Suburban Man Accused of Driver's License Scheme

August 1, 2010

A suburban man faced federal charges last week after he allegedly drove two undocumented immigrants from Chicago to Albuquerque, N.M., with the promise that they could get driver's licenses without regard for their immigration status.

It all started with an ad in a local newspaper.

Jaroslaw Kowalczyk, 32, of Des Plaines, ran a series of advertisements in the weekly Polish Daily News that read: "Drivers license in the State of New Mexico. Social security not necessary. 100% guarantee," according to the criminal complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque.

For a $1,000 fee, Kowalczyk reportedly drove clients to New Mexico — at least a dozen people during recent months — where he helped them get an apartment lease, buy car insurance and take the written and driving tests mandated by the state.

New Mexico requires that driver's license applicants live in the state and show a utility bill or rental lease as proof of residence, according to the state's Motor Vehicles Division.

But unlike Illinois, New Mexico does not require proof of immigration status.

To read more, click here.

Post by [Chengwin Saephanh]

LGBT Groups Support Boycott Over Ariz. Immigration Law

August 11, 2010

As the debate over Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070 continues to rage, a myriad of LGBT organizations and activists have come together to demand action under a unified "Boycott Arizona" banner.

The National Council of La Raza, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the Human Rights Campaign are among the more than two dozen groups that have expressed their support of the boycott in their opposition to SB 1070.

Arizona Progress, an online communication hub for Arizona progressives, said it is important for the LGBT community to oppose SB 1070 because "the gay community cannot make advances in LGBT civil rights alone-we have to start being better allies for other concerns."

To continue reading, go here.

[Posted by Emily Solon]

Arizona Sees Drop In Legal Mexican Visitors

August 6, 2010

NOGALES, Ariz. - Amid speculation about how many illegal immigrants may be leaving Arizona under the pressure of new enforcement laws, a reverse phenomenon has gone largely unnoticed at the Mexican border:

The number of legal visitors entering from Sonora, many of them to spend money, has plummeted.

Total cross-border visits into Arizona in the months after Gov. Jan Brewer signed Senate Bill 1070 fell 17 percent compared with the same period in 2009, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. Four days after Brewer signed SB 1070 on April 23, Mexico issued a warning to its citizens about travel in Arizona.

The drop-off amounts to about 12,500 fewer people entering Arizona daily.

Across the entire southwestern border during that same time frame, lawful entries by land from Mexico fell less than 7 percent.

To read more, click here.

Post by [Chengwin Saephanh]

Former Gadsden Superintendent Sentenced For Child Sex Crimes

Phoenix, AZ August 5 --

A former Gadsden Elementary School District Superintendent has been sentenced to 100 months in federal prison followed by lifetime supervised release for attempting to travel to Mexico in order to have sex with teen boys and for possessing child porn.

Investigators say Albert Thomas "Tom" Rogers, 52, admitted to booking a sex tourism visit to Mexico through Yuma where he met someone whom he believed was the driver for the business (but in reality was an undercover ICE Agent). Rogers paid the "driver" $260 to cover the costs of his travel to Mexico, hotel, and sex with a young boy. Rogers admitted to being collector of child pornography which included a video of a child as young as five years old engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Rogers was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the San Luis Port of Entry.

To read more, click here.

Post by [Chengwin Saephanh]

Brewer Sends Stimulus Money to Border for Illegal Immigration Fight

July 20, 2010

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, claiming to "reject" the Obama administration's assertion that the border is more secure than ever, announced Monday that she's directing $10 million in federal stimulus dollars to tackle smuggling and illegal immigration.

On the same day the administration announced its plan to send 1,200 National Guard troops to the southwestern states, Brewer said she's sending the pot of stimulus money to more than a dozen border cities and counties -- as well as several tribes and the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

She said the grant money would be targeted toward fighting drug trafficking, illegal immigration and human smuggling.

To read more, click here.

Post by [Chengwin Saephanh]

Civil Rights of Illegals Violated?

11 Aug 2010, 5:11 PM MDT

• Reporter: Crystal Gutierrez

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A traffic stop that led to the deportation of two illegal immigrants raises serious questions about whether detained aliens are being informed of their rights under an international treaty, according to Mexico's consul in Albuquerque.

Consul Gustavo de Unánue said he now wants to see documentation that the civil rights of illegal immigrants from Mexico are not being violated.

According to the Mexican Consulate on July 9 an Albuquerque police officer pulled over a man and his sister and said they were speeding.

De Unánue said after the officer asked for the man’s driver’s license, registration and insurance he asked about the pair’s citizenship. De Unánue said the officer then called Border Patrol.

Soon after the federal agents arrived the sibling’s parents drove up and that is when their father’s citizenship was questioned.

To read more, click here.

Post by [Chengwin Saephanh]

Arizona Immigration Law Spurs Exodus to New Mexico

July 31, 2010.

A judge may have stayed the harshest provisions of the state’s new immigration law, but that hasn’t stopped the flow of scared migrants into New Mexico.

In the late afternoon of July 29, after hundreds of marchers and protesters had taken to the streets of Phoenix in opposition to Arizona immigration policies, a 20-year-old college student posted a Facebook update via her mobile phone: Just saw the “Welcome to New Mexico” sign :D

“Martina,” the Facebook poster, her 19-year-old brother and their parents are unauthorized immigrants who moved from Phoenix to Albuquerque, New Mexico on the day the law went into effect. A series of increasingly harsh immigration laws enacted in Arizona, culminating with the passage of SB 1070 in April, prompted the family’s decision to join what some officials say is a steady exodus of unauthorized immigrants from Arizona—an outmigration that has continued even after a federal judge in Phoenix slammed the brakes on key elements of the harshest state immigration law on July 27.

To read more, click here.

Post by [Chengwin Saephanh]

Arizona immigration law: State to appeal injunction

July 28, 2010

The appeal will ask the court to lift the injunctions put in place by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton earlier Wednesday and allow those provisions to go into effect until a decision is made on the merits of the law, Brewer spokesman Paul Senseman said.

As part of its motion, the Governor's Office also will ask the 9th Circuit to expedite its briefing schedule and its ruling on the matter, Senseman said.

Senate Bill 1070 was passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Brewer in April. It made it a state crime to be in the country illegally and stated that an officer engaged in a lawful stop, detention or arrest shall, when practicable, ask about a person's legal status when reasonable suspicion exists that the person is in the U.S. illegally.

To read more, click here.

Post by [Chengwin Saephanh].

The DOJ Cracks Down on Arizona Sheriff

Aug. 5, 2010

Our colleague Elizabeth Dias files this report:

If you've followed the illegal immigration controversy in Arizona, you'll be familiar with the state's hard-edged Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who is famous for dressing inmates in pink underwear and for boasting an all-female chain gang. Loved by conservatives, hated by immigrant-rights groups, Arpaio is now in the news for an alleged threat on his life. He's been making the media rounds claiming a Mexican drug cartel has put a $1 million price on his head via a text message tree.

Some people are skeptical, as Arpaio is known for his constant appetite for publicity. (Even though he is not up for election this year, he is running a re-election ad.) Cartels are an Arizona hot-button, but they have not been a primary target of Arpaio's. In the past few years his office has arrested 35,889 undocumented immigrants, compared with only 303 "coyotes," the popular name for operators of human-smuggling rings. No one has publicly confirmed that the threat is actually from a cartel, and no information has been released on how the cartel phone number was traced, but sheriff's-department officials say the threat originated from a Mexican throw-away phone.

To continue reading, go here.

[Posted by Emily Solon]

Guard Troops to Head to Border States Starting Aug. 1

July 20, 2010

By Dennis Wagner, USA TODAY

National Guard troops assigned to the Southwest border will begin to arrive Aug. 1, and the federal government is sending other reinforcements to stem the flow of illegal immigrants and narcotics entering the state, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Monday.

"These troops will provide direct support to federal law enforcement officers and agents working in high-risk areas to disrupt criminal organizations seeking to move people and goods illegally across the Southwest border," Napolitano said.

In addition, Napolitano said, hundreds more Border Patrol agents and Customs officers are being moved to the Southwest to prowl the deserts and operate inspection stations. She said Immigration and Customs Enforcement will open an office in Ajo, Ariz., and the Department of Homeland Security is sending a new team to Douglas, Ariz.

To continue reading, go here.

[Posted by Emily Solon]

ICE in Albuquerque Chills Battered Immigrants

July 20,2010

It's not only the state of Arizona. Albuquerque, N. M., illustrates the kind of fears spawned among immigrant victims of domestic abuse when local police departments team up with federal immigration agents.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (WOMENSENEWS)--Arizona may have been grabbing national attention for its anti-immigrant legislation, but in this city of at least 61,000 recent immigrants, life is also fearful for those who might be mistaken for the undocumented.

Among women suffering from domestic violence, fears have been heightened since May when the Department of Homeland Security's Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers began sharing workspace with local law enforcement. Now, some targets of violence worry that seeking police protection could be the first step toward deportation.

To continue reading, go here.

[Posted by Emily Solon]

Breakdown of Legal Challenges to SB 1070

For a breakdown, click here.

[posted by professor montejano]

Republican campaign to repeal 14th amendment

On Sunday, Sen. John Kyl (R-Ariz.) became the highest-ranking Republican to call for the repeal of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Appearing on CBS' Face the Nation, Kyl said that he opposes allowing children of undocumented immigrants to be granted U.S. citizenship and wants Congress to hold hearings on the matter.

In doing so, the Senate's no. 2 Republican didn't place himself on the extreme wing of his party's stance on immigration policy. Rather, he joined what is a growing movement that could very well shape the official policy planks of the GOP.

For full story, click here.

[Posted by Prof. Montejano]