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WATSONVILLE -- Much to the fanfare of locals, El Salvador's vice president, Salvador Sánchez Cerén, made a stop in Watsonville on Saturday to greet elected officials and residents of Salvadoran descent. There are an estimated 5,000 people of Salvadoran decent in Santa Cruz County, said Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville. A former mayor, Oscar Rios, is of Salvadoran descent. "I think it's only natural that the vice president come here to the community to see how we can work and create a great relationship between California and El Salvador in terms of a wide range of issues," Alejo said. Among the...

According to Sen. John McCain, a member of the Senate’s Gang of Eight, criminals will not be legalized under the proposed bipartisan immigration bill. “Anyone who has committed crimes in this country is going to be deported,” the Arizona Republican declared on the Senate floor last week. However, as Washington Examiner columnist Byron York recently reported, “the bottom line is an immigrant could have more than three misdemeanor convictions in his background check and still qualify for legalization.”

TOPEKA -- About 50 college students who are in the U.S. illegally marched Tuesday on Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach's office urging him to stop working on immigration laws and to do his state job. The students from Kansas and Arizona delivered a letter to a staff member, who said Kobach was in his office but unable to meet with the students. The letter calls for Kobach to stop working on immigration laws and focus on his duties as secretary of state or resign for office. "I'm still standing and fighting to have the American dream," said Ernesto de...

Does anyone read the U.S. Constitution these days? American lawyers don’t read it. Federal Judge Susan R. Bolton apparently has never read it. Same goes for our illustrious Attorney General Eric Holder. But this lawyer has read it and she is going to show you something in Our Constitution which is as plain as the nose on your face. Article III, Sec. 2, clause 2 says: In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the...

Washington, DC– Citi and the Citi Foundation presented a $1,000,000 grant to the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) in support of its efforts to build the capacity of its almost 300 affiliates across the country working at the state and local level. These affiliates help advance opportunities for individuals and families through the asset building, housing and community development programs. "Citi and NCLR continue to be successful partners in transforming the lives of Latino families and communities across the country. Our support of the Raza Development fund in previous years to fund the growth of their community development facility...

PRISTINA, Kosovo -- Kosovo's parliament declared the territory a nation on Sunday, mounting a historic bid to become an "independent and democratic state" backed by the U.S. and European allies but bitterly contested by Serbia and Russia.....

AVIC I Will Build CF34s For Its Planes Fledgling Chinese planemaker AVIC I announced this week it recently signed a deal with General Electric to manufacture turbofan engines for its upcoming ARJ21-700 regional aircraft. Xinhua reports AVIC I (an abbreviation of its full name, China Aviation Industry Corporation I) will build the CF34-10A powerplants for use on its planes. A subsidiary of the planemaker will build the engines at a plant in the northeastern city of Shenyang. The partnership is billed as the first such agreement between a Chinese company and a foreign entity for the production of passenger aircraft...

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, a Mexican-American who overcame high obstacles on the road to success, is urging Hispanic parents to join the battle against the drug abuse, crime and street gangs that have harmed Latino communities. "If we allow drugs, gangs and crime to ravage our communities ... we will not realize the leadership potential of our community," he said Tuesday night at the National Council of La Raza's Capital Awards Gala. Gonzales was the featured speaker at the NCLR event, where Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) were recognized for their work in Congress to...

Many Mexicans who voted for Vicente Fox are bewildered. Four years into his term as president, the man who promised to kick the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, out of power forever now seems to have been kidding. The PRI is coming back, winning state election after state election, and Mexico's first president elected in a free and fair race doesn't appear to be doing anything about it. But other Mexicans should, because if the former ruling party returns to office in the next presidential election, in 2006, the country's democracy will have been short-lived. If the PRI returns, it...

QUITO, Ecuador Mexico and Washington agreed to introduce similar legislative initiatives whereby Mexican workers who paid into Social Security in the United States will be refunded their contributions when they return to their homeland, President Vicente Fox said here Monday. "The initiatives entail the recognition of all those (Mexicans) who have worked in the United States legally or otherwise, so they will have the right to the savings they accumulated while working in the neighboring country," said Fox, who is visiting Ecuador. During a news conference with Mexican journalists accompanying him on his travels, Fox announced that he and U.S....

Among the ballot measures that passed resoundingly in the election is one that no conservative can afford to ignore — Arizona's Proposition 200. It is a measure that will require proof of U.S. citizenship for voting and proof of legal residency for many public services. < el snip > I believe illegal immigration degrades immigration in much the same way that gay marriage degrades marriage. < le snip again > To condone illegal immigration is to condone anarchy. If illegal aliens are condoned for breaking the law because they are only escaping poverty, then by such logic we should also...

SAN FRANCISCO Supervisor Matt Gonzalez told The Chronicle editorial board last week that he liked to think Proposition F -- a measure he helped put on the city ballot that would allow noncitizens to vote in San Francisco school board elections -- was "an interesting issue to take up in a post- Sept. 11 world." The implication here is that the rest of America became xenophobic after the Sept. 11 attacks, but San Franciscans could show how broad-minded the Special City is by allowing immigrants to vote in school elections through 2008, at least through 2008. [El Snip] Watch the...

<p>A tall brick wall surrounds the Woodfield subdivision, protecting its 900 homes and 6,400 residents.</p> <p>Strangers are seldom seen in this enclave, and there is a sense here that danger, when it exists, lurks outside the high walls and beyond the streets with names like Southview and Southcreek, Rosewell and Foxwell.</p>

Despite poor prenatal care, Latino mothers bear babies as healthy as any group in California -- and in far greater numbers, according to a UCLA study to be released today. The average baby born in California is Latino, and Latinos make up nearly half the newborns in the state, the report concluded. Of those, half are born in Los Angeles County, where Latinos account for nearly two-thirds of all births. In spite of low income, low education rates and limited access to health care, Latino babies have a healthy profile," said study author David E. Hayes-Bautista, director of the Center ...