In Videos, Minutemen Shown Damaging Migrant Camp
Videos show the leader of the San Diego Minutemen and other anti-illegal immigrant activists damaging structures and rummaging through possessions in San Diego migrant camps.

Minutemen on Camera

• The Issue: Videos that have recently surfaced show San Diego Minutemen pulling down migrant workers' shacks and rummaging through their property.
• What It Means: Some of the people in the videos have had their homes searched as part of a police investigation into alleged vandalism at a north San Diego migrant camp. That attack caused an estimated $600 in damages and a $10,000 reward has been offered for information leading to an arrest in the case.
• The Bigger Picture: The footage was captured by Christi Czajkowski, former girlfriend of Jeff Schwilk, founder of the San Diego Minutemen. Czajkowski and Schwilk have been engaged in a bitter public dispute since Schwilk dismissed Czajkowski from his group earlier this year.
  Schwilk said the videos are merely another attempt by Czajkowski, his former girlfriend, to sully his name and to bring discredit on his organization. Schwilk and Czajkowski have been engaged in an ongoing legal battle after their romance ended. That feud has played out in the public eye thanks to footage of Schwilk screaming obscenities at Czajkowski and shoving her camera.

Another lovely corporate repost:

Wed Aug 1, 10:48 AM ET (AP)

LOS ANGELES - A federal judge refused to end protections for illegal immigrants from El Salvador after determining the U.S. government had violated its own immigrant detention standards.

U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Morrow said some Salvadoran detainees were denied access to legal materials, telephones and attorney visits. She ruled July 26 that the so-called Orantes injunction, issued in 1988 to give Salvadoran immigrants special rights, would remain in effect.

The Department of Justice plans to appeal.

"We are disappointed that the court continues to refuse to end a long-standing and unnecessary injunction," said Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke. "The civil war in El Salvador ended several years ago. Circumstances there that were the basis for the injunction no longer exist."

from the New York Times
By NINA BERNSTEIN
Published: July 24, 2007 (LINK)

Identification cards would be made available to all New York City residents — including tens of thousands of illegal immigrants — under a proposal by a City Council member from Queens who was inspired by a pioneering program that begins in New Haven today.

“I would hope that the federal government would not retaliate against the city of New York if we provided for a municipal identification card,” the council member, Hiram Monserrate, said yesterday, referring to a federal immigration raid in New Haven last month two days after that city approved the issuance of municipal cards.

This article is kind of crappy but it is the least obnoxious one I have found.

Conn. city offers illegal immigrants IDs

By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, Associated Press Writer
Tue Jul 24, 1:27 PM ET (LINK)

Dozens of people lined up at City Hall on Tuesday for municipal identification cards, the first city-issued ID cards specifically designed to bring illegal immigrants out of the shadows and give them access to community services.

The cards, available to New Haven's entire population, are meant to help anyone without a state- or federal-issued ID open a bank accounts and use other services that would otherwise be inaccessible. Advocates argue that if immigrants can open bank accounts, they will be less likely to carry large amounts of cash, a practice that makes them easy targets for robbers.

Immigration issue energizes Inland forces on both sides of debate
(Link)

By SHARON McNARY
The Press-Enterprise

The San Bernardino Diocese has asked parishes in the two-county area to provide sanctuary on church grounds to immigrants who face deportation.

No Catholic churches in either of the two Inland counties have yet committed, but local anti-illegal immigration groups vow to protest other Southern California sanctuary churches, beginning Saturday at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Long Beach.

Story from the Associated Press. It provides some decent background on the re-construction of the fence

San Diego border fence proceeds slowly -

By ELLIOT SPAGAT

SAN DIEGO - Bulldozers are rolling again on the U.S.-Mexico border, moving hundreds of tons of dirt to make way for a 16-foot steel fence in an area that once was the most popular crossing for illegal immigrants.

But before the construction resumed recently, the 14-mile project in San Diego was stalled for years by legal challenges from environmentalists, budget problems and difficulties buying land. Those delays are now raising doubts about a government plan to extend fencing to 370 miles of the Mexican border.

This is so fucked up but it is also really damn funny.
I found this On the U.S. Customs and Border protection site (Link)


How is NASCAR Helping CBP Recruit Top Talent?

(05/15/2007)To ensure that America has sufficient "boots on the ground" for its protection, CBP Border Patrol is now pursuing an ambitious hiring and recruitment program--aiming to hire 6,000 new agents.

To that end, CBP Border Patrol has teamed up with Jay Robinson Racing for a 25-race sponsorship on the #28 Chevy that will run through the remainder of the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series season. The Chevy made its debut May 11 at Darlington Raceway during the Diamond Hill Plywood 200.

From La Prensa San Diego http://www.laprensa-sandiego.org/current/raids.htm

Immigration raids rattle the Latino community
A human rights issue and politically driven, say activists

By Raymond R. Beltran

“This is terror just as there was terror in the 1940s, when Hitler terrorized the Jews,” said San Diego resident, Vicente Rodriguez.

Last Sunday, in front of the San Diego Federal Building in downtown, Rodriguez rallied with fellow members of the City College-based Si Se Puede organization to denounce last week’s ICE raids and raise the issue of the inhumane tactics in what immigration officials have callously titled ‘Operation Return to Sender.’

• Border Patrol agent kills man who crossed from Mexico

(Source)

CALEXICO – A Border Patrol agent shot and killed a man who threatened him with a softball-sized rock at the border, the agency said Tuesday.

The agent shot the man Monday after he escaped from a scuffle with another agent as he tried to return to Mexico, said Border Patrol spokesman David Kim ...

Mexico has asked U.S. authorities for a thorough investigation, Carreno said.

“It seems unjust to shoot someone who is unarmed,” Arnaud Carreno said Tuesday.

CORPORATE REPOST (VIEW SOURCE)

New tactic hastens deportations

Immigrant rights activists say increasing numbers of detainees are being pressured into signing documents that expedite deportation.

A Colombian woman says immigration officials pressured her to sign a waiver so she would be deported without the benefit of a hearing in immigration court -- though she might qualify for a green card as a battered spouse.

The case appears to be part of a new tactic immigration authorities are using in Operation Return to Sender to sway detained foreign nationals to sign forms that quicken expulsion without having to wait for hearings or appeals.