SAN DIEGO (AP) — Border Patrol agents are firing tear gas and powerful pepper-spray weapons across the border into Mexico to repel what the agency says are an increasing number of attacks by assailants hurling stones, bottles and bricks.

The counteroffensive has drawn complaints that innocent families are being caught in the cross-fire.

Esther Arias Medina, 41, fled her shanty in Tijuana with her 3-week-old grandson last week in the midst of an attack. The boy had begun coughing, Ms. Arias said, after smoke seeped through the walls of the three-room home, which she shares with six others.

“We don’t deserve this,” she said. “The people who live here don’t throw rocks. Those are people who come from the outside. But we’re paying the price.”

Witnesses in Ms. Arias’s neighborhood described eight attacks since August that involved tear gas or pepper spray, some that forced residents to evacuate.

The Border Patrol said its agents had been attacked nearly 1,000 times during a one-year period. The agency’s top official in San Diego, Mike Fisher, said agents were taking action because the Mexican authorities had been slow to respond. When an attack occurs, Mr. Fisher said, the agents often wait hours for Mexican officers, who, he said, usually never arrive.

“We have been taking steps to ensure that our agents are safe,” he said.

In October, agents in California and Arizona received compressed-air guns that shoot pepper-spray canisters more than 200 feet. (Agents already had less powerful launchers, which lose their punch after about 30 feet.) Border Patrol SWAT teams along the 1,952-mile border are also equipped with tear gas, “flash bombs” that emit blinding light and “sting ball” grenades that disperse hundreds of tiny rubber pellets.

United States officials say the new tactics may spare lives. In March, an agent shot and killed a 20-year-old Mexican man whose arm was cocked; that fatality occurred in Calexico, Calif., where attacks with stones have soared. And two years ago, an agent fatally shot a stone thrower at the San Diego-Tijuana border.

Mexico’s acting consul general in San Diego, Ricardo Pineda Albarrán, has insisted that United States authorities stop firing onto Mexican soil. Mr. Pineda met with Border Patrol officials last month after the agency fired tear gas into Mexico. The agency defended that action, saying agents were being hit with a hail of ball bearings from slingshots in Mexico.

United States officials say the violence indicates that smugglers are growing more desperate as increased security makes it harder to sneak across the border. The assailants try to distract agents long enough to let people dash into the United States.

The leader of a union representing Border Patrol employees said the violence also resulted from a decision to put agents right up against the border, a departure from the early 1990s, when they waited ****her back to make arrests.

“When you get that close to the fence, your agents are sitting ducks,” said T. J. Bonner, president of the union, the National Border Patrol Council.

Border Patrol agents were attacked 987 times along the border during the 12-month period that ended Sept. 30, the agency said. That was up 31 percent over the previous year and was the highest number since the agency began recording attacks in the late 1990s.

Agent Joseph Ralph estimates that he has been struck by stones 20 times since joining the Border Patrol in 1987, once fracturing a shoulder blade. “You find yourself trying to take cover,” he said.

About four months ago, a large stone struck the hood of Agent Ellery Taylor’s vehicle. “The only thing you can think is, ‘I’m glad that that wasn’t my head,’ ” Agent Taylor said. “There’s no way to see it coming.”

On the Mexican side, Benito Arias said his 19-year-old sister-in-law fainted during an apparent tear gas attack about two weeks ago. The woman, five months pregnant, was given oxygen at the hospital.

Mr. Arias’s father, José Arias, said he sympathized with the Border Patrol because the Mexican authorities did nothing to prevent people from hurling stones over the fence at agents.

“This is a matter between government and government,” the elder Mr. Arias said. “They have to work out an agreement. We are innocent. What can we do about it?”

More Articles in National »

Waukegan man pleads guilty to beating death

December 15, 2007
By ART PETERSON apeterson@scn1.com

A Waukegan man charged with first-degree murder has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.

Jose Guadarrama, 24, and Jose Alejandro Sepulveda, 29, were charged with the July 4 beating death of Ricardo Osario.

» Click to enlarge image
Guadarrama

Osario, 21, died from the beating. Guadarrama and Sepulveda were charged with first-degree murder.

The incident occurred in the parking lot of the Family Dollar store at Washington and Jackson streets in Waukegan.

Guadarrama pleaded guilty Friday in Lake County Circuit Court to a reduced charge of second-degree murder in exchange for truthful testimony against Sepulveda.

Judge Victoria Rossetti accepted the open plea and set a sentencing status date for Jan. 25, after Sepulveda's trial.

Guadarrama is facing a sentence of four to 20 years in prison with the possibility of day-for-day credit for good behavior. Probation is also an option.

Sepulveda, if convicted, would face a mandatory prison sentence of 20 to 60 years with no possibility of early release.

Guadarrama, a U.S. citizen but speaking through an interpreter, admitted to twice punching Osario in the face.

Prosecutor Ari Fisz said Sepulveda hit Osario in the face with a tree branch that was the size of a baseball bat. Osario died less than an hour later at Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan.

The plea was recommended by Fisz and defense attorney Barry Boches.

Fisz said Guadarrama's testimony against Sepulveda must be consistent with his videotaped statements to Waukegan police.

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/news/698565,...URDERPLEA_S1.article


Funny how he adapted the Mexican culture of murdering for fun but he was born here and is TWENTY FOUR YEARS OLD AND can't speak a word of the king's English?

Anchors away . . . .

Sign of the times at Butler County Jail
BY PETER BRONSON
Dec 18, 2007

Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones had this sign installed outside his office and the Butler County Jail two years ago.

A snapshot on his Web site shows Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones with his hands on his hips, standing between a creosote bush and a cholla cactus, with the rugged sepia-brown mountains of southern Arizona in the background. He was a long way from home at his own expense to make a point: The border is closer than we think.

In Cochise County, south of Tucson, 300 people are caught crossing the border illegally every 24 hours, Jones learned during an October visit. But Border Patrol officers told him that more than 1,000 slip past every day. And some wind up in the Butler County Jail.

"When I took office it wasn't very long before I noticed that I had prisoners who weren't U.S. citizens. I had no space for them, so I began calling Immigration and Customs Enforcement to take them off my hands or at least pay for them," Jones said.

"I was about the only one crying out about this," he said. "Now, 2½ years later, it's everywhere."

He cites a Quinnipiac poll showing that more than 80 percent of Ohio opposes driver's licenses and welfare or health benefits for illegals. Two-thirds want a fence on the Mexican border. National polls are just as lopsided. The people "get it," but the political and media elites don't, Jones says.

They argue for amnesty, driver's licenses, health care benefits and welfare for illegals, who they say only want a better life for their families.

"Ten percent have criminal records," Jones said. "Not all of them are coming here for a better life."

In Chochise County, he saw pictures of drugs smuggled in car seats and dashboards. In a six-month period, 9 tons of marijuana were seized on the border - but 90 percent of the drugs get through. "I was in shock," he said.

At home in Butler County, he has seen cocaine, marijuana and crystal meth from Mexico increase. "A 100-pound bust of marijuana used to be a big thing. It's not anymore."

Cochise County lawmen told him smugglers carry nearly that much in each backpack.

BRINGING IN THE FEDS

Another snapshot on his Web site shows Jones next to a bright yellow sign with an arrow pointing at his jail: "Illegal Aliens Here."

"When anybody comes into our jail, they are asked if they are a U.S. citizen, and they are asked for a Social Security number. If the answer is no to either one, that sets off a signal and we notify ICE."

Six ICE agents working out of a Butler County Jail office cover Southwest Ohio. And each month they deport 40 to 50 people. At jail costs of $55 per day for each prisoner, that adds up to a monthly bill of more than $80,000.

'IT'S GETTING WORSE'

And that's just a drop in the overflowing bucket, the sheriff says. "It's a mess, it's getting worse and now it's starting to get more violent."

Jones has put up billboards to protest the problem, fought with and billed the federal government, and gone on radio and TV nationwide to demand federal and state help.

"That's kind of different for a local sheriff, isn't it?" he says.

"Somebody has to do something," he says. "This isn't Texas or Arizona, but it's becoming that way. They're now moving to the inner part of the country where the jobs are."

He favors increasing legal immigration, but says illegals cause problems besides crime: reduced wages, exploited workers, public health problems and the economic drain of wages sent south of the border. A backlash against people here illegally causes unfair suspicion of all Hispanics.

Jones says he gets flak from the ACLU and Latino groups, but voters in Butler County back him overwhelmingly. Except at Miami University, where he says some faculty members "don't like what I'm doing."

But Jones will go as far as the Arizona border to make his point: "There's people coming into this country for criminal reasons," he said. "It may be later than we think."

http://news.enquirer.com

Commissioners to meet with immigration lawyer

Dec 18, 2007


Want to know actions they can take to stem illegal-immigration tide

By DAN PARSONS

Staff Writer

Early next month, the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners is scheduled to meet with a lawyer experienced in the debate over illegal immigration.

Michael Hethmon, general counsel for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, will meet with commissioners to answer their questions about what they can legally do at the county level to stem illegal immigration. The IRLI, which represents U.S. citizens in immigration-related matters, is the Federation for American Immigration Reform’s affiliate that provides legal services to FAIR.

“At the county level, all we want to do is stop the incentives ... stop the freebies,” Commissioner Stan Deatherage said at a meeting of the Beaufort County Republican Men’s Club on Thursday.

Beaufort County Manager Paul Spruill said Hethmon will likely approach the immigration issue from two perspectives.

“If we do nothing else in the world, is there a legal way for us to collect data?” Spruill said. “I think that can be answered independently of any broader, more complex immigration question.”

Commissioners already receive monthly counts of the number of health-department clients who require the help of interpreters. Those counts provide commissioners no hard evidence as to whether a client is a U.S. citizen, illegal immigrant or legal immigrant. Going a step ****her, Spruill said, commissioners want to know if they can legally require county agencies to determine if a client is an illegal immigrant. Commissioners also want to know if there is a way they can provide different levels of service to those agencies’ clients, depending on whether those clients are U.S. citizens, legal immigrants or illegal immigrants, Spruill said. County government cannot restrict entitlement services such as Medicaid, food stamps or public-health services that are controlled by the federal government, Spruill said.

“In nonentitlement services — services not spoken for by the United States government — are there those where local government can choose or choose not to provide services?” Spruill said in regard to other questions commissioners would ask Hethmon. “And, if they choose to provide those services, can they collect a different fee for those services than the fee they would collect for a citizen.”

At the club’s meeting, Commissioner Hood Richardson said he is “against any subsidies” that might aid undocumented aliens living in Beaufort County.

In an interview Monday, Richardson said he hopes to come away from the meeting with the lawyer with a plan to impose a program at various county agencies to “disallow subsidized services” to illegal immigrants, “especially at the department of health.”

“This would not be a program to deny services,” Richard. “The services will still be there and available. But if you don’t pay the whole the whole fee, you don’t get it.”

Richardson said that subsidies for U.S. citizens to receive medical services at the health department should not extend to illegal immigrants. He said a dual fee schedule should be worked out that spells out the prices for specific services provided to citizens and prices for those same services when provided to people who are not U.S. citizens.

“If you’re not a citizen, you would have to pay on the higher schedule,” he said.

Spruill said Hethmon was repeatedly mentioned by individuals he talked with and who have experience with immigration law. Hethmon agreed to meet with commissioners in open session free of charge if the county agreed to compensate him for travel and accommodation, Spruill said.

Hethmon is an attorney for the town of Hazleton, Pa., where the Town Council implemented an ordinance imposing heavy fines — among other restrictions — on businesses that knowingly employ illegal immigrants and landlords who rent to illegal immigrants. The town’s ordinance was struck down by a U.S. District Court judge in July. The town is appealing the judge’s decision.

http://www.wdnweb.com/articles/2007/12/18/news/news01.txt
_________________

An Open Letter to Hispanics On Behalf of Ron Paul

by Abelardo J. Arias, Esquire


Ten-term Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) is the kind of politician that Hispanics in America desperately need to represent our true interests. Sure, it would be great to see diversity in the Oval Office with a black man like Barack Obama or a woman like Hillary Clinton, but as we Hispanics have learned from years of discrimination and hardship, it is not what makes us different that matters but our united desire for community, values and freedom. Ron Paul is the man who will best represent the interests of Hispanics, in preserving our individual liberties and ensuring peace and prosperity for our children and our children's children.

HISPANICS IN AMERICA

Although there is only one Hispanic presidential candidate today, Ron Paul is the best option for Hispanics. In my opinion, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson would make a better president than the other candidates from the Democratic Party. But we have to ask ourselves who is the best candidate from either party. In a time of war, inflation, rising taxes, out-of-control deficit-spending and domestic spying, Hispanics need a man who has the experience, the integrity and the determination to stand up to the Washington machine. That man is Ron Paul.

Hispanics have endured oppression and infringement of human rights since the European powers came to Latinize our native cultures with slavery, feudalism and state-sponsored religion. Our history for centuries has been a long, arduous journey to self-determination and liberty. We should stay true to that common vision and purpose.

ANTI-WAR

Ron Paul is running as the only anti-war candidate in the Republican Party. The GOP is full of candidates like ex-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and ex-Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee who support our ineffective and harmful "War on Terror." Don't be fooled by Republican overtures to Hispanics. Speaking a little Spanish or running an ad on Univision or Telemundo is not enough to help us grab a piece of that pie we call the American Dream. The entire GOP presidential slate except for Ron Paul is eager to continue and prolong this disastrous and unconstitutional war. This conflict has claimed the lives of more than 3000 soldiers, including Hispanics who donned the uniform to proudly serve their country.

Thousands of Hispanics join the U.S. military every year for an opportunity to serve, gain access to college and find an honorable occupation in life. But Democrat and Republican politicians have needlessly sent them into harm's way by deploying them to Iraq. The war has killed, maimed and injured tens of thousands and psychologically scarred many more with the horrors of guerilla-insurgent warfare. To continue this course of action and fail to properly defend America is an inexcusable abomination.

Hillary Clinton had no problem sending Hispanics to die for President Bush's war. Mike Huckabee appears to have no problem continuing the massacre of American and Iraqi lives. Ron Paul is the only candidate consistently holding our government accountable over our long-forgotten quest to hunt Osama Bin Laden and the alarming loss of so many lives. American boys and girls continue to needlessly die to make the world safe for U.S. oil and political interests. Hispanics should support Ron Paul because he is the only real anti-war candidate.

IMMIGRATION

Ron Paul does not favor amnesty for illegal immigrants. This was the one issue I did not agree with. But I know Ron Paul's character. I know his voting record for Liberty. Over the years, I have heard his speeches and read his articles. I know his one interest is Freedom, with no compromise. This man practices what he preaches.

Ron Paul represents the 14th Congressional District of Texas, a border state with many problems. As a result of these problems we have seen overt racism from people like the Minutemen and other self-armed vigilantes who patrol the border. But there are many Americans who are not racist but just want our laws to be obeyed and respected. I can understand that. Ron Paul will secure the U.S. borders effectively and humanely. His voting record on human rights and civil liberties is impeccable. No other Democrat or Republican can touch him on that. He voted against the Patriot Act, secret government courts and any form of domestic espionage.

What are Ron Paul's ideas to reduce the number of illegal immigrants? 1) Oppose amnesty; 2) cut welfare benefits; and, 3) reform the immigration laws.

Although I personally support amnesty as an emergency measure to forgive the hard-working taxpayers who live in our country illegally, I can still fully support Ron Paul as a man who will defend the rights and liberties of men, women and children who enter this country for a better life. That is after all, why we Hispanics have come to America and have so wonderfully contributed to the melting pot.

LIBERTIES & RIGHTS

When it comes to our rights, no other candidate comes close to Ron Paul in ensuring our liberties in the Bill of Rights and protecting us from the intrusion of the federal government, the States or local police. What can we expect from a Ron Paul presidency? The dawn of a new morning in America. The reversal of decades of growing government intrusion into our lives, our homes and our churches.

We Hispanics are proud of our kaleidoscope of national cultures ranging from Chile to Puerto Rico, from Mexico to Costa Rica. We hold onto our beautiful traditions. They are alive and well in our language, our cuisines, our music and our history. Hispanics balk at any attempt by the majority to assimilate us or to only speak English because we're in someone else's country. Ron Paul's principles in action demonstrate that he would never support a policy that Hispanics in America need to do as Americans do.

There are many in the Republican Party today who feel that way about Hispanics. I consider this only a milder form of racism and xenophobia. Hispanics have already seen Ron Paul commit himself to positions of individual liberty, respect for human life and reduction in government power. Ron Paul is a man who deserves to sit in the Oval Office because he respects our cherished Bill of Rights more than any other elected federal politician.

ECONOMY

What is the number one problem plaguing Hispanics today? Economic access.

Hispanic teenagers drop out of school at a higher rate than other races and fall into vicious cycles of poverty and crime. Our rapid rise in population rates are not, by and large, in line with our noble desire to become self-sufficient, entrepreneurial or pillars in our society. There is great hope, however. Many Hispanics work hard for a better solution. Many have taken risks despite the odds to open up our own businesses and charities and push past the established racism in professional circles and market policies.

How would a Ron Paul presidency help? Ron Paul would end government-subsidizing of huge corporations that destroy and stifle smaller competitors, especially Hispanic-owned businesses. He would fight for a sound money policy to stop the inflation rate that acts as a nefarious hidden tax on our hard-earned dollars. Ron Paul would end government meddling in higher education tuition and policies that cost Hispanics a small fortune to seek a degree and then saddles young Hispanics with unfair debts. He would reform welfare far better and more effectively than Bill Clinton ever did and help people to become self-sufficient and prosperous.

Ron Paul would strengthen Social Security by using proper fiscal policy. He would cut the government out of health care to stop the rising costs of medical visits that are out of reach for many working-class Americans. Ron Paul, unlike Ronald Reagan's failure to keep a promise, would abolish the U.S. Department of Education, and so end the wasteful and harmful law known as "No Child Left Behind." He would stop rising tax levels on small businesses and individuals that choke lower-class Americans from pursuing the American Dream.

CONCLUSION

Do Hispanics deserve to live the American Dream? Of course we do. Our ancestors roamed over these ancient grounds centuries ago looking for fertile lands and new hopes. As natives streamed over North America to the Southern Hemisphere and the exotic Caribbean islands, they brought their families, their children and their futures with them. Now Hispanics have returned to this primitive land and have become the fastest growing minority in the United States. Our voices can no longer be silenced by those who think we must be quiet just to keep cleaning their bathrooms and picking their fruits on dusty ranches.

We believe, as Ron Paul does, that our Creator endowed us with unalienable rights to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Let us vote for Ron Paul and bring our Hispanic brothers and sisters home from war, to a country where Liberty is cherished, our hard work is rewarded and we can provide lovingly for ourselves, our families and our dear children. Let us contribute to the great melting pot.


December 17, 2007

Abelardo J. Arias, Esquire [send him mail] is a Connecticut attorney who works in his own solo law firm. He is the author of the teen science fiction novel with Latino protagonists: "Robbie Ve*** And The Cyborg Uprising." Attorney Arias is a long-time admirer of Congressman Ron Paul and is involved with the Democratic Freedom Caucus. He and his wife Michele educate their four boys at home.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/arias1.html


Does it get any more racist than this LaRaza boy?

LaRaza Funded
By US Government
From Janet Lee Meisinger
12-18-7

Thanks to Major Bob Worn - USAF, Ret

Your Tax Dollars At Work. Poor, Dumb Amerika

Ladies and Gentlemen, I cannot emphasize my previously sent statement too many times more,,,,,,,,,,, Amerika, Poor, Dumb, Under-educated victims of the public fool system deserve everything they are about to get. Giving of their money to the infiltrating enemy is abominably stupid.

-- Bob Worn,
Pritchett, Texas

La Raza has been on the governments dole for several years. They want to take away America as we know it. You doubt what I say? Check out their website AFTER you scroll down. I have put their site address at the bottom of this message.


US Gov't Assistance to Recipient(s) "la raza" (FY 2006)


List of Recipients for Fiscal Year 2006

You can click on the column headers below to re-sort the search.

Recipient Name
State
Federal Funding (for this search)

LA CLINICA DE LA RAZA
California

$4,335,555

LA RAZA
District of Columbia

$496,000

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF LA RAZA
District of Columbia

$1,763,348


Total recipients for fiscal year 2006: 3

Federal funding (within this search) for the year : $6,594,903
mip://03864908/contact.php


La Raza Website:http://www.nclr.org/

Also, see:
http://vdare.com/guzzardi/070803_laraza.htm

http://www.vdare.com/malkin/060711_laraza.htm

http://righttruth.typepad.com/right_truth/2006/09/cair_laraza_imm.html


http://www.rense.com/general79/laraz.htm

TRANSLATED FROM:

http://www.enlineadirecta.info/nota-40666-Visitan_la_fr...exicoamericanos.html



José Carmona, of the Network of Migrant in the U.S., said that he has traveled through every part of Mexico in search of support to defend the Mexicans that are exposed to the deportations because in his judgment "they have not committed any crime in the United States", he reiterated. In such a manner, he mentioned that in process is the elaboration of a legislative initiative that will impede the deportation of those Mexicans that upon being returned by the force to Mexico, they would leave their families deserted. "That worries us, because some sectors in the United States utilize migration to do business", maintained Carmona, after he indicate that this is the encounter point of two cultures and two nationalities, and that in that country there support exists from businessmen, officials, politicians, students and universities that are opposed to the hardening of the anti-immigrant politicians.



The government bill to which he mentioned, was already approved and signed by at least 27 federal legislators of Mexican origin, the ones that seek to resolve that problem from its root, and that in Mexico, better economic alternatives be sought, to avoid that the most unprotected people continue emigrating towards the North. He added: "We want in the United States to help us in the same manner as the European Union with the immigrants of other countries, which motivated the development of those nations. And if it worked there, it can also work here".



*I want these delusional RACIST 3rd world criminals out of my country*

EVERYTHING FOR THE RACE AND FOR EVERYBODY ELSE . . . . . . NOTHING.

POT MEET KETTLE.

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

http://archive.tri-cityherald.com/newmajority/resentment.html

For weeks, Marilynn Kilgore anticipated the opening of the Pasco Food Pavilion, a fancy new supermarket with a deli, bank, pharmacy and the promise of bargains.

When grand opening day arrived, Kilgore and her adult daughter went to check out the new store the way curious neighbors check out the newest family on the block.

And they didn't like what they saw.

More precisely, they didn't like what they heard.

Built in the heart of the Tri-Cities' fast-growing Hispanic community, the new store was crowded with Mexican shoppers. The sounds of Spanish filled the aisles, instantly making Kilgore feel out of place in the community where she had grown up.

"It was irritating," Kilgore recalled.

Within a few minutes, they walked out of the spiffy new market without buying a thing.

A thousand miles away in Watsonville, Calif., Frank Osmer has wrestled with the same feelings of displacement and the belief he has been shoved out of his own community.

Osmer, a retired police chief and former Watsonville mayor, used to shop downtown all the time. These days, he prefers to drive 20 minutes to a neighboring community rather than shop in the Mexican clothing stores, record shops and restaurants that predominate the old business district.

"I don't walk down Main Street anymore," Osmer said, lamenting the loss of stores like JC Penney, Montgomery Ward and Woolworth's. "There's nothing to go there for."

Such sentiments reflect a troubling aspect of Mexican immigration - troubling at least for those who have lived in a community for decades and are now watching it change around them.

Fear of gangs, increased crime, higher unemployment and fewer opportunities also are often linked to the new immigrants, creating resentment from the more established residents.

Nora Korba, a Watsonville native who works as a waitress at a landmark cafe and bar, is afraid to go downtown at night because of the crime in her town, and she blames Mexican immigration.

"Things have changed to the point where I want to say to **** with this town," said Korba, who remembers feeling safe at night on Main Street when she was a teen-ager in the early 1970s.

"I remember the good old days," she said, recalling when migrant workers went home to Mexico after harvest and the schools taught only in English.

Although some of the fears expressed by old-timers are almost certainly based on blatant racism, a more generous view is the prospect of losing a way of life is behind much of the fear.

Oscar Rios, a Watsonville city councilman and Hispanic activist, believes it is this loss of the familiar that troubles many white people.

"If you came down here, you wouldn't know that at one time this was an Anglo community," Rios said. "This is what freaks a lot of people out. If you come to Watsonville, all you see is brown faces."

When that happens to a town, whites almost always choose to leave, according to Refugio Rochin, a Michigan State University professor who studied the effects of "Latinization" on 330 rural California towns.

The study, which tried to answer the question of whether communities with a Hispanic majority suffer economically, found that whites began moving out of any town studied that had become 50 percent or more Mexican-American.

Middle-class Hispanics are just as likely to move away in those cases as whites are, the study reported.

The reason, Rochin said, is because these groups no longer feel they have a reason to stay. The families moving in generally are younger and with more children than their own, and they often don't speak English.

"White flight," the study found, isn't "solely attributable to prejudice, but also to perceived changes in the quality of community life."

Changes in the Tri-Cities aren't as extensive as they are in Watsonville, but Pasco - with the most Mexican immigrants of the three communities - is a much different place than it was 30 years ago.

Once the retail hub of the Tri-Cities, Pasco now is home to a collection of small but vibrant businesses, many of them owned by immigrants and catering to the needs of immigrants.

Some big chain stores have moved to west Kennewick, leaving Pasco with phone banks where customers pay to call family in California and Mexico, travel agencies that specialize in booking trips to Mexico and California, and a collection of Mexican bakeries, restaurants and markets.

James and Marilynn Kilgore, who moved to the Tri-Cities in the 1950s, understand why the changes have occurred, and they don't resent the new immigrants. Like most Americans, the Kilgores are descendants of immigrants.

But they admit the changes in the community have altered their lives. They avoid downtown Pasco at night, for example. "You're a little intimidated when you used to not be," James said.

And Marilynn lost interest years ago in reading the arrest records in the newspaper. "I don't recognize the names anymore."

Dan Lathim, a Pasco councilman with deep roots in the community, has seen most of the changes firsthand, but said he is more worried about the economic future of the community and the ability to continue using Columbia River water on crops than he is about any sociological upheaval because of immigration.

One reason Lathim isn't more concerned about the changing population is because of his understanding of history and immigration. Every other immigrant group that has settled in the United States has eventually assimilated, he said.

Lathim thinks the same sort of assimilation is inevitable in the Tri-Cities, and every other place where Mexican immigrants are settling in large numbers.

It doesn't matter if Hispanics hold onto the Spanish language and other elements of their culture for a while, he said.

That doesn't mean Hispanics are trying to turn the Tri-Cities into Mexico, he said.

"When Christ the King (church) does a Sausage Fest, they're not trying to make it Germany," he said.

Luce Gutierrez, a lobbyist for the National Council for La Raza, agrees time will calm many of the fears people might have now about the so-called browning of America.

Mixed marriages will help ease the tension between the communities, she said, and the rise of political and business leaders from within the Hispanic community will help change people's view of Hispanics.

Eventually, the food, music, literature and fashion of Mexico -already influencing American pop culture - will become part of the fabric of America, as integral as Irish, Italian, German and British influences.

The progress of Mexican immigration is different from other groups because of the proximity of the homeland, and the ability of immigrants to go back and forth easily between the two countries.

Even so, the new immigrants will join the melting pot and change its flavor.

"I think in 10 years you will have more of a blending of cultures," Gutierrez said. "Mexican immigrants will adapt to America, and at the same time they will change the image of what America is all about."

Illegal immigrant rises from near death, wins $1.5 million suit
By Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Originally published 04:50 p.m., December 18, 2007
Updated 05:05 p.m., December 18, 2007

Moises Carranza-Reyes looks at his interpreter, Jairo Camargo, during a press conference on June 22, 2005, in Denver.
More Local NewsDenver names Scholz budget director
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Email this Print this Comments Change text size Subscribe to print edition iPod friendly Share this site Del.icio.us Digg Newsvine Moises Carranza-Reyes had to fight for his life after only seven days in the Park County Jail.

The illegal immigrant suffered a near-fatal infection in 2003, his attorneys said, because he was crammed in the filthy, freezing, overcrowded jail and forced to sleep amid sick inmates on a floor soiled with vomit and feces from overflowing toilets.

He made an amazing recovery from a heart attack and coma, thanks to Denver Health Medical Center doctors, who reportedly had given him a 2 percent chance of survival.

Ultimately, his gangrenous left leg had to be amputated and part of a lung removed because of the jail's "inhumane conditions" and medical neglect, according to his federal lawsuit filed in 2005.

Now, Park County has agreed to pay a $1.5 million settlement to the 31-year-old man — while denying any wrongdoing and Carranza-Reyes' charges, according to the agreement announced Monday.

But the disabled man's problems — and the debate over his ordeal and his illegal entry into the United States — are far from over.

Federal immigration authorities allowed Carranza-Reyes to remain in the U.S. while he recuperated. But his attorneys stressed in recent court filings that the man, who still lives in Colorado, is "in danger of deportation."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Carl Rusnok said today that "anyone who is illegally present in the United States runs the risk of being identified, located, arrested and ultimately deported."

ICE continues to have a detainee-housing agreement with Park County and the jail is inspected by the agency annually to ensure it complies with ICE's "strict detention standard," Rusnok said.

Although federal authorities paid most of Carranza-Reyes' $1 million medical bill, his attorneys wrote that the financial settlement was needed in part to fund long-term recovery for the man who remains "financially desperate, is unemployed, and in desperate need of medical care."

The immigrant "continues to suffer unbearable pain" from nerve damage in both legs and requires physical therapy and possibly more surgeries, according to court papers.

But the settlement, paid by the county's insurance, is sure to reignite protests by illegal immigration critics who railed against Carranza-Reyes' lawsuit filing in 2005.

"I am truly sorry that Moises Carranza-Reyes has lost his leg," a Denver man wrote in a letter to the Rocky at the time. "But if he had not been in this country illegally, he would still have his leg.

"I believe that the hundreds of thousands of taxpaying citizens of Colorado, who cannot afford medical insurance for doctors and hospitals, would really love to be on the jury for this trial," the writer added.

The settlement prohibits all parties from discussing the agreement, including defendants Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener and Undersheriff Monte Gore, who ran the jail at the time, along with jail nurse Vicki Paulsen.

But past public comments and court documents recount the ordeal of Carranza-Reyes ordeal, a former Mexico City police sergeant.

He was arrested March 1, 2003, in Rifle along with his twin brother, Abraham, and several other illegal immigrants in a truck. The brothers were headed for work in Chicago, where their father, a U.S. citizen, lived.

Immigration authorities took the group to the Fairplay jail, where federal officials pay the county to hold some detainees.

Carranza-Reyes' attorneys conceded that Park County improved jail conditions shortly after his detention. But his legal team, including the Washington-based advocacy group Public Justice, say he was victimized by the county's aggressive use of its jail as a money-maker by leasing inmate space to state and federal authorities.

"Park County Jail attempted to boost its net revenues by cutting basic human essentials, such as medical care, heat, clean laundry, and clean housing," co-counsel Bill Trine of Boulder said in 2005. "As a result of prison profiteering, we're seeing human rights abuses that we'd never expect to see in this country."

Carranza-Reyes found himself jammed in with 60 inmates in a jail pod designed to hold 18 people, the lawsuit said.

He was issued a "foul-smelling," dirty uniform and forced to sleep on the floor on a soiled mattress between two inmates who were so sick that Carranza-Reyes had to feed them, his lawyers said.

The immigrant soon developed a strep throat. Medical staff finally took Carranza-Reyes to the hospital four days after he began complaining of aches and chills.

By the time he arrived at Denver Health Medical Center, he had pneumonia and his legs were black with gangrene.

But in a motion seeking to have the case thrown out, Park County officials noted that a 2002 inspection by federal immigration authorities found "detainees were issued appropriate clothing, bedding, and towels, and that laundry and cleaning of those items were generally done appropriately."

The defendants added that a 2003 inspection by state prison officials reported the jail "pod, cells and showers were quite clean."

Yet, in a key defeat, Denver U.S. District Court Judge Walker D. Miller ruled in August against Wegener's and Gore's argument that Carranza-Reyes hadn't proven his case.

"A reasonable jury could conclude that the overcrowding, failure to segregate ill inmates, hot and cold water problems, toilet backups, and inability to clean the pod combined to create a serious deprivation of hygiene and sanitation," the judge wrote.

Miller added it appeared Wegener was aware of overcrowding and that it was "possible for a reasonable jury to conclude that the sheriff knew of and tacitly approved of the creation of conditions that posed a risk to inmate health."

Carranza-Reyes could not be reached for comment today . But, in 2005, the ex-cop said he couldn't believe conditions at the Fairplay lockup were as bad as jails in his native Mexico.

"We weren't treated like human beings," he said.

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GANG TASK FORCE SWEEP NETS 26

FOR RELEASE: December 14, 2007
SUBJECT: POOLE, John Charles



http://oklahomacity.fbi.gov


GANG TASK FORCE SWEEP NETS 26

Gangs Involved Include the Southside Locos, East Side Vario Segundo and Grand Barrio Centrale


Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - Starting at 6:30 a.m., yesterday morning, more than 100 federal, state, and local law enforcement officers fanned out across the Oklahoma City metropolitan area and Altus, Oklahoma to execute sealed arrest and search warrants against Southside Locos, East Side Vario Segundo, Grand Barrio Centrale, and 98 Main Street Mafia Crip gang members, associates, and others stemming from their involvement in significant drug trafficking, announced John C. Richter, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma; John Wampler, District Attorney for the Third Judicial District; David Prater, Oklahoma County District Attorney; Michael B. Ward, FBI Special Agent-In-Charge; R. Darrell Weaver, Director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs; Bill Citty, Chief, Oklahoma City Police Department; Jim Delia, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Resident Agent in Charge, and John Whetsel, Oklahoma County Sheriff.

As alleged in the affidavits unsealed late yesterday, this investigation targeted drug traffickers who used their gang memberships and associations to facilitate the distribution of significant quantities of cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana across the Oklahoma City metropolitan area and southwestern Oklahoma.

"We will continue to coordinate our efforts and to use all available law enforcement tools to incapacitate and dismantle violent gangs and drug trafficking organizations," stated United States Attorney John C. Richter. "I want to commend the dedicated law enforcement personnel from the FBI, OBN, OCPD, Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office, District 3 Task Force, IRS and ICE for their investigations and their relentless efforts together to make our communities safe."

"Crime, particularly the flow of illegal drugs, does not stop at county or city borders," stated District Attorney for the Third Judicial District John Wampler. "That is why the ability of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and prosecutors to work in a cooperative manner, as in this case, is so important. This investigation, and the arrests from it, will significantly impact a major source of illegal drugs for the Southwest area of Oklahoma. I am pleased with the efforts of all the agencies involved, and particularly the District Three DA Drug Task Force."

"We must continue to lace up our gloves to fight yet one more round against these economic based drug traffickers who are responsible for pain and suffering for our state, stated R. Darrell Weaver, Director, Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. "The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics has great resolve when battling for our citizens and most importantly our children's future. Our greatest successes will come when we partner with law enforcement and prosecutors at all levels and this is a prime example of such an investigative effort."

These arrests, which are the result of a cooperative and coordinated law enforcement effort by the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Gang Task Force, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, and the Oklahoma District 3 Drug Task Force, has led to arrest and charge in federal court of the following defendants:

As of this time, federal complaints have been unsealed charging the following 19 individuals on federal drug trafficking charges:
No. Name Age Hometown
(Currently in custody)
1. 1. Joaquin Chavira 26 OKC
2. Paul Duran, Jr. 20 OKC
3. Waylon Adam Eddy 19 OKC
4. Douglas John Harris 27 OKC
5. Jeffrey Ray Hart 22 OKC
6. Erik Martinez 31 OKC
7. Won Miguel Medina 26 OKC
8. Ivan Vasquez-Olmos 32 McCloud
9. Armando Salcido 30 OKC
10. Javier Castro 20 OKC
11. Carlos Omar Lujan-Gomez 25 OKC
12. Enrique Ortiz Salas-Ever 23 OKC
13. Jackie Joseph Thomas 25 OKC
14. Gabriel Rico 19 OKC
15. Samuel Samaniego Perez 22 OKC
16. Jose M. Montalvo 33 OKC
17. Adrian Borrego 30 Altus
18. Jeffrey Jones Shepherd 19 Altus
(The following individual is not in custody and now considered a federal fugitive)
19. Adrian Ismael Soltero 31 OKC

Also as part of this operation, there are currently 7 individuals in state custody.

The Oklahoma City Metropolitan Gang Task Force ("OCMGTF") was formed in early 2006 as "all for one and one for all" effort by federal, state, and local law enforcement to combat the violent criminal gangs. United States Attorney Richter praised OBN and the District 3 Drug Task Force for the cooperation, coordination, and work with the OCMGTF that made this joint operation possible.
The federal cases are being prosecuted by Mikeal Clayton, Chief of the United States Attorney's Office's Organized Crime and Narcotics Section, and Jeb Boatman, Assistant U.S. Attorney.

Depending on the charges alleged in the criminal complaints, these defendants face either 5 to 40 years or 10 years to life in prison. Reference is made to the criminal complaints, supporting affidavits, and criminal coversheets for further information as to the specific charges and potential sentence for each defendant.

The public is reminded that these criminal complaints are merely accusations and that the defendants are each presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
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10 MILLION TO DEFEND ILLEGAL ALIENS:

OH BECAUSE THEY'RE JUST HERE DOING THE WORK AMERICANS WON'T DO

Republicans Blast 'Misguided' Omnibus Spending Bill
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Senior Editor
December 18, 2007

(CNSNews.com) - What can you say about a 3,500-page appropriations bill that stands more than a foot tall? Nothing good, according to Republicans. But Democrats are spinning the spending bill as a step in their much-talked-about "New Direction."

House Republican Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri said the bill is full of "misguided" policy decisions: "On one page, for instance, you will find a set of new restrictions on the construction of our security fence along the border; on another, $10 million in 'emergency' funding for attorneys of illegal immigrants.
"Along with those, you'll even find language gutting a Senate-passed provision encouraging English in the workplace. And as we continue to cull through the text, that may prove to be just the tip of the iceberg," Blunt complained.

Most lawmakers haven't had time to read the massive spending bill, which House Democrats crafted in secret and released late Sunday. The $515 billion appropriations bill will fund government operations for the fiscal year that began in October.

Instead of passing 13 individual spending bills as it is supposed to do, Congress ended up passing only one. It combined the other 12 into one big "omnibus" bundle. The Senate will take up that omnibus bill on Tuesday.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hailed passage of the catch-al