Types of ownership in Mexico

The Mexican Constitution vests ownership of all land, water, natural resources, and airspace in the Mexican nation. Therefore, land ownership is limited to surface rights and to Mexicans by birth, naturalized citizens, and Mexican companies. Mexico's constitution restricts or prohibits direct foreign ownership of land in the prohibited zones, which includes 100 kilometers along the border, 50 kilometers along the coast, and all of Baja California.

In Mexico there are four types of property:
A. Original property of the Mexican Nation, which consists of Parks, Forests, Volcanos, Marshlands, etc.


B. Property of the Mexican Nation by Decree (Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution of 1917), which consists of Minerals, Water, Oil, and the Federal Maritime Terrestrial Zone, a strip of land 20 meters back from the high tide zone along all the coasts. These all belong to the Mexican government, although concessions can be obtained for their use.


C. Social properties, which are either Communal or Ejidal. Communal properties are government lands-often the town squares and area surrounding a rural village, possession of which was established in pre-Hispanic times. These properties are not generally offered for sale. Ejidal properties were established in Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution of 1917 as an outcome of the revolution and represent probably 50% of all the land in the country. I'll discuss ejidal properties in further detail later.


D. Private Property, which is like private property anywhere, and can be bought, sold, inherited, acquired by gift, or awarded by judicial decree. Many private properties are owned jointly by family members (co-propiedad). These are generally old titles with many, many heirs. Let's say that a Mexican bought a 2,000 acre ranch in 1850 and it has remained in the family. By now there may be 250 owners. Co-propiedad is private property, but certain steps must be taken to give legal title. If, say, a great-great-great-grandson wanted to sell such a property, he would have to obtain permission from the other 249 co-owners to sell; each has the right of first refusal. Or the property could be subdivided and title issued to each co-owner, but this is a costly procedure.


Ejidos
Ejidos (pronounced ay-hee-does) represent a unique type of property ownership unknown in the U.S. and Canada. Many foreign investors have run into trouble because of their lack of understanding of the ejido system, often enough to derail their entire projects. As you will see from the description that follows, trying to purchase ejido property can be extremely complex and time-consuming.


The word ejido is from the Latin exitus (exit), because in Spanish colonial times small Indian communities were located near the exits of large towns. These ejidos were villages surrounded by plots worked by individual peasant farmers, and they continued in operation through the period of the Revolution and the early years of the Mexican Republic.


In 1917 hundreds of millions of acres from the original Spanish land grants were expropriated by the government and classified as "ejidal." They were granted to communities for farming and ranching purposes, and registered as such with the National Agrarian Registry. The communities did not own the property, but were only entitled to use and work the land. If they did not, title could be revoked. Rights of usage passed from father to son, but could not be rented or sold.
In 1936 a different kind of ejido came into being when the government, under President Lázaro Cárdenas, seized many large haciendas and began distributing the land to thousands of rural families, 49,000,000 acres by 1940. Approximately 1/3 of the population received land under this program. Many of these ejidos were organized as collective farms. The members of the collectives, called ejiditarios, had no absolute property rights, since the federal government retained ownership of the land. It is estimated that about one-fifth of the arable land in Mexico belonged to ejidos at this time.


In January of 1992, Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution was amended, and a new Agrarian Law was enacted, to permit the lease or sale of an ejido property. With these changes, the ejidos can now own the properties previously granted under the former Agrarian Law. They must go through a process known as El Procede (the procedure).


The ejido as a legal entity is governed by an asamblea (similar to a shareholders meeting) and administered by a board consisting of a president, a secretary, and a treasurer. Each member of the ejido has voting rights with regard to the use of the property, but all the real estate is owned by the ejido as a whole. The members, meeting as the governing body, are empowered to grant property rights for each parcel.


The real property of the ejidos is divided into three categories:
• Individual parcels
• Property for community development
• Property for common use

Individual parcels are those which have been assigned to each ejiditario through certificates issued and approved by the National Agrarian Registry. Neither the ejido assembly nor the ejidal commissioners may use these properties without the written consent of the title holders. These ejiditarios do not have fee simple ownership. They have the right to use a parcel exclusively, bequeath it to a family member, grant the usage to others, rent it, or transfer it.


Once an ejido property has been conveyed by the asamblea to a member, he or she can cancel its registration, have the parcel converted into private property, and register it as such. Then, and only then, can the property be leased or sold.


Privatizing ejido lands is a long process. An ejiditario may not sell his or her land to an outsider until the entire ejidal group goes through The Procedure, a seven-step process that may take as much as five years to accomplish. After the ejiditario finally receives a deed, he or she may in turn sell to third parties, but only after notification to other family members, then to those who have worked the property for more than one year, then to other ejiditarios in the group, neighbors, and the ejidal government. These parties all have the right of first refusal, similar to co-propiedad. If they can't meet the terms of the sale within 30 days, they lose their right of first refusal. If the procedure is not carried out correctly, any transfer to a third party may be declared null and void.


Property for community development or human settlement includes such areas as the city center, school sites, and recreational facilities. These properties cannot be sold or mortgaged.
Properties for common use are those that are neither community property nor individual parcels. They cannot be sold or mortgaged, but under the new Agrarian Law, ejidos can enter into joint venture agreements with partnerships or corporations, mercantile societies, or civil associations. Such agreements must be approved by the Agrarian Reform Department and then also approved by the entire ejidal group. Prior authorization from the governing body is also required for leasing these properties. If the agreement is dissolved, the ejido can get back the property.


Problems can occur when American investors don't understand the complexities of the ejido system. A clear title can't be obtained on an individual lot unless the former ejiditario has gone through the privatization procedure. Another type of problem is exemplified by a potential client of mine. The parcel he wanted to buy had a valid title, but he found that there was still common use property owned by the ejido between the sea and what he thought was a beachfront lot, and the asamblea was planning to put up a taco stand on it.


Buyers also need to realize, when trying to buy the entire property of an ejido, that every member must privatize his or her individual lot before it can be transferred. To buy the community property requires the consent of the governing body. Aside from the practical difficulty of getting 40 or 50 or 75 persons to agree on anything, there is the logistical problem of notifying them of the meeting and getting them to vote. Since most of the ejido land in and around Puerto Peñasco is undeveloped, the owners do not live on their lots and must be sought out elsewhere. And then there will always be a few who can't be located. Some buyers have bought land from ejidos, thinking they had a valid sale; then suddenly an ejiditario has appeared, claiming that he or she never received notification of the meeting, or wasn't able to vote, and this is sufficient to throw a cloud on the title.


All these problems can be solved, but it takes research, legal advice, patience, organizational skills, and a great deal of time to get the job done. Prospective buyers should retain the services of a reputable real estate agent and/or a Mexican lawyer to check out legal details for them, obtain title insurance, and close their transactions through a notario.

Published: 07.04.2007

Az faces hurdles enforcing employer sanction law State needs to use federal database

Sean Holstege
The Arizona Republic

Enacting a strict employer-sanctions law is one thing, but enforcing it may be quite another.
Arizona now has the toughest law in the land for cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants. Those employers can lose their businesses if investigators can prove they knowingly make illegal hires more than once.

Proving the case against a business, however, is going to require unprecedented cooperation among federal, state and local officials.

At the heart of the law is a federal database called Basic Pilot, which is managed by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency. The program compares Social Security numbers and personal IDs and flags discrepancies.

Under Arizona's new law, which takes effect Jan. 1, employers must use Basic Pilot to verify worker eligibility. The attorney general and county prosecutors must use the same program to substantiate tips that somebody is working illegally.

But there is no system in place for local prosecutors to access the data.

Businesses that have been using the Basic Pilot program on a voluntary basis have only limited access to the database, to check records of their own employees. Prosecutors will need access to all available records if they hope to be able to verify employment status when they receive complaints.

At USCIS, verification chief Gerri Ratliff says the agency can quickly run queries to see if employers are checking applicants. But USCIS can share those findings only with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the investigative wing of the U.S. immigration agency.

"We will have to sit down with the lawyers and figure out how to make this work," Ratliff said.

Alonzo Peña, ICE special agent in charge, plans to add to and widen existing partnerships that allow police and sheriffs to arrest illegal immigrants. Still, legislators think the real strength of the law is in deterring employers from hiring illegal immigrants.

Although the hiring rule is a state law, ICE will be integral to enforcement. Only ICE can deport the illegal workers. For now, it also will be the conduit for state and local prosecutors who need to conduct computer checks on suspect employers.

Prosecutors will be responsible for penalizing employers. Police officers and sheriff's deputies will be needed for enforcement because, Peña said, "there are far more of them than there are ICE agents."

In a letter to Peña on Monday asking for cooperation on the new law, Gov. Janet Napolitano noted that local prosecutors will be forwarding more tips to ICE. She also asked that ICE refer illegal-hiring cases it uncovers to state prosecutors.

In Colorado, a new law requires police to notify ICE when they come across an illegal worker. ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said the agency has seen a jump in the number of tips from police.

It is far from certain whether ICE will have the resources, or even the inclination, to follow up on the tips the Arizona law generates. A 2006 report by congressional auditors said, "Worksite enforcement has been a relatively low priority."

The U.S. Senate immigration-reform bill that died last week would have added hundreds of ICE agents and USCIS employees, plus 4,500 Department of Homeland Security employees, to bolster the worker-verification program.

Congressional investigators at the Government Accountability Office found a clash of cultures inside the immigration agencies.

"USCIS officials told us they have concerns about providing ICE broader access to Basic Pilot Program information because it could create a disincentive for employers to participate," the GAO found.

Investigators also revealed that ICE has been under orders since 2004 to place top priority on illegal immigrants who are subject to "national security investigations."

Those arrested in worksite enforcement investigations were given the lowest priority.

The report found that low-priority suspects "would likely be released" because detention centers didn't have enough space to house them.

"It's definitely going to take more partnership," Peña said. "We're going to do everything we can with the resources we have, staying within our priorities."

Jul 4, 8:48 PM EDT

Mexico Landslide Buries at Least 40

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ
Associated Press Writer

AP Photo/Ramiro Molina-Gobierno del Estad

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Rescue crews searched Wednesday for survivors of a landslide that buried a bus carrying at least 40 passengers on a mountainous road in central Mexico, officials said.

Using heavy machinery, about 500 soldiers and rescue workers dug through tons of rock and dirt on a winding road near the town of San Miguel Eloxochitlan in the state of Puebla, where heavy rains triggered the landslide, said German Garcia, operations director for the state civil protection department.

The bus, carrying between 40 and 60 people, was headed to the nearby town of Tehuacan when the side of a mountain gave way at around 7 a.m. Wednesday, Garcia said. He said it was impossible to know the exact number of passengers on board because the bus made stops along the way.

Town resident Mario Jimenez told W Radio he was driving about 35 feet behind the bus when he saw huge rocks slide down the mountain.

"The rocks fell first and then it was the dirt," Jimenez said, adding that the packed bus was completely buried.

Garcia said workers had yet to reach the bus some 12 hours after the accident and that rescue efforts would be suspended at nightfall because of expected rain, and would resume Thursday morning. He refused to comment on what hopes authorities had of finding survivors.

President Felipe Calderon ordered the Interior and Defense departments to help in the rescue efforts.

A wave of heavy rainfall across Mexico this week has triggered flooding and landslides that have killed several people.

Last year, 57 people died when their overloaded bus careened off a highway into a 650-foot ravine in state of Veracruz, which borders Puebla.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.

Published: 07.04.2007
My Tucson: Tuscon, Mexican history intertwined

ELIZABETH "BJAY" WOOLLEY
Tucson Citizen

I hope you enjoy the fireworks, get mustard on your shirt, sing horribly about the rockets' red glare and enjoy your air conditioning.

While you're at it, think about Tucson, the longest continuously occupied community in the United States, and its chronicle in becoming a part of this glorious independent nation.

The Declaration of Independence was signed July 4, 1776. For Tucson, that would be 70 years before the first U.S. flag would be flown here, 77 years before the Gadsden Purchase and 136 years before Arizona statehood.

Tucson has flown the flags of Spain, Mexico and even the Confederate States of America.

The Old Pueblo has endured the Spanish revolt, the U.S.-Mexican war, Confederate occupation, the Civil War and a 25-year war with the Apaches.

Around the time the Declaration was signed, the "city of Tucson" was just a temporary wooden stockade on the east bank of the Santa Cruz River (now downtown Tucson).

A few able-bodied Spanish soldiers were there to defend it, along with some indispensable Indian allies from the surrounding villages.
The soldiers came from Tubac or other Mexican communities and were familiar with the Sonoran Desert.

They have been described as rag-tag desert fighters with primitive weapons.
Despite the unfavorable description, they defended the middle Santa Cruz Valley for 80 years and managed to miraculously keep Tucson on the map.

After the Spanish Revolt in 1821, Tucson became part of the Sonoran state of Mexico.

However, Mexico neglected this area, thought to be a worthless wasteland. So when Mexico declared war on the United States, the state of Sonora refused to join the war against the U.S.

It makes sense then that when the American flag first was triumphantly raised over Sonoran Tucson in 1846, it was not accompanied by "bombs bursting in air." Rather, it was accompanied by a fiesta.

The flag raising occurred when the U.S. Army Mormon Battalion was passing through to fight in the U.S.-Mexican War.

The event was so peaceful, one of the Mormon soldiers joined in the fiesta with his fiddle. The commander left the Mexican garrison intact and wrote a note to the Sonoran governor, apologizing for the inconvenience.

Tucson changed hands some more with the Gadsden Purchase in 1853 and a brief capture and occupation by Confederate soldiers in 1862.

Hardships continued for Tucson inhabitants as the 25-year Apache war began around this time.
Finally, in 1912, against considerable odds and amid many hardships, Tucson became part of this great nation when Arizona was recognized as a state.

Today you can see evidence of this history in Tucson's unique blend of cultures and Sonoran influences.

So while you are out doing the traditional Fourth of July activities, feeling patriotic and seeing flags everywhere, I hope you think about when our flag first flew over Tucson and hear the sounds of a fiesta and a fiddle.

Elizabeth "Bjay" Woolley, a Tucson native whose family has been in southern Arizona for generations, is a mother, freelance Web designer and editor of an online magazine for moms with diabetes. E-mail: bjay100@gmail.com.

My Tucson: Ochoa elementary book update

FULL TEXT OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
— John Hancock
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Australian 'Big Brother' producer apologizes to Mexican government

Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 06/22/2007 02:19:20 PM PDT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — An Australian production company has apologized to Mexico for a segment of a "Big Brother" reality program that showed people throwing water balloons at the Mexican flag.

Mexico's Foreign Relations Department on Wednesday sent protest letters to the program and the Australian government, saying the country's flag had been desecrated on the show that aired June 15.

"I apologize on behalf of the producers of 'Big Brother' for any offense suffered and assure you this will never happen again," wrote Kris Noble, the managing director of entertainment company Endemol Southern Star, in a letter Thursday to the Mexican Embassy in Australia.

"The segment was intended as a lighthearted tribute to Mexico and its vibrant cultural heritage, which we all admire and enjoy," the letter stated.

Mexico's protest letters said that the country's flag "has a long and proud history and it stands as a powerful symbol that identifies and unites Mexican citizens wherever they live.

Australia's government regulator of television broadcasters, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, was "considering a response", the agency's media manager, Donald Robertson, said Friday.

Mexico's Televisa network repeatedly aired segments of the show, in which participants wearing oversized Mexican sombreros and droopy false mustaches hurled balloons at a Mexican flag.

In one segment, contestants were asked to name the country from which Mexico won its independence. The contestant who answered the United States was told that was the right answer. Mexico gained independence from Spain.

Sydney-based Southern Star produces Big Brother under a joint venture with the Netherlands-based entertainment company Endemol NV.

Reputed Chatsworth skinheads plead guilty to attack against Latinos

Two reputed Chatsworth Skinheads gangsters pleaded guilty last week to assault charges stemming from a fight in which they targeted a group of Latinos at Chatsworth Park in March. Zachary Lee Gleed, 19, and Jonathan Thomas Spear, 18, face a year in Los Angeles County Jail when they are sentenced later this month.

What follows is a tale of a little-known crime, this one based on police reports, that highlights the activities of a group of skinheads, active in the northeastern corner of the San Fernando Valley and, police say, are connected to the Aryan Brotherhood, who confronted Latinos, shouted racial slurs and attacked them before police arrived.

The attack began after Gleed, Spear and other white males asked the Latinos for smokes while hanging out drinking at Chatsworth Park March 4 and heard an answer the apparently didn't like. The victims told them they didn’t smoke or drink.

“Why don’t you drink or smoke?” Gleed yelled at the group, according to police reports. “You’re just hanging out being lame. The first one that has cigarettes will be the first one that I am hitting.”

Gleed ***ped into the victims with his shoulder, provoking -- “Who’s gonna punch? Who’s gonna punch?”

He told them he had stabbed people in the neck and had just gotten out of jail. They threw cans of beer at them as they tried to walk away.

Then someone shouted, “Get them!”

One victim was hit on the back of the head. He fell. On the ground, others punched and kicked him in the head.

They beat another, forcing him to fall. They picked him up. He fell again. He curled up in a ball to cover his head with his arms, escaping with only scrapes and bruises.

A girl in the group was attacked and pushed to the ground.

Another victim was hit in the back of the head. He fell to the ground where he was kicked and punched. His glasses were knocked off his face. Gleed picked up the glasses, handed them back to him, then punched him in the face again.

Another victim managed to escape and ran to a gas station nearby to call the cops.

When the cops arrived, everyone scattered.

One of the attackers hurt his hand in the melee and was taken to a hospital. When an officer arrived to check on him, he asked what he did to his hand.

“You know what’s up. We beat those fools down,” he said, according to the police reports.

One of Spears’ fingers was swollen and cut, injuries he told police he got when he fell off his skateboard.

Update on immigration standoff, Ted Hayes
June 28, 2007

Homeless activist Ted Hayes is decrying LAPD's treatment of anti-illegal immimgrant protesters at Leimert Park over the weekend. He was angered because officers would not allow him into the park where pro-immigrant demonstrators stood in opposition. Cops broke up the standoff.


Hayes and four of his supporters were arrested for resisting a peace officer. They had been denouncing undocumented immigrants' impact on the African-American community.


On Tuesday, he and half-dozen supporters told the city's civilian Police Commission that their civil rights were violated and demanded a full investigation. The commission's president and former head of the Los Angeles Urban League John Mack promised to take the matter up at this Tuesday's meeting.

Del Monte immigration raid highlights labor issues

By Ahmed ElAmin
6/15/2007

An immigration raid this week on a Fresh Del Monte Produce processing plant indicates that federal officials are continuing their campaign to crack down on the industry's use of illegal labour.

In a statement Del Monte confirmed that the raid of its Portland, Oregon plant on 12 June and claimed it "has been advised" that it is not a current target of the investigation.

The raid and subsequent arrests of 170 employees shows the dangers of using a third-part firm to staff food production facilities. The food sector is one of the largest users of temporary labor and has been a particular target of similar crackdowns on illegal labor.

Recent raids on Tyson, Swift & Co. and Smithfield have highlighted the problem in the industry.

In the Fresh Del Monte raid federal agents also searched two Portland offices of American Staffing Resources, the company that hired workers for the processor, the company stated.

About 170 employees were taken into custody and more arrests are likely, according to a statement by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

ICE agents executed arrest warrants and search warrants this morning at three Portland locations as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged criminal violations by employees ASR.

As part of the criminal investigation, a federal grand jury in Portland has returned indictments against three unnamed individuals alleging immigration, document fraud, and identity theft offenses, the ICE stated.

The names of the defendants are not being released pending their arrests.

The searches occurred at two local offices of American Staffing Resources, Inc., one at 8926 North Lombard Street and one located inside of the Fresh Del Monte plant at 9243 North Rivergate Boulevard in Portland.

ICE also executed a separate search warrant at the Fresh Del Monte office within the plant.
The production workers at Fresh Del Monte are actually employees of American Staffing Resources, Inc, the ICE stated.

"The premises of the businesses would contain evidence of the production and distribution of forged documents and of the employment of illegal aliens," the ICE stated.

About 90 per cent of American Staffing's employees were using social security numbers that belonged to other persons or were made up, the ICE alleged.

"Some of the individuals using those Social Security numbers apparently have criminal records, have previously been deported, or are wanted on warrants of deportation," the ICE alleged.

ICE began the undercover operation in January this year at American Staffing Resources and Del Monte's premises.

"During the course of that operation, the undercover informant openly discussed with managers at both Del Monte and American Staffing Resources, Inc. that he was not legally in the United States and did not have the proper identification to work," the ICE alleged.

"An employee of American Staffing Resources, Inc. provided him with a counterfeit Social Security card, and later provided him with counterfeit social security cards and counterfeit resident alien cards for others."

Based on the agent's affidavit, the magistrate judge authorized ICE and social security agents to search for evidence of federal crimes that included the hiring illegal aliens, harboring illegal aliens, encouraging illegal aliens to reside in the US, identity theft; immigration document fraud, and Social Security fraud.

In a separate, simultaneous action, ICE also obtained court authorisation to search the Del Monte premises for illegal aliens.

The workers are being interviewed in Portland by ICE staff and other federal officials.
"Today's enforcement action is part of ICE's continued efforts to investigate employers who facilitate the hiring of undocumented workers," said Leigh Winchell, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Seattle. "No employer, regardless of industry or location is immune from complying with the nation's laws."

A bill on immigration and labour is currently winding its way through the US Senate as legislators attempt to both crack down on the problem yet provide ways for processors and others to access cheap workers.

The legislation would offer legal status to 12 million undocumented immigrants. It would also expand a guest-worker program. Employers would also have a means for verifying the legal status of workers, which would absolve them of any liability if illegal employees are subsequently found on their sites.

Will Del Monte raid keep workers from reporting abuses?

The Oregonian
Posted by Brent Hunsberger June 14, 2007 07:13AM
Categories: Immigration, Pay, Workplace Safety
What do you think?

Keith Cunningham-Parmeter -- a former worker rights attorney, now an assistant professor at Willamette University -- says the timing of this week's immigration raid at Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. is suspect and possibly a violation of federal immigration rules. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation started several months after The Oregonian publicized a $400,000 settlement obtained from Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. on behalf of eight ex-workers fired for complaining about substandard pay and unsafe conditions at the North Portland plant, a rare legal victory for low-wage, Hispanic workers.

Writes Cunningham-Parmeter in an e-mail:

"Out of all the work sites and all the undocumented workers, how did ICE select this work site and these workers?
After the workers' court filings in 2005 and your coverage in August 2006 this plant became well known as a place where immigrants workers were complaining about workplace violations. According to court documents, the ICE informant began collecting information in December 2006, which came on the heals of the Oregonian's coverage of the plant in the summer of 2006 and the workers' complaints that began in 2005.

The most publicized case of low-wage immigrant workers complaining became the site of the largest immigration raid in the state.

Again, ICE cites the deplorable working conditions as a basis for the raid--working conditions that were the exact subject of the litigation. The message from all of this: Immigrant workers who complain get deported."

A U.S. Customs Enforcement spokeswoman denied the workers' settlement sparked the investigation, saying the agency's probe stemmed from a tip from a truck driver visiting the plant in April 2006, several months before the publicized legal settlement. Immigration agents started their undercover investigation of the plant in late December 2006, according to ICE's affidavit filed in the case.

Mexican officials say poverty levels vary greatly by geography

ASSOCIATED PRESS
1:00 p.m. July 4, 2007

MEXICO CITY – Poverty affects nearly half of Mexico's population, but levels vary significantly throughout the country, reaching their highest in the southeast, officials said Wednesday.

The southern state of Chiapas, with a 75.7 percent poverty rate, is Mexico's poorest, while the northern border state of Baja California has the lowest poverty, at 9.2 percent, according to The National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy.

AdvertisementThe council released data in the form of maps that, for the first time, pinpointed poverty rates at the local and statewide level in the country's 31 states and the capital, Mexico City.

According to the maps, which the council based on national poverty figures in 2005, the poorest states after Chiapas are Guerrero, Oaxaca and Tabasco. All three are in the south and have poverty rates of at least 59 percent.

The least impoverished states, besides Baja California, are Baja California Sur and the northeastern state of Nuevo Leon, with respective poverty rates of 27.5 percent and 23.5 percent. Mexico city places third with 31.8 percent.

In 2005, poverty affected nearly 45 million people in Mexico, or about 47 percent of its population. Of that number, 18.2 percent live in conditions of “extreme poverty,” described as being too poor to even feed one's family.

“Mexico is a country of great contrasts. ... The inequality is embarrassing,” council representative Juan Angel Rivera said.

Financial Web site says Mexico's Carlos Slim now world's richest man

By Lisa J. Adams
ASSOCIATED PRESS

3:39 p.m. July 3, 2007

MEXICO CITY – Has Bill Gates been knocked off the world's pinnacle of wealth?

A respected Mexican journalist says magnate Carlos Slim may have supplanted Gates as the world's richest man, thanks to a healthy ***p in the stock price for a mobile phone company Slim controls.

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According to the calculations by Eduardo Garcia, who runs a financial Web site called Sentido Comun (“Common Sense”), Slim's worth climbed to $67.8 billion at the end of June. He calculated Microsoft Corp. founder Gates' worth at $59 billion in June.

In its annual list of the world's billionaires, issued in March, Forbes magazine estimated Slim's wealth at $49 billion, putting him in third place behind Gates, with $56 billion, and U.S. investor Warren Buffett, with $52 billion.

In an April report on its Web site, Forbes ***ped Slim up to No. 2, estimating that his companies' worth had increased to just over $53 billion.

Slim controls Mexico's largest fixed-line telephone company, Telefonos de Mexico, or Telmex, and owns other businesses involved in everything from construction and music to restaurants and cigarettes.

Garcia says Slim's growing fortune was helped by a 26.5 percent second-quarter increase in share prices for America Movil SA, the largest wireless service provider in Latin America, which Slim controls.

Garcia's estimate of Gates' latest worth is based on a 5.7 percent second-quarter increase in Microsoft shares. But he acknowledges that his new calculations do not include possible gains in Gates' holdings outside of Microsoft, which Forbes says represent more than half of the software mogul's fortune.

“But a 26 percent growth rate for a world company like America Movil, that's hard to top for one quarter,” Garcia said.

In a statement Tuesday, Forbes did not comment on Garcia's report but said the magazine's next valuation of Gates' wealth will appear in September, in the annual Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans. Slim's wealth won't be recalculated by Forbes until its next world billionaires list in March 2008, the company said.

Slim spokesman Arturo Elias Ayub told The Associated Press that Slim does not pay much attention to these lists.

“As he has said many times himself, he is not in any competition,” Ayub said.

(Carlos Slim's father isn't of Mexican ancenstry. Explora)