VoteKansas.org

Nearly 10 people were sent to the hospital after a truckload of undocumented immigrants collided with an SUV on Monday in Brooks County.

Emergency responders were called shortly after 11 a.m. to State Highway 285 about seven miles east of Falfurrias to find several people injured and a pickup on fire.

The truck carrying about seven undocumented immigrants made a left turn onto Farm-to-Market Road 1329, colliding almost head-on with an SUV carrying a 72-year-old Hebbronville woman and a male relative, said Trooper Benjamin Ramirez, of the Department of Public Safety.

Authorities also found several bundles of marijuana in the bed of the truck, Ramirez said.

Subjects - Illegal immigration, drugs, accident, injuries, Border Patrol.

A new FBI assessment has found there are now an estimated 1.4 million gang members in the United States with gangs expanding even infiltrating the U.S. military.

The National Gang Threat Assessment has found there are 33,000 officially designated gangs in the United States. The gangs’ 1.4 million members represent a 40 percent increase in gang membership since 2009. The FBI’s National Gang Threat Assessment has found that gangs are expanding in the United States and are responsible for up to 48 percent of violent crime in many urban communities.

FBI officials also say the use of social media sites has assisted in recruitment with youth becoming interested in gang culture and displays of bravado on Facebook and YouTube. The threat assessment notes that local police in Missouri have seen a rise in gang “promotion teams” using internet chat rooms to promote clubs and parties. Displays of gang signs and walks are found abundantly on YouTube which FBI officials say may influence youths to seek out gangs.

While FBI and law enforcement officials do not have estimates on the number of gang members in the military officials have seen gangs in 100 jurisdictions in the U.S. and overseas with 53 different gangs who are in every branch of the military.

“Gang recruitment of active duty military personnel constitutes a significant criminal threat to the U.S. military,” the threat assessment noted. “NGIC [National Gang Intelligence Center] reporting indicates that law enforcement officials in at least 100 jurisdictions have come into contact with, detained, or arrested an active duty or former military gang member within the past three years.”

“Some members are joining the military to get away from the gang life,” said Calvin Shivers, FBI assistant section chief of the Violent Criminal Threat Section, at a briefing today.

“Many gangs are sophisticated criminal networks with members who are violent, distribute wholesale quantities of drugs, and develop and maintain close working relationships with members and associates of transnational criminal/drug trafficking organizations,” the assessment noted. “Gangs are becoming more violent while engaging in less typical and lower-risk crime, such as prostitution and white-collar crime. Gangs are more adaptable, organized, sophisticated, and opportunistic, exploiting new and advanced technology as a means to recruit, communicate discretely, target their rivals, and perpetuate their criminal activity.”
Topics: illegal immigration, Mexico US Border, US Military, ICE, gangs

The far-reaching immigration debate in Florida and the nation has been going on for years, but until last week, the plight of students like Wendy Ruiz — an aspiring podiatrist — had been largely invisible.

Born and raised in Miami, Ruiz is a U.S. citizen. But in the eyes of Florida’s higher education system, she’s a dependent student whose parents are undocumented immigrants — and not considered legal Florida residents .

As such, Ruiz is charged higher-priced out-of-state tuition, even though she has a Florida birth certificate, Florida driver’s license and is a registered Florida voter. One semester of in-state tuition at Miami Dade College costs about $1,200, while out-of-state students pay roughly $4,500.

Many students are simply unable to absorb the increased cost. Ruiz has been attending Miami Dade College and, so far, has a 3.7 GPA but must work multiple part-time jobs just to pay for one class. Other similarly-affected students have completely given up on college.

“As an American, and a lifelong Florida resident, I deserve the same opportunities,” Ruiz said. “I know that I will be successful because I have never wanted something so bad in my life like I want this.”

Last week, Ruiz and several other South Florida students emerged as the lead plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit challenging Florida’s in-state residency guidelines. The same week, a Jacksonville state lawmaker filed a bill that would grant in-state tuition to students like Ruiz.

The lawsuit and the proposed legislation have focused attention on a little-known issue in Florida, where immigration activists have long concentrated on passage of a federal Dream Act.

The proposed Dream Act has languished in Congress for years. It would legalize certain undocumented immigrants who have been accepted into college or the military. These young people were typically brought to the United States illegally as children. Proponents argue they should not be penalized for the illegal actions of their parents.
Topics: illegal immigration, Anchor babies, Dream Act, Florida

The Obama administration is facing charges of hypocrisy for fighting a controversial Alabama immigration law while using the measure to arrest and deport illegal immigrants in the state.

Civil rights and Latino advocacy groups laud the Justice Department’s (DOJ) lawsuit challenging Alabama over its newly enacted immigration law, which allows state law enforcement officials to require suspected criminals to show proof of their immigration status.

But the groups blasted the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) continued use in Alabama of the Secure Communities program, which transmits the immigration status records of people arrested in the state to federal authorities. The new state law subjects the Latino community to racial profiling and the Secure Communities program places illegal immigrants who are arrested in line to be deported by DHS, the groups said.

“You have two agencies that are pursuing courses that are inconsistent with each other,” said Joanne Lin, a legislative council for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), in an interview.

“In Alabama, DHS is continuing to operate its immigration program, which means you have people who are definitely being processed and referred for deportation. DHS is actively pursuing a program that, in my view, undermines DOJ’s litigation.”

Matt Chandler, a spokesman for DHS, said that the department was keeping close tabs — through its Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties — on whether the civil rights of those arrested under the new law are violated.

Topics: illegal immigration, Obama administration, DHS, Eric Holder, Alabama

If there were only one way to sum up the illegal immigration crisis in the United States, the people who run the government in the nation’s Capital may have found it: Washington D.C., where our laws are made, where there the words “Equal Justice Under Law” are displayed over the Supreme Court Building and where the Chief Executive of the Republic resides … is now a sanctuary city for illegal aliens.

The District of Columbia became a sanctuary city on Wednesday after Mayor Vincent Gray signed a new order forbidding D.C. police to ask about an individuals immigration status.

Furthermore, Mayor Gray said District police will not help Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents execute federal warrants unless the individual has committed another crime.

The new order also forbids D.C. police from contacting Immigration and Customs Enforcement to inquire about an individual's immigration status.

Topics: Illegal immigration, sanctuary cities, I.C.E., Mexican immigration laws, Washington D.C., Mexico City

PHOENIX — Arizona has no legal right to sue the federal government for failing to secure the border, a federal judge ruled Friday.

Judge Susan Bolton acknowledged that federal law directs the Department of Homeland Security to achieve “operational control” of the border. And a separate law requires construction of at least 700 miles of fencing.

But the judge said both of those are only goals and that Congress set no deadline for when that fence needs to be completed. Bolton said that means Arizona cannot seek — and she cannot grant — an order for the federal government to do something.

Subjects: Illegal immigration, immigration court rulings, illegal immigration costs, DHS, Obama administration

On May 6, just hours before his asylum hearing, Mario de la Rosa, a Mexican immigrant living in Waukegan, waited in the parking lot of a CVS pharmacy for the person representing him in his case, Margaret Carrasco, to arrive. She never did.

Eventually, Mr. De la Rosa said, he drove to Ms. Carrasco’s home, where she handed him a messy stack of forms, all filled out in English and unintelligible to Mr. De la Rosa, who speaks only Spanish. Ms. Carrasco apologized for being too ill to appear in court, he recalled. He believed her. He had no reason not to.

He said he felt lucky to work with Ms. Carrasco, a bilingual immigrant activist in Waukegan and, he thought, a lawyer. She even allowed clients to pay her $500 fee in installments.

But sick or not, Ms. Carrasco, 51, may have had a more pressing reason to avoid representing Mr. De la Rosa in court: she does not have the proper legal accreditation to do so. On Oct. 14, Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed suit against Ms. Carrasco, accusing her of misrepresenting herself as an immigration lawyer and charging her clients “unconscionable fees” for services she did not even render.

Subjects - Illegal Immigration, misrepresentation, fraud, lawyer, memo amnesty, deportation, ICE.

Opponents of a new law that allows illegal immigrants to receive college financial aid were given the green light to begin collecting signatures for a referendum to overturn the measure, Secretary of State Debra Bowen's office announced today.

Led by Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, referendum backers hope to halt implementation of the California Dream Act. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the measure Oct. 8.

Subjects: Illegal immigration, state immigration laws, California Dream Act, undocumented college students, taxpayers

The use of local and state law enforcement officers to enforce immigration law isn't intruding into a federal function, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Thursday.

"It is not encroachment," Kobach said during a symposium focusing on illegal immigration and sponsored by the Washburn University School of Law.

Congress has contemplated and invited states into the regulation of immigration, he said.

Kobach was one of three members of a panel assessing the immigration landscape.

"Breaching Borders: State Encroachment into the Federal Immigration Domain?" is a two-day program conducted at the Bradbury Thompson Alumni Center on the Washburn campus. About 80 people attended the Thursday morning session.

Subjects: Illegal immigration, Kris Kobach, I.C.E., immigration facts, illegal immigration costs

Gov. Jan Brewer provides behind-the-scenes details in her new book about her handling of Arizona's controversial immigration enforcement law last year, including a tense meeting with President Barack Obama and her administration's attempts to avoid being branded racist over the crackdown on illegal immigrants.

Brewer devotes much of the book to defending the immigration law, describing it as a fair, effective and necessary response to what she said amounts to Washington turning a blind eye on border security. She said her administration was aware early on that the state would face an outcry and allegations of racism, and responded by making what they thought were important changes to the law to minimize those concerns.

Topics: Illegal immigration, state immigration laws, Governor Jan Brewer, SB 1070, border security

Chris Crane, president of a union that represents Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, testified in the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration last week that ICE agents have been told by ICE headquarters not to arrest illegal aliens who do not have a prior criminal conviction even if they are fugitives who have been ordered deported by an immigration judge or are individuals who have illegally re-entered the United States after being deported and thus have perpetrated a felony.

“Aliens who could not be arrested included but were not limited to ICE fugitives that had been ordered deported by a federal immigration judge as well as aliens who had illegally re-entered the United States after deportation, a federal felony,” Crane, who is also an active-duty ICE agent, told the committee on Oct. 12.

Subjects = Illegal immigration, I.C.E., criminal aliens, DHS, illegal re-entry, Obama administration

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that under the administration’s policy of exercising “prosecutorial discretion” in the enforcement of the immigration laws, her department is currently authorizing some illegal aliens to work in the United States.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking-member of the Senate Judiciary panel, asked Napolitano: “According to the information from your department, some individuals who are given relief will obtain work authorizations. So people with no right to be in the country will be allowed to work here. Is that correct?”

Napolitano said: “Well, senator, since around 1986 there has been a process where those who are technically unlawfully in the country may apply for work authorization. This goes to CIS [Citizenship and Immigration Services]. It's not an ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] or CBP [Customs and Border Protection] function. And those cases are reviewed by CIS in a case-by-case basis. So there’s no change in that process. Like I said, that goes back to the mid-80s that is contemplated now.”

Sen. Grassley then asked, “But yes, some of them could have an opportunity to work here even though they are here illegally?”

“Well, that happens now, senator,” said Napolitano.

The three agencies she mentioned are all components of DHS.

Subjects - Illegal immigration, Dept of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, memo amnesty, Chuck Grassley, Jeff Sessions, Simpson-Mazzoli Act, employment, guest worker amnesty.

President Felipe Calderon on Monday accused U.S. authorities of deporting Mexican criminals to save on judicial costs, a policy that ostensibly "exacerbates" violence.

Within the framework of the inauguration of National Immigration Week 2011 in this capital, Calderon said that, for example, U.S. authorities "are deporting up to 80,000 people in a year" into the border cities of Reynosa and Ciudad Juarez.

Some of these deported people "are migrants, certainly, probably all of them," although some were "already involved in criminal acts" in the United States.

"In the face of the dilemma of pursuing the legal process in the American courts, which implies costs for the administration of justice in that country, they simply prefer to deport them to border cities, by which the cycle of violence is exacerbated even more," he said.

Topics:  Illegal immigration, Felipe Calderon, criminals, deportation, Mexico

SAN DIEGO — The first Mexican carrier is set to roll over the border into Texas and head along Interstate 35 toward the U.S. interior within days, but the Teamsters union and two California congressmen haven't given up on stopping the cross-border trucking program that had been stalled for years by safety concerns and political wrangling.

U.S. Reps. Duncan Hunter and Bob Filner joined Teamsters President James Hoffa at the border Wednesday to take a bipartisan stand against the pilot project that will let approved Mexican trucks come deep into the U.S. The first Mexican truck will enter Texas on Friday on a route likely to take it through Austin.

The lawmakers and Hoffa were surrounded by more than 75 union members at a news conference near a major border crossing in San Diego. Hunter is a San Diego-area Republican, and Filner is a Democrat whose district includes California's border with Mexico.

Allowing Mexican trucking companies to deliver the goods rather than transfer them to U.S. haulers at the border will put American jobs and highway safety at risk, they said.

"We're literally taking good jobs here in America and passing them over the line to Mexico," Hunter said.

Subjects - Mexican trucking, NAFTA, Texas, Duncan Hunter, safety.

The Obama administration might be touting the nearly 400,000 deportations of illegal immigrants last year as evidence that the White House is tough on enforcement and dedicated to reform, but don't try to convince Rep. Luis Gutierrez.

The Illinois Democrat – perhaps the most vocal immigrant-rights advocate on Capitol Hill – said Tuesday that the record-breaking figure is "nothing to be proud of," but instead represents "a symptom of our decades-long neglect in fixing the immigration system."

"We are deporting hundreds of thousands of people who came to the country to work, raise families, contribute to the economy, and want nothing more than to be allowed to live and work here legally," Gutierrez said in a statement. "Setting a record for deportations and incurring the huge expense of sending so many people away is nothing to be proud of as a country."

The comments were a response to new figures from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) bureau indicating that the government deported 396,906 individuals in fiscal year 2011 — the most in the agency's history. More than half of those individuals (almost 55 percent) had been convicted of felonies or misdemeanors during their stay — nearly doubling the number of criminal deportations under President George W. Bush in 2008, ICE reported.
 
Subjects: Illegal immigration, deportations, immigration statistics, Democrats, illegal immigrant arrests

The federal government conducts studies on nearly everything, including one in which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spent $2.5 million to track cow flatulence and how it may contribute to global warming as well as a 1981 U.S. Department of the Army study on the proper way to buy Worcestershire sauce (Federal Specification EE-W-600F).

However, the feds have never seen fit to track the number and types of crimes committed by illegal aliens. Of course, given their miserable record on defending this nation’s borders along with the current crime wave which can be attributed to those who enter this nation illegally…it is not surprising that those charged with protecting the citizenry from foreign invaders would not want these numbers made public.

But, they may soon change.

Topics: Illegal immigration, Republicans, immigration bills, illegal alien crimes, Illegal Alien Crime Reporting Act of 2011

Hispanic Activists Cry Foul Over Arizona Being Awarded 2015 Super Bowl

The NFL’s decision to pick Arizona this week to host the Super Bowl in 2015 has outraged some Hispanic activists who had organized a boycott of the state after a controversial immigration law passed last year.

“In light of Arizona’s hate-based legislation, the action taken by the NFL serves as an endorsement of the state’s abhorrent actions against the Latino and migrant communities,” said Margaret Moran, national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the largest Hispanic civil rights group in the country.

“Instead of supporting efforts that would encourage stakeholders and community leaders to build alliances and re-direct state politics away from hate-based legislation, the NFL has chosen to prove an economic shot in the arm to state that will only continue to oppress an already disadvantaged community."

Subjects = Illegal immigration, state immigration laws, SB 1070, LULAC, NCLR

This article is about HR 3012, a bill to make it much easier for Indian and Chinese temporary guest workers to get green cards and stay here in jobs they were given in preference to American workers.  If this doesn't sound good to you, better contact your representatives fast, as this bill is the outcome of 6 years of stealth lobbying and is being fast-tracked right now.

Is it time for the U.S. to make it easier for highly skilled foreign nationals -- high-level engineers, medical specialists, research scientists, specialized academics -- to enter the United States for employment? Rep. Jason Chaffetz thinks so. He is a co-sponsor of the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act (HR 3012), which would eliminate the current numerical limitation by country (different countries have different limits) and adjust the limits on family visas without increasing the total number of available visas.

The numerical caps by country mean that an American business that needs a particular worker may not be able to make the hire.

"The current percentage cap has created a backlog of qualified workers," Chaffetz said. "American companies view all highly skilled immigrants as the same regardless of where they are from, and our immigration policy should do the same."

This is a good idea, and long overdue. The per-nation caps on immigration are relics of a bygone era when most people worked on farms or in assembly-line factories. High-level skills were of less importance because it was mainly the Americans who had them.

That is no longer the case. The assumption of the technical superiority of the American worker is long gone. To continue to thrive, American businesses need to tap an outside pool. Government needs to get out of their way.

Subjects:  Immigration, HR 3012, Jason Chaffetz, work visas, skilled workers.

As many as 10,000 children could be the victims of gang-related sexual abuse, it was claimed last night.

And the Children’s Commissioner’s Office said many more could be subjected to exploitation.

It is launching a two-year inquiry aimed at lifting the lid on the scale of the shocking crimes that reach into all parts of society.

The investigation will examine how often vulnerable children are being sexually exploited by organised criminal gangs and other groups.

It will study the appalling phenomenon of Asian men grooming white girls for sex and how teenage girl gang members can be forced into prostitution.

Subjects - Human trafficking, England, sexual abuse, sex gangs, crime, children, Asian, Pakistani, study.

Students in a Texas public high school were made to stand up and recite the Mexican national anthem and Mexican pledge of allegiance as part of a Spanish class assignment, but the school district maintains there was nothing wrong with the lesson.

It happened last month in an intermediate Spanish class at Achieve Early College High School in McAllen, Texas — a city located about 10 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.

Wearing red, white and green, students had to memorize the Mexican anthem and pledge and stand up and recite them in individually in front of the class.


That didn’t go over well with sophomore Brenda Brinsdon. The 15-year-old sat down and refused to participate. She also caught it all on video:

“I just thought it was out of hand, I didn’t think it was right,” she told The Blaze. “Reciting pledges to Mexico and being loyal to it has nothing to do with learning Spanish.”

She said she was particularly offended because the presentations in teacher Reyna Santos’s class took place during “Freedom Week,” the week after the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and on U.S. Constitution Day — the same day as Mexico’s Independence Day.

“Why are we doing their independence when it‘s Freedom Week and it’s also Constitution Day?” Brinsdon said.
Topics: Mexico, US Constitution, Mexican National Anthem, Texas