BY DAVE MARCUS | dave.marcus@newsday.com 7:09 PM EST, January 27, 2008
Long Island immigrant-rights groups are taking their cause to a place that has sometimes been unwelcome territory: African-American churches and neighborhoods.
The effort, called the "Truth About Immigration Campaign," will enlist African-American pastors and activists to argue that immigrants across the state are being scapegoated for problems such as crime, stagnant wages and a shortage of affordable housing.
Launching tomorrow, the campaign will target many others in addition to African-Americans. Priests, rabbis and other prominent community members also will use a PowerPoint presentation to urge New Yorkers to work together to solve problems. In turn, those leaders hope to train scores of other presenters -- from members of veterans' associations to bridge clubs.
Among other things, the campaign will connect two groups that are sometimes wary of each other, African-Americans and Hispanic immigrants.
It's no secret ILLEGAL ALIEN HISPANICS HATE AFRICAN AMERICANS . . . All they want is the convenience of using the causes BLACK AMERICANS HAVE FOUGHT AND DIED FOR: I.E.: 14th Amendment for their anchors; and USURPING THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT when trying to play the race card in favor of illegal alien hispanics.
Racist Mexican Gangs "Ethnic Cleansing" Blacks In L.A. Latino thugs indiscriminately murder blacks regardless of gang membership, genocidal purge aligns with radical Aztlan theology
Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet Monday, January 22, 2007
Racist Mexican gangs are indiscriminately targeting blacks who aren't even involved in gang culture, as part of an orchestrated ethnic cleansing program that is forcing black people to flee Los Angeles. The culprit of the carnage is the radical Neo-Nazi liberation theology known as La Raza, which calls for the extermination of all races in America besides Latinos, and is being bankrolled by some of the biggest Globalists in the U.S.
A story carried on the liberal website Alternet, charts an explosion in brutal murders of blacks by Hispanic street gangs in L.A. Far from being gang on gang violence, the Latinos are targeting innocent blacks in accordance with a concerted ethnic cleansing campaign that seeks to eradicate all blacks from Hispanic neighborhoods.
In one instance, 21-year-old Anthony Prudhomme was shot in the face with a .25-caliber semi-automatic while lying on a futon inside his apartment, slain by a Latino gang known as the Avenues as part of a racist terror campaign in which gang members earn "stripes" for each black person they kill..
In one typical case," writes journalist Brentin Mock, "Three members of the Pomona 12 attacked an African-American teenager, Kareem Williams, in his front yard in 2002. When his uncle, Roy Williams, ran to help his nephew, gang member Richard Diaz told him, "******s have no business living in Pomona because this is 12th Street territory." According to witnesses, Diaz then told the other gang members, "Pull out the gun! Shoot the ******s! Shoot the ******s!"
The fatwah against blacks began in the mid-nineties, with a 1995 LAPD report concluding that Latinos had vowed to "Eradicate black citizens from the gang neighborhood." In a follow up report on the situation in east Los Angeles, the LAPD warned that "Local gangs will attack any black person that comes into the city."
The author notes that since 1990 the African-American population of Los Angeles has halved, partly as a result of rampant illegal immigration and that there are noticeably fewer blacks walking the streets because many have been forced to relocate in fear of the racist gangs.
"The LAPD estimates there are now 22,000 Latino gang members in the city of Los Angeles alone. That's not only more than all the Crips and the Bloods; it's more than all black, Asian, and white gang members combined. Almost all of those Latino gang members in L.A. -- let alone those in other California cities -- are loyal to the Mexican Mafia. Most have been thoroughly indoctrinated with the Mexican Mafia's violent racism during stints in prison, where most gangs are racially based," writes Mock.
Mock blames the "Mexican Mafia" for ordering the campaign of ethnic cleansing from prison, as part of a turf war with the Black Guerilla family, another prison gang, but fails to pinpoint the racist creed from which the Mexican kingpins draw their inspiration - the long standing Aztlan invasion agenda.
Aztlan's goal, known as La reconquista, is to cede and take over the entirety of the southern and western states by any means necessary and impose a Communist militant dictatorship. President Bush's blanket amnesty program goes a long way to helping the extremists achieve their aim.
Despite the fact that the majority of documented hispanics oppose illegal immigration, as do the majority of Americans, Aztlan and La Raza race hate groups have become the self-appointed voice for a separatist movement that threatens a violent overthrow of the Constitutional system and a barbaric program of ethnic cleansing. This is held up by the media as 'diversity' and to vociferously oppose it is scorned as racism.
Aztlan and Mecha groups advocate killing all whites and blacks and driving them out of the southern states by means of brutal ethnic cleansing. Flags and placards carried at marches depict white people having their heads cut off, as seen in the picture below.
Those that protest such groups are then attacked by the establishment media and labeled as racists, despite the fact that the Plan of San Diego, a rallying cry for the hispanic Klan groups, advocates total eradication of any race but hispanics.
Mecha's own slogan reads, "For the race everything. For those outside the race, nothing."
TV stations owned by rich white industrialists erect giant billboards in Los Angeles claiming the city belongs to Mexico, as seen below.
Mainstream hispanics who love America abhor the virulent racism that the Mexican klan groups embrace.
And who bankrolls these pocket radicals? Billionaire tax-exempt foundations and NGO's owned by white men. Organizations like the Ford Foundation, groups who are zealous in their quest to eliminate the middle class and destroy America, turning it into a cashless society, compact city, surveillance control grid where only two tiers of society exist - the elite and the poor slaves.
During the May immigration protests, The Aztlanwebsite carried the following statement.
"If the racist "Sensenbrenner Legislation" passes the US Senate, there is no doubt that a massive civil disobedience movement will emerge. Eventually labor union power can merge with the immigrant civil rights and "Immigrant Sanctuary" movements to enable us to either form a new political party or to do heavy duty reforming of the existing Democratic Party. The next and final steps would follow and that is to elect our own governors of all the states within Aztlan."
Here is the open call for violent separatism and the overthrow of existing state government structures.
During the immigration demonstrations, which were orchestrated by Rob Allyn of Rob Allyn & Co. who is closely tied with George W. Bush, alarming reports of illegals carrying out violent beatings began to surface. In Santa Ana California, illegal aliens swarmed around in mobs invading schools, carrying out violent beatings and in one incident a county worker had a Mexican flag plunged into his chest.
The violent protests that began on May 1 last year were characterized by throngs marching under Mexican flags, many of which were illegal aliens, as a "day without gringos."
Imagine what the reaction would be if white middle class Americans marched in their millions and called the event "a day without blacks."
The media continues to run defense for a violent militant movement that seeks nothing less than the eradication of blacks and whites through ethnic cleansing and the takeover of the southern and western states. This is a separatist junta that has over 30,000 ruthless gang members at its disposal once the call for mobilization is heard, along with millions of illegal aliens pouring across the border.
These thugs have the temerity to call Latinos, blacks and whites who are opposed to uncontrolled illegal immigration racists when it is their own La reconquista philosophy that has spawned target hits in Los Angeles as part of a virulently racist ethnic cleansing rampage. It's a bloodlust that can only spread to other cities as the realization of Aztlan is generously aided by billionaire Globalists who wish to see America balkanized, plundered and destroyed.
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Law school, newspaper seek documents on immigration raids
By JEFFREY GOLD | Associated Press Writer 9:08 PM EST, January 28, 2008
NEWARK, N.J. - A law school and a newspaper on Monday sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to obtain documents regarding what they said were warrantless raids on the homes of immigrants.
Seton Hall Law School and the Brazilian Voice, both based in Newark, said they sued because the department rejected expedited processing of their request for the records, which was filed Dec. 14 with the department under the Freedom of Information Act.
Seton Hall and the newspaper said the department rejected expedited processing by asserting the raids were not of particular public interest because "a preliminary search of the Internet does not indicate that there is substantial current news interest concerning this topic."
The raids are done by agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency within Homeland Security.
ICE spokesman Mike Gilhooly said he couldn't directly comment on the lawsuit. But he said the agency has a unit processing FOIA requests daily. Immigrants whose homes are raided, he said, have been ordered removed by federal immigration judges.
The school and the Brazilian Voice, a Portuguese-language paper, said they believe there have been more than 40 immigration raids in New Jersey since January 2006 under "Operation Return to Sender." They seek records about them and the policies and procedures for the raids.
"Many victims of the raids believe they were duped or coerced into opening their door to ICE agents, and still have no idea why their family was targeted. Often the individuals arrested in a raid have lived in the U.S. for years, raised U.S.-citizen children, worked hard, paid taxes and established community ties," said Bassina Farbenblum, a lawyer with the school's Center for Social Justice.
ICE arrested 2,079 people in the raids last year, of which 87 percent had no criminal record, according to agency statistics cited by the school and newspaper.
suujournal.com Samantha Arnold Issue date: 1/28/08 Section: News
This is the first in a series of articles exploring different perspectives of illegal immigration.
Every day, illegal immigrants cross the borders to work, go to school and attend churches throughout the United States.
According to the 2000 Census, the number of illegal immigrants in the United States has grown to 8 million, a number that continues to increase by a half million people each year.
In regard to religion, the increasing number of illegal immigrants adds to church memberships throughout the nation.
Each church or religion has its own policies for handling church members that may be in the states illegally.
Robert Howell, public relations officer for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said the church's policy in baptizing illegal immigrants is nondiscriminatory.
"The blessings of the gospel through baptism are available to all of God's children regardless of their immigration status," he said.
However, the problem arises when the church member wants to get married in an LDS temple, Howell said.
Each marriage must follow the laws of the state it is in, and since the members are in the country illegally, they would be unable to have a temple marriage, Howell said.
"No marriages are performed in LDS temples located in the United States without a government-issued marriage license," he said.
Although it is illegal for a person to stay and live in the United States without being an official citizen, the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints church has no obligation to turn in members it discovers are living illegally in the states, Howell said.
The Catholic church takes a similar viewpoint, said Father Mike Winterer of the Christ the King Catholic Church in Cedar City.
Illegal immigration is one of the most complex issues in the country, Winterer said.
"There is no black and white answer to this issue," he said.
However, just because there is no solution that has been discovered, the Catholic Church continues to focus on its primary goal of helping the poor, Winterer said.
Just because a member of the church may be in the states illegally, that does not mean they should be discriminated against in their area of worship, he said.
"Why are they coming into this country?" he said. "It is probably because of their poor situation and they are coming here to support their families."
Instead of turning them away from an opportunity to practice religion, the Catholic Church aids them in becoming a legal citizen, Winterer said.
"We are here to help," he said. "We try to help them become legal by bringing in lawyers."
Pastor Kirk Dunham, of the Bible Church in Green River, said he has a slightly different perspective on how illegal immigration should be handled, but agrees that he would never turn anyone away from his church regardless if they are a citizen or not.
"I don't see illegal immigrants becoming church members as the problem," he said. "The problem is that our country is closing its eyes to the situation."
Q My son qualifies for permanent residence under the "other workers" category. His priority date is in December 2003. When will he qualify for permanent residence? My son's employer filed an application for him with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) in December 2003. The DOL certified the case, and then the U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) approved the employer's petition. My son is just waiting for his priority date to become current so he can apply for permanent residence. He qualifies to interview here based on a case filed earlier.
Y., Forest Hills
A Your son will qualify for permanent residence in about two years. That guess is based on the fact that, in February, applicants in your son's category will qualify for permanent residence if their employer filed for them before October 2001. I got that information from the U.S. Department of State (DOS) visa bulletin. You can check the bulletin yourself on the Internet at travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_1360.html. You can also get the information by calling the DOS Visa Bulletin line at (202) 663-1541, or by having the Visa Bulletin e-mailed to you by writing listserv@calist.state.gov. In the message part of the e-mail, write "Subscribe Visa-Bulletin [first name/last name]". (Example: Subscribe Visa-Bulletin Sally Doe.) The DOS issues the bulletin each month around the 12th to provide notice as to which applicants qualify for visas in the following month.
The bulletin guides DOS and the USCIS in issuing visas. The agencies need the bulletin because the law limits the number of immigrant visas available each year in the "family-based" and "employment-based" preference categories. The law also limits how many preference visas the government can issue to nationals of each country each year.
When more applicants qualify for a visa in a particular category from a particular country than the number of visas available, a backlog develops. When that happens we say the category is "oversubscribed" and the DOS announces a cutoff date.
To get permanent residence in an oversubscribed category, an immigrant must have a "priority date" that is prior to the listed cutoff date in the bulletin. In a family-based immigration case, an applicant's priority date is the date the USCIS receives a petition filed for that applicant. In an employment-based case, the priority date is the date the DOL receives an application to certify a worker as eligible for permanent residence, or, where the law doesn't require a labor certification, the day the USCIS receives an employment-based petition.
Usually the cutoff dates move forward. However, when the DOS determines that the visas available for a certain category and/or country are being used faster than previously estimated, the cutoff date moves backward or "retrogresses." Sometimes all the visas allocated in a category for nationals of a particular country are used up for a given year. When that happens, visas for nationals of that country become "unavailable." Often that happens in the summer before the end of the federal government's fiscal (record-keeping) year on Sept. 30. When that happens, no more visas will be issued in that category until the next fiscal year begins on Oct. 1.
Readers should note that some family-based immigrants get immigrant visas outside the quota system in the "immediate relative of a U.S. citizen" category. For immediate relatives, the law provides an unlimited number of visas. The immediate relative category includes the spouse, unmarried child under age 21, parent (where the petitioning U.S. citizen child is 21 or older), and, in some cases, the widow/widower of a U.S. citizen.
Minutemen get new adopted highway stretch, f.u.r.ther from border
lompocrecord.com By ELLIOT SPAGAT January 29, 2008
SAN DIEGO - Getting moved ****her away from the border might the beginning of the end of anti-illegal immigration group San Diego Minutemen's participation in an Adopt-A-Highway program.
The California Department of Transportation said Monday that the group can't sponsor a two-mile stretch of Interstate 5 near a Border Patrol checkpoint, saying it poses "a significant safety risk."
"The risk is in the potential for disruption to the operation of the state highway as well as public safety concerns for the traveling public and volunteers in the program," Caltrans district director Pedro Orso-Delgado said but did not elaborate.
Although the Minutemen will get another stretch on State Route 52 in San Diego _ far from the Border Patrol checkpoint _ even that might prove temporary. Caltrans said it was reconsidering whether the group was eligible for any piece of highway.
"We have received information during the past couple weeks that warrants a closer look at the San Diego Minutemen relative to the eligibility criteria for this program," Orso-Delgado said. "The department will pursue this review in an expeditious fashion."
Caltrans did not elaborate on the review and a spokesman did not respond to a phone call Monday night, but its statement said groups that advocate violence, discrimination or illegal activities cannot participate in the program.
San Diego Minutemen founder Jeff Schwilk did not immediately respond to a phone message Monday night.
In November, Caltrans granted a permit for the Minutemen to tend to trash on a two-mile northbound stretch, north of San Diego, near where Border Patrol agents stop motorists and search for illegal immigrants hiding in cars. Adopt-A-Highway signs were emblazoned with the group's name.
"We said from the get-go that those signs were going down," said Enrique Morones, who heads Border Angels, a group that provides water for people who cross the border illegally in remote areas. "Civility prevails."
The Minutemen boasted on its Web site that it removed 15 bags of trash from the roadside on 17.
Illegal immigrant vows to stand ground HUMBOLDT PARK | Holed up in same church where Arellano held out
KARA SPAK Staff Reporter
Saying she hoped the fear of God would keep federal agents away, undocumented immigrant Flor Crisostomo on Monday vowed to stay in a Humboldt Park church indefinitely to keep Congress focused on immigration reform.
Tears streaming down her cheeks, a defiant Crisostomo said she did not believe she was breaking U.S. law, nor did she see herself as hiding.
Arrested in an immigration raid in April 2006, she was ordered to leave the country voluntarily by Jan. 28. Crisostomo sought "sanctuary" in the Adalberto United Methodist Church, the same church that housed undocumented immigrant Elvira Arellano and Arellano's U.S.-born son Saul, for more than a year.
"I am taking a stand of civil disobedience to make America see what they are doing," Crisostomo said in a statement that was translated into English. Speaking in broken English, she said immigrants are not terrorists but hard-working people contributing to the economy.
"The real problem is the color and the language," she said.
U.S. immigration officials saw the issue differently, releasing a statement that said Crisostomo was given a voluntary departure order Oct. 12, 2006. After an appeal failed in December 2007, she was given 60 more days to leave the country on her own.
"Ms. Crisostomo will be taken into custody at an appropriate time and place with consideration given to the safety of all involved," read the statement released by Gail Montenegro, spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Children back in Mexico
Montenegro said that it is also illegal to "knowingly harbor an illegal alien," and those who do so can be subject to criminal prosecution.
Unlike Arellano, who was living with her son, Saul, at the church, Crisostomo's three children, ages 14, 11 and 9, live with their grandmother in Mexico.
Crisostomo, 28, left her children in Guerrero, Mexico, seven years ago to work illegally in the United States. She was arrested April 19, 2006, during an immigration raid at a pallet factory where she earned $300 a week.
Arellano lived in the church for more than a year. She left in August 2007 to attend an immigration rally in California, where federal authorities arrested and deported her.
Next she'll claim its our fault she had unprotected s-e-x at the ages of 13, 16 and 18, has 3 children (probably by 3 different sperm donors and she has no clue who or where they are) that she knew she couldn't feed and obviously had no business having. Oh and of course it's Our fault SHE ABANDONED HER CHILDREN AND SPLIT UP HER FAMILY . . . BUT SHE'S HIDING IN A CHURCH AND WANTS GOD TO PUNISH US? GOTTA LOVE HER CHRISTIAN FAMILY VALUES [/END SARCASM]
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Daniel Day-Lewis accepts the award for outstanding... ((AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, file))
From green card to SAG card
By JOHN ROGERS Associated Press Writer Article Launched: 01/29/2008 01:47:31 PM PST
Daniel Day-Lewis accepts the award for outstanding... ((AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, file))«1»LOS ANGELES"”He died thousands of miles from home, but like hundreds of other entertainers who came before him, Heath Ledger had left his native land to carve out a career in Hollywood. In doing so, the Australian-born actor, who died last week in New York City of still-undetermined causes, joined a long list of expatriate entertainers that includes Spain's Antonio Banderas, Canada's Mike Myers and even the man who paid tribute to Ledger at Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards, the Englishman Daniel Day-Lewis.
With immigration as a hot-button issue in an election year, the internationalization of Hollywood"”nine of the 20 acting or supporting Oscar nominations this year went to foreign-born movie stars"”begs the question: Is it easier for an actor to get a U.S. work visa than, say, a dishwasher?
"It is and it isn't," said immigration lawyer Mark Ivener, who has handled work permit and residency applications for numerous entertainers, including Ledger.
While English skills and hailing from a favored nation can certainly help, it turns out that star power helps grease the skids with government officials, too.
"It is easier if you are well-known," said Ivener. "Then you don't have to go through the labor certification process where you have to demonstrate to the Department of Labor that you won't be taking away a job from an American."
But for a struggling actor who's been waiting tables in London or Mexico City and would rather sling hash in Hollywood, the process is just as hard as it is for anyone else, say Ivener and others. There are other criteria: Immigration lawyers say whether you're a scientist or a wannabe entertainer, it's definitely a drawback to be from a country on a terrorist watch list, or one that's predominantly Muslim, for that matter.
"That's still considered"”unfortunately," said Kathleen Walker, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Just being born in a country like Iran, Sudan, Cuba or North Korea, she said, leaves any person open to extra scrutiny.
"Which I don't believe in," she added. "If I were born in Iran but have never been in Iran since my birth, I'm still subject to additional screening."
And it can't hurt to be from an English-speaking country like Australia, England or Canada"”most roles still go to fluent English speakers, after all, the immigration lawyers say.
All the same, Hollywood seems to be making way for an ever widening variety of foreign-born entertainers, from Jackie Chan of Hong Kong and Salma Hayek of Mexico to relative newcomers (and current Oscar nominees) Marion Cotillard of France and Saoirse Ronan of Ireland.
And it's one thing to come to America to shoot and promote a movie. Turning that success into a full-time residence in Beverly Hills? That's a little more complicated.
"There are really only two major ways people can come here permanently. They have to be sponsored by family or by a job," said Marie Sebrechts, a spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
In the case of actors, musicians or athletes, they are usually sponsored by the studio, record label or sports team that employs them.
"I got my green card through Motown," said Canadian-born comedian Tommy Chong, adding that the record label sponsored him after signing his band the Vancouvers to its label in the 1960s and producing its hit record, "Does Your Mama Know About Me." After the label dropped the group, Chong went on to fame as part of Cheech and Chong and eventually became a U.S. citizen.
Ledger became a star in Australian TV and films before he came to the United States. When a studio wanted him for a U.S. film it enlisted Ivener's help in getting him a nonresident work visa.
Ivener also helped British actor Anthony Hopkins obtain a visa and eventually U.S. citizenship after the actor came to the United States following stardom in Great Britain.
The key to success in these and other cases, say immigration lawyers, is in gaining enough attention somewhere else to attract a major studio or record label in the U.S. as a sponsor.
"It's kind of a corny analogy. But you know how banks only lend money to rich people?" said immigration lawyer Bernie Wolfsdorf. "It's the same framework with immigration. The top people can get the visas, and the wannabes and the up-and-comings not so much."
Although U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services sets aside separate categories for actors, athletes and other entertainers who want to work in the United States, to have the best chance of receiving a visa one must also demonstrate "extraordinary ability."
"I had to amass all my gold al***s and have photographs taken of them and get records of all the recorded events I'd played at and the amount of tours I'd done and the amount of money I'd made," said Keith Emerson of the British rock group Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
Soon after arriving in the United States nearly 13 years ago, Emerson said, he began to ***p into other British musicians around Los Angeles who had gone through the same experience.
"We've formed a band called the Aliens of Extraordinary Ability, just to get together and jam," he said.
Meanwhile, the pull of the United States on foreign entertainers is simple, says Chong: It's the big time.
"That's the dream, if you're from another country, to come to the States," he said. "It was my dream since childhood."
By Leslie Berestein UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER January 29, 2008
Caltrans has decided to reassign the San Diego Minutemen to a different location in its Adopt-A-Highway road cleanup program, away from the Border Patrol's San Clemente checkpoint.
In November, the state transportation department granted a stretch of northbound Interstate 5 near the checkpoint to the anti-illegal immigration group. Late yesterday, Caltrans announced that it would relocate the Minutemen to a location along state Route 52. Caltrans district director Pedro Orso-Delgado said that while his agency had received numerous comments from the public about the group's highway adoption, the agency's decision was based chiefly on public safety concerns.
"I won't deny that we've had a whole bunch of calls and e-mails, on both sides," said Orso-Delgado, who directs Caltrans operations in San Diego and Imperial counties. "It basically creates a lightning rod. ... Really, we don't need that kind of issue on a freeway where we have so many cars traveling and there's potential for having an accident or getting into a safety issue."
Caltrans officials said they notified San Diego Minutemen leader Jeff Schwilk late yesterday with an offer to move the group to a two-mile stretch of Route 52 east of Interstate 15; Schwilk did not respond to requests for an interview.
Schwilk had said earlier yesterday that the group was preparing for a cleanup on a shoulder of I-5 this weekend, and that the group's first cleanup this month had occurred without incident.
"We are there to pick up trash, not to get any kind of attention," Schwilk said.
That Caltrans had granted permission for the San Diego Minutemen to join its Adopt-A-Highway program prompted an outcry this month from local Latino groups, as well as national anti-bigotry organizations, such as the Anti-Defamation League, which considers the group extremist.
While some complained the group should not participate at all based on interpretations of Caltrans' guidelines, others were offended mostly by the group's being assigned a location next to the checkpoint. Caltrans officials have said this was the only stretch of highway available when the group applied last fall.
"It's good news for us," said Bill Flores, a spokesman for a North County coalition known as El Grupo, upon learning of Caltrans' decision. El Grupo comprises local chapters of organizations such as the League of United Latin American Citizens, the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union.
While he said the coalition supports freedom of speech, "we are happy that Caltrans is moving the Minuteman cleanup spot to an area that is a little less offensive," Flores said.
Orso-Delgado said that if the Minutemen accept the relocation, its Adopt-A-Highway sign, now a short distance south of the Border Patrol checkpoint, will be moved to the new location and the group can resume cleanup there.
A group called the Campo Minutemen is planning a cleanup along a stretch of adopted county road in Campo in mid-February.
Minutemen group threatens lawsuit over freeway signs
By Leslie Berestein UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER 5:29 p.m. January 29, 2008
SAN DIEGO – The leader of the San Diego Minutemen says the group is seeking legal advice a day after the state transportation department, citing safety concerns, decided to relocate the group's Adopt-A-Highway site near the Border Patrol's San Clemente checkpoint to a less-traveled stretch along state Route 52.
In a news release Tuesday, San Diego Minutemen leader Jeff Schwilk said the anti-illegal immigration group was "dumbfounded" by the decision.
"There is absolutely no reason to fear that our occasional litter removal details would be anything other than orderly, law-abiding and completely safe," Schwilk wrote.
Schwilk said Tuesday via e-mail that the group was working with an attorney.
"We fully expect to get our freeway back from Caltrans," he said. "SDMM plans to sue in federal court if necessary to protect the civil rights of our large volunteer organization."
On Monday, Caltrans announced it would offer the group a stretch of Route 52 east of Interstate 15 in place of the spot the agency had granted the Minutemen in November, a stretch of northbound Interstate 5 just before and after the checkpoint. The group's Adopt-A-Highway sign, which stood on the shoulder a short distance from the checkpoint, has been removed.
Caltrans District 11 Director Pedro Orso-Delgado said the chief concern was public safety along a busy stretch of highway that on average sees 160,000 vehicles in one direction each day.
"The fear is that you throw a litter group into the fold that is openly passionate about a social issue, and it raises the risk of cars slowing down or stopping to yell encouragement or opposition, additional people near the roadway possibly protesting," Caltrans spokesman Steve Saville said in an e-mail Tuesday.
However, the assignment of a stretch of highway to the group – particularly the stretch at the checkpoint – had become a political flash point, with local Latino groups, national anti-bigotry organizations and even state legislators getting involved.
Tuesday, a Caltrans spokesman said the agency was in the process of revising the permit for the new location, but that it had not received final word from the Minutemen as to whether the group would adopt the new spot.
Schwilk said via e-mail that the group had no plans to accept the new site.
Road adoptions in other states have led to legal challenges. In Missouri, the Ku Klux Klan filed suit on First Amendment grounds after the state denied its 1994 application to sponsor a stretch of highway near St. Louis. After a protracted court battle, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Klan, but not before the state of Missouri had renamed the section of road in question the Rosa Parks Highway, after the civil rights pioneer.
GREG GROSS / Union-Tribune A federal officer stands guard in the cartel's underground, soundproofed shooting range.
Hidden cartel target range is reportedly found in raid
By Greg Gross UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER January 22, 2008
TIJUANA – Days after a wild, deadly shootout between drug cartel gunmen and Mexican police and soldiers, authorities have uncovered what they say is a clandestine training ground for cartel assassins, complete with an underground target range that investigators believe went undetected for months. Heavily armed federal police raided the house Saturday night. They found two armored pickups at the home, along with two other vehicles that had hidden compartments, authorities said.
At ground level, the two-story green-and-white hillside house in the Independencia section of Tijuana included a machine shop for assembling and repairing weapons. Parts of disassembled pistols and rifles lay on the floors.
Below ground was a target range measuring about 50 feet long by 21 feet wide and 8 feet high, its walls and ceiling lined with gray soundproofing material and equipped with a fan to ventilate the gun smoke. Thousands of spent cartridges – perhaps as many as 30,000, authorities said – were collected in bins along one wall.
Bullet-riddled targets lay on the floor.
The discovery came two days after Thursday's firefight between gunmen and police at a house in the La Mesa district of Tijuana where six slain kidnap victims were eventually found.
Mexican authorities uncover what they say is a clandestine training ground located beneath a house believed to belong to the Arellano Felix drug cartel.
The gunbattle came during a particularly bloody period in Tijuana. Earlier last week, three police officers, including two high-ranking commanders, were shot to death. One was attacked in his home, where gunmen also fatally shot his wife and their young daughter.
Some analysts say the federal government's crackdown on organized crime has prompted the gangs to respond violently.
Independencia is one of the city's older neighborhoods, sprawling across steep hills and canyons, a working-class place where homeowners build their own add-ons.
"They're usually very good tenants," he said. "They're very quiet and they usually pay very well, never a problem."
Yesterday, authorities allowed journalists to tour the house. Squads of masked federal police officers in combat boots, bullet-resistant vests and armed with automatic weapons guarded the inside of the house, the outside and both ends of the street as reporters climbed down through a hole in a bathroom floor near the garage into the underground shooting gallery.
Authorities urged residents who suspect similar cartel safe houses in their neighborhoods to call police anonymously.
A mini-van full of illegals rear-ended a Homeland Security SUV this morning on I-10.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety said the overloaded van was heading west when it was involved in a 3-vehicle chain-reaction crash near the Elliot Road off ramp.
By ISTRA PACHECO January 29, 2008 Associated Press Writer
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Members of the K-Paz de la Sierra band vowed to go ahead with a planned tour despite the murder of their lead singer, Sergio Gomez, who was killed Dec. 2 in the latest in a string of slayings of Mexican musicians.
"Obviously, it is a big loss. Nobody is prepared for something like this, but it is a big motivation to carry on," vocalist Humberto Duran told reporters Monday. "We are not going to stand around with our arms crossed."
With Gomez's brother Juan taking over as the new lead singer, the group expects to go ahead with a planned tour of North and South America and possibly release a new al*** later this year.
His band mates also said they could hold a mass memorial concert for Gomez, who was famous for his up-tempo "Pasito Duranguense" rhythm.
Gomez had reportedly received death threats urging him not to appear in the capital of the western state of Michoacan, a hotbed of the drug trade, where he was tortured and strangled. Police have made no arrests in his killing.
K-Paz de la Sierra's al*** "Conquistando Corazones" ("Conquering Hearts") has been nominated for a Grammy in the best banda al*** category, and the musicians said Gomez's parents should attend the ceremony to accept any award his behalf.
A number of musicians' killings in recent years have been linked to a wave of organized crime violence terrorizing many parts of Mexico, including singers of so-called "narcocorridos," or drug ballads. Valentin Elizalde was murdered in November 2006 after his song "To My Enemies" became a drug lord's anthem.
But neither Gomez nor other more recent victims were known for narcocorridos; also killed in December was female singer Zayda Pena - who crooned about love and loss, not drugs and guns.
By MARK STEVENSON January 27, 2008 Associated Press Writer
SANTA MARIA QUIEGOLANI, Mexico (AP) -- Women in this Indian village high in the pine-clad mountains of Oaxaca rise each morning at 4 a.m. to gather firewood, grind corn, prepare the day's food, care for the children and clean the house.
But they aren't allowed to vote in local elections, because - the men say - they don't do enough work.
It was here, in a village that has struggled for centuries to preserve its Zapotec traditions, that Eufrosina Cruz, 27, decided to become the first woman to run for mayor - despite the fact that women aren't allowed to attend town assemblies, much less run for office.
The all-male town board tore up ballots cast in her favor in the Nov. 4 election, arguing that as a woman, she wasn't a "citizen" of the town. "That is the custom here, that only the citizens vote, not the women," said Valeriano Lopez, the town's deputy mayor.
Rather than give up, Cruz has launched the first serious, national-level challenge to traditional Indian forms of government, known as "use and customs," which were given full legal status in Mexico six years ago in response to Indian rights movements sweeping across Latin America.
"For me, it's more like 'abuse and customs,'" Cruz said as she submitted her complaint in December to the National Human Rights Commission. "I am demanding that we, the women of the mountains, have the right to decide our lives, to vote and run for office, because the constitution says we have these rights."
Lopez acknowledged that votes for Cruz were nullified, but claims they added up to only 8 ballots of about 100 cast in this largely unpaved village of about 1,500 people.
Cruz says she was winning - and wants the election to be annulled and held again, this time with women voting.
But the male leaders are refusing to budge. "We live differently here, senor, than people in the city. Here, women are dedicated to their homes, and men work the fields," Apolonio Mendoza, the secretary of the all-male town council, told a visiting reporter.
Cruz has received some support from older men, who by village law lose their political rights when they turn 60. Some younger men also say the system must change and give women more rights.
At a recent meeting of several dozen Cruz supporters, most of them voteless, women in traditional gray shawls recalled being turned down for government aid programs because they weren't accompanied by a man.
Martina Cruz Moreno, 19, said that when her widowed mother sought government-provided building materials to improve her dirt-floor, tin-roofed wooden home, village authorities told her, "Go get yourself a husband."
As a woman, Eufrosina Cruz is not only barred from being mayor, but from participating in the "community labor" that qualifies male villagers as "citizens." Those tasks include repairing roads, herding cattle, cleaning streets and raising crops.
"I'd like to see the men here make tortillas, just for one day, and then tell me that's not work," said Cruz, describing the hours-long process of cleaning, soaking, cooking and milling the corn, shaping the flour into flat disks, and collecting the firewood to heat the clay and brick hearths on which most women cook.
During all-important village festivals, women are expected to cook for all the male guests. But instead of joining them at the table, Cruz says, they are relegated to straw mats on the floor. Clothes are washed by hand, and while most homes have some form of running water, it's often only a single spigot.
Cruz decided to escape that life after she saw her 12-year-old sister given to an older man in a marriage arranged by her father. The sister had her first child at 13, and has since borne seven more.
Cruz was 11 and "I didn't even know what a bus was then."
She traveled to the nearest city to enroll in school, live with relatives and support herself through odd jobs, eventually graduating from college with a degree in accounting.
She is single, and in a village culture where most women wear skirts, she wears pants. Because her village has no formal jobs for women, she works as a school director in a nearby town, and returns to Quiegolani most weekends. That, authorities say, disqualified her from running for mayor because she wasn't a full-time resident. But the man who won the race also works outside the town, and there are questions about how much time he actually spends here.
Cruz views the residency issue as a pretext, noting that authorities have also banned female candidates and anybody with a college degree from running. She said she has followed the use and custom rules as much as she was allowed to, carefully fulfilling lower-level duties that function as a means of testing people's devotion to their village. For four years, she "carried the Virgin" in a religious procession through the town, and has helped fund or organize other festivities.
Cruz figured her case for annulling the elections was solid - after all, Mexico's constitution guarantees both men and women the right to vote. She went first to the Oaxaca state electoral council, then to the state congress. After both upheld the election, she took her fight to the commission in Mexico City.
"I am not asking anything for myself. I am asking on behalf of Indian women, so that never again will the laws allow political segregation," Cruz wrote to the commissioners, who may take months to investigate the case, and who could recommend that state authorities protect women's rights to vote or hold office. She says she'll go higher, to federal electoral authorities, if necessary.
In Mexico, many local governance rules date to before the Spanish conquest and weren't given national legal recognition until a 2001 Indian rights reform was enacted in the wake of the Zapatista rebel uprising in Chiapas.
The law states that Indian townships may "apply their own normative systems ... as long as they obey the general principles of the Constitution and respect the rights of individuals, human rights, and particularly the dignity and well-being of women."
Despite this specific protection, about a fourth of the Indian villages operating under the law don't let women vote, putting human rights groups in a dilemma: Most actively supported recognition for Indian governance systems, and few have therefore taken up the women's cause.
Cruz now travels alone from one government office to another, always carrying an armful of calla lilies. "This flower grows a lot in the village. Even though we don't water or care for it much, it flowers," she explained. "It is a symbol for us Indian women."
"The congress upheld the vote out of sheer laziness, to avoid stirring up the village or causing a conflict there," said Rep. Perla Woolrich, a Oaxaca state legislator who supported Cruz's cause. "In the past, use and customs represented something positive, but by now it violates people's constitutional rights. Use and customs have to reviewed, and those practices that violate rights have to be thrown out."
Cruz says she isn't against all customs in her village. She prefers its bipartisanship to political party rivalry because it encourages close-knit Indian communities to stick together and underpins their survival.
"There are really beautiful things in use and customs, if they are applied as they should be," she said.
"Up there in the mountains, unfortunately, nobody listens to us," she says. "If nothing is done, we'll go on the same way for another century in Quiegolani."
Embassy official says Mexico issues arrest warrant for missing Marine
By John Rice ASSOCIATED PRESS January 29, 2008
MEXICO CITY – Mexican officials have issued an arrest warrant for a U.S. Marine suspected of killing a pregnant colleague who had accused him of rape, a U.S. Embassy official said Tuesday. A cousin told reporters last week that Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean visited family in the area of Guadalajara, Mexico, this month, but left without saying where he was headed.
The burned remains of Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach were found with those of her fetus earlier this month in a fire pit in the back yard of Laurean's house in Jacksonville, N.C., and Laurean, is being sought on an indictment charging first-degree murder. Both were stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Laurean was born in Mexico and fled after leaving a note for his wife in North Carolina saying that Lauterbach cut her own throat and that he had buried her body.
Authorites say she did not commit suicide, and an autopsy found that she died of blunt force trauma to the head. Prosecutors have pledged not to pursue the death penalty if Laurean is found in Mexico, which refuses to send anyone back to the U.S. unless provided assurances they will not face execution.
A U.S. Embassy official, who was not authorized to give a name, said Mexican officials had issued a warrant for Laurean's arrest on a U.S. extradition request. The official did not say when the warrant was issued.
Mary Lauterbach, the mother of the dead Marine, told NBC's "Today" show that the Marine Corps should consider basic procedural changes, "such as a mandatory base move if a person requests it after a rape accusation."
"We want to change the climate so that any time a woman is attacked and, you know, wants to report it, that she can do so without the fear that the repercussions from reporting it will be far worse than the rape itself," Lauterbach said.
CNN first reported that Mexico was seeking his arrest.
Juan Antonio Ramos Ramirez told The Associated Press that Laurean, his cousin, walked into his liquor store in a Guadalajara suburb on Jan. 14 or Jan. 15, and chatted for a few minutes. Ramos Ramirez said his cousin never came back.
Lauterbach failed to show up for work in mid-December and her body was found three weeks later.
Lauterbach's family has said she was harrassed at Camp Lejeune, the massive base on the Atlantic coast where she and Laurean served in the same logistics unit as personel clerks. The Marines have said her car was keyed once and that she reported that she had been punched in the face.
The Marines ordered Laurean to stay away from Lauterbach one day after she reported the rape in May, and later issued a protective order to keep them apart. Their regimental commander also assigned Lauterbach to work in a separate building across the base from Laurean, although the Marines said earlier this month that Lauterbach reported that she did not feel threatened by him.
Laurean denied the rape accusation. Naval investigators have said they have no phyiscal evidence or witness accounts to corroborate Lauterbach's claims, but Lauterbach's and Laurean's regimental commander was intent on taking the case to a hearing that could have led to a trial.
Lauterbach's family has complained that the Marines and local officials didn't respond with enough urgency to her disappearance in mid-December. At that time, Mary Lauterbach told sheriff's officials in North Carolina her daughter was a "complusive liar," a comment she has repeatedly said was a mistake.
"I said, you know, she had problems, you know, with occasional lying," Lauterbach said on NBC. "And that got – just a piece of that was pulled out. So it was really misstated."
Prosecutors believe Lauterbach was killed Dec. 14. Marine officials have said they attempted to find her after she failed to report to work on Dec. 17, but had evidence – including a note left for her roommate in which she said she was tired of the Marine Corps lifestyle – that led them to believe she left on her own.
Emma Lozano (right)addresses the problems she sees in immigration policy as Nanciann Gatta listens. Lozano, a community activist and Gatta, superintendent of Niles Township schools, were panelists at an immigration symposium at the Loyola University School of Law Tuesday.
As election looms, immigration issue back front and center
Medill Reports - Chicago, Northwestern University A publication of the Medill School. by Rob Runyan Jan 29, 2008
With Super Tuesday less than a week away, voters are thinking hard about the candidates and the issues. A daylong immigration symposium hosted by Loyola University's law school Tuesday encouraged them to make immigration reform a top consideration when they cast their ballots.
It's a touchy issue, one that some candidates have been reluctant to take a stand on. But Tuesday's panelists called for action from citizens to help fix what they called a broken system. Most speakers in the morning session favored solutions short of mass deportation.
Keynote speaker Jeanne Butterfield, executive director of the Washington D.C.-based American Immigration Lawyers Association, began by asking the audience "Is there anyone in this room who believes our immigration system is not broken?" The silence that followed set the mood for the panelists' subsequent remarks.
Speaker after speaker, sometimes in fiery and emotional words, related their experiences while working toward immigration reform.
"[Immigration law] is about following the law [simply] because it's the law," said Emma Lozano, a Chicago-based community activist. "The laws are broken, and they're extremely unfair."
Lozano, president of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, a grass-roots community group which has assisted Elvira Arellano and more recently Flor Crisotomo in fighting deportation, said these two women illustrate the larger problem.
"Elvira Arellano stood in a church for an entire year," Lozano said. "With no money whatsoever, she was able to battle, almost one on one, the billions of dollars spent on a campaign of hate to demonize the Mexican in particular, and the Latino in general."
Both Lozano and City Clerk Miguel del Valle said the onus is on citizens to effect immigration reform through voting and writing letters to Congress.
Del Valle recalled a recent march in Chicago to get out the Latino vote. The rallying cry was "Hoy marchamos, mañana votamos (Today we march, tomorrow we vote.)"
"We got the marchamos part right," Del Valle said, conceding that the voting portion was not as successful.
Del Valle is backing his former Illinois State Senate colleague, Barack Obama, in the presidential election, partly because of a vote Obama made in the Illinois Senate for an immigration reform bill. Though the bill was narrowly defeated, del Valle emphasized the importance of local elections in future reform.
Carpentersville was a major focus when the panelists' talk turned to local immigration issues. Village President William Sarto was a member of one panel, and the northwest suburb became an example of the dangers of low Latino voter turnout.
Though Carpentersville's population is about 40 percent Hispanic, three village trustees favoring anti-immigration ordinances have been elected, said Sarto.
"[Immigration opposition] has slowed progress in our town," he said. "It has divided our community."
Immigration reform should not be left to local governments, Sarto said. But in the absence of federal involvement, municipalities have begun to take charge.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: explora,
MEXICO CITY (AP) - A deported Mexican migrant who holed up in a Chicago church to fight for immigrants' rights rallied support Tuesday for another woman now seeking refuge in the same building.
In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Elvira Arellano said 28-year-old Flor Crisostomo's situation showed the need for U.S. immigration reform.
«She has three kids who depend on her and what she sends from the U.S.,» Arellano said. Crisostomo took refuge in the Adalberto United Methodist Church after the Board of Immigration Appeals ordered her to leave the United States by Monday. The single mother paid a smuggler to sneak her into the U.S. in 2000 and has sent money to her children in her hometown of Iguala in southern Guerrero state.
Arellano, who sought sanctuary for a year, was deported to Mexico in August when she left the church to visit Los Angeles. She lives in a small town in western Mexico with her son, a U.S. citizen, and writes columns for U.S. newspapers. Her son is going to school and trying to adapt to life in Mexico, but «he really wants to return to the U.S.,» she said. She said she hoped the immigrant community in the U.S. would rally around Crisostomo's case as they did hers.
«Undocumented immigrants are living there in the darkness, fearing deportation and being separated from their families,» she said. Arellano and Crisostomo became friends and fellow activists after Crisostomo was arrested during a 2006 raid on IFCO Systems, a manufacturer of crates and pallets in Chicago.
When Arellano took refuge in the church, Crisostomo brought food and took Arellano's clothes to be washed. When Crisostomo followed in Arellano's footsteps and told reporters Monday that she wasn't leaving the building, Arellano called her from Mexico to urge her friend to stay strong.
«Only by fighting is it possible to know what you can accomplish,» Arellano said.
(See related article with photo posted by Explora 01/27/08, 8:07 p.m.)
Illegal immigrant vows to stand ground HUMBOLDT PARK | Holed up in same church where Arellano held out
AIDING AND ABETTING ILLEGAL ALIENS IS A FELONY:
Any person who . . . encourages or induces an alien to . . . reside . . . knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such . . . residence is . . . in violation of law, shall be punished as provided . . . for each alien in respect to whom such a violation occurs . . . fined under title 18 . . . imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both."
Fake Store front Churches such as Aldaberto in Chicago that is notorious for harboring illegal aliens who have been ordered deported from America better take heed.
Section 274 felonies under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, INA 274A(a)(1)(A):
[B]A person (including a group of persons, business, organization, or local government) commits a federal felony when she or he:
* assists an alien s/he should reasonably know is illegally in the U.S. or who lacks employment authorization, by transporting, sheltering, or assisting him or her to obtain employment, or
* encourages that alien to remain in the U.S. by referring him or her to an employer or by acting as employer or agent for an employer in any way, or
* knowingly assists illegal aliens due to personal convictions.
Penalties upon conviction include criminal fines, imprisonment, and forfeiture of vehicles and real property used to commit the crime. Anyone employing or contracting with an illegal alien without verifying his or her work authorization status is guilty of a misdemeanor. Aliens and employers violating immigration laws are subject to arrest, detention, and seizure of their vehicles or property. In addition, individuals or entities who engage in racketeering enterprises that commit (or conspire to commit) immigration-related felonies are subject to private civil suits for treble damages and injunctive relief.
THE FAKE CHURCH KNOWN AS ALDABERTO BETTER BEWARE!
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Beverly,
Originally posted by Beverly: January 29th, 2008 @ 12:49pm by Jayme West/KTAR
A mini-van full of illegals rear-ended a Homeland Security SUV this morning on I-10.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety said the overloaded van was heading west when it was involved in a 3-vehicle chain-reaction crash near the Elliot Road off ramp.
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