July 18 re-launch on Matt.org site

Attention, Readers! Re-think Immigration is moving to its new home tomorrow, Wednesday, July 18. Click here to go to the new website. It is functionally identical to this one except that all past comments will stay archived at this website. Comments to new posts should be posted at the new site and will require a quick, painless sign-up process so that everyone has their own unique username.

Monday, July 9, 2007

In the news today: July 9, 2007

  • The Boston Globe published a really well-written news-feature in Saturday's paper about a five-year-old girl who faces a deportation hearing that could potentially separate her from her family in the U.S. The article will surely pull heart-strings as well as fan some people's flames.
  • The Austin American-Statesman reports that border fence construction in southern Texas may significantly damage the Rio Grande eco-system.
  • USA Today published a news-feature today on illegal immigrants who seek refuge from the immigration authorities in places of worship.
  • The Hartford Courant reports that 26 of 32 illegal immigrants arrested in raids in New Haven, CT last week are back home after their families posted bail.
  • The Ashland City Times (Tennessee) published a profile of the Maury County sheriff who is either revered or abhorred for his illegal immigration crackdown.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Reason #1,357 why the border fence is a stupid idea: Irreversible cological damage

Anonymous said...

The Associated PRess
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 04.06.2007
LOS ANGELES — A Mexican national accused of causing the crash that killed "A Christmas Story" director Bob Clark and his son will face deportation proceedings once the charges against him are resolved, officials said Thursday.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement put an immigration hold Wednesday on Hector Velazquez-Nava, a 24-year-old illegal immigrant living in Los Angeles, said agency spokeswoman Virginia Kice.
The action means Velazquez-Nava will be turned over to federal immigration officials and placed in deportation proceedings once his local case is completed. He was arrested for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol and gross vehicular manslaughter, and was being held on $100,000 bail in a county jail.
If he posts bail, Velazquez-Nava would be taken into federal custody on the immigration hold, Kice said.
Police say Velazquez-Nava steered his sport utility vehicle into the wrong lane of Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades early Wednesday, striking Clark's sedan head-on. The filmmaker and his son, Ariel Hanrath-Clark, 22, died at the scene.
Authorities said Velazquez-Nava was driving without a license. He and his passenger were treated for minor injuries.
It was unclear whether Velazquez-Nava had retained an attorney. There was no phone listing under his name.
Clark had a prolific movie and TV directing career, including the 1981 sex farce "Porky's," a coming-of-age romp that he followed two years later with "Porky's II: The Next Day."
In 1983, he directed, co-produced and co-wrote "A Christmas Story," an adaptation of Jean Shepherd's childhood memoir of a boy in the 1940s.


Michael

Anonymous said...

Illegal Immigrant Charged In Deadly East Charlotte Hit-And-Run

POSTED: 5:45 am EDT April 23, 2007
UPDATED: 6:16 pm EDT April 23, 2007

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- An illegal immigrant faces multiple charges after police say he hit and killed a pedestrian in east Charlotte and then left the scene.

Luciano Melendres, 30, is charged with felony hit-and-run, driving while impaired, driving with a revoked license, driving without liability insurance and driving with fictitious tags.

Officers say Melendres, a native of Mexico, hit and killed 32-year-old Danny Sims while he was crossing Albemarle Road near Farm Pond Lane around 10:30 p.m. Sunday. They say Melendres fled the scene in a green Ford Expedition, but a witness called 911 as she followed the sport utility vehicle and directed officers to a home on Jason's Forest Drive, just two miles from the crash scene. Police arrested Melendres a short time later.

Melendres was just convicted last week on a DWI charge from a March 16, 2006, incident. He was sentenced to probation, alcohol assessment and treatment and community service and was ordered to pay court costs and have a breathalyzer device installed on his vehicle. Police said they didn't find the device during an initial look inside.

N.C. Rep. Sue Myrick, a proponent of immigration reform, says the only thing that would keep such illegal immigrants off the streets after drinking is to deport them once they're convicted of DWI.

"The point is it's an extra-large percentage of Hispanic illegal immigrants who have been doing this and it's very frustrating in our community," she said.

Melendres has his first court appearance Tuesday afternoon.

Anonymous said...

UPDATED: Three killed in high-speed chase

Web Posted: 07/09/2007 09:18 AM CDT

Marvin Hurst
KENS 5 Eyewitness News

Three men were killed during a high-speed police chase Monday morning that started in Natalia.

Authorities believe the occupants in the fleeing vehicle were undocumented immigrants from Guatemala.

The driver of the fleeing Ford Excursion will be charged with three counts of capital murder.

The chase ended in San Antonio when a tire on the sports utility vehicle blew out at Loop 1604 at Interstate 10 East, around 12:30 a.m. Monday.

The chase began when a Natalia police officer looking for speeders spotted the SUV zooming by. San Antonio police assisted in the chase once the vehicle entered the city.

"The Natalia officer told us that the vehicle was traveling well over 100 mph, and actually passed him at 100 mph," said San Antonio Police spokesman Gabe Trevino.

Once the chase was over, officers had to chase some of the suspects on foot and believe a few escaped.

Several men injured during the chase were transported to local hospitals. Their conditions were unknown.

According to police, a number of the men do not have identification, including the three who were killed.

Immigration agents are involved in the case because of the human smuggling probability.

Anonymous said...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 7, 2006
Accused child killer and former FBI Top Ten Fugitive Genero Espinosa Dorantes is back on Nashville soil.

Dorantes, 36, a Mexican national, arrived at the Air National Guard ramp at Nashville International Airport this afternoon onboard an FBI jet that was specially dispatched from Washington to return him. The Mexican government today formally honored an extradition request from the United States and surrendered Dorantes and his former girlfriend, Martha Patlan, to special agents assigned to the FBI’s Legal Attaché Office in Mexico City. Those agents accompanied Dorantes and Patlan on a commercial flight to San Antonio. Members of Nashville’s FBI Violent Crimes Task Force assumed custody of the two in San Antonio and accompanied them back to Nashville.

Dorantes and Patlan will now have to answer for the brutal murder of Patlan’s four-year-old son, Luis Osvaldo Cisneros, whose beaten and burned body was found by a citizen behind a small mound of dirt in West Park on the morning of February 23, 2003. An autopsy revealed the child had internal head injuries consistent with blunt trauma, as well as infected burn wounds, consistent with scalding, on the lower part of his body.

“This was an absolutely horrifying crime against a young, innocent child and it is past time for Dorantes and Patlan to appear in a Davidson County court of law,” Chief Ronal Serpas said. “Their return today has come about due to literally years of meticulous work by Detective Brad Corcoran and his Metro police colleagues, FBI agents in the United States and Mexico, District Attorney Torry Johnson, United States Attorney Jim Vines and their staffs.”

“This type case is as serious as it gets,” District Attorney Torry Johnson said. “Our office has a record of vigorously prosecuting crimes against children and we are fully prepared to go forward in this matter.”

On February 24, 2003, Dorantes and Patlan were named in arrest warrants charging them with murdering Luis Cisneros. The next day, at the Metro police department’s request, the United States Attorney and the FBI’s Violent Crimes Task Force obtained federal warrants charging the couple with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Dorantes was added to the FBI’s list of the nation’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives on August 14, 2003.

Dorantes was arrested without incident on February 25, 2006 by members of the Agencia Federal de Investigacion (the FBI’s Mexican counterpart) in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. His arrest came just five days after his girlfriend, Patlan, was taken into custody in Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, Mexico.

The significant break in the case came in mid-February, when Youth Services Detective Sarah Bruner received information from a member of Nashville’s Latino community that Patlan was in Mexico and was willing to talk to authorities. Patlan was located in Mexico and was taken into custody. Additional investigation by the FBI’s Legal Attaché Office revealed that Dorantes was likely living in Tijuana. Mexican authorities worked closely with the FBI to pinpoint Dorantes’ exact whereabouts.

“The information surrounding the death of Luis Cisneros was shocking to the Nashville community as well as to those of us who work in the justice system,” U.S. Attorney Jim Vines said. “I am pleased that the federal involvement in this case helped to finally bring this couple back to Tennessee. I am also grateful that Mexican authorities understood the gravity of this matter and honored our extradition request.”

Anonymous said...

CBP Border Patrol Agents Nab Suspected Sex Offender Near Calexico, California


(Wednesday, March 07, 2007)
contacts for this news release



Calexico, Calif. - U.S. Customs and Border Protection El Centro Sector Border Patrol Agents working east of Calexico, Calif., Tuesday arrested an illegal alien with an outstanding warrant for lewd and lascivious acts on a minor child age 14.


At 9:15 p.m., agents encountered the subject in a group of suspected illegal aliens that had entered illegally into the United States from Mexico. While processing the individual, agents utilized the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) and the Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) to search FBI fingerprint databases and determined the individual had the outstanding criminal warrant. These systems enable CBP Border Patrol agents to rapidly identify individuals with outstanding criminal warrants and records by electronically comparing scanned fingerprints against a huge nationwide database of previously captured fingerprints.


The subject was determined to be a Mexican national illegally present in the United States with an outstanding warrant. The warrant, issued out of San Jose, Calif., was in the amount of $500,000.


Imperial County Sheriff’s Office responded and took custody of the subject.

Anonymous said...

These sob stories are not in the least convincing to most Americans. For one thing they are constant and Americans are sick of them. The five-year-old was smuggled in via a people-smuggler. Here parents committed a crime in coming her illegally and then committed a further crime by engaging in people smuggling. Sorry I just have no time for them.

The churches who offer "sanctuary" should have their tax exemptions pulled. They are basically looking to increase their pew rolls at the expense of native-born and legal US citizens. This is not compassionate -- this is theivary. I would be more sympathetic if they directed their sermonizing about "compassion" to Carlos Slim Helou and the other Mexican billionaires who pay not taxes than at Mr. and Mrs. Joe America, struggling to support a family of two kids on 50K a year and already taxed to the breaking point.

Regarding the "ecological damage" that the border fence would allegedly cause, I am underwhelmed. I never hear any pro-illegals complaining about the massive ecological damages caused by:

--25 million pounds of toxic trash left in our Southwestern deserts by illegals. The environmental damage is HUGE and so is the eventual clean-up costs.

--The Mexican mafia planting massive dope plantations on our pristine wilderness parks and importing illegals to take care of them. The environmental damage caused by these illicit dope plantations is HUGE. Not to mention the fact that increasingly hikers fear to use our state and national wilderness parks for fear of being killed by these "plantation managers."

--Mexican drug dealers and people smugglers carving numerous trails through pristine Arizona wilderness, destroying the topography of land that has been set aside for all Americans to enjoy.

We are very sick of the hypocrisy of the pro-illegals. Whining about the "ecological damage" that the fence may cause while ignoring much greater ecological damage caused by open borders brings to mind certain passages about motes and beams.

Daniela said...

Michael45:

Thanks for all the news stories. It would be great if you send links to such stories to our e-mail (click on the link "E-mail" to the right of the page) that way we can make it a post!

Best,
Daniela

Anonymous said...

Hey Micheal, good to see you, it's Mary!

Michael45 said...

daniela:

I will provide the links to the stories in my posts if you prefer......... :)

I hate e-mailing them to be posted. Seems alot of times they get lost in the mail..... ;)

Michael

Michael45 said...

Hello Mary............. :)

It's a pleasure to see you again.

Michael

Daniela said...

Hi again Michael,

You can post in the comments sections of course but if there's an important news story we've missed, send it to us as a "tip" by e-mail and it's quite likely -- in fact, completely likely -- that we'll post it in our news-round ups.

Thanks for reading!

Daniela said...

P.S. If we post it in the news round-ups it's more likely to be read by more people than if it's posted in the comments section, that's all!