Immigration

60 arrested in immigration raid

2009-02-13T16:25:00.000-08:00

60 arrested in immigration raid

Deputies from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office carried out a search warrant in a hunt for illegal immigrants at a Phoenix business Wednesday morning.

Dozens of sheriff's deputies arrived shortly after 6 a.m. and began questioning employees at Handyman Maintenance Inc., 2646 S. 19th Ave.

An employee's tip to the Sheriff's Office in November set the investigation into motion, said Sheriff Joe Arpaio said. Deputies were able to gather enough information for a judge to issue 67 warrants for employees suspected of identity theft and forgery

Read Article: Az Central

Posted by: Phoenix Auto Accident Lawyers

Most immigrants nabbed in violent-crime sweep lacked record

2009-02-05T08:08:00.000-08:00

Most immigrants nabbed in violent-crime sweep lacked record

For more than five years, U.S. immigration authorities have touted the success of a national program aimed at arresting and deporting dangerous criminals and fugitives.

In morning raids at homes around the country, federal fugitive teams have sought out immigrants with criminal records or outstanding deportation orders. And year after year, the Department of Homeland Security has received congressional support and increased funding.

New data released Wednesday, however, show that 73 percent of the nearly 97,000 people arrested by the fugitive operations teams between 2003 and early 2008 did not have criminal records, according to a report by the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

Read Article: AZ Central

Posted by: Phoenix Arizona Personal Injury Attorneys and Lawyers

Napolitano to face immigration questions

2009-01-15T07:20:00.000-08:00

Napolitano to face immigration questions

During her Senate confirmation hearing today to lead the Department of Homeland Security, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano will likely face criticism that she has been lax on immigration enforcement.

In her defense, she will be able to point to two major accomplishments: She was the first governor to call for National Guard troops to help shore up the porous U.S.-Mexican border, and she signed the toughest state law punishing employers of illegal immigrants.

Still, there is more to those decisions than meets the eye. And Napolitano's maneuvering on the issues may offer a glimpse of how she would approach immigration and border security as head of Homeland Security.

Read Article: AZ Central

Posted by: Phoenix Auto Accident Lawyers

Sheriff Joe Arpaio plans immigration sweep in Buckeye

2009-01-09T08:24:00.000-08:00

Sheriff Joe Arpaio plans immigration sweep in Buckeye

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio plans the latest in a series of "crime suppression" sweeps on Friday in Buckeye.

An estimated 200 deputies and posse volunteers will fan out near Interstate 10 and Miller Road.

Arpaio calls the area "a hotbed of human smuggling" that breeds violence. The sheriff's office says the bodies of 11 murder victims have been found in the area in the past five years, all determined to be illegal immigrants.

REad Article: Az Central

Phoenix Construction Site Accident Lawyer

Shortage of court interpreters worsening in U.S.

2008-12-24T08:44:00.000-08:00

Shortage of court interpreters worsening in U.S.

By Maité Jullian, USA TODAY
An existing shortage of certified court interpreters is worsening, court officials say, as law enforcement agencies step up actions against illegal immigrants.
Arrests leading to federal prosecutions and deportations reached record levels in fiscal year 2008, according to an October report by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Wanda Romberger, manager of court interpreting services at the National Center for State Courts, says that almost every state is being confronted with a lack of certified interpreters — who have to pass difficult exams — especially in languages other than Spanish.

"I don't know of many jurisdictions that would say they have enough qualified court interpreters," she says. There are about 3,000 certified interpreters, says Isabel Framer, chairwoman of the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators. Only 500, she says, work in languages other than Spanish.

Read Article: USA Today

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Illegal immigrants using cell phones to seek help

2008-12-10T08:06:00.000-08:00

Illegal immigrants using cell phones to seek help

TUCSON - Increasingly, illegal immigrants crossing the Arizona desert who become distressed are turning to cell phones to call for help, the Border Patrol says.

Patrol paramedics are seeing "a tremendous increase" in 911 calls made from illegal immigrants' cell phones so far this fiscal year.

Overall, rescues by the agency's search, trauma and rescue unit, called Borstar, are down from the same period 12 months earlier - from 341 to 294 from Oct. 1 through June 30.

Read Article: AZ Central Lawyer

Posted by: Phoenix Construction Site Accident Lawyer

Returning migrants find Mexico, themselves unready to adapt

2008-12-10T08:00:00.000-08:00

Returning migrants find Mexico, themselves unready to adapt

SAN JOSE DE LOURDES, Mexico - When her 3-year-old son begs for pizza, or when her family is shivering through yet another night in the Mexican highlands, those are the moments when Rosario Araujo misses America the most.

Just three months ago, Araujo and her husband, José Zavala, were still living comfortably, though illegally, as migrant workers in Gilbert.

He hung drywall for $10 an hour, and she cleaned houses. They had a small apartment, a washing machine and an occasional night out with their two American-born children.

Read Article: AZ Central

Posted by: Phoenix Auto Accident Lawyers

More drug tunnels being found on border

2008-11-25T11:05:00.000-08:00

More drug tunnels being found on border

Authorities are finding record numbers of tunnels on the U.S.-Mexican border, which signals that Mexican drug cartels are increasingly desperate to circumvent the hundreds of miles of new border barriers.

The majority of tunnels have been discovered along the border in Arizona, a state that has seen many new border barriers.

Since 2006, the year that Congress passed the Secure Border Fence Act, smugglers have bored 32 known tunnels into Arizona, more than all the tunnels discovered in the state before. Only four other border tunnels have been found outside Arizona since 2006

Read Article: AZ Central

Psoted by: Phoenix Arizona Personal Injury Attorneys and Lawyers

Napolitano pick signals moderate immigration approach

2008-11-21T09:10:00.000-08:00

Napolitano pick signals moderate immigration approach

In making Gov. Janet Napolitano his top pick to head the Department of Homeland Security, President-elect Barack Obama has signaled a moderate approach toward immigration and border policies and laid the path to pursue comprehensive reform later.

As the Democratic governor of a border state and a former federal prosecutor, Napolitano would bring to the job years of experience in dealing with border and immigration issues, something previous Homeland Security chiefs have lacked. She also negotiated the political minefield of the immigration debate in a state where the issue has often reached fever pitch.

Read Article: AZCentral

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Immigration advocates call on Obama for reform, end to raids

2008-11-14T12:46:00.000-08:00

Immigration advocates call on Obama for reform, end to raids

Nov. 11, 2008 01:13 PM
Washington Post
WASHINGTON - Dozens of immigrant advocates from across the country convened in Washington on Tuesday to call on President-elect Barack Obama to halt immigration raids, fulfill campaign pledges to revamp the nation's immigration system and offer the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants a path to citizenship within his first year in office.

The coalition, which includes activists from Los Angeles, New York and the Washington area, also announced plans to mobilize tens of thousands of immigrants and their supporters for a demonstration on the Mall on Jan. 21, the day after Obama's inauguration.

"We voted in the millions and now we're going to demand progress in the millions," said Angelica Salas, director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, at a news conference to publicize the coalition's efforts.

Read Article: AZ Central

Posted by: Phoenix Arizona DUI Attorneys

Illegal immigrants using cell phones to seek help

2008-11-07T08:34:00.000-08:00

Girl, 9, Battling Multiple Illnesses Fights to Stay in U.S

2008-10-17T17:11:00.000-07:00

Girl, 9, Battling Multiple Illnesses Fights to Stay in U.S

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A 9-year-old girl is battling an array of illnesses while her parents are fighting the family's deportation, worried that the child wouldn't receive good medical care outside the United States.

Lil Mejia was born in 1998 in the Dominican Republic following a difficult pregnancy. She stopped breathing shortly after birth, and seizures and pneumonia followed. She weighed less than 15 pounds on her first birthday.

Six years later, after many medical complications, her parents obtained temporary visas and brought Lil to Grand Rapids, where doctors at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital stabilized her condition: a rare combination of severe asthma, allergies, chronic lung disease and hormone deficiencies.

Read Article: My Fox Phoenix

Posted by: Phoenix Arizona DUI Attorneys

Community torn apart by SC immigration raid

2008-10-10T11:08:00.000-07:00

Community torn apart by SC immigration raid
Community torn apart by SC immigration raid

Last Edited: Wednesday, 08 Oct 2008, 8:23 PM MST
Created: Wednesday, 08 Oct 2008, 8:12 PM MST

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) -- When Magdalana Domingo Ramirez Lopez moved to this South Carolina city nearly two years ago to work at the chicken processing plant, she felt at home.

On weekends, the neighborhood near House of Raeford's plant was filled with the sounds of salsa music and the scents of Guatemalan cooking. She would shop with her three young sons at nearby businesses that catered to the immigrants -- some in the country legally, others not.

Read Article: My Fox Phoenix

Posted by: Phoenix Motorcycle Accident Lawyer,

Mexico smuggling gangs' new scam: 'virtual kidnapping'

2008-10-03T09:55:00.000-07:00

Mexico smuggling gangs' new scam: 'virtual kidnapping'

Scott Seckel
51 minutes ago

PHOENIX, Arizona (AFP) - Human smuggling gangs on the US-Mexico border are extorting thousands of dollars from families of illegal immigrants in Arizona by falsely claiming their relatives are being held hostage in a scam that has become known as "virtual kidnapping."

The smugglers, known as "coyotes," try to take advantage of the time it takes an illegal alien to cross from Mexico into the United States.

The trend began about a year ago, according to officials with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, and has escalated into one case per week.

"We're at the point now where it's almost a weekly occurrence," said Matthew Allen, special agent in charge of investigations for the Arizona office of ICE.

Read Article: Yahoo News

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Border Patrol expands transportation checks

2008-10-01T08:17:00.000-07:00

Border Patrol expands transportation checks

By Emily Bazar, USA TODAY
Border Patrol agents are stepping up surprise inspections on domestic trains, buses and ferries, nabbing illegal immigrants far from the border.
In Vermont, Washington, Louisiana, New York and elsewhere, the agents, who have the authority to search any mode of transportation within 100 miles of the border, are working routes that don't cross into Canada or Mexico. Most checks are at bus and train stations and ferry terminals.

Read Article: USA TODAY

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Mexico quietly helps emigrants to US learn Spanish

2008-09-26T09:02:00.001-07:00

By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ, AP Hispanic Affairs Writer
Wed Sep 24, 3:35 PM ET

MIAMI - For more than a decade, as the immigration debate has swelled on both sides of the border, the Mexican government has been quietly providing money, materials and even teachers to American schools, colleges and nonprofit organizations.

The programs aren't substitutes for U.S. curricula, but educators familiar with them say they provide a lifeline for adult students with little formal education by helping them become literate in Spanish — and by extension, English.

Yet many educators are wary of even talking about the programs, fearing they might stoke an anti-immigrant backlash.

The Mexican government, which spends more than $1 million annually on the programs, has many reasons to provide the aid to the immigrants and their children. The programs allow it to give back to the growing number of Mexicans living legally and illegally in the U.S. Behind oil, remittances from these individuals are the second-largest source of foreign income for the Mexican economy — almost $24 billion last year.

Read Article: Yahoo News

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Citizens' U.S. Border Crossings Tracked

2008-09-25T08:48:00.000-07:00

Citizens' U.S. Border Crossings Tracked
Data From Checkpoints To Be Kept for 15 Years
The federal government has been using its system of border checkpoints to greatly expand a database on travelers entering the country by collecting information on all U.S. citizens crossing by land, compiling data that will be stored for 15 years and may be used in criminal and intelligence investigations.

Officials say the Border Crossing Information system, disclosed last month by the Department of Homeland Security in a Federal Register notice, is part of a broader effort to guard against terrorist threats. It also reflects the growing number of government systems containing personal information on Americans that can be shared for a broad range of law enforcement and intelligence purposes, some of which are exempt from some Privacy Act protections.

Read Article: Washingtonpost.com

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Immigration rate slows as U.S. economy falters

2008-09-23T09:23:00.000-07:00

Immigration rate slows as U.S. economy falters
by Stephen Ohlemacher - Sept. 23, 2008 12:00 AM
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The wave of immigrants entering the United States slowed dramatically last year, as the economy faltered and the government stepped up enforcement of immigration laws.

The nation added about a half million immigrants in 2007, down from more than 1.8 million the year before, according to estimates being released today by the Census Bureau.

Read Articla: AZ Central

Phoenix Auto Accident Lawyers

Legal and Ilegals

2008-09-22T09:12:00.000-07:00

Legal and illegal, Latinos labor to rebuild Texas

PASADENA, Texas - All along the Texas coast, Latino immigrants are hauling away fallen trees, slashing through storm-tangled brush, patching punctured roofs.

On working-class corners, on ladders in front of Victorian houses, in the yards of ornate mansions, crews of men in dusty jeans, sturdy workboots and baseball caps are nearly as omnipresent in the post-Hurricane Ike landscape as blue tarps on rooftops.

These workers, who get picked up off the street by homeowners looking for quick, cheap labor, are helping to rebuild the devastated cities of southeast Texas.

Many of them are here illegally. Others are legal residents in need of income after their regular jobs were disrupted by the hurricane.

READ Article: After Ike - Legals and Ilegals

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Fla. lawmaker's son accused of smuggling immigrants

2008-09-19T10:01:00.000-07:00

Fla. lawmaker's son accused of smuggling immigrants
by Jerry Kammer - Sept. 16, 2008 04:14 PM
Republic Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - The son of a Florida congressman was arrested Sunday by U.S. Border Patrol agents near Willcox and charged with smuggling illegal immigrants.

Federal prosecutors allege that John Finlayson Boyd, 30, was smuggling four individuals in his pickup truck when he was stopped at a checkpoint. Two of them were lying on the floor behind the front seat and two others were concealed under a piece of plywood in the bed of the truck, prosecutors say.

Read Article: Immigration

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Immigration Resurfaces

2008-09-18T14:16:00.000-07:00

Immigration resurfaces on some state ballots

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — In a high school classroom, Xavier Chavez is trying to teach a group of restless teenagers about Manifest Destiny — the 19th century belief that the United States was divinely fated to stretch from sea to shining sea.
But these students are children of immigrants, and they first have to learn English. They might soon have to learn it faster if Oregon voters approve a ballot measure in November to limit the amount of time students can spend in English-as-a-second-language classes

Read Article: Immigration Resurfaces

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San Francisco Immigration

2008-09-17T10:53:00.000-07:00

S.F. mayor shifts policy on illegal offenders

07-02) 14:39 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco will shift course and start turning over juvenile illegal immigrants convicted of felonies to federal authorities for possible deportation, Mayor Gavin Newsom said Wednesday as he took the blame for what he conceded was a costly and misguided effort to shield the youths.

Read Article: Immigration

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2008-09-16T09:43:00.000-07:00

Man pleads guilty to smuggling immigrants in SoCal
By ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press Writer
Thu Sep 11, 5:54 PM ET

SAN DIEGO - A man pleaded guilty Thursday to running an organization that authorities said smuggled dozens of illegal immigrants per day through a live bombing range in southeastern California.

Javier Sanchez Perfino, 30, acknowledged running a group from 2003 to 2006 that smuggled people from Mexico through the Chocolate Mountain Aerial Bombing and Gunnery Range and eventually to Los Angeles

Read Article: Immigration News

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2008-09-15T11:38:00.000-07:00

Published on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 by CommonDreams.org
Today's Immigration Battle
Corporatists vs. Racists (and Labor is Left Behind)

by Thom Hartmann

The corporatist Republicans ("amnesty!") are fighting with the racist Republicans ("fence!"), and it provides an opportunity for progressives to step forward with a clear solution to the immigration problem facing America.

Both the corporatists and the racists are fond of the mantra, "There are some jobs Americans won't do." It's a lie.

Americans will do virtually any job if they're paid a decent wage. This isn't about immigration - it's about economics. Industry and agriculture won't collapse without illegal labor, but the middle class is being crushed by it.

The reason why thirty years ago United Farm Workers' Union (UFW) founder César Chávez fought against illegal immigration, and the UFW turned in illegals during his tenure as president, was because Chávez, like progressives since the 1870s, understood the simple reality that labor rises and falls in price as a function of availability

Read Article: Immigration

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