Arizona Governor Urges Guard to Stay Pullout started in July; federal officials adding Border Patrol Agents
August 5, 2007 From Wire Reports
PHOENIX – Gov. Janet Napolitano urged federal officials to stop pulling back National Guard troops assigned along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The troop reductions started July 1 and are scheduled to be completed Sept. 1, cutting the number of troops assigned to the U.S.-Mexico border to 3,000 from 6,000. The troops come from as far away as Maine and North Dakota.
Federal officials have said they could reduce the number of National Guard troops because the Border Patrol is adding agents, but Ms. Napolitano said Friday the drawdown should be stopped so authorities can fight human smuggling and other illegal activity.
Ms. Napolitano said in a letter to the secretaries of the Homeland Security and Defense departments that there's been a steady increase in apprehensions of illegal immigrants in the Border Patrol's Tucson sector since April.
"Arizona remains a problematic border in the Southwest region and the long-planned drawdown in personnel and patrol is premature," Ms. Napolitano said in the letter, which was dated Wednesday and released by her office on Friday.
But a Homeland Security spokesman said that the troops being withdrawn do mostly basic duties such as administrative support or maintenance work and are being replaced.
More than $40 million has been set aside to hire new civilian personnel that will do their jobs, said Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke.
"I reject the assertion that the gradual phaseout of the National Guard is going to have a corresponding impact on criminal activity at the border," Mr. Knocke said.
"We have more Border Patrol agents than when we started Operation Jump Start, more vehicle barriers, more personnel."
As part of Operation Jump Start, President Bush in May 2005 ordered 6,000 National Guard troops to Arizona, Texas, California and New Mexico to assist the Border Patrol in efforts to cut illegal immigration.
Overall, the National Guard deployment "has made real progress" in monitoring the border for smuggling activities, constructing new roads and barriers and providing other support to the Border Patrol, Ms. Napolitano wrote.
However, "the drawdown of Operation Jump Start's strength level is ill-timed and should be halted and re-examined," she said.
Members of New Mexico's congressional delegation also have asked the Bush administration not to cut the number of National Guard troops stationed along the state's border with Mexico.
Five alleged MS-13 members were arrested in the middle of a gang meeting July 13 by federal and local law enforcement officials. A sixth reputed MS-13 member was arrested walking down Broadway the same day, according to police. Of the six men arrested that day, five live in Somerville and two hold leadership positions within the gang, police said.
Boston Police Department investigators had noted a spike in MS-13 gang activity in the region, said Somerville Police Capt. Paul Upton, and planned the joint operation with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Everett, Chelsea, Revere and Somerville police. The operation eventually yielded the arrests of the six men on federal immigration law violations.
The men arrested were Oscar Leon, 26, of 202 Pearl St., Javier Garcia, 26, of 14 Pearl St., Walter Diaz-Ramos, 21, of 30 River Road, Edgar Alexander Erazo-Maldonado, 23, of 30 Aldrich St., Francisco Julio Tejada, 20, of 129 Irving St., Everett and Carlos Wilfredo Lones, 33, of 24 Indiana Ave. All but Leon were arrested at the gang meeting, held outdoors in an industrial section of the city, Upton said. Upton would not release the exact location of the meeting or which of the men held leadership roles within MS-13. All six men will now face deportation proceedings, said Paula Grenier, spokeswoman for ICE.
Somerville police became involved in the investigation when Boston police received information that the defendants planned to hold a gang recruitment meeting in the city July 13.
Acting Police Chief Robert R. Bradley said the action was not "an immigration law sweep, but a carefully targeted operation of previously identified gang members." Bradley has said repeatedly that local police should not be used to enforce federal immigration laws. "We don't ask for green cards, and we don't care whether someone is here legally or illegally," he said at a July 10 public meeting. At the meeting, he said if local police become involved in immigration violations, they would lose trust in immigrant communities.
Upton said the arrests July 13 are not a case of Somerville police enforcing immigration laws. They are, he said, a case of Somerville police using every tool they have, including immigration law, to target people committing crimes in the city.
"It's the difference between people who are committing crimes and people who are not committing crimes. If you are a person committing crimes in Somerville, we will do anything we can to get you off the streets, including using immigration laws," he said.
Somerville has gang members within its borders, but compared to the surrounding communities has been able to avoid significant gang activity and violence, Upton said. However, a lot of gang members pass through Somerville each day on their way to communities such as Everett, Chelsea and Cambridge, he said.
For Bradley, it doesn't matter if gang members are from Somerville, Chelsea or another country, he said they will not find a welcoming atmosphere in Somerville.
"Somerville is not going to tolerate members of criminal gangs– no matter where they come from," he said.
By SEANNA ADCOX Associated Press Writer August 7, 2007
COLUMBIA, S.C. --U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham said Tuesday he will introduce legislation to replace all paper Social Security cards with plastic biometric cards that can't be duplicated, so employers can be certain of the legal status of their workers.
The South Carolina Republican said Congress must address the out-of-control illegal immigration problem, and last month's defeat of comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate means the problem must be tackled piecemeal.
"The root cause, the basic problem with immigration is employment," Graham said. "The reason people come here in such large numbers is to get the jobs in America that pay more in one day they can make maybe in six months where they come from."
America needs a legal guest worker program to fill jobs citizens don't want, but the U.S. must control who enters the country for national security, he said.
Employers need a system they can rely on to determine the legal status of potential workers, so Graham said he plans to introduce a bill this fall to replace all Social Security cards over the next 10 years at a cost of $8 billion to $10 billion. The new cards would be tamperproof.
"The documents used to get a job in America, a Social Security card, is a piece of paper that's easily, fraudulently duplicated," Graham said at the University of South Carolina, where he demonstrated a program employers can use to check the legal status of workers along with Homeland Security Department Secretary Michael Chertoff.
Until all Americans have a secure form of identification, the best worker identification tool is a voluntary federal program used by 19,000 employers so far, Chertoff said. The computerized system verifies that the name, age, and Social Security workers give to employers match, he said.
Chertoff acknowledged the system, which would have been mandatory under the comprehensive immigration reform, has flaws. Though it will catch workers who supply fake Social Security numbers, it won't catch those who use stolen identities, he said.
Adding photo verification to the system will help. That has already started for people who hold green cards, Chertoff said.
Graham said he understands state lawmakers opposition to the federal 2005 REAL ID Act. South Carolina is among states that rejected the unfunded federal mandate for new national driver's license standards, estimated to cost states $11 billion to implement.
"A driver's license is not the way to solve the problem," he said.
Other complaints about REAL ID requirements were that some people, especially older residents, may not have original birth certificates to verify who they are. Graham said his legislation would allow for other forms of verification.
Using Illegal Immigrants To Go After Border Patrol
Judicial Watch August 07, 2007
Relying on the testimony of illegal immigrants to prosecute federal U.S. officers is on the rise with yet another Border Patrol agent ordered to stand trial for murder thanks to evidence provided by relatives of a confrontational Mexican man shot after crossing the border illegally.
U.S. Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett said he feared for his life after apprehending the group of illegal border crossers in January about 150 yards north of the Mexico-Arizona border between Bisbee and Douglas. The group's leader, Francisco Javier Dominguez, became aggressive and attacked the federal agent with rocks after being detained.
Agent Corbett shot Dominguez in self defense and was subsequently charged with murder. The key prosecution witnesses are not only illegal immigrants related to Dominguez, they were coached by the Mexican government before U.S. authorities even spoke to them and the Mexican consul in Douglas specifically told them that "it is very important to us that the policeman does not come out clean over this."
So the three witnesses who made the journey north"”two of them Dominguez's brothers and the girlfriend of one of the brothers"”have gladly obliged, specially since Mexican officials have provided them with free food, an apartment in Tucson, transportation and U.S. work visas.
Their testimony in Cochise County Superior Court this week was enough to convince a judge that the agent must stand trial for murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide even though defense attorneys presented compelling evidence of inconsistencies between the illegal aliens' testimony and statements they had made to Cochise County Sheriff's investigators in January.
Another high-profile case that relied on testimony from a criminal illegal alien sent two veteran Border Patrol agents to prison for 11 and 12 years. The agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Campeon, intercepted an admitted Mexican drug dealer in El Paso and shot him in the buttocks yet prosecutors granted the offender immunity to testify against the officers.
Judicial Watch is a non-partisan, educational foundation dedicated to fighting government and judicial corruption and promoting a return to ethics and morality in our nation's public life. To view the Judicial Watch Internet site click here (www.judicialwatch.org).
Relying on the testimony of illegal immigrants to prosecute federal U.S. officers is on the rise with yet another Border Patrol agent ordered to stand trial for murder thanks to evidence provided by relatives of a confrontational Mexican man shot after crossing the border illegally.
U.S. Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett said he feared for his life after apprehending the group of illegal border crossers in January about 150 yards north of the Mexico-Arizona border between Bisbee and Douglas. The group's leader, Francisco Javier Dominguez, became aggressive and attacked the federal agent with rocks after being detained.
Agent Corbett shot Dominguez in self defense and was subsequently charged with murder. The key prosecution witnesses are not only illegal immigrants related to Dominguez, they were coached by the Mexican government before U.S. authorities even spoke to them and the Mexican consul in Douglas specifically told them that "it is very important to us that the policeman does not come out clean over this."
So the three witnesses who made the journey north"”two of them Dominguez's brothers and the girlfriend of one of the brothers"”have gladly obliged, specially since Mexican officials have provided them with free food, an apartment in Tucson, transportation and U.S. work visas.
Their testimony in Cochise County Superior Court this week was enough to convince a judge that the agent must stand trial for murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide even though defense attorneys presented compelling evidence of inconsistencies between the illegal aliens' testimony and statements they had made to Cochise County Sheriff's investigators in January.
Another high-profile case that relied on testimony from a criminal illegal alien sent two veteran Border Patrol agents to prison for 11 and 12 years. The agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Campeon, intercepted an admitted Mexican drug dealer in El Paso and shot him in the buttocks yet prosecutors granted the offender immunity to testify against the officers.
Judicial Watch is a non-partisan, educational foundation dedicated to fighting government and judicial corruption and promoting a return to ethics and morality in our nation's public life. To view the Judicial Watch Internet site click here (www.judicialwatch.org).
The mayor of a New York town regularly pays illegal immigrants cash to do public work and the city subsequently reimburses him with taxpayer dollars.
Spring Valley Mayor George Darden actually solicits day laborers on roadside hiring sites for projects in the Rockland County municipality of about 26,000 residents. Then he has a city employee pick up the workers in a Department of Public Works truck and transport them to the job site.
Apparently aware that the men are illegal aliens and therefore not eligible to work in the U.S., Mayor Darden pays them in cash and then gets reimbursed by the city. In fact, just this week Spring Valley's Board of Trustees voted to reimburse the mayor for his latest illegal immigrant hiring spree.
He paid nine men from Mexico and Central America $10 an hour to work on an urban revitalization project"”that has received federal and state funds--by cleaning out a building slated for demolition. On another occasion, undocumented immigrants were hired to move furniture from a public works projects for at least four days.
As if using taxpayer money to violate the law wasn't bad enough, Spring Valley lawmakers also voted this week to pay the illegal aliens unspecified back wages because the workers were supposedly underpaid.
One outraged resident suggested the mayor should pay for breaking the law in hiring illegal immigrants. Another called the mayor an "arrogant disappointment" and urged him to resign for violating the public's trust.
Judicial Watch is a non-partisan, educational foundation dedicated to fighting government and judicial corruption and promoting a return to ethics and morality in our nation's public life. To view the Judicial Watch Internet site click here (www.judicialwatch.org).
Comment by Explora: Maybe DHS should go after this mayor!
The state court in one Southern California county uses a company in Mexico to do the data entry of traffic tickets, regularly sending the confidential personal information of U.S. citizens south of the border.
Since last year Orange County's Superior Court"”one of 58 superior courts in the state--contracts with a firm that uses workers in Nogales Mexico for Department of Motor Vehicle data processing. This means that private information such as drivers' license numbers, car tag numbers, birth dates and addresses are scanned and sent to Mexico.
This alarming information was made public this week on a local radio show by a county law enforcement officer who has concerns about identity theft and the potential for terrorism. Outraged residents bombarded the county's Board of Supervisors with angry calls protesting the system but the courts are state agencies and not in the county's jurisdiction.
One Orange County supervisor assured, however, that he and his colleagues on the board would never support outsourcing personal information outside the country because it must be kept as closely guarded as possible.
Court officials defend the practice, saying that the data is transferred by electronic encryption using state-of-the-art security.
A court press release explains that the Mexican staff is dedicated to keeping the public's information secure and safe and that all employees are certified by the Sonoran State Police. Additionally, the press release assures that the Nogales facility has round the clock security and video cameras.
Considering the rampant and well-documented corruption and drug trafficking among Mexican police officers and commanders, the court's assurances should be of little comfort to those who have received a traffic ticket in this California county.
Judicial Watch is a non-partisan, educational foundation dedicated to fighting government and judicial corruption and promoting a return to ethics and morality in our nation's public life. To view the Judicial Watch Internet site click here (www.judicialwatch.org).
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/7/2007 6:51:00 PM
Univision wants the presidential candidates to speak to its TV, radio and online audience in Spanish -- simultaneous translation -- on issues affecting the Hispanic community.
Univision contacted the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates about participating in 90-minute TV forums in September on issues like health care and immigration.
The network pointed out that Hispanics are the fastest-growing segment of the electroate -- one that it said will play a "pivotal" role in the upcoming election.
All of the questions will be in Spanish, with simultaneous translations into English for the candidates -- though not viewers -- then the candidates' answers will be translated back into Spanish.
Court Process Can Drag for Those Snared by Immigration Raid
Fox 28, WSJV South Bend Indiana
Hearings started this summer for Janco Composites workers arrested during a March immigration raid, but justice promises to be anything but swift.
Some cases may take at least a year to resolve. Elkhart attorney Tom Nuttle said one of his clients went to a hearing in Chicago where a trial was scheduled for May 2008.
A total of 36 workers suspected of being undocumented aliens were arrested when U.S. immigration officials raided the Mishawaka factory. Of that total, 35 are Mexican nationals. One is from El Salvador.
Roughly half a dozen agreed to be deported. One Mexican man was released because someone had already petitioned for legal status for him.
The rest posted bond to get out of jail and are seeking solutions to their legal dilemma.
Obama Seeks to Make the Sale to Hispanics Despite Ability to Draw Crowds and Donations, Senator Is Still Largely Unknown to Crucial Group
By MIRIAM JORDAN wsj.com August 8, 2007; Page A7
MIAMI -- Before 2,000 people at the convention of a powerful Hispanic advocacy group recently, Sen. Barack Obama made a pitch for unity between African Americans and Hispanics. "Our separate struggles are really one," the Illinois Democrat declared, quoting a telegram Martin Luther King Jr. sent in 1968 to farm-worker activist Cesar Chávez.
"¢ Getting Acquainted: Sen. Barack Obama is trying to raise his profile among Latino voters. "¢ Relationship Issues: Nearly half haven't heard of him, and there is tension between Latinos and blacks in many communities. "¢ Marriage Material?: Latinos seem likely to back Obama in a general election but support others in Democratic primaries.Mr. Obama compared last year's massive immigration rallies led by Hispanics to the civil-rights marches of African-Americans in the 1960s, and called for the two groups to stay the course in a common fight for equality. To rousing applause at the convention of the National Council of La Raza, he alluded to "one dream" for blacks and Latinos. Later, he cited his Kenyan-born father as an example of an immigrant who came here in pursuit of the American dream.
Despite becoming this presidential race's phenomenon, with the power to draw huge crowds and raise millions of dollars, Mr. Obama remains relatively unknown among the country's fastest-growing electorate: Nearly half of Latino voters have never heard of him, according to a June Gallup poll.
Even as he gains awareness among Hispanics, he may find wooing them to his campaign a challenge. Across the U.S., tensions simmer between Hispanics and blacks who regard each other as rivals for jobs, educational resources, housing and political power. In Los Angeles, Hispanics have become the majority in traditionally black enclaves and clashes have erupted between the groups in schools and on the streets.
For Mr. Obama, this has created a tricky situation. The fiery debate over immigration in Congress alienated many Hispanics, pushing conservatives among them into the Democratic camp and encouraging others to register to vote. But to tap into that, Mr. Obama must navigate past Democratic primary opponents who are better positioned to capitalize on those voters.
"If Obama were the Democratic presidential nominee, he would do well in the Hispanic community," says Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster. But "he will have to fight for their support in the primaries."
Hillary Clinton already boasts name recognition and endorsements from prominent Latino leaders, while Bill Richardson, the New Mexico governor, is Hispanic and speaks fluent Spanish. Mr. Obama's message of a shared black-Latino struggle may strike a chord with political activists, but could ring hollow with core Latino voters.
"The Hispanic and black elites may be singing 'Kumbaya' together. But at the neighborhood level, they're duking it out," says Paula McClain, a Duke University political scientist who studies black-Latino relations. "Obama needs to understand the nuance and not assume a broad-brush coalition" between them.
Ms. McClain and other academics say Hispanics have negative stereotypical views of blacks. Generally, Hispanics feel they share more in common with whites than blacks, says Ms. McClain. "In a primary contest, one has to wonder how a Latino electorate will feel about voting for a black person."
There is precedent for African-Americans and Hispanics combining electoral power. In the 2005 Los Angeles mayoral race, many black leaders disenchanted with white incumbent James Hahn threw support to Antonio Villaraigosa. The Mexican-American candidate won on the promise of bridging the city's racial divide -- with support from the African-American electorate. But, "it wasn't a black-brown unity election," says Jaime Regalado, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles. "It was a sign of displeasure with the incumbent."
In Miami, Mr. Obama introduced a jingle to woo Latinos, a percussion-infused "reggaeton" tune in Spanish with a refrain to pump up his recognition: "How do you say it? What do you call him? Obama. Obama."
"The community really hasn't been introduced to Obama," says Larry Gonza***, a political consultant who formed "Latinos for Obama," which includes high-profile Hispanics, many of them lawyers and entrepreneurs.
As the first primary state with a significant Hispanic electorate, Nevada is expected to offer a hint of how Latinos vote in other Hispanic-heavy states such as Arizona and New Mexico. In Las Vegas, Mr. Obama has met on three occasions with Hispanic hotel and casino workers, who make up a large portion of the influential culinary-workers union, as well as with local Hispanic political figures.
In a sign of the challenges Mr. Obama faces, a recent independent poll by a group called Latino Decisions says that in Nevada, Mrs. Clinton currently is favored by 55% of Democratic or Democratic-leaning Latinos, while Mr. Richardson has 14% and Mr. Obama 6%. But a new national Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows better results for the Illinois senator. It found Mrs. Clinton is favored by 58% of Hispanics, followed by Messrs. Obama and Edwards with 10% each and Mr. Richardson with 9%.
The Obama campaign has begun distributing campaign literature in Nevada in Spanish and says it is putting more than 30 staffers on the ground with offices in Las Vegas, Reno and other cities. The campaign says it is also mobilizing thousands of volunteers to go door to door.
Spanish-language television is likely to play an important role in the primaries as it amps up campaign coverage. To Mr. Obama's disadvantage, "they are going to have direct sound bites in Spanish from Bill Richardson," notes Federico Subervi, professor of mass media at Texas State University in San Marcos. On the other hand, he says, Latinos more politically attuned -- and more likely to vote in the primary -- get their news both in English and Spanish.
Mr. Obama has secured the support of some prominent Latino politicians, such as Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez, and California Senate Majority leader Gloria Romero. "He understands civil rights and poverty," says Ms. Romero, who supported Rev. Jesse Jackson when he ran for president. Mrs. Clinton has won endorsements from heavyweights such as L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa, New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez and Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers of America with Cesar Chávez.
By Ralph Z. Hallow The Washington Times August 8, 2007
Huckabee
Some Republican leaders say they smell a rat in Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter's compromise proposal to get an immigration-reform bill through the Senate this year.
Mr. Specter now suggests the 12 million illegal aliens he says are already here should be given the equivalent of "green card" status but "without the automatic path to citizenship" that critics labeled "amnesty."
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called the Specter proposal a form of congressional extortion.
"Specter is asserting that the Congress is blackmailing the American people," Mr. Gingrich said. "The Congress will not enforce current law and will not insist on employers obeying the law unless we give an unknown number of people legal status. This is amnesty by blackmail "” after the American people vehemently rejected amnesty a month ago."
Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a candidate for the Republican nomination, said flatly he won't support the proposal.
"I fundamentally disagree with Senator Specter's premise that we need to legalize these people," Mr. Paul said. "That is the very thing we should not be doing."
Mr. Paul said that although "it may be marginally better to provide people here illegally with a green card instead of citizenship, this is simply a different type of incentive for those who enter illegally."
An immigration measure that would have granted legal status to millions of illegal aliens died last month in the Senate.
Arizona Republican Party Chairman Randy Pullen, who led a successful fight at last week's Republican National Committee annual summer meeting in Minneapolis to have the committee endorse only border security without amnesty or any other programs, said the Specter plan is not acceptable to him or to grass-roots Republicans.
"There is nothing new here, except for the new coat it is wrapped in," Mr. Pullen said.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, also a Republican presidential hopeful, said the problem with Mr. Specter's plan is that it "starts at the wrong end of the equation."
He compared the Specter approach to arriving at the scene of a car accident and starting first to clean up the blood instead of stopping the bleeding.
"This is the reason the American people have no confidence in the Washington's solutions for immigration," Mr. Huckabee said. "They don't understand it and, therefore, cannot fix it. It has to start with a secure border. Until then, it's like trying bail water out of a sinking boat by using a larger bucket instead of fixing the hole."
In an opinion column published Monday in The Washington Post, Mr. Specter argued that illegal aliens in the United States should be given "the company of their spouses and minor children and ... other indicators of citizenship short of the right to vote (which was always the deal-breaker)."
The prospect for passing any immigration law is undermined by deep distrust in the federal government's willingness to enforce the law.
"We've spent a bundle of dough on border security," said Bruce Ash, a Republican National Committee member. "It just has not been very effectively spent. ... Our government has spent the billions of dollars but not exercised the will to solve this problem."
Mr. Specter argued that giving green-card status to illegals aliens "leaves open the opportunity for them to return to their native lands and seek citizenship through regular channels. Or, after our borders are secured and tough employer sanctions have been put in place, Congress can revisit the issue and possibly find a more hospitable America."
At least one Republican state party leader, though not supporting the Specter plan, said Congress can restore its credibility on immigration.
"Many Republican activists just want to see Washington take border security seriously, while asking everyone to show respect for the law," California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring said. "If Congress demonstrates a new, serious commitment to border security, it will reap the credibility and flexibility necessary to deal with the more complex elements of the issue."
Rick Beltram, chairman of the Spartanburg County, S.C., Republican Party, said Mr. Specter's proposal "seems to properly deal with the issue" of amnesty for illegals.
"However, it must be clear that felons would be excluded," Mr. Beltram said."The other concern would be enforcement. The 1986 law [that penalizes employers who hire illegals] has not been enforced."
Allowing illegals to remain in the country is different than granting them citizenship, said Saulius "Saul" Anuzis, chairman of the Michigan Republican Party.
"My principal objection is giving amnesty and citizenship to someone whose first act in the United States is to break the law," he said. "I would not oppose a system to legalize them and give them a different status to work and pay taxes here ... but no citizenship."
Border Agents Seizes Illegal Immigrants, Drugs In Desert
FROM STAFF REPORTS August 7, 2007 - 2:05PM
U.S. Border Patrol agents nabbed 11 illegal immigrants and 414 pounds of marijuana during two operations in the Yuma desert Monday, according to a statement released Tuesday.
The first apprehension happened around noon when agents spotted three members of the group and seven backpacks filled with drugs about 37 miles south of Dateland. Agents later spotted another person and the rest of the drugs in a nearby area. The drugs were estimated to have a street value of $392,000.
Agents netted seven more illegal immigrants in the same area later that night.
--- Darin Fenger can be reached at dfenger@yumasun.com or 539-6860.
WRONGFULLY DEPORTED MAN ATE FROM TRASH CANS, BATHED IN RIVERS
FAMILY RELIEVED, ANGRY: Michael Guzman and his mother Maria Carbajal, mother of Pedro Guzman, a U.S. citizen who was wrongly deported to Mexico in May, wait to speak to reporters at American Civil Liberties Union offices in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Guzman, who family says is mentally disabled, was found at a border crossing after wandering for nearly three months in Mexico, and was finally reunited with his family Tuesday.
REED SAXON, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Wednesday, August 8, 2007
U.S. CITIZEN SENT TO MEXICO AFTER TRESPASSING ARREST IN MAY.
LOS ANGELES A wrongly deported U.S. citizen who was missing nearly three months in Mexico ate out of garbage cans, bathed in rivers and was repeatedly turned away by U.S. border agents when he tried to return to California, his family said Tuesday.
Pedro Guzman, 29, was picked up at the Calexico border crossing over the weekend and released to his family on Tuesday.
Guzman was shaking, stuttering and appeared traumatized, his family said at a news conference. The family said it planned to seek medical attention for Guzman, who was not at the news conference.
"They took him whole, but only returned half of him to me," his mother, Maria Carbajal, said in Spanish while crying. "The government is responsible for this."
The family had been searching for Guzman in Tijuana since he was deported May 11.
They said Guzman told them Tuesday that he had tried to return to the United States several times, but was turned away. He walked over 100 miles to Calexico, the family said.
"The border guards told him to 'stop playing around,' said Michael Guzman, the man's brother.
Authorities and the family have presented conflicting versions of how Guzman was deported.
He served about 20 days of a 120-day jail term for a misdemeanor trespassing violation when he was deported to Mexico, according to authorities. Immigration and sheriff's officials have said Guzman told them he was an illegal immigrant, and gave media voluntary deportation papers allegedly signed by Guzman.
The family said Guzman was mentally disabled – a claim the government has contested – and was possibly confused by the paperwork.
Guzman's relatives sued the Department of Homeland Security and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in federal court in June, claiming Guzman was American and had been wrongfully deported.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the lawsuit, has said it has a copy of Guzman's birth certificate showing he was born at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.
In the lawsuit, the family said he was asked about his immigration status in jail and responded that he was born in California.
Sometime after that, the Sheriff's Department identified him as a non-citizen, obtained his signature for voluntary removal from the United States and turned him over to U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement for deportation.
Guzman was picked up in Calexico after U.S. authorities, doing a background ch5eck, found there was a warrant for his arrest for failing to attend probation hearings related to the misdemeanor violation, said Mark Rosenbaum, ACLU legal director for Southern California.
The family said Guzman had previously done jail time for drug possession, so he had a record that could have been cross-checked before a deportation decision was made.
Immigration and sheriff's officials said they followed all the necessary protocol and have done nothing wrong.
"The government deported him because of his skin color," said Rosenbaum. "Imagine if this had happened to someone with white skin."
Guzman's parents are from Mexico,but seven children, including Pedro, were born in California, according to the family.
Lori Haley, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, declined comment, citing pending litigation.
Soon after he was deported, Guzman's family said he contacted them by phone to tell them what happened, but couldn't say exactly where he was. After that they lost touch with him.
Men, women, and ***** held against their will in deplorable conditions Neighbor talks about the discovery of a drop house
More than 40 undocumented immigrants were rescued Tuesday when police raided a west Phoenix drophouse where they were being held against their will, authorities said.
Police also arrested three suspected "coyotes," or alien smugglers, believed to have held the immigrants captive for several days, said Sgt. Joel Tranter, a Phoenix police spokesman. advertisement
"We have identified three of the coyotes," Tranter said. "We have them separated from the rest of the people."
Police were called at 6:30 a.m. after one of the immigrants managed to escape from the single-family house in the 10800 block of West Sells Drive, a few blocks north of Indian School Road, Tranter said.
The immigrant contacted a neighbor who, in turn, phoned police, resulting in a tactical team being sent to what Tranter described as an otherwise "quiet neighborhood."
The police team forced entry into the house and rescued the captives, including men, women and teenagers, who were rounded up and placed in a garage, where they were given medical attention pending the arrival of federal immigration agents.
"We believe these people may have been held inside this house for as much as four days," Tranter said.
Tranter said they on limited rations of food and water. In addition they were kept in crowded conditions in a very hot home, he said.
"It's a small house, very overcrowded," Tranter said. "The living conditions were sub-standard. The air conditioning was very limited, or perhaps not even on. These people were perspiring."
Investigators believe the immigrants, the majority of whom are believed to be from Mexico, were being held by the coyotes pending the payment of ransom by relatives, Tranter said.
Criminal charges are pending further investigation into an array of possible crimes, including kidnapping, false imprisonment, assault and, perhaps, aggravated assault, Tranter said.
Federal authorities will work with Phoenix police in bringing the coyotes to justice, said Vinnie Picard, a Phoenix spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"It's our mission to target violent criminal organizations," Picard said.
ICE agents were taking custody of the people rescued at the home, he said. Those in this country illegal were expected to be sent back home, Picard added.
Reach the reporter at brent.whiting@arizonarepublic.com or (602)-444-6937.
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