Monday, January 10, 2011

Buoys strung on border canal to prevent drownings

CALEXICO, Calif. (AP) — A government agency on the front lines of the immigration debate has begun installing lifesaving buoys in a fast-moving canal along the U.S.-Mexico border where migrants drown each year as they sneak into the country illegally.

The debate over the lifelines has long presented authorities with a moral dilemma: Is it acceptable to do nothing when so many immigrants are dying in the water? Or do lifesaving devices lull immigrants into a false sense of security that they can conquer the channel while giving them extra motivation to enter the country illegally?...

[Full Article]
The Southwest could be annexed by Mexico soon—through votes

Phoenix and other parts of Arizona may becoming “less brown” every day, but according to the latest U.S. census data, Aztlán could become a reality. “The Southwest will become part of Mexico by the year 2060,” says MEChA professor Luis Maldonado. However, like David Valdez of Take Back Aztlán, Mr. Maldonado sees it happening through votes rather than violence.

[Full Article]
15 Immigration Bills Introduced Today in Maryland

WASHINGTON - A Republican delegate to the Maryland General Assembly is holding a news conference Wednesday to announce that he is filing 15 bills related to immigration issues, including the enforcement of an official state language and a watchdog group to study the cost of illegals.

Delegate Pat McDonough calls it "the largest number of illegal alien bills in the history of the General Assembly."...

[Full Article]
Faces of immigration: Man can't compete with illegal workers

Negotiating his work fee in a small Huntington Beach home in the 1980s, Scott Powelson suspected he would one day be replaced by workers from south of the border.

"Well you know, I can get this guy to do this for way cheaper," the homeowner told him at the time.

The woman told Powelson his competition spoke Spanish but very little English. While she couldn't quite comprehend everything the other man said, she understood the price.

Powelson, who had just given the homeowner his best bid to install ceramic tile, passed on the job. He would have had to take a 20 percent cut to match the price.

"I couldn't compete," the 59-year-old from Costa Mesa recalled on a recent weekday at a local diner where the food is cheap and plentiful.

"I realized flat out that I couldn't compete with these guys in ceramic tile, eventually they'd move into my field of expertise," he said. "I saw it coming way back. ... I started realizing that I'm bidding against these guys who come in from Mexico ... illegally."...

[Full Article]
‘Sanctuary policy’ set illegal alien free, now charged with child rape

On February 16, 2010, police in Prince William County, Virginia, filed charges against Marcos Banegas , 26, for forcible sodomy and aggravated sexual battery on an 8-year-old girl. The Honduran national has been on the run ever since, and remains at large.

It was a crime that could have been prevented if police in Montgomery County, Maryland, would have reported him to Immigration and Customs Enforcement when they had Banegas in custody. A year before he was charged with raping the girl in Virginia, he was arrested for second-degree assault on a child in Maryland.

However, because Montgomery County had an official policy against the police notifying ICE of a suspect’s illegal immigration status, Banegas was simply released after the charges were dropped by the girl’s mother, who was apparently dating Banegas...

[Full Article]
Dems' 'rising star' trained illegals for jobs
Ran program that kept aliens out of jail, cleared their criminal records

Kamala Harris, California's next attorney general, ran a program that trained illegal alien felons for jobs, kept them out of jail and even helped to clear their criminal records.

After those aspects of the program received local news media attention, Harris corrected the system but still allowed for illegal aliens already using the program to finish her program.

In the run-up to November's elections – where Harris won the slimmest victory in the Democratic statewide sweep – the news media released a slew of glowing profiles of the aspiring politician, casting her as a rising national star, comparing her to Obama or even labeling her as the "anti-Palin," as one Politico article put it...

[Full Article]