Immigration Reform

Border Patrol Has Issues with ACLU Operatives in Monitored Sector

By Chad Groening
April 26, 2005

(AgapePress) - Ap 26/05 - The union representing Border Patrol agents in the Tucson sector says its members have had no complaints about the volunteers taking part in the Minuteman Project, which is wrapping up this week in the Arizona desert. But apparently the Border Patrol has had some problems with the ACLU.

Since the first of April, volunteers with the Minuteman Project have been conducting what it refers to as a "citizens' Neighborhood Watch" along the Arizona-Mexico border, looking for illegal immigrants crossing over into the U.S. and reporting those sightings to the Border Patrol. The group reports that as of April 24, 315 Border Patrol apprehensions have been "directly facilitated" by Minuteman volunteers.

Mike Albon is a spokesman for U.S. Border Patrol Local 2544, which represents the agents patrolling the 27-mile sector where the Minuteman volunteers have camped out this month. Albon says there have been no complaints from his rank-and-file about the volunteers' work.

"The Minutemen have not caused any problems for the agents in the field," Albon states. "We have not received any complaints [about] any of their activities being out of line. They have been real supportive of the [Border Patrol] agents in the field."

But the union spokesman says activities in the area by American Civil Liberties Union representatives have been counterproductive. "Apparently trying to catch the Minutemen doing something wrong, [someone] has been going out there and setting off [ground] sensors," he explains. Those actions, he says, have caused extra work for Border Patrol agents in the field. "They're counterproductive in [doing] things like that," he says.

htp://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/4/262005g.asp

AgapePress - Ap 28/05 - A nationally known radio personality and former mayor of San Diego believes President Bush's so-called 'Guest Worker' plan is an unrealistic approach in dealing with the illegal immigration crisis. Roger Hedgecock is a talk-show host on KOGO in San Diego and frequently fills in on the Rush Limbaugh show. This week he did his broadcast from the U.S. capital as part of the "Hold Their Feet to the Fire" rally in Washington, DC. The gathering was an effort to raise awareness about America's need for better border control and to call the nation's leaders and lawmakers to account for immigration policies that perpetuate the problem.

Hedgecock feels one only needs to look back at Ronald Reagan's 1986 amnesty plan to see the folly of such programs. That plan, the talk-show host says, "didn't stop illegal aliens. We have 11 to 15 million now who've come in since 1986, have been encouraged to come in because they think now 'Well, if I stay here long enough, there'll be another amnesty.'" The KOGO commentator feels the offer of amnesty to illegal aliens is unfair to the thousands of legal immigrants who play by the rules to enter, work, and reside in the United States. "The legal immigrants, over the course of the last 150 years, have built this country. Legal immigration is good; illegal immigration is tearing this country down and exposing us to a national security disaster," Hedgecock says

AgapePress - Ap 14-17/05 - Massachusetts resident Bob Casimiro, one of some 1,600 volunteers
taking part in this month's Minuteman Project in Arizona, says the
illegal alien problem is hardly isolated to the southwestern U.S. border
states. In fact, he notes, "Even in my town of Weymouth it's becoming more
and more of a problem, and we know that they're getting up to
Massachusetts by coming across the [Mexican] border. So I thought it necessary
to come down here where the source is and be involved with this -- take
some direct action." Casimiro has been involved in the immigration
reform movement in his home state for nearly four years, and he currently
serves as executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition for
Immigration Reform. He says even his New England state has not been spared the
effects of unlawful immigration. For instance, Casimiro says the
authorities arrested a group of illegal aliens in a town called New Ipswich,
New Hampshire, about six months ago. "Of course, New Hampshire has a
border with Canada," the New Englander points out, "but where did these
illegal aliens come from? They were from Ecuador. So it's amazing that
it's all coming from the southern border." Committed to advocating
immigration reform, Casimiro says he intends to spend the entire month of
April working the night shift in the Arizona desert with the Minuteman
Project.

AgapePress - Ap 14-17/05 - Last month, the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
announced the arrest of 103 foreign nationals who had ties to a Central
American gang known as MS-13. Authorities have arrested several dozen of
the gang's members in the past several months. But John Keeley of the
Center for Immigration Studies says MS-13 members number in the
thousands, and "have penetrated the United States." The group's operatives "are
on the west coast, in the Midwest -- they're all over really," he
asserts, "and the brutality associated with this gang is remarkable --
murders, mutilations, maimings, rapes." Keeley says the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security has recognized the threat of the MS-13 and established
a task force expressly to address the criminal gang. However, he notes,
"because U.S. policies in terms of enforcement of immigration have been
so lax, we have now succeeded in importing criminal syndicates the
likes of which we have not seen before. The streets aren't safe." Keeley
says MS-13 operatives have met with al Qaeda operatives in Mexico, and
U.S. intelligence is concerned that the illegal alien syndicate may be
assisting the trafficking of al Qaeda operatives into the U.S. using the
very corridors that MS-13's own operatives have used.

U.S. Marine combat units Training Shortened due to Border Harrasment by Mexican Illegals

AgapeNews - Ap 20/05 - An immigration reform activist says it is an absolute embarrassment that U.S. Marine combat units had to have their training time shortened recently because their base was overrun by illegal aliens.

Virtually every Marine squadron headed to Iraq or Afghanistan receives combat training at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Arizona. But military officials recently told the Boston Globe that illegal aliens have been wandering onto the firing ranges, forcing important training to be shortened.

Rick Oltman, the Western field director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, says bureaucrats in Washington, DC, are not allowing the Marines to protect their base -- which he says encompasses patrolling and being a deterrent. "That doesn't mean attack anybody," he explains. "It just means to be a deterrent and to assist and, where necessary, to arrest the illegals who are coming across [the border]. This is the perfect example of just how wacko the whole system has become."

And it has nothing to do the ability of the Marines and the Border Patrol to do their jobs, Oltman says. "It's because the political leadership will not give them the okay to go ahead and do what is necessary," he states. Oltman says he is not surprised that the military does not want to talk to the media about this incident anymore.

"The public information officer at the training base won't even talk to the media. That's the latest word we've gotten," he says. "That just shows you they have nothing [to] say that will be acceptable to the American people." Oltman believes Americans just want their government to guard the nation's borders.

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -January 05 - Arizona has achieved a dubious distinction: For the first time, the state reported more apprehensions of illegal immigrants than California, New Mexico and Texas combined.

The latest landmark from fiscal 2004 numbers comes after seven consecutive years in which the Border Patrol's Tucson sector led the nation in apprehensions. And it is prompting some who have worked to stem the tide to ask why strategies successful elsewhere along the border have not worked in Arizona.

"It's time they got that job done," said Johnny Williams, a longtime Border Patrol agent who oversaw the Western region of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service from 1998 to 2002.

Story Here

USA Today - 05 - The 11,000 men and women who serve as the border's front-line defense are
overwhelmed. Despite an influx of new technology, such as underground
sensors and cameras that pan the desert, agents catch only about
one-third of the estimated 3 million people who cross the border
illegally every year.

Most of the illegals are poor Mexican laborers looking for work. But
officials are alarmed that a growing number hail from Central and
South America, Asia, even Mideast countries such as Syria and Iran. In
2003, the Border Patrol arrested 39,215 so-called "OTMs," or
other-than-Mexicans, along the Southwest border.

Rep. Culberson: Matricula consulars pose threat to national security.

The Brownsville Herald

July 22, 2004 — The debate on whether Mexico-issued identification cards can be falsified and used by terrorists across the border is gaining momentum as a U.S. congressman pushes to stop the cards’ use in the United States.

U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, is spearheading the effort against the matricula consular cards, which can be used to open bank accounts in this country and obtain driver’s licenses in some states.

Culberson on July 15 added an amendment to the Transportation-Treasury Bill to prevent the federal government from enforcing the cards’ use in the country.

He said the cards present a danger to national security, noting an FBI agent’s testimony last year that at least one person of Middle Eastern descent had been arrested with the Mexican ID card.

“The ability of foreign nationals to use the matricula consular to create a well-documented but fictitious identity in the United States provides an opportunity for terrorists to move freely within the United States without triggering name-based watch lists that are disseminated to local police officers,” Steve McCraw, assistant director of the FBI’s Office of Intelligence, testified to a U.S. House Judiciary subcommittee on June 26, 2003. “It also allows them to board planes without revealing their true identity.”

July 24/04 - Border Patrol field agents have shared some disturbing information with the hope the information will make it to the general public.

A flood of middle-eastern males have been caught entering the country illegally east of Douglas, Arizona. In the last month at least two documented accounts of Border Patrol agents encountering large groups of non-Spanish speaking males in the Chiricahua foothills and on trails along the high mountain areas.

On or about the early morning hours of June 13, 2004 Border patrol agents from the Wilcox station encountered a large group of suspected illegal border crossers, estimated to be around 100, just east of the Sanders Ranch near the foothills of the Chiricauha Mountains. 71 suspected illegal aliens were apprehended; among them were 53 males of middle-eastern decent.

According to a Border Patrol field agent, the men were suspected to be Iranian or possibly Syrian nationals. "One thing's for sure, these guys didn't speak Spanish and after we questioned them harder we discovered they spoke poor English with a middle-eastern accent, then we caught them speaking to each other in Arabic…this is ridiculous that we don't take this more seriously, and we're told not to say a thing to the media, but I have to," said the agent, whose name will obviously remain anonymous.

TEXAS - TWO GROUPS OF MIDDLE-EASTERN INVADERS CAUGHT IN COCHISE COUNTY IN PAST SIX WEEKS

On or about the evening of June 21, 2004, agents from the Willcox Border Patrol station apprehended 24 members of a larger group of Arabic speaking males located just east of the Pierce/Sunsites area of Cochise County. At least half of the males escaped capture and disappeared into the United States.

One event took place at the opening of the First Continental Congress. As delegates arrived in Philadelphia they learned that Charlestown had been attacked by British soldiers. In response, they voted to begin their meeting with prayer.

A local clergyman prefaced his prayer by reading Psalm 35 aloud, Novak says. John Adams wrote to his wife and described the event. He indicated, “[I] had never heard a better prayer, or one so well pronounced. I never saw a greater affect upon an audience.”

Adams continued, “It seemed as if heaven had ordained that Psalm to be read on that morning. ... It was enough to melt a heart of stone. I saw tears gush into the eyes of the old, grave pacific Quakers of Philadelphia. ... I must beg you to read that Psalm.”

Also included in Novak’s list of events indicating the religious nature of the founders is an incident that took place five months after the Declaration of Independence was adopted.

Full Story Here

Prague, 24 August 2004 (RFE/RL) -- The European Union's incoming commissioner responsible for immigration has issued a strong warning about what he calls a "time bomb" for Europe -- namely, a flow of illegal immigrants which he says is reaching flood proportions.

The commissioner, Rocco Buttiglione, should know. He has been Italian foreign minister for three years, and has witnessed the misery of illegal immigrants who arrive on Italy's shores each week. And they are the survivors. Many others die on the journey to Europe, lost at sea, or suffocated in stifling containers.

Buttiglione said in remarks to Reuters that the 25 EU nations must work much more closely together on immigration. He calls for the development of a common EU border control, and the establishment of migrant holding centers outside EU territory.

"Some of them are stuck there, because they have run out of money. They have given all their money to these unscrupulous smugglers. And these people have nowhere to go, sometimes they don't have anywhere to stay, they don't have any food, they don't have any security, or shelter."

He also calls for new channels for legal migration. And he urges extra aid for poor countries, to enable them to keep their own populations at home.

None of these ideas is new, says analyst Sergio Carrera of the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels. Carrera says the member states themselves have rejected much joint action at the European level.

"The role of the European Commission on immigration has been -- in my opinion -- quite good. But most of the policy proposals have not been adopted by the [member states acting as the] Council of Ministers. The Council has basically destroyed most of these proposals," Carrera said.

The reason for this, says Carrera, is that at the national level, the question of immigration is politically explosive. Purely economic studies may show Europe needs immigrant labor, but socially it is difficult.

"Of course, these are really sensitive issues for the member states. The member states basically fear that the EU might impose quotas and the numbers of migrants [that they have to accept]. [But] this is not the case," Carrera said.

Carerra says the matter has become more complicated since the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States. "After the 11 September attacks, most of the [EU] policies have been focusing on security aspects -- how to block illegal immigration and trafficking of human beings. That is very much needed, I agree. But instead of only focusing on policies like preventing illegal immigration, and expulsion [of illegal immigrants], we also need to develop a policy on legal migration, which may be really the step towards the solution to the massive flow of illegal migrants," Carrera said.

Commissioner-designate Buttiglione also says the EU must recognize that it is dealing mainly with economic refugees rather than political refugees, and must develop appropriate mechanisms.

In Geneva, a spokeswoman for the International Organization on Migration (IOM), Niurka Piniero, says successful examples of legal migration programs already exist.

"We already have labor migration programs. We have one that is very successful, between Ecuador and Spain. These people [the prospective immigrants] register with IOM in Ecuador. We have a database of 25,000 potential labor migrants. Then employers from Spain choose from that database. And so far, more than 2,000 people have traveled that way, and are now in Spain, with a regular contract, with social security benefits. They are not being exploited by smugglers or unscrupulous employers. It can be done -- migration just has to be managed that way," Piniero said.

Another policy which Buttiglione is intent on supporting is the establishment of "holding centers" for would-be immigrants in transit countries outside the EU.

Buttiglione suggests these holding centers could offer migrants humanitarian aid and information about job possibilities in Europe. They could also identify those individuals who are suitable to travel onward, and those who do not meet the criteria and should be returned home.

That proposal has been previously criticized as a violation of human rights, in creating what could be seen as something akin to concentration camps.

But Piniero sees merit in the idea. She says, for instance, that many immigrants end up destitute in transit countries, unable either to proceed to Europe, or to return home.

"Some of them are stuck there, because they have run out of money. They have given all their money to these unscrupulous smugglers. And these people have nowhere to go, sometimes they don't have anywhere to stay, they don't have any food, they don't have any security, or shelter," Piniero said.

In this way, she says, holding camps could offer a way of involving all the governments concerned -- the governments of the migrants' country of origin, the transit countries, and the EU -- in finding legal and humane solutions for these migrants.

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