Free Republic

COLUMBUS, N.M. – The U.S. Border Patrol is getting help from the U.S. Army to slow illegal immigration along New Mexico's southern border. Armored vehicles from a reconnaissance squadron based in Fort Lewis, Wash., were stationed along a 20-mile stretch of a highway between Columbus and Playas on Thursday, watching for illegal immigrants. Some of the vehicles with the 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment were equipped with mounted machine guns and long-range surveillance equipment. Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier said the surveillance mission isn't unusual and was planned last year. "These military resources provide more eyes and ears as force...

(Tucson, AZ) -- An immigrant rights group hopes that a petition will get a federal indictment against two of its members dropped. Two members of No More Deaths, 23-year-old Daniel Strauss and 23-year-old Shanti Sellz, are charged with Conspiracy to Transport an Illegal Alien and Transporting an Illegal Alien. The two were arrested July 9th after Border Patrol agents spotted them with illegals in their car as they drove to a Tucson church. Now, the group is trying to get ten-thousand signatures asking the charges be dropped. They still insist the illegals needed medical care.

What follows are posts from FReeper Mom of Two Soldiers, a Vacaville resident who has quite a bit of background knowledge of events of the last few years vis-a-vis the Sheehan's and Vacaville's response to 9/11. Post #700 Gary Qualls is not the only one at odds with Sheehan. We were present at the Vacaville caravan two days ago. From the articles in the Associated Press and in the San Francisco Chronicle, one would have thought there were two different functions. A head count indicated over sixty individuals were present to meet the caravan. Anxiously, while the group waited for...

Capitol Media Services PHOENIX - The nation's homeland security chief said Monday he wants help from the state Department of Public Safety on immigration issues - but not necessarily the help originally offered by Gov. Janet Napolitano. In a letter Monday to the governor, Michael Chertoff told Napolitano he wants the DPS to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in enforcing federal immigration laws. Chertoff specifically offered to have four DPS undercover officers work with task forces which target human smuggling in the Phoenix area. He said there are now two such task forces in Arizona; his plan would put...

One of the biggest names in the history of Arizona politics is joining the 2006 race for governor. For discussion purposes: One of the biggest surnames, actually. Republican Party activist Don Goldwater, a nephew of the late U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, confirmed Friday he will seek his party's nomination to challenge Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano. Goldwater declined to elaborate in advance of news conferences planned for Tuesday in Sun City West, Phoenix and Tucson. Goldwater's candidacy was reported first by the Arizona Capitol Times. Barry Goldwater, who died in 1998, helped found the modern Republican Party in Arizona and served...

Mercedes Maharis stands outside of her Hereford home Tuesday. Maharis has completed a documentary film about illegal immigrants in Cochise County. The area behind Maharis is a staging area where smugglers meet and pick up illegal immigrants. Her film "Cries From the Border" will be shown at the R & M Cinema Theater at 11 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. Mark Levy, Herald/Review SIERRA VISTA - As Mercedes Maharis looks out across the desert plains from her stunning mountainside home, it is a bittersweet experience. This was where she and her husband, Robert, had dreamed they would enjoy a peaceful...

A man wanted in connection with a triple slaying in Maricopa County surfaced at the Mexican border with his two missing children last week, but authorities didn't recognize them and let them leave, officials said. Authorities have been searching for Rodrigo Cervantes Zavala since July 10, when his two children, 18-month-old Bryan Cervantes and 3-year-old Jennifer Cervantes, were discovered missing a few hours after the bodies of their grandparents and uncle were found in a home near Queen Creek. Investigators suspected that Cervantes Zavala, a 34-year-old illegal alien, might flee to Mexico. Detectives called the U.S. Customs and Border Protection...

Six people, including four children, were murdered Friday night in what Yuma Police are calling one of the worst crimes in recent memory in Yuma. Authorities are currently looking for a male, 27 to 34 years old, who may have been the shooter. Yuma police officer remains alert at scene of six murders Friday night. Sun photo by Alfred Hernandez Police responded to 2037 E. La Mesa St. at 8:29 p.m. Friday night for a shooting. They found an adult male in the backyard of the residence with a gunshot wound, according to a release. The man was transported to...

PHOENIX Many Mexican immigrants are thumbing their noses at roofing jobs as they become more established in the Phoenix area. When they move on to better paying, less dangerous construction work, their old jobs are going to newly arrived immigrants from poor Central American countries. The labor shift in the roofing industry reflects a larger trend beginning to sweep across the Phoenix area. Although the vast majority of Latino immigrants coming to Arizona are from Mexico, tens of thousands of Central Americans have settled here in the past 15 years. Guatemalans are leading the way. It's also common to find...

DOUGLAS, Ariz. – Securing the U.S.-Mexico border is about more than trying to stop illegal immigrants, the head of the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday as he made his first visit to the border. "The issue of securing the border is a homeland security issue, it's an immigration issue and it's also a humanitarian issue," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Chertoff, a former federal appeals judge who replaced Tom Ridge earlier this year, said one obvious concern facing his department is potential terrorists' efforts to enter the country. "Obviously people who are probing to come into the homeland...

FReeper trteamer had asked on a thread last week (4/4/05) if there were some way to go out on the ‘net and find pictures of the trash that illegal aliens leave behind as they pass through our border counties.  I told him that I would check into that.  As I was looking, another FReeper, B58 Hustler, picked up on the topic and put together what follows.   He did the research; he found pictures at such places as Colonel Ben Anderson’s web site, DesertInvasion.com, KrisEggle.org, and local news outlets in Southern Arizona; and he put them into what follows. ...

Phoenix resident Alan Coffey, a Minuteman Project volunteer, fills a bag with clothing and other debris left by illegal immigrants near Stump Canyon Friday. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review) STUMP CANYON - The San Pedro Valley looks peaceful when seen from 5,500 feet up in the Huachuca Mountains. But looking at the ground can make the sight turn from beautiful to ugly. Trash left by untold numbers of illegal immigrants who use the paths in the mountains and canyons as their way north into the United States is spread around. Piles of plastic water and soda bottles, backpacks, clothing, airline tickets, toothbrushes,...

CORONADO NATIONAL FOREST, Ariz. Firefighters have cut a rough line around a wildfire burning in the Coronado National Forest near the Mexican border. However, forest spokesman Gail Aschenbrenner says fire crews remain concerned because of windy and dry conditions expected in the area today. Aschenbrenner says crews made good progress on fighting the fire last night and are working to strengthen their fire lines. The fire has burned across 121 acres in the remote area west of the Coronado National Memorial. No structures are threatened.

Sunday morning, Deborah Girard, Curt Stewart, Steve Fisher and Jack Treese look into Mexico from one of the Minuteman Project observation points on Border Road east of Naco. Suzanne Cronn ~ Herald/Review ALONG THE BORDER - As more U.S. citizens arrive daily to take up positions overlooking the border with Mexico, fears that gun-toting racists in the Minuteman Project would be confronting illegal border crossers were diminishing Sunday. Scores of volunteers from across the nation were being deployed in an orderly fashion starting Sunday morning, clustered in groups of four or five facing the strands of barbed wire that mark...

SIERRA VISTA - Sixteen illegal immigrants are seeking $32 million from a Cochise County businessman, his family members and the county sheriff for reportedly violating their civil rights last year. Roger Barnett, who owns a business in Sierra Vista and operates a ranch in southeastern Cochise County, is accused of assaulting, detaining and threatening a group of illegal immigrants a year ago on his property near Douglas. A federal civil lawsuit filed by the California-based Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund alleges Barnett held a group of men and women at gunpoint, threatened to let his dog loose on...

BISBEE - Supervisor Paul Newman wants organizers of a volunteer group coming to Cochise County to have a county permit to patrol the border. Newman, vice chairman of the county Board of Supervisors, said the "national call-to-arms for the Minuteman vigilantes" to gather in April means the county must take action to ensure the public is safe by requiring permits. County Planning and Zoning Director Jim Vlahovich, who met with one of the Minuteman Project organizers after Newman's Friday press conference, said a county permit for a planned two-day demonstration in front of the U.S. Border Patrol's Naco Station is...

TUCSON - Three young girls said they feared for their lives when Cochise County businessman and rancher Roger Barnett allegedly confronted them and two adults with a loaded rifle on Oct. 30, accusing the five of trespassing on his property. Monday, the girls spoke about the incident east of Douglas in a press conference arranged by the Border Action Network, a long-time foe of Barnett. Friday, a civil lawsuit against Barnett, his wife and brother, was filed in the Cochise County Superior Court seeking $200,000 for assault, battery, false imprisonment, negligence, gross negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Still...

TUCSON - A Douglas rancher known for detaining illegal immigrants faces a lawsuit from a local Hispanic family that accuses him of pointing a loaded rifle at them. The family is asking for at least $200,000 for emotional distress following an encounter with rancher Roger Barnett on his ranch, according a lawsuit filed Friday in Cochise County Superior Court. Ronald Morales, his father, his 9- and 11-year-old daughters and their 11-year-old friend were deer hunting on Oct. 30 when they encountered Barnett. Morales said Barnett pointed a cocked and loaded AR-15 rifle at the group - all U.S. citizens who...

SIERRA VISTA - The alleged driver of a stolen truck full of illegal immigrants is in a Tucson hospital with a skull fracture, a law enforcement officer said Sunday. The Cochise County sheriff plans to pursue criminal charges against the driver, who is believed to be responsible for the death of two Huachuca City residents and three illegal immigrants in Saturday's horrific crash. Officer Frank Valenzuela, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Highway Safety, identified the driver as Jorge Ortiz, 27, an illegal immigrant from Mexico. Ortiz apparently lost control of the 2004 white Ford pickup Saturday, crashing into...

This is breaking. A high speed chase around Sierra Vista and on to Ft. Huachuca has resulted in 7 deaths and 14 injuries. A stolen car with 5 people inside led police on a high speed chase along the Highway 90 bypass and on to Ft. Huachuca at speeds in excess of 100MPH. The stolen vehicle hit new barricades at the East Gate Checkpoint and crossed over the median, striking an outbound vehicle. 4 people in the stolen car have died, and 3 other people are also dead. 14 people are injured. There are no further details regarding the 3...