|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
EDITORIAL NOTES
The National media frenzy over the Minuteman Project is growing by the day. Talk radio and television news sensationalist hosts across the country are intrigued by the idea and are actually doing a great service for the country by keeping the heat on President Bush and Congress to do something about our porous borders immediately. My statements are honest and true: President Bush do your job! President Bush says he does not consider the border a pressing issue. The Senate this week listed their top ten priorities for the next session; illegal immigration and securing our borders were not listed. They are going to attempt to ignore the problem –again. This time we cannot and will not allow them to cast aside the demands of 80% of Americans who want the border with Mexico secured.
President Bush has the gall to tell Americans he welcomes “good hearted people” to make a mockery of our rule of law and our citizenship by allowing them to come to take jobs Americans refuse to take. Well, President Bush, I guess you can consider the Civil Homeland Defense -- Minuteman Project to be situations where law abiding citizens are taking on a job you refuse to take.
Ah, but the sharks are circling. The government has not appreciated my exposing a serious breach of their oaths of office. My government has tried everything to stop me. I think they will soon be after me again--this time they may not wait to arrange another trap for me. This time I am certain they will interpret and consider my challenge to the President as some violation of the Patriot Act and haul me away to a federal holding cell and deny me the right to counsel. Worse, they may just decide to “take care of me” in a more permanent manner. Remember, I have been stripped of my right to carry a weapon, and monthly visits to my home by my probation officer to check for guns is part of the scrutiny I live with. If the government comes up with some excuse they had to shoot me because I made a wrong move or because I was armed –you know they are lying.
Remember last year when government employees from three different agencies conspired to lie about my actions in a National Park? A victimless crime led to national headlines again. They could not catch me doing anything unlawful so they colluded to entrap me 60 feet inside an unmarked boundary of the Coronado National Park while carrying a perfectly legal concealed weapon. I was forced into a kangaroo court and denied the right to have a jury trial. Park Ranger Deborah Girard was caught lying on the stand and clearly exposed her prejudice towards me. Border Patrol agent Chris Brown blatantly lied on the stand. BLM agents conveniently supplied photographs of signs they attached to the fence the day after I was found innocently walking along a fence line on a mapping mission, ironically looking for the boundary of the park which was unmarked. It made no difference to the head kangaroo and she agreed that I should be punished with a $1,000 fine and two years probation.
I recently received a call from my probation officer Mr. Ritenour. He called alluding to a rumor that I was on a radio show making statements that could be considered unlawful, or suggesting civil disobedience. I was firmly reminded by Ritenour that any such incident would be a violation of my probation, which means I would spend the rest of my time (I still have a year left) incarcerated.
No doubt the government wolves are salivating over the thought of finally catching me in a mistake so they can get rid of me. What will they concoct this time? Stay tuned.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
EFFORTS AGAINST ILLEGALS BROADEN
By Stephen Dinan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Immigration-control activists announced a bill to crack down on benefits available to illegal aliens in Arkansas, the first in what is expected to be a wave of initiatives and bills following the success of a similar proposition in Arizona in November’s election.
Arkansas state Sen. Jim Holt yesterday said he will sponsor a bill in the legislature this year to deny benefits and inhibit the ability of illegal immigrants to register and vote. And state resident Joe McCutchen promised to lead a grass-roots effort to support the bill.
Mr. McCutchen said he thinks it’s up to citizens to take action on illegal immigration.
“If our republic’s to be saved, we’d better,” he said. “It’s obvious the president has no intention to secure the borders, and I think this is by design. I think they’re dedicated to destroying the sovereignty and heritage and culture of this nation for their own purpose, whatever that may be.”
Mr. McCutchen’s group, Protect Arkansas Now, is following the lead of Kathy McKee, the woman who described herself as a Quaker Sunday School teacher and led Protect Arizona Now, the group that put Proposition 200 on last year’s ballot.
Proposition 200 forces those registering to vote to prove their citizenship, those showing up to vote to provide identification, and denies some state benefits to illegal aliens. It passed with 56 percent of the vote, despite opposition from the majority of the state’s congressional delegation, many state officials and a host of immigrant advocacy groups.
Ms. McKee recently announced that Protect Arizona Now has become Protect America Now, and will try to foster similar initiatives or state statutes throughout the nation.
“Hopefully, others can learn from our success and not try to re-invent the wheel,” she said.
Ms. McKee said her goal is to avoid becoming like some of the national lobbying groups on immigration.
“Over the past decade, entirely too much money has gone away from local efforts — going instead to Washington groups with huge overheads — for there to be meaningful success combating illegal immigration,” she said.
“Goodness knows, Protect Arizona Now’s Prop. 200 has been one of the two to three significant successes with this issue the past two decades; while I’d be hard-pressed to come up with a single major success that has come from the Beltway fund-raisers.”
In the midst of the Arizona effort, her group clashed with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a national lobby, over which group should be leading the petition drive. The two groups since have disagreed over the scope of the ban on benefits.
Virginia Deane Abernathy, chairwoman of the National Advisory Board of Protect America Now, said there are efforts in states other than Arkansas. She would not say where else the group may be active, but Colorado is considered a prime opportunity.
She said 23 states allow citizen initiatives, including Arkansas, but the group decided to go ahead with a bill rather than an initiative in Arkansas because it takes less money and grass-roots manpower, she said.
California pioneered a crackdown on benefits to illegal aliens with the passage of Proposition 187 in 1994. But federal courts ruled it unconstitutional, and state officials did not appeal the decision.
Both the new national and Arkansas efforts are bound to run into opposition from immigrant and civil rights groups, including the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), which sued to try to stop the Arizona initiative.
MALDEF lost in federal district court and now is appealing to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block the benefits provisions. It also has asked the Justice Department not to approve the voter identification measures, arguing that the provisions are discriminatory, since Hispanics and other minorities are less likely to have the required identification.
Araceli Soledad Perez, a staff attorney at MALDEF, had not seen the Arkansas bill but said the same objections hold true for any state statute or initiative.
“Immigration is exclusively the province of the federal government, and that’s been our position all along, and that’s been the crux of our appeal in the 9th Circuit,” she said.
Miss Perez said the move to go state by state is not the right approach.
“I think what voters and states need to do is, if they think there are immigration problems and they want immigration reform, they need to lobby their congressmen for nationwide immigration reform,” she said. “States are not the channel to change immigration law.”
But Mr. McCutchen said President Bush has failed citizens.
“I’ve heard him say ‘secure the Iraqi borders,’ but in four years I’ve never heard the man say one time ‘secure the U.S. borders,’” Mr. McCutchen said.
Mr. McCutchen said his freedom of information requests to Arkansas state officials to try to determine the costs of illegal immigration have been turned down, with state officials saying they do not have the data.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
BORDERS, PRIORITIES BLUR ALONG “WILD FRONTIER”
Illegal immigrants and drug traffickers stream to New Mexico to avoid patrols elsewhere.
By David Kelly
Times Staff Writer
Frustrated by security crackdowns in Arizona, thousands of illegal immigrants and drug traffickers are flooding once-quiet New Mexico, making it the newest frontier in America’s struggle to control its southern border.
Border Patrol agents who once caught handfuls of immigrants a day here now arrest 140 or 150 a night. Armed confrontations are increasing, high-speed chases have become routine and officials say they lack the resources to hold the line. At the same time, Mexican crime syndicates using two-way radios and sophisticated cellphones have American law enforcement under surveillance.
“They will call in our agent locations and spy on us at our base right here,” said Colby Morgan, an intelligence officer operating out of the Deming Border Patrol Station, the largest in the state. “We haven’t seen that before. They are getting at us from both sides of the border.”
Palomas, Mexico, just across from Columbus, is a hub for smuggling cartels that view New Mexico as the easiest way to move people and drugs into the U.S.
And Deming, about 35 miles north, has become a distribution point.
The cartels’ clout was evident last year when Palomas authorities tried to arrest a drug kingpin. Gunmen shot up the police station, torched the cars and sent eight officers and their families fleeing to Columbus in search of political asylum.
“We are a potential flashpoint on the border,” said Rick Moody, patrol agent in charge at the Deming station. “There has been a gradual shift from Arizona to here. We have illegal vehicle crossings every day; fences are being torn down; our cars are getting hit with rocks. Ten years ago, this was one of the least active areas on the border; now it’s the wild frontier.”
In 2003, New Mexico arrested 48,633 illegal immigrants; in 2004 the number rose to 61,374. The Deming station saw apprehensions jump 26% last year, while the Lordsburg sector 60 miles west had a 109% increase. Border checkpoints like the one at Antelope Wells in far southwest New Mexico once averaged a single drug seizure a year. In 2004, it had seven. This month, border agents found 4,400 pounds of marijuana inside a pickup truck.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said the clampdown in Arizona was making his state “the preferred alternative for drug trafficking and human smuggling.” He has requested more agents, vehicle barricades and cameras along the border. The Department of Homeland Security is looking into shifting resources to New Mexico.
“We have to increase staffing and security efforts all across the border,” Bingaman said. “The idea that we can put our resources in one place and not see the problem move somewhere else is clearly wrong.”
Others say such efforts are futile until there are better jobs in Mexico and stiffer penalties for those hiring illegal immigrants.
“New Mexico is the last frontier. The same cycle that occurred in Arizona is likely to repeat itself there,” said Wayne Cornelius, director of the Center for Comparative Studies on Immigration at UC San Diego. “Supply and demand must be reduced; otherwise whatever we do is just a symbolic show of force.”
For years, New Mexico’s 180-mile border has been the least defended in the Southwest. Immigrants once preferred crossing into Texas and California, closer to major cities and transport centers. But crackdowns there funneled many into Arizona, now the busiest illegal crossing point in the nation, with 500,000 arrests last year. The state recently received $10 million in federal aid, unmanned surveillance aircraft and 200 new border and customs agents _ bringing its total to 2,000 for about 370 miles of border.
New Mexico has 425 agents to patrol 14,000 square miles. Much of the border is unmarked and open _ no fences, boundary lines or roads to show which side is which.
The Southwest New Mexico Border Security Task Force, a group of New Mexico and federal law enforcement agencies, issued a report in 2003 saying it didn’t have the resources to adequately protect against drug dealers, illegal immigrants and “potentially weapons of mass destruction” crossing the border.
Border agents say they have run into heavily armed Mexican soldiers inside the U.S.
“I have found up to 10 Mexican soldiers in a Humvee on our side of the border,” Moody said. “We don’t know what they are doing here. They usually say they got lost. When that happens, we confront them and escort them back.”
Some officials here think elements of the Mexican military are involved in drug smuggling.
The border is a quiet patchwork of farms, mountains and small desert towns. Federal agents depend on helicopters, underground sensors and camera towers to help cover the region.
Illegal immigrants often know the cameras’ visual range, and cross where they can’t be seen. Spotters sit atop hills in Mexico with cellphones to report which way cameras are pointing.
Life for the Border Patrol is increasingly hectic and dangerous. On a recent night, calls poured in from all over _ groups of 30, 25, 10 migrants, coming from all directions. Only a third of those who cross are caught, agents say.
“A few years ago it wasn’t so bad,” said Border Patrol agent Jack Jeffreys. “Now you come to work and think, ‘Maybe I won’t be going home tonight.’ “
Jeffreys was plowing through prickly pear in his Chevrolet Blazer, trying to catch a group of migrants outside Columbus. He jumped out and joined two other officers walking with flashlights.
They quickly found eight men, one woman and a 5-year-old boy hugging the ground. Their bags held Mexican passports, a cellphone with global positioning coordinates and water bottles full of raw garlic.
“They think garlic keeps away snakes,” said agent Harry Brown. “A lot of these guys come from tropical environments and know nothing about the desert.”
They were taken to a cramped processing facility in Columbus, fingerprinted and checked for criminal records. If the reports came back clean, they’d be released the next morning into Palomas.
“I came this way because it’s easy,” said Carlos Bueno, 35, nabbed while trying to reach Los Angeles. “There are too many police in Arizona.”
The surge in illegal immigration here hasn’t produced the vigilantism seen in Arizona, where armed citizens sometimes round up migrants. One reason is the relative dearth of people living along the border. The other is fear.
James Johnson helps run his family’s 160,000-acre ranch with 15 miles bordering Mexico. Over the last few years, they’ve had their fences cut and their trucks stolen and seen smugglers ferry drugs over their land.
Vigilante groups have called offering their services.
“If we did that, it wouldn’t be three weeks until one of our throats were slit,” said Johnson, 29. “A lot of these vigilantes don’t live on the border; they live in cities or towns where the people crossing don’t know them. But these people know us.”
Two years ago, he confronted some men in a truck on his property. “I asked what they were doing there,” he said. “They pulled a gun, aimed it at me and said they could do whatever they wanted.”
His father was robbed of his truck at gunpoint by men who fled to Palomas.
“I think 90% of the public thinks of the border as Tijuana or El Paso or the Rio Grande,” he said. “They don’t realize most of the border has no fence _ no markings at all.”
The biggest border community on the U.S. side is Columbus, a town of about 1,700 people three miles north of Palomas. It’s a place of sandstorms and trailer homes, with a tiny downtown that quickly melts into the surrounding desert. The local police department _ the chief and a pair of patrol officers _ operates out of a rented two-room office.
Chief Clare May sees cars blow through town at 100 mph with border agents in pursuit. Stolen vehicles litter the roadsides, and drug and immigrant trafficking is rife among those in his community. Calls for assistance, often related to illegal immigrants, jumped from 450 in 2003 to 900 last year.
“We have drop houses here that will charge illegal immigrants $50 a night and house 15 of them,” he said.
Locals can earn $1,500 to $3,000 transporting 100 pounds of marijuana to Phoenix, or $1,500 to smuggle an immigrant, he said.
May has taken his M-4 automatic rifle out on calls to back up border agents.
“The federal authorities know we are inundated, but their focus is on Arizona,” he said recently. “This doesn’t have to be another March 9, 1916,” he said, referring to a raid here by Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa that left 18 Americans dead. “But if they get by me and get by the Border Patrol and customs, then they’re coming to you.”
Across the border in Palomas, men and women huddled under trees in the plaza, waiting for nightfall. Many had arrived in buses from other parts of Mexico.
“All these people want to do is work and to fill the jobs the Americans don’t want,” said Rodolfo Vazquez, owner of a barber shop overlooking the square.
Five young men with backpacks sat on a broken park bench. One had been caught the night before by the Border Patrol and released in the morning. He grinned as he swigged tequila from an old motor oil jug.
“Tonight I will try again,” he said confidently. “This time I’ll make it.”
Word was out, the men said: Arizona was too tough to cross, and New Mexico was easy by comparison.
“I hear the ranchers [in Arizona] get paid for every one of us they turn in and go to jail if they don’t turn us in,” said a man from Veracruz who refused to give his name.
They were waiting for a yellow school bus that came every evening, taking migrants out past the American security cameras.
Luis Sanchez, 23, was heading for Miami.
“I can work there and save my money so someday I can go back to Oaxaca and live,” he said. “It’s beautiful in Oaxaca. I have my house and my life there, but there is no work, so I come here. Maybe it’s the last chance for me.”
A man strode over and whispered angrily to the group, warning them not to talk to strangers.
They got up, bent their heads and walked into the twilight, waiting for their ride north.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NEWS REPORT INACCURACIES
The following was sent to the news directors at KVOA Channel 4, KGUN Channel 9 and KOLD Channel 13.
Recently, The Minuteman Project/ Civil Homeland Defense (CHD) has come to the forefront of National News. Local news has been presenting the project in an incorrect manner.
KVOA News ran an interview with me and misrepresented statements that I made. My comment regarding getting the government to control the border was immediately translated to “Border Patrol needs to do their job.” This is incorrect! Border Patrol is, and has been, doing their job to the best of their ability and resources. THEY ARE OVERWHELMED!! The only solution to border control lies with the State and Federal legislatures.
KOLD News reported on The Minuteman Project while running file footage of a group called Ranch Rescue. Ranch Rescue is no longer in existence and did not operate in the same manner as CHD. Randy Garsee’s voice-over was correct, but the juxtaposition of film footage was irresponsible!
CHD started as a volunteer organization to answer President Bush’s call to “be vigilant and report suspicious activity to the proper authority.” We have operated within the rule of law and assisted Border Patrol with the apprehension of 3,929 criminals breaking into our country. We have also been instrumental in saving 157 lives of people who had been abandoned by their “coyotes” by providing food, water, blankets and necessary first-aid until an ambulance could arrive.
The media has focused far too much on the fact that volunteers carry guns. First and foremost, Arizona is an “open carry state.” That means that you can carry a firearm out in the open wherever you want as long as it is not a government building or a business posted “no firearms.” Secondly, the environment where the illegal entrants are crossing is inhospitable desert. There are dangers from the environment in the form of rattlesnakes, cougars, jaguars, bears, etc. The firearms are NOT to be used, and have NEVER been used, as an intimidation tactic.
CHD/Minuteman Project are also NOT racially motivated organizations. We are in favor of immigration by legal means. Everyone should have the opportunity to come to America through the proper channels. We feel that illegal immigration has made a new form of slave labor. Illegal entrants are exploited with low wages and indentured servitude. This needs to stop!
My challenge to all of you is to portray CHD/Minuteman Project for what they ARE, not for what other people say they are. To that end, I invite you all to come to Tombstone and go out with volunteers to see what REALLY happens instead of relying on reports from other media sources (who have done as much of an irresponsible job as those mentioned above) and see first-hand what this movement is about. Border Action Network, Humane Borders, etc. have NEVER personally come with CHD to see what actually happens; they have made their assumptions and have no desire to find out if their assumptions are correct. For that reason, they are not a reliable “source” to quote about our activities and should be questioned about their support of illegal activity.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
THE BORDER REMAINS THE PROBLEM
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
President Bush will be inaugurated today for a second term, pledging one of his highest priorities will be the creation of a new guest-worker program with no provisions for securing the border that brought them here.
Americans will grow weary of these foreign wars designed to defeat the threat of Islamic terrorism when they know the border is wide open and inviting those same enemies into our own country.
Americans are not stupid.
They know their will is being subverted by politicians in Washington.
They know the laws governing immigration are not being enforced.
They know this is a nation supposedly governed by the rule of law and the will of the people.
They also know that when you are fighting a battle or a war, the very first thing you do is secure the perimeter. Failing that, you risk losing your “secure area.”
President Bush’s open-border policy is an invitation to disaster.
How many times do we have to say it?
In this war against Islamic terrorism we face a near-invisible enemy whose forte is exploiting weaknesses. You can’t find a more exploitable weakness than 2,000 miles of unguarded borders.
Close the border, Mr. President. Shut it down. Do whatever it takes, no matter the cost.
Want to stimulate the economy in this country? Bring 100,000 troops home from Europe where they are doing little but stimulating the European economy and put them to work at the border while we build a 2,000-mile security fence.
Don’t tell us it’s impractical. It’s a matter of life and death.
Secure borders and fences have been built throughout history by nations far less affluent than our own.
No more excuses.
Either we are at war or we are not.
If we are at war, we must secure the perimeter. If we are not, bring the troops home now.
I would prefer to see us win this war. But we cannot win it exclusively on offense. We need to defend the homeland. That doesn’t mean bigger databases and more checkpoints at home. It means keep the enemy out.
I don’t care about the need for cheap labor in this country. It is irrelevant. I don’t care if Americans are forced to pay higher prices as a result. It’s a small price to pay for freedom and security.
But if President Bush is so determined to provide cheap labor to employers in this country there is a way he can do it while securing the borders.
It would simply mean the creation of a national employment office in Mexico. U.S. employers would list the jobs they seek to fill and the qualifications necessary to fill them. Mexicans seeking employment would apply to fill the slots. The plan would call for specific timed contracts, which could be extended later if needed as long as the documentation was completed before the first contract expired. Under this plan, the economic needs of the U.S. would be met, and the imported workers would be able to earn their U.S. paychecks above board. In addition, they would have a paper trail, legal documentation with a fixed termination time limit.
But this won’t happen. Such a proposal will never be made. Why?
Because the open borders are about more than cheap labor.
They are about international agreements. They are about breaking down national sovereignty. They are about globalism rather than nationalism.
If it’s about cheap labor, it would be easy enough to secure it while maintaining our national security and sovereignty. But Mexico would never be happy simply exporting honest people who want to do an honest day’s work.
Mexico wants to export criminals. Mexico wants to export revolutionaries. Mexico wants to export terrorists. Mexico wants to export drug dealers and arms merchants. Mexico wants to export all manner of undesirables – millions of them - to serve as a safety valve for its own corrupt system.
I’m not going to watch the Inauguration today. I can’t stand the thought of swearing in a president who is working against the safety and security of the American people. I don’t want to serve as a silent witness to the violation of the oath he will take today.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
VOLUNTEERS SET TO MONITOR ARIZONA BORDER CROSSINGS
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
A retired California businessman has 240 volunteers ready for a 30-day aerial and ground surveillance campaign on the Arizona-Mexico border to highlight what he calls the government’s failure to control illegal immigration.
But law enforcement authorities warn they may be putting themselves in danger.
James Gilchrist, a combat-wounded U.S. Marine and Vietnam veteran, said the “Minuteman Project” will field volunteers from 37 states, many of them ex-military and law enforcement personnel, to man observation posts and a communications center, along with seven pilots from Arizona who will provide aerial surveillance.
Billed as “Americans doing the job Congress won’t do,” the project — which will begin April 1 — is intended to showcase inadequate border- and immigration-enforcement policies by the U.S. government, Mr. Gilchrist said.
“We hope to bring enough attention also that we can send a message to our leaders in Washington, D.C., that this is our country, too,” he said. “This border issue is about all 50 states, not just Arizona or Texas. It’s about our Constitution and how it applies to all of us.
“We’re looking for this nation to again be guided by the rule of law, not a nation ruled by an endless mob of illegal aliens streaming across our borders like a tsunami, a culture shock that someday — perhaps soon — we will have neither the manpower nor the will to stop,” he said.
Despite a Web page that refers to the Minuteman Project as a “blocking force against entry into the U.S. by illegal aliens,” Mr. Gilchrist said there are no plans to detain or confront the aliens. He said the volunteers, who will live in tents or recreational vehicles along the border, will seek only to spot them with binoculars, telescopes and night-vision equipment as they enter the United States and report their position to the Border Patrol.
U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael Nicely, who heads the Tucson, Ariz., sector, is concerned about their safety, noting that the U.S.-Mexico border is “a dangerous environment even under the best of circumstances.” He said well-equipped and highly trained law-enforcement personnel have found the border to be a “hazardous place.”
“We are always concerned about civilians who put themselves in danger,” Chief Nicely said. “People certainly have the right to demonstrate to make a political point, and we will not interfere with that, but they are absolutely not equipped to deal with the border environment.
“It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to picture what could happen,” he said, noting that alien smugglers in the area often are armed and have not hesitated to confront Border Patrol personnel. “It could be a very [volatile] situation, one that reasonable people ought to avoid.”
Chief Nicely said he has not talked with project organizers and has no operational plan to deal with those who set up surveillance operations on the border. He said his agents would respond to the volunteers based on operational priorities.
Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever, whose jurisdiction includes the targeted border areas, has met with project leaders and understands their desire to highlight border and immigration enforcement efforts, but warned that the volunteers have to act within the law.
“I have no doubt these are well-intentioned and good-hearted people who have recognized a just cause in securing and protecting our borders and stopping the flow of illegal immigration,” Sheriff Dever said. “But their methods and their intentions should not and cannot manifest themselves in illegal ways.
“And there is the potential for conflict,” he said, noting that 40 percent of Cochise County is privately owned and many of the ranchers and other property owners “don’t want to be someone else’s playground.”
Sheriff Dever said he also warned the leaders of the potential for conflict with alien smugglers, who seek to operate under the “cloak of concealment” but could become a real threat if confronted.
“They are willing to violently challenge law enforcement personnel, so I assure you they’ll take on anybody. The potential for violence is very real, and I issued all the cautions I possibly could,” he said.
A key focus of the project will be a 20-mile stretch of border lowlands in the San Pedro River Valley, 90 miles southeast of Tucson. It has become a high-traffic corridor for illegals headed north because it has water, fairly level ground, places to camp and wood to burn.
About 10,000 illegal aliens cross the U.S.-Mexico border every day, more than 3 million a year, mostly in Arizona. Only about a third of them are caught.
Mr. Gilchrist said all Minuteman Project volunteers underwent a screening process before they were accepted to weed out those “with bad intentions.” He said it would be “a true disaster and an embarrassment for this mission to fail because we didn’t attract the right people.”
“We don’t want the guys in white sheets and hoods, the militants or the supremacists. Many of the applicants were told thanks, but no thanks,” he said. “In the end, I believe we will bring serious media and political attention to the shameful fact that 21st century minutemen/women have to help secure U.S. borders because the government refuses to provide the manpower and funding required to do so.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FEDS QUESTION SUSPECTED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
By T.A. BADGER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
A plane that was forced to land by federal agents Monday night is secured at Stinson Airport in San Antonio, early Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2005. The small plane carried at least four suspected illegal immigrants who were detained along with the craft’s pilot for questioning by homeland security officials in connection with a possible smuggling operation, according to newspaper and broadcast reports. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
SAN ANTONIO — A group of suspected illegal immigrants was being questioned early Tuesday after federal officials forced their single-engine plane to land here.
The Cessna carried at least four suspected illegal immigrants who were detained along with the craft’s pilot by homeland security officials in connection with a possible smuggling operation, according to newspaper and broadcast reports.
A police dispatcher said federal authorities forced the craft to land just before 10 p.m. Monday at Stinson Municipal Airport, a few miles south of downtown San Antonio.
“They brought a plane down. They are holding it,” a San Antonio Police Department dispatcher, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press. “They asked us to assist them. The FBI is handling it now.”
Representatives of the Homeland Security Department, FBI and Federal Aviation Administration did not return telephone calls early Tuesday from the AP.
Online records of the Federal Aviation Administration show the 20-year-old plane is co-owned by Afzal Hameed of Dover, Del. The other co-owner is listed as Alyce S. Taylor, but no address is given for her.
The FAA records state that the plane’s last three-year registration was filed in 1999, and that the agency received no response in 2002 after mailing new registration forms to Hameed.
Capt. Jeff Humphrey, San Antonio police special operations commander, told the San Antonio Express-News in Tuesday’s editions that the five suspects were under investigation in connection with a smuggling operation involving Chinese nationals.
The newspaper said the five had been flying south of San Antonio when they were intercepted and ordered to land. Federal agents and San Antonio police surrounded the plane after it landed.
Federal authorities said the plane was flying in American airspace illegally and that those aboard the craft appeared to be Chinese, according to San Antonio television and radio station WOAI.
The Express-News said federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials asked for backup from San Antonio police, who provided a Chinese linguist to translate for the two male and two female passengers. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LIFE CONTINUES AMID FEDERAL POLICE ALONG BORDER
By VICTORIA HIRSCHBERG
The Monitor
REYNOSA, January 25, 2005 - Businesses were open, people crowded the main plaza and life went on as usual for Reynosa residents Monday amid the elusive presence of hundreds of extra federal police officers.
About 600 Policía Federal Preventiva officers arrived in Reynosa on Sunday to begin a trilateral crackdown on organized crime and drug trafficking along the border.
New Tamaulipas Gov. Eugenio Hernández Flores, secretary of public security Ramón Martín Huerta and Reynosa Mayor Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca are working with federal, state and local authorities to “combat and confront face to face in (Reynosa), like all of (Mexico), the organized delinquencies that have altered the peace of our citizens,” according to a PFP news release. Martín said federal officers would remain in Reynosa until local authorities consider the city safe for its residents.
The arrival of federal agents is not helping the city’s image, which is already blemished in part to U.S. Consulate travel advisories and several kidnappings and murders in the past weeks.
The U.S. Consulate in Matamoros on Jan. 21 issued a second warning for American travelers in Reynosa, Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros and the town of Soto la Marina, which is east of Ciudad Victoria, advising extra alertness and to not carry excessive cash or credit cards, or wear expensive items.
The consulate warning indicates that although recent violence is drug-related and not aimed at American tourists, it is important for Americans to travel with caution. U.S. citizens should avoid involvement with the drug trade and its leaders, according to the warning.
Cabeza de Vaca has stood by his statement that his city is safe and the crime in Reynosa - including the execution of a police consultant, a Pharr resident and a Reynosa police officer - is linked to the worldwide problem of drug trafficking.
Cabeza de Vaca was unavailable for comment Monday.
The U.S. Consulate’s first travel warning for Reynosa, issued in September 2004, came after increased reports of police officers forcing foreigners to withdraw money for ATMs. The Consulate Web site states the second warning replaces the first one.
Last week in Matamoros, six prison employees were kidnapped and killed after federal authorities transferred drug boss Miguel Angel Caro Quintero and bank bomber Antonio Cerezo Contreras to a local prison, according to The Brownsville Herald. Federal authorities recently transferred five high-profile Mexican drug leaders to various prisons throughout the country in attempt to break alliances within jails.
The recent crimes and warnings have caused fewer people to eat dinner at the upscale La Mansión Del Prado restaurant, located about five blocks from the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge.
“There’s a lot less people,” said Lic. Jorge Valdes Rios, manager at La Mansión. “It’s because of all the problems with the police, the kidnappings and there’s a lot (of problems).”
Usually a popular eatery for American and Mexican business folks, Valdes said many former U.S. clients now return home after work because they are scared. Valdes said the presence of federal police should not deter visitors from crossing the border to dine.
“Foreigners feel unsafe here and it’s different from Monterrey, where it’s a vacation (destination),” he said. “Reynosa is not a tourist city; it’s a city of work, not vacation.”
So far, occupancy rates and room sales have not decreased at Reynosa’s Holiday Inn, located next to La Mansión, because of security concerns, said public relations director Lic. Judith San Martín.
“January is always a slow month,” San Martín said.
Despite the violence, business from U.S. citizens has been steady at Farmácia Reynosa, located across from the international bridge, said pharmacy employee Jaime Couarrubias Soto.
“The federal police came to fight against drug trafficking and violence,” said Couarrubias, who added that federal police along the border is nothing new.
“I could go to McAllen and the same thing could happen,” he said.
He said Saturday’s Winter Texan festival, which Reynosa’s administration sponsored, greatly helped business with U.S. visitors.
Lic. Camilo Martínez Cortez, president of the Reynosa Chamber of Commerce, said the city is still safe for tourists and business continues as usual. He said as long as visitors - from the United States or Mexico - abide by Reynosa’s laws; there should not be problems with federal or local police officers.
“(The federal police) are going to combat the organized crime,” Martínez said. “We are not accustomed to seeing this, but we believe it’s going to be good.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MEXICO DOESN’T OFFER LICENSES TO IT’S ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
By: Ray Carney - Commentary
Edward Sifuentes has written yet another "one-sided" story regarding illegal aliens demanding driver's licenses. In this story ("Local group continues pro-license rallies," Jan. 18), a group based in Vista called Hispanos Unidos in U.S.A. is demanding that California grant driver's licenses to illegal aliens.
Since the North County Times and Mr. Sifuentes fail to print the facts regarding the driver's license debate, I thought I would give you readers a chance to see what the requirements are in Mexico to obtain a Mexican driver's license and let you decide where you stand on the issue.
Driver's licenses in Mexico are issued by the 31 states and the Federal District, with laws regulating identity requirements for those applying in each state being strict.
Typical are the regulations of Baja California, the contiguous state with California. In order to obtain a regular Baja California driver's license, the applicant must know how to read and write, be over the age of 18 ("student licenses" are available for those over 16), and they must show an official photo and signed ID. Those forms of identification accepted include a Mexican passport, a federal or state voter's ID or military identification.
Furthermore, applicants must demonstrate proof of residency through electricity, water, telephone and property tax bills that are less than 1 month old. They must also have a health certificate no less than 1 month old. And of course they must pass the requisite written and driving tests.
Foreign nationals applying for a Baja California driver's license must comply with the applicable points mentioned above, plus, as with most states in Mexico, they must "duly prove their legal presence in the country."
In the Federal District, which often serves as a prototype for regulations elsewhere in Mexico, the driver's license code section concludes: "With respect to foreigners, they will also have to verify their legal presence in the country by showing the immigration document issued by the authorized authority."
Why should California grant driver's licenses to illegal aliens when Mexico does not? Why is it that when we try to tighten our licensing laws we are called racists and xenophobic when Mexico is allowed to deny anyone who is not a citizen a driver's license?
The playing field between Mexico and the United States is not an equal one. If Mexico wishes its nationals to have rights and privileges here, it must do the same to its illegal alien population, some of whom are U.S. citizens.
Mexico understands that driving is a privilege and not a right. It's about time we in California do the same and say no to illegal aliens driving in our state. Let's put this nonsense to bed once and for all.
Fallbrook resident Ray Carney can be contacted at raycarney@dslextreme.com.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NUMBER OF “PERSONS OF INTEREST” IN BOSTON TERROR PLOT RAISED TO 16
By Mike Minton
Talon News
January 21, 2005
BOSTON (Talon News) -- The FBI Thursday added ten names to the number of people which it sought for questioning in a possible dirty bomb attack plot on Boston, raising the total number of “persons of interest” to 16. The additional ten persons consisted of nine Chinese and one man of unknown national origin.
The release of the ten names comes on the heels of the FBI announcement on Wednesday that it was seeking four Chinese and possibly two Iraqis who, according to an anonymous tip, entered the country illegally through Mexico. The tipster claimed they would be awaiting a shipment of “nuclear oxide” to be used in a terrorist attack on the city of Boston.
Apparently, the ten additional names came as a result of the same anonymous tip. Supposedly, none of the names have appeared on any previous terrorist watch lists.
Government officials immediately moved to downplay the potential threat. The U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, Michael Sullivan, stressed that the tip was uncorroborated, and the validity of the source could not be confirmed. He also pointed out that the “persons of interest” were wanted only for questioning at this time, saying, “They’re not wanted at this point in time for any crimes because there’s no evidence at this point in time that they’ve committed any crimes. [W]e’re not certain exactly where they are. We can’t even say for certain they’re in the country.”
In a further attempt to calm nerves, an anonymous government official said that, while the tip said the potential terrorists were awaiting a shipment of “nuclear oxide,” no such material even exists. However, according to a Reuters report, “Owen Cote, a research scientist and associate director of the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said spent nuclear fuel that potentially could be used for such a device is stored in a powderdized oxide form of either uranium or plutonium...[S]pent fuel is more radioactive than new fuel.”
Even as the government urged citizens not to be overly anxious about the matter, Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney found the potential threat enough of a concern to skip President Bush’s inauguration and return home Wednesday night.
The government’s efforts to curb fears were also lost on some Bostonians. Some underground parking garages in Boston were searching cars as they entered their facilities, and pictures of the initial four possible terrorists were placed inside subway token booths manned by transit employees.
According to the Reuters report, Marisol Lopez, a 34 year old Bostonian, told a reporter, “‘My question is why do they have pictures of these people if they aren’t on a watch list? There must be some reason why the government has these pictures on file.’”
The names of those wanted for questioning, according to the FBI’s website (www.fbi.gov) are: Zengrong Lin, Wen Quin Zheng, Xiujin Chen, Guozhi Lin, Yu Xian Weng, Quinquan Lin or Quiquan Lin, Liqiang Liang, Min Xiu Xie, Xiang Wei Liu or Xing Wei Liu, Mei Xia Dong, Xiuming Chen, Cheng Lin Liu, Zao Yun Wang and Jose Ernesto Beltran Quinones. Pictures, dates of birth and passport numbers of some of the 16 may be viewed at the FBI website.
Copyright © 2005 Talon News -- All rights reserved.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
SEAFOOD COMPANY OWNERS CHARGED WITH HARBORING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
BALTIMORE -- The operators of a seafood supply business are facing federal charges in Baltimore for harboring and hiring illegal immigrants.
Bao Ping Wang and his wife, Trang Lu, also are charged with money-laundering. They are residents of Ellicott City and own Chang Jiang Seafood Supplier in Baltimore and Arctic Seafood in Atlanta.
According to the grand jury indictment, the couple housed or concealed immigrants and undocumented Chinese workers from 1998 to 2004. The couple also are charged with hiring at least 10 undocumented Chinese workers.
They are also accused of conducting financial transactions involving the proceeds of a conspiracy to harbor illegal immigrants.
|
|
