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Editors comments in bold.
From an A.P. story we learn that members
of congress-- you know, the ones we elect to look out for our
(constituents) best interests--are just getting around to
realizing that allowing our rule of law to be trashed could
prove to be dangerous for Americans
- The arrest at a Texas airport of a woman with an altered
passport and muddy clothes has led some members of
Congress (why not all members of Congress, like our so-called
representative Kolbe?) to demand
that the Department of Homeland Security detain all non-Mexican
immigrants caught entering the country illegally.
Why not detain all people who attempt to
break our laws? Why do Mexicans get preferential treatment?
What is this, affirmative action for criminals now? Are
we not in a war on terror? Yet we discriminate between friendly
illegal invaders and un-friendly illegal invaders?
The lawmakers contend terrorists could be
among the thousands of non-Mexican immigrants who are arrested
then released into the country on their own recognizance while
they await deportation hearings.
But before releasing a detainee, officers
are required to confirm the illegal
alien’s identity and run a
background check to ensure the illegal alien doesn’t pose a safety risk or
threats to national security, immigration officials said.
You mean we have a federal law enforcement
agency that actually allows people to break the law? Well, bank
robbers should line up for their fair share of the loot, and
demand equal protection.
Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed, 48, tried to
board a flight in McAllen, Texas, near the U.S.-Mexico border,
on July 19 with a passport missing three double-sided pages.
She arrived in Mexico from London, then crossed into the United
States, apparently by wading across the Rio Grande, a federal
affidavit said.
She was charged with illegal entry into
the United States, falsifying information and falsifying a
passport. She is being held by federal authorities who are
investigating whether she has any links to terror activities or
groups.
A federal law enforcement official told The Associated Press that Border Patrol agents learned the FBI was interested in Ahmed after a Border Patrol supervisor called the FBI about the woman. Checks of her name in the multiple databases used by the Border Patrol did not produce any “hits.” The FBI refused to answer questions about why the woman’s name was not in databases available to border agents.
Of course, now we accept that federal law
enforecent agencies can refuse to release information, to
answer questions asked by the media or citizens--they do work
for us don’t they? To whom are they accountable?
“While we are thankful that law
enforcement personnel prevented her from boarding that plane,
the incident raises a larger issue, specifically, whether
terrorists from the Middle East are using our inadequately
patrolled land borders with Canada and Mexico for easy entry
into the United States,” Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., said
in a letter sent Tuesday to Homeland Security Secretary Tom
Ridge. Tancredo, one of Congress’ most vocal critics of
U.S. immigration laws, was one of 12 lawmakers who signed the
letter.
Nathan Selzer, an immigration advocate based in Harlingen, Texas, said lawmakers are exploiting fears of terrorism stirred by Ahmed’s arrest to accomplish their political or anti-immigrant agendas.
Nathan Selzer should be arrested and held
as a subversive attempting to accomplish his political
reconquista agenda supporting a serious pro-criminal agenda
that seriously undermines national security.
Between Sept. 1, 2003, and Aug. 2,
the Border Patrol arrested 57,633 migrants who were not
Mexican, said Mario Villarreal, spokesman for Customs and
Border Patrol, a Homeland Security agency. Of those, 23,322
were released on their own recognizance to await deportation
hearings, he said.
Congress gave the Department of Homeland
Security enough money this fiscal year to keep 19,444
immigrants a day in jails or prisons. The agency keeps an
average of 21,000 to 22,000 people a day in custody, said Russ
Knocke, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman.
Keeping everyone who is captured behind bars would require more
money for additional jail space, he said.
The vast majority of the detained
non-Mexican immigrants, which the agency classifies as
“other than Mexican,” are from countries in the
Western Hemisphere, such as Canada, Guatemala, Brazil, El
Salvador and Honduras, Villarreal said. He would not provide a list of the countries of origin
of the non-Mexican migrants released or how many were arrested
each year from each country.
There you go, another example of a public
servant refusing to tell the truth.
Republican U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla, whose
South Texas district contains 800 miles of the U.S.-Mexican
border, said immigration officials in the field may not have
the information they need to know whether it’s safe to
release a migrant.
Wait a minute! The law says it’s
never O.K. to release an illegal alien, they must all be
deported! None of them are to be released into the country.
That’s what ICE is mandated to do--stop illegal
immigration.
“You never know if one or two might
be programmed to beat the system. You just don’t
know,” Bonilla said.
Laredo Mayor Betty Flores said a Border Patrol chief told her Wednesday that the government would release about 80 “other than Mexican” detainees a day until they got the prison population under control.
“Here we are deporting the Mexicans
who want to work, penalizing them, and having these double
standards for everybody else,” Flores said. “Then
there’s Tom Ridge talking about security on the border.
How can we have security on the border if we’re turning
back Mexicans, but we’re not sending back people from
other countries?”
President Bush, Where are you?
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11 more invaders were
discovered in a lay-up area near Tombstone last Friday morning.
You can see they were well dressed and ready to blend in. None
of the 11 carried backpacks suggesting they were transported to
the location and told to wait for another ride.
Between Sept. 1, 2003 and
Aug. 2, the Border Patrol has arrested 57,633 people illegally
entering the country who were not Mexican. Over 9,400 of
those caught are convicted criminals. President Bush, Tom Ridge
and Janet Napolitano feel that American citizens victimized by
these criminals are expendable casualties.
The photo below shows Border Patrol
rounding up a group of 20 illegals in a field just behind a
seniors’ retirement community in Bisbee on Tuesday
morning.
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Earlier this year, an
international task force dubbed Operation Crevice arrested
members of a bomb-making ring in London. During the
investigation, officials overheard statements that there were
Jihadis in Mexico awaiting entry into the U.S. That coincided
with vague warnings from European imams about attacks before
the elections. As a result of this intelligence, surveillance
of border traffic from Mexico has been increased.
And that’s just what CHD has
observed over the past few weeks. Each time we have observed
groups approaching the “line” from Mexico in what
was once a virtually unguarded section of the border, we
hear on the scanner they are being watched by Border Patrol.
The past two weekends CHD has observed 6
large groups attempting to enter the U.S. illegally and border
patrol has held them on the other side -just what we have been
asking for. Thanks to all the Border Patrol agents out of the
Naco station who have been doing a superb job of keeping these
criminals on the other side of the line. Now all we need is the
support of President Bush and congress.
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One of the Constitution Party's newest
billboards is on Wade Hampton Blvd in Greenville near Bob Jones
University.
By Mrs. Kris Langville For the
Constitution Party
“STOP ILLEGAL
IMMIGRATION!” – That is the message of the
Constitution Party’s newest billboards in the South
Carolina Upstate promoting their candidate Patrick Tyndall for
the U.S. Senate. Tyndall is a Research & Development
engineer at a large automotive manufacturer, a former pastor,
and the father of five home-schooled children.
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Millions of illegal aliens are
already in the United States, and thousands more are teeming
across our undefended borders every day. Tyndall
discusses some of the grave consequences of illegal immigration:
“Of course many of them are
here just looking for a better way of life, and many of them do
work hard. But every illegal alien working here has a job
that an American used to have, a job that an American ought to
have. And those Americans who are fortunate enough to
still have a job are seeing their wages driven ever downward by
the vast number of illegal aliens in the job market.
Illegal immigration is costing
American taxpayers billions of dollars per year in education,
law enforcement, courts, prisons, health care, etc. In
addition, illegal aliens send much of their earnings back to
their home country — $14 billion annually to Mexico
alone! Money that should have been spent in the United
States, strengthening American communities.
Our undefended borders also
represent a serious threat to the security of the United
States. Terrorists from all over the world can easily
gain entry into the U.S. by simply walking across the Mexican
border into Arizona – already illegal immigrants from 26
different countries (including Middle Eastern countries) have
been apprehended in southern Arizona.
For the future of America, we MUST
secure our borders and deport illegal aliens now.”
Ted Adams, Constitution Party State
Chairman, points out that Tyndall is the only U.S. Senate
candidate in South Carolina who is actively opposing illegal
immigration. “None of the other candidates will
even mention it,” says Adams, “They pretend that
the problem doesn’t even exist. The American people
know better, and the vast majority of Americans want
immigration control NOW.”
Tyndall invites interested citizens
to join him in putting up more billboards across South
Carolina. Contact Tyndall’s campaign staff at
864-246-1000.
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The Associated Press
PHOENIX - A national group is disputing a
study that claims Arizona's Structured English Immersion
students learn faster than those in bilingual classes.
A study released Thursday by the Arizona
Department of Education showed that Stanford 9 scores of
students in immersion classes were higher than bilingual
education students in every grade level between second and
eighth in reading, language and math.
National Association for Bilingual
Education officials called the study "irresponsible,"
saying it does nothing to prove either instructional model is
better and is not scientific.
The state insists the study, conducted
during the 2002-03 school year, is valid.
James Crawford, executive director of the
national bilingual group, challenged Arizona to fund a study
that accounts for such things as level of poverty and students'
initial knowledge of English.
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ARIZONA DAILY STAR
A U.S. Border Patrol agent opened
fire on a vehicle Sunday near Douglas after the driver tried to
run over him, officials said.
The incident started at about 11:20
p.m. when two vehicles crossed the border. One of them, a Ford
Excursion, got stuck in a ditch just north of the border, but
it was pushed free by 10 people who had been hiding nearby,
officials said.
The driver turned north onto
Plantation Road, where the agent got in front of the vehicle
and used tire spikes to deflate two of its tires. The driver
turned around, drove off the road into the brush and then tried
to run over the agent.
At that point, the agent opened
fire, according to the Border Patrol. The driver was able to
escape back to Mexico.
The second vehicle, a Dodge pickup
truck reported stolen from Phoenix, also had two tires spiked.
It stopped on a border road, and its two occupants ran
back into Mexico.
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By David Meir-Levi
FrontPageMagazine.com | August 9, 2004
Dot # 1: A Growing Threat in the
Tri-Border Area of South America. (Terrorist and Organized
Crime Groups in the Tri-Border Area (TBA) of South America. A
Report Prepared under an Interagency Agreement by the Federal
Research Division, Library of Congress, July 2003.)
Since the early 1980's, Arab terrorists
have been sending thousands of their cohorts to the almost
inaccessible jungle and mountain region between Brazil,
Argentina, and Paraguay (known as the TBA, Tri-Border Area or
La Triple Frontera). Terror training camps and arsenals have
been established, virtually out of the reach of local law
enforcement or defense forces; and elements from Hezbollah,
al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, Islamic Jihad, al-Qaeda, Hamas, and the
Lebanese Drug mafia operate in partnership, freely and openly
in conjunction with local organized crime and corrupt
government officials.
The TBA has become a virtual haven for
Islamic terror groups and a base for terror operations against
South American targets. The large and growing Arab population
of these states (in excess of 750,000 by local estimates)
provides a community highly conducive to the establishment of
Islamic terrorist sleeper cells throughout the area. The
attacks in Buenos Aires on the Israeli embassy (3/17/1992) and
the Jewish Community Center (7/18/1994) are believed to have
originated from terror bases in the TBA. Since the mid-90's,
government forces have foiled many more terror attacks against
American, Jewish and Israeli targets, arresting some of the
perpetrators.
CNN reported that an Islamic terrorist
summit meeting was held in the TBA in late 2002, to plot
attacks in South America and abroad. Security forces believe
that future targets include USA and Israeli government offices,
Jewish community buildings, hotels, tourism centers, airports
and facilities of multinational corporations.
The TBA terrorist haven also operates an
immense money-laundering project, reaping profits from their
partnerships with the FARC and narcotics traffickers in the
widespread South American drug trade. Government estimates
place the total amount of money laundered since 1992 at more
than 172 billion dollars.
There is currently no effective
surveillance or containment of these terrorist activities.
Dot #2: Increased Terrorism in northern
Venezuela (U.S. News & World Report, 10/6/03, pp. 18ff.)
Another South American hub of Arab
terrorism has emerged recently in northern Venezuela near the
border with Colombia. Thousands of terrorists now occupy an
unknown number of camps in that region, and move about with the
support and collaboration of the Venezuelan government.
President Hugo Chavez plays host to a growing horde of Middle
Eastern terrorists from some of the USA's most notorious
enemies, including Libya, Saddam's Iraq, Syria, Egypt and
Pakistan. Thousands of Venezuelan identity cards have been
legally issued to these foreigners. Such cards can be used to
obtain legal travel documents and passports for unimpeded entry
into other South American countries and into the USA.
These terror groups are known to work in
conjunction with the Colombian anti-government insurgency
group, FARC. They offer FARC terrorists safe haven in
mountainous and unpatrolled regions of Northeastern Venezuela.
They may provide Hugo Chavez with a covert force that can be
used to support FARC against the Colombian government.
Venezuelan cooperation with these terrorists may buy President
Chavez a guarantee that terror assaults will not be perpetrated
in his country.
Currently there are no known terror
attacks that can be attributed to these groups.
Dot #3: Illegal Immigration at the
Southern Border. Not Just Hispanics, Anymore. ("U.S.
seizes 77 Mideastern aliens in southern Arizona," World
Tribune, 8/2/04; "Two groups of middle-eastern invaders
caught in Cochise county in past six weeks," Tombstone
Tumbleweed, 7/18/04; "Breaking silence over possible
terror threat," Defense Watch, 7/23/04.)
American border patrol agents arrested 158
illegal aliens in Cochise County, Arizona, on 6/13/04. One
agent, who speaks Farsi and Arabic, overheard dozens of
detainees speaking Arabic in the back of the detention vehicle.
He counted 53 of Middle Eastern rather than Hispanic origin.
His superiors told him to keep that information to himself; but
he reported it to the local newspaper, the Tombstone
Tumbleweed.
Just one week later, on June 21, 2004,
another group of illegals were apprehended, including 24 Arabic
speaking men. But at least as many or more escaped apprehension
and disappeared into the United States.
Border Patrol officials deny that there
have been any Middle Eastern illegals among those arrested, but
individual arresting officers attest to the accuracy of that
ethnic description.
Upon deeper investigation, the Tumbleweed
editor learned that since October 1, 2003, Arizona border
patrol agents have arrested 5,510 illegals from countries other
than Mexico, Central and South America. In addition, the
arresting officers noted that all of the Middle Eastern
illegals sported identical haircuts and moustaches; and while
their clothes were the typical illegal immigrant jeans,
baseball caps and jerseys, the Middle Easterners all wore brand
new clothes, still spiffy looking and clean (quite the opposite
of the usual rather frazzled appearance of illegals).
Connecting the Dots:
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But not when it comes to their countrymen
on death row in the United States
By IOAN GRILLO
Chronicle Foreign Service
MEXICO CITY - When some people in Mexico's
crime-ridden capital were asked what should be done with
kidnappers and rapists, they replied in no uncertain terms.
"Why waste money keeping the rats in
prison? Just hang them up and let them die slowly," said
Francisco Ramirez, 37, a stocky salesman hawking cable TV
packages in a downtown shopping mall.
"Dispose of them," said taxi
driver Rafael Galvan, 41, as he cruised past a bustling
marketplace. "Garbage like them pollutes the
environment."
Although Mexicans express opposition to
the execution of their countrymen in the United States, many
are supporting the notion of applying the death penalty in
Mexico, which has been plagued by a decade-long crime wave.
Under current Mexican law, only military
tribunals can hand out death sentences, and then only in cases
of treason, premeditated murder and arson. In practice, though,
no prisoner has been executed here in nearly five decades.
Mexico's influential Roman Catholic Church
and politicians from all parties have long spoken out against
the death penalty.
But a recent survey by the market research
company Parametria suggested that attitudes among the general
public have shifted. The poll found that 63 percent of Mexicans
now believe that rapists should be executed, and 55 percent
think convicted killers should be put to death. Several other
surveys reported similar attitudes.
Some politicians and high-ranking
officials have joined the chorus calling for capital
punishment. Federal Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha
and Public Safety Secretary Alejandro Gertz Manero recently
urged Congress to study the issue.
The increasing support for the death
penalty follows a surge in public outrage over crime. In June,
an estimated 250,000 people marched through downtown Mexico
City to protest the authorities' failure to control
lawlessness. Some demonstrators held banners demanding that
criminals be put to death.
A crime wave has engulfed Mexico since a
1995 economic recession threw millions of people out of work.
Many now feel threatened by the seemingly
high number of kidnappings, murders and rapes in urban areas.
Just last week, Mexico City authorities found the body of an
abducted physician who had been honored for her work in
rehabilitative medicine.
Across Mexico, 3,000 people were kidnapped
for ransom last year, according to Kroll Inc., a New York-based
security company.
"When I was young, it was safe to
walk streets. Now, I won't let my children go out alone at
night," said Irma Sanchez, 42, a maid. "If the
criminals won't stop, I say we have to kill them."
Many analysts and politicians, however,
doubt that the Congress will overhaul the nation's capital
punishment laws any time soon.
Pollster Maria de las Heras said many
people are displaying knee-jerk reactions to crime when they
talk about putting criminals to death.
"People are angry and
desperate," she said, "so when you ask them if
kidnappers should be killed, they say, 'Yes.'
"But as soon as the first convict is
taken to the electric chair and the first crying mother is
shown on television, they will change their minds," she
said. "Mexicans do not like violence."
Other analysts say that with the country's
justice system widely distrusted, any ruling that condemns a
prisoner would provoke a public outcry.
"While there are still reports of
torture and forced confessions, it would be crazy for Mexican
judges to hand out the irrevocable death penalty," said
Rep. Eliana Garcia of the center-left Democratic Revolution
Party.
Garcia, like many on the Mexican left,
blames economic conditions for the crime wave. More than half
of Mexico's 104 million people live below the poverty line,
existing on less than $10 a day, according to the World Bank.
Opposition to the death penalty here also
runs strong through the ranks of conservative politicians.
President Vicente Fox, a devout Roman
Catholic, has expressed fervent opposition to capital
punishment. In May, he sent Congress a bill that would prevent
military tribunals from sentencing defendants to death.
Fox, of the right-of-center National
Action Party, has also been outspoken in championing the cause
of Mexicans on death row in the United States.
In August 2002, the Mexican leader
canceled a visit to President Bush's Crawford ranch after the
Texas state government refused to spare the life of Mexican
citizen Javier Suarez Medina. Suarez Medina was subsequently
executed for the 1988 killing of a Dallas undercover police
officer.
After Suarez Medina was put to death, his
body was returned to Piedras Negras, Mexico, where more than
3,000 people attended his funeral.
However, pollster de las Heras said the
popular opposition to the killing of Mexicans in the United
States is fueled by nationalism rather than opposition to the
death penalty. Some of the same people who condemn executions
north of the border clamor for the death penalty here, she
said.
"When the victims are brought back
from the United States, they are given a national hero's
welcome," de las Heras said of the condemned convicts.
"Mexicans cannot stand to see the gringos execute one of
their countrymen."
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SAN ANTONIO (AP) - Five federal prisoners,
including one identified as a high-ranking member of a Mexican
gang, escaped Friday from a privately run lockup near San
Antonio.
Officials said the men apparently escaped
while they were outside for an hourlong recreation period at
the Correctional Services Corp. facility in Pearsall, about 50
miles southwest of San Antonio. Two perimeter fences were cut,
said Lionel Trevino, Frio County sheriff.
"There was a lady that was driving
down the street and saw them getting out from underneath the
fence," Trevino said. "They just walked down the
street and kept going."
Authorities launched a search for the
inmates using helicopters and dogs.
John Butler, a spokesman for the U.S.
Marshals Service, said the prisoners were in the pretrial
custody of the Marshal's Service office in Laredo, which uses
the jail under contract.
Officials at Correctional Services Corp.,
headquartered in Sarasota, Fla., did not immediately return
calls seeking comment.
The prisoners were identified as Reymundo
Flores Alaniz, 46; Manuel de la Fuente, 33; Luis Angel Garcia
Esparza, 23; Jorge Arturo Castaneda Silva, 22; and Victor Hugo
Nava Franco, 28.
Flores Alaniz, who is charged with heroin
possession, is a high-ranking member of the Mexican Mafia with
a previous conviction for murder, according to Department of
Justice officials in Houston.
Nava was arrested for allegedly entering
the country illegally, and the other three men faced
marijuana-related charges, according to a Marshals spokesman.
By Jeremy Michaels and Peter Fabricius
A fourth suspected South African with
alleged links to international terrorist organisations has been
arrested in Mexico, the South African government says.
The 29-year-old, with a Muslim name, was
arrested because Mexican authorities believed his travel
documents were not in order.
This is the fourth South African - or
holder of a South African passport - known to be detained
abroad for suspected terror links.
Two Gauteng residents were arrested in
Pakistan last week after a shoot-out at a house between
al-Qaeda operatives and security forces.
A South African woman was arrested in
Texas on July 19.
The latest arrest, on Tuesday, was
disclosed at a government media conference in Pretoria
yesterday.
Commissioner Rayman Lalla, head of police
crime intelligence, said that as well as those being
interrogated in Pakistan, two more were being questioned
"elsewhere".
South Africa was trying to gain access to
them. The government did not have "substantive details to
say that they are al-Qaeda or not", he said.
He was trying to establish whether they
were South African nationals or carrying false South African
passports.
The Cape Argus reported last week that
Farida Goolam Mahomed Ahmed, 48, had been arrested on July 19
after she attempted to board a flight at McAllen International
Airport in Texas near the Mexican border.
She was carrying a South African passport
with several pages torn out but no visa authorising entry into
the US. She reportedly told officials she had entered the US
illegally from Mexico days before. She was charged with illegal
entry but denied bail as a potential flight risk and is held
while the FBI questions her.
US Congressman Solomon Ortiz of Texas said
Ahmed was on a federal terror watchlist, but federal officials
have not confirmed this.
US authorities gave her address as
Fairlands, Johannesburg. At her home, her nephew then denied
she was involved in terrorism.
But yesterday Daniel Ngwepe, political
counsellor at the SA embassy in Washington, said the embassy
was trying to confirm whether Ahmed was South African.
"The FBI is not providing us with information after
repeated requests."
A Pakistan police chief said yesterday
that the two suspects held there were planning attacks in South
Africa, and two South African police sources said possible
al-Qaeda targets identified had included parliament and the
V&A Waterfront.
But government spokesman Joel Netshitenzhe
said yesterday there was no truth to reports about plans for
South African attacks.
Q: What's the difference between Ignorance
and Apathy?
A: Don't know and don't care.
http:
//www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/state/9354687.htm?1c
Arrest stirs fears on border security
Posted on Mon, Aug. 09, 2004
By John Moritz
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
McALLEN - The U.S. Border Patrol credits
the astute work of its agents at McAllen-Miller International
Airport for preventing 48-year-old Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed
from boarding a jet bound for New York last month.
But a senior South Texas congressman says
the bizarre sequence of events surrounding the woman's
roundabout arrival in McAllen and her subsequent detention
underscores the vulnerability of the border to potential
terrorists seeking undetected access to the United States.
Ahmed had flown from South Africa to the
United Arab Emirates, then to London and to Mexico City before
being smuggled across the Rio Grande about 10 miles south of
McAllen. As she was preparing to board a plane for New York on
July 19, two Border Patrol agents stopped her and asked for her
passport.
"They noticed she was acting in a
suspicious manner, so they detained her," said Eddie
Flores, a supervisory Border Patrol agent in McAllen. "Our
agents are always on the lookout for anything out of the
ordinary, anything that might pose a threat."
The agents at the airport found that
several pages had been torn from Ahmed's South African
passport. The document was not stamped for entry to the United
States, and she had no visa.
A search of her bags turned up muddy
clothing and boots, along with $6,300 in U.S. currency; 550
British pounds, worth more than $1,000; a South African
Krugerrand gold coin valued at $400; and a few Mexican pesos.
Although the U.S. attorney's office says
that nothing in the criminal complaint filed against her links
her with any terrorist organization, Ahmed remains in federal
custody without bail on charges that she violated U.S.
immigration laws.
Cathy Travis, a spokeswoman for U.S. Rep.
Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, said her boss had been
sounding alarms for weeks before Ahmed was detained that there
is more to worry about along the border than undocumented
workers from Mexico.
"He is scared to death that al Qaeda
is using our border with Mexico to gain entry to the United
States," Travis said.
Before leaving on a two-week trade mission
to China, Ortiz told The Brownsville Herald that people with
possible connections to terrorists have been detained after
entering the country from Mexico but were released for lack of
jail space. Ortiz, a 22-year House veteran and the senior
Democrat on the Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, said
his information came from law enforcement officers who patrol
the 1,600-mile Texas-Mexico border.
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By Anita Wadhwani
The Nashville Tennessean, August 4, 2004
The state Alcoholic Beverage Commission
(ABC) has begun cracking down on fake Social Security cards,
confiscating more than 800 in the past six months from
restaurant workers who may be illegal immigrants.
Bartenders and waiters are required to get
permits to serve drinks. ABC agents have confiscated the phony
Social Security cards from among 4,000 permit applications
since February.
On a recent afternoon, three waitresses
chatted in a south Nashville Mexican restaurant waiting for an
alcohol safety class in Spanish to begin when special agent
Michael Cawthon appeared. He asked for their Social Security
cards and immigration paperwork. "I'll keep these,"
he told one waitress, pocketing ID he suspected was fraudulent.
Cawthon told the woman she could get her papers back by showing
a letter from the Social Security Administration verifying her
identity. Then Cawthon left, returning to the commission's
office, where he slid the documents into a fat file bulging
with hundreds of unclaimed fake Social Security cards,
immigration IDs and driver's licenses. For now, no state or
federal agency is following up by prosecuting people with phony
numbers.
In Nashville, more than 20% of all
applicants for drink-serving permits are submitting Social
Security numbers that either don't exist or belong to somebody
else, said Danielle Elks, executive director of the Tennessee
ABC. When an investigator spots a fake number on an
application, he calls either the waiter or bartender and tells
them to bring in ID, which is usually confiscated on the spot.
"Only one person has returned to reclaim her documents
with a letter proving her identity from Social Security,"
Elks said.
In Knoxville, Chattanooga and Memphis,
where agents first began scrutinizing IDs two months ago, about
75 were confiscated. "There's a problem out there, and
this is just a small piece of it," Elks said. "But
what we are doing is very specific to our agency."
After Cawthon's visit to La Terraza
restaurant on Nolensville Road, the woman whose documents were
confiscated left quickly and a half-dozen other students never
showed up for the class, said Veronica Torres, an instructor.
Torres works for SPIRITS, one of 10 companies registered with
the state to offer five-hour classes required of anyone serving
drinks. Torres surmised they heard about or saw the agent in
the restaurant, which had no role in the class except as its
location. "Class attendees work in restaurants and bars
around the city," Torres said.
SPIRITS owner Martha Marston said she has
suspended the company's Spanish classes because she feels they
are being singled out for enforcement efforts. "I was told
I need to have Veronica tell her participants they need to have
a valid Social Security number, but not my other classes,"
in addition to asking the Spanish language participants to note
the state their Social Security numbers were issued, Marston
said. "It's inconsistent."
Elks said ABC verifies the Social Security
number on all permit applicants and doesn't single out anybody.
Most confiscated documents belong to applicants who identified
themselves as Hispanic on their applications, but Pakistani,
African and other immigrants also have submitted phony papers.
Cawthon was responding to a tip about
Torres' classes, Elks said. ABC staff had found that 29 of 30
students in her recent classes had submitted fake Social
Security numbers. "Neither Torres nor SPIRITS is suspected
of any wrongdoing," she said.
ABC's increased document scrutiny was
prompted by an incident two years ago. A permit-seeker had
submitted a number belonging to someone who already had a
permit. The Social Security Administration confirmed that the
information was a fake.
ABC requested training by Treasury
officials on how to spot fake documents. They got access to a
Social Security database to double-check numbers. Elks began
sending the names of applicants with phony documents to
immigration officials but stopped because immigration was
"overworked and undermanned." Lacking a large field
staff, the Bureau of Customs and Immigration Enforcement
focuses on illegal immigrants with felonies, immigration
officials said yesterday. Similarly, the Social Security
Administration focuses on workplace fraud and provides free
Social Security checks to employers but does not seek out
individuals using a phony number.
"Restaurant owners don't have the
ability, time or money to check for fraud in the high-turnover
industry," said Ronnie Hart, president and CEO of the
Tennessee Restaurant Association. Elks said ABC would begin
sending letters to people whose Social Security numbers were
submitted fraudulently.
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August 04, 2004
The following has been issued by Michael
Anthony Peroutka, Constitution Party candidate for President.
His Vice-Presidential running mate is Dr. Chuck Baldwin from
Pensacola, Florida:
Pasadena, Md. "All the recent talk
about the need for a so-called National Intelligence Director
and other additions to the already bloated federal bureaucracy
amounts to nothing more than just another reorganization of the
government's organizational chart without the benefit of real
change," said Michael A. Peroutka, Constitution Party
presidential nominee. "One of the most important things
the United States can do to prevent future terrorist attacks on
our soil is to secure our borders.
"Sadly, not only has the Bush
administration failed to do this, it has actually made the
problem worse by floating a so-called amnesty program that
would legalize 8 to 10 million illegal aliens," observed
Peroutka. According to a recent article from The Washington
Times ("Aliens program costs Bush," 8/3/04), the
Border Patrol has recently said that Bush's proposal caused a
surge in illegal border crossings from Mexico.
The article also points out that Bush's
permissive attitude towards illegal immigrants has angered his
party's conservative base. It also states that many
disenfranchised conservatives fully support Rep. Tom Tancredo
(R-Colo.), chairman of the House Immigration Caucus, an
outspoken opponent to President Bush's proposal who has pointed
out that thousands of these illegals come from countries known
to harbor terrorists. "I applaud the strong, principled
and constitutional stance that Congressman Tancredo has taken
in this matter. He has repeatedly warned the administration of
the need to secure our borders and to deport the millions of
illegal immigrants currently in our country and he is
absolutely right."
Peroutka concluded by offering the
following thoughts on the topic, "Bush's plan rewards
those who have broken the law. It does not make our homeland
safer; it makes it easier for potential terrorists to sneak in.
And despite claims to the contrary, this will not help our
country's economy, but instead will increase unemployment and
adversely effect the median pay scale.
"As president, truly securing our
borders and deporting illegal aliens will one of my top
priorities."
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The Associated Press
PHOENIX - Radar surveillance technology
used at nearly 200 Air Force bases around the country is now
being tested along the Arizona border as a means to detect
illegal immigrants.
The system was developed under a contract
with the Air Force by Scottsdale-based Sensor Technologies and
Systems Inc. It's being tested for 12 to 18 months along the
Arizona-Mexico border, STS President Walker Butler said.
The company has been doing trials in
southwestern Arizona for several months and plans to add a site
in southeastern Arizona within the next several weeks, he said.
Arizona is the only state on the Mexican
border where the company is testing the devices.
Testing the technology is another
component of the Arizona Border Control Initiative - an effort
to add more agents and better technology to deter illegal
entries through Arizona, the busiest illegal crossing point on
the Mexican border.
The initiative already utilizes
remote-controlled aerial drones and forward-looking infrared
thermal imaging cameras to search for migrants and smugglers.
A problem with the Border Patrol's current
system is that daytime and infrared cameras are fixed on areas
where agents think immigrants will cross, Butler said. Unlike
infrared cameras alone, radar can scan 360 degrees.
There may also be an opportunity to place
the devices farther north of the border to detect migrants that
may have been dropped off by smugglers, possibly reducing the
number of heat-related deaths among immigrants, Butler said.
The technology is cheap compared to other
options because it can be attached to camera poles - typically
five or six stories high - already installed along the border.
Each system costs about $100,000, should
the Border Patrol decide to buy the technology after testing is
complete. Comparatively, the cost of using two unmanned aerial
vehicles just for the summer is estimated at $4 million.
The Air Force has been using the
technology for years to monitor ramps at runways at bases.
Andrew Air Force base, where Air Force One is housed, is also
about to add radar
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LOS ANGELES (Aug. 5) - A Spanish-language
reality TV show is offering contestants an unusual prize: the
services of immigration lawyers to guide them toward a green
card for U.S. residency.
"Gana la Verde" - "Win the
Green" - began airing daily last month on KRCA-TV Channel
62 in Los Angeles. Owner Liberman Broadcasting also airs the
program on its San Diego, Houston and Dallas stations.
"People say that our show is like
'Fear Factor,' but it's different because the climax of the
show involves working," production manager Adrian
Vallarino told the Los Angeles Times.
The show's winner receives a year's worth
of help from attorneys to expedite the residency process, the
Times reported Wednesday. There's no guarantee of a green card.
Contestants have performed stunts
including gulping down live tequila worms, trapping a
butter-drenched pig and jumping between two speeding
18-wheelers.
A U.S. immigration official warned against
undue optimism for contestants.
"I don't think it's appropriate for
me to comment on the premise of a television show except to say
that they are holding out false hope to people," said
Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, adding that it "sounds very much like
exploitation."
The show has consistently reached an
average of 1 million Hispanic households and last week was No.
2 among 18-to-49-year-old Hispanic viewers.
"If it's true what they say, that
they are helping people get their papers in order, I think
that's great," said Luis Sanchez, 24, of Los Angeles.
"I don't think the show can hurt anyone. ... I don't think
the immigration service is going to go after anyone because
they are on the show."
Attorney Richard Sherman, representing
Liberman Broadcasting, said contestants are made aware of the
risks.
"If you're illegal, it probably would
be better not to be on anybody's radar screen," Sherman
said. "It's possible there is some risk of that. But I
don't think it's going to catch the attention of Homeland
Security. They have other things to do now."
Many of the contestants have student or
work visas or have applied to become residents.
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