SEALTHEBORDER's Blog

Treason Lobby Tapping Taxpayers For La Raza

By Marcus Epstein
VDare.com, August 21, 2008

Last week, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann(R-MN) called for Congress to reconvene so it could take out parts of the recent Freddie Mac bailout that give $500 million in unmarked grants to far-Left “community development” groups, such as the National Council of La Raza.

Bachmann’s stand is symbolic but admirable. The Treason Lobby’s tentacles are reaching out to seize the American taxpayer.

When the bailout bill was passed at the end of July, there was little public comment on the money going to La Raza. However, it’s not the first time they’ve tried this stunt. In May, Congressman Barney Frank earmarked $15 million to La Raza in his Housing Stabilization and Homeownership Retention Act of 2008. The bill was killed—but a number of people on the Hill have told me that they expect La Raza to end up with even more money in the act that subsequently passed.

To put this grant in perspective: even $15 million dollars is greater than the total assets of the three biggest immigration control groups—Numbers USA, The Center for Immigration Studies, and The Federation for American Immigration Reform—combined.

It’s not as if La Raza needs taxpayer money. It currently has over $100 million dollars in assets, along with its Raza Development Fund, their “community development lending arm” that has another 53 million. This is before they got their housing bailout money, along with $1.3 million dollars it got from HUD earlier this year, and $16 million dollars that The Wachovia Foundation, associated with the Wachovia Corporation bank, pledged to them in June.

Occasionally I get a call from supporters who suggest we organize a boycott of different companies that contribute to La Raza. The name I hear most is State Farm Insurance.

I tell them that as much I’d love to boycott them, right now there is pretty much nowhere to go. I looked up the sponsors La Raza’s last annual conference—there were over 200 of them—and just about every major insurance company was there including, Aetna, Nationwide, Geico, Sharp Healthcare, and Prudential! In addition there were over two dozen government and military agencies; the Republican Party (!); and, most shockingly, a number of charities. The March of Dimes, Foundation for the Advancement in Cancer Research, National Eye Institute, and Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation and Paralysis Resource Center all were sponsors of the conference.

Many of these organizations will no doubt claim that their sponsorship was used for the purpose of recruiting affirmative action hires—not that it makes it any better. The government will insist that the money given to La Raza is given for specific projects like setting up Spanish Language Charter Schools or giving housing assistance to illegal aliens. Again, not like it makes it any better.

Besides, all funds are fungible.

So before La Raza get new grants, voters, consumers, and donors should ask what exactly La Raza is doing with this money from the U.S. taxpayer, big business, and the March of Dimes?

One of its major projects is a new website called “We Can Stop the Hate” designed to blacklist anyone who opposes their agenda. According to the New York Times, La Raza wants to silence haters “even if such censorship were a violation of First Amendment rights”. La Raza’s president Janet Murguia justifies this because

“Everyone knows there is a line sometimes that can be crossed when it comes to free speech. And when free speech transforms into hate speech, we’ve got to draw that line.” [ A Call to End Hate Speech, By Ariel Alexovich, February 1, 2008]

So who has crossed the line? La Raza’s main institutional targets are the aforementioned immigration control groups: FAIR, CIS, and Numbers USA. Astonishingly, La Raza’s mode of attack is to go after them for their source of funding.

We Can Stop the Hate recently posted a YouTube video which opens with an ominous score and text asking “what if all the leading anti immigration groups...were founded by the same man…funded by the same organization…and have ties to white supremacy?” The video proceeds to the lovely Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center (which, by the way, has assets exceeding $219 million) who suggests that all the organizations are both funded and controlled by…Dr. John Tanton!

Of course, Beirich does not quote a single word from any member of the organization saying anything “racist”. In fact, she actually claims the lack of overt “hate speech” is what makes them so dangerous. Their whole purpose, she says, is “to present a moderate face that is disconnected from [the extremists], but in reality isn’t.”

So for La Raza and the SPLC, the line between “free speech” and “hate speech” is crossed before opponents of mass immigration even open their mouths.

As for Dr. Tanton, he deserves a great deal of credit for helping out fledging immigration reform groups. But he is not even close to being the main benefactor of any of the groups, and isn’t associated with any besides FAIR. Furthermore, far from being a right wing extremist, he is a conservationist concerned with sustainable growth. (Which is why he is attacked by writers like Jason Riley in the Wall Street Journal as a liberal population controller.)

As frustrating as these baseless smear attacks may be, they should be heartening to patriotic immigration reformers.

http://www.vdare.com/epstein/080821_treason.htm

Illegal Aliens Linked to Gang-Rape Wave

By Chelsea Schilling
WorldNetDaily.com, August 22, 2008

A wave of illegal-immigrant gang rapes is sweeping the U.S. while public officials and law-enforcement authorities fear drawing the link, experts say.

Deborah Schurman-Kauflin, a Ph.D. researcher of violent crimes, told WorldNetDaily, "It appears as if there is a fear that if this is honestly discussed, people will hate all illegal immigrants. So there is silence. … But in being silent about the rapes and murders, it is as if the victims never even existed."

Schurman-Kauflin, who runs the Violent Crimes Institute in Atlanta, participated in a 12-month, in-depth study of illegal immigrants who committed sex crimes and murders from January 1999 through April 2006. The study found approximately 240,000 illegal-immigrant sex offenders reside in the United States – while 93 sex offenders and 12 serial sexual offenders come across U.S. borders illegally every day.

Schurman-Kauflin said, "Gang rapes by illegal immigrants appear to be gang related. Many of the cases I reviewed involved gang members. As part of being a cohesive group, they offend together. Inflicting brutal gang rapes brings them closer together as a group. It is a way to demonstrate their power. And it sends a message to anyone who dares to cross them."

Americans for Legal Immigration PAC told WND it now is tracking 12 gang rapes by illegal aliens within America's borders since Oct. 2004.

ALIPAC's president, William Gheen, said, "These are just the ones we know of. The real number is much higher."

Gheen told WND he believes the number of gang rapes is increasing as the population of illegal aliens in the U.S. increases.

"Many illegal aliens have a rape and pillage mentality toward America," he said. "The government has shown them they can break our laws on many levels without much fear of enforcement. Why should they think of rape or gang rape any differently?"

Gheen said, "Illegal aliens are more likely to engage in these crimes because rapes and gang rapes are much more common in the gang-rule Third World areas they come from."

MS-13, also known as Mara Salvatrucha, a highly organized and well-funded Central American gang, is infiltrating at least 33 states across the U.S., according to law-enforcement authorities. The gang is well-known in Los Angeles, Houston, New York and Washington, D.C., for excessive brutality. Any person suspected of cooperating with authorities is hunted down, tortured and killed. Initiation rites include kickings, beatings and gang rapes.

Gheen said, "These gangs are forcing new female gang members to undergo gang rape to enter the gang and they are asking their male initiates to gang rape American women to become an official member of the gang."

MS-13 relies on metropolitan areas with highly concentrated populations of illegal aliens to boost its spreading membership. Chapters require that initiates perform random acts of violence, such as participating in gang rapes, to gain acceptance, confirm law-enforcement officials.

Three MS-13 gang members were charged in the brutal rapes of two deaf girls, one 14, the other 17, in a Massachusetts park in 2002. One victim, who also suffered from cerebral palsy, was pushed out of her wheelchair before being raped repeatedly.

Illegal alien rapists often maintain several aliases, making escaping justice easier.

Jorge Villa-Gutierrez, 25, is in prison for the gang rape of an 18-year-old Douglas County, Colorado woman. He claimed to have paid only $100 for a fake ID and Social Security number.

Manuel Cantu, 28, pleaded guilty in Middlesex Superior Court February 2005 in Cambridge, Mass., to six counts of rape and one count of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 years old. Cantu also went by the aliases Angel Meza and Angel M. Salvador, according to court documents.

Gheen said, "Illegal aliens have been walking out of American prisons after serving their time at taxpayer expense without being deported. Our government can't or won't find the hundreds of thousands of known felon illegal aliens walking America's streets tonight much less stop the new felons coming in tonight across our unsecured borders."

The Violent Crimes Institute study established a pattern of escalating offenses among illegal aliens, whose first offense was illegally entering the U.S.

Schurman-Kauflin told WND, "Illegal immigrants who commit sex crimes first cross the U.S. border illegally, then gradually commit worse crimes and are continually released back into society or deported. Those who were deported simply returned illegally again. There is a clear pattern of criminal escalation. From misdemeanors such as assault or DUI, to drug offenses, illegal immigrants who commit sex crimes break U.S. laws repeatedly."

Most of the offenders reported in the study were located in states with the highest numbers of illegal immigrants. California was No. 1, followed by Texas, Arizona, New Jersey, New York and Florida. The 1,500 offenders studied had a total of 5,999 victims – averaging four victims each. Of those studied, 525, or 35 percent, were child molestations, 358, or 24 percent, were rapes, and 617, or 41 percent, were sexual homicides and serial murders.

Schurman-Kauflin said, "We need to know who is coming into this country. It is a matter of security, life and death. … Our borders should be secured so that those with evil intentions cannot enter. We need more Border Patrol agents, more training for these agents and a commitment that we will not tolerate predators coming into this country. There must be security and a return to the rule of law."

Last year, officials of the House Judiciary Committee said that U.S. immigration officers and police are not always on the same page. Police do not always inform immigration authorities about arrests of undocumented aliens, and immigration officers are often too late to identify the aliens before they are released on bail.

New York's arm of the Department of Homeland Security is only interviewing 40 percent of foreign-born inmates at Rikers Island – "a failure that puts criminal aliens back on the streets instead of deporting them," according to the New York Post.

"Gang rape is a form of terrorism. It has been used throughout history as a weapon of terror," Gheen said. "Most Americans do not see the war that is already upon us in our communities and neighborhoods."

Some high-profile gang rapes by illegal immigrants include:

• December 2002 – In New York, several criminal aliens, who had passed in and out of Rikers and other jails without being detected by immigration officials, brutally beat and gang-raped a Queens mother of two near Shea Stadium. Three of the five rapists were illegal Mexican aliens with multiple prior arrests for crimes including assault, weapon possession and armed robbery.

   

• January 2004 – Four illegal aliens were among the five men who brutally gang-raped a New York City woman. "They punched me so hard that I was knocked to the floor," the 43-year-old victim wrote before Supreme Court Justice Randall Eng sentenced one of her attackers, Victor Cruz, to 21 years in prison. Cruz, Luis Carmona, Carlos Rodriguez, Armando Juvenal and Jos? Hernandez pleaded guilty in December to rape and kidnapping charges in exchange for sentences of 20 to 23 years.

   

• October 2004 – a 37-year-old North Carolina woman was gang raped by at least seven illegal aliens in Huntersville, N.C.

   

• Oct. 4, 2005 – In Immokalee, Fla., 14 field laborers, ranging in age from 18 to 56, broke into an 18-year-old woman's home, dragged her across the street and then took turns raping her. The victim said the men choked and hit her until she became unconscious. When she awoke, a man poured alcohol in her mouth. The men removed her clothing and each one raped her.

   

• June 28, 2006 – Texas' Waco Tribune Herald reported illegal immigrants Javier Guzman Martinez, 18, and Noel Darwin Hernandez, 22, have been charged with one count of aggravated kidnapping and one count of aggravated sexual assault of an 18-year-old Tehuacana woman. The girl had been cut with a piece of glass or "other unknown object."

   

• July 10 – In Sayre, Pa., the Evening Times reported "Gasper Almilcar Guzman" was among a group of men who were found July 10 to be in this country illegally following a routine traffic stop in Athens Township. Guzman had been convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl in Alabama in 2005. Guzman was deported before he could begin serving his five-year sentence.

   

• July 13 -- In Noblesville, Ind., an illegal alien named Miguel Gutierrez, 20, faces two counts of rape for taking a 14-year-old into a garage and participating in a four-man gang rape on the girl. Following the gang rape, the girl was forced into a car and raped again, according to news reports.

   

• July 17 – In Greenville, N.C., Fernando Cruz, 41, Walter Ramires, 26, Luis Morales, 24, and Pedro Vasques, 27, were charged with first-degree rape and first-degree kidnapping of a woman. They drove the woman to a field path on the edge of town and took turns raping her.

   

• July 21 – Sinoe Salgado Garcia, a 28-year-old Fontana, Calif., man convicted of kidnapping and raping a 4-year-old girl, was sentenced to a 30-year-to-life prison term, according to the Riverside Press Enterprise. The child was found hours later inside a shed, thrown over a 6-foot-tall block wall, investigators said. She underwent surgery to repair damage caused by the rape and sodomy, court records show. The site reported that she also suffered three facial fractures.

   

• Aug. 3 – Two young illegal aliens living in Charlotte, N.C., were charged with gang raping an Asheville teenager at the Red Roof Inn. They are 22-year-old Pablo Vasquez Osorio and 23-year-old Marcos Guerrero Fuentes. Both were charged with first-degree rape and kidnapping of a 17-year-old Asheville girl at a Red Roof Inn.

Member of gang Mara Salvatrucha

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTIC
LE_ID=51424

US GOV'T. IN COLLUSION WITH ILLEGAL ALIEN DRUG GROWERS?!!

I am providing you with two links to two news articles that demonstrate and illustrate the insanity that characterizes the relationship between the United States and Mexico.

 The first article appears in an edition of the Washington Times (http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/aug/10/world-scene
-5915095/}
 and is a brief article that appeared with other articles about events around the world. That first article is a short one, but is to the point and makes it clear that the government of Mexico demands that when Americans enter Mexico they had damned well comply with Mexican laws while the government of Mexico simultaneously demands that their citizens be permitted to violate all sorts of laws in our country, including felonies!

I find it all but impossible to believe that citizens of the United States who attempt to purchase petroleum products in Mexico would have their cars impounded for filling an extra tank with diesel fuel. This is not fuel that was stolen, but fuel that was purchased at the going rate of $2.25 per gallon, roughly one-half of the cost for fuel in the United States!

I do not blame the government of Mexico as much as I blame our government. When United States Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean attempted to defend themselves and our borders against a career narcotics smuggler they found themselves being prosecuted by the same government that ordered them in harm's way. Several years ago there was a hearing conducted by the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims about the funding requests made by the administration to hire new Border Patrol agents and special agents of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).

That hearing was conducted on March 10, 2005 and was entitled:

"INTERIOR IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT RESOURCES"

You can read the transcript of that hearing.  (http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/judiciary/hju997
85.000/hju99785_0f.htm}

Congress had authorized sufficient funds to hire 800 new special agents for ICE and 2,000 new Border Patrol agents for that year and each of the next 4 years.

The administration slashed those numbers to hire only 143 new special agents for ICE and 210 new Border Patrol agents.

I am disappointed in the number of new ICE agents that had been authorized by Congress and absolutely outraged at how the President and his administration slashed the numbers of new ICE agents and new Border Patrol agents. Clearly the only explanation that makes sense is that the President was adamant about not securing our borders and not enforcing the immigration laws, even though this enables drugs, criminals and terrorists to have easy access to our nation!

The result of what has to be viewed minimally as constituting dereliction of duty, if not complicity, by the Bush administration in its failures to secure our nation's borders and enforce the immigration laws from within the interior of the United States. This has emboldened and enabled millions of illegal aliens, including thousands of criminals, undoubtedly terrorists, to enter our nation in violation of law impacting so many major areas of concern for our nation, including national security, criminal justice, the economy, the environment, health care and education.

Then we come to the second article (http://news.aol.com/article/dealers-turn-vineyards-in
to-pot-farms/126316)
 about how Mexican drug traffickers have taken a new tactic of buying up precious land that had been used for the cultivation of vineyards to be used to grow marijuana within the borders of the United States!

There had been previous news reports about those same drug organizations growing marijuana in national parks of the United States and now, without adequate enforcement by the federal government, we are witnessing a continuing expansion of Mexican drug traffickers growing ever-increasing quantities of marijuana within the United States!

With all of this ongoing madness, neither major candidate for the Presidency has been willing to address the issue of border security and the creation of an immigration system that has real integrity that protects our nation and honors those lawful immigrants who have abided by the laws of the United States and have made the effort to legally become part of our nation.

Just as I blame our government for the lunacy to be found in the one-sided relationship that exists between the United States and Mexico, I blame the citizens of our nation for the current state of affairs in the political process!

We the People must take that lesson and employ it with our elected representatives. We the People must make our voices heard! This is not a Liberal issue nor is it a Conservative issue- this is the way that all Americans must force those politicians who purport to represent us, to truly represent us!

The stakes are far too great for us to allow the status quo to continue!

You are either part of the solution or you are a part of the problem!

Democracy is not a spectator sport!

Federal agents  bust  illegal alien stash house in San Juan

The KGBT News (Harlingen, TX), August 21, 2008

Federal agents and San Juan police busted a suspected illegal alien stash house on Thursday morning.

Authorities said a tip led U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol and San Juan police to a home on the 300 block of West Sioux Road.

Investigators took 32 people into custody, including a man who might have been in charge of an alleged human trafficking operation operation there. 

Neighbors told Action 4 News that they were surprised to see police activity there. They said that the home was once owned by a Christian couple.

Authorities said the Thursday incident is the second bust in two days. 

Border Patrol officials told Action 4 News that they arrested two suspected smugglers and 16 illegal aliens yesterday.

http://kgbt4.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=178332

Polish man indicted for illegal alien smuggling

The Associated Press, August 21, 2008

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) A Polish citizen has been indicted for allegedly smuggling two illegal aliens from Canada into the United States across the Pigeon River near Grand Portage Federal prosecutors say 31-year-old Marek Jerzy Struzik picked up the two men from Poland and Slovakia at the Toronto airport and drove them to Thunder Bay, Ontario.

The two men told authorities Struzik then took them to the Canadian side of the Pigeon River, walked them across at its Middle Falls, then went back to retrieve his vehicle and was supposed to pick them up on the Minnesota side in Grand Portage State Park.

They were all arrested August 1 on the Minnesota side of the border.

Prosecutors say Struzik was paid $2,500 for smuggling the men.

He faces a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison.

http://www.kxmc.com/t/illegal-immigrants/267288.asp

Illegal alien charged with plotting to kill cop

By Susannah A. Nesmith
The Miami Herald (FL), August 21, 2008

Police arrested an 18-year-old Miami man on charges he was preparing to kill a Miami-Dade police officer to help a friend get out of trouble.

Mackendy Venant was charged with conspiracy to murder a law enforcement officer after authorities say they taped conversations between him and a federal inmate discussing getting rid of Officer Nelson Rodriguez, who had arrested the friend. Police say the friend was Evens Raymond.

Venant was allegedly paid $1,000 to kill Rodriguez and he and Raymond discussed how he could get an AK-47 rifle.

State court records show that Venant and Raymond were arrested together in June on marijuana possession charges. Raymond was later indicted in federal court on drug and firearm charges.

Rodriguez was the arresting officer.

Federal immigration agents tipped off Miami-Dade police about the plot and detectives Mercedes Sabina, Tomas Tundidor and Sgt. Nicole Donnelly, of the organized crime unit investigated.

''We will not tolerate a threat to any law enforcement officer. We will always aggressively respond to those threats,'' said Miami-Dade Maj. Raul Ubieta, of the specialized strategic investigations bureau.

Police also seized a letter that included information about the plot to kill Rodriguez.

Venant was being held without bail at the county jail and also has an immigration hold. He is a Haitian citizen.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/65
2832.html

Border Patrol agents riding airboat hit with rocks

By Ray Gomez
The KGNS News (Laredo, TX), August 21, 2008

Border Patrol agents riding an airboat are attacked with rocks. It happened near Zacate Creek on Thursday afternoon.

According to officials, people along the riverbanks on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande started throwing rocks at agents.

One agent took out his weapon, but it has not been confirmed if he fired or not. The airboats were introduced in early May of this year. 

http://www.pro8news.com/news/local/27246479.html>

Immigrant advocates decry new Missouri law

By Matt Sepic
The KWMU News (St. Louis, MO), August 22, 2008

St. Louis -- Immigrants' rights advocates in St. Louis are speaking out against a new state law that goes into effect next week.

Among other things, the measure requires state troopers to be trained in federal immigration law. It also punishes employers who hire illegal immigrants and denies funding to cities that enact sanctuary policies.

Jorge Riopedre, Chairman of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in St. Louis, said the law will intimidate even those immigrants who are in the United States legally, and it targets Hispanics.

'This we believe will cause a chilling effect within the Hispanic community, because they don't want to risk any kind of contact with officialdom, whether that be government or the police force,' Riopedre said.

Supporters of the measure say it is not meant to encourage racial profiling, but the lawmakers who passed it say action on the state level is necessary because the federal government is not enforcing its immigration laws adequately.

Both supporters and opponents of the state law say Congress should pass comprehensive immigration reform.

http://publicbroadcasting.net/kwmu/news.newsmain?a
ction=article&ARTICLE_ID=1346850&sectionID=1

Despite a Flood of Federal Resources, Border Security Still an Issue

By Robert Shaffer
The Fox News, August 20, 2008

Seattle -- For years America's northern and southern borders — 5,938 miles of dense forest and open land — were fair game for drug dealers and illegal immigrants looking to sneak into the U.S. That was before September 11, 2001.

After the 9/11 terror attacks, securing America's borders became a national priority, says Jay Ahern, deputy commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

'There was an absolute shift in thinking about the border, from drug interdiction, alien interdiction, criminal interdiction at our borders to one of national security,' Ahern said.

In the last seven years there has been a huge expenditure of money and resources to prevent an attack on America from the north or south.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security was formed and, under it, Border Patrol was flooded with new resources.

By the end of this year, the number of agents patrolling the border is expected to be 18,000, double what it was eight years ago. About 338 miles of fence have been built in the south, and more is planned.

The Border Patrol has 267 aircraft — the largest non-military air force in the world — and four unmanned Predator B aircraft to watch the border.

And now all cargo is screened before it gets to the U.S., and shipments deemed high-risk are checked upon entry.

According to federal immigration statistics, fewer people are trying to cross into the U.S. and arrests of illegals dropped 20 percent last year and 8 percent in 2006.

Despite the improvements, critics say the U.S. is not close to securing the border, and not close to being safe.

'It would be so easy to come in here,' said Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project, a group of volunteers who patrol the Canadian and Mexican borders. 'There is literally no protection. There are some border patrol agents, but at night, I could assure you I could go into Mexico and return to the United States carrying a suitcase nuke.'

As much attention as the southern border gets, experts say the northern border may prove more dangerous.

Canadian intelligence estimates 50 known terrorist groups operate in that country and that some have entered the U.S. In 2006, the federal government's General Accountability Office repeatedly videotaped its agents crossing into America from Canada without going through immigration checkpoints.

Gene Davis, a former Border Patrol sector chief who consults on border security issues, said we must secure both borders and make less attractive the thing that draws people here: jobs.

'It's a national sovereignty issue,' he said. 'And if we cannot control our borders, if we cannot control who comes here, we're never going to have national security.'

The hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who cross the border every year, for jobs and other reasons, prove that the border is still porous. And critics say some of the technology set up to prevent them is not ready for prime time.

Project 28, a series of 100-foot-tall towers with radar, high-definition cameras and other sensor equipment that was intended to create a virtual fence stretching across Arizona's border with Mexico, didn't work as planned and has been delayed for over a year. Creation of a physical fence in Texas has been delayed by private-property and environmental concerns and the debate over its funding in Congress.

Ahern said progress has been made, but there needs to be a continuing commitment to the investment America has made to border security.

'We need a steady funding stream as we move into the next few years to make sure we're able to sustain the investments we've made in technology and infrastructure along our borders,' Ahern said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,407524,00.html<
/a>

Immigration agency scraps self-deport program

By Amy Taxin
The Associated Press, August 22, 2008

Santa Ana, CA (AP) -- The federal government will scrap a program for illegal immigrants to turn themselves in for deportation after only eight people volunteered during a nearly three-week trial, an official said Thursday.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offered the pilot program in five cities, giving illegal immigrants facing court orders to leave the country 90 days to plan their departure and coordinate travel with relatives instead of facing the prospect of being arrested, detained and deported.

ICE will end its 'Scheduled Departure' program when the trial period concludes Friday, Jim Hayes, acting director of ICE's detention and removal operations, told The Associated Press.

'The bottom line is it is not effective,' Hayes said. 'Quite frankly, I think this proves the only method that works is enforcement.'

The initiative drew skepticism, even ridicule, from many immigration activists who have criticized ICE's increasing raids on homes and businesses.

Hayes said lack of support from those activists shows they are unwilling to accept any enforcement.

'They want amnesty, they want open borders, and they want a more vulnerable America,' he said.

Hayes told the AP that other tactics have proven more effective. ICE has been tracking down so-called immigration 'fugitives' by knocking on their doors at home, often during pre-dawn hours.

ICE offered the program to 457,000 illegal immigrants nationwide who have ignored judicial orders to leave the country but have no criminal record. Applicants could sign up at ICE offices in Charlotte, N.C., Chicago, Phoenix, San Diego and Santa Ana.

ICE estimates 30,000 eligible immigrants lived in the five cities where the program was offered.

The eight volunteers included an Estonian man in Phoenix, a Guatemalan man and Indian couple in Chicago, a Salvadoran man in Charlotte, a Mexican woman in San Diego and a Guatemalan man and Lebanese man in Santa Ana, according to ICE.

ICE spent $41,000 to advertise the program. Hayes said the government may have saved money because the cost of detaining the six immigrants who turned themselves in during the program's first week would have been $37,000.

Immigrant advocates said the program had few incentives and failed to consider undocumented immigrants' ties to family in the U.S. They said they worry that ICE will cite the weak turnout as a reason to step up the raids, since it now can say that it made an effort to enforce the law in a way that was less disruptive to illegal immigrants and their families.

'My hope is it isn't going to empower them or fuel their enforcement even further,' immigration lawyer Lisa Ramirez said Thursday.

ICE said it hatched the plan to quell criticism of the surge in immigration raids. One supporter of tougher enforcement said the low turnout will help insulate the agency from some of that criticism.

'It was calling their bluff,' said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

The program was criticized for offering little incentive for illegal immigrants to step forward since they would be barred from returning to the United States for as long as a decade.

And while ICE has increased arrests of illegal immigrants who fail to heed court orders to depart, several immigrants said many people feel they have a decent chance of sticking it out here longer than the government would give them if they came forward.

'Why are they going to go back to their country and pay someone to bring them over here again?' asked Rigoberto Moreno, 46, who entered the country illegally from Mexico as a teenager in the 1970s and has since become a U.S. citizen.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i5prhLjHvlhYqvnv
bzyaGXUtL1WAD92N2BJO0

August 21, 2008

5 members of a S. Texas illegal alien smuggling organization plead guilty

LAREDO, Texas - Five members of the Ortiz family alien smuggling organization, based in Bryan/College Station, Texas, pleaded guilty here Thursday to federal alien smuggling charges. U.S. Attorney Don DeGabrielle, Southern District of Texas, announced the pleas; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) initiated the investigation into the organization in January 2005.

The ICE investigation ultimately revealed a large-scale alien smuggling operation that since 1999 has transported hundreds of illegal aliens from the Mexican border to the Bryan, Texas, area.

Defendants Porfirio Ortiz, 37, Calixtro Ortiz, 52, Bernardino Ortiz, 49, and Sandra Ortiz, 32, all of Bryan; and Christopher Gene Torres, 24, of Kingsland, Texas, all pleaded guilty Aug. 21 to count one of the Indictment, charging them with conspiracy to transport illegal aliens for commercial advantage or private financial gain. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 20.

On Jan. 17, 2005, a black 1990 Ford F-250 hauling a horse trailer driven by Tyler Ross Severn, 28, of Bryan, arrived at the highway 16 Border Patrol checkpoint south of Hebbronville, Texas. The inspecting border patrol agent noticed a suspicious arrangement of hay blocking his view of the front area of the trailer. The agent peered inside and observed four adults and an infant, who were later identified as illegal aliens from Mexico.

The driver told agents that Porfirio Ortiz hired him to transport illegal aliens from Rio Grande City to Hebbronville, Texas. Severn drove the truck and trailer to Rio Grande City and loaded the five aliens into the trailer. The aliens were to pay Porfirio Ortiz $2,500 each, of which Severn was to receive $300 per person. Severn was to deliver the aliens to Manuel Antonio Valles, 36, also of Bryan, in Hebbronville. After locating and arresting Valles, agents searched his vehicle and found a notarized letter, handwritten by Porfirio Ortiz. The letter requested the return of his horse trailer that had been seized in a previous alien smuggling apprehension in December 2004 in Laredo, Texas.

Severn explained that by the time he was apprehended in 2005, he had made numerous trips transporting illegal aliens for the Ortiz family. Calixtro Ortiz served as a guide for the aliens and transferred the aliens to Severn at a house in Rio Grande City. Severn then transported the aliens to Bryan, Texas, where Porfirio or Bernardino Ortiz paid him. Severn took agents to the house in Rio Grande City where they spoke with the owner, Maria Bazan, 35, of Bryan, and Calixtro Ortiz. Bazan admitted she ran the stash house in Rio Grande City and that Calixtro Ortiz paid her $30 per day per alien she housed.

Valles was convicted by Jury on June 2, 2005 and sentenced to 30 months in prison. Severn pleaded guilty March 8, 2005 and was sentenced to 12 months. Bazan also pleaded guilty March 8, 2005, but has not yet been sentenced.

In this criminal organization's typical mode of smuggling, the defendants either drove loads themselves or recruited drivers, such as Torres and Charles Salyers, 30, of College Station. They routinely transported aliens in a horse trailer with a live horse, designed to make the trip look legitimate. The aliens were then transported through one of the South Texas Border Patrol checkpoints on the way to Bryan, normally hidden in the tack room at the front of the trailers. Often, drivers transported multiple loads of aliens to Bryan in a single day. Drivers hired by the defendants revealed to investigators they had been paid as much as $70,000 each for their services.

From Bryan, Texas, the illegal aliens then traveled to their destinations throughout the United States. Family members of the smuggled aliens paid the smuggling fees by Western Union wire transfer to Ortiz family members or associates in Bryan. In total, investigators recovered receipts for about $800,000 in Western Union money transfers from families of smuggled aliens to the Ortiz organization in Bryan.

More than 40 U.S. Border Patrol and Texas Highway Patrol seizures of illegal aliens in South Texas have been linked to the Ortiz organization.

Darcy Ortiz Quezada, 24, of Bryan, and Salyers previously entered guilty pleas in Laredo to the same count of the indictment and are scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 3, 2008. The alleged leader of the conspiracy, Baudel Ortiz, 31, of Bryan, until recently was a fugitive. However, on Aug. 17, he was apprehended in Bryan and was presented for initial appearance in federal court in Laredo on Aug. 19. His detention hearing is scheduled for Aug. 26.

The statutory maximum penalty for each alien smuggling violation is a maximum term of imprisonment of not more than 10 years, a maximum $250,000 fine, and a term of supervised release of up to three years.

ICE conducted the investigation; Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert S. Johnson, Southern District of Texas, is prosecuting this case.

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0808/080821laredo.htm

August 21, 2008

ICE deports Mexican man wanted for murder in Chihuahua, Mexico

BEST team members locate, arrest fugitive at his mobile-home park residence

EL PASO, Texas - Local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on Wednesday deported a Mexican fugitive who is wanted for murder in his home country.

ICE immigration enforcement agents escorted Luis Miguel Quintana-Aguilera, 23, to the middle of Stanton Street Bridge at the El Paso Port of Entry where he was turned over to Mexican authorities. Quintana-Aguilera was sought by authorities in Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico, for the November 2007 murder of Rigoberto Romero Enriquez.

The Office of the Attorney General of Mexico contacted the ICE Attaché Office in Ciudad Juarez May 14 requesting assistance locating and arresting Quintana-Aguilera, who was believed to be in the El Paso area. Local Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST) members arrested Quintana-Aguilera the same day.

BEST members arrested Quintana-Aguilera in a mobile home park in the 14000 block of Colonia Campo, west of Horizon City, Texas. Quintana-Aguilera was previously deported in 2002 after he was convicted for alien smuggling and transporting. After his arrest in May, he was processed and placed into removal proceedings while detained at ICE's El Paso Processing Center. He contested his removal, alleging that he was eligible to remain in the United States. However, an immigration judge denied his request on Aug. 18.

"The partnership between ICE and Mexico's Attorney General has proven beneficial to both countries," said Robert Jolicoeur, field office director for the ICE Office of Detention and Removal Operations in El Paso. "In this case, ICE officers removed a dangerous individual from our country, and Mexico took custody of an individual who fled to the United States to elude justice."

Quintana-Aguilera is the sixth murder suspect local ICE officers deported to Mexico since Oct. 1. ICE officers also deported an individual wanted for attempted sexual assault, and another wanted on drug charges. In fiscal year 2007, local ICE officers deported four fugitives wanted for murder, one for sexual assault, one for vehicular homicide, one for kidnapping and two child predators.

BEST is an ICE Office of Investigations-led, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), national initiative created along the U.S. southern border. The El Paso BEST team was formed in October 2006. Since its inception, the El Paso BEST team has arrested and prosecuted 357 individuals, obtained 185 federal indictments, and secured convictions against 162 people.

The BEST concept is for DHS law enforcement agencies, working cooperatively with other law enforcement entities, to develop a comprehensive approach to identify, disrupt and dismantle criminal organizations that pose a significant threat to border security.

BEST includes officers from federal, state and local law enforcement agencies that are collocated to share information. This close coordination among law enforcement agencies also helps to identify and eliminate cross-border criminal organizations, such as alien smuggling networks, and the supporting infrastructure that sustains them.

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0808/080821elpaso.htm<
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August 20, 2008

Owners of elder care employment agency indicted for knowingly hiring and harboring illegal aliens

Firm's office manager also faces charges in ICE probe

SANTA ANA, Calif. - A Filipino man and his former wife, who own an employment agency that provides personnel to elder care facilities throughout Orange County, were indicted by a federal grand jury here today following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into allegations they knowingly hired illegal aliens, primarily from the Philippines, to fill the jobs.

Wilfredo Ngo, 51, and his ex-wife, Teresa Ngo, 49, were named in a four-count indictment handed down this morning charging them with inducing aliens to reside in the United States; knowingly employing illegal aliens; knowingly harboring illegal aliens; and counseling persons to engage in marriage fraud.  The Ngos are scheduled to be arraigned by U.S. Magistrate Judge Marc L. Goldman August 25.  If convicted of all the charges, the Ngos each face a maximum sentence of more than 15 years in prison. 

The Ngos own A-Plus Senior Planning Services, Inc., an employment agency based in Lake Forest, Calif.  The firm provides caregivers to at least 10 major elder care facilities in Orange County as well as workers for individual in-home care. 

Also indicted today was Gicela Sarabia, 43, the office manager for A-Plus Senior Planning Services.  Sarabia is charged with inducing aliens to reside in the United States and knowingly hiring illegal aliens.  Like the Ngos, Sarabia will be arraigned before Magistrate Goldman August 25.

The charges against the three stem from an undercover probe that began in December 2007 after ICE received a lead involving an alien with an expired visa who turned out to be employed by A-Plus Planning Services.  The ensuing investigation revealed that at least 40 of the agency's workers were in the United States illegally.  Most of them arrived as visitors and overstayed their visas. 

"The allegations in this case are disturbing when you consider that the illegal alien workers hired by these defendants were entrusted with caring for the infirm and elderly," said Robert Schoch, special agent in charge for the ICE office of investigations in Los Angeles. "People who enter the United States on visitor visas do not undergo the same degree of scrutiny as individuals who are coming into the country as legal foreign workers or immigrants."

According to court documents filed in the case, the Ngos counseled their illegal workers to enter into fraudulent marriages with U.S. citizens so they could remain in the country legally.  The defendants allegedly told their employees to seek out potential spouses at Leisure World and on eHarmony.com.

The three defendants were arrested earlier this month on a criminal complaint.  They are currently free on bond.  The Ngos, both natives of the Philippines, are legal permanent residents of the United States.  Sarabia, who is also a Filipino citizen, is in the country illegally.

ICE received substantial assistance in the investigation from the California Employment Development Department.  ICE also coordinated closely with the California Department of Social Services Senior Care Program to ensure patients' welfare was not compromised during the probe.

Since ICE was established in March 2003, it has dramatically enhanced its efforts to combat the unlawful employment of illegal aliens in this country.  In the first 11 months of this fiscal year, ICE made more than 1,000 criminal arrests tied to work-site enforcement investigations.  Of the 1,022 individuals criminally arrested, 116 are owners, managers, supervisors or human resources employees facing charges including harboring or knowingly hiring illegal aliens.  The remaining workers criminally arrested are facing charges including aggravated identity theft and Social Security fraud.  ICE has also made more than 3,900 administrative arrests for immigration violations during work-site enforcement operations.

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0808/080820santaana.htm>

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