Whose Side is ICE On?

Early in the morning of October 4, as Rosa Flores was preparing for work, she answered a knock at her door. The couple standing there said they had been sent to investigate the labor dispute at Emeryville's Woodfin Suites hotel. They wore no identifying clothing and offered no credentials but said they were from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

In April, Emeryville's Woodfin hotel had fired Flores and eleven other housecleaners in the middle of a labor dispute over Measure C, which requires hotels to pay housekeepers a minimum of $9 an hour. Flores had been an outspoken leader until she was fired for a Social Security number mismatch.

"Do you know that immigration was involved in that?" Flores said the agents asked her, referring to the labor dispute. She said they then showed her news clippings in which she had been quoted as one of the leaders on the picket lines. Flores said she needed to leave for work and told the officials, "Look, I'll come to your office to talk to you. ... I have to leave now." So they wrote down the local ICE office address and left their names: David Moss and Hermilia Flores.

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/eastbay/whose-side-is-ice-on/Content?oid=1087635

[posted by: Alejandro Jimenez]

UCLA study says legalizing undocumented immigrants would help the economy

Even during the ongoing recession, immigration reform legislation that legalizes undocumented immigrants would boost the American economy, according to a new study out of UCLA.

The report said that legalization, along with a program that allows for future immigration based on the labor market, would create jobs, increase wages and generate more tax revenue. Comprehensive immigration reform would add an estimated $1.5 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years, according to the report.

"If we are going to create a solid recovery with good wages, we have to fix this hole that we have at the bottom of the labor market," said the author, Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda, an associate professor with the UCLA Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies. "This is not about bringing in a lot of workers. This is about your neighbors and if we are better off where everybody in the economy has the ability to fight for their families and to contribute more to the economy rather than staying in the shadows."

Hinojosa-Ojeda based the study in part on surveys done after 1986 legislation that resulted in the legalization of nearly 3 million undocumented immigrants. Those surveys showed that immigrants who became legal moved on to better-paying jobs and became more educated, resulting in more spending and more tax revenue. That legislation was passed during a similar economic downturn, he said.

The study, being released today, comes shortly after a renewed commitment by the Obama administration to back legislation this year that would provide a path to citizenship for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. The study is being released by two Washington-based immigrant rights organizations, the Immigration Policy Center and the Center for American Progress.

Hinojosa-Ojeda also projected that the economy would benefit from a temporary worker program, by raising the GDP by $792 billion. And the economy would suffer if the U.S. deported all illegal immigrants, which he acknowledged was an unlikely option. Mass deportation, he concluded, would reduce the GDP by $2.6 trillion over 10 years.

Full article here

[Posted by Marwin Yeung]

'Proud Racist' comment roils Santa Clarita

By: Ann M. Simmons

January 28, 2010

A Santa Clarita councilman's shout-out at a recent anti-illegal immigration rally that he is a "proud racist" has ignited an angry war of words in a suburban community over whether the longtime civic leader is a hatemonger who should be driven from office or a patriot unafraid to speak out for fellow Americans.

Bob Kellar, a veteran councilman and two-time mayor, said his words have been taken out of context, but he declined to offer an apology at a City Council meeting Tuesday night.

But the remark, which was posted in a video on You Tube and quickly spread across the blogosphere, has set off a firestorm. As protesters carrying signs milled outside the council meeting, dozens of Santa Clarita residents jumped on the issue. Many applauded Kellar when he strode into the meeting.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-santa-clarita28-2010jan28,0,4156451.story

[Posted By: Juliana Steers]

Crime, Corrections, and California: What Does Immigration have to do with it?

Few issues are as contentious as immigration and crime. Concern
over the effects of immigration on crime is longstanding, and bans
against criminal aliens constituted some of the earliest restrictions
on immigration to the United States (Kanstroom, 2007). More
recently, policies adopted in the mid-1990s greatly expanded the
scope of acts for which noncitizens may be expelled from the United States. Even so, many calls to curtail immigration, particularly illegal immigration, appeal to public fears about immigrants’ involvement in criminal activities.
Are such fears justified? On the one hand, immigration policy screens the foreign-born for criminal history and assigns extra penalties to noncitizens who commit crimes, suggesting that the foreign-born would be less likely than the U.S.-born to be involved in criminal enterprises. On the other hand, in California, immigrants are more likely than the U.S.-born to be young and male; they are also more likely to have low levels of education. These characteristics are typically related to criminal activity, providing some basis for concern that immigrants
may be more criminally active than the U.S.-born.



http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/cacounts/CC_208KBCC.pdf

Posted by [Melissa Diaz]

1 killed, 5 injured as suspected smuggling boat capsizes

Ten other apparent illegal immigrants are taken into custody after being tossed from a 30-foot fishing boat into the chilly waters off Torrey Pines state beach in San Diego.

A boat packed with suspected illegal immigrants capsized early Saturday in the surf off a state beach in San Diego, leaving one migrant dead and triggering a search-and-rescue effort that lasted throughout the day, authorities said.

The incident illustrates an uptick in maritime smuggling along the U.S.-Mexico border as smugglers respond to a buildup of forces and barriers at the land boundary separating San Diego from Baja California.

Six people from the capsized vessel were rushed to area hospitals, but one died en route, said Jackie Dizdul, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Another was reported in critical condition.

A coroner's report said the dead man was an unidentified Latino who was found floating in the ocean and was pronounced dead upon arrival at UC San Diego Thornton Hospital after efforts to revive him failed.

U.S. immigration officials arrested 10 other suspected illegal immigrants who were unhurt, officials said.

For full text http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-capsized17-2010jan17,0,5522253.story

Posted by [Julio Navarro]

GPS plan to help illegal immigrants find water

A group of California artists wants Mexicans and Central Americans to have more than just a few cans of tuna and a jug of water for their illegal trek through the harsh desert into the United States.

Faculty at UC San Diego are developing a Global Positioning System-enabled cell phone that tells dehydrated migrants where to find water and pipes in poetry from phone speakers, regaling them on their journey much the way Emma Lazarus' words did a century ago to the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" on their way to Ellis Island.

The Transborder Immigrant Tool is part technology endeavor, part art project. It introduces a high-tech twist to an old debate about how far activists can go to prevent migrants from dying on the border without breaking the law.

Immigration hardliners argue the activists are aiding illegal entry to the United States, a felony. Even migrants and their sympathizers question whether the device will make the treacherous journeys easier.

The designers - three visual artists on UC San Diego's faculty and an English professor at the University of Michigan - are undeterred as they criticize a U.S. policy they say embraces illegal immigrants for cheap labor while letting them die crossing the border.

"It's about giving water to somebody who's dying in the desert of dehydration," said Micha Cardenas, 32, a UC San Diego lecturer.

The effort is being done on the government's dime - an irony not lost on the designers whose salaries are paid by the state of California.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/30/MNMF1BB3LT.DTL#ixzz0dliCz9j3

[Posted by Yoori Chung]

No sanctuary for boy after charges dropped

San Francisco Chronicle
Sunday, January 24, 2010

San Francisco's sanctuary city ordinance - crafted in the late 1980s to shelter refugees fleeing from Central American civil wars - is supposed to let illegal immigrants report crimes, serve as witnesses and access city services without fear of deportation.

In 2008, The Chronicle reported the city was shielding undocumented youth convicted of felonies. Newsom revised the policy that July, requiring that youth be turned over to federal officials as soon as they're arrested.

Immigration advocates said the mayor's policy was ripping apart families over crimes as minor as graffiti or bringing a BB gun to school.

Supervisor David Campos last year introduced legislation requiring youth be turned over only after conviction - and it had enough votes to survive a mayoral veto.

Under Campos' law, the Juvenile Probation department has until early next month to implement the change. But Newsom has directed city officials to ignore it because federal law prohibits local governments from preventing their employees from providing information about an individual's immigration status.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/24/MNDI1BLR40.DTL#ixzz0dlflGk6Q

[Posted by Yoori Chung]

Grand Jury Turns Its Attention to San Francisco Criminal Sanctuary

Good news from the dark heart of multicultural socialism — San Francisco’s official policy of harboring illegal aliens is being investigated by a federal grand jury! Who would have believed it?

It seems like forever since the scandalous revelations about the city sheltering Honduran crack dealers began appearing, followed by the murders of Tony Bologna and his two sons by a previously arrested illegal alien gangster. But it’s actually been only a few months, which is not long for the legal system to begin action. We can only hope that at the end of the trail, justice will eventually reach the criminal protectors Mayor Gavin Newsom and District Attorney Kamala Harris: Federal probe into S.F. sanctuary city policy, (San Francisco Chronicle, Oct 4, 2008).

http://blog.vdare.com/archives/2008/10/09/grand-jury-turns-its-attention-to-san-francisco-criminal-sanctuary/

[Posted by Austin Houlgate]

Widow Wants San Francisco Sanctuary Law Changed After Illegal Charged With Murder

A San Francisco woman whose husband and two sons were gunned down last month — allegedly by an illegal immigrant who remained in the city despite previous crimes — is demanding the city do something about its sanctuary law.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,387722,00.html

[Posted by Austin Houlgate]

The Dream Act Illegal Alien Amnesty: A Bad idea at the worst possible time, Says FAIR

The DREAM Act Illegal Alien Amnesty: A Bad Idea at the Worst Possible Time, Says FAIR

WASHINGTON, March 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Despite overwhelming opposition by the American public when it was first proposed in 2000, the House and the Senate have reintroduced a sweeping illegal alien amnesty bill known as the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act.

The legislation, introduced by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), is a broad amnesty measure disguised as an educational initiative that would allow millions of illegal aliens who meet a very loose definition of “student” to qualify for green cards. In addition, it provides in-state tuition benefits for illegal aliens that will displace legal residents competing for a fixed number of college admission slots and taxpayer subsidies.

The DREAM Act represents yet another attempt to enact an amnesty for illegal aliens, either in one comprehensive bill, or piecemeal. The DREAM Act would also place severe strains on state budgets and harm middle class families who are struggling to get their own kids through college.


http://politisite.com/2009/03/28/the-dream-act-illegal-alien-amnesty-a-bad-idea-at-the-worst-possible-time-says-fair/

Posted by [Yessenia Garcia]

Immigrants often see peril in reporting domestic abuse

Language barriers, cultural differences and lack of information keep many women tied to abusive spouses. Help is available.

January 25, 2010

Indian immigrant Rumi Jaggi said she didn't report the abuse in part because of cultural expectations that she would stay married. R.M. said she didn't leave her husband because she spoke only Mandarin and relied on him to pay the bills. Concepcion Arellano said she endured abuse because she feared deportation.

Though Los Angeles County law enforcement agencies and community organizations have made advances in responding to domestic violence in immigrant communities, attorneys and advocates say many victims still face obstacles in reporting abuse and seeking help.

Language barriers, financial dependence and lack of information keep victims from coming forward. And those here illegally worry about being sent back to their native countries.

Many victims do not know that they may be eligible for special visas for victims of crime and domestic violence.

"There is so much fear of contacting authorities for fear of being deported," said Olivia Rodriguez, executive director of the Los Angeles County Domestic Violence Council. That is paramount with most domestic violence victims who are not here legally or are in the process of becoming citizens."

Here is the link for the full article
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dom-violence25-2010jan25,0,7486115.story

Posted by [Julio Navarro)

Calif. councilman defends 'proud racist' remark at immigration rally

A Southern California councilman is attracting attention and drawing some fire for declaring at an anti-immigration rally that he is "a proud racist" if that means believing that the United States should have only one flag and one language, the Los Angeles Daily News reports.

In a long article posted yesterday (and flagged by memorandum), the paper writes that Santa Clarita Councilman Bob Kellar "stood by his remarks" at the Jan. 16 rally, saying they "reflected his frustration with illegal immigration, but weren't intended to express animosity against nonwhites."

full text here


[posted by Maria Rohani]

The Minutemen and Anti-immigration Attitudes in California

This paper examines the role of the Minutemen in building up popular pressure for immigration reform and capturing the growing frustration of some of residents at the way the Bush administration is handling immigration in a context of heightened fear about national security. The immigration issue in California had quieted down after anti-immigration proposition 187 was passed –yet never enacted- in 1994. Pete Wilson had unsuccessfully used this divisive issue to win presidential nomination, alienating minority voters in the State and therefore undermining the strength of the Republican party.

Despite an apparent growing tolerance about diversity and good economic times, the issue came back to California both through the deterioration of the situation at the border and through the national debate over immigration reform in the mid-2000s. Based on field work at the California-Mexican border, the author gives a portrait of the Minutemen, explaining their motivations, hopes, fears and action which help understand the perceptions and strategies of congressmen and legislators and the fascinating radicalization of their positions on immigration over the past two years.

http://ejas.revues.org/document7655.html


[Posted by: Melissa Diaz]

Deadly Illegal Immigration Attempt at Torrey Pines Beach

SAN DIEGO — One person is dead, another is in critical condition, and 14 others are in custody following a failed attempt to illegally enter the United States by boat at a San Diego beach this morning.

At about 4:30 a.m., law enforcement authorities spotted a 30-foot panga in distress in the surf just off of Torrey Pines State Beach. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter on routine patrol in the area diverted when it spotted the boat, people in the water, and people scattering into the nearby brush, while the San Diego Police Department responded on land after hearing cries for help from the beach.
Federal, state, and local law enforcement authorities responded to the scene, including CBP’s Office of Air and Marine and Border Patrol, U.S. Coast Guard, San Diego Fire and Rescue, State Parks Service, San Diego Lifeguards, and the San Diego Sheriff’s Department, to help those in trouble, to search the nearby area for others from the boat, and to close the area to the public. Authorities estimate approximately 100 law enforcement officers assisted.
Responding personnel pulled several people from the water, and provided emergency medical assistance on the beach to two people. One remains in critical condition at a local hospital; the other died en route. An additional four people were transported to area hospitals this morning; three have been released at this time.
For several hours after the event, U.S. Border Patrol agents, a CBP helicopter crew, and several state and local law enforcement groups searched nearby Torrey Pines State Park for other passengers from the vessel. The search, which led to another ten people taken into custody by the U.S. Border Patrol, closed the park for the first half of the day.
All 16 of the persons discovered from the vessel are Mexican nationals entering the United States illegally.
An exact number of persons originally on the vessel is unknown; while authorities found 29 life jackets at the scene, many looked as though they were extras and had not been worn.
The U.S. Coast Guard continued search and rescue operations in the area throughout the day and night, and will continue searching into tomorrow.
CBP Marine Interdiction Agents took custody of the panga, a typical fiberglass Mexican fishing vessel. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is investigating the incident for possible prosecutions. ICE agents would like to talk to anyone who witnessed this morning’s fatal smuggling incident. Anyone with specific information is asked to call 1-866-347-2432 and leave their contact information; an ICE agent in San Diego will call and respond.

“This is the worst situation when you spot a suspicious boat on the water before dawn: the boat in distress, people in the water, and others from the vessel scattering rather than providing any assistance or calling for help,” said John Murphy, director of Air Operations for CBP in San Diego. “This attempt today turned deadly and is a timely wake-up call – you put your life in grave danger when you trust a smuggler to provide for your safety. The united effort today by all of the law enforcement officers involved saved lives.”

Full Text

[Posted By Denise Chan]

California Supreme Court to take on state law granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrants

California's highest court is poised to be the next battleground in the debate over benefits for illegal immigrants as the justices have agreed to hear arguments on the constitutionality of a state law allowing undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.

The decision could affect hundreds of illegal immigrant students who attend community colleges, Cal State and UC campuses and who say they would not be able to afford a higher education if required to pay out-of-state tuition, which can cost more than triple the amount that residents pay.

But the outcome could have a broader effect -- at least nine other states, including Oklahoma, New York and Texas, have similar laws providing the reduced fees to illegal immigrants. Although a court decision would not be legally binding in other states, politicians around the country are looking at California as a litmus test for future legal challenges.

Full article found here

[Posted by Marwin Yeung]

A day of immigration enforcement in O.C.

A sprawling two-story San Clemente home with a Porshe Cayenne in the driveway and a Mercedes in the garage isn't exactly where many would think to find a convict suspected of living in the country illegally.

On a recent early morning, those were the sorts of cases that took the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Fugitive Operations Team in Orange County to the back room of a Lake Forest Italian restaurant, a well-heeled community in Tustin and a run-down McMansion in the heart of Santa Ana.

"We follow up on leads and go where the leads take us," said Robert Naranjo, assistant field officer director for the agency's Los Angeles Office of Detention and Removal Operations, as he coursed through the dark streets of south county in a Dodge Durango. "People come from all social strata. We've been to homes before where they have security cameras."

The twilight operation offered a glimpse into the team's day-to-day immigration enforcement actions in the wake of the President Obama's revamped focus on going after the "worst of the worst" in the country illegally.

Full article found here

[Posted by Marwin Yeung]

Did L.A. Police Officials Subvert U.S. Immigration Laws? Full Disclosure Network(R) Documentary News Video (Online)

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Full Disclosure Network® (FDN) is releasing a ten minute video news documentary online (URL: http://tiny.cc/FDNews), covering the historic conflict between Federal and local law enforcement agencies over enforcement policies on U.S. immigration laws. The conflict became public after the 9-11 terrorist attack that was blamed on foreign visitors who were in the country illegally. The little known LAPD policy called "Special Order 40" that prohibits local police officers from enforcing U.S. Immigration laws came under fire and has since become the target of a court challenge by the Judicial Watch organization Sturgeon vs. Bratton and is headed for the U.S. Supreme Court.
L.A. Police officials featured in the FDN video describe their views and interpretation of the police policy that, still to this day, restricts LAPD officers from enforcing U.S. Immigration law. This ten minute video can be seen online at this URL: http://tiny.cc/FDNews.

For full story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20100119/pl_usnw/DC39151_1

[Posted by: Marina Guastucci]

County spent millions on welfare for illegal immigrants' American children

San Bernardino County spent nearly $64 million in state and federal money last year to provide welfare benefits to the American-born children of illegal immigrants.

Illegal immigrants aren't entitled to welfare. But their citizen children are.

Nationwide, one in three immigrant-headed households uses at least one major welfare program, compared with 19 percent of citizen households, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that advocates immigration reduction.

In California, 192,660 citizen children are getting welfare checks passed through their illegal immigrant parents. That costs $546 million a year in state, federal and county funds, officials say.

Some lawmakers say it's an expense California can't afford as the state struggles to close a nearly $20 billion budget gap.

Full text found here.

[Posted by Maria Rohani]

Immigration teams arrest more "criminal offenders"

By AMY TAXIN Associated Press Writer
Posted: 11/03/2009 04:55:16 PM PST
Updated: 11/03/2009 05:07:16 PM PST

LOS ANGELES—Immigration agents assigned to track down people who have ignored deportation orders have increasingly arrested immigrants with criminal records during the past year, new data show.
Data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement show a shift from the prior three years, when more than 70 percent of immigrants arrested by fugitive operations teams had no criminal histories.
About 45 percent of the 35,000 immigrants arrested by the teams during the 2009 fiscal year had criminal convictions. The figure is up from 23 percent during the prior year.
ICE has long claimed it focused on arresting immigrants with criminal convictions who ignored orders from immigration judges to leave the country.
But most people arrested had no criminal histories, which prompted outcries from immigrant rights groups.
ICE director John Morton said earlier this year the agency would focus on finding immigrants with criminal records or who have ignored deportation orders. However, he said other illegal immigrants would be arrested if they were present during the operations,
"The goal is to prevent crime rather than simply to respond to it," ICE spokesman Brandon Alvarez-Montgomery said.
One reason for the change is that agents are working more closely with local law enforcement to develop leads, ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said.
Immigrants rights advocates were skeptical of the numbers and wondered whether the data marked a real change in a program they have long criticized as a source of fear in immigrant neighborhoods.
It's unclear whether the Obama administration has shifted the program's focus or whether agents in some regions have just been more successful at finding criminals, said Carl Bergquist, policy advocate for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.
"I think the jury is still out," added Paromita Shah, associate director of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild.
Earlier this year, Morton also announced the fugitive teams had stopped using arrest quotas.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, said agents should have discretion about who they arrest, given what he considers the daunting task of finding more than 500,000 immigrants who have evaded deportation orders.
"They've got to start somewhere, and they look for people obviously that have national security issues as well as serious criminals," said Krikorian, whose organization favors stricter limits on immigration.
"As long as they're not sending the message that other illegal aliens will simply be let go, then I don't have a problem with it." he said.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_13705307

[Posted by Gloria Jimenez]

COSTA MESA, Calif. — Mayor Allan Mansoor says his city has a problem with violent criminals who are in this country illegally, and he wants them sent

COSTA MESA, Calif. — Mayor Allan Mansoor says his city has a problem with violent criminals who are in this country illegally, and he wants them sent home.

Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor inside his City Hall office.
Bob Riha, Jr., USA TODAY
His solution is to make Costa Mesa the first city in the country to authorize its police officers to begin enforcing federal immigration laws by checking the immigration status of people suspected of serious crimes and gang activity. (Related: States weigh immigration controls)

It may sound like a simple move — a background check that many assume is already being done. But with federal immigration officers overwhelmed by the flow of undocumented immigrants, it often isn't, Mansoor and law enforcement officials say.

As a result, many illegal immigrants who are convicted of crimes are set free rather than booted from the country when they have served their sentences. In the Los Angeles area alone, thousands of illegal immigrants are estimated to be behind bars.

Allan Mansoor and City of Costa Mesa Get Decisive Victory In Court

Allan Mansoor and City of Costa Mesa Get Decisive Victory In Court
By Allan Bartlett | 12/14/09 | 06:55 PM EDT | 8 Comments

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The long running drama and court case of hispanic/illegal immigrant rights activist Coyotl Tezcalipoca versus the city of Costa Mesa was ended today by a decisive victory in court for Allan Mansoor and the City of Costa Mesa. A federal jury determined that Tezcalipoca's civil rights were not violated after deliberating for only an hour.

If ever there needed to be lawsuit reform, this was it. This was a pretty clear case of a frivilous lawsuit from the beginning and should have never seen the light of day. The losers(ACLU and Mr Tezcalawhatever) should get a bill for all attorneys fees. That would put a stop to this kind of nonsense in the future.

I called Mayor Mansoor a few minutes ago and he had this to say...

"Today free speech has been upheld and disruptive behavior has been put in its place"