Free Republic

[“ ‘The problem is,’ Obama said, ‘if we secure the border, then you all won’t have any reason to support comprehensive immigration reform.’ In other words, they’re holding it hostage.” - Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) recounting a private conversation with President Barack Obama.] You’re right, Sen. Kyl. And I was one of the hostages. Sunday afternoon - Father’s Day - I was driving my four kids through Framingham to grab some ice cream and open my Dad’s Day gifts. We rounded a bend on Route 135 and were swamped by a sea of yellow-jerseyed chaos. Brazil had won a soccer...

A Framingham man gave police a fake name, feigned sickness to try avoid being fingerprinted Friday, and when that failed, he assaulted an officer, police said. When Flavio DeSouza-Marinho's fingerprints were finally taken, police found the man had given a fake name and he was actually an illegal immigrant from Brazil. In addition, the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement had a warrant against him, police spokesman Lt. Paul Shastany said. Police first went to DeSouza-Marinho's 27 Bishop Drive apartment after a report of a fight between a woman and her boyfriend. The woman told police, using her 14-year-old son as...

When Wirlei Goncalves Dias, an illegal immigrant from Brazil, heard an immigration agent was selling genuine green cards for $9,000 and employment authorization cards for $4,000 out of a Framingham apartment, he didn't think twice. Dias, 31, who came to the United States in 1997, met with the agent several times, at Chili's restaurant on Rte. 9, at a Dunkin' Donuts on Cochituate Road, and at an apartment in the former Edgewater Hills complex, to buy the documents he hoped were going to make his life easier. Green cards and employment authorization cards allow those who have them to work...

by Mark Finkelstein July 31, 2006 - 06:50 The bleeding liberal heart of the Boston Globe is on vivid display in its editorial of this morning on illegal immigration. The focus is massive illegal Brazilian immigration that has tranformed the city of Framingham, MA, Boa Vinda a Framingham! Annotated excerpts: "Rizoli [a candidate for state representative] is part of a small, controversial group that opposes illegal immigration." In the Globe's mind, it's opposition to law-breaking that is 'controversial.' "Framingham, like the rest of Massachusetts, needs immigrants to help fuel the economy." Globe doesn't bother to distinguish between legal and illegal...

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. --Jim and Joe Rizoli can't go very far during a walk through downtown Framingham without pointing out something Brazilian. There's the bakery where Brazilian immigrants wait to be picked up for their jobs as day laborers, a Brazilian store where the Rizolis claim illegal immigrants work, and then there's the area near Town Hall where thousands of Brazilians clogged up city streets after their national soccer team won the World Cup. It's all in a day's work for the Rizoli brothers, who have developed a reputation in their hometown as the anti-immigration twins. For Joe and Jim, immigration...

FRAMINGHAM -- Leaders of the student group that protested a production of"The Vagina Monologues" at Framingham State College on Wednesday say administrators squelched their right to free speech by forcing them into shrinking the size of the picketing. They claim the restrictions placed against them are part of a larger suppression of free speech on campus. "It just seems like the campus is afraid of free speech and the administration wants to do whatever is necessary to avoid bad publicity for the college," said Thomas Lincoln, a member of the College Republicans. In the weeks leading up the protest, school...

A Framingham woman angry at her boyfriend beat him with a police baton yesterday, then tried to run him over with her car as he ran for his life, police said. Kelli S. Donovan’s pursuit of her boyfriend was witnessed by Framingham Deputy Police Chief Kenneth Ferguson, who watched the man running as Donovan drove her 1991 Chevrolet Lumina on the street and the sidewalk right behind the man. Donovan, 29, was arrested at 8:02 a.m. and was charged with trying to kill her boyfriend, although she denied she wanted him dead, Framingham police Lt. Vincent Alfano said. “She claimed...

A Guatemalan man who was shot in the foot crossing the U.S. border from Mexico turned up seeking treatment at a Framingham emergency room Monday. A spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the man could be a victim of smuggler vs. smuggler violence. ``As far as cross-border violence, it's something we're concerned about,'' said spokesman Marc Raimondi. ``Since 9/11, we've clamped down on the border, but that has made the competition among the coyotes greater.'' ``Coyotes'' are those who smuggle illegal immigrants over the Mexican border, Raimondi said. The illegal immigrants are known as ``chickens,'' he said....

Mixed signals The Framingham (MA) police chief is reassuring local Brazilians that he has no intention of helping immigration agents bust them. Local Brazilians are proposing a sister city relationship with the city at the other end of a well-trodden path for immigrants and their money. And state reps are lobbying to let illegal immigrants have drivers' licenses. All this has Framingham talking about illegal immigration, in emotional tones, in workplaces and coffee shops, in e-mails and letters to the editor. It's a discussion that hits close to home. Framingham is home to immigrants from dozens of nations, with some...

FRAMINGHAM -- In an attempt to quell fears among the town's Brazilian residents after recent arrests by immigration officials, police last night said random sweeps are not being done and are not planned.(break)"Even when we arrest you, we don't call immigration," said Carl. "We're police officers, not immigration officers."