(15-07-2009 11:10 PM)Guest Wrote:  I'm here to merely state that not everyone in High Desert is an ignorant racist.

Changing anyone's mind here is like teaching a pig to whistle. It ends up being a giant waste of time and you have an angry pig on your hands.

But let me ask you a few things:

1. Why are you anymore legal because your ancestors arrived by boat over a hundred years ago? Trust me, there were no laws against this back then, so I guess it was "legal" in that regard. Upon arrival, your ancestors were probably discriminated against by the same ugly racism as today. So it is hypocritical for you to maintain your ignorant views.

2. Why do you never talk about the business owners who use illegal labor? Is this because they are good capitalists like yourselves and couldn't ever be guilty of violating any law? You are the people who are always right, right?

3. What do you call a person who works for less than standard wages but has no rights? This is the scenario that most of you idiots want for these people. What do you call them? I call them slaves. Since you have been shown not be willing to shut the border down or to fine (or lock-up) the people who are employing illegals, my bet is you would want this. Slavery. Remember Abraham Lincoln, our greatest president, that you filthy Republicans have turned you back on? A house divided cannot stand? Remember?

4. What do you plan to do about the border? Solutions? Bear traps? Shoot to kill? The good Christians that you are.

5. The Mexican-American war caused this territory to be given to the United States. That's right the Mexicans owned it before us. Don't give me anything about taking it away rightfully because your own Republican party was against this war, including Lincoln. They knew it was just a land grab back then. Before it was ours, the Mexican government granted lands to Americans who wished to settle the area. Funny huh?

6. Why do such stupid people think that their opinion on everything is meaningful and well thought out? You are hypocrites and not very well-informed ones. Most of your opinions are based on lies or half-truths. In a sense, the Mexicans are better people than you: Willing to work to lower than minimum wages and demanding little of the society. Sounds like people we want to be Americans?

This country used to believe that a person, who was a reject from his own country, dispossessed, the tired huddled masses yearning to be free, were the best type of people. Those that, when the yoke of oppression was lifted, would lead lives of freedom which in turn would make this country great. They did. Now the most stupid and ignorant of us, the type who are really the least deserving of being Americans seem to have the loudest voice.

I think you should shut up.

KIND SIR:
I do hope that you are done with your attempt at a history lession as you see it.

It really makes you look like one that is talking about something you can not back up with facts.

Fact: the american Indian was here long before the Mexican.
Fact: the Mexican was not the first natives in on the north american land.
fact: the mexican did the same thing as the whites did.
fact the mexican through their missions took land that was not theirs.
I do not have the time to continue with as I must go to work to pay for all of the mexican babies and for the medical services that your people from south of the border get for nothing, that is correct, the way the U.S laws are set up, the mexican women sneek across the border, have their babies at no cost, and the baby is a U.S. Citizen, mommy can't be sent back to her homeland, So it is up to the Tax payers to take care of mommy and the newest U.S. Citizen.

OH well enough of this
I have to go to work, I have to feed your family too.


You should talk about a loud voice and calling someone else a racist
I have read some of your other post here and else where

so to use your own words
You Should just SHUTUP

Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Jamie Zuieback
202-225-6906

'Catch, Release and a Ride' Insults Unemployed Americans


Washington, DC � Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-TX) issued the following statement today in response to a news report regarding illegal immigrants who were caught-and-released en route to work at Gillette Stadium last week. According to the story, dozens of illegal immigrants said they were detained and processed then driven back to the stadium by federal agents. According to one of the illegal immigrants quoted in the story, �They told us if you want to go to work, you can go to work.�

Ranking Member Smith: �The Obama administration�s latest refusal to enforce the nation�s immigration laws is an insult to every out-of-work citizen and legal immigrant. The Obama administration has reinstated the failed catch-and-release policies of the past and has even gone so far as to turn federal law enforcement officers into taxi drivers to get illegal immigrants back to their illegal jobs!

�These jobs rightfully belong to citizens and legal immigrants. With a 10 percent unemployment rate, now is the time for the President to enforce immigration laws and return stolen jobs to the people. When the jobs stolen by illegal immigrants are recovered for citizens and legal workers, American workers benefit.

�President Obama could create eight million jobs for citizens and legal workers simply by enforcing immigration laws. Instead, weak immigration enforcement policies hurt citizens and legal immigrants. It is hard to conceive of a worse time to implement such policies, but that is exactly what the administration has done.�

It is a violation of federal law for an illegal immigrant to work without authorization. Eight million illegal immigrants currently work in the U.S.

The release and return-to-work of these illegal immigrants follows the implementation of a new fugitive policy by the Obama administration that federal agents should only detain illegal immigrants who have removal orders or criminal histories. The policy ignores the data that shows caught-and-released illegal immigrants rarely show up for later court dates.

Posted on Topix Wednesday Jan 13 by
MS RADICAL REPORT DEPORT in response from the below quote.
Lodi, CA

"
save the immigrants wrote:
Yesterday the news in Spanish mentioned that the unemployment rate among Hispanics (about 13 percent) is even higher than that of the rest of the population 10 percent. Those numbers are not giving any hope. Immigrants would need a miracle for this to work."

Recently a newspaper reported that in Riverside county, California the unemployment rate has recently risen to 14.6 percent. Over all, California's unemployment rate rose to 12.5 percent in October, 2009.

Current methods of tallying unemployment figures do not even take into account workers who have stopped looking for work. If a worker becomes discouraged after being unable to find a job and stops looking, they disappear from the official record.

I would guess that the actual unemployment figures are therefore 5 to 10 per cent higher than publicly stated by the Labor Department, meaning the real unemployment figures stands at roughly 15 per cent.

Not saying your wrong, but the only rate I can find for Hispanics in America is 5.1% to 8.0%,... January 8, 2009.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010, 10:48 AM EST - posted on NumbersUSA
New Study Shows Negative Impacts of Illegal Immigration on America's Teens and Young Adults


Comprehensive Amnesty Threat

Reps. Lamar Smith and Gary Miller

Often referred to as Comprehensive Immigration Reform, pro-amnesty groups seek to offer legal permanent residence to illegal aliens. Comprehensive Immigration Reform bills were introduced in Congress in both 2006 and 2007.

In 2006, separate versions were passed in the Senate and House, but an agreement was never reached in conference committee. In 2007, a version in the Senate proposed by Senators John McCain and Ted Kennedy with support from Pres. Bush failed to reach a cloture vote. The grassroots effort from NumbersUSA members was a major reason why the amnesty failed.

Often referred to as Comprehensive Immigration Reform, pro-amnesty groups seek to offer legal permanent residence to illegal aliens. Comprehensive Immigration Reform bills were introduced in Congress in both 2006 and 2007.

In 2006, separate versions were passed in the Senate and House, but an agreement was never reached in conference committee. In 2007, a version in the Senate proposed by Senators John McCain and Ted Kennedy with support from Pres. Bush failed to reach a cloture vote. The grassroots effort from NumbersUSA members was a major reason why the amnesty failed.

During the 2008 campaign, Pres. Obama offered support for amnesty, and with an overwhelming majority of supporters in the House and Senate, newer versions of the failed bills are likely to be introduced.


Wednesday, January 27, 2010, 10:48 AM EST - posted on NumbersUSA

A new study commissioned by the Chicago Urban League and the Alternative Schools Network reveals the negative impacts of illegal immigration on low-skilled American workers, specifically teens and young adults.

As a result of the study, the group is calling for $1.5 billion of economic stimulus money to help employ young Americans or get them re-enrolled in school. The study found that the unemployment rate among Illinois teens was 20 points below the 2000 level, setting an all-time high. But increased immigration enforcement to root out the estimated 7 million illegal aliens in the U.S. workforce would help free up jobs for America's lower skilled workers.

Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Rep. Gary Miller (R-Calif.), who introduced the LEAVE Act that would increase interior enforcement, released a statement about the study's findings.

During the course of the 2007-2009 recession, the employment rate of the nation�s teen[s] feel steeply to 26.2% by October-November 2009, setting new record lows each year. No other age group has experienced employment declines of this magnitude in the current recession. Young adults 20-24 years old in both Illinois and the nation also have been adversely affected by the deterioration in labor market developments in the state and nation in recent years, especially men, Blacks and Hispanics, and non-college graduates.

In their joint statement, Reps. Smith and Miller said that the jobs these Americans and legal immigrants seek are the same jobs held by illegal aliens.

�The fact is that illegal immigrants take jobs from American workers, particularly poor and disadvantaged citizens and legal immigrants. The best outcome for low-skilled citizen and legal immigrant workers is the removal of the illegal immigrant population. The very jobs that illegal immigrants occupy rightfully belong to out of work citizens and legal immigrants," Ranking Member Smith added. �With 15 million Americans out of work, we need to enforce immigration laws and oppose amnesty for 12 million illegal immigrants. We must stand up for citizens and legal immigrants.�

�At home in California, almost weekly I hear from my constituents that illegal immigration is exacerbating the unemployment crisis," Rep. Miller said. "Today�s report that a record number of young Americans are jobless once again highlights the fact that we must enforce our current immigration laws to ensure illegals do not take away jobs that rightfully belong to American and legal workers.�

Reps. Smith and Miller recently formed the Reclaim American Jobs Caucus.

An armed invasion

A concerned citizen has provided American Border Patrol with incredible images of suspected drug smugglers carrying what appear to be high-powered weapons. The top photo shows two people carrying the weapons. The bottom photo shows people carrying large backpacks thought to contain drugs. They are on the same trail.

The images were captured with a game camera that was left in place for some time. The weapon-sighting was in the same general area where a U.S. Border Patrol agent was recently shot.

According to the concerned citizens, he has even more disturbing video that must be reviewed by law enforcement before he releases it to the public.

This is a definite escalation of the border war. It is now an armed invasion.

The Dustin Inman Society -- Marietta, Ga.
Officials whine about keeping illegal aliens from getting a business license... (link)
You will likely see news reports similar to the one below around the state for a while. To no one�s surprise, a few lazy and shortsighted officials and some connected, big shot citizens are whining about having to go through an extra step to obtain and renew a business license as the result of 2009�s House Bill 2...

Donald A. Collins -- VDare.com
Democrat prefers another leader's common sense to Obama's SOTU address (link)
Hey, as President Obama's State of the Union address on January 27th proved, we have a very gifted speaker as our President. No one in fairness could deny his skill at phrase-making or his capacity for engaging with his audience, however hostile...

Los Angeles Times
2 Mexicans indicted in boat capsizing deaths off Torrey Pines (link)
Two Mexican nationals have been indicted on charges that could result in life in prison or the death penalty for the drowning deaths of two suspected illegal [aliens] who were in a smuggling boat that capsized near Torrey Pines State Beach...

San Gabriel Valley (Calif.) Tribune
Rep. Miller pushing back against immigration reform (link)
With immigration reform making the president's long State of the Union to-do list, Rep. Gary Miller, R-Brea had a strong warning for Democrats on Thursday: any path to citizenship in that reform "will be the last nail in their coffin." -- Citing high unemployment across the country, Miller says now is the exact wrong time to push policy that he says will lead to greater competition for jobs...

Jan Tyler -- The Examiner
Voorhis attorney talks (link)
Thomas Muther, Senior Partner, Minahan & Muther, P.C. comments on the wrap up of Cory Voorhis' two day reinstatement hearing. Voorhis was persecuted and acquitted on charges of violating database access and disclosure policies of the Department of Homeland Security, while serving as an ICE agent...

Michael Cutler -- Family Security Matters
False document mill shut down in Virginia (link)
As you may remember, the findings of the 9/11 Commission determined that the 19 terrorists on 9/11 used dozens of false identities and variations of their true identities in furtherance of their terrorist objectives, paving the way for the Real ID Act...

Drew McKissick -- Conservative Outpost
Disaster poll: Nearly 70 percent say dump Obamacare (link)
Just when it appeared that the numbers for the Democratic health care proposals passed by the House and Senate couldn't get any worse -- they have. A new poll by CNN and Opinion Research, taken from January 22 to January 24, shows that 69 percent of respondents say Congress should dump the current Democratic health care proposals...

Associated Press
Police chief killed, severed head found in Mexican town (link)
Morelia, Mich. Mex. -- Gunmen killed a police chief and two officers Thursday in the same western town where a human head was dumped a day earlier. -- Antonio Bravo, police chief of Quiroga, and two officers were attacked while they drove in a patrol car, Michoacan state prosecutors said in a statement...

Associated Press
Two lawmakers drop out of Tea Party Convention (link)
A planned convention of Tea Party activists lost two prominent speakers Thursday, the latest sign of disagreement over how to best showcase the movement's growing political force. -- Republican Reps. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee canceled their appearances after being billed as speakers...

Anthony Del Pellegrino -- Gather.com
Once again, "you lie" applies to another one of Obama's speeches (link)
Congressman Joe Wilson promised not interrupt the President during his State Of The Union Address so that he could tell tell him he lies but now that his speech is over, we are disappointed in having to tell you, that, .....the President LIED!

Californians for Population Stabilization Obama missed a chance to help American workers by reining in immigration! (link) In his State of the Union speech, President Obama focused on job creation, but he neglected an excellent opportunity to address the out-of-control immigration...

Jan 29, 2010 7:46 am US/Pacific 2 Charged With San Diego Smuggling Deaths
SAN DIEGO (AP) ?

Two men have been charged with causing the deaths of two illegal immigrants who drowned this month when their boat capsized as they tried to reach a San Diego beach.

A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted 50-year-old Fernando Figueroa-Rodriguez and 45-year-old Javier Jimenez-Yucupicio. The 30-count indictment charges them with smuggling illegal immigrants resulting in death.

Authorities say a San Diego police officer heard screams from Torrey Pines State Beach shortly after 4 a.m. on Jan. 16 and saw people trying to swim ashore from an overturned, 30-foot wooden boat.

Searchers found 16 people but a 34-year-old Mexican man and an 18-year-old Guatemalan man drowned.

City lacks power to regulate illegal immigrants
Courts have struck down attempts by local governments to handle illegals

By Jonathan Randles
Signal Staff Writer
jrandles@the-signal.com
661-259-1234 x519
Posted: Feb. 6, 2010 10:17 p.m.
UPDATED Feb. 7, 2010 9 a.m.

Since the early 1990s, Santa Clarita officials have considered plans to address day laborers in the city, but the city can't do much to address the problem because issues related to illegal immigration are handled by the federal government, city officials said.

In 1996 the Santa Clarita City Council adopted an ordinance that attempted to regulate day laborers in the city, said Mike Murphy, the city's intergovernmental relations officer.

"(The ordinance) prohibited individuals from soliciting employment while standing in the public right of way," Murphy said. "It also prohibited an occupant of any vehicle from soliciting any person standing in the public right of way."

Santa Clarita adopted the ordinance from Los Angeles County and other cities in Southern California with similar laws, Murphy said.

Federal courts determined the county's ordinance violated citizens' First Amendment rights, Murphy said.

As a result, the ordinance is not used by Santa Clarita, he said.

Murphy said he searched three years worth of e-mails, and letters sent to the city to see if there had been complaints about day laborers in the city. In that time there had been a "handful of complaints," he said.

Not all day laborers are here illegally, Murphy said. And even for those workers who are, illegal immigration is not an issue for the city, but for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he said.

"The issue of day laborers across the whole history of the city has been about trying to get our arms around it," Murphy said. "Federal law is very clear, the authority for immigration law is with the federal government and not local municipalities."

Santa Clarita staff examined the day labor issue in addressed in 2005 after Councilman Bob Kellar "expressed concern regarding the day laborer situation in the city," according to a council report from January 2005.

Murphy said the city has no estimates on the number of day laborers in Santa Clarita - the number is in constant flux, he said.

His best estimate for the number of illegal immigrants in the city is about 4 percent of the population - or about 7,000.

That is a rough estimate based on national trends, Murphy said.

At the City Council meeting on Jan. 26, a large crowd showed up, mostly to offer support for Kellar who days earlier delivered an inflammatory speech at a rally protesting illegal immigration.

City Council candidate David Gauny told the council to take a stand on illegal immigration before April's council election.

Council candidate TimBen Boydston said he would support the creation of a citizens' task force that could make recommendations to Council members on how Santa Clarita can address local issues related to illegal immigration.

Murphy said occasionally the city will get calls from people asking what the city does to address illegal immigration in the city.

The answer is usually that Santa Clarita's "hands are tied," he said.

Facing the border: A day laborer's story
Alberto Lopez is a resident of Newhall


Day laborers stand along a sidewalk in Newhall on Thursday, waiting and hoping for work. Some stand for as long as 12 hours a day.

By Jonathan Randles
Signal Staff Writer
jrandles@the-signal.com
661-259-1234 x519
Posted: Feb. 6, 2010 10:14 p.m.
POSTED Feb. 7, 2010 4:55 a.m.
3 Images
The human traffickers took Alberto Lopez's tennis shoes, so he crossed the desert barefoot and alone.

His feet blistered as he crept closer to the U.S.-Mexico border. He passed dozens of holes covered with rocks - the unmarked graves of others who had died along the way.

"What if that is my fate?" Lopez said he had asked himself. "What if that happens to me?"

The American Dream kept him going - the idea that he could earn more than four times what he made in Mexico.

Lopez, 39, is an illegal immigrant.

He's been caught and deported once, and has made the brutal trek across the border three times with hopes of giving his children a chance to have the education and shot at the American Dream he never did.

This week - 10 years after his first journey - he stood on a Newhall sidewalk for hours each day with dozens of others with similar stories, hoping someone would pay him to paint a house, or do yard work.

Lopez traveled about 1,600 miles, from a small town in central Mexico, to get here.

But since the economy started tanking a few years ago, Lopez said his dream has become, at times, an illusion.

"The American Dream is only a dream," Lopez said through a translator. "We are here to be better economically, but we get to America and realize it's hard.

"We are all just surviving and not doing enough saving," he said.

In recent weeks, Santa Clarita's day laborers have come under fire as a symbol of illegal immigration's local impact.

City Councilman Bob Kellar made an inflammatory speech about illegal immigration that drew national attention. That prompted activists to put pressure on the City Council to do something.

However, Santa Clarita has been trying to come up with laws kicking day laborers off of the streets or confining them since the 1990s. The efforts have gone nowhere.

And while politicians and academics argue over illegal immigrants' impact on the economy - they are either a drain on social services or a cheap workforce that provides a net benefit - the immigrants themselves are feeling the recession's pinch.

Lopez used to be able to make $500 for four days of work. Now, he makes about half that.

He and the nearly 150 other day laborers who work in Newhall spend up to 12 hours a day on the sidewalk, waiting for jobs that might never come.

When a truck pulls up, the workers send a representative to negotiate a deal with the potential employer.

Lately, however, they've had to charge even less for the backbreaking work - landscaping, painting, construction.

Lopez has to provide for his wife and three children: a 4-year-old, a 2-year-old and 8-month-old.

But he doesn't receive welfare, he said, and he pays his taxes - even though he knows other people who take government aid and don't pay taxes.

When he's short on money, he borrows from his fellow day laborers. Lopez said most of the men he works with are from the same area in central Mexico.

"We all help each other out," Lopez said. "I would help if people needed me, too."

Beware coyotes
Lopez spent months talking with his family and wife before he decided to leave his home near Benito Juarez, he said. Ultimately, the lure of making good money in the United States, like some of his other family members had done, was too good to pass up.

Lopez traveled about 1,500 miles by bus to Tijuana. When he arrived in the border town he met up with a "coyote" - a nickname for human traffickers who help people cross the border into the United States. He brought toilet paper, a toothbrush and some money for the trip.

A coyote told Lopez what trails to take when walking over the border, and tipped him off about how to avoid immigration officers at the border.

Lopez said the first time he crossed the border, a human trafficker took his tennis shoes. For three days, he walked the desert barefoot.

Luckily, he found a pair of sandals on the way to San Diego, but the bottoms of his feet were already blistered, he said.

While Lopez said most traffickers are helpful and decent, he has heard horror stories of other coyotes who have assaulted and raped the people they are paid to help.

Human traffickers can charge anywhere between $1,000 and $2,000, Lopez said.

After his coyote told him to leave, it took him 15 days to walk across the border.

He said he was completely isolated and alone.

"Once you start walking, you lose your family and sometimes yourself," Lopez said.

On the way, he passed by dozens of unmarked graves, the final resting place for people who had tried to cross the border before him.

Lopez said he was more worried about his family than dying.

If he died on the way, his family would never know what happened to him.

None of the graves he found along the way were marked, he said, so even if his family knew he died, they wouldn't be able to send flowers to his grave.

Once he got to San Diego, Lopez said he bought a calling card with the money he had left and called his family in Mexico to tell them he was alive.

Border Patrol
Most immigrants try crossing the border in spring when the weather is nice, Lopez said.

He chooses to cross in the winter - worse weather means fewer immigration officers patrolling the border.

Lopez said he has been caught by immigration patrols once. Officers handcuffed him and took him to a holding cell before he was deported.

He said the officers were aggressive and grabbed one of the women he was with by her pony tail.

"We are treated like we're not humans," Lopez said. "If you are caught you are thrown in a truck and thrown in jail for anywhere between one to 15 days and are given little to eat."

The last time he crossed the border he went with his wife. Now they have three kids, all born in the U.S. He said he's glad his children will never have to cross the border and experience the things he did.

Weeks ago, he saw a dog get rescued from a water basin on TV. Lopez said the image put his journey in perspective.

"We understand when we come here people won't receive us with a cup of coffee," Lopez said.

"It's funny how you see people cry over a dog being rescued when we are treated like animals if we're caught."

Signal photographer Francisca Rivas contributed to this report.

Just what do you expect?
I am an american indian, and proud of it, I have almost lost my home, I can't pay for the medical treatment my wife needs, let alone get her into the hospital, go to the Antelope Valley hospital on any given day and check out the emergency room.
I can almost promise you that you will hear very little english spoken, Do I need to give you any hints as to which language is spoken?. The kids that were to be seen by a doctor, were running around screaming and yelling, not one of them was told to sit down and shut up.
I can tell you for a fact, from what i was hearing 99.9% of those in that room that day were not paying for medical treatment.
When I finally got my wife checked in, the first thing I was asked was, DO YOU HAVE INSURANCE?

MY POINT IS THEY WERE GETTING FOR FREE WHAT I HAD TO PAY FOR. and you wonder why we feel as we do?

$57.7-million fence added to an already grueling illegal immigration route
Some question the cost, effectiveness and environmental effect of erecting a fence on Otay Mountain, where those who hiked three days up a steep, arid peak were often met by border agents anyway.
Border fence

Border Patrol Agent Jerome Conlin guards Otay Mountain, where a 3.6-mile-long, 18-foot-high fence was finished in October -- at a cost of $57.7 million. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times / January 11, 2010)

Photos: Costly stretch of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border Photos: Costly stretch of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border

By Richard Marosi

February 15, 2010

Reporting from San Diego - The border barrier dips and curves, zigs and zags, hugging the mountain's contours like a slimmed-down version of the Great Wall of China.

Among the costliest stretch of fencing ever built on the U.S.-Mexico border, the 3.6-mile wall of steel completed last fall is meant to block trafficking routes over Otay Mountain, just east of San Diego.

People seeking to enter the country illegally have hiked the scrub-covered, tarantula-infested peak for years, trying to get to roads leading to San Diego.

"We're no longer conceding this area to smugglers," said Jerome C. Conlin, a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman.

But critics are bewildered. Why, they ask, would people determined to scale a rugged, 3,500-foot peak be deterred by an 18-foot-high fence? They also point out that the Department of Homeland Security deemed it unnecessary in 2006.

"I think it's a Bush-era boondoggle that will have almost no consequence in terms of stemming the flow of immigration," said Char Miller, director of the environmental analysis program at Pomona College. "It was a political decision that took in no account of the environment itself, and in the process damages what was once a pretty remarkable landscape."

The $57.7-million project is one segment in the massive expansion of border infrastructure approved by Congress during George W. Bush's presidency. Homeland Security has erected fencing in small towns, remote valleys and high-desert mesas from the Pacific Ocean to Texas.

At about $16 million a mile, the Otay Mountain barrier cost about four times as much as similar border fencing built during this expansion, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The Border Patrol's San Diego sector was already one of the country's most heavily fortified frontiers before the mountain fence was constructed, with about 40 of the sector's 60 miles lined with vehicle or pedestrian barriers.

The fencing shifted immigrant flows to remote areas in the backcountry east of San Diego. But some migrants decided to climb Otay Mountain because of its proximity to a warehouse district in San Diego and its easy access on the Mexican side, where the Tijuana-Tecate toll road lies only a few hundred yards away.

Immigrants dropped off at staging grounds off the toll road headed up steep trails into the U.S. Their hikes through canyons and over the arid peak could take up to three days. With limited road access on the mountain, agents simply waited for people to descend to make arrests.

The lack of fencing did not seem to be a problem, said then-U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Richard Kite, interviewed in a 2006 article in the Arizona Daily Star. At Otay Mountain, "you simply don't need a fence. It's such harsh terrain it's difficult to walk, let alone drive," Kite said. "There's no reason to disrupt the land when the land itself is a physical barrier."

The agency said it changed course after reevaluating conditions in the area. Daryl Reed, a current Border Patrol spokesman, said strategies are in constant flux depending on quickly shifting migrant flows and smuggler activity.

"As we continue in our mission, we're always reevaluating situations," Reed said. "We're always going to adapt and change."

One analyst suggested that pressure from Congress to complete about 700 miles of fence led federal officials to approve some questionable projects.

"There's no question that there's tactical justification for certain fencing, but when you set up a target like that, it inevitably means that they're going to build fencing where the tactical justification is weak, and this sounds like one of those places," said Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

But others doubted that border authorities would spend resources in an area that didn't need it.

"If there were other better places to build fencing, then I'm confident the Border Patrol would build it there," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies.

When the federal government broke ground last year, environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, said the project would damage the Otay Mountain Wilderness. Portions of the fence and the 5-mile access road lie in the federally protected area.

The federal government, trying to expedite construction of border fencing, waived more than 30 environmental laws in 2008, including the Wilderness Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and others that environmentalists said applied to the Otay area.

Contractors had to cut roads, remove boulders, bulldoze hillsides and remove about 530,000 cubic yards of rock to build the Otay fence, which consists of steel posts 4 inches apart topped with metal plates.

It's not clear whether the fence has been a deterrent.

Since the barrier's completion in October, illegal activity has declined and there have been few signs of people trying to cut or breach the fence, authorities say.

"Having this fence here is definitely going to slow them down. . . . It increases our probability of catching them," said Conlin, the Border Patrol spokesman.

But others say the fence's effectiveness hasn't been truly tested because fewer immigrants have been attempting to cross anywhere on the border due to the economic slowdown.

The funding, they said, could have been better spent hiring more agents or building infrastructure in other areas.

When the economy improves, the mountain will once again draw immigrants, fence or no fence, said Pedro Rios, director of the American Friends Service Committee in San Diego.

"It seems to me, if someone is able to climb the mountains in the Otay Wilderness, a 15-foot wall will not make a difference," he said.

richard.marosi@latimes.com

Metro Atlanta / State News 5:28 a.m. Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Hispanics flee law, job loss

By Andria Simmons
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Latinos are leaving their once-thriving neighborhoods in Gwinnett and Cobb counties in search of friendlier alternatives. It shows in business closures, arrest statistics, church attendance and something as simple as a busy highway turned deserted at night.

A shortage of jobs is behind this exodus. Stepped-up immigration enforcement also is a factor.

In November, the Gwinnett County Sheriff�s Department became the fourth law enforcement agency in Georgia to screen inmates for immigration status and hold the undocumented for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Cobb, Hall and Whitfield are the other counties.

Gwinnett County deputies identified 464 inmates who were in the country illegally during the first few months of the program, which is known as 287(g), Sheriff Butch Conway said. Jailers noticed another surprising outcome of the fledgling program: Foreign-born inmates, a category that encompasses illegal immigrants and legal U.S. residents born in other countries, decreased by 32 percent since the program�s inception, compared to the same time frame in 2008.

The sharp decline might signal that illegal immigrants are leaving Gwinnett County to elude potential deportation, or unauthorized immigrants are avoiding contact with law enforcement, either by committing fewer crimes or by making themselves scarce, the sheriff said.

�It�s the proper outcome,� Conway said. �At this point I expect it to continue, probably exponentially.�

Cobb County deputies have handed over more than 6,000 suspected illegal immigrants to federal officials since 2007, when Sheriff Neil Warren pioneered the 287(g) program in Georgia. Over the past two years, there has been a 22 percent drop in undocumented immigrants booked into the Cobb jail.

Yet the bad economy might have as much to do with the recent exodus of Latinos as stepped-up immigration enforcement. Population shifts in the illegal immigrant community are difficult to measure and even harder to explain, said University of Georgia demographer Douglas Bachtel, who studies the Hispanic population.

�The data is problematic because a lot of Hispanics are American citizens, and also because of the difficulty of counting those folks if they are illegal,� Bachtel said.

One of the best ways to track the immigrant population is to analyze public school data, since most Hispanic immigrants enroll their children in school, Bachtel said.

Three out of four of the nation�s unauthorized immigrants are Hispanic, and nearly half of them are couples with children, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

The percentage of Hispanic students enrolled in public schools has remained flat in metro Atlanta counties over the past three years.

A state school data analysis provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed enrollment in an English language program for non-native speakers has leveled off in Cobb and Gwinnett counties after years of steady growth. These are counties that have 287(g) programs in place.

Meanwhile, English to Speakers of Other Languages enrollment grew in other counties that do not have similar immigration enforcement measures. DeKalb and Douglas counties saw substantial growth in ESOL enrollment, while modest growth was recorded in Hall, Cherokee and Fulton counties.

Elizabeth Webb, division director for innovative programs at the state Department of Education, said English language learners tend to be a very mobile population. However, the reason they move is not something the state or county school systems track.

�It is very anecdotal,� Webb said. �We don�t have any data to share about what motivations are, but I do think it�s mostly economic.�

There are signs that churches, businesses and service providers in the Latino community have experienced a traffic slowdown.

Businesses in Cobb and Gwinnett have suffered staggering losses, said David Ruiz, who owns Shalom Distributors, an Atlanta-based company that supplies dozens of Hispanic grocery stores, gift shops and flea markets with their wares. After Cobb County implemented 287(g), stores that Ruiz supplied there plunged from 30 to five. Ruiz expected similar fallout in Gwinnett.

�The customers are leaving, they go to other states where there is no persecution or they go back to their country,� Ruiz said. �At Spanish neighborhoods, you see a lot of empty businesses.�

Along Jimmy Carter Boulevard and Buford Highway, corridors in Gwinnett where businesses that cater to Hispanics are prevalent, shopkeepers said there is a marked drop-off in customers. Gwinnett has the largest Hispanic population in the state and hundreds of retailers who service a primarily foreign-born clientele.

The Aleysa�s Bridal owner, who declined to give her name, acknowledged she is three months behind on rent for her space at Gwinnett Horizon�s shopping center. Customers evaporated around December, when she witnessed increased police patrols and so many blue lights from traffic stops that �it was like Christmas.�

�Before this area was very good,� she said. �The economy was bad, but we kept going.�

The woman now is considering putting her colorful quinceanera dresses and bridal gowns into storage and closing her shop.

�This situation kills us because people don�t want to come in this area,� she said.

Victor Serrano, who owns a Magic Muffler shop on North Norcross Tucker Road, noticed a decline in Hispanic customers as far back as 2007. That year, a new state law was enacted sanctioning employers who knowingly hired illegal immigrants and denied some state services to adults who couldn�t verify they were in the country legally.

In recent months, Serrano has seen even fewer Hispanic customers, especially those whom he suspects are illegal immigrants because they always pay in cash.

�I�ve heard on the radio some of them aren�t driving or are staying out of areas where they could encounter police,� Serrano said. �They don�t want to run the risk of getting caught.�

Pastor Antonio Mansogo, president of the Atlanta Association of Hispanic Pastors, said attendance is down at many area churches where Hispanics worship. His own church, Ministerio Pentecostal Central in Doraville, has been sending a bus into the community so that would-be worshippers can get to church without risking being arrested for driving without a license.

Mansogo also said Jimmy Carter Boulevard, once full of Hispanic drivers and pedestrians in the early evening, now appears almost deserted after 7 p.m.

Claudia Aguilar, a manager at Huntington Village Apartment complex located just off the same street, said occupancy dropped by 10 percent in the past two or three months. People who gave a 30-day notice said 287(g) is the reason.

�A lot of people are leaving because of this law or because there�s no work,� Aguilar said.

The Latin American Association, which has outreach centers in Atlanta, Marietta and Norcross, said the demand for services has not diminished. However, within the past six months, the association has fielded more requests from people seeking help with moving out of the area, chief operating officer Jeffrey Tapia said.

Parents have asked for assistance in obtaining passports for their children, who are U.S. citizens, so they can return to their home country.

�It is really a combination of the economy, the lack of jobs, and the effects of 287(g), in particular in Cobb and Gwinnett, that are affecting people,� Tapia said.

Police in Reno, NV,
arrested Juan Hernandez, 20, he is accused of grabbing a woman, forcing her into a bathroom and attempting to sexually assault her.

Police say the assault occurred last month at a home on North Virginia St., the victim and another woman went to the house to visit friends. It was actually her friends who came to her aid during the attack.

Hernandez is charged with kidnapping, battery with the intent to commit sexual assault and attempt to commit sexual assault with a deadly weapon.

Police are still looking for two other males who took part in the attack.

The illegal alien is being held in the Washoe County Jail, and an ICE detainer has been issued for him.

The Ohio Jobs and Justice Political action Committee, a group which lobbies on behalf of the American people, lists Reno as a �sanctuary city.�

Mexicans stage 'March of Anger' against army
Mon, 15 Feb 2010 06235 GMT

Angry demonstrators in Ciudad Juarez protest the presence of thousands of Mexican combat troops in the violent city where drug-fueled crime continues to take record-setting tolls.

Hundreds of people took part in the "March of Anger" in Ciudad Juarez, seen as Mexico's "murder capital" where 2,660 people were killed by drug-related violence in 2009 alone.

Lying across the border from the US city of El Paso, Texas, Ciudad Juarez is the scene of a deadly tug of war between large drug cartels over control of lucrative drug smuggling routes into the United States.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon, upon taking power in late 2006, declared a military crackdown on organized crime and ordered the deployment of some 6,000 troops in Ciudad Juarez to reinforce the local police against drug gangs.

The decision was warmly welcomed in Washington but is facing mounting criticism from civil rights groups.

The rights groups are calling for an end to the government's counterproductive military campaign which has resulted in the relentless rise in crime and bloodshed in the violence-weary city.

"The army's presence is anti-constitutional and violates citizens' rights. That's why we're asking them to withdraw," National Front Against Repression leader Javier Contreras said.

"You can't fight violence with more violence and breaking the laws," Contreras said, speaking to a crowd of some 1,300 protesters.

The National Front and other civil right groups maintain innocent civilians are sometimes harassed or tortured by law enforcement officials in their crackdown on organized crime.

In a mass killing on January 31, more than a dozen innocent youths were gunned down at a party.

Calderon personally visited Ciudad Juarez last week and apologized to the bereaved families of the young party-goers for initially blaming the massacre on gang warfare.

The president admitted that his three-year operation that saw the deployment of more than 50,000 troops across the country was not enough, and vowed to adopt a new strategy against crime and violence with community cooperation.

Drug-related crime has left more than 15,000 dead in the past three years in Mexico.

Illegal immigrant uses identity of sheriff's deputy to get work

by Jennifer Thomas

Posted on February 11, 2010 at 12:05 PM

PHOENIX -- Maricopa County sheriff's deputies arrested an illegal immigrant after they say he stole a deputy's identity to get a job.

According to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, Leobardo Estrada-Robles, 31, used the identity of a deputy, including his Social Security number, to work in the United States illegally.

A deputy told the sheriff's Employer Sanctions Unit that the U.S. Social Security Administration claimed he owed $2,354 for employment at two separate construction companies in the Valley where he had never worked.

After a short investigation, Employer Sanctions Unit detectives confirmed that Estrada-Robles was working at both companies using the deputy's identity.

The construction companies positively identified the suspect, who they referred to by the deputy's name.

After obtaining a search warrant for Estrada-Robles' home, deputies seized several other forms of identification, including permanent residence cards printed with several different names all containing Estrada-Robles' photo.

Deputies arrested Estrada-Robles Wednesday evening. He was booked into the Fourth Avenue Jail on several counts of aggravated identity theft.

According to the sheriff's office, Estrada-Robles was previously deported from the United States and returned illegally.

"This illegal immigration problem is out of hand and can affect anyone, as in this case, where a law enforcement officer has had his identity stolen and runs the risk of his credit being affected," Sheriff Joe Arpaio said.