U.S. Anti-Drug Aid Would Target Mexican Cartels Deal To Include Training, Gear
By Manuel Roig-Franzia and Juan Forero Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, August 8, 2007; Page A01
MEXICO CITY, Aug. 7 -- The Bush administration is close to sealing a major, multiyear aid deal to combat drug cartels in Mexico that would be the biggest U.S. anti-narcotics effort abroad since a seven-year, $5 billion program in Colombia, according to U.S. lawmakers, congressional aides and Mexican authorities.
Negotiators for Mexico and the United States have made significant progress toward agreement on an aid plan that would include telephone tapping equipment, radar to track traffickers' shipments by air, aircraft to transport Mexican anti-drug teams and assorted training, sources said. Delicate questions remain -- primarily regarding Mexican sensitivities about the level of U.S. activity on Mexican soil -- but confidence is running high that a deal will be struck soon. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Tex.) predicts a major aid deal may be reached this month at a summit in Quebec. (By Ricardo Santos -- Laredo Morning News Via Ap)
"I'm sure that it's going to be hundreds of millions of dollars," Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Tex.) said in an interview. "If we're going to be successful in cutting out this cancer over there, we're going to have to invest a large amount."
Cuellar, who has already proposed legislation to increase aid to Mexico, predicted that an announcement could be made as soon as Aug. 20, when President Bush is scheduled to meet with Mexican President Felipe Calderón and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Quebec. A Mexican government source cautioned against projecting an exact timetable despite "advances" in the talks.
The plans are being discussed at a time when Mexico is struggling to contain a war among major drug cartels that has cost more than 3,000 lives in the past year and has horrified Mexicans with images of beheadings and videotaped assassinations. Calderón has impressed U.S. officials by extraditing a record number of drug suspects to the United States and by dispatching more than 20,000 federal police officers and soldiers to fight the trafficking organizations, but that effort has failed to stop the violence.
The anti-drug aid package would represent a major shift in relations after years of tension and mutual suspicion among law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border. "It's astonishing and a sea change," said a senior Republican aide who works on drug policy issues. "It's a real recognition that Calderón has a problem. And his success or failure will impact us. The days of the finger-pointing are over."
The aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he believes the program will be well received in Washington once it's unveiled.
In Mexico, authorities have shied from talking publicly about the plan, concerned that the country's inherent suspicion of American meddling will prompt widespread rejection among Mexicans. The Bush administration has been developing the proposal quietly, so quietly that some people in Congress are beginning to complain about an aura of secrecy.
"Who would Congress be providing assistance to, under what terms and conditions, and how would Congress know the support is not going to the very people who are engaged in this type of criminal activity?" asked Tim Rieser, a senior foreign policy aide for Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), who chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations. "There is bipartisan concern about the Bush administration's lack of meaningful consultation with Congress. They see Congress as their personal ATM machine, not as an equal branch of government."
Persuading fellow legislators that the aid is vital and won't fall into the wrong hands, Cuellar said, is "going to be a marketing endeavor, or let me put it this way, an educational endeavor." Republican and Democratic aides said it is unclear whether the Bush administration will try to push for an emergency supplemental appropriation for next year's foreign aid budget or wait another year.
Mexico already appears to be laying the groundwork to frame the plan not so much as an aid package but as the United States facing up to problems that are a consequence of American drug consumption. Calderón, often a cautious public speaker, has sternly called for the United States to pay more to combat the cartels.
"The language that they're using is that the U.S. has a large responsibility for this problem," said Ana MarÃa Salazar, a former high-ranking Clinton administration drug official who was involved in implementing the U.S.-funded program for Bogota, known as Plan Colombia.
U.S. Anti-Drug Aid Would Target Mexican Cartels U.S. lawmakers, who stressed that the initiative for Mexico is not modeled on Plan Colombia, have been traveling to Mexico to meet with legislators here in hopes of easing concerns. "We're seeing a Mexican Congress that's more engaged, that's willing and able for the first time in history to be a partner with the [U.S.] administration, and they're asking the questions about what the president's policies are, what the authorities need, and what are the implications of working closely with the U.S.," Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.) said in an interview. "We've been neighbors and allies but this takes that relationship to a new level."
In an interview, Thomas Shannon, assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, declined to discuss details of the plan. But he noted that Bush has recently met with Calderón and Central America leaders to discuss ways to work together to fight against drug traffickers and gangs that have besieged the region.
Central America is a major transshipment point for Colombian cocaine that arrives by sea; Mexican cartels funnel tons of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine across the border into the United States.
"All three of us, the United States, Mexico and the Central American countries, had to find a way to coordinate our activities and work better together and develop a regional strategy to combat the problems that we face," Shannon said.
The Mexican government cringes at comparisons with Colombia, which unlike Mexico is locked in a 40-year-old guerrilla war and also is the world's largest cocaine producer. As part of Plan Colombia, which began in 2000, the United States provided Black Hawk helicopters, sensitive intelligence-gathering technology, military, police and intelligence training, and a fleet of crop-dusters to help the Colombian government push back Marxist guerrillas and eradicate drug crops. Though that program helped President Ãlvaro Uribe curtail violence, critics have said it fell far short in its initial objective of delivering a mortal blow to the cocaine business.
Mexican authorities are leery of allowing the U.S. military into the country, even for training purposes, because of historical wounds that date to the Mexican-American War of 1846-48. Maureen Meyer, a policy analyst for the Washington Office on Latin America, a Washington policy group, said Mexican anti-drug police have a history of receiving low-key training from American specialists. But large-scale training on Mexican soil would be another matter, she said.
"That would be the most contentious point, with the Mexican Congress and Mexicans in general," she said.
That hesitance could block American specialists from going to Mexico to conduct training for troops and police, as well as for prosecutors and judges. Many U.S. officials say that such flexibility would be critical to the plan.
"How do we provide assistance without making the Mexicans too uncomfortable?" Cuellar asked. "That's going to be tightrope we have to walk."
By EDUARDO CASTILLO The Associated Press Tuesday, August 7, 2007; 10:11 PM
MEXICO CITY -- Amnesty International on Tuesday criticized Mexico's human rights policy as "schizophrenic," saying the country vigorously promotes rights abroad but fails to uphold them within its own borders.
"Mexico is a very prominent champion of human rights internationally," Amnesty secretary-general Irene Khan told a news conference after meeting with President Felipe Calderon. "But within Mexico, serious abuses of human rights continue, including torture, arbitrary detention and unfair trials."
Khan said the organization wants the administration of Calderon, who took office Dec. 1, to clarify its willingness to "put an end to this schizophrenic approach."
The president's office said in a statement that during their meeting he had stressed "Mexico's policy of total openness to examination by, and cooperation with, international human rights organizations." It also said he "reiterated the government's commitment to the promotion and protection of the fundamental human rights and freedoms of all Mexicans."
Calderon's office said Mexico has made progress on press freedom, public access to government information and judicial reforms, working to "guarantee public safety and combat organized crime while maintaining a firm commitment to human rights."
Khan acknowledged that Mexico's record has improved in recent decades, but said it still needs to advance in critical areas such as police accountability, judicial process and treatment of suspected criminals.
"The real test will be how the president reflects and implements human rights in his forthcoming legislative and policy reforms," Khan said.
STATES DOUBLE MIGRANT LAWS OKLAHOMA'S IMMIGRATION MEASURE IS REPORTEDLY THE NATION'S TOUGHEST
By MICK HINTON World Capitol Bureau 8/8/2007
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Amid reports that Oklahoma has the toughest immigration law in the country, the National Conference of State Legislatures released a study this week showing states are taking up the slack on immigration reform because Congress has failed to do so.
In the absence of leadership from the federal government on immigration, the states have displayed "an unprecedented level of activity and have developed their own approaches," the report says.
So far this year, twice as many bills have been enacted by legislatures around the country compared with 2006. Since January, states have enacted 171 immigration bills, compared with 84 measures a year ago.
Rep. Randy Terrill, author of Oklahoma's reform measure, House Bill 1804, said Oklahoma's new law "was the talk of the town" at the NCSL's annual convention, which opened in Boston on Monday. About 35 House members and several state senators are attending the sessions.
Last year, Georgia passed an immigration bill heralded as the toughest in the nation. However, Mike Hethmon, executive director of the Immigration Reform Law Institute, said Oklahoma's bill goes further that any other state's legislation in a half-dozen or more areas. Those include a requirement that law officers attempt to determine the citizenship status of everyone they arrest and that those working here under questionable status cannot obtain driver's licenses.
In a phone interview from Boston, Terrill, R-Moore, called Hethmon "the wizard behind the curtain." Hethmon worked on the Georgia legislation last year and helped Terrill draw up HB 1804, which was overwhelmingly approved by the state Legislature in May. He also has consulted with other states about their proposed legislation.
"This is now a 50-state issue," said Sheri Steisel, an immigration specialist with the National Conference of State Legislatures.
"There is a tremendous amount of frustration at the local level now that the federal government has abrogated its responsibility," she said.
Terrill said Oklahoma's "comprehensive law" is a major accomplishment for the state, but others say it reflects badly on how Oklahoma treats people living within its borders.
HB 1804 goes into effect Nov. 1.
The Rev. Miguel Rivera, president of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders based in Washington, D.C., said the Oklahoma law shows a lack of understanding on the part of legislators who passed the bill. He said the state law demonstrates "racial intolerance" toward Mexicans and other Hispanics living here.
"The economics of this country depends on continual immigration," Rivera said, adding that Oklahoma will suffer in the end through a loss of those working in service jobs. ------------------------------------------------ What makes HB 1804 stiffer?
It requires that law enforcement officers must attempt to verify immigration status of arrestees and denies bail for “foreign nationals†deemed to be flight risks.
It restricts eligibility for state driver’s licenses and identity cards to citizens and immigrants with proper documentation.
It makes it a felony to knowingly harbor, transport, conceal or shelter an illegal immigrant within the state.
This does not include providing certain emergency health and social services, as outlined in federal law.
It prohibits people who are not lawfully in the United States from receiving certain public benefits.
It requires public employers to verify the legal status of new employees through a federal verification system after Nov. 1.
Private employers must do the same after July 1.
It allows workers who have been fired to sue their employers if they have hired an illegal immigrant to perform the same type of work.
Rumors That The Student' Or Their Parents' Residency Status Would Be Checked Are Blamed. Meeting Scheduled To Reassure Parents
First-day student attendance was down 18 percent at the Tulsa district's largest elementary school Tuesday amid rumors that officials might be checking the immigration status of students or their parents.
Principal Judy Feary of Kendall-Whittier Elementary School, 2601 E. Fifth Place, said 180 of the 1,000 or so students enrolled for 2007-08 were no-shows Tuesday, the first day of school for Tulsa Public Schools' five year-round schools.
"A lot of rumors are circulating" that immigration officials "will be waiting on the corner by the school and that they are going to arrest the parents and take their kids to the shelter," Feary said.
"We're hoping a second wave (of students) will come in once the people who came to school today go back into the neighborhoods and tell people that no one was here waiting for them."
She added: "We want parents to know that their children are safe here. We don't care anything about anything but educating children."
Feary said teachers began telephoning parents of absent students Tuesday afternoon.
She and a contingent of assistant principals and school counselors also plan to knock on doors at the last-known addresses of absent students to discuss the issue.
"We had parents . . . (say) they were going to wait until November and see what happens when House Bill 1804 takes effect," Feary said. "They're afraid they're going to be deported, but if they wait until November, that would focus more attention on them -- parents could face truancy charges."
House Bill 1804, which takes effect Nov. 1, requires law enforcement agencies to check the immigration status of people who are arrested in felony and drunken driving cases.
It also contains measures to prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining employment and public benefits.
Tim Counts, a public affairs officer in the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, said that although he could not discuss future enforcement actions, he has never heard of agents conducting status checks in or around schools.
"Nothing we do is random. We are an investigative agency. All of our actions are based on specific intelligence," he said. "The bulk of our time is spent on investigating criminal activity."
Principals at some of the district's other year-round schools said their attendance rates were better than Kendall-Whittier's, but some Hispanic students were noticeably absent.
At Eugene Field Elementary School, 20 of its 300 students were gone Tuesday, and most of them are Hispanic, Principal Cindi Hemm said.
TPS attorney Doug Mann said his law firm, Rosenstein, Fist and Ringold, is advising the more than 300 districts it represents in Oklahoma not to ask about the citizenship of any student or differentiate between students in any special services or programs.
"Whatever services and programs we provide we have got to provide to all children," Mann said. "I can understand why some illegal immigrants would be afraid, but their children can come and be educated and receive all of the benefits of the public schools."
Principal Mike Howe of Skelly Elementary School, 2940 S. 90th East Ave., said Tuesday that he hopes turnout will be better at traditional-calendar schools, such as his, which will open Aug. 20.
"We know some families who have left," he said. "We have also heard some are going to hold back and lay low and see what happens, so we're going to hold a meeting at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 9, to reassure parents
U.S. PLANS WORKPLACE CRACKDOWN ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
Reuters Politics Summary Reuters Wednesday, August 8, 2007; 3:19 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The government is planning a workplace crackdown on illegal immigrants after Congress failed to overhaul immigration laws, a Homeland Security Department spokesman said on Wednesday. The department will announce in the next several days the final version of a rule that would require employers to fire workers who falsify identity documents. Those that don't comply would face fines of up to $10,000.
U.S. plans workplace crackdown on illegal immigrants
By Andy Sullivan Reuters Wednesday, August 8, 2007; 12:04 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The government is planning a workplace crackdown on illegal immigrants after Congress failed to overhaul immigration laws, a Homeland Security Department spokesman said on Wednesday.
The department will announce in the next several days the final version of a rule that would require employers to fire workers who falsify identity documents. Those that don't comply would face fines of up to $10,000.
The rule, proposed last year, was delayed when Congress took up immigration reform, an attempt that failed in June despite heavy lobbying by the Bush administration.
The final rule will be announced within the next several days, Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke said.
"There are in fact going to be very tough consequences for those employers who chose to blatantly disregard the law," said Knocke, who declined to say how the final rule would differ from the initial proposal.
Employers are currently required to verify that their workers are in the United States legally by collecting their Social Security numbers and immigration documents.
Those numbers are checked against the U.S. government's database, and employers are notified of those that don't match up.
Up to 10 percent of the 250 million wage reports sent to the Social Security Administration each year don't match up, according to the Homeland Security Department, though many of those are due to record-keeping errors.
Under the proposed rule, employers would have to respond promptly when notified of a mismatch -- either by clearing up any clerical error or firing those found to be in the country illegally.
There are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States.
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By Ruth Marcus The Washington Post Wednesday, August 8, 2007; Page A15
Here's an emerging line of attack you can expect to hear more of in the 2008 congressional campaigns -- especially if you live near a vulnerable Democratic incumbent: Democrats vote to give welfare benefits to illegal aliens.
Or, even better: Democrats vote to take benefits away from deserving senior citizens to pay for welfare for illegal aliens.
Ugly? Absolutely. Devastating? So Republicans hope. True? No.
Bashing Democrats on immigration -- accusing them of doing everything but carrying illegals' luggage across the border -- is a GOP mainstay. But the accusations that Republicans started to peddle last week reached a new low in dishonest nativism.
The first salvo involved the House version of the measure to extend the children's health insurance plan, SCHIP.
"What we do is take, at the cost of seniors who get . . . choices of their own health-care plans, we take it away," former speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) claimed during the House debate. "We wipe it out, and we give it to people who are illegal aliens."
"That bill, if it becomes law, would take $197 billion out of the Medicare trust fund, from our seniors, to give to illegal aliens," charged Rep. Ron Lewis (R-Ky.).
Leave aside the inflated numbers. Leave aside the scare talk about "our seniors." (AARP, the seniors' lobby, supports the bill.)
The provision at issue would repeal a 2006 requirement that everyone applying for Medicaid provide proof of citizenship -- passports or original birth certificates. That might sound sensible, but it has been a cumbersome, expensive solution to a non-problem.
In 2005, when he was overseeing the Medicaid program for the Bush administration, Mark McClellan noted that an inspector general's investigation did "not find particular problems regarding false allegations of citizenship, nor are we aware of any."
Because many Medicaid applicants don't have such papers easily at hand -- they're not the passport-carrying types -- the requirement has resulted in tens of thousands of eligible children being denied coverage or kicked off the rolls and has cost states millions of dollars to administer.
In Virginia, for instance, during the first nine months of implementation, the state's Medicaid rolls fell by 11,000 children -- even as the number of children enrolled in SCHIP, the parallel program for children in families earning slightly more, continued to rise. The impact wasn't on Hispanic children, whose families tend to have documents available and whose enrollment numbers continued to increase, but on white and African American children.
The House provision makes the documentation requirement optional for states, which, after all, have an interest in seeing that their Medicaid dollars are spent properly. Adults on Medicaid would still have to prove citizenship, swear that their children are citizens and provide their children's Social Security numbers. And states would have to conduct annual audits to ensure that no illegal immigrants are being covered.
Opponents point to Congressional Budget Office estimates that lifting the documentation requirement would raise costs $2 billion over 10 years. But, CBO Director Peter Orszag told me, that's almost entirely because it would increase enrollment of eligible children.
Not that those inconvenient details matter much. "Target Dems Go the Extra Mile for Illegal Immigrants," crowed the House Republicans' campaign arm. It sent out individualized releases accusing vulnerable Democrats of voting "to give illegal immigrants government healthcare benefits." You can see the 30-second ads coming.
But the debate over the health insurance bill looked tame next to the howls of outrage over a later vote on a proposal to change the agriculture spending bill to bar funds from being spent on illegal immigrants -- specifically, for housing benefits or in hiring. That is, of course, prohibited under existing law, as California Republican Jerry Lewis acknowledged in making the motion.
Republicans had a legitimate beef with the way the vote was hustled to a premature close, giving Democrats a victory that might not have been theirs. But at a news conference the next day, Republicans took pains to emphasize that this was not simply about procedural mistreatment.
"The radical leadership of the Democrat Party reversed that vote in order to again give more government benefits to illegal immigrants," said Jeb Hensarling of Texas, who chairs the conservative Republican Study Committee.
To the Democratic leadership, said Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn, "it is more important to let illegal immigrants be paid, fed and sheltered with U.S. taxpayer dollars than it is to let the voice of the American people be heard."
Paid, fed and sheltered? Federal law already prohibits this. But this debate isn't really about making good use of federal funds. It's about using immigration as a weapon against at-risk Democrats -- and assuming voters won't bother to learn the truth.
By LARRY NEUMEISTER The Associated Press Tuesday, August 7, 2007; 8:58 PM
NEW YORK -- Hundreds of people not entitled to stay in the United States won permanent residency through a sophisticated scam that relied on a corrupt former U.S. immigration official, a prosecutor said at the start of a trial Tuesday.
In the scheme, U.S. citizens were paid to marry someone who otherwise could not qualify for permanent residency, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Wong said. She accused the defendant, Peter Absolam, of being a salesman who helped people obtain immigration documents "based on fraud and deceit and lies."
"Some met their spouse only once, some not at all," Wong said.
Prosecutors said immigrants paid up to $16,000 to participate.
Through FBI recordings and the work of an informant, investigators learned how elaborate the scam was, relying on a financial and legal aid business owned by Beverly Mozer-Browne and the help of her brother, Phillip A. Browne, a former U.S. immigration office worker, she said.
Browne, a district adjudication officer for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office before he resigned in November 2005, eased approval of phony applications by generating green cards without the required interview, prosecutors said.
Of the 29 people originally charged in the case, 24 have pleaded guilty.
Browne and Mozer-Browne have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
Wong said Absolam's role in the scheme was discovered when one of his potential customers reported it to government investigators, leading to a charge of conspiracy to obtain immigration documents by false pretenses.
Absolam's conversations with the customer were recorded, forming the basis of the case against him and demonstrating that the fraud from April 2001 through November 2005 produced as much as $1 million in proceeds from fees paid by immigrants, Wong said.
The FBI listened in as Mozer-Browne described the scam in detail to the informant and to Absolam, Wong said.
"The defendant was caught red handed," she told the jury.
Absolam lawyer Ellyn I. Bank told jurors they will have to decide whether her client was a knowing participant in a fraud.
She said Absolam has worked for four years for an organization for troubled youths. She challenged jurors to try to discover the motives of the government informant.
Absolam could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
EL PASO, Texas, Aug 08, 2007 (AP Online via COMTEX)
Every day, Eddie Lujan and fellow members of his Border Patrol welding team go out and fix holes cut in a 12-mile border fence the night before by illegal immigrants sneaking across from Mexico.
Then he and the others get up the next day and do it all over again.
"It's disheartening," said Lujan, a Border Patrol agent. "It's frustrating."
Given the never-ending task faced by Lujan and other like him, some wonder how the U.S. government will ever manage to maintain the fence it wants to build along a large portion of the 2,100-mile border.
"There isn't going to be anything that is cut-proof," said El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Victor M. Manjarrez Jr.
Congress has authorized $1.2 billion for about 700 miles of fencing, including about 330 miles of a so-called virtual fence - a network of cameras, high-tech sensors, radar and other technology. The remaining 370 miles, primarily in more urban areas, are expected to have an actual, two-layer fence.
Salvador Zamora, assistant Border Patrol agent in charge of the El Paso station, said no amount of vigilance - including constantly wandering patrol agents, pole-mounted cameras trained on the border and underground sensors - is going to prevent someone from taking a pair of bolt cutters to the fence.
"If it's made by man, it's going to be tampered and overcome by man," he said.
In fact, Manjarrez said the proposed border fence would not reduce the number of agents needed - it would increase it. Agents will have to watch for the people who almost certainly will try to climb or squeeze over, under, through or around it, and someone will have to repair the damage, he said.
"A fence in itself, we can't walk away and just say, `Well, that's it,'" Manjarrez said.
In the El Paso area, patrol agents every night draw up a list of holes they find in the chain-link fence, either when they see someone wriggling through, or when footprints are discovered leading from the fence toward El Paso.
Aviles' crew, consisting of two Border Patrol agents and two National Guard engineers, then goes out and repairs them, patching perhaps 15 to 20 holes a day.
On a recent day, Lujan and fellow agent Andrew Avile found a large cut that was deliberately made along a steel pole so that it could not easily be seen. Avile noticed it when the fence gave way as he pushed on it.
And for every cut, Lujan said, three to five people are probably making their way across the levee road, into a nearby canal and onto a highway, eventually reaching a neighborhood, "and then it's like looking for a needle in a haystack after that."
The goal is to use the fence to slow illegal immigrants down just long enough for an agent to spot them, Zamora said.
Manjarrez began his Border Patrol career in San Diego, where agents have been assigned to drive along the border in a pickup truck loaded with dirt to fill holes dug under the fence. In the Tucson, Ariz., sector, where Manjarrez was last stationed, a contractor has been hired to have welders on call to patch holes.
Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who voted for the expanded fence, said it could make a difference in urban areas. But building a fence that requires daily maintenance in the middle of the open desert, where agents are responsible for large swaths of territory, "may not be the most efficient or cost-effective way to control illegal immigration," Cornyn said.
Meanwhile, the fence fixers continue patrolling with their welding kits, finding ways to keep the boredom at bay.
Lujan likes to play tricks with the illegal immigrants who cut the fence. Once, he welded a crowbar to the fence after immigrants left the tool behind.
"I was just messing with them really," Lujan said with a smile. "They were using it to pry open the fence and in their hurry to get back, they dropped it. So I was just teasing them a bit, saying, `Hey, here's your crowbar. Don't forget it. It will be here for the next time. If you can take it off, you can have it.'"
It's been there for two years.
Copyright (C) 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Owner of Tarrasco Steel Arrested In ICE Probe For Hiring Illegal Alien Workers At Critical Infrastructure Construction Sites
August 3, 2007
JACKSON, Miss. - The owner of the Tarrasco Steel company made his initial appearance in federal court yesterday following his arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on an indictment from the Northern District of Mississippi, as part of an ongoing investigation into charges that he hired illegal alien workers from Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico to work at critical infrastructure construction sites throughout the Gulf Coast region.
Jose S. Gonza***, 32, was arrested without incident Thursday morning at his office in Greenville, Mississippi. Gonza*** was involved as a subcontractor providing steel "re-bar" and installation services to major highway bridge construction projects. On March 29, 2007, ICE agents conducted coordinated worksite enforcement actions at the Greenville-Arkansas Highway 82 bridge in Greenville Mississippi; the Huey P. Long bridge in New Orleans, Louisiana; the US 90 bridge in Biloxi, Mississippi; the I-40 seismic retro-fit in Memphis, Tennessee, and the LA-1 bridge in Leeville, LA. These structures are part of our nation's critical infrastructure and are closely scrutinized when it comes to security matters. The investigation also revealed that the employees did not have proper welding certifications.
During the inquiry, the Social Security Administration, Office of the Inspector General, confirmed that the majority of Tarrasco Steel employees were using unauthorized social security numbers for employment. ICE obtained copies of payroll records for the employees for verification of the employees' status in the United States and to substantiate the allegations of criminal misconduct. Gonza*** allegedly falsified and altered information on the I-9 Employee Eligibility Forms.
"There is a serious public safety concern when illegal aliens, who are not authorized to work in the country legally, and who do not possess valid welding certifications, are employed in the construction of bridges in our communities," said Michael A. Holt, special agent-in-charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in New Orleans. "While there is no reason to believe that these individuals had ill intent against our country, they could have, because of their illegal status, been susceptible to blackmail from individuals wanting to hurt Americans. ICE will continue working tirelessly to identify those who are working illegally at our nation's critical infrastructure sites."
Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) investigations are generally predicated upon the threat to national security posed by unauthorized workers employed in critical infrastructure-related facilities. The goal of CIP investigations is to reduce the vulnerabilities of the nation's critical infrastructure and key assets to future terrorist attacks. Critical infrastructure has been defined as systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, that are so vital to the United States that the incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating impact on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, and/or any combination of those matters.
On April 16, 2007, nine illegal aliens employed by Tarrasco Steel were taken before a U.S. Magistrate in Greenville, Mississippi for an initial appearance. The aliens were charged with criminal violations for fraudulent use of immigration documents and social security account numbers. On July 26, 2007, Gonza*** and his company were indicted for unlawful employment of aliens and for making false statements.
A total of 77 illegal aliens were arrested during the ICE-led March 29 operation. Twenty-six of those arrested were Tarrasco Steel employees. The remaining were employees of other construction companies at the sites. In conjunction with the worksite operation, agents served a federal search warrant at the Tarrasco Steel office in Greenville, Mississippi, as well as seizure warrants on Tarrasco's bank accounts. A total of $457,368.00 has been seized from the accounts of Tarrasco Steel and Jose S. Gonza***.
Special Agent Holt commended the Harrison County Sheriff's Office; the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI); the Biloxi Police Department; the Mississippi Highway Patrol; the Mississippi Department of Transportation; the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office; the Jefferson Parish Levee Police; the United States Coast Guard; the Lake Village Police Department; the Chicot County Sheriff's Department; the U.S. Department of Labor; the Greater Lafourche Harbor Police; the Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office; U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP); the Memphis Police Department, and the Memphis Police Department's Harbor Patrol for their outstanding cooperation.
President and Managers of New Bedford Manufacturer Indicted On Charges Of Conspiring To Harbor And Hire Illegal Aliens To Fulfill Lucrative Government Contracts
August 2, 2007
BOSTON - The president and two managers of a New Bedford manufacturer awarded almost $230 million in contracts over the past five years were indicted today on charges they conspired to harbor and hire illegal aliens in order to fill the company's workforce.
United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan and Bruce M. Foucart, special agent in charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Office of Investigations in Boston, announced today that the president of Michael Bianco, Inc. (MBI), Francesco Insolia, 50, of Pembroke, Massachusetts, was indicted along with production manager, Dilia Costa, 55, of New Bedford, and contracts specialist Gloria Melo, 41, of Fall River. The defendants are named in a two count indictment charging each with conspiring to harbor or conceal or shield illegal aliens from detection, or to encourage and induce aliens to come to, enter, and reside in the United States; and also with conspiring to hire, and continue to employ, unauthorized aliens. The indictment arises in the context of an ongoing investigation which began in 2006 and culminated in a March 6, 2007 raid on the company's New Bedford offices at 89 West Rodney French Boulevard, leading to the detention of at least 361 illegal aliens.
Based on information contained in the indictment and in an affidavit previously submitted to the court, Insolia created MBI in 1985. MBI specialized in the manufacture of handbags and other fine leather goods. Between 2001 and 2006, MBI won a number of Department of Defense based contracts worth approximately $230 million to manufacture certain products for the U.S. military. As a result of these defense contracts, MBI began to substantially increase its workforce, growing from about 85 employees in 2001 to approximately 650 people in 2006.
The indictment charges that, as part of the alleged conspiracies, the defendants knowingly employed aliens who were illegal or not authorized to work in the United States; certain defendants assisted illegal and/or unauthorized alien employees in obtaining housing in the local area by providing advance payments to some employees, and by continuing to pay alien employees each week despite being aware of, or acting with reckless disregard of, their status; the defendants instructed illegal alien employees in how to avoid detection by the authorities, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); the defendants attempted to conceal, harbor, and shield from detection certain illegal alien employees; the defendants assisted certain illegal alien employees in obtaining fraudulent identification documents; the defendants, by hiring and paying illegal aliens with knowledge of, or with reckless disregard of, their status, encouraged and induced illegal aliens to unlawfully reside in the United States to work at MBI; and certain defendants knowingly filed and caused to be filed, W-2 tax forms with the Social Security Administration containing false identity information.
"The conduct, as alleged in the indictment undermines the integrity of our immigration system and could place legally operating businesses at a competitive disadvantage," said U.S. Attorney Sullivan. "Today's indictment should send a clear message to all employers that hiring illegal or unauthorized aliens, or conspiring to shield them from detection, will not be tolerated," concluded Sullivan.
"According to the indictment, the conspiracy involves knowingly hiring illegal workers and instructing illegal aliens on how to avoid detection by ICE," said Bruce M. Foucart, special agent-in-charge of ICE's Office of Investigations in Boston. "The widespread publicity of this case has focused attention on ICE's commitment to stopping employers who knowingly hire an illegal workforce."
If convicted, Insolia, Costa and Melo each face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, a $100 special assessment, and at least two years of supervised release on the charge of conspiring to harbor illegal aliens; and 6 months in prison, a $100 special assessment, and $10,000 fine for each illegal alien hired by MBI on the conspiracy to hire illegal aliens charge.
The investigation is continuing.
The case is being investigated by the ICE Office of Investigations in Boston, with assistance from the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General, Department of Defense's Criminal Investigative Service, U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General, Massachusetts Insurance Fraud Bureau and the U.s. Postal Inspection Service. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Cabell in Sullivan's Criminal Division.
The details contained in the indictment are allegations. The defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Thanks for keeping us informed, Explora! There are many of us who are interested in immigration issues and this thread is a great repository of information.
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