Agents find more than 58 illegal immigrants in single home [TX]

ALAMO, Texas -- Federal agents acting on a tip found 58 illegal immigrants of various nationalities crowded in a single-story residence, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Friday.

Agents on Thursday found 15 women and 43 men, of which there were 33 Mexicans, 19 Brazilian, three Hondurans, two Salvadorans and one Peruvian.

The illegal immigrants were taken to the agency's Weslaco station pending formal removal back to their home countries.

You don’t even have to be a ‘slum lord’ these days. You just need to go out of town or on vacation. Word gets out that you are not home and BOOM! In they come, like cockroaches, swarming and sneaking and destroying.......

The following article was from last week in Phoenix; One dead in garage, two naked upstairs.....

A normally quiet Phoenix-area neighborhood stirred to life Saturday as Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies on the trail of undocumented immigrants discovered a body, several break-ins and two people in the nude all related to a tip on the controversial illegal immigrant hotline.

Deputies said they were doing surveillance in the area of 129th Avenue and Cherry Hills Drive in El Mirage when they got the call of someone trying to steal a car.

That turned into suspects hiding in bushes at a high school and then word of suspected drop house with a dead man inside.

“We have three people hiding out in a high school, a dead body and we have illegals all in this beautiful neighborhood,” said neighbor Evelyn Matthews.

Matthews said she was prepared for the shock of what she heard and saw as the drama unfolded.

“I was in there watching the Cardinals game when all of the sudden I heard this boom,” Matthews said.

When Matthews walked outside, she said she found a sheriff’s SWAT team surrounding two homes in her normally quiet neighborhood.

“Supposedly someone from next door in a drop house broke into two houses down the street and they’re hiding in them,” Matthews said.

Jimmy Wren waited to hear if undocumented immigrants were still hiding out in his daughter’s home while she was in Tucson.

We just put an alarm system in Friday,” Wren said. “They broke into her house a week ago Friday.”

Wren said a purse, a camera, a frozen chicken and some other little trinkets were stolen.

SWAT officers entered Wren’s home first and then sent a robot and police dog into the two-story house next door, sheriff’s deputies said.

Deputies said they had been tipped off they might find a man’s body in the garage and two more people upstairs.

“They found a dead body that was beaten and shot and two others hiding with no clothes on,” said Sheriff Joe Arpaio at the scene.

Deputies took four people into custody.

Arpaio credited the arrests to someone calling his undocumented migrant hotline to report the activity in the neighborhood.

“Why don’t they come out here and see what illegal immigration does to a neighborhood,” Arpaio said to critics of the hotline.

MSCO launched the controversial hotline in late July as a means to get tips about illegal immigration.

The victim is believed to be an undocumented immigrant, according to sheriff’s investigators. Deputies said they are trying to unravel how the man died.

http://ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=571282

See Street of Broken Dreams ...

Excerpts:

"A year ago, Angelita Medina Albarran, 47, a garment worker at St. John Knits, took out two loans from Fremont Investment & Loan to cover the entire $600,000 purchase price for 919 W. Camile St., a 1,450-square-foot bungalow. Her five grown children help pay the mortgage – $4,000 a month and scheduled to rise in May.

"La droga," Medina Albarran said. That's Spanish for "drug" – Mexican slang for a crippling debt. The people of West Camile Street, she said, are "endrogados" – hooked on debt.

AND

"Another bank repo is the 1922 Craftsman-style bungalow advertised as a two-bedroom, one-bath at 946 W. Camile St. It still has the original hardwood floors, built-in cabinets and a faux fireplace surrounded by green tiles. But the last owner added four bedrooms and two toilets without permits in an effort to pack in more tenants to help pay the mortgage."

...which is why I am not going to live in Denver (or in any other big city, ever, for that matter).

Yes, Denver has its problems; I am not denying that. Gotta say, though, that your chart is fairly meaningless. The Y-scale is unmarked, it doesn't say what year the data is based on, and it doesn't give the source of its data.

Also, other sites I've seen have stats that conflict with those.

This site has crime rates on a scale of 1 to 10. LA and Denver are pretty much dead even. You would think that based on your chart, Denver would be a lot higher than LA.

Also, see the per capita stats on Cityrating.com (based on FBI data for 2003), for L.A. vs. Denver.

Then, check out the stats for some of the places where I'm considering actually living. Places like Castle Rock, Parker and Littleton.

I work in LA but that's it; I have absolutely no desire to go anywhere near there otherwise. Trouble is, ALL of SoCal is suffering from the high illegal population, the traffic problems, the bad air quality (yes, even the air in places like La Jolla, right on the beach, is rated a 1, the lowest score, by the American Lung Association), and just a bunch of other things that affect the entire region, and I'm sick of it. As far as I can tell from visiting CO and from all my research, this is not really the case there in most of the burbs. Seems pretty good.

Also, truth be told, I was actually pretty impressed with what I saw of downtown Denver, around by Union Station. It looked clean. Regular people were out shopping around. There were nice restaurants, no freaks walking around, no bums, no trash on the ground. We had a good time there. Contrast this with downtown LA and the city blocks that surround its Union Station. Not a place I want to be, pretty much any time. Even Historic Olvera Street is a cheap dump now. Granted, maybe I didn't see the worst areas of Denver. But then I'd just avoid those areas. Same with the Colfax area.

I hope I'm making the right decision. I go back and forth on it a bit. The fact that family is there is a big draw. I feel like I'm ready for a new adventure somewhere else. Will miss the beach, but that's about it. (And even the beaches nowadays are so darn crowded with people -- mostly Hispanics, many of them wear their clothes in the water and not proper bathing suits, something that bugs me -- that the overcrowdedness just kills beach visits for me anymore. That and the fact that it takes FOREVER to get down to the beach in the first place nowadays due to the terrible increase in traffic over the past 2-3 decades.)

I know Colorado has some aspects that are not ideal. And I think about how it might be heading in the future. But I'm never going to find a "perfect" place -- that doesn't exist. But my research hasn't really discouraged me yet, and I hope for the best.

Uh huh. Another picture of the 2006 protest. Right, seen it.

OK, soooooo....did you even read my last post? You know, the one that said:

1. Your chart doesn't have any Y-axis labels and doesn't list its data sources.
2. I don't plan to live in Denver.
3. The towns that I AM considering living in have low crime stats that are nowhere near Denver's. (Did you check my links for those cities at all?)

I am starting to recognize a pattern in your posting history, not only in this threasd but in others like it. It goes something like this:
1. Search for threads that mention illegals or crime of some sort in X city.
2. Post a comment stating that X city "has more crime per capita in 5 of the 7 major crime categories than does Los Angeles."
3. If a protest rally picture is available for X city, post that too.
4. Pretty much ignore any further discussion.
5. Rinse and repeat.

Look -- As I've said here, I was previously aware of those 2006 protests. You don't have to show me another picture of them -- I've seen them. I also don't deny that Denver has its crime problems and that Colorado state has its illegal immigration problems. I know all of that. Be assured that those stats factor into my decision as to whether to move anywhere.

Perhaps a better approach for you, then, would be rather than just posting random charts with no Y-axes and pics of protest rallies and other negatives -- instead, how about balancing this with some positive, constructive advice? OK, so you are showing that Denver, Phoenix, and St. Paul are all crime-ridden illegal-alien havens that have X more crime per capita than Los Angeles, CA, and that these states have massive influxes of aliens. Fine. So then what would be your advice to me? Forget about Colorado as a place to live? Just stay out of Denver only? Forget about moving altogether, and stay in the burbs of L.A., since L.A. obviously has X less crime per capita than those other places?

You mentioned you're in Arizona. Based upon the stats I've seen on Phoenix, it has more crime per capita than L.A. also. Arizona state as a whole has an absolutely huge influx of illegals and is also one of the conduits for those who make it up into Colorado. Population growth in Arizona, largely fueled by illegal immigration, has painted that state bluer than California. So then, I have to ask, what is your plan for yourself? Are you moving out? If so, where to? And where would you recommend as best places to move, as alternatives to Colorado? Just curious.

Don't be so sensitive about someone posting pics or showing crime statistics, just because you happen to be moving to the same region.

I post stats comparing other cities to LA because it's an eyeopener, and many people can't believe it. Like showing someone there is more crime in Milwaukee Wisconsin than there is in Los Angeles. It wakes people up to what's happening right in their own back yard. Don't like it? Too bad.

I don't live in Denver or LA. However, those that think they can just somehow magically jump in their truck, or an airplane, and escape this by driving a state or two away are sadly mistaken. At one time, years ago one could do that. Not any more.

It's everywhere my friend. Don't be naive in thinking you can somehow escape this...You can't. Those days are over, unless you plan on moving to the middle of nowhere, where it's void of jobs, malls, people, towns, etc.

Oh, and I noted you apologized above for getting off subject here...Don't worry about it. It's a thread about a house in Texas full of illegally aliens. After about 50 or so posts, there isn't much to talk about when you figure there are probably thousands of homes just like this scattered all over the country. Thanks to our government, this has become typical. So then, I have to ask, what is your plan for yourself? Are you moving out? If so, where to?

And stop trying to make this something personal, or about me. It's isn't about me friend. As I said above, there is no escaping this any longer unless the middle of nowhere appeals to you.

Best of luck to you.

It's everywhere my friend. Don't be naive in thinking you can somehow escape this...You can't.

I understand that crime is everywhere, to varying extents. That, my friend, is a no-brainer. However: I'm sorry, but I think that you might be the one who is a little naive in thinking that it's somehow nearly the same everywhere, and that there is absolutely no escape from it no matter where you go, unless you move to the middle of nowhere. That is just simply false. There are degrees to these things.

Denver may have a bad per-capita crime rate, but every time I've visited it, I have enjoyed my stay and have not felt as unsafe as I do in downtown L.A. It is cleaner, I don't see any gangster-looking people walking around (mostly just professionals and casual visitors like me), I noticed no trash on the ground, and virtually no graffiti anywhere. Perhaps I was only on the "good" side, but the fact is that I enjoyed my visits there. And Parker, Littleton, Castle Rock, Golden, Englewood, Arvata and Broomfield are NOT Denver. (Just look at their crime stats, since that's your thing.)

It is NOT everywhere. You do NOT have live in the absolute boonies to be in a better environment than downtown LA or downtown Denver. You CAN just "magically" jump in a truck or airplane and escape high crime, just by -- get this -- going to someplace with lower crime. What a concept!

Regarding your statement -- I post stats comparing other cities to LA because it's an eyeopener, and many people can't believe it. Like showing someone there is more crime in Milwaukee Wisconsin than there is in Los Angeles. Like showing someone there is more crime in Milwaukee Wisconsin than there is in Los Angeles. -- You're just showing a single crime per capita statistic, which hardly tells the entire story of a place. Mexico has a much, much lower crime per capita statistic than does the United States. So let's all go live there, why don't we? Oh, wait...

I am not ignoring these negatives. But the thing that bothered me about your posts -- yes, on a personal level, so sue me -- was that they were:
(1) posted directly to me, not just as "someone that just happened to randomly post a pic showing crime statistics for the same region that I just happen to be moving to. No, you were responding directly to my posts, of course.
(2) overwhelmingly and obsessively negative. There is no light here, or anywhere; you can't escape it no matter what you do; we're all doomed.
(3) repetitive in nature. I post something, you respond with a picture of 75,000 illegals marching and a stat that supposedly shows -- despite its lack of a Y-axis scale for reference -- that Denver crime is a lot worse than LA's. I post a detailed response back, and you respond with...another picture of illegals marching and a repetition of the claim that Denver crime is a lot worse than LA's. It's like you didn't really absorb, or you simply choose to discount, everything that I have posted in response. You're just stuck in one narrow record groove that's skipping, and that's it.

So excuse me for getting a little personally annoyed.

I am seriously considering moving to CO mainly because family is there, the air quality is better, crime is very low in the places I am considering as home, the ratio of whites to hispanics is absolutely nothing compared to where I live now in SoCal -- I'm talking 88 to 95 percent whites, the freeways are only crowded during rush hour, the mountains are beautiful, and every time I've visited these places, I have felt mentally and physically healthier and not the least bit in fear for my life or property. Am I deluding myself? I don't really think so.

I take the Denver crime stats and illegal population stats under considering, of course (along with a ton of other stats that I've looked at). I am hardly naive when it comes to those; I have researched them thoroughly. But I also think that you can over-research things to the point where you are afraid to move anywhere -- that "it's everywhere," that no place is safe, and that the only way to escape it is to live like a hermit somewhere in the middle of nowhere. (The only problem with that is that, conversely, the more remote you are from everything, the more attractive a target your home becomes for criminals. Hmmm.)

The fact that you are not from Denver (and when was the last time you visited it for, say, a few weeks?) also tells me that perhaps you don't have the real-world experience that is critical in really getting an accurate picture of some of the places you post stats on.

I'm just curious to know where you live. Not as a challenge; just curious to know what place you decided to call home. I thought you had indicated Arizona, but I see now that that was you posting to stephenjohnbanker, not the other way around. (Sometimes FR's thread style, with the TO on the top and the BY on the bottom, gets me messed up, since just about every other forum I visit has the author's name near the top of the post.) But where are you? Since you seem to think that there is no escaping this suffocating crime unless you're in the middle of nowhere, I'm just interested in where you are and also what recommendations you might have for me in that regard, either towns in CO or elsewhere.

Thanks.

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A little photo "memory lane..."

"KillBill" pics

And of course "The Reason for the Treason"