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The little girl flung from a minivan yesterday morning in west Omaha has died, according to the Omaha Police Department. Josie Bluhm, 4, was in a 2007 Chrysler Town & Country driven by her mother when the crash occurred. Her mother's minivan was southbound on 180th Street about 7:25 a.m. Tuesday when a 2007 Ford F-150 pickup driven west on West Center Road by Eleazar Rangel-Ochoa, 27, ran a red light and slammed into it, authorities said. Josie was the most severely hurt of those injured in the crash. She suffered brain hemorrhaging and was eventually declared brain dead. Life...

LIMA -- Public health authorities of South American countries took precautionary measures to fend off a possible pandemic after a deadly swine flu virus claimed dozens of lives in Mexico and infected at least 11 people in the United States. In Peru, experts with the Health Ministry said the ministry had initiated a nationwide precautionary plan to deal with potential threats, though no suspicious cases have been reported so far in the country. The Chilean Health Ministry expressed concern over the situation and drafted a contingency plan for epidemic prevention. It also ordered a public health alert that included health...

The acting director of the U.S. Census Bureau, Thomas Mesenbourg, told CNSNews.com that the bureau intends to work with community organizations to make sure every illegal alien in the United States is counted in the 2010 Census. The Census is used to apportion the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. There are 435 House seats that are divided among the states in proportion to their population, which is determined by the decennial census. States with more people get more seats in the U.S. House.

Drug War Doublespeak By Laura Carlsen | March 9, 2009 Through late February and early March, a blitzkrieg of declarations from U.S. government and military officials and pundits hit the media, claiming that Mexico was alternately at risk of being a failed state,1 on the verge of civil war, losing control of its territory, and posing a threat to U.S. national security.2

Heeding the advice of Gen. David Petraeus, Barack Obama has committed 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan and will keep 50,000 in Iraq after U.S. combat operations end in August 2010. But are U.S. vital interests more threatened by what happens in Anbar or Helmand than in the war raging along our southern border? Prediction: After all U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Korea have come home, there will be a U.S. army on the Mexican border. For this is where the fate of our republic will be decided, as the fate of Europe will be decided by the millions streaming...

Mexico’s attorney general said Tuesday he sees no need for U.S. troops to intervene in his country’s war on drug cartels, nor to gear up for a spillover of violence across the border. U.S. officials view the violence as a potential national security threat, and last month the Bush administration’s homeland security chief, Michael Chertoff, said Washington has drawn up contingency plans for a “surge” of both civilian law enforcement and military assets along the border. On Tuesday, Gov. Rick Perry demanded a tighter security net from Washington, saying he’s asked the Obama administration for more aircraft and “a thousand...

Guatemalan girl describes alleged enforced prostitution She testifies in federal court how a group of immigrants duped her into coming to the U.S., forced her to sell herself and kept her captive. By Scott Glover January 9, 2009 When Sandra agreed to make the perilous trek from her native Guatemala to the United States in 2006, she said, she was lured by the prospect of a job as a housekeeper that would enable her to send money to her impoverished family back home. Her father had a hernia that prevented him from working, and money was so tight that she...

THE SITUATION IN MEXICO: A. The Mexican State is engaged in an increasingly violent, internal struggle against heavily armed narco-criminal cartels that have intimidated the public, corrupted much of law enforcement, and created an environment of impunity to the law. • Thousands are being murdered each year. Drug production, addiction, and smuggling are rampant. The struggle for power among drug cartels has resulted in chaos in the Mexican states and cities along the US-Mexico border. Drug-related assassinations and kidnappings are now common-place occurrences throughout the country. • Squad-sized units of the police and Army have been tortured, murdered, and their...

Mexico has a serious drug problem these days. So serious that over 5,000 people have died this year due to drug-related violence. More than 5,000 dead. And that number keeps growing every day. How do you begin to understand that so many people are dying in Mexico? More than 5,000 casualties because of "narcotrafficking." That’s more than all of the American troops that have died fighting an actual war in Iraq. It is hard to keep a tally, but Mexico´s El Universal newspaper does a good job of keeping score. Mexican drug cartels, dominated by the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels,...

In Mexico's worst case of drug-related corruption in a decade, a drug cartel infiltrated the highest levels of Mexico's Attorney General's Office, paying as much as $450,000 a month to get sensitive information about anti-drug activities, Mexican officials said on Monday. The cartel even seemingly placed a mole inside the U.S. Embassy that fed the drug lords information from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to a copy of an arrest warrant seen by The Wall Street Journal and obtained by Mexican newspaper El Universal. A DEA spokesman said: "We are currently investigating this issue along with our Mexican counterparts."...

A good deal of what is posted on FR is based on misreading of the facts or outright xenophobia. Anyone who speaks on this subject should have some facts and understanding of the issues and solutions. Karl Rove did this in December 2006. The You Tube presentation at CSPAN can be found: HERE.

While we haven’t seen the results of the toxicology reports (yet), we can draw on events of the past and make a reasonable assumption. We can’t say with absolute certainty that Mario Cadena was drunk when he ran that stop sign and killed all those people, but we can say that as an alcoholic with a history of drunk driving there is a good chance that he was intoxicated. I think Mario’s reputation was defamed a long time ago.

Over 190,000 Arizonans petitioned to put Prop. 200 on the ballot. As it simply required proof of citizenship before receiving the benefits and privileges of citizenship, who could oppose it? Answer: the entire GOP congressional delegation, led by Sen. John McCain. For conservatives, the stakes could not be higher. For on the great controversies, McCain has sided as often with the Democrats and the Big Media that pay him court as with conservatives. Where President Bush has been bravest, on taxes and judges, McCain has been his nemesis. Not only did McCain vote against the Bush tax cuts twice, he...

ROME — The rape and killing of an Italian navy officer's wife, reportedly by a Romanian immigrant, has outraged Italians and prompted Prime Minister Romano Prodi's government to expel dozens of foreign nationals...The decree, criticized by Romanian officials as potentially xenophobic, was introduced by Mr. Prodi's often sleepy center-left Cabinet with atypical alacrity... Italians shocked by the sex slaying late last week of 47-year-old Giovanna Reggiani, a school teacher of religious studies and the wife of a naval captain, lashed out against immigrants. Hooded vigilantes linked to a far-right group attacked a group of Romanians in the capital with iron...

Informer tells of corrupt Mexico October 25, 2007 By Jerry Seper - An informant who worked for U.S. authorities for more than four years says government, police and military authorities in Mexico have been corrupted by drug smugglers, often carrying out kidnappings and killings on the orders of drug cartel bosses. The accusations are outlined in sworn testimony before a U.S. immigration judge by Guillermo Eduardo Ramirez Peyro, a former Mexican police officer who was paid $224,000 for information U.S. anti-drug agents used to convict dozens of high-ranking Mexican drug traffickers. Ramirez told U.S. Immigration Judge Joseph R. Dierkes in...

Immigration Video Game Stirs Up Controversy Mon Oct 22, 7:05 PM ET - Those who object to a new immigration video game say it is making a joke out of a serious political issue. Marcia Kramer has the story. (Click on to the weblink provided to watch the news report.)

Feds reveal most descriptive details for a border wall, triggering another uproar in deep South Texas For the past year, South Texas officials and residents have seethed over federal plans to build a wall along the Rio Grande and the U.S. border with Mexico in 2008. They also complained that federal officials were keeping locals in the dark about exactly where the fencing would go and its design. Last week, the government removed the veil of uncertainty, disclosing the most detailed descriptions to date about the fence's design, proposed locations, construction schedule and potential environmental impact. According to documents posted...

Student tears Mexican flag; suspect remains at large 9/19/07 by Jeremy Hunt Daily Lobo A student took down a Mexican flag from a flagpole outside Scholes Hall Monday, tore it and took it to the Air Force ROTC office, police said. A summons was issued for Peter Lynch, 30, by the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court for criminal damage to property, said Lt. Pat Davis, spokesman for UNM Police. Davis said Lynch is not a member of ROTC, and it is unclear why he took the flag to that office. Lynch has not been charged because UNMPD cannot find him, Davis...

Jack Kinsella - Commentary - 08/13 The Omega Letter From the Arctic To The Caribbean National union leaders from the United States and Canada are growing more vocal in their opposition to the highly-secretive Security and Prosperity Alliance between Mexico, the US and Canada... The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is calling for a "National Week of Action" from August 10-16 to protest the SPP, even though hardly anyone knows what it really is. There are endless versions of the SPP, its goals, its leadership, its Constitutionality, and all of them different. The SPP is one of those 'hide...

During his six years in office, Former President Vicente Fox begged for the United States to be lenient with illegal immigrants entering its country. Fox has consistently been a proponent of amnesty for Mexican immigrants living within the United States [1]. The reasoning behind his statements can be found in many of the common mantras: Mexicans merely want to escape from poverty; they want to build better lives; they help build the economy; they do the jobs Americans won’t do. Sadly, though, Mexico’s stance has nothing to do with “superior” moral values. It is merely politically expedient for Mexico to...

Constantino Hernandez considered it a blessing when U.S. authorities arrested him after walking for two days in the harsh Arizona desert. "I was rescued," said the 37-year-old Mexican migrant, who has been going to the United States illegally to work in restaurants since 1992. Hernandez was one of 74 migrants who flew to the Mexican capital Monday under a U.S. summer program, now in its fourth year, that gives participants free transportation all the way to their hometowns instead of simply deporting them back across the border. Washington touts the $15 million program as a way to reduce migrant deaths...

(On This Day in History) June 21, 1916: (General John J.) Pershing attacked by Mexican troops The controversial U.S. military expedition against Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa brings the United States and Mexico closer to war when Mexican government troops attack U.S. Brigadier General John J. Pershing's force at Carrizal, Mexico. The Americans suffered 22 casualties, and more than 30 Mexicans were killed. Against the protests of Venustiano Carranza's government, Pershing had been penetrating deep into Mexico in pursuit of Pancho Villa. After routing the small Mexican force at Carrizal, the U.S. expedition continued on its southern course. In 1914, following...

Comprehensive immigration reform is in jeopardy because it is a complex compromise with too many moving parts and too many competing interests. Employers want a guest worker program; unions want to kill it. Reformers want to introduce a point system that preferentially admits skilled and educated immigrants; immigrant groups naturally want to keep the existing family preference system. Liberals want legalization now; conservatives insist on enforcement ``triggers'' first. There is only one provision that has unanimous support: stronger border enforcement.

Title: To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act and other laws of the United States relating to border security, illegal immigration, alien eligibility for Federal financial benefits and services, criminal activity by aliens, alien smuggling, fraudulent document use by aliens, asylum, terrorist aliens, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep Hunter, Duncan [CA-52] (introduced 1/31/1995), Cosponsors (21) Latest Major Action: 3/15/1995 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims.

Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants tramping through fragile ecosystems and wildlife refuges discarding hundreds of thousands of tons of trash have caused incalculable environmental damage in Arizona’s Sonoran desert and the Rio Grande Valley. Yet, for reasons ranging from fear of alienating lefty donors to concerns over cutting off animal migration routes, environmentalists are opposed to border control measures.The Associated Press reports that environmentalists who have acquired and preserved 90,000 riverfront acres of Texas scrub and forest in the Rio Grande Valley over the past 30 years object to Department of Homeland Security’s plans to erect 70 miles of...

Illegal aliens have no right to march and or demand anything from the United States. Your killing our Country/Economy by: 1. Not paying taxes, and the money that you earn is sent back to support your extended families. 2. Collecting government money, when you don't deserve it. 3. Taking jobs away from Americans. 4. Taking/Scamming American benefits that you don't deserve. 5. Breaking Health and building codes through out the United States, so you and your whole family and all of your friends can over run a house and an entire neighborhood. 6. Sending your kids to public schools, when...

Nevada measure targets human trafficking Tucson, Arizona | Published: 04.12.2007 CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — A state Assembly panel voted Wednesday for a bill targeting "coyotes" who smuggle people into the United States after hearing attorneys general from both Nevada and Arizona describe widespread problems such as beatings and rapes of victims and violence between rival smugglers. AB383, by Assemblywoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas, was endorsed by Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and her Arizona counterpart, Terry Goddard, during an Assembly Commerce and Labor Committee hearing. The bill, which is similar to an Arizona law approved in 2005,...

Johhny Sutton. You hired him in 2001. It’s time he was on his way. Give him his walking papers. Let him go. Heck, give him a freakin’ medal like you did George Tenhet, I don’t care, just put his azz on the road. After crucifying Border Agents Ramos and Compean, this piece of legalistic trash has done it again: this time to a 25 year old Texas Deputy who had the misfortune of being the victim of attempted murder by a carload of illegal immigrants. They tried to run him over with a Chevy Suburban. He fired his gun at...

Asked again at a recent White House press conference whether President Bush would consider a pardon for two Border Patrol agents facing long prison sentences for shooting in the rump a drug dealer they were pursuing, Tony Snow said: "Border guards must obey the law, too." Apparently, Snow and the president are appalled about the fact that the agents retrieved spent shells at the scene; a violation of procedure in what was perceived as a cover-up of the incident. Snow's reaction in speaking for the president raises some questions in my mind. Hasn't the problem with the border and immigration...

- Williamson commissioners tour facility in response to residents' protests - When protesters expressed outrage last month that an immigrant- detention center in Taylor has children in custody and charged that they are housed in prisonlike conditions with substandard care, Williamson County commissioners pledged to learn more about the T. Don Hutto Residential Center. After touring the private facility in visits over the past two weeks, most commissioners say they are satisfied with the care for the families held there. "I think it's a very well-run facility, and they probably are doing the best thing they possibly can," said County...

MEXICO CITY -- Sylvester Stallone defended boxing, praised the hard work of Mexicans and dished out some jabs against U.S. plans to build a wall on its southern border, as the 60-year-old actor visited Mexico City to promote his sixth "Rocky" film. Stallone said Thursday that "Rocky Balboa," the latest installment in the underdog saga of the Italian Stallion, shows an ordinary man fighting back against life's difficulties represented by his stronger ring opponents. "It's like bullfighting or certain sports where you understand the brutality," he told reporters. "The thing is you have two men who are prepared; two men...

First it was the chaos. Then it was the confusion as to who was arrested and where they would be taken. Now, the Spanish-speaking residents of Cactus, Dumas and other neighboring communities who escaped Tuesday's raid because they either are here legally or do not work at the Swift meat plant, face an even bigger problem: what is going to happen to the more than 100 children whose parents were rounded up and arrested? "Right now the children are being taken care of by relatives or friends of those who were deported," said Orlando Gajardo, spokesman for the St. Peter...

-Attack on Americans on private ranch may signal shift in Laredo-area violence- I'm surprised it hadn't happened sooner, hunters being attacked or kidnapped along the border. The news that Laredo businessman Librado Piña Jr., his son and three other men were kidnapped Sunday from Piña's ranch just across the border in Coahuila was shocking in the brazen way the attack was carried out. Less surprising was the fact that it happened. According to news reports from Laredo, Piña, his son Librado Piña III, David Mueller of Roscoe, plus Fidel Rodriguez Cerdan and Marco Ortiz were taken hostage by a group...

VAN HORN, TX (AP) - For years, Sheriff Oscar Carillo all but gave drug runners a free pass in the rugged and desolate desert that makes up most of southern Culberson County. With an annual budget of about $720,000 and eight deputies to patrol nearly 3,800 square miles, he felt he had little choice. "We have no police departments (in the county) and we've had to leave the off road stuff alone," said Carillo, whose county begins three miles north of the Mexican border. But Houston radio talk-show host Edd Hendee has offered to donate a plane for Carillo and...

The government is considering creating an unprecedented security system for the Jewish community of Hebron, including never-before-used hi-tech laser radars, as part of a new NIS 400 million allocation for security systems at settlements, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The state-of-the-art Hebron defense system would be part of a second phase hi-tech settlement security project carried out by the IDF; NIS 300m. was spent on phase one over the past year and a half. The governmental body that creates security systems for settlements in the West Bank is a branch of the IDF Home Front Command called the Shabam Administration....

New Survey: Challenge for GOP Leaders is Motivating the Base Posted by Bobby Eberle September 7, 2006 at 6:39 am We are now in the home stretch of the 2006 mid-term elections. Pundits will say that it’s a tough year for Republicans, and they are right. Much needs to be done in these next two months, and one of the key challenges for GOP leaders is to motivate a grassroots base of activists who are keeping their wallets closed and feeling less inclined to help with get out the vote efforts. With over 2,500 responses received in less than 24...

Often, in the middle of a heated debate, people forget exactly what they're arguing about. But we employers on the front lines of American business cannot forget - we know why the nation must come to grips with illegal immigration. We know that Americans must face up to the reality of the foreign workers we need to keep the economy growing and bring them under the rule of law, for their sake and ours.

-Focus is on states' growing role in federal issues- When U.S. and Mexico border governors meet at the Texas Capitol today for talks on border security and trade, protesters outside will demonstrate against proposals to build border fences and make felons of people in the country illegally. The planned protests would seem misplaced, since those are federal issues, but the tempest that usually surrounds the nation's illegal immigration debate more and more is moving to the states. With Congress deadlocked on how to deal with an estimated 12 million immigrants living in the United States, Texas and other states are...

SAN YSIDRO, Calif. -- U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers arrested a U.S. man Tuesday morning after they say he tried to smuggle three migrants into the country hidden in the seats of his vehicle. CBP officers said they encountered the driver, a 33-year-old resident of Rosarito, Mexico, as he entered the port at about 5 a.m. driving a GMC Vendura van. According to authorities, the driver stated he was a citizen of the United States and presented a valid California identification and birth certificate to the officer. The primary officer said the driver has a nervous demeanor. The officer...

SEOUL (Reuters) - North and South Korean troops along their heavily fortified border exchanged gunfire for the first time in about a year, a military official said on Tuesday, with the incident coming as ties between the two have soured. North Korean troops fired two shots at a South Korean guard post near the Demilitarised Zone on Monday night and South Korean troops returned six shots, an official said by telephone. "No one was injured in the incident," the Joint Chiefs of Staff official said. One of the shots hit the guard post, causing South Korean troops to immediately return...

DONNA — Bandits shot hundreds of rounds of automatic gun fire at Hidalgo County Sheriff’s deputies and Border Patrol agents Wednesday from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. The deputies were responding to a call from two brothers who swam across the river after an initial gunfight at a ranch in Mexico, Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said. Treviño would not identify the two brothers, but said the two U.S. citizens are suspects in other criminal investigations. The two brothers called 911 around 7:45 p.m. Wednesday and told the operator that they were near the Brewster Ranch south of...

The security of the border should be the No. 1 priority for an immigration bill, Sen. Arlen Specter said yesterday, and he's open to a compromise that sets goals for border and interior enforcement ahead of a guest-worker program and path to citizenship for illegal aliens. The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said that in order for Congress to produce an immigration bill this year, President Bush must lobby personally on specific details in the bill -- something he has not done. "The president's got to be there. He's got to get involved, in my opinion, in the negotiations....

The President visited Federal a Law Enforcement Training Center in Artesia, N.M speaking about border and immigration issues. First Lady Laura Bush spoke at the Helping America's Youth Regional Conference in Indianapolis and Meadowbrook Collaborative Community Center Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga at the State Department Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld continued his far east trip today being in Indonesia. Former Presidents George H. W. Bush took part in a fund raising event at the Cape Arundel Golf Club in Kennebunkport, Maine Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island

"No human being is illegal," says a Quaker organization that will spend much of Wednesday demanding "real solutions" to America's immigration crisis. The group advocates a path to citizenship for people who came to this country illegally; it wants "worker rights" for future migrants; and "respect and protection of civil and human rights for all migrants and border communities." On the other side of the debate, those who insist that people should not be rewarded for sneaking into the country illegally will visit Capitol Hill on Wednesday, hoping to change the minds of so-called "Amnesty Republicans."

SAN DIEGO -- The world's busiest border crossing reopened early Friday following a nine-hour closure that occurred after federal authorities shot and killed the driver of a sport utility vehicle headed for Mexico, officials said. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents began following the black SUV after somebody reported seeing it pick up suspected illegal immigrants near the U.S. side of the Otay Mesa border crossing, said Lt. Kevin Rooney of San Diego Police Department. As traffic backed up near the border, the vehicle stopped on the shoulder. When agents approached and tried to get the driver to step out...

WASHINGTON -- I do not doubt the president's sincerity in wanting to humanize and regularize the lives of America's 11 million illegal aliens. But good intentions are not enough. For decades, the well-traveled road from the Mexican border to the barrios of Los Angeles has been paved with such intentions. They begat the misguided immigration policy that created the crisis that necessitated the speech that purports to offer, finally, the ``comprehensive'' solution. Hardly. The critical element -- border enforcement -- is farcical. President Bush promises to increase the number of border agents. That was promised in the Simpson-Mazzoli amnesty legislation...

What the president's immigration speech and "The DaVinci Code" have in common. What was missing in the president's approach the other night was the expression, or suggestion, of context. The context was a crisis that had gone unanswered as it has built, the perceived detachment of the political elite from people on the ground, and a new distance between the president and his traditional supporters. The president would have done well to signal that he knew he was coming late to the party, as it were; that he'd come to rethink his previous stand, or lack of a stand, and...

President Bush got it just right for once. His immigration speech had all the key moves he needs to keep his base in order and to reach out to the Latino voters who are the political future of the Republican Party.He began with the wall — the border fence. Whether made of concrete or of high-tech instrumentation, he has finally embraced the reality that border agents, no matter how numerous, cannot police a 2,000-mile border. And Americans have no reason to have faith that they can. Only a fence can control the massive flow of immigrants across our borders and...

Jim Quinn put forth this solution to the immigration "problem" in today's show. I'm presenting it here (with some minor modifications by me) for discussion. Basically, his solution is in two parts. PART ONE: SLAM THE BORDER SHUT! No proposal will work until we have complete control of the border. As long as its open, the problem will only worsen over time. Part of securing the border is SERIOUS santions against employers who hire illegal aliens. PART TWO: Once the border is secured, then we'll deal with the (however many) millions of illegals currently in the country. Step 1: Announce...

President Bush's plan for a "comprehensive approach" to immigration, outlined in a primetime speech last night, took one step forward today as the Senate rejected a call to secure the nation's borders before addressing other immigration-related concerns. In a 55-40 vote, the Senate dismissed an amendment by Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga, to bar the federal government from altering the status of any illegal immigrant until every border security provision in the immigration bill had been implemented and the Homeland Security secretary certified the border is secure. Isakson said anything less than an approach that put border security first amounted to...