Shootings target police, families

6 killed, 5 injured in three incidents

By Sandra Dibble
January 16, 2008

TIJUANA – A high-ranking police commander, his wife and his 11-year-old daughter were among six people killed in a burst of overnight violence in Tijuana that has left residents shaken and law enforcement officials vowing to fight harder than ever against organized crime.

The killings occurred in three parts of the city over six hours late Monday and early yesterday. By the time the violence was over, heavily armed men also had killed two other Tijuana police officers and a civilian, and wounded three adults, a 4-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy.

It remained unclear yesterday whether the shootings were linked.

The fact that children were shot has raised fears that violence has reached new levels in this city plagued by drug-related bloodshed. While law enforcement officials have been targeted, their families have largely been spared.

The attacks come a week after President Felipe Calderón's government dispatched 1,000 federal police to Baja California, 500 of them to Tijuana to help state and local law enforcement agencies fight organized crime. Yesterday, federal troops helped guard Tijuana's police headquarters. A few blocks away, soldiers kept watch over the state medical examiner's office.

"It would be hard to have a day sadder than this one," said Alberto Capella, Tijuana's secretary of public safety, seated with top state and federal law enforcement officials at a packed news conference.

"We are not going to bow down; on the contrary, it gives us greater strength and determination."

His own house was shot up by gunmen in November, shortly before he was appointed to his city post by Mayor Jorge Ramos, who has pledged to make public safety a hallmark of his administration.

In each of the three incidents, the assailants used AK-47 assault rifles.

Analysts linked the new violence to the continued weakening of the Arellano Félix drug cartel in recent years, with smaller groups operating with less control.

"You never heard of heavily armed gunmen and kidnappings and assaults of innocent people while the cartel was intact," said David Shirk, director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego.

Victor Clark Alfaro, director of the Binational Center for Human Rights and a longtime observer of Tijuana crime trends, said criminals are adapting.

As officials launch new efforts, "organized crime is also devising new strategies," he said. "It seems like a guerrilla war."

Over the years, federal, state and municipal police officers have been frequent targets of organized crime. Last year, 15 lost their lives in violent incidents in Tijuana, four of them members of the city police force. With this week's shootings, five municipal police officers have been killed in 2008.

The latest assaults began with the shooting of the district commander of the centrally located La Mesa district, José de Jesús Arias Rico, 45, and his second-in-command, Hebert Escobedo, 35. Gunmen overtook them about 11:50 p.m. Monday as they drove in a 1988 Ford Escort on a thoroughfare, state investigators said.

Rommel Moreño Manjarrez, Baja California's attorney general, said Arias Rico had played a "heroic" role in an investigation and had been receiving death threats as a result.

The second incident occurred at 3:30 a.m. in the impoverished neighborhood of Tres de Octubre. Investigators say it may have been a mistake, with gunmen shooting people they hadn't intended to target. Eugenia Velázquez, 27, was shot to death while Mainol Gomez Ortíz, 29, and José Luis Ortíz, 3, were wounded.

The third incident took place at 4:15 a.m. yesterday off a dirt road in the neighborhood known as Loma Bonita. Gunmen shot district commander Margarito Saldana Rivera, 43, inside the house he shared with his family. Also killed were his wife, Sandra, 42, and their 11-year-old daughter, Valeria Jazmín. Two other daughters, ages 4 and 20, were wounded.

Hours later, neighborhood boys showed bullets and casings found in the aftermath, while adults told of the terror they had endured. One man, 61, wept as he remembered lying on the floor of his bedroom with his wife while listening to the assailants shout and watching their shadows move outside his door. They entered his kitchen and shot up his two trucks.

"It was seconds, but it seemed like years," he said.

Moreno, the attorney general, said the second and third incidents could be linked to a confrontation Monday between police and assailants of an armored truck that began in downtown Tijuana and continued on a highway known as La Via Rapida. One of the assailants, dressed as a Tijuana police officer, was killed.

U.S. attorney general announces stepped up effort to stem weapons trafficking to Mexico

By Mark Stevenson
ASSOCIATED PRESS
3:12 p.m. January 16, 2008

MEXICO CITY – The United States is giving Mexico access to an electronic database to help trace weapons smuggled from the U.S. into the hands of well-armed Mexican drug gangs, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Wednesday.
The database, known as e-Trace, has already been installed at U.S. consulates in the northern cities of Monterrey and Hermosillo and in the western city of Guadalajara. It will be expanded to the remaining six consulates by March, and should be available in Spanish soon.

Mexican police will be able to use the system to determine the origin of weapons seized from criminals and then notify U.S. authorities. Officials north of the border would "figure out what dealer that came from, and then target that dealer," Mukasey said.
"Inevitably we'll find people who are not doing what they ought to do, and they'll be prosecuted," he told foreign correspondents.

Mexico has long complained that its northern neighbor isn't doing enough to stop the flow of illegal weapons into Mexico, where drug traffickers and other organized gangs sometimes outgun police. Since taking office a little over a year ago, President Felipe Calderón has urged Washington to do more to battle the illegal arms trade.

Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora welcomed the announcement, calling it "indispensable that we establish common criteria to solve this problem."

Mukasey also said the United States has hired more firearms agents to check the records of gun dealers along the border.

"I can certainly foresee a tightening up of the way gun dealers distribute guns," he said.

On his first visit abroad as attorney general, Mukasey met with Medina Mora, Calderón and other officials in Mexico for talks on increased anti-drug joint operations, intelligence sharing and some kind of diplomatic status for some U.S. agents here.

Mukasey said Mexican and U.S. officials have discussed recent incidents near the border city of Tijuana, in which U.S. Border Patrol agents fired tear gas into Mexican territory to protect themselves against rocks and other projectiles hurled at them from the Mexican side.

"We're trying to deal with it. We've talked to the Mexicans about it, and they're trying to deal with it," Mukasey said. "What happens is that there is organized rock-throwing to divert border guards, who then become involved in whatever exchanges they're involved in, then you get a bunch of backpackers running across the border with backpacks full of marijuana. So it's drug-related."

Mukasey urged U.S. lawmakers to approve the proposed Merida Initiative, a multiyear, $1.4 billion package to fund training, equipment and other aid for Mexico's anti-drug effort. The proposal is stalled in the U.S. Congress, as Washington focuses on the current presidential race.

Authorities have blamed drug violence for the shooting deaths of three police officials and one of their wives in Tijuana earlier this week. Two federal agents were killed and three more injured when they clashed with a group of suspects in the border city of Reynosa just days before.

Mexico expects 5-6 percent growth in manufacturing exports in 2008

AP
Posted: 2008-01-16

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican manufacturing exports will grow by at least 5 percent in 2008, despite an economic downturn in the U.S., their largest market, according to a group that represents the majority of the country's manufacture-for-export plants.

Members of the National Council of the Maquiladora Export Industry - which represents 84 percent of Mexico's export manufacturing industry - exported US$168.9 million (114 million) between January and November of 2007, a 6.9 percent increase over the same period in 2006, statistics released by the council show.

"We aren't as optimistic this year, but we are still aiming for at least 5 percent," organization president Cesar Castro told a news conference.

"The U.S. is the most important factor that could affect us," he said, referring to the rising risk of recession north of the border, as the U.S. economy slows on a steep slump in housing and spreading credit crisis.

Higher taxes, increasing energy costs, and a potential appreciation of the peso relative to the dollar also could affect Mexican exports negatively, Castro said.

"We will have to see what happens in the first quarter to estimate how the industry is operating," he said. "We will have a better idea by February."

Immigration advocates urge new U.S. citizens to register to vote

By Antonio Olivo
Tribune reporter
January 16, 2008

Immigrant advocates said Tuesday they have registered 5,600 new Cook County voters since August, part of a nationwide effort to rally newly naturalized U.S. citizens for the 2008 presidential election.

Along with get-out-the-vote efforts in Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities, activists are pressing the federal government to process hundreds of thousands of stalled citizenship applications.

A twofold surge in citizenship applications between October 2006 and October 2007, to 1.4 million, created a backlog that would deny many people a chance to vote in the November election, argued Fred Tsao of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

During a news conference Tuesday, coalition organizers said they planned several get-out-the-vote forums in coming months.

In their 6-month-old voter-registration drive, community groups targeted suburbs that are flash points in the illegal immigration debate.

Several naturalized citizens took part in early voting Tuesday as part of the media event.

Among those casting ballots was University of Chicago professor Friederich Katz, a renowned scholar on Mexican history who, until recently, avoided becoming a U.S. citizen out of allegiance to his native Austria.

"This country is facing a huge amount of problems, and this question of immigrant rights is chief among them," Katz said. "I think it is up to us to have our voices heard."

New Mexican interior minister named

Calderon picks his chief of staff for the top Cabinet post, a traditional springboard to the presidency.

By Héctor Tobar
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 17, 2008

MEXICO CITY -- At 36, Spanish-born Juan Camilo Mouriño was already the quiet power behind the throne in Mexico. He controlled the calendar of President Felipe Calderon and appointed the top deputies of each member of Calderon's Cabinet.

On Wednesday, the green-eyed man known by the nickname "Ivan" officially became the second most powerful man in Mexico. Calderon named him interior secretary, the top Cabinet post and a traditional springboard to the presidency.

Mouriño was born in Madrid, the scion of a wealthy Spanish family that moved to Mexico when he was 7. He remained a Spanish citizen until age 18.

His rise to power, achieved in little more than a decade in politics, is an unlikely story in a country where Spaniards are still linked with empire and conquest.

Mouriño has the youthful good looks and European features most commonly associated here with TV actors. But before Wednesday, few Mexicans had heard his voice. Even among Mexico's political class, he's an unknown quantity.

"This guy hasn't done anything in his life to deserve the crown jewel of the Cabinet," said Federico Estevez, a political scientist. "He's a blank page. Appointing him is an incredibly bold and risky move by Calderon."

As Calderon's chief of staff for 13 months, Mouriño has been described in a handful of profiles as the president's behind-the-scenes "fireman" and "negotiator."

"He never speaks in public events and only whispers in the president's ear or to the Cabinet members who stand close to him and try and greet him," the newspaper El Universal wrote in a profile Wednesday.

Mouriño takes over a sprawling bureaucracy that is a vestige of Mexico's authoritarian past. The Interior Ministry, known as Gobernación in Spanish, monitors many key aspects of the country's political and cultural life, including domestic intelligence gathering, immigration, and relations between the president's office and Mexico's 31 states.

Gobernación also controls disaster relief, television commercials, movie ratings and the official news agency, Notimex.

"As a Mexican it is an honor and a privilege to assume this new responsibility," Mouriño said at a news conference, looking somewhat tentative in his new public role. "Mr. President, you can count on my loyalty."

Mouriño's family arrived in Mexico in the late 1970s and made its fortune in gas stations in the Gulf state of Campeche. But the Mouriños never lost their ties to Spain -- his father owns Celta de Vigo, one of Spain's leading soccer teams.

According to news reports, Mouriño was kidnapped in the 1990s and his family paid a million-dollar ransom for his release.

Entering politics at the behest of his father, Mouriño first ran for office in 1997, winning a seat in the Campeche state legislature.

In 2000, he was elected to the federal Congress on the National Action Party's list of at-large candidates. Mexican law requires federal officials to be Mexican citizens by birth -- Mouriño argued that he met the legal requirements because his mother is Mexican.

Still in his 20s, he became an ally of Calderon, then the leader of the PAN's congressional delegation.

Mouriño tied his fortunes to Calderon. He managed the campaign for the 2006 PAN presidential nomination in which Calderon defeated President Vicente Fox's choice as successor, then-Interior Secretary Santiago Creel.

"Calderon gave Mouriño a lot of the credit for defeating Creel," said Jose Antonio Crespo, a political scientist. "It was there that he won his loyalty."

In the 2006 presidential election, Mouriño ran Calderon's campaign "war room" and was one of the architects of the candidate's stunning come-from-behind victory against leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Even before Calderon took office in December 2006, Mouriño headed his transition team. His appointment as chief of staff quickly cemented his reputation as Calderon's right-hand man.

Like the American political advisor **** Morris, Mouriño used data from frequent polling to shape policy decisions. "The Calderon people measure things, obsessively," Daniel Lizarraga wrote in a profile of Mouriño in the magazine Proceso this month.

In Calderon's inner circle, people celebrate Mouriño's "cleverness, his political instincts and his ability to solve problems," Lizarraga wrote. "Those who are not his friends call him authoritarian, Machiavellian, and say he controls a vast network of influence that includes legislators, affluent businessmen, media moguls, party leaders and governors."

Some speculate that Calderon is grooming Mouriño to be president.

The next election is in 2012, and Calderon is prohibited from seeking a second term. Before Wednesday, the list of potential successors included no loyal "Calderonistas," said Estevez. Calderon has now clearly positioned his protege as a potential president.

In a rare interview, granted in December 2006 to the Spanish newspaper Faro de Vigo, Mouriño did not discount the idea that he might be Mexico's president one day.

"The truth is, I've never given myself that goal," he said. "Things have just happened. Politics is part will, part having goals and part circumstance. It's not just your decision. It depends on a lot of things."

Mouriño's Spanish birth may stand in the way of such ambitions. Public resistance is likely, analysts say, as are legal challenges. Last year, the columnist Miguel Angel Granados Chapa of the newspaper Reforma questioned whether Mouriño should be allowed to hold any elected or Cabinet position, saying he was not "Mexican by birth."

Anti-emigration strategy: Small Mexican towns try to create jobs at home

In rural Mexico, locals try to make a brighter prospect out of staying home.

By Sara Miller Llana | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the October 29, 2007 edition

Tamaula, Mexico - This town in the central state of Guanajuato is so isolated that its 50-some families just got electricity a year ago. There's still no running water. Most of the men migrate north, to work in US factories or tobacco fields.

But Adriana Cortes, who waves to everyone she sees on the rough, half-hour drive up here, believes they can help curb migration here and in rural towns like it throughout the country. Her plan: create small cooperative enterprises to make communities self-sustaining.

In Tamaula, she is helping residents turn a small cheesemaking outfit into a factory and supporting efforts to build a job-training center to keep teenagers from leaving and lure the men back home.

Nearly 500,000 Mexicans head to the US each year, and an estimated 7 million now live there illegally. As US and Mexican lawmakers butt heads over control measures, small communities in Mexico are looking at their own strategies of plugging the labor drain.

"Our politicians are always talking about how migrants are treated in the US, but no one focuses on how they live in their own communities," says Ms. Cortes, the director of the not-for-profit Bajio Community Foundation. "Something is missing in our country. We need people to say, 'This is my country, this is my home, this is my land.' Tamaula can be a model."After studying accounting in college, Cortes says she began working with drug addicts and the handicapped. She eventually opened 12 organizations in the city of Irapuato.

Through her work, Cortes says she realized how many social problems were the result of migration, and how little government policies were doing to reverse the migratory trend that has widened so considerably in the past decade.

"Officials always think the answer is to bring a new factory in, but that doesn't work," she says, explaining that weekly commutes to low-paid factory jobs here makes international migration – with its promises of higher pay – more attractive. "As long as they don't see anything in their community, they will think of the US."

Migration affects towns across Mexico, but those hit hardest are in the central, agricultural states, such as Guanajuato.

Tamaula is one of a handful of communities that Cortes chose for her programs based on its demonstrated commitment to reducing its labor drain. Cortes has established programs here in alternative tourism and weaving factories that draw support from the education, business, and government sectors.

In the nearby town of El Gusano, where only 40 percent of the homes are occupied, Cortes's foundation helped a group of women who run a sewing cooperative buy land for a community enterprise. The new facility will include a place for them to work, a training center with computers, a shop to sell their products, a few rooms to rent to visitors, and a restaurant.

We want it to grow, so it generates employment, so our kids don't think so much of going to the US," says Mariana Garcia, one of the members of the group, which calls itself the "Embroiderers of El Gusano." The group also plans to begin business management classes at a local university.

Whether these communities will be successful in keeping their labor local remains unclear, but they are receiving the support of some local officials.

"I cannot say 'no' to a local community, especially to young people who want to help themselves," says the mayor of Irapuato, Mario Turrent Anton, who adds that migration is among his municipality's gravest problems. Family disintegration, he says, can lead to a host of other social issues such as depression and a spike in school dropouts.

"This is their land, and they should stay in their land; we could not do this work without people like Adriana," he says. Mr. Anton has promised Tamaula's residents that his administration will give them resources to help build a community training center to help ***** gain practical job training and finish their high school degrees.

Already the improving prospects in Tamaula have acted as a magnet. Gloria Zambrano's husband, Jesus Villanueva, left two years ago to work in a chicken processing plant in Atlanta, but he plans to come home in December. First he will grow crops, she says, and then hopes to help find work at the cheese factory, where she works. "We never believed any of this was possible," says Ms. Zambrano.

Cortes always believed it was possible – and vital for Mexico's future growth.

"The day that we stop receiving remittances, what is the country going to do? We have social peace now because people are eating," says Cortes. "With the number of migrants leaving, this needs to be on the table as an urgent issue."

DRUG SEIZURE: Police officers guard cocaine found in the port of Manzanillo. The violence tied to the drug-trafficking business in Mexico is seen as having grown more cruel in recent years.

The drug business has become so deadly that those covering it risk their lives.

By Héctor Tobar
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 14, 2008

MEXICO CITY -- The writer was one of the legion of underpaid beat reporters in Mexico, the kind who churn out four or five stories a day, for low pay and little recognition. They know all about the corrupt and violent dealings going on around them, even though they can't always pass on this knowledge to their readers.

He was going to brief me on the local situation, which involved some high-profile killings, various bands of criminals with colorful nicknames and the transport of large quantities of cocaine and marijuana into the United States.

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But when I walked into his office, the reporter looked upset. He bit his lower lip and glanced down at the floor, seemingly trying to fight off tears. "I'm quitting," he said.

"What?" I said. "Why?"

In the 2 1/2 years I've been covering the so-called drug wars in Mexico and Central America, I've traveled to small-town police stations, government ministries and newsrooms where journalists require military protection.

Along the way, I've met many courageous people, and many people whose proximity to the drug traffickers' machinery of death has frightened them into silence. This reporter, the lone staffer in his bureau, was a little bit of both. I cannot mention his name, or the town he works in.

After announcing his resignation, he was silent for a time.

"Is there anything I can do to help you?" I asked. He shook his head. We sat like this for a few minutes, until he finally stood up and directed me to his desk.

He pointed to his computer screen and the window of an instant-messaging program, where a flashing missive declared: "You are bothering a lot of people."

It was a death threat: In the local idiom, to be told you are "bothering" someone is an unambiguous warning.

"They've been following me," he said. An hour and half a pack of cigarettes later, he had told me about a car with no license plates that appeared wherever he did, cruising slowly.

"But that's not the reason I'm quitting," he said. It was the low pay and the unfulfilled promises from his bosses (including a company car) that really had him angry. There was something wrong about having to take a bus to cover stories that could get you killed, he said. The threats were just the final straw.

In the end, the reporter stayed on his beat a bit longer and was transferred to a safer place, where he didn't have to cover so many funerals and drug busts -- and where he wouldn't "bother" people who didn't want to be bothered.

That's how it goes when you write about the drug trade: You get close to the story, and then you step away.

"I don't want to know any names," one prominent Mexico City drug expert told me over coffee one day, explaining how he had managed to write about organized crime for years without "bothering" anyone. "When people in the government offer to show me confidential reports, I say, 'Please, don't! I don't want to see them!' "

The expert writes about the drug war's "big picture," and thus avoids the most dangerous thing a writer can do here: reveal a name or a fact that directly affects a trafficker's operations.

The violence tied to the drug-trafficking business has grown more cruel and irrational as the mad scramble for easy money has grown more mad.

In recent years, the attacks have progressed from ambushes with automatic weapons to grenade assaults and grotesque beheadings. When a ton of cocaine falls from the sky, people barely take notice.

In March, police found 2 tons of $100 bills (more than $205 million) in a mansion four blocks from my house here. I've often walked past that now-abandoned house, fantasizing about discovering dollar bills floating in the nearby gutters like so much trash.

Not long ago, my aunt returned to her home in Guatemala City to discover her humble colonia sealed off with police tape. One of her neighbors, a small-time drug dealer, had been shot to death in his doorway. He had been extorting money from the local grocers and was friends with a police officer. All the neighbors knew this, but could do nothing.

My mother lives in Guatemala City too. Less than a mile from her home in the city center, one neighborhood is so infested with drug gangs that the army has set up a base, complete with sandbag parapets, in the local market.

And it was in Guatemala City in November that I came face to face with the drug dead, a body that had been wrapped up in plastic and dumped onto the street from an overpass.

I don't know who the victim was. The Guatemalan news media were too busy covering a presidential election that night (as was I), and the killing wasn't reported in the newspapers.

Nearly all of the drug-related crimes The Times reported on in the region last year remain unsolved, including the killing of several Mexican musicians and the slaying in Guatemala of three Salvadoran legislators.

The Guatemalan police officers arrested in the legislators' killings -- anti-narcotics officers said to be in the hire of drug traffickers -- were themselves killed a few days later in their jail cells. The masterminds of these crimes remain free.

When I traveled to Guatemala to write about the killings, I met several people with theories as to who might be responsible. I learned the names of families and businesses believed linked to the transshipment of drugs. Officials have leaked this information to local journalists, but no one will publish it.

"It's too dangerous," a journalist said. "There's no one here to protect us. And if we're killed, no one will be prosecuted."

Knowing that the piece of unverified information I'd been given could get someone killed, I wondered whether I should even write it down in my notebook.

SIBLING REMEMBERED: Arely Montoya of Guamuchil, Mexico, holds her brother's ID card from his job as a hospital security guard. Jose Alan Montoya was later recruited to work for drug traffickers and was kiled by army troops.
Despite being portrayed as hip gunslingers, the unskilled workers who toil for traffickers are an expendable lot who often die in obscurity.

[B]In Mexico's drug trade, no glitter for grunts[/B]

By Héctor Tobar and Cecilia Sánchez, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
December 6, 2007

GUAMUCHIL, MEXICO -- Jose Alan Montoya died far from the beloved roosters he raised on his patio, far from the tortilla shop his mother ran, far from the people who still weep for a man gunned down on a marijuana plantation in the mountains of Michoacan.

Montoya was born and raised in a humble, orderly neighborhood just outside this town in the northwestern state of Sinaloa. He died more than 600 miles to the south, shot and killed by army troops who say he opened fire on them.


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Drug traffickers are mythologized throughout Mexico by a subculture that portrays them as lavishly paid gunslingers. But most of the 5,000 who have lost their lives in the last two years in the business are people of limited horizons who die in relative anonymity.

The oldest of six children, Montoya had little education. In Guamuchil, he held odd jobs at hospitals and construction sites where he rarely made more than $20 a day, relatives said.

"Someone told him he was going to make a lot of money, that he could send money to his family," said Elva Camacho, his mother. "They must have filled his head with big dreams."

The employees of Mexico's drug-trafficking groups are a varied bunch, including cannon-fodder "trigger men," drug- and cash-hauling "mules," accountants and communication specialists.

Many sell their souls for sums that are less than princely: In October, 25 officers of the Federal Preventive Police in the city of Tampico were arrested after allegedly receiving monthly payments of as little as $450 each for providing intelligence and protection to the Gulf cartel.

No one in Montoya's family knows how much he was offered to work for the drug traffickers. But his story is emblematic of the many myths and deceptions about the misnamed "cartels" that operate throughout Mexico.

Genaro Garcia Luna, Mexico's top police official, said the typical drug-trafficking operative is young, 25 to 30.

"There is a tendency to give them this aura of power," Garcia Luna said this year. "But when you have a chance to see them face to face . . . you see they are really people of low circumstances."

In Guamuchil, Montoya lived with his mother and didn't have enough money to put his roosters to their intended use: cockfighting. He had once crossed illegally into the United States and worked for a while in Las Vegas, but he was apparently deported.

At 33, he seemed to have few ambitions. He was an easygoing man who joked with his relatives and traveled about town on a bicycle. In the U.S., he had "Sinaloa" tattooed on his stomach.

In October 2006, he announced to his relatives that he had been hired to work on a construction project in the southern state of Michoacan.

"When I'm gone, you'll be the oldest," he told his 28-year-old sister, Arely, on his last day home. "Try and visit our mother every day and look after her."

He called home from Michoacan several times. But during his three months away, he sent money home only once: the equivalent of $180 so his brother could buy a clarinet.

His mother asked him if he was eating well. "There's a whole bunch of us here from Sinaloa," he said. "There's a lady who cooks for us every day."

The family learned of his death in a local newspaper. On the Internet, they found a picture of four soldiers carrying his body, one holding each limb, as if they were dragging away an animal they had hunted. The Sinaloa tattoo was visible on his midriff. His burial cost almost $3,000, including shipping his body to Sinaloa.

Days after his funeral, an anonymous caller telephoned to promise his mother that "everything you are spending will be repaid to you." But the family never heard from the caller again.

"Normally, the traffickers take people from here who are not involved" in organized crime, said Carlos Cota, a Sinaloa lawyer and Montoya family friend. "In the mountains, they recruit people to work from the poor neighborhoods, people who don't have full-time jobs."

Cocaine arrives in Mexico by the ton via sea and air routes from South America, U.S. officials say. But it's typically smuggled into the United States by the pound. In between, drugs must be offloaded, transported overland and protected against bajadores, bands that specialize in stealing shipments from rivals.

Although "cartel" suggests that one group controls all aspects of the drug trade, drugs are actually shipped through the region thanks to alliances among local and regional crime groups.

When deals between groups are broken, violence ensues, said Luis Astorga, a Sinaloa native and Mexico City academic who has written extensively on trafficking. Gunmen and support personnel are needed to staff a large, quasi-military infrastructure.

"Given the high levels of profit in the business, [personnel] costs are very small," Astorga said. Some traffickers have hired former special operations soldiers and high-ranking police officers, he said. But the vast majority of their employees are unskilled.

In apatzingan, a city in Michoacan notorious for drug trafficking, Claudia Cortes sold used clothes before being recruited by local traffickers to work at a safe house, neighbors and officials said.

She would later become known as the "hit woman of Apatzingan." But in her neighborhood she was known as the daughter of a plumber and the quiet single mother of two young boys. She was 26 when she died.

"They're honest, hard-working people," one neighbor said of the Cortes family, who live in a cinder-block home on the outskirts of the city.

At some point, Cortes was recruited to work in another middle-class neighborhood near central Apatzingan. Neighbors there remember seeing her carrying "bundles" from the home. According to authorities, it was a base for drug traffickers.

"She was a calm person who hardly ever spoke, and who looked serious and decent," said Maria Romero, 50, a neighbor.

On May 7, the army moved in. The people inside the safe house fired back, with submachine guns and hand grenades, officials said. The ensuing battle lasted an hour and a half.

Three soldiers were seriously wounded and four alleged traffickers inside the home were killed, including Cortes. Her body was found by the doorway of the half-destroyed home, next to an AK-47 and spent shells.

"They say she was the one who fought the hardest and who started the whole thing," said Mario Flores, a worker in a nearby butcher shop.

Her funeral at Apatzingan's Municipal Cemetery was a low-profile affair, without the usual graveside Mass, said Jose Cantu, the cemetery manager. It was over in about 20 minutes.

"There were only a few people," Cantu said. "Her two boys were there. They were crying. Poor kids, it's not their fault. But they're the ones who suffer the most."

The location of Cortes' grave reveals her humble circumstances.

Apatzingan's more illustrious families have reserved the plots near the cemetery entrance, paying an annual fee of about $200, Cantu said. But Cortes was buried in one of the cheapest plots, near the back, where the fee is $30.

A recent visitor found no name at Cortes' plot, just a wooden cross with the words "Rest in Peace."

Claudia's parents have moved out of town with their grandsons because of "the shame of knowing their daughter had taken a bad road," neighbor Horacio Cruz said.

Montoya, the collector of roosters, was also briefly in Apatzingan on his journey home: His body rested in the morgue there; sister Arely arrived from Sinaloa to identify him.

She found his hands stained green, apparently from handling the marijuana plants in his care.Tissue oozed from a gaping wound in his skull.

The authorities told her he had been shot after opening fire on army soldiers engaged in a marijuana eradication campaign near Aguililla, in the mountains 50 miles southwest of Apatzingan.

An attorney general's news release and a newspaper report called him a "trigger man." Soldiers retrieved two semiautomatic weapons at the scene and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

"I told the investigator that my brother was a good man, that he had never hurt anyone, and that he was always at home when he wasn't working," Arely recalled.

The investigator replied, in a sarcastic tone: "Well, he wasn't that good! He was taking care of a marijuana crop."

Montoya was buried near his home in the Villa Benito Juarez neighborhood.

A year has passed since his death. But his 17-year-old brother, Jose Maria, still sees his older brother, known in the family as Chito, in his dreams.

In one dream, Jose Alan returns home carrying a stack of papers and walks through the front gate that leads to the patio where he raised his roosters.

"Chito, what are you doing here?" his brother calls out.

"They sent me back," Jose Alan answers. "They let me go."

hector.tobar@latimes.com

Tobar reported from Guamuchil and Sánchez from Apatzingan. Carlos Martinez of The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.

Activists take stand to stop human trafficking

Ventura County not immune to the crime, assistant Oxnard police chief says

By Hannah Guzik
vcreporter.com
January 17, 2008

Wearing red shirts to symbolize their efforts to stop human trafficking, several dozen local activists met at an Oxnard bus station with California Assemblymember Pedro Nava, (D-Santa Barbara), and Oxnard Assistant Police Chief Jason Benites on Jan. 11 to address what Ventura County can do to raise awareness of the federal crime.

"It is a crime that reaches deep into the soul of the victim," Nava said, describing human trafficking, which is officially defined as taking, recruiting, harboring, moving or obtaining a person through threat, force, coercion or fraud, according to Agent David Wales, with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.

"This is one of the crimes that is the most egregious of the ones we would encounter in the course of our day," Wales said. "It is a life of hell. They often are unable to speak the language, they don't fit in, their documents are taken from them, and there are often threats made against them and their families."

An estimated 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders each year, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Legislators designated Jan. 11 National Human Trafficking Awareness Day after passing a bill Nava helped to create.

"Slavery was slowly abolished in this country, yet despite this, it continues to exist," Benites said. "It's like a fingerprint. You don't necessarily see it, but it's there if you look very, very carefully."

Benites noted a 2006 case in which an Oxnard woman paid $2,000 to have her daughter smuggled across the border from Mexico, only to have her daughter taken hostage by the coyotes , or people who sneak others into the United States. Police later found the daughter held prisoner in a house in Phoenix, along with about 40 other people, all victims of human trafficking, Benites said.

The daughter and mother were reunited and were not deported because of the incident, Benites said.

"People need to not be afraid to step forward," he said. "If they come to us with this kind of situation, they do not have to worry about being deported."

Most human trafficking cases are reported in California, New York and Florida, said Debbie Bliss, who represented Soroptimist International. About 80 percent of cases involve sexual slavery, Bliss said. Human trafficking can also involve debt bondage and forced manual labor.

"Trafficking is not just an issue in other countries," Bliss said. "It is here and it's an issue that's affecting small towns and communities."

Soroptimist International, a group dedicated to the empowerment of women, has started a worldwide Stop Trafficking Awareness Program.

"We brought about 20 women here today who wanted to bring awareness to this issue, because it is an issue that is really affecting women and girls," Janette Lewandowski said. "A lot of people forced into trafficking from another country are forced to use transit centers, so that's why we're holding this meeting here. You never know, the woman sitting next to you at a bus station could be a victim of human trafficking."

Benites and Nava said California's human trafficking laws need to be strengthened and funding for victims needs to be increased. The harshest punishment a person convicted with human trafficking can face is six years in prison, said Nava, a former prosecutor.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's not long enough," he said. "It should be 60 years or maybe a lifetime, because what they do steals the lives of other people."

Pointing to a woman in the audience who was marching with the Soroptimists and carrying an infant, Nava said, "I am here to make sure that this doesn't happen to you."

Veronica Lopez, the mother of one-month-old Guadalupe, said the story about the Oxnard mother and daughter terrified her.

"I felt it," Lopez said. "What if it was my daughter that was going through that?"

Law enforcement officials urge people who know of human trafficking situations to call the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement office at 1-866-DHS-ZICE or their local police department.

Deported Illegal Immigrant Returns To R.I. for $30K Injury Settlement

January 16, 2008

An illegal immigrant from Mexico has won $30,000 in a settlement with his former Rhode Island employer after accidentally injuring himself with a chain saw.

Edgar Velasquez, who worked for a tree service company in Warwick, was chopping tree branches on March 31, 2006, when he accidentally slashed his face, slicing his nose, eyelid and forehead.

He underwent surgery but still has trouble closing his left eye.

Velasquez sued William Gorman Jr., his former boss and owner of Billy G's Tree Care, seeking compensation for his injuries. He also accused Gorman of notifying immigration authorities that he was here illegally to block him from pursuing his case.

Immigration agents arrested Velasquez outside the courthouse in August 2006 on the day of a scheduled court hearing. Though Velasquez was deported, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security later granted him a humanitarian visa to return to the United States for three months for his court case.

Chief Workers' Compensation Judge George E. Healey Jr. said he did not want "unscrupulous'' employers to think they could avoid responsibility if a worker gets injured in an unsafe workplace.

"And the resolution of a case like this demonstrates otherwise,'' Healey said.

The settlement disclosed Monday requires Gorman to pay Velasquez $300 a month, for 10 months a year, for 10 years _ or until he pays the entire $30,000. Velasquez's lawyer, Stephen Dennis, said he had wanted more than $70,000 for his client.

If Gorman does not make the required payments, the state will fine him $150,000 for not having workers' compensation at the time Velasquez was injured.

Gorman will make every effort to follow the payment schedule, his lawyer, Michael St. Pierre, said.

"I think, all in all, based on everything that happened over the last couple of years, it's a fair settlement for both sides,'' St. Pierre said.
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2008/0

Hearing begins for pair accused of robbing day laborers

January 17, 2008 12:34 AM PST
By: Staff and wire reports

VISTA -- About three minutes after accepting an offer of work from two women and getting into their car, day laborers Ebner Escalante Lopez and his brother-in-law were given a different choice by a knife-wielding man in the back seat.

"He said, 'Give me your money or your life,' " Escalante testified Wednesday at a hearing in the Superior Court.

Although he said that he did not see the women's faces, Escalante identified Thomas Graham, 33, of Escondido as the armed man who made that demand around noon one day in June 2007.

Escalante's testimony came as a preliminary hearing began Wednesday afternoon for Graham and April Marie Lewis, 25, of Escondido. Graham and Lewis have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges in connection with a series of robberies of day laborers last summer in various North County locations.

A Vista sheriff's sergeant said in August that many of the victims were citizens and legal residents of the United States. Authorities have said they believe the motive for the crimes was money, not any anti-illegal immigration mind-set.

At the end of the hearing, Judge Runston G. Maino will decide whether prosecutors have enough evidence to make Graham and Lewis stand trial. Graham has been charged with 21 robbery counts and 1 attempted robbery count, while Lewis faces three robbery charges.

Before the start of the preliminary hearing, a third defendant charged in the case, Nicole Dianne Couch, 35, of Escondido, pleaded guilty Wednesday to two robbery charges in connection with incidents July 22 and Aug. 4 in Encinitas. Under the terms of her plea, she is to be sentenced Feb. 27 to five years in state prison.

A fourth person charged in the case, Kevin William Anderson, 32, of Vista, pleaded guilty in September to two robbery charges and is scheduled to be sentenced next week. The district attorney's office and Anderson's attorney did not agree on a sentence as part of his plea.

Escalante testified Wednesday that he and his brother-in-law were in a supermarket parking lot on Rancho Bernardo Road when two women drove up and offered them work.

Graham, who was sitting in the back seat, then held a knife up at them and demanded their money, Escalante said.

"I tried to pull the knife out of his hand," Escalante said, noting that he was cut on his index finger and back.

Escalante, who identified Graham in court, said he jumped from the car when it was stopped at a red light, but the suspects drove off with with his brother-in-law.

The preliminary hearing is scheduled to resume this morning.

Staff writer Scott Marshall and City News Service contributed to this report. Contact staff writer Scott Marshall at (760) 901-4049 or smarshall@nctimes.com. Comment at nctimes.com.

NOTE: Everything here about Ebner Escalante Lopez's testimony is from City News Service (reporter Jim Riffel). Unfortunately, I do not know whether Escalante's citizenship status was mentioned in court.

VISTA -- An Escondido woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to two robbery charges in connection with allegations that day-laborers across North County were lured to remote locations with the promise of work and then robbed at knifepoint.

Nicole Dianne Couch, 35, is the second person to admit involvement in the robberies, admitting her role in crimes July 22 and Aug. 4 in Encinitas. She is to be sentenced Feb. 27 to five years in state prison under the terms of her plea agreement.

Kevin William Anderson, 32, of Vista, pleaded guilty in September to two robbery charges and is scheduled to be sentenced next week. The district attorney's office and Anderson's attorney did not agree on a sentence as part of his plea.

Meanwhile, a preliminary hearing began Thursday afternoon for two other defendants in the case who have pleaded not guilty.

At the conclusion of the hearing, Superior Court Judge Runston G. Maino will decide whether prosecutors have enough evidence to make Thomas Graham, 33, of Escondido and April Marie Lewis, 25, also of Escondido, stand trial on multiple charges.

Graham is charged with 21 counts of robbery and one count of attempted robbery; Lewis faces three robbery charges.

We must get this up higher, or at least preview. A literal "your money or your life' moment? priceless

Ebner Escalante Lopez, the alleged victim in the attempted robbery, testified he and his brother-in-law were in a supermarket parking lot on Rancho Bernardo Road around noon one day in June when two women drove up and offered them work.

After about three minutes, Graham, who was sitting in the back seat, held a knife up at them, Escalante said.

"I tried to pull the knife out of his hand," Escalante said, noting that he was cut on his index finger and back. "He said, 'Give me your money or your life."'

Escalante, who identified Graham in court, said he jumped from the car when it was stopped at a red light, but the suspects drove off with with his brother-in-law. He said he did not see the women's faces.

Graham is alleged to have committed similar robberies with Anderson in Vista, with Couch in Encinitas and with Lewis in San Marcos and Vista.

A Vista sheriff's sergeant said in August that many of the victims were citizens and legal residents of the United States. This begs the question: Was Escalante's citizenship mentioned? If not, we're not obligated to know. But if we know, we must include. Authorities have said they believe the motive for the crimes was money, not any anti-illegal immigration mindset.

Staff writer Scott Marshall and City News Service contributed to this report.

A federal investigation may have consequences beyond the diamond for Miguel Tejada.
WINSLOW TOWNSON: AP

U.S. entry for Tejada a concern

By JOSE DE JESUS ORTIZ
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Jan. 17, 2008, 12:25AM

Miguel Tejada's immigration status could be in peril in light of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's decision to ask the Department of Justice to investigate whether the new Astros shortstop lied to federal investigators in 2005.

Tejada, a native of the Dominican Republic, is a legal U.S. resident with a green card. Yet there are some instances in which he could be denied entry back into the country just by admitting he committed a crime for which he is being investigated.

"Obstruction of justice is considered under immigration law a crime involving moral turpitude," said attorney Alexandre Afanassiev, who practices immigration litigation. "So the question then becomes, how long did he have his green card? Why? Because the law says that if you had your green card for less than five years and then committed a crime of moral turpitude, you can be subject to deportation. In other words, they can take your green card away because of that crime and (have you) sent home."

Gordon Quan, the managing partner at Houston-based Quan, Burdette and Perez, is a baseball fan who has followed the game's steroid scandal closely. So far, he hasn't seen or heard proof of anything that could derail Tejada from entering the United States at this time.

"He has denied doing anything as far as injecting himself with anything, so all the rights of innocence until proven guilty still apply to Miguel Tejada," said Quan, who practices general immigration, business immigration and employer sanctions law.

That could change, however.

"I just want to mention there is one important exception," said Afanassiev, who handles deportation work in court for Quan, Burdette and Perez, which recently was deemed the No. 1 immigration law firm by Chambers USA, a guide that rates law firms. "If Mr. Tejada admits that he lied ... that might be enough for immigration to initiate deportation proceedings. Because the way immigration law is written, you either need a conviction or an admission you committed a crime."

Tejada was originally signed by the Oakland Athletics in 1993 as an amateur free agent in the Dominican Republic, where he still lives in the offseason and plays winter ball. He reached the majors in 1997 and five years later was named the American League's Most Valuable Player.

It's unclear exactly when Tejada, a four-time All-Star, gained his green card. A message left for his agent, Fernando Cuza, was not returned. Tejada was unavailable for comment Wednesday, a day after his brother was killed in a motorcycle accident in their hometown of Bani, D.R.


Pivotal period: Five years
If Tejada is convicted, his chances of staying in the U.S. are stronger if he has had legal residency for more than five years. But that wouldn't automatically save him.

Tejada is currently in the Dominican Republic. Although it's unlikely he'd be denied entry into the U.S. at this point, that, too, won't necessarily remain true.

"If he had his green card for more than five years and then this incident happened, then while he's in the United States nothing really will occur," Afanassiev said. "It will not affect him, really. But if he travels abroad, at the time of his entry to the United States when he presents his green card, if he's in fact convicted for this, they can prevent him from entering the United States "” once again, based on the conviction of this crime "” and he can be deported that way."

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., announced Tuesday that he is asking Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate whether Tejada lied in 2005 to federal agents investigating whether former Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles slugger Rafael Palmeiro perjured himself during the panel's first set of hearings on steroids in baseball in March 2005. In those hearings, conducted several months before Palmeiro tested positive for steroids, the power-hitting first baseman denied using the banned substance.


Become a citizen?
Tejada was interviewed after Palmeiro claimed he likely tested positive because Tejada gave him steroid-tainted B-12 vitamins. During that interview, Tejada told investigators he had never used steroids and had no knowledge of other players who did. Yet in former Sen. George Mitchell's report, Tejada's former Oakland teammate, Adam Piatt, claimed he provided Tejada with steroids after the shortstop asked him about the substances.

Being a citizen might not help Tejada in regard to avoiding punishment if he's convicted for lying to federal agents, but it would behoove him to check into becoming a citizen while he's being investigated, Quan said.

"I don't know how long he's had his green card," Quan said. "But he might want to look at becoming a citizen of the United States also before there is ever any conviction against him, because he can never be deported as a citizen. ... Well, an investigation can be anything. ... As long as no charges are being brought against you, I think you can still apply for citizenship."

jesus.ortiz@chron.com

Editor's Note: 2007 was a grim year for many immigrants with the double whammy of failed comprehensive immigration reform and increased enforcement measures across the country. What's in store for 2008? Maya Harris is the executive director of the ACLU of Northern California, the organization's largest affiliate in the country. She is the first African American and first Indian American to hold that position. IMMIGRATION MATTERS regularly features the views of the nation's leading immigrant rights advocates.

IMMIGRATION MATTERS: Defending the Civil Rights of Immigrants

Looking Back, Looking Forward

New America Media, Commentary, Maya Harris, Posted: Jan 18, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – First-grader Kebin Reyes, a U.S. citizen who lives with his father in San Rafael, just over the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, missed a field trip with his class one day last March. In the early dawn hours, armed agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) stormed into the Reyes' apartment, handcuffed Kebin's father, and took both father and son into custody. The terrified six-year-old was locked in a room with his father for 10 hours, with nothing to eat but bread and water.

Kebin is one of our clients. A month after the raid, the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the little boy for violation of his Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights.

Kebin was just one of thousands of children across the country who were traumatized by the Department of Homeland Security's "Operation Return to Sender" program last year, an initiative characterized not only by racial profiling and a disregard of constitutional rights, but by tremendous inefficiency. Though DHS chief Michael Chertoff claims that the ongoing campaign is aimed at capturing criminals and fugitives, less than one quarter of those arrested last year in Northern California had criminal records.

Despite the fact that Congress was unable to agree on a major immigration reform bill in 2007, state and local laws proliferated. This election year is sure to bring heightened rhetoric and even more draconian proposals. Some of these will be high-profile photo opportunities orchestrated to benefit politicians – like more neighborhood raids and an ever longer, stronger border fence. Others will be more subtle, contrived in the corridors of power, but whose influence will be felt sharply by families, students and workers.

Here are some priorities for the ACLU in the new year:

"No-Match" letters: In 2007, a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of the AFL-CIO temporarily halted the federal government plan to punish employers who do not fire employees whose work authorizations are not in the Social Security database. The government has acknowledged that the database is rife with errors, and that more than 70 percent of the discrepancies are in records of U.S. citizens. The court predicted that the program could cause irreparable harm to more than 8 million workers and their employers. Nevertheless, the government intends to reintroduce its flawed proposal in March 2008.

REAL ID: Tucked away in a supplemental bill for the Iraq War and Tsunami relief in 2005, the REAL ID Act turns a driver's license into a national identity card that everyone will need in order to travel by plane, enter government buildings or open a bank account. Under REAL ID, every person who applies for a driver's license must prove to a Department of Motor Vehicles clerk that he or she is a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident. This national database will not solve the problem of illegal immigration or enhance national security – it will, however, endanger the privacy of all Americans. Seventeen states have registered their opposition to REAL ID, and a measure to repeal it is now pending in Congress.

Citizenship delays: As a "national security" measure, the government expanded its use of FBI background checks in 2007 to include a "name check" for each applicant against every name that appears as a reference (as a victim, witness, or other relevant party) in an FBI investigation database. This practice, which results in "false hits," has caused delays for hundreds of thousands of people throughout the country.

DREAM Act: The California Legislature passed a bill to ensure that all California high school graduates accepted into state public institutions of post-secondary education would be eligible for state-sponsored financial aid, regardless of their immigration status. Though the Governor vetoed the bill, it will be reintroduced this year in hopes that all California kids have a chance to fulfill their dreams of higher education.

Now for some good news. Last year, California became the first state to enact a law prohibiting landlords from checking the immigration status of tenants and prohibiting local governments from requiring such checks. The bill was sponsored by apartment owners who did not want to be put in the position of acting like Border Patrol agents. The California law, which was signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, was in direct response to local ordinances around the country that would ban landlords from renting to undocumented immigrants.

People often ask me, why is the ACLU involved in immigration issues?

There are very big reasons for doing so.

The ACLU was founded during the 1920s Palmer Raids, when our government ordered European immigrants detained and deported because of their political views. As the U.S. Supreme Court later established, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution apply to all persons in this country, not just to U.S. citizens.

There are also many small reasons. Like first-grader Kebin Reyes.

Immigration is not the biggest problem that Americans face

Michael Brandon Harris-Peyton
Issue date: 1/18/08 Section: Ed-Op

It is a sad day in United States history when some politician thinks that we can solve illegal immigration with a fence. Fences will not solve the problem. It might, however, cut through American towns, as the most recent plans for a border fence in Texas, along the Rio Grande would. The no-man's land between the fences and the border would contain the U.S.-side banks of the river, including a number of back yards and houses. Illegal immigration prevention, right in your living room. Literally.

The proposed solution to illegal immigrants simply cutting through or hopping the fence would be cameras. But you have to pay people to watch cameras, and extra government employees lead to bigger bureaucracies, and larger budgets. The whole plan is a colossal waste of taxpayer funds-funds that Congress could be wasting on its myriad of other insanely foolish ideas, like buying both evolution-based and creationism-based "science" books for our schools, in the interests of acknowledging all perspectives, regardless of how mindlessly ridiculous they are.

Another poorly thought out idea that was proposed as a solution to illegal immigration was so elegantly beautiful in its simplicity that you knew there had to be a catch-the "let's just deport all them pesky illegal immigrants" plan.

Problem No. 1: there are an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the continental U.S.

Problem No. 2: The Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agency stated in September that the approximate cost of deporting all these people would exceed $94 billion. And in that figure, they did not completely cover the costs of hunting down and catching all those undocumented immigrants who didn't want to go back. A spokesman for the agency laid out how they arrived at that figure for CNN, and said the following:

"He said the amount was calculated by multiplying the estimated 12 million people by the average cost of detaining people for a day: $97. That was multiplied by the average length of detention: 32 days. ICE officials also considered transportation costs, which average $1,000 per person. But that amount can vary widely, the spokesman said. Some deportees are simply driven by bus across the border, while others must take charter planes to distant countries, he said. Finally, the department looked at personnel costs, bringing the total to roughly $94 billion."

On top of all this, one has to take into account the effect on the economy if 12 million people suddenly stopped working. The undocumented worker and their production make up a significant part of the economy, which would disappear if, as in the dreams of many politicians in both parties, illegal immigrants just fell off the face of the earth.

The economy is certainly not at its best right now, and any magical loss of illegal immigrants could, in a hypothetical scenario, crash the economy.

But what is to be done about illegal immigration? It is certainly not fair that undocumented immigrant workers do not pay taxes, and it is certainly unfair that they use public services without contributing to it in the same way as citizens do. In order to even suggest a solution to the problem, the sources of the problem must be addressed.

Legal immigration into the United States is difficult, time consuming, and often expensive. There are complications with citizenship requirements, temporary residency, and working inside the country as a non-citizen. The citizenship examinations also, perhaps unfairly, contain technical questions about U.S. law that many American citizens cannot answer-for example, the line of presidential succession. There are few citizens who can recite the line of succession off the top of their heads beyond the President, Vice President, and Speaker of the House. In short, it is difficult to become a legal resident, much less a citizen, of the United States.

In the case of the most prominent source of illegal immigrants to this country, Mexico, it is particularly complicated. Public opinion is often very anti-Mexican-immigrant, and both governments are somewhat awkward in their dealings with one another on the subject of immigration itself. Mexicans are not defined as refugees by international law, even though it has become apparent in many cases that illegal immigrants are either politically or economically motivated to flee their home country.
The language doesn't help public opinion very much. The word "illegal" brings a negative response out in people, while the word "refugee" tends to bring out more empathetic feelings.

There is something deeply hypocritical about the hardliner position against illegal immigration. There seems to be contextual amnesia going on-an American citizen of the anti-immigrant persuasion can go from openly discussing the foreign origin of their ancestors to talking about how the country shouldn't immigrants "come over here and steal our jobs and not speak English."

News flash - your ancestors were probably poor, illiterate immigrants who most of the time didn't speak English either. And they had the advantage of arriving, most likely, in an older America with much looser border controls. If you're that severely anti-immigration, you're not "conservative," and you're definitely not a "real American"-you're xenophobic. You're also a hypocrite. The only people who can even claim to not be descended from immigrants are Native Americans. And from what the history books say, your ancestors weren't very nice to them. The anti-immigration argument is often so flawed that it approaches the irrational.

The fact of the matter is that we should not be looking at these people with hatred and intolerance-we should be making it easier for them to become legitimate citizens, and to contribute wholly to society.

America needs all the people it can get-we certainly have the space, and with the declining birthrate, we'll need more immigrants in order to stay on-par with the rising power of countries like India and China. If this country is truly ready to say no to immigrants, even the illegal kind, and go to such insane lengths as to build walls and deport every undocumented person, then it might as well resign itself to becoming the next collapsed superpower. America was built by immigrants, and that singular fact should be the first thought when it comes to dealing with the country's immigration issues.

Michael Brandon Harris-Peyton is a sophomore majoring in English and Japanese. He can be reached at ed-op@thetriangle.org.

The Benefits Of Immigration

by Donald J. Boudreaux for the Foundation for Economic Education

I recently challenged a case, made by some market-advocates, for immigration restrictions. I have since received scolding letters and E-marls from numerous people predicting that open borders would bring all manner of calamities. While some writers were less certain than others about the baleful consequences of unregulated immigration, only one correspondent fully shared my support for eliminating all immigration restrictions.

These many letters have prompted me to think longer and harder about immigration. Alas, my opinion remains unchanged: we should welcome all immigrants. Government should not redistribute income to immigrants, but neither should government prevent immigration.

Each immigrant comes to America to make himself better off. Suppose government no longer redistributes income to immigrants. Would immigrants still relocate here? You bet! A handful will come because some Americans are willing to use their own resources to care for them. Most immigrants will come because each has sufficient skill and ambition to profit in the market.

Absent government welfare payments to immigrants, immigrants who do not seek work burden no one other than family or friends who voluntarily assume this burden. I here ignore such non-working immigrants who receive no government handouts. These immigrants do not raise the ire of anti-immigrationists. Opponents of immigration object most vehemently to immigrants who are eager to work.

Such objections are mistaken. Let's see why.

Juan is a hypothetical immigrant. He arrives in America and immediately begins looking for employment. Before finding a job, he must secure food, clothing, and shelter. He may do so from funds brought with him from his native country, or he may depend upon the kindness of family, friends, or charitable organizations here in the United States. In either case, because such transfers are voluntary, no American is harmed.

If Juan resorts to theft, however, the story is different. Some Americans are indeed harmed. But criminal law is the appropriate tool for dealing with such thievery. Restricting immigration on the grounds that a handful of immigrants behave criminally would be like denying drivers licenses to everyone just because a small percentage of people drive recklessly. More focused and less ham-fisted means are available in both cases for weeding out the bad apples from the good.

Juan, however, is no thief. He's a worker. Suppose that Juan has no skills of any value to any American. He can do nothing that any American is willing to pay for. In this case, Juan will eventually return home. No American is harmed. (Actually, Juan would probably not come to America in the first place. People so destitute of skills are unlikely to leave home in search of work in a foreign and highly competitive economy.)

But Juan is extremely unlikely to lack any skill for which Americans are willing to pay some mutually agreeable wage. Readers who doubt this claim should consult that cornerstone of economics called the theory of comparative advantage"”a theory, by the way, that exposes the senselessness of identifying people economically as being "above average" or "below average." The theory of comparative advantage makes clear that everyone is above average at some tasks and below average at many others.

When Juan finds employment, not only is Juan made better off, but so, too, is his employer. Consumers are also made better off, for the higher output or lower cost that Juan's availability makes possible for his employer is shared with consumers through reduced prices or improved product quality. Nothing to complain of so far.

Some people, however, are harmed by Juan's availability"”namely, American workers who compete with Juan. If Juan's most marketable skill is nearly identical to the most marketable skill possessed by Sam the American, Juan is a potential rival for Sam's job. Because of Juan, Sam's income may fall.

Protecting Sam from income loss, though, is inappropriate. To prevent Juan from entering America is to do nothing more virtuous than to protect Sam from competition. But it is also to prevent George and Bill and other Americans from freely dealing with Juan, who is someone they would otherwise choose to deal with! To restrict immigration is to deny to Americans their freedom of association. Sam, then, becomes a monopolist under immigration restrictions. If Sam suffers income loss when these restrictions are lifted, he is no more worthy of our solicitude than is any other monopolist whose monopoly privilege unravels.

Suppose that government grants me the exclusive privilege to write newspaper op-eds. No longer can publishers carry the likes of Walter Williams, George Will, Maureen Dowd, or Russell Baker. Protected from such competitors, my income skyrockets. Now imagine that government withdraws this privilege. Publishers"” and readers!"”are again free to patronize op-ed writers other than me. My income plummets.

Should you feel sorry for me? Of course not. Would you conclude from the fact that this heightened competition reduces my income that the wealth of the nation falls? Of course not. Likewise, productively employed immigrants invariably increase the nation's wealth by intensifying competition and expanding the division of labor. Immigration restrictions, in contrast, reduce economic growth. Prosperity cannot be bred by monopoly protections.

immigration opponents also fear that open immigration means overcrowding. This worry is overblown. First, the United States is sparsely populated. Second, owners of private property have incentives to keep their properties from being overcrowded. The proper solution to overcrowding is privatizing those property holdings not yet privatized, not forcibly stopping productive people from coming to our country.

Third, overcrowding is an elusive concept. Among the people who wrote to complain that immigration spawns overcrowding was a resident of New York City. But this person clearly doesn't mind crowds. If he did, he'd move to Oklahoma or Mississippi.

Manhattan is one of the most densely populated spots on earth. Yet it is also one of the wealthiest. New Yorkers often complain of crowds, but no one is compelled to live in that city. The reason people live there is because economic opportunity in New York is vast. Living in close contact with lots of people is a price that many of us voluntarily pay for the opportunity to take advantage of the wealth-producing capacities of an extensive division of labor.

New York and Los Angeles are crowded but wealthy. Oklahoma and Mississippi are sparsely populated but much poorer. This fact alone is ample evidence of the great economic benefits of immigration.

This article was originally published by the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About The Author

Donald Boudreaux for the Foundation for Economic Education is the chairman of the economics department at George Mason University. He was the president of FEE from 1997 to 2001. The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), one of the oldest free-market organizations in the United States, was founded in 1946 by Leonard E. Read to study and advance the freedom philosophy. FEE's mission is to offer the most consistent case for the "first principles" of freedom: the sanctity of private property, individual liberty, the rule of law, the free market, and the moral superiority of individual choice and responsibility over coercion.


The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of ILW.COM.

Copyright © 1999-2007 American Immigration LLC, ILW.COM

Dallas suburb proposes new rental ban for illegal immigrants

The Associated Press
January 17, 2008

FARMERS BRANCH, Texas -- The Dallas suburb that jumped into the nationwide debate over immigration plans to take up another law to force out undocumented immigrants.

The Farmers Branch City Council plans to consider a new ordinance Tuesday banning landlords from renting apartments and houses to illegal immigrants. It would require the city and federal government, not the landlords, to determine who is in the country legally, The Dallas Morning News reported on its Web site Thursday.

City Council members first approved a ban on apartment rentals to illegal immigrants in November 2006 without discussion. They then revised the ordinance to include exemptions for minors, seniors and some mixed-immigration status families and approved it in January 2007. Residents voted to approve the rule in May.

But a federal judge has blocked Farmers Branch from enforcing the ordinance after finding city officials attempted to regulate immigration differently from the federal government.

"I am confident this new proposal is consistent with the intent of Farmers Branch voters, and will withstand any legal challenges," Mayor Pro Tem Tim O'Hare, who led the city's original efforts against illegal immigrants, told The Associated Press in an e-mail.

The new proposal would require adults wanting to lease a house or apartment in Farmers Branch to obtain an occupancy license from the city. People seeking the license would have to provide information about their citizenship or legal status. The information would be checked against a federal database to determine if applicants are in the country legally.

If federal authorities can't confirm a person has permission to live in the country, the license holder and landlord would be notified. The renter would have 60 days to provide proof of legal status.

Violations of the ordinance could result in a fine of up to $500 per day.

Nationwide, more than 100 cities or counties have proposed, passed or rejected laws prohibiting landlords from leasing to illegal immigrants, penalizing businesses that employ undocumented workers or training police to enforce immigration laws.

Letter delivered to the U.S. House of Representatives Hearing regarding the delays in processing of U.S. citizenship applications due to surge in applications

"GALEO joins other organizations and individuals nationwide calling on our federal government to move quickly in processing of the U.S. citizenship applications. Bureaucratic delays should not bar the door to the American Dream and are unacceptable. This is particularly important for those who filed timely applications for U.S. citizenship in order to participate in the upcoming Presidential elections. Voting is a fundamental responsibility for all U.S. citizens and these legal immigrants want to participate fully in our democracy. Our Bureacracy should not stand in the way. We should demand a better performance from the USCIS."

*************************

17, 2008

Dr. Emilio Gonza***
Director, US Citizenship and Immigration Services
20 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington DC 20536


Dear Dr. Gonza***:

The undersigned organizations are writing to you because we are deeply concerned about the current delays in naturalization processing.

The delays stem from last summer's surge in applications for citizenship and other immigration benefits. Immigrants had already begun applying for citizenship in much higher numbers throughout 2006, moved by a desire to become full members of our body politic and commit to their new home country. The fee increases announced in early 2007 provided even more motivation for these immigrants to not delay their applications any further.

Many of the undersigned organizations opposed fee increases of the magnitude that USCIS proposed and warned that if USCIS were to proceed with the fee increases, it must prepare for a surge in applications from immigrants wishing to avoid the fee increases. In fact, USCIS did move forward with the fee increases, but did not adequately prepare to handle such a surge.

Yet the surge happened, causing worsened delays. USCIS has stated that processing delays for citizenship applications could hit 18 months. Indeed, many applicants who filed before the fee increase have already had to wait four to five months just to get a receipt from USCIS. By the end of December, USICS had not finalized plans for handling the backlog created last July.

Meanwhile, USCIS still appears to have no plan to address the thousands of applications that are still delayed due to name-check clearances. Approximately 150,000 citizenship applicants have waited more than six months, if not years, for their names to clear the FBI name-check process. These delays have hit several populations particularly hard; Arab and Muslim immigrants are disproportionately affected.

The processing backlogs and name check delays are preventing hardworking, patriotic immigrants from becoming full members of our nation. Specifically, these delays will disenfranchise thousands of immigrants who, applying more than a year prior to the upcoming Presidential election, had fully expected to be able to vote in this election. If USCIS does not address the delays, these immigrants will not yet be citizens and will not be able to vote in the November election.

We urge you to take whatever measures may be necessary to alleviate the current backlogs and to ensure that the naturalization applications for these immigrants are promptly processed so that they may become citizens. Our nation should be doing whatever it can to enable legal immigrants to join the American community. Poor planning and bureaucratic delays should not bar the door to the American Dream. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely



1. Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR)


National organizations

2. Asian American Justice Center
3. Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society
4. American Immigration Lawyers Association
5. Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC)
6. International Immigrants Foundation
7. Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform
8. National Immigration Forum
9. Asian Law Alliance
10. Asian Law Caucus
11. Dumaraonan USA
12. Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform
13. Irish Apostolate USA
14. National Council of La Raza
15. United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
16. National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd
17. Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
18. Church World Service, Immigration and Refugee Program
19. Interfaith Worker Justice
20. South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow (SAALT)
21. American Friends Service Committee
22. Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
23. Center for Community Change
24. Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM)
25. Union for Reform Judaism
26. U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
27. Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
28. National Immigration Law Center
29. National Immigrant Justice Center
30. American Jewish Committee
31. Gamaliel Foundation
32. Change to Win


State/regional organizations

33. Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest
34. Idaho Community Action Network
35. CAUSA (Oregon)
36. CASA of Maryland
37. New Jersey Immigration Policy Network (NJIPN)
38. Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA)
39. Maine People's Alliance
40. New York Immigration Coalition
41. Pennsylvania Council of Churches
42. Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
43. Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA)
44. Hate Free Zone (Seattle WA)
45. Voces de la Frontera (Milwaukee WI)
46. Students United for Immigrant Rights (Racine WI)
47. Northwest Federation of Community Organizations (Seattle WA)
48. Washington Community Action Network
49. Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO)
50. Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC)
51. American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California
52. ISAIAH - Gamaliel (Minnesota)
53. WISDOM - Gamaliel (Wisconsin)
54. Metropolitan Congregations United - Gamaliel (Missouri)
55. Transforming Action Through Power (TAP) - Gamaliel (Indiana)
56. Gamaliel of Michigan
57. UACT - Gamaliel (Connecticut)
58. Project IRENE (Illinois)



Local organizations

59. Centro de Amistad, Guadalupe AZ
60. Chicago Irish Immigrant Support, Chicago IL
61. Rock Valley College Refugee and Immigrant Services, Rockford IL
62. Erie Neighborhood House, Chicago IL
63. South Texas Immigration Council Inc., Brownsville, Texas
64. Immigrant Information Center, Jamaica Plain, MA
65. Logan Square Neighborhood Association, Chicago IL
66. Eirene Immigration Center, Camden NJ
67. Asbury United Methodist Church, Camden NJ
68. Tu Amigo Community Center, Camden NJ
69. La Mesa Del Pueblo Food Ministry, Camden NJ
70. The Resurrection Project, Chicago IL
71. Southwest Organizing Project, Chicago IL
72. Casa de Esperanza, Bound Brook NJ
73. Franciscan Order of Sacred Heart JPIC Office, Chicago IL
74. Jr's Roofing and Framing, Shelbyville TN
75. Law Office of Emily Love, P.C., Evanston IL
76. World Relief Chicago, Chicago IL
77. African Resource Center, Washington DC
78. Jewish Community Action, St. Paul, MN
79. Chinese Mutual Aid Association, Chicago IL
80. Scott D. Pollock & Associates, P.C., Chicago IL
81. Interfaith Legal Services for Immigrants, St. Louis MO
82. Digna Ochoa Center for Immigration Legal Assistance, Columbia, SC
83. Refugee Immigration Project, Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, Jacksonville FL
84. Law Office Of Brigit G. Alvarez, Los Angeles CA
85. Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society Chicago (HIAS Chicago), Chicago IL
86. Office of Nancy M. Vizer, P.C., Chicago IL
87. AzulaySeiden Law Group, Chicago IL
88. South-East Asia Center, Chicago IL
89. Bonilla Community Services, Matthews, NC
90. Law Office of Eleanor Kaplan Adams, San Diego CA
91. Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Ministries, Chicago IL
92. Ebere N. Ekechukwu & Associates, P.C., Chicago IL
93. Dominican Literacy Center, Aurora, IL
94. Law Offices of Scott E. Bellgrau, P.C., Bensenville IL
95. Amigos Center, Fort Myers FL
96. Erwin, Martinkus & Cole, Ltd., Champaign IL
97. Law Office of Judith Michaels Morrow, San Francisco CA
98. Alaska Immigration Law Offices, Anchorage AK
99. Law Office of Mary O'Leary, Evanston IL
100. Community Legal Services, East Palo Alto CA
101. Hudson | May, LLC, Salem OR
102. Centro Legal De La Raza, Oakland CA
103. Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, Portland ME
104. Law Offices of Ashley Mammo, P.C., West Bloomfield MI
105. Law Offices of Jesiros D. Bautista, Oakland CA
106. East Bay Community Law Center, Berkeley CA
107. Kathleen M. Weber Law Office, Seattle WA
108. Law Office of Maura B. Petersen, Santa Cruz CA
109. International Institute of the Bay Area, San Francisco CA
110. International Center of Greater Cincinnati (OH)
111. Youth Service Bureau of the Illinois Valley, Ottawa IL
112. Centro Latino Cuzcatlan, San Pablo CA
113. Latin American Coalition, Charlotte NC
114. Hanul Family Alliance, Chicago IL
115. East Central Illinois Refugee Mutual Assistance Center, Urbana IL
116. Maxwell Street Legal Clinic, Lexington, KY
117. Dady Law Office, Rockford IL
118. Jewish Child and Family Services, Chicago IL
119. Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc., Toledo OH
120. Berzon and Associates, Chicago IL
121. Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of Chicago
122. Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago
123. Latino Law Student Association, DePaul University, Chicago IL
124. Filipinos for Affirmative Action, Oakland CA
125. Conexion Americas, Nashville, TN
126. Rights for All People, Denver CO
127. Social Justice Group of St. Anthony of Padua Parish, Hightstown, NJ
128. Law Office of Kevin Dixler, Chicago IL
129. St. Brigid's Casa Mary Johanna, Westbury NY
130. Centro Romero, Chicago IL
131. Law Offices of George L. Young, APC, San Marino CA
132. Chicagoland Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights, Chicago IL
133. Centro Hispano of Dane County, Madison WI
134. Alpha International American Immigrant, Seattle WA
135. Catholic Charities Immigration Services, Santa Rosa CA
136. Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California, Los Angeles CA
137. International Friendship Center, Highlands NC
138. Center for New Americans, Northampton MA
139. Instituto del Progreso Latino, Chicago IL
140. Lutheran Children and Family Service, Philadelphia PA
141. Council on American Islamic Relation - Chicago Chapter (CAIR Chicago), Chicago IL
142. IRIS Integrated Refugee & Immigration Services, New Haven CT
143. Immigration Law Offices of Mahoney & Tomlinson, Sacramento CA
144. Gamaliel of Metro Chicago, Chicago IL
145. Pilsen Neighbors Community Council, Chicago IL
146. South Suburban Action Conference, Chicago IL
147. United Congregations of Metro-East, Madison IL
148. Quad Cities Interfaith, Rock Island IL
149. Justice Overcoming Boundaries, San Diego CA
150. Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network - Gamaliel, Pittsburgh PA
151. CAUSE, Oxnard CA
152. AMOS - Gamaliel, Cincinnati OH
153. NOAH - Gamaliel, Cleveland OH
154. ACTS - Gamaliel (Ohio)
155. MOSES - Gamaliel, Detroit MI
156. ISAAC - Gamaliel, Kalamazoo MI
157. EZEKIEL - Gamaliel, Grand Rapids MI
158. ARISE - Gamaliel, Albany NY
159. VOICE - Gamaliel, Buffalo NY
160. ACTS - Gamaliel, Syracuse NY
161. NOAH Niagara- Gamaliel, Buffalo NY
162. ABLE - Gamaliel, Atlanta GA
163. MICAH - Gamaliel, Milwaukee WI
164. ESTHER - Gamaliel, Waukesha WI
165. RIC - Gamaliel, Racine WI
166. East Boston Ecumenical Community Council (EBECC), Boston MA
167. Community Refugee & Immigration Services, Columbus, Ohio


Individuals

168. Dr. Rogelio Reyes, San Diego State University, San Diego CA
169. Patrick Corr, immigration instructor, Pittsburgh PA
170. Pete Cerneka, Lebanon IL
171. Jeff Jennett, citizenship instructor, Highland Park IL
172. Victoria Palacios
173. Vaishali Mamgain, University of Southern Maine, Portland ME
174. Julie Turner-Lloveras, attorney, Sacramento CA
175. Lynne Weintraub, citizenship educator, Amherst MA
176. Alicia Armstrong, immigration paralegal, New York NY
177. Sarahid Rivera, legal advocate, Napa CA
178. Miguel Angel Castanon, Napa CA
179. Matthew Bernstein, director, immigration and nationality clinic, Chicago-Kent College of Law, Chicago IL
180. M. Lucero Ortiz, Washington DC
181. Teresa DeRush, Grand Junction CO
182. Laura P. Fernandez, Washington DC
183. Mary B. Godfrey, LMSW, Grand Rapids MI
184. Jillian Kong-Sivert, Esq., Scottsdale AZ
185. Rosa Mendosa, Muscatine IA


We hope you will share this message with others.

Sincerely,


Jerry Gonza***
Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO)

San Francisco Chronicle
Daly City police seeking suspect in pry-bar beating of elderly woman

John Coté, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, January 18, 2008

(01-17) 18:29 PST DALY CITY - Police are searching for a 28-year-old South San Francisco man suspected of savagely beating a 78-year-old widow inside her Daly City home and leaving her for dead after she surprised him during a robbery attempt.

The woman was upgraded today to critical condition at a local hospital after she suffered life-threatening injuries from being beaten in the face and head with a metal pry bar Saturday, Daly City police said.

They identified the suspect in the attack as Jose Perez-Gonza***, 28, an illegal alien originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, who has been living in South San Francisco.

Perez-Gonza*** may be employed as a house painter in the San Jose area and may frequent exercise gyms in San Francisco during the early evenings, police said.

He has tattoos of a black-and-red Harley Davidson motorcycle emblem and a black dragon band on his right arm. He may also have "Mexico" tattooed in large letters running up his inner right forearm, police said.

Perez-Gonza*** - who has used the names Antonio Perez, Moses Omar Lopez-Padilla, Jose De Jesus Perez-Gonza*** and Juan Arellano - is also a suspect in the Dec. 21 burglary of a Pacifica home, Daly City police Lt. Jay Morena said.

Police did not say how they had focused Perez-Gonza*** as a suspect.

The Daly City attack came after the burglar had apparently telephoned the victim earlier in the day and posed as a package deliveryman in an effort to determine when the woman was going to be home, police said.

"This was not a random burglary," Morena said. But he added that police suspect the burglar tried to strike when no one was home.

"It was not a home invasion-type of burglary," Morena said. "The phone call was to find when she wouldn't be there."

E-mail John Coté at jcote@sfchronicle.com.

Jan. 17, 2008, 4:32PM

Ex-BP agent in Laredo, wife in smuggling conspiracy


© 2008 The Associated Press


LAREDO, Texas "” Calls from a Border Patrol agent's wife to him while he was on duty helped illegal immigrants on buses slip through a checkpoint.

Prosecutors say 32-year-old David Cruz and 35-year-old Susana Lopez-Portillo De Cruz pleaded guilty Thursday in Laredo to conspiring to transport and harbor illegal immigrants.

The case involved three 2007 incidents "” in January, July and September "” when a total of 25 illegal immigrants were bused from Laredo.

Prosecutors say Cruz would get calls from his wife letting him know the number of a particular bus and when it likely would reach his checkpoint so he could let it pass.

Cruz resigned in September.

The husband and wife face a maximum 10 years in prison and $250,000 fines.

A third person was arrested Jan. 9 and remains in custody without bond on similar charges.


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5464488.html

Dobbs: Time to free Ramos and CompeanStory

Highlights
Senators chair hearing, imply U.S. attorney blatantly abused power

Agents sentenced for shooting fleeing drug smuggler, alleged cover-up

Illegal alien drug smuggler received immunity for testimony against agents

Next Article in U.S. »



By Lou Dobbs
CNN

Lou Dobbs' commentary appears weekly on CNN.com.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- There was an unusual spectacle in the nation's capital Tuesday, downright rare, in fact: U.S. Senators seeking truth, and justice, and taking action. And they deserve great credit and thanks.


[b]Lou Dobbs says two convicted border patrol agents should be released from prison immediately.

The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, led by Dianne Feinstein, focused on the reasons for the prosecution of two Border Patrol agents now serving long sentences in federal prison. Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were given terms of 11 and 12 years respectively on their convictions for shooting an illegal alien drug smuggler.

Senator Feinstein, and Senators Jeff Sessions, John Cornyn, Jon Kyl and Tom Coburn demanded answers of U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, who chose to prosecute Compean and Ramos and give that illegal alien drug smuggler blanket immunity to testify against the men.

Sutton's decision to prosecute the agents, to file attempted murder charges against them and seek harsh mandatory prison sentences was simply an outrage. Senators Feinstein, Sessions and Cornyn took Sutton to task over what they clearly see now as a blatant abuse of prosecutorial power and strongly questioned the decision to give immunity to a known illegal alien drug smuggler. Sutton's office gave the smuggler immunity in order to prosecute the two agents who had pursued him in a high-speed chase, which ultimately resulted in the wounding of the drug dealer who had ditched his van, loaded with hundreds of pounds of drugs, and ran from the agents.

Don't Miss
Read Judiciary Committee testimony on the case
Lou's book "War on the Middle Class"
Previous Lou Dobbs commentaries
I have maintained throughout that the prosecution of these two agents was unwarranted, that sufficient facts were in dispute that the case should never have been brought to trial. The two Border Patrol agents received excessive sentences by any reasonable standard of justice. But reason did not prevail, and the Senate Judiciary Committee has begun the process of righting this wrong.

The agents were serving their nation in a war zone along our southern border. The fact is Mexico remains the primary corridor for drugs entering the United States. Mexico is the principal source of heroin, cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines into this country. Between 70 and 90 percent of cocaine entering the United States from South America passed through mainland Mexico or its waters. Heroin brought in from Mexico accounts for about 30 percent of the U.S. market, despite Mexico's relatively small percentage of worldwide production. Mexican traffickers continued to dominate drug distribution in the United States, controlling most of the primary distribution centers. Our border with Mexico is the main battlefield in the war against drugs, and the federal government has treated Ramos and Compean with contempt rather than gratitude for their service on the front lines of that war.

Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar Tuesday testified at the hearing that from February 1, 2005 to June 30, 2007, there were 1,982 incidents where Border Patrol agents have been assaulted. These assaults include rock throwing, physical assaults, vehicular assaults as well as shootings. In response, Border Patrol agents have responded with the use of deadly force on 116 occasions, with 144 agents discharging their weapons during these 116 incidents.

Aguilar also testified that 13 assailants died as a result, and 15 incidents ended with the assailants being wounded. Of the 144 agents involved, comprehensive investigations were formally conducted, and not a single agent has been criminally prosecuted for their actions. Then why in the world did Sutton choose to prosecute agents in this case? The senators did not like U.S. Attorney Sutton's answers.

TJ Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents Ramos and Compean, expressed anger at the sentences Tuesday and said the Border Patrol is suffering as a result: "The ramifications of this case [will be felt] by the Border Patrol," Bonner said. Bonner added an anecdote about a former Border Patrol recruit who eventually declined joining and said "You have to be crazy to join this outfit, because you eat your own."

Senator Feinstein and Senator Cornyn announced Tuesday night on our broadcast that they have decided to request that President Bush commute the sentences of Ramos and Compean. The family of Ignacio Ramos watched and listened to the senators make their announcement in our Washington, D.C., bureau, and they were moved to tears.

They weren't alone. E-mail to a friend