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Reporting from Washington— After scraping by on handyman jobs for a year, Bert Qintana figured he'd have to leave his wife and teenage son at their home near Taos, N.M., and find work elsewhere. Then Qintana got a call last month from Chevron Mining, which runs a mine 20 miles away. Would he be interested in hauling muck from the molybdenum mine for $17.05 an hour? He leaped at the offer. (SNIP) While they make up only 15% of the country's workforce, Latinos have racked up half the employment gains posted since the economy began adding jobs in early 2010,...

VICTIMS of human sex trafficking have told how they were enslaved by witchcraft, torture and death threats in modern-day Scotland. The harrowing stories of ten women were compiled by campaigners investigating the world’s fastest growing organised crime. Nine came from Africa, one from South America. In one of the testimonies to a Glasgow charity, a 21-year-old told how she was branded and forced to take a “witchcraft oath” to prevent her escaping. She said: “I had to take the oath. I was given this mark on my hand. I was told that this mark, if you tell anyone what has...

An evangelical group hoped young Central Florida Hispanics would turn out in force Tuesday night at its get-out-the-vote rally aimed at spurring them to become engaged about issues such as poverty, immigration and education and get motivated to go to the polls this year. The National Latino Evangelical Coalition hoped to draw total of 2,000 people. However, about 200, a mix of young and older people, attended the rally at Iglesia El Calvario, one of the biggest Hispanic churches in south Orlando. Even so, organizers said it was important to reach out to Hispanics, who are expected to wield significant...

Fifty people have been accused of conspiring to sell the identities of hundreds of Puerto Ricans to illegal immigrants on the U.S. mainland in the largest single fraud case ever for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, authorities said Wednesday. Hundreds of birth certificates, Social Security numbers and driver's licenses were sold for up to $2,500 a set as part of a black market ring based in Puerto Rico that operated from since at least April 2009, according to ICE Director John Morton. (SNIP) About 80 percent of the documents involved were sold by Puerto Ricans whose names were on them,...

What comes to mind when Mexican immigrant Elsa Garcia thinks of Baltimore's drawbacks? "Basura. O las drogas," said the East Baltimore resident. "Trash. Or drugs." Then, quickly, comes her list of Baltimore's pluses: Her husband has been able to find construction work. They have affordable housing. Police are not automatically suspicious of immigrants. (SNIP) At her inauguration, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake set the goal of increasing the city's population by 22,000 people — 3.5 percent — in 10 years. Drawing native-born people back from the suburbs and working to retain current residents will help stem the population decline but cannot alone...

When it comes time for math and phonics at Spring Lake Elementary School, first-graders in an experimental classroom stop speaking English and start learning in a language that's foreign to many of them. For about an hour a day, students at the Seminole County school who have never spoken Spanish will learn their numbers and letters, sing and play games completely in Spanish. The goal is ambitious: Teachers aim to have each student speaking, reading and writing both English and Spanish equally by the end of the year with the hope of giving English-speakers a leg up on a new...

A Jasper woman could get five years in jail after authorities say she threatened the life of Alabama's governor over the state's tough law cracking down on illegal immigration. The Montgomery Advertiser reports that 38-year-old Tiffany R. Morales is accused of calling Gov. Robert Bentley's office Sept. 29 and telling a member of his staff: "Tell the governor he has a bullet with his name on it." Morales, who says her fiance is an illegal immigrant, was arrested Oct. 1 and charged with threatening certain state officers, a felony.

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On Texas and Presidential Politics September 21, 2011 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: George in South Windsor, Connecticut, you're first on the phones. Great to have you here, sir, hello. CALLER: Yeah, Rush, you know, the first and only time I did order your tea, by the way, was during the last contest, and I have to say: It was everything you said. Taste, the packaging, how quick it came. So I like it. RUSH: I'm glad to hear that. It is. (chuckles) You know, people would expect me to say it's the best simply because it's got my name and...

<p>The daughter-in-law of a slain Mexican activist and her son have been granted asylum in the United States, her attorney said.</p> <p>The El Paso (Texas) Times reported Monica Arias Hernandez, 33, and her 6-year-old son, Eduardo Alejandro Frayre Arias, had requested asylum in March and received it in late August. (SNIP) Arias Hernandez's attorney, Carlos Spector, called the decision to grant her asylum "a great victory that shows the entire world that there are hopes in this country, that they will not continue closing the doors on the victims of the Mexican government. There are bases for political asylum."</p>

BRAVE Chris Green chased and helped capture an illegal immigrant who had repeatedly slashed him with a knife as he protected his pregnant girlfriend. Mr Green, 25, pursued "dangerous" Namo Salah across Derby city centre, which was busy with shoppers, in a T-shirt soaked in blood from his knife wounds. He eventually trapped Iraqi Salah in a building in Iron Gate – with the help of his partner Laura Davey, who had joined in the chase. ... Salah was in the country illegally and on the run after fleeing a trial for other offences of violence... The victim, who still...

Officials released President Obama’s uncle from Plymouth County jail yesterday after holding him for more than two weeks on an immigration detainer for violating an order to return to his native Kenya in 1992. US officials refused to disclose any other information about Onyango Obama, who remained in the United States undetected until Framingham police arrested him Aug. 24 on drunken driving and other charges. Yesterday, federal immigration officials refused to say whether the 67-year-old Framingham resident posted bond, whether they are keeping track of his whereabouts, or even whether they are still seeking his deportation, raising questions about public...

As a Greyhound bus prepared to leave a small town near Atlanta, 19-year-old Azucena headed to the window seat on the last row , on her way to Miami to start school and a new life. (SNIP) Immigration searches on public transportation sites are not well publicized. Border patrol agents generally protect the border or coastline. But, Steve Cribby, spokesperson for U. S. Customs and Border Protection, says agents have the authority to conduct immigration checks in public places. And checks on Greyhound buses and Amtrak are meant to disrupt human smuggling activities into the country’s interior, he said. The...

Everyone Is Saying Britain's Immigrant Communities Are The Real Heroes Of The RiotsAdam Taylor | Aug. 10, 2011, 7:00 PM One fascinating angle that keeps coming up in coverage of the London riots is the way that British press have been championing the bravery of immigrant communities in protecting their neighborhoods. The Daily Mail -- not always the kindest publication to immigrant groups -- is today championing the actions of a group of Sikhs in West London who have been out on the street in an attempt to protect their neighborhood. This follows the actions of Turkish shop owners in...

SANTA FE, New Mexico (Reuters) - An Albuquerque woman was indicted on Thursday on charges of creating fraudulent residency documents to help illegal immigrants get New Mexico driver's licenses. New Mexico is currently one of three states, including Utah and Washington, that allow undocumented immigrants to lawfully obtain driver's licenses if they can show proof of residency and identity. The grand jury indictment accuses Ana Hernandez, 45, of more than 300 felony counts over accusations she used her Albuquerque business address on documents she fraudulently created for Mexican nationals so they could obtain licenses. "This is yet another egregious case...

The only chapter missing from Pradipkumar Vora’s “American Dream” is the one with the happy ending. In just four years, Vora has gone from providing room service to pay for his rent at the Wildflower Inn to owning the same Cuero motel. Vora is now capitalizing on the oil and gas boom by constructing an RV park behind the Wildflower Inn and has plans to build a Taco Bell restaurant nearby on Esplanade. But despite being one of the most successful buesinessmen in Cuero, Vora, along with his wife, Kokila, are far from content. Overcoming tragedy Vora was raised in Mumbai,...

BELLEVUE, WA --(Ammoland.com)- The Second Amendment Foundation has filed a motion for summary judgment in its lawsuit challenging a statute in Massachusetts that denies legal resident aliens the licenses required to possess a handgun in the home for self-defense, or purchase any kind of firearm. The case is known as Fletcher v. Haas. It was filed in April in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Joining SAF in this lawsuit are Commonwealth Second Amendment, a Massachusetts grassroots organization, and two British citizens, Christopher M. Fletcher of Cambridge and Eoin M. Pryal of Northboro. They are represented by attorney...

Maryland Immigrant Tuition Plan Seems Headed For 2012 VoteBy BRIAN WITTE Associated Press Updated: Thursday, 07 Jul 2011, 9:55 PM EDT ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Opponents of a recently approved measure that would allow certain illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at Maryland colleges have collected enough signatures to put the matter before state voters in November 2012, officials said Thursday. The Maryland State Board of Elections board reported that 63,118 signatures had been validated. A total of 55,736 signatures is needed to put the measure on the ballot for voters to decide in November 2012. About 40,000 signatures remain to...

But the start of high season in Martha's Vineyard has this year been rocked by the unwelcome airing of what some residents admit is the island's guilty secret. An anonymous blogger on the tiny resort, off the coast of Massachusetts, has launched a website naming local firms that he alleges employ illegal immigrants. The site, Operation Punchbowl, has sent local business owners scrambling to insist that they carry out rigorous checks on whether staff have permission to work in the US. "People are very frustrated," Nancy Gardella, the director of the local chamber of commerce, told The Daily Telegraph. "It's...

Jiwan Singh blames the world's most notorious terrorist for the bias attacks he and his family have suffered over their religion. The Sikh MTA employee was riding a Brooklyn A train on Memorial Day when a hate-spewing straphanger accused him of being related to Osama Bin Laden and then sucker-punched him. "He was saying, 'You are the brother of Osama,'" said Singh, 59, who lost three teeth from the blows. "I said, 'I am not Osama. I have nothing to do with him!'" (SNIP) The attacker, whom Singh described as a black man in his late 20s, got on at...

Beneath Cristian Fernandez's baby-faced looks lies a misguided soul that his lawyers argue should gain him mercy as the 12-year-old's first-degree murder case navigates through Jacksonville's court system. Fernandez is charged with the March 14 beating death of his 2-year-old half-brother, David Galarriago, at the family's Southside apartment. The defense contends the charges are built alongside a dossier exposing family turmoil, sexual battery and an abusive stepfather's suicide.

One hundred degrees worth of heat beats down upon the blackberry field, but Ismael Rodriguez plucks berry after berry with the speed of a veteran fruit picker. Not far away, however, berries are shriveling on the vine on this South Georgia farm. The farm owners say they don't have enough workers during this peak harvest season, namely Hispanic pickers such as Rodriguez. Rodriguez is a migrant worker. He is also an illegal immigrant. And, like many of his fellow pickers, he fears a new state law aimed at illegal immigration. Many migrants skipped Georgia this season as they follow the...

Dear Immigrant, “Born in other countries, yet believing you could be happy in this, our laws acknowledge, as they should do, your right to join us in society, conforming, as I doubt not you will do, to our established rules. That these rules shall be as equal as prudential considerations will admit, will certainly be the aim of our legislatures, general and particular.” - Letter to Hugh White, May 2, 1801, President Thomas Jefferson This is definitely my immigration policy. We are the land of the free. I would hope your desire is to be free. Yet, I must admit...

<p>As far as sheer entertainment value, I was a fan of Howard Dean as Chairman of the DNC, but I think Debbie Wasserman Schultz may soon surpass him, if she hasn’t already.</p> <p>I think the president was clearly articulating that his position — the Democrats position — is that we need comprehensive immigration reform. We have 12 million undocumented immigrants in this country that are part of the backbone of our economy. And that is not only a reality but a necessity. And that it would be harmful if — the Republican solution that I’ve seen in the last three years is that we should just pack them all up and ship them back to their own countries, and that in fact it should be a crime and we should arrest them all. I mean that was the legislation that Jim Sensenbrenner advanced a couple of years ago. She does know that it is a crime to be an illegal alien, right? Normally something that has the word “illegal” right there in its name is a big clue that it might not be legal. What’s next? Will mean old Republicans want to make car theft (undocumented vehicle procurement) or shoplifting (uncompensated one-way commerce) crimes too?</p>

A Minneapolis man who threw battery acid in his ex-girlfriend's face last year won't spend time behind bars if he remains law-abiding. Before getting a stayed, 15-month prison sentence Wednesday, Jarso Yohannes Adem, 29, tried to withdraw his guilty plea to second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, a felony. He claimed he was not aware his conviction could cause him to be deported back to Ethiopia. The Minnesota Court of Appeals this week ordered that a man could withdraw his plea to simple robbery because he was not told of deportation risks.

The Dream Act has been heralded as a good thing for America. However, Americans who are worried about their security should examine this Bill carefully. The Goal of the US Military is to protect the Citizens of the United States. There is a big question that needs to be answered here. What country in the world has or wants illegal aliens in their military. I mean, our military is our last line of defense. Do we really want to depend on illegal aliens in our Military? Dream Act proponents say to not worry about illegals with a criminal history getting...

BANGOR, Maine — A Newport woman was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court to three months in federal prison for her part in a marriage scam that enlisted Maine residents to wed immigrants. June White recruited others to marry immigrants, including the man who is now her husband. The family was part of a conspiracy federal prosecutors claimed was run by two African men. Rashid Kakande, 37, of Woburn, Mass., who was convicted by a jury. Kakande, originally from Uganda, is being held without bail while awaiting sentencing. A second man, James Mbugua (pronounced umm-BOOG-wa), was indicted in July 2010...

Yesterday [Feb 23, 2011], the FBI arrested Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari for the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. His arrest marks the 38th successfully thwarted terrorist plot against the United States since 9/11. The FBI, with the help of concerned citizens, should be applauded for stopping the plot before it was able to mature. At the same time, it also highlights key failures of Congress and the Obama Administration in homeland security. According to the FBI, Aldawsari, a 20-year-old Saudi citizen and student at South Plains College in Lubbock, Texas, sent numerous e-mails to himself outlining “nice targets”...

Here is the link for the live feed to the committee meeting scheduled to start at 10am.http://www.arkansashouse.org/event/16767

A police surveillance camera in Mexico reportedly recorded the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old Mexican teen by a U.S. Border Patrol agent early Wednesday. Jose Larrinarga Talamantes, a spokesman for the Sonora Attorney General's Office in Hermosillo, told Nogales International that state investigators have confirmed the existence of the video with officials in Nogales, Sonora, and have asked for a copy. "But it hasn't arrived yet," Talamantes told Nogales International.

The mother of a 14-year-old hitman who confessed to severing heads for a brutal Mexican drug cartel pleaded not guilty on Thursday to a charge that she was in the United States illegally, according to news reports. Yolanda Jimenez Lugo, 43, and her husband, Gabriel Aguirre Manuel, 46, pleaded not guilty to charges in federal court in San Diego, the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper reported.

Arizona Muslim immigrant stands trial for running over daughter in honor killing. A Muslim immigrant from Iraq, who moved his family to Arizona in the mid-1990s, will finally go to trial in Phoenix on January 18. His several-times-delayed trial finally comes after he was caught after trying to flee America to England. His crime: Running over his 20-year-old, Americanized daughter with his Jeep Grand Cherokee because she had the nerve to refuse an arranged marriage in Iraq that he had set up for her. Faleh Hassan Almaleki didn’t just hit his late daughter, Noor, with his vehicle: After he initially...

Jockey Martin Garcia, who has not ridden since November 7 because of visa problems, remains in Mexico and is unlikely to return to California from his native Mexico in time for opening day on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita. As of Sunday, it was unclear how long Garcia would be away from California. “We have no idea,” according to his agent, Jim Pegram. “I’m just waiting for him to get back here.” Regarding a return for Dec. 26, Pegram was highly skeptical. “It’s going to have to happen in the next couple of days,” he said. “Right now, it doesn’t...

According to an article at The Blaze, a large quantity of bomb-making material has been discovered in the home of a naturalized citizen originally from Serbia. Police entered the Escondido, California home and arrested George Djura Jakubec, an unemployed software consultant for possession of explosive devices and bomb-making materials, bank robbery and burglary. The Los Angeles Times reports Jacubec is in jail, with bail set at $5 million. Authorities also found homemade explosive devices, including a grenade. The house came to the to the attention of authorities last weekend when a gardener was hurt in an accidental explosion. One official...

Gov. Deval Patrick says he’ll use his second term to try to implement the rest of an advisory panel’s recent recommendations on immigration reform, including in-state tuition for illegal immigrant students and more English classes. Patrick told immigrant advocates Tuesday that the moves will help better integrate the state’s immigrant population, seventh largest in the country. Last year, an advisory panel released a report on possible Massachusetts immigration reforms, and advocates have been pressing Patrick to push for dozens of recommendations in the report.

An illegal immigrant accused of felony theft will not stand trial. Instead, he was given the chance to go home to Mexico. Damacio Torres-Ochoa, was scheduled in court Monday afternoon in Jefferson County to face charges of theft from an at-risk adult. But Torres-Ochoa never showed up in court. He was in Mexico. "He self deports," said Scott Storey, Jefferson County District Attorney. "He says, 'You know what, I am illegally here, I don't want to fight it, get rid of me.' So what happens? They take him across the border. Do you think he comes back? Well my guess...

Like his neighbors, Claude Rwaganje pays taxes on his income and taxes on his cars. His children have gone to Portland’s public schools. He’s interested in the workings of Maine’s largest city, which he has called home for 13 years. There’s one vital difference, though: Rwaganje isn’t a U.S. citizen and isn’t allowed to vote on those taxes or on school issues. That may soon change. Portland residents will vote Nov. 2 on a proposal to give legal residents who are not U.S. citizens the right to vote in local elections, joining places like San Francisco and Chicago that have...

Twenty-six illegal immigrants were apprehended last weekend trying to reach the U.S. coast on water skis, a luxury sailboat and a small fishing vessel, only to be intercepted by federal agents, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Monday. After questioning two suspected illegal immigrants Sunday evening in a Mission Bay parking lot, agents seized a rented 40-foot sailboat on the bay, Border Patrol agent and spokesman Jerry Conlin said. Eight male Mexican nationals and one Cuban man were arrested. Five of the arrests took place at a Mission Bay hotel where immigrants were being held, according to a news release...

LOS ANGELES – Police Chief Charlie Beck pleaded for calm and vowed his department would conduct an exhaustive investigation into a bicycle officer's fatal shooting of a drunken day laborer with a knife. But his words did little to dissuade demonstrators, who spilled into the streets for a second straight night Tuesday — some to pray and light candles and others to pelt a police station near downtown Los Angeles with eggs, rocks and bottles. ... Beck said the incident involving Jamines started when someone flagged down three bicycle officers to tell them a man was threatening people with a...

Police video of a traffic accident, with illegal immigrants streaming out of the van like a wrecked clown car.

EAST COUNTY — A fire that had burned more than 800 acres by Friday night was caused by two stranded illegal immigrants who set a signal fire for help, Cal Fire officials said. Dubbed the Cowboy Fire, the blaze began about 1:15 p.m. Thursday near the Pacific Crest Trail southwest of Lake Morena. It burned in an area between Campo and Potrero. The two illegal immigrants called C4, Mexico’s emergency distress system, on Thursday and said they had been lost for two days and were dehydrated, said Cal Fire spokeswoman Roxanne Provaznik. They said they were going to light a...

Behind the blue gates of his Islamic school in Nairobi's Eastleigh neighborhood, Ahmed Awil cannot escape his country's civil war. Schools and mosques where extremist views are taught are reshaping this Somali immigrant community that for years has lived peacefully in the capital of this predominantly Christian country. Moderate imams now compete with hard-line preachers pushing a strict interpretation of Islam. Bookstores sell anti-Western literature. Residents speak fearfully of militant spies, and children like Ahmed are taught to praise al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-linked militia, for waging jihad in Somalia against the U.S.-backed government. "My teachers tell us al-Shabab is fighting for...

Portland voters will get a chance to decide whether they want to give legal immigrants who are not yet citizens the right to vote in municipal elections. The League of Young Voters has gathered enough signatures to put a voting rights amendment on the November ballot. But should it receive voters' approval, the measure is expected to be challenged in court. The proposed amendment to the city's charter would only allow immigrants to vote in municipal elections if they can provide proof of identity, age, residency and legal status. It does not allow illegal immigrants to vote. Nor does it...

Footage of French police using apparently excessive force while breaking up an immigrant squat has prompted outrage as activists and intellectuals accuse Nicolas Sarkozy of pursuing policies that target the vulnerable while giving free reign to the police. The video, filmed by a member of the social housing charity Droit au Logement (DAL), shows officers roughly handling women and children as they break up a group of 150 squatters who were evicted from a tower block in La Courneuve, north-east of Paris. At one point, a woman is shown being pulled by her legs across the ground, her baby –...

A 15-year-old boy has been busted in the robbing and beating of a Mexican immigrant on Staten Island, the latest in a string of hate crimes... The 18-year-old victim was beaten and robbed... The suspect a Liberian immigrant who is now a U.S. citizen...

Critics of President Obama's immigration policy have pounced on an internal government memo they say shows the administration is trying to circumvent Congress on immigration reform and avoid deporting some illegal immigrants. An undated, internal draft memo by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services leaked Thursday outlines "administrative relief options to… reduce the threat of removal for certain individuals present in the United States without authorization." "In the absence of comprehensive immigration reform," it reads, "USCIS can extend benefits and/or protections to many individuals and groups by issuing new guidance and regulations." While the federal government has long exercised discretion in...

April 27, 2010 - Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, while testifying before a Senate panel, says, “I say this again as someone who has walked that border. I’ve ridden that border. I’ve flown it. I’ve driven it. I know that border I think as well as anyone, and I will tell you it is as secure now as it has ever been.” June 22, 2010 - Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., told people in a town hall meeting, “"If you knew anything about our borders…(you’d know) Our borders are quite secure, thank you." July 1, 2010 – During an immigration speech...

If the controversial illegal immigration law recently passed there and the widespread support polls show it has gotten there weren’t enough of a sign they take the immigration issue seriously down there, check out Corporation Commission candidate Barry Wong’s new proposed policy: shutting off electricity to any building in which authorities suspect illegal immigrants may reside. Wong was a guest on Fox News earlier today, where Stuart Varney couldn’t continue the interview without first asking whether his proposal was tongue-in-cheek. If Varney was hoping to get Wong to break character, he was sorely mistaken

McALLEN, Texas — Police arrested a man who allegedly beat and suffocated his 2-year-old stepdaughter during the World Cup soccer game Saturday afternoon before jamming a screw down her throat in an attempt to make the slaying appear accidental. McAllen police arrested Hector Castro, 28, after firefighters called officers to his apartment at 3101 N. Eighth St at 4:18 p.m. Saturday, said McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez. Firefighters and emergency medical personnel had been called to the house in reference to the girl’s apparent choking on a screw, Rodriguez said. But after a cursory examination of the girl, whose name...

This week in the Washington Post, columnist Anthony Stevens-Arroyo wrote an interesting piece about immigration and the Catholic Church. Since that time, the headlines of MSM and the blogosphere have been peppered with similar subject lines; “Catholic Scholar Says No Communion For Lawmakers Who Support Immigration Bill”, meaning the recently passed Arizona immigration laws and similar laws pending in other states. The premise of his contention was that the Vatican’s teaching of concern for what they consider to be dangerous current immigration policies should translate over to action by individual Cardinals of the Church. Since the Church has taken action...