U.S. citizens detained?


Immigration officials detaining, deporting American citizens


By Marisa Taylor | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Thursday, January 24, 2008

FLORENCE, Ariz. — Thomas Warziniack was born in Minnesota and grew up in Georgia, but immigration authorities pronounced him an illegal immigrant from Russia.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has held Warziniack for weeks in an Arizona detention facility with the aim of deporting him to a country he's never seen. His jailers shrugged off Warziniack's claims that he was an American citizen, even though they could have retrieved his Minnesota birth certificate in minutes and even though a Colorado court had concluded that he was a U.S. citizen a year before it shipped him to Arizona.

On Thursday, Warziniack finally became a free man. Immigration officials released him after his family, who learned about his predicament from McClatchy, produced a birth certificate and after a U.S. senator demanded his release.

"The immigration agents told me they never make mistakes," Warziniack said in an earlier phone interview from jail. "All I know is that somebody dropped the ball."

The story of how immigration officials decided that a small-town drifter with a Southern accent was an illegal Russian immigrant illustrates how the federal government mistakenly detains and sometimes deports American citizens.

U.S. citizens who are mistakenly jailed by immigration authorities can get caught up in a nightmarish bureaucratic tangle in which they're simply not believed.

An unpublished study by the Vera Institute of Justice, a New York nonprofit organization, in 2006 identified 125 people in immigration detention centers across the nation who immigration lawyers believed had valid U.S. citizenship claims.

Vera initially focused on six facilities where most of the cases surfaced. The organization later broadened its analysis to 12 sites and plans to track the outcome of all cases involving citizens.

Nina Siulc, the lead researcher, said she thinks that many more American citizens probably are being erroneously detained or deported every year because her assessment looked at only a small number of those in custody. Each year, about 280,000 people are held on immigration violations at 15 federal detention centers and more than 400 state and local contract facilities nationwide.

Unlike suspects charged in criminal courts, detainees accused of immigration violations don't have a right to an attorney, and three-quarters of them represent themselves. Less affluent or resourceful U.S. citizens who are detained must try to maneuver on their own through a complicated system.

"It becomes your word against the government's, even when you know and insist that you're a U.S. citizen," Siulc said. "Your word doesn't always count, and the government doesn't always investigate fully."

Officials with ICE, the federal agency that oversees deportations, maintain that such cases are isolated because agents are required to obtain sufficient evidence that someone is an illegal immigrant before making an arrest. However, they don't track the number of U.S. citizens who are detained or deported.

"We don't want to detain or deport U.S. citizens," said Ernestine Fobbs, an ICE spokeswoman. "It's just not something we do."

While immigration advocates agree that the agents generally release detainees before deportation in clear-cut cases, they said that ICE sometimes ignores valid assertions of citizenship in the rush to ship out more illegal immigrants.

Proving citizenship is especially difficult for the poor, mentally ill, disabled or anyone who has trouble getting a copy of his or her birth certificate while behind bars.

Pedro Guzman, a mentally disabled U.S. citizen who was born in Los Angeles, was serving a 120-day sentence for trespassing last year when he was shipped off to Mexico. Guzman was found three months later trying to return home. Although federal government attorneys have acknowledged that Guzman was a citizen, ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said Thursday that her agency still questions the validity of his birth certificate.

Last March, ICE agents in San Francisco detained Kebin Reyes, a 6-year-old boy who was born in the U.S., for 10 hours after his father was picked up in a sweep. His father says he wasn't permitted to call relatives who could care for his son, although ICE denies turning down the request.

The number of U.S. citizens who are swept up in the immigration system is a small fraction of the number of illegal immigrants who are deported, but in the last several years immigration lawyers report seeing more detainees who turn out to be U.S. citizens.

The attorneys said the chances of mistakes are growing as immigration agents step up sweeps in the country and state and local prisons with less experience in immigration matters screen more criminals on behalf of ICE.

ICE's Fobbs said agents move as quickly as possible to check stories of people who claim they're American citizens. But she said that many of the cases involve complex legal arguments, such as whether U.S. citizenship is derived from parents, which an immigration judge has to sort out.

"We have to be careful we don't release the wrong person," she said.

In Warziniack's case, ICE officials appear to have been oblivious to signs that they'd made a serious mistake.

After he was arrested in Colorado on a minor drug charge, Warziniack told probation officials there wild stories about being shot seven times, stabbed twice and bombed four times as a Russian army colonel in Afghanistan, according to court records. He also insisted that he swam ashore to America from a Soviet submarine.

Court officials were skeptical. Not only did his story seem preposterous, but the longtime heroin addict also had a Southern accent and didn't speak Russian.

Colorado court officials quickly determined his true identity in a national crime database: He was a Minnesota-born man who grew up in Georgia. Before Warziniack was sentenced to prison on the drug charge, his probation officer surmised in a report that he could be mentally ill.

Although it took only minutes for McClatchy to confirm with Minnesota officials that a birth certificate under Warziniack's name and birth date was on file, Colorado prison officials notified federal authorities that Warziniack was a foreign-born prisoner.

McClatchy also was able to track down Warziniack's three half-sisters. Even though they hadn't seen him in almost 20 years, his sisters were willing to vouch for him.

One of them, Missy Dolle, called the detention center repeatedly, until officials there stopped returning her calls. Her brother's attorney told her that a detainee in Warziniack's situation often has to wait weeks for results, even if he or she gets a copy of a U.S. birth certificate.

Warziniack, meanwhile, waited impatiently for an opportunity to prove his case. After he contacted the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, a group that provides legal advice to immigrants, a local attorney recently agreed to represent him for free.

Dolle and her husband, Keith, a retired sheriff's deputy in Mecklenburg County, N.C., flew to Arizona from their Charlotte home to attend her brother's hearing before an immigration judge.

Before she left, she e-mailed Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C. After someone from his office contacted ICE, immigration officials promised to release Warziniack if they got a birth certificate.

After scrambling to get a power of attorney to obtain their brother's birth certificate, the sisters succeeded in getting a copy the day before the hearing.

On Thursday, however, government lawyers told an immigration judge during a deportation hearing that they needed a week to verify the authenticity of Warziniack's birth record. The judge delayed his ruling.

"I still can't believe this is happening in America," Dolle said.

Warziniack began to weep when he saw his sister. "They still don't believe me," he said.

Later that day, however, ICE officials changed their minds and said that he could be released this week. They said they were able to confirm his birth certificate, but they didn't acknowledge any problem with the handling of the case.

The officials blamed conflicting information for the mix-up.

"The burden of proof is on the individual to show they're legally entitled to be in the United States," said ICE spokeswoman Kice.

Warziniack, 40, told McClatchy that he has no memory of telling anyone he was Russian. Instead, he recalled the shock of withdrawing from his heroin addiction after 18 years of drug abuse.

Katherine Sanguinetti, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections, suspects that prison officials were relying on information that Warziniack gave when he was first taken into custody because they never received the Colorado court documents concluding that he was a U.S. citizen.

Even now, the prison records inaccurately show his current location as "the Soviet Union."

In the end, Sanguinetti said, ICE is responsible for making sure that it detains and deports the correct person. Her prisons flag hundreds of prisoners a month as foreign-born, but can't possibly verify the information, she said.

"Could it happen again? Sure," Sanguinetti said. "But we would hope that ICE during their investigative process would discover the truth."

Rachel Rosenbloom, an attorney at the Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Boston College who's identified at least seven U.S. citizens whom ICE has mistakenly deported since 2000, believes that the agency should set up a more formal way of handling detainees when they appear to have valid claims of U.S. citizenship. At the very least, she said, ICE could release people such as Warziniack on bond while waiting for immigration judges to hear the cases.

"It's like finding innocent people on death row," Rosenbloom said. "There may be only a small number of cases, but when you find them you want to do everything in your power to make sure they get out."

(Researcher Tish Wells contributed.)


McClatchy Newspapers 2008

Enhanced Homeland Security to support U.S. Comprehensive Immigration reforms

Surya B. Prasai
americanchronicle.com
Saturday, February 16, 2008


David Posner for the American Chronicle National Media Network.
January, 2008

"I am pleased to let our talented American Chronicle writers, the finest in our country, know that Mr. Surya B. Prasai, a globally accomplished Nepalese international strategic communications, media and international development professional has joined us as a regional contributor from Silver Spring, Maryland. Surya is also a popular Global Commentator and Discussant at the Google Environmental Professionals Group: Water, Climate Change and Bio-diversity Information Network and has written important pieces with global policy ramification on HIV/AIDS impact mitigation and global environmental conservation concerning the Bali Summit and the post-Kyoto lobbyists' dilemmas.

Surya will be contributing actively on HIV/AIDS, gender mainstreaming, international labor mobility, and American and international environmental safeguards promotion. We believe his insights would help us in further understanding the American and global compact on progress made in the above important development and social sectors and the need for unique innovative thinking on the issues, which he possesses!

Welcome Surya and looking forward to your important and active contributions to our prestigious American writers' circuit".

....................
About the author
Surya B. Prasai is an internationally acknowledged international development and media personality from Nepal focusing on global advisory work in HIV/AIDS impact mitigation, protecting women and children´s health and rights, curbing international illegal labor migration in the US and the Asia-Pacific region, and analyzing and promoting US and UN global environmental safeguards.

He has worked with German technical Cooperation, BMZ, Germany, UNICEF, ILO, UNDP, Family Health International (USAID/Policy project), the African Comprehensive Partnership (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Merck Co. and Botswana Government) respectively in Botswana, Nepal, Thailand, India and Sudan.

As an influential top level Asian media commentator, he has contributed in the past three decades in The Bangkok Post (Guest Columnist), The Nation, Thailand (Guest Editor), The Far Eastern Economic Review, The Hindustan Times (Culture and Tourism contributor), The Rising Nepal, The Kathmandu Post, The Peoples Review, The Everest Herald, The Commoner (Tourism and Culture Editor), ILO News Features, and UNICEF Staff News (New York) as a Middle East and North Africa Regional Reporter. He currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland and can be contacted via e-mail at just_1_idea@hotmail.com.



By Surya B. Prasai
February 15, 2008

In an impassioned speech in Omaha, Nebraska in 2006, a speech that the world´s press listened to carefully, President George Bush made the clear case for Comprehensive Immigration Reform in the US with these bold words: "This country is debating the important immigration issue. And I think, it needs to be addressed now… I remind our fellow citizens, particularly those who look to the future and get nervous, and say, well, we can't compete, or there's no way for America to be the economic leader of the world, there's just too much competition -- I simply just don't believe that. I tell people, let's don't fear the future, and let´s shape it. One way we can shape the future is to make sure people have the skills necessary to fill the jobs of the 21st century".

In that speech, President Bush went on to champion fervently the importance of government to help people assimilate into American society. He told his audience, this is what had happened throughout the ages in America; people had learned to assimilate with dignity. He appealed further to the American people, "When we think about this immigration debate, the first thing people have got to remember is we are a nation of immigrants, that we've had this debate before in American history. This isn't the first time the United States of America has had to take a look at our nature and our soul and our history".

President Bush also talked at length about the framework for a Comprehensive Immigration Reform package, one part of which is to help people assimilate, whatever it would take to make it work and the other to make America´s borders safe, more secure, yet still accessible to the genuine immigrant who wanted to come and contribute to America´s economic might and social diversity. The Bush Comprehensive Immigration doctrine, which has been supported almost in whole or partially by almost every US Presidential candidate in the 2007-2008 period also emphasizes the need to make the rule of law prevail, help the American Dream flourish, and uphold legal justice equitably, meaning people will have to wait in line. President Bush also stated," We're also a compassionate nation that treats people decently, and the two are not in conflict. That's what's important for our fellow citizens to understand. The two are not in conflict".

These are important remarks to note in the context of the recent testimony made by Secretary James Chertoff from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security on "FY 2009 Budget Request" recently. According to a press released from the department on 13 February 2008 Chertoff felt there was still a need to make the most effective and efficient use of U.S. resources and capabilities to protect the homeland and the American people. Mr.Chertoff stated, "While we have had many successes, there are numerous challenges that still remain. I am here today to ask for your partnership and support as we face these challenges. We may not see eye to eye on all issues, but we certainly agree that our interests are best served when we work together to achieve our common goal of securing this great nation".

The year 2008 marks the fifth year of the Department of Homeland Security´s(DHS) existence which continues to protect the nation from dangerous people and goods; to protect critical infrastructure; to build a nimble, effective emergency response system and a culture of preparedness; and to strengthen the Department´s operations and management. The DHS has made some good progress in achieving effective control of the border, screening passengers, protecting critical infrastructure, responding to emergencies, and enforcing US immigration laws. In FY 2007, the Department invested significant time and effort to implement the requirements of the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act, to focus its efforts on the greatest risks, to be nimble in an overall response to changing threats, and to be disciplined in its use of resources as it builds its capacity to meet future challenges seamlessly with state and local leadership, first responders, the private sector, our international partners, and most certainly, the public.

Mr. Chertoff stated," It is no accident that we have not suffered a major terrorist attack on U.S. soil since September 11, 2001. It is the result of the President´s leadership, the support of Congress, and the hard work and constant vigilance of hundreds of thousands of men and women – including the employees at DHS – who are working tirelessly both at home and overseas to protect our country. Under the President´s leadership, the Department will continue to effectively carry out its critical mission and will leave a strong foundation for the future". For FY 2009, the DHS is focusing more on being an efficient department that is working to protect the U.S. Borders and critical infrastructure, prevent dangerous people and goods from entering the country, and recover from natural disasters effectively, Chertoff added.

Thus, the total DHS FY 2009 budget requested is $50.5 billion in funding; a 7 percent increase over the FY 2008 enacted level excluding emergency funding. The Department´s FY 2009 gross discretionary budget request is $40.7 billion, an increase of 8 percent over the FY 2008 enacted level excluding emergency funding. According to DHS, gross discretionary funding does not include mandatory funding such as the Coast Guard´s retirement pay accounts and fees paid for immigration benefits. The Department´s FY 2009 net discretionary budget request is $37.6 billion, which does not include fee collections such as funding for the Federal Protective Service and aviation security passenger and carrier fees.

An increased budget will definitely allow DHS to serve more immigrants wanting to reside in the country as Permanent Residents at a time when America is facing increasing global competition, and also facing a skilled workers crunch in comparison to other G-8 countries and emerging economic power houses such as India, China and Brazil.

Recently DHS has been working over its limited budget to try to shorten the immigration waiting period for many so that guest workers and skilled immigrants can immediately start contributing to America´s production base and economic sector within a few months or weeks of their arrival. This has also resulted in the need to coordinate action quicker with other government bureaus such as the FBI where background checks of all would be immigrants is done. Sometimes, these results in having to bear in to the workers requests given the employers shortage of skilled and occupational work category vacancies.

In a story carried by the Washington Post from Spencer Hsiu on 12 February 2008," Facing a rapidly growing backlog of immigration cases, the Bush administration will grant permanent residency to tens of thousands of legal U.S. immigrants without first completing required background checks against the FBI's investigative files". This change affects as many as 47,000 permanent residency, or green-card, applicants whose cases are otherwise complete but whose FBI checks have been pending for more than six months. Overall, about 44 percent of the 320,000 pending immigration name checks before the FBI -- including citizenship as well as green-card requests – have been awaiting decisions for more than six months or more. According to Mr. Prakash Khatri, the ombudsman of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services this has also been described as the "the most pervasive" processing problem in the U.S. immigration system.

In fact, recently Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez announced a series of administrative reforms to address border security and immigration challenges for the US which include within the boundaries of existing law to secure the US borders more effectively, improve interior and worksite enforcement, streamline existing guest worker programs, improve the current immigration system, and help new immigrants assimilate into American culture faster. As President Bush noted in his Nebraska speech outlining his basic plans for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, "I believe we ought to differentiate between those who've been here for a long period of time, and those who are newly arrived. I know we need to treat people with respect and dignity. I think the best way to assure the American people that we're a nation of laws and a compassionate nation at the same time is to say, pay your debt to society, and if you choose to be a citizen, you can, just you wait in line at the back, not in the beginning".

In stopping illegal immigration, the Bush Administration has worked hard to strengthen the mandate of Homeland Security to be both people friendly and overall responsive to the cross-border needs. The main challenge in front of Homeland Security in 2008 will continue to be improving border security and immigration within existing law.

As President Bush noted in his 2007 Nebraska speech, there is little fear for most Americans to think otherwise about Comprehensive Immigration Reforms. He stated frankly," The values that made us great is that we're a nation that have been united by common ideals, proud of our history, proud of our flag, understanding of the need to have a common language, and at the same time, a society whose soul has been uplifted constantly by the fact that people have come to our country to realize a dream, the dream of working hard and improving their lot in life; the dream of putting food on the table, and at the same time, hoping the child goes to college; the dream of owning their own businesses. That's uniquely American. It enables me to say to the American people that "one nation under God" means something. And we must never lose that spirit".

President Bush´s Comprehensive Immigration Plan which is widely supported on a bi-partisan basis, vindicated by the backing statements of individual candidates standing up for the US Presidential race in 2008 mainly recognizes the need to maintain America´s competitive edge, allowing those who are outstanding and living abroad but wanting to contribute to the American economy and society to do so in a legal manner, and also trying to discourage illegal immigration which is a major American headache. Secretary Chertoff has managed to put in considerable reforms in streamlining the work of Homeland Security in recent past, particularly in cutting down the immigration lines and enhancing the labor pool America needs to sustain her competitive global economic edge. Undoubtedly, the immigration debate will rage on in America, fueled by the argument that America is a land of immigrants and will always continue to be so. The DHS has certainly been able to live up to its promise in helping new immigrants coming to America make use of its people friendly services and readily accessible on-line information thereby fulfilling many of the concerns on reforming America's immigration system and also improving the quality and quantity of immigration intake. Added future budgetary resources will certainly help DHS provide better and more expanded services both to the American public and the immigrant community in the U.S.

Dems could see immigration silver lining in McCain

Could McCain's nomination mean an immigration deal this year?


Stephen Dinan
The Washington Times
Posted on February 15, 2008 6:37 PM

Greg Siskind has come up with a scenario that argues Democrats should be tempted, now that John McCain is the likely Republican nominee, is to rush an immigration bill through this year.

"Do you think the GOP is going to allow their rank-and-file members to attack their nominee day in day out over the immigration issue? If they do, the results could be disastrous as McCain will be going around the country trying to unite a very fractured party that is already pretty suspicious of his conservative bona fides. Can you imagine one Republican after another having to come to the microphone to denounce the McCain-Kennedy bill (and that's what Reid and Pelosi need to call it every chance they get)? And then McCain being dogged by reporters asking about it multiple times each day?"

In his scenario, immigration could also be the tail that wags the dog — a way for Democrats to distract from their own intraparty presidential battle, particularly if the Clinton-Obama race goes all the way to a convention.

"[T]hrowing the immigration 'grenade' and stirring up the immigration storm in the GOP may make the Democrats bickering look pretty tame," he writes, adding that that would put pressure on Republican leaders to cut a deal on Democrats' terms to keep their own fight under wraps. Siskind says bringing back the bill this year "would have virtually no drawbacks" for Democrats.

It's an intriguing scenario, though it doesn't strike me as working out as easily as he puts it. In the first place, McCain has had to shift somewhat, embracing both an enforcement-first position that his own campaign manager says is now the consensus of the party. It would be impossible for McCain to back away from that now.

Second, it wasn't just Republicans that killed the bill. More than a dozen Democratic senators were happy to have a chance to vote against it, and on the House side, plenty of conservative-leaning Democrats will be begging their leaders not to go Siskind's recommended route.

Still, given that McCain has said he still supports the bill he wrote with Sen. Ted Kennedy — yet also says that bill is dead — Democrats must be at least a little tempted to prove him wrong and bring it back, just to see what he does.

FILE/The Associated Press
Oklahoma state Rep. Randy Terrill, at a 2006 Senate hearing, says polls show that up to three out of four of the state's residents support his House Bill 1804. This summer, the same law also will allow U.S. citizens to sue employers if they think they were fired in favor of illegal workers. Employers in the state say they already see the results: "A total lack of workers," said Doug Forrest, a Tulsa site-preparation contractor and golf course builder. "This is potentially sending our state into a recession."


Oklahoma's crackdown on illegal immigration draws Texas lawmakers' interest

Crackdown on illegal immigration draws criticism, Texas interest

12:00 AM CST on Thursday, February 14, 2008
By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News
rtgarrett@dallasnews.com

OKLAHOMA CITY – Welcome to the nation's laboratory for a crackdown on illegal immigration. Last year, Oklahoma's Legislature passed, by huge margins, the nation's toughest law on illegal immigrants, making it a felony to harbor, transport, shelter or conceal undocumented immigrants.

Proponents of the law don't see such economic harm.

Meanwhile, some Texas lawmakers are already promising bills that mirror Oklahoma's House Bill 1804.

State Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, said the Oklahoma measure has proved that even as Congress deadlocks on immigration, a state can protect itself against what he calls threats to public health and safety posed by a porous border.

"You don't have to round up 20 million illegal aliens," Mr. Berman said. "Stop the two free benefits you're giving them – free health care and a free education – and they'll go back across the Rio Grande."

Mr. Berman has introduced similar anti-illegal-immigration measures in the past but has been unsuccessful.

In December, Oklahoma Treasurer Scott Meacham said "some short-run pain" to that state's economy might occur, if reports of temporary labor shortages in construction, agriculture and oilfield services industries proved severe and long-lasting.

On Wednesday, Meacham deputy Tim Allen said there's been no clear trend to sales tax collections. In October, they dipped below expectations, then hit an estimate on the nose in November, rose in December and flopped again last month. Mr. Allen said that while growth of income taxes has slowed, that could be in line with the national economy.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and several Oklahoma business groups recently sued to overturn the law, saying it improperly steps on federal government turf.

Only one group has tried to track the law's effects on population. The Greater Tulsa Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, after checking with schools, churches, and bus lines with service to Mexico, estimated that between 15,000 and 25,000 illegal immigrants have left Tulsa County since the law was passed.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, there were between 50,000 and 75,000 illegal immigrants in Oklahoma nearly two years ago, with 20 times more – as many as 1.6 million – in Texas.

Jean Towell, leader of a Dallas group fighting illegal immigration, said she's spoken with five North Texas House Republicans who "are planning, as they said to me, to two-step with Oklahoma."

Two of them who could be reached Wednesday, Reps. Jim Jackson of Carrollton and Linda Harper-Brown of Irving, confirmed that they will be joint sponsors with Mr. Berman. A third, Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, R-Parker, said she hasn't seen particulars and won't commit yet, though she has "positive" feelings about the proposal.

However, Bill Hammond, president of the Texas Association of Business, said it would be "unfair to punish employers in Texas for the failure of Congress to act" on immigration.

"We would, of course, oppose any effort on the part of the Legislature to make immigration a state issue," said Mr. Hammond, whose group helped the GOP capture control of the Texas House in 2002. "It's a grave mistake for them to do so."

Rep. Rafael Anchía, D-Dallas, who joined forces with Mr. Hammond and others last year to quash bills discouraging illegal immigration, said this year's presidential race should discourage the Texas Legislature from following Oklahoma's lead next year. He said GOP voters rejected their party's hard-liners on immigration, U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., and former Massachussetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Also, 36 percent of Texas' population is Hispanic, compared with only 7 percent in Oklahoma.

Groups of Hispanics and civil libertarians also have gone to court trying to nullify the Oklahoma law, so far unsuccessfully. The state's Latino leaders say the law has spread fear and led to the death of at least one infant because his parents were afraid they would be deported if they took him to a clinic.

The law strongly nudges local and state police to help enforce federal immigration laws and requires state and local governments to determine whether someone is in the country legally before dispensing public assistance. Some exceptions are made, such as for emergency medical care. A final portion of the law goes into effect July 1, requiring private companies to verify the employment eligibility of all new hires.

"The fear, the terror, is pushing people further underground," said Patricia Fenell, who runs the Latino Community Development Agency, a Hispanic social services center on Oklahoma City's south side.

Alma Montez, who illegally migrated from Mexico a decade ago with her husband, is wary. She said her husband, who lost his $19-an-hour job as a welder about the time the law took effect, has had to take a lower-paying job. He fears that she and their six children will be caught and deported while he's at work, Ms. Montez said.

"My son told me, 'Mommy, what happens if I stay in this school and the immigration take my Papi and you? What am I to do?' " she said. "I say, 'I don't know.' "

State Rep. Randy Terrill, a Republican from the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, wrote the law. He conceded last week that family breakups will be wrenching, but said bad things also happen to relatives of other people who break laws, such as burglars.

"Somebody's decision to commit a crime ... frequently has an adverse impact on one's family," said Mr. Terrill, a lawyer and part-time government professor at Hillsdale Free Will Baptist College. "We don't use that as an excuse not to enforce the law."

But state Sen. Harry Coates calls Mr. Terrill "a mad scientist, and Oklahoma is his laboratory."

Mr. Coates of Seminole, an hour east of Oklahoma City, was the Legislature's sole Republican to vote against the bill. He said it is mean-spirited, hurts business, and inconveniences legal residents, especially elderly drivers who forget to renew their license and then must produce a birth certificate.

Mr. Terrill said recent state administrative changes should eliminate delays in renewing licenses.

Several Christian denominations have said they'll continue to urge parishioners to aid strangers, even though the law threatens those who transport or shelter "aliens" with at least one year in prison and/or at least a $1,000 fine.

In November, messengers to the annual meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma passed a resolution saying the law "will not change their ministry to any people," according to the Southern Baptist group's Web site.

Mr. Terrill said he doubts courts will convict anyone acting on altruistic motives.

He cites polls showing that as many as three out of four Oklahomans support the law. He predicted it will survive attempts to repeal it during the current session of the Oklahoma Legislature, which ends in May.

Mr. Coates conceded that passing a full or even partial repeal this session "is going to be an uphill fight."

One reason is people like Dan Howard, a Tulsa aircraft dealer.

"People up here got scared to death because ... crime went through the ceiling," said Mr. Howard, who founded an anti-illegal-immigration Web site. "We just want rule of law."

Marcha Migrante III at the Canadian Border

by Enrique Morones (repost from e-mail)
Thursday Feb 14th, 2008 11:22 PM
www.indybay.org/
Update on Marcha Migrante III - at the Canadian Border on Feb 12.

2/10 Spoke @ North West MECHA regional conference @ PSU.. 100 of the brightest minds in the NW makes us proud…Estella flies in from San Diego, we all do two hours on Portland public Radio…later we went to Liberty Hall and had a fantastic community forum, even saw some San Diegans there…Great activist activity…TU VOTO, ES TU VOZ

2/11 Vigil at Northwest Detention Facility in Tacoma..we meet Claudia w/baby…guards don’t let her see her husband…protest grows…she is later allowed to see husband…. very sad to see these families torn apart…she sold all her belonging to come from Wisconsin to Washington…and they tried to deny access…We shall overcome

We make it to Seattle for lunch meeting, Rebecca and Denise from SWC rejoin group, we later have a community forum, several local organization join us..we also have a local join caravan Miguel from Mexico City…we are on a role…su voto, es su voz !

2/12 Off to Canadian Border ELVIRA ARELLANO DENIED VISA AS SHE LANDS IN CANADA !!! Elvira not welcome!!! Something is terribly wrong with this picture. MORE TO COME. EH !

2/12 Sleepless in Seattle but MARCHA MIGRANTE continues as we make it to Blaine (border with Canada) ..after days of snow and rain the roads open up…the sun likes us and we like the sun…as we get to Peace Arch Park…we meet our brethren from Canada and other countries…at the international border..the park is open on both sides and we join in the center to share stories, prayers, unity”la gente Unida, jamas sera vencida”

We discuss with sadness the raids and separations of families…we already know Elvira Arellano will not be with us as she was denied entry once she arrived in Vancouver…but Elvira calls us and inspires and tells us she will meet caravan at the US/MEXICAN border upon our return on Sunday February 17 @ 1:00pm

We stress with more emphasis than ever…the need for Humane & Comprehensive immigration reform…SU VOTO ES SU VOZ…We meet in Bellingham for a wonderful meal…community gathering then we hit the long and winding snowy road to Yakima

Canadian Border to Yakima Washington…”roads closed because of snow”…wait a minute…once again….another miracle as sun comes out and smooth caravanning all the way to Yakima…sleep in beautiful church built in 1800’s and locals come to welcome and feed us…

2/13 Good morning Yakima…community gathering…press conference….clergy and comunidad … huge Latino community In the area…we share stories…register people to vote…enjoy posole before another long drive through roads that have been closed but again miraculously open for MARCHA MIGRANTE ! Nuestra gente inspira !!!

We make it to Boise late at night…welcomed by a beautiful “tapatilla”, our group sleeps at Boise State University cultural center… apoyo…everywhere…

2/14 Happy Valentines from Boise State University…Brown Berets are in the house, La Causa Vive…more to come...

MARCHA MIGRANTE III (Feb 2-17, 2008) San Diego to Canadian Border and back 6 States, multiple cities, and two international borders…tu voto, es tu voz!!!

Marcha Migrante I (rise up against 4437, no more deaths)
Marcha Migrante II (share stories on why we need humane immigration reform)
Marcha Migrante III (tu voto, es tu voz)

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Mexico Tries to Help Deportees

By IOAN GRILLO/MEXICO CITY
Fri Feb 8, 12:20 PM ET

Carlos Martinez was in a state of total panic after being deported from the United States to the Mexican border city of Matamoros - he had no money, nowhere to go, and, worst of all, he didn't speak Spanish. The 30-year-old New Yorker had left Mexico as a baby; when the Department of Homeland Security sent him south last May after he had served a prison term, he landed in a foreign land.

"I was crying when I went over the border. It was just a big joke to the U.S. immigration officials to have this Mexican who doesn't speak Spanish. But I was terrified," Martinez said.

Eventually, a fellow deportee invited Martinez to his family home in Santa Maria Zoyatla, a dirt-poor village of corn farmers, and they hitchhiked 1,000 miles south from the border. Having worked as a limo driver in New York, Martinez had no idea how to work the land, and after a few months he moved onto a nearby town to sell clothes in a market.

Martinez is one of a rising number of deportees arriving in Mexico with little connection to their ancestral homeland, often penniless and with criminal records. The increase is a result of a U.S. crackdown on illegal immigrants. In 2007, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported a record 237,000 migrants, up from 178,000 in 2005 and 155,000 in 2003 - the majority of them Mexicans.

The influx has prompted President Felipe Calderon to announce a new program called "Humane Repatriation," to help reintegrate the deportees into society. The program will organize refuge centers in border cities, transport to hometowns and jobs for the deportees, immigration officials say.

"Some of these people are arriving in Mexico's border cities with nothing but the clothes they have on. Many have no family links, no knowledge of the country. They are very vulnerable," said Rolando Garcia, an immigration official working on the new program. "What we want to do, quite simply, is give them a human reception."

Calderon has been less vocal in taking up immigration issues with Washington than was his predecessor Vicente Fox, who lobbied unsuccessfully for a guest-worker program. Instead, Calderon says he wants to focus on making Mexico more attractive for them to stay. And his Humane Repatriation program has been welcomed by many who work with the deportees in the border cities.

"We definitely need more government co-ordination on this issue," said Blanca Navarrette, who works at the Casa Migrante migrant shelter in Juarez. "The deportees arrive with a lot of difficulties. They don't even have basic Mexican identification."

But some say Calderon's program may be more style than substance. There has been no special budget approved for it in 2008, and few concrete details have been revealed. Furthermore, offering deportees attractive jobs could be wishful thinking in a country where the minimum wage is $5 per day.

Rep. Jose Jacques Medina, a leftist Mexican lawmaker who was an immigrant activist in California for more than 30 years, says Calderon should be defending migrants' rights rather than easing their landing after deportation.

"Calderon is very ignorant of the needs of the migrant community," Medina said. "Even the name of this program - repatriation - is considered an ugly word for Latinos in the U.S. It makes them think of the wave of deportations in the Great Depression."

To ease mass unemployment between 1929 and 1937, the U.S. deported hundreds of thousands of Mexicans, including many who had actually been born in the United States, in what was known the Mexican Repatriation. Most eventually headed back up north as jobs returned. Likewise, many of today's deportees plan to head back to the United States, where they have family and are accustomed to earning higher wages.

While some plan to trek or swim back, Martinez is trying to return to the U.S. by fighting his case in the courts. He was actually raised by U.S. citizens on Long Island, but Homeland Security argued he violated his immigration status when he was convicted of child endangerment for going on a date with a teenage girl. He beat the deportation in the first court, but lost on the prosecutor's appeal. While his stay in Mexico has been hard, Martinez says the people have been helpful.

"I've become proud of my country and the way people here lend a hand," Martinez said. "I bet if I were deported to the United States, no one would help me out."

View this article on Time.com

Calderon returns to Mexico with much to do

His visit to California points up the challenges he faces in stemming the drug trade, illegal immigration and a host of economic problems.


By Sam Quinones, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
3:24 PM PST, February 15, 2008

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has wrapped up a four-day visit to California, a trip that highlighted the challenges his administration faces at home.

Calderon is battling drug cartels whose savagery has reached new heights, fueled by U.S. demand and by high-powered weapons, many of them bought in the United States. His country has seen a harrowing two-year wave of executions, beheadings and brazen attacks on police by smugglers that has many observers comparing the violence to what was seen in Colombia in the 1980s.

Related Stories
- Calderon addresses California lawmakers

The Mexican leader insists he is beginning a transformation of Mexico's economy so that poor people will no longer feel they need to risk death by illegally crossing the border.

During the presidency of Calderon's predecessor, Vicente Fox, Mexico enacted none of the economic reforms and changes most observers say are necessary. The Mexican Congress, dominated by opposition parties, often refused to act on initiatives Fox put forward.

When Fox addressed the California Legislature two years ago, about two dozen Republican members of the Senate and Assembly boycotted the event to protest illegal immigration. But on Tuesday, Calderon received a warm welcome in the Capitol, drawing applause when he said, "While my government is committed to protecting the rights of all Mexicans, including those living beyond our borders, we are taking great efforts to ensure that in the future no Mexican needs to leave our country to find job opportunities elsewhere."

Among those applauding were Republican lawmakers.

While in Sacramento, Calderon and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an agreement to jointly fight climate change and discussed how to combat drug trafficking and boost trade.

Wednesday night, Calderon met with Southern California immigrant leaders in Los Angeles, lauding them for their hard work and contributions to the U.S. economy.

Mexican immigrants sent home about $26 billion last year, according to Mexican government figures. That money supports millions of families and sustains many regions of Mexico.

"We in Mexico miss you," Calderon said, referring to the immigrants. "We know life has rooted you here."

Calderon spoke at a banquet attended by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at the Omni Los Angeles Hotel downtown. Outside, Minutemen protesters waved signs urging the United States to "adopt Mexico's immigration policies," which are far stricter.

Other signs called on Calderon to "fix Mexico."

In that regard, "we're doing our job," Calderon told immigrant leaders and a group of reporters the next morning.

He cited a measure he is pushing that would begin the transformation of the country's corrupt and anemic justice system.

He said he was also trying to reform the energy sector, which suffers from dilapidated infrastructure and in which private investment is largely barred. Many economists believe the high cost of energy in Mexico strangles job creation.

Many analysts believe Mexico must also make fundamental changes to its education system, labor laws and tax system, which suffers from widespread evasion.

sam.quinones@latimes.com

February 15, 2008

Clinton And Villaraigosa: The Downside Of Hispandering
By Joe Guzzardi

[VDARE.com note: Hispandering is a term meaning "pandering to Hispanics." It was invented by Mickey Kaus in 2002, and we immediately adopted it in place of Hispano-Pander, which we'd been using previously. Hispano-Pander sounded too much like a classic automobile.]

When I watch immigration enthusiast politicians spouting nonsense from coast to coast, one question—with two variations—keeps rolling over in my mind:

- Who advises them?

- And why do they listen to the advice they get? Or why don’t they seek out better counsel in the first place?

Here’s a prominent example from this summer. As she has every year for as long as I can remember, Sen. Dianne Feinstein predicted that without an immigrant guest worker program, crops would rot in the field and California would suffer untold billions of dollars of losses.

Is there no one on Feinstein’s staff to whisper in her ear: “Senator, we’ve used this one for over a decade. No one is listening because nothing is rotting”?

What’s possible is that everyone has warned Feinstein but since she is old and crotchety, she doesn’t listen…and since the people around her would like to keep their jobs, they’ve stopped bucking her.

Or there’s presidential aspirant John McCain. Why would he risk further infuriating potential conservative Republican supporters by naming well-known reconquista Juan Hernandez as his “Hispanic Outreach Director”? No one performs the function of reaching out to Hispanics more slavishly than McCain himself, as his Senate voting record conclusively proves.

Finally, in the strangest case of all, we have Hillary Clinton’s appointment of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as co-chairman of her national campaign.

That Clinton, a woman who suffered through the humiliation of her husband’s tryst with Monica Lewinsky, could choose a man whose personal life makes Bill Clinton look like a saint defies all logic...desperate as she may be for the coveted Hispanic vote.

But, as we’ll see when we examine the facts, there’s no conceivable way that Villaraigosa could have been an asset to her.

Villaraigosa has been in the headlines these past few days as he hosted Mexican president Felipe Calderon who wound up his five-city tour in my now-unrecognizable hometown. [Mexican President Calderon Meets With LA Mayor Villaraigosa, By Greg Risling, Associated Press, February 14, 2008]

Maybe Villaraigosa caught a break in his personal life considering that Calderon’s visit fell on St. Valentine’s Day.

Since the women in his life aren’t speaking to him —both wife Corina and former mistress Telemundo reporter Mirthala Salinas [Picture and video here] —how else would Villaraigosa spend the day traditionally reserved for lovers if not billing and cooing with Calderon?

La señora Villaraigosa filed for divorce after her husband’s tawdry affair became public. And Telemundo transferred Salinas, after suspending her for two-months, to its Inland Empire bureau in the California hellhole known as Riverside. If you have been to Riverside lately, you know how cruel Salinas’ punishment was. Not surprisingly, she is reported to have quit.

When it comes to extramarital philandering, Villaraigosa is a multiple offender.

In 1994, while combing California allegedly “researching” the viability of his political career, Villaraigosa and married family friend Marta Reyes were instead shacked up in a Silver Lake motel. To make the story even more distasteful, at the time his wife Corina was home recovering from cancer surgery.

Corina soon discovered Villaraigosa’s affair—and foolishly forgave him, only to suffer another day. (All the dirt is dished here.)

Villaraigosa is whatever name you would give to someone whose ethical standards don’t even reach the level of your garden-variety lounge lizard.

Okay, so this is Hollywood. Shameless ***…marital infidelity… phony names on registrations at cheap motels… lies compounded by bigger lies…what else is new?

But that’s the most amazing thing: despite repeated open demonstrations of moral turpitude that should force him “into the shadows” forever, Villaraigosa became one of Clinton’s prominent spokesmen.

How is it possible?

Any rational person would expect that, given Clinton’s experiences with her cheating husband, the mere mention of Villaraigosa’s name would make her vomit. Under no circumstances should Clinton want to be in the same room with the depraved Mechista.

That’s not what happened. In Clinton’s pandering effort to appeal to Hispanic voters, no cad is too unworthy to represent her.

With the wheels now apparently coming off of Clinton’s campaign, might Villaraigosa’s role in Iowa where she finished a distant third to Barack Obama have been the beginning of the end for her?

The political pros and cons of the Clinton-Villaraigosa connection never added up for Hillary.

In New Hampshire, where Villaraigosa first stumped for Clinton, he had no impact. The state, which Clinton won, has almost no Hispanics (about 2 percent according to the U.S. Census Bureau). Therefore, Villaraigosa probably couldn’t have helped her—especially when you factor in the prevailing statewide attitudes towards Californians.

As someone who has spent a good deal of time in New Hampshire, I can report that most Granite State residents view us as people with whom they have no connection. They’re aware that Los Angeles exists but it is unlikely that, even if you put an airline ticket in their hands, they’d have much interest in visiting.

Who in New Hampshire then would take seriously anything a Mexican mayor from Los Angeles would have to say? Even though Clinton won the primary, she demonstrated poor judgment by letting Villaraigosa represent her.

On to Iowa, where Clinton’s vulnerability first surfaced, and a different story played out. Illegal immigration in Iowa is important. In recent years, the state’s alien population has risen rapidly. And voters are angry about it.

Illegal immigrants took well paying jobs in the meat packing industry away from Iowans where, in many cases, several generations had worked in the factories before aliens were recruited at drastically lower pay.

Villaraigosa to the rescue? Not hardly. Like New Hampshire, Iowans view Californians with suspicion…too much glitz and glamour.

To confirm Iowans apprehensions, Villaraigosa arrived on the Clinton campaign trail fresh off an Aspen, CO. skiing vacation.

Iowans don’t associate snow with the high-life. To them, it’s what they shovel off their driveways all too often on winter mornings.

Having a $400 haircut (Villaraigosa and John Edwards have the same stylist) is a negative in Iowa.

Clinton finished a distant third behind Barack Obama.

How much Villaraigosa’s high profile appearances on her behalf set Clinton back can’t be quantified. But, as in New Hampshire, Villaraigosa’s endorsement provided no readily apparent upside.

One could argue that Villaraigosa, who made several supportive appearances on Clinton’s behalf, was an asset in her successful California primary victory. But—an important distinction—Villaraigosa lives in California. That’s a lot different than traveling half way across the country to do Clinton’s bidding.

Bad behavior does have its consequences, however. Two years ago, after Villaraigosa won the mayoral election, his name was bandied about as a likely candidate for governor in 2010 when Arnold Schwarzenegger terms out. Some speculated that he might pursue a U.S. Senate seat if and when Barbara Boxer or Feinstein mercifully retires.

All that talk is over. In fact, Villaraigosa may have trouble keeping his current job when he runs for re-election in 2009.

Walter Moore, a lawyer and Republican mayoral candidate in 2005, notes that Villaraigosa’s out of state trips are an express violation of the Los Angeles City Charter that requires the mayor and each city council member to “devote their entire time to duties related to their offices…”

Moore, who will challenge Villaraigosa again, further observes that the charter forbids the mayor from accepting “compensation . . . for his services" other than city salary and benefits. Moore wonders who picked up the tab for Villaraigosa’s expenses.

Summing up the strange and curious case of Villaraigosa and Clinton: the only logical conclusion is that thoughtless pursuit of the Hispanic vote doesn’t pay off—and has the unintended negative consequence of damaging candidates with voters of all races.

http://www.vdare.com/guzzardi/080215_hispandering.htm