

“It was an (illegal alien) motel,” Sheriff’s Sgt. Martin Downs said.

Downs contacted Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers who responded rapidly with a large bus.

The eighteen aliens detained on Monroe Street were loaded onto the bus, and deputies and ICE agents decided to check several more locations where aliens have been known to gather.

They went next to a house at 502 Tyler Street and found nine undocumented men.

They already had several detained from the house when three more walked up to the house and were taken into custody.

Next, a raid on a residence at 219 Van Buren turned up nine undocumented aliens and a fourth stop at a house on Buchanan Street added four more to the round-up.

The raids were halted only because they ran out of room on the bus.

All of the men detained were going to be taken to the United States-Mexican boarder and released into Mexico within about 12 hours.

Most are expected to get back into this country within a day or so, deputies and ICE agents said.

The structure the aliens were staying in on Monroe Street was an add-on to an existing home.

Downs said it contained cubicles for 18 people with a toilet and shower.

The men were paying $125 per month each for a spot in the structure, Downs said.

It was declared unsafe for occupancy by code enforcement officers.

“Deputies were surprised when they found so many people staying there.

“We went in and there was this group of people,” Downs said. “We just kept finding more and more and more of them.”

Instead of deputies holding the 18 men detained or just releasing them onto the street, Downs came up with a plan.

He contacted ICE officials in Bakersfield and they agreed to come pick the men up and stage raids at the other locations.

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/81230.php

http://www.diggersrealm.com/mt/archives/002745.html

CLICK LINK TO SEE VIDEO 

By Digger

Below you will see a speech by Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon at a Cesar Chavez luncheon. In this speech he says that Sheriff Joe Arpaio is “locking up brown people for having broken tail lights”. He also says that illegal immigration is a race issue and it is a shame that this long after Cesar Chavez we are still battling with this “race issue”.

This mayor is a race baiting piece of crap. Full stop.

Mayor Phil Gordon is running a sanctuary city in Phoenix and using the race card to allow it to continue. In the speech he also says that the police should be going for real criminals, dangerous criminals, not illegal aliens who are breaking the law. I would like to know what other laws that Mayor Phil Gordon would like to have ignored? Should we ignore speeders? Should we ignore drunk drivers, since they’re not committing a serious crime? Should we not lock up drug dealers who aren’t violent?

He also says that “non-Hispanic” people in the audience should stand up in favor of ignoring laws cracking down on illegal aliens.

*sigh*

I do know one thing though, Cesar Chavez was opposed to illegal immigration and uncontrolled legal immigration because it drove down wages for the legal immigrants in this country working in the fields. To Mayor Phil Gordon - and all of those who keep using the name of Cesar Chavez when talking about illegal immigration - you are idiots who have no clue about what you are talking about. Do a little research into who you are celebrating rather than just picking a “brown leader” and imposing your beliefs on him. For that is the most racist thing of all.

Seeing Red AZ had this to say:

Obviously, there is a job to be done. Gordon endorsed Arpaio in his last election bid. Now, with his own political future gleaming on the horizon, Gordon is looking toward a new and growing constituency. If only he could figure out a way to get illegals on the voting rosters, he could expand his sanctuary city policies and really place Arizona on the map - as a sanctuary state.

And Gordon also made claims that if Arpaio continues his crackdown that Hispanics may become violent. Sheriff Arpaio over the Easter weekend sent out deputies to arrest loitering day laborers who were committing “petty crimes” in front of businesses and generally being a nuisance.

Paul Giblin at Freedom Blogging reports this:

Sheriff’s deputies patrolled the area, issued traffic citations and arrested illegal immigrants they came across. Gordon said he hopes Arpaio will notify Phoenix Police officials before conducting similar operations in the future.“The sheriff has concurrent jurisdiction – we certainly acknowledge that – but for whatever reason, the communication in advance and the coordination in advance has not occurred and I’m very concerned about the safety of his officers and our officers,” Gordon said …

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office action also could be turning the Hispanic community against law enforcement in general, Gordon said.

Well if the “Hispanic community” in general is a bunch of criminals that may be the case, but the reality is that the majority of Hispanics legally in this country or citizens are not criminals. For Gordon to lump the whole “Hispanic community” in with criminals and miscreants is the height of racism. In essence he is saying “brown people will revolt if you arrest the criminals among them, because they are all criminals or sympathetic to them.”

Disgusting.

And one more commentary from Liberty’s Apothecary that sums it up

To add pandering insult to his hypocrisy, Gordon told a supportive group of Hispanics at a luncheon commemorating Cesar Chavez that Arpaio’s actions “could endanger police” and that he should “stop rounding up Hispanics who commit traffic violations and instead pursue ‘dangerous criminals’.” Cheers and applause erupted in the audience.Amnesia and selective memory are two of the critical capacities of the liberal mind, and Gordon now proves he is the master of both.

http://www.yumasun.com/news/locates_40329___article.html/patrol_runaway.html

A 16-year-old runaway girl and an illegal alien who claimed to be a gang member were in Border Patrol custody Wednesday after being detained the night before at a Yuma bus station, the patrol said.

Authorities were in the process of reuniting the girl with her parents in California, who had previously reported the girl as running away from home, the patrol said in a news release.

The unidentified girl, a U.S. citizen, and the alien, a Mexican national, were located at the Greyhound bus station, 170 E. 17th Place, at 8:45 p.m. Tuesday, said Ben Vik, a Border Patrol supervisory agent.

“He claims to be a gang member with the Sureno 13 gang. As far as we know, he does not have any criminal records in the U.S. He is a Mexican national and he is in the United States illegally.

“He is currently undergoing prosecution for immigration violation,” Vik said Wednesday. “Today was his first court day and he was presented before the U.S. magistrate on immigration charges.”

Vik described the Sureno 13 as a Southern California gang.

No other details were available from the patrol.

http://www.yumasun.com/news/calexico_40335___article.html/load_marijuana.html

(Sun Staff Writer Sarah Reynolds)

A routine search of a trailer passing through a commercial inspection station this week in Calexico, Calif. uncovered 11,000 pounds of marijuana, California Highway Patrol announced Thursday.

The street value of the drug shipment is estimated at $8 million, according to CHP.

“That’s the largest one that I’m aware,” said Sgt. Mark Kirchhof of the CHP’s Calexico inspection station. “I don’t know if it’s the largest for Customs but … around the highway patrol that’s the largest one I’ve ever been around.”

According to CHP, a 2001 Freightliner tractor pulling a 53-foot box trailer attempted to pass through CHP’s Calexico Inspection Facility Tuesday afternoon. It had just entered the United States via the east port of entry.

CHP officials said the trailer, owned by Swift Transportation, was supposed to be carrying water heaters. However, during the routine commercial inspection an officer became suspicious that drugs might be concealed at the rear of the trailer.

The Calexico Police Department was called, with their drug-detection canine, which immediately noted the presence of drugs at the rear doors.

When the doors were open numerous large boxes containing multiple packages of marijuana were discovered on top of the water heaters. When the truck was unloaded a total of 100 large cardboard boxes and 600 packages were discovered, totaling 11,000 pounds of marijuana.

“The whole top half of the trailer was filled with boxes of packaged marijuana,” Kirchhof said.

Due to what CHP officials describe as “the enormous size of the load,” the case was referred to the California Department of Justice, Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, who took possession of the marijuana and the truck.

The driver, Ricardo Torres Villa, 28 of Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico, was subsequently booked into the Imperial County Jail for possession of marijuana and transportation for sales, both felonies.

http://www.yumasun.com/news/marshals_40364___article.html/county_attempted.html

http://www.yumasun.com/news/most_40424___article.html/wanted_.html

As a public service, The Sun is publishing the names and photographs of the following people sought by the Yuma County Adult Probation Department or the U.S. Marshals Service as probation absconders.

If you have information that would lead to the arrest of any of them, call surveillance officer Beto Borquez at 329-2210, Ext. 2342. If you know any of their immediate locations, call local law enforcement agencies or dial 911. Do not attempt to apprehend them yourself.

Enriqueta Apodaca - Female, 25. Height 5 feet 2 inches, weight 101 pounds. Brown hair, brown eyes. Aliases: Henrieta Apodaca, Katie Pena. Tattoo: three dots on the left middle finger. Her probation violation is for the original conviction of attempted forgery, a Class 4 felony.

Emiliano Villalpando - Male, 37. Height 5 feet 11  inches, weight 230 pounds. Black hair, brown eyes. Alias: Emiliano Villalrando. Tattoos: a skull on the right arm, “Ozzie” on fingers of the left hand. His probation violation is for the original conviction of possession of drug paraphernalia, an undesignated offense.

Anna Christine Miranda - Female, 38. Height 5 feet 3 inches, weight 140 pounds. Brown hair, brown eyes. Aliases: Christine Miranda, Ana Miranda. Tattoos: back – “Miranda” on the back and right ankle, “Adam” and “Chris” on the left shoulder. Her probation violation is for the original conviction of possession of drug paraphernalia, a Class 6 felony.

Martin Hernandez - Male, 26. Height 5 feet 6 inches, weight 120 pounds. Brown hair, brown eyes. His probation violations are for the original convictions of attempted escape in the third degree, and criminal impersonation, both undesignated offenses.

http://www.yumasun.com/news/worker_40732___article.html/guest_program.html

If you have information that would lead to the arrest of any of them, call surveillance officer Beto Borquez at 329-2210, Ext. 2342. If you know any of their immediate locations, call local law enforcement agencies or dial 911. Do not attempt to apprehend them yourself.

Michael Mendez - Male, 40. Height 5 feet 11 inches, weight 250. Black hair, brown eyes. Alias: Mike Mendez. Tattoos: “NC” and Naked City with a marijuana leaf on the left arm, a little “Cholo” man and ribbon with “N.C.” on the left shoulder, various other tattoos on body.  His probation violation is for the original conviction of possession of drug paraphernalia, an undesignated offense.

Efrain Aguirre–Zazueta - Male, 21. Height 5 feet 8 inches, weight 170. Black hair, brown eyes. Alias: Efrain Aguirre. Tattoo: three dots on the left hand. His probation violations are for the original convictions of theft, a Class 5 felony, and possession of drug paraphernalia, a Class 6 felony.

    Daniel James Greaney - Male, 27. Height 5 feet 5 inches, weight 130. Brown hair, brown eyes. Alias: Daniel Graney. Tattoo: Chinese letters on front of each shoulder. His probation violation is for the original conviction of possession of drug paraphernalia, a Class 6 felony.