Healthcare proposal provides backdoor amnesty for illegal aliens

President Obama's national healthcare bill mandates that employers must provide health coverage to all employees. This proposal would seemingly include coverage for tens of millions of illegal immigrants.

This is an outrage. There are close to 60 million illegal immigrants in this country. Effectively forcing Americans to subsidize cradle-to-grave healthcare costs for these people would cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars annually, while further incentivizing illegal immigration.

This is a public policy nightmare. Moreover, it would do so at a time when nearly every American citizen is struggling for his or her economic well-being.

During his campaign run, Obama promised that his healthcare proposal would not benefit illegal aliens. Yet that is precisely what his current proposal would accomplish, by forcing employers to cover illegal citizens who obtained false identifying information.

This is no different than if President Obama levied an illegal alien health tax on the public. This cannot go unnoticed. In these difficult economic times, it is a slap in the face to American citizens to force them to underwrite healthcare for the illegal aliens who are taking their jobs.

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/healthcare/69719-healthcare-proposal-provides-backdoor-amnesty-for-illegal-immigrants

Illegal alien burns elderly woman alive

An illegal alien has been sentenced to life in prison for breaking into an 83-year-old woman's home, grabbing her by the throat, smashing her head into furniture, saturating her with gasoline and setting her body on fire while she was still alive – all to cover up his check-fraud scam after she hired him to cut her lawn.

Ramon Alvarado, 33, and his cousin, Jose Alvarado, 37, were hired to do yard work for Lila Meizel at her home in Wheaton, Md. They worked for the woman for two years, and Meizel often gave the men soda, food and extra tips.

Jose's wife, Ana Rodas, 33, was also arrested in connection with the murder that took place the day before Thanksgiving last year. Ramon was convicted of murder, arson and conspiracy in October. On Monday, he was sentenced to two consecutive life terms – one without parole – plus an additional 30 years for arson.

A Montgomery County jail official confirmed that all three were illegal aliens. According to reports, they are from El Salvador and have lived in the United States for more than 10 years. The Gaithersburg Gazette reported Immigration and Customs Enforcement had detainers on all three defendants, flagging them for possible federal charges and deportation proceedings.

According to prosecutors, Meizel gave the men a $75 check for landscaping work. Jose added two zeros to the number, agreeing to give his cousin $1,200 and Rodas $1,000. They used the $7,500 to buy a car, computer and clothes. Ramon and Jose pre-emptively conspired to kill Meizel when the two believed they might be caught.

Firefighters found Meizel in her burning home and pulled her outside, but they were unable to resuscitate her. A firefighter and two police officers sustained injuries in the blaze.

Both Ramon and Jose Alvarado had previous criminal records in Montgomery County. Jose had a history of check fraud, according to the Washington Examiner. Ramon had a warrant out for his arrest for driving a car without a license or registration. Rodas had no criminal history.

Montgomery's top prosecutor called the murder case the most horrific he has seen since taking office, according to the Washington Post.

An autopsy revealed Ramon caused Meizel to suffer a brain hemorrhage and fractured seven of her ribs. She had soot in her lungs and burned tissue in the back of her throat, indicators that she was alive when he set her on fire. Most of her body was charred and her face was unrecognizable.

"The inhumane manner you chose to exterminate a lady well into the autumn years of her life strongly suggests that you are sadistic," Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Terrence J. McGann told Ramon Alvarado. "A civilized society demands that you be in prison for the remainder of your life."

During Ramon's trial, Judge McGann said he could not look at the autopsy photos "very long without gagging."

"I'm going to put these in the envelope so they don't turn anyone else's stomach," he said.

According to the report, Ramon Alvarado spoke only about his concern for his mother.

"I am thinking about what my mother is going to think of me after I get sentenced," he said through an interpreter. "I'm concerned about my mother. When she finds out what happens to me, she can get quite ill."

Jose Alvarado pleaded guilty to first-degree murder on June 3 and faces up to life in prison. Rodas pleaded guilty June 3 to accessory after the fact and faces up to five years in prison.

"I lost my head," Jose Alvarado told the Washington Post, speaking from a pay phone last year inside the Montgomery County jail. "I don't know what to say. It just happened suddenly. I was tempted by demons."

Meizel's daughter described her mother as "a very trusting woman," saying she was satisfied with Ramon's services.

"When it came to hiring people for her lawn, she was happy with this man," she said.

"May God forgive me for what I did," Ramon Alvarado reportedly told police shortly after the murder.

Just after Meizel's murder last year, WND reported another case where an illegal alien fatally beat a 64-year-old woman who gave him a home. In December, Julio Cesar Ramos – who had been deported more than a dozen times – was charged with first-degree murder after allegedly beating Paulette Locklear to death when she took him in, built a small house on her property for him, gave him work and treated him like family.

She called 9-1-1 just before being beaten to death with a blunt object outside of her home.

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=117083

Don’t pander to illegal aliens

RANDOLPH — No matter how you sugarcoat the words, an undocumented immigrant is an illegal alien.

The words “undocumented” and “illegal” are not synonymous.

If illegal aliens are academically eligible for college, that means they have probably already received all or part of their elementary, middle school and high school education free at the taxpayers’ expense.

When does it stop?

The advocates on this issue are quick to point out that many states qualify illegal immigrants for in-state tuition.

Does that make it right?

Are the states who don’t, wrong?

The last time this was addressed the in-state tuition bill would require them to legalize their immigration status.

Not only do you want to give them a break on tuition now, you want to give them amnesty.

Enough is enough!

http://www.patriotledger.com/opinions/letters_to_the_editor/x511161320/YOUR-OPINION-Don-t-pander-to-illegal-aliens

Sweep nets 80 arrests. 13 are illegal aliens

YAKIMA, Wash. -- More than 80 people have been arrested and a variety of drugs, firearms and cash seized in a sweep across Central Washington that targeted gang-related crime.

The arrests, which began in the early hours of Wednesday and ended Friday, included 21 in Yakima and more than 60 in the Tri-Cities.

The eight-week operation targeted street- and mid-level drug traffickers, illegal immigrants and fugitives who were suspected to be members or associated with street gangs in the two areas, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Spokane.

Among the seizures are eight firearms, including three believed to be stolen and two assault rifles, plus hundreds of rounds of ammunition, authorities said.

Also seized were what were described as small amounts of marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine; three stolen vehicles and more than $14,000 in cash. The government believes the money is related to drug activity and will request that the money be forfeited, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The suspects were arrested for a variety of drug or weapons violations and other crimes and are expected to face charges in state or federal court. Others taken into custody on immigration charges will face a deportation hearing, authorities said.

In a separate news release, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said 13 of the suspects are facing charges in connection with previous deportations, possession of fraudulent documents, or being an illegal alien or felon in possession of a firearm.

Twelve others, all Mexican citizens, were arrested on administrative immigration violations and face deportation, ICE said.

The sweep was carried out by a wide array of local, state and federal agencies, including seven federal enforcement agencies and 10 police departments and sheriff offices in Central Washington.

http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2009/11/20/sweep-nets-80-arrests

New GPS tool helping illegal aliens cross the border

There seems to be a mobile phone application for just about everything these days -- even illegal border crossing.

An application still in the testing stages is designed to point border-crossers to nearby water, show them safer routes and provide them with a series of poems to make them feel welcome along their way.

Individuals trekking north may soon be able to download the program into an inexpensive web-enabled cellular phone that is supposed to help them safely navigate the treacherous desert crossing between Mexico and the United States, known as the Devil's Highway.

"The point of the project is to offer multiple spaces of sustenance," said Ricardo Dominguez, who led the creation of the tool. Dominguez, an associate professor of visual arts at UC San Diego, leads a team at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology where he is a principal investigator.

The team -- which involved a collection of researchers from different disciplines of study -- is hoping to have the application, called a Transborder Immigrant Tool, officially up and running by mid-2010 after a series of test runs in the desert to adjust the kinks and make necessary tweaks. For now, the invention is in its beta stage.

While U.S. Border Patrol officials say they are not worried by the invention, which they see as more of a nuisance, the news has already made its way into anti-illegal immigration Web chat rooms, enraging members of that movement.

"He is aiding and abetting criminal activity," said Barbara Coe, founder of Huntington Beach-based California Coalition for Immigration Reform. "He should be arrested and prosecuted."

Dominguez, who calls himself an Artivist -- a cross between an artist and activist -- said he's expecting a flurry of criticism from what he calls the "hard-core conservative Lou Dobbs community." He claims that he isn't bothered by it.

"We're not trying to resolve the border issues...," Dominguez said. "We're just trying to create a poetic safety tool. Anyone can agree on safety as a far as a core human right."

The idea for the tool began with a Virtual Hiker Tool, developed by a university colleague with an impaired sense of direction who favored desert hikes.

"Then we began to speak about another possibility It was kind of a non-event," Dominguez said. "Here we are in the border. We know people are dying crossing. To us it was obvious...It was 'how can we tweak this GPS algorithm and develop it for another concern -- the question of people dying on the border.' "

The tool pairs cheap cell phone technology with a global-positioning system and consistently updated online data to guide individuals who are trying to cross international borders. The GPS system, however, doesn't contact all three satellites so authorities would not be able to triangulate where the person is, unless he or she used the phone to make a call.

Border Patrol officials said the device won't stop them from nabbing border-crossers.
"The technology is not new...," said U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Mark Qualia. He added that he's seen these sort of tools used before. "That's the nature of our job. We have to learn to overcome and to adapt."

While he said the tool may provide border-crossers with a slight advantage, he said the agency has a variety of detection tools at their disposal.
"We have ground radar. We have cameras. Our enforcement and technology that we are using is not onefold," Qualia said. "But once there is detection if they cross and hit a sensor the GPS is not going to help them."

As for whether the government would go after someone like Dominguez, Qualia said he could not answer and that it would be up to the U.S. Attorney's Office to prosecute, if they deem appropriate.

Dominguez said he's not worried about the government cracking down on his project.
"If we were the kind to sit around and be concerned about that, the last 20 years of my research would never have gotten done," he said. "We're not hiding. We're not anonymous. We're not sneaking around. We're willing to have a discussion on multiple levels."

Dominguez said he is in contact with non-governmental organizations on the border and churches that already help individuals with safe passage north, hoping to ultimately form a partnership for free distribution and training of the devices.
Some immigrant rights activists are already praising his work.

Enrique Morones, founder of Border Angels in San Diego, said the device would help save lives in the desert.

"Ricardo just wants to save people's lives. He's not encouraging people to cross," Morones said.

His group is known for setting water out in the middle of the desert for border-crossers.

"I get calls every week about a person lost out there," he said. "If he could save the life of one person with that device, all of that work would be worth it. You can't put a price on someone's life."

Others, however, are skeptical of the device's effectiveness.

Jorge-Mario Cabrera, spokesman for Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, said the device won't solve what he called the real problem.

"We have pushed migrants to go into remote areas such as the Arizona desert," Cabrera said. "This is more of an issue of policy, not the lack of technology that is producing these deaths."

Minuteman Britt Craig, who splits his time between the Campo border and his home in Mission Viejo, said he understands Dominguez' invention on a humanitarian level.
"I'm sure his intentions are good. He doesn't want people to die in the desert. I don't want people to die in the desert either," said Craig, 60.

Still, he said, the device won't do the border-crosser or the American people any favors.

"As soon as they get over here the problem hasn't ended, it's just begun," he said. "They are in an immediate state between a slave and a legal free man laborer. They are totally at the mercy of the people who hire them and they just begin ruining the economy for the people who are legal to work here."

Craig said he doesn't believe the device will keep people from dying in the desert. He said he fears that it may have an opposite affect of emboldening some to make the journey on their own with the device.

"It may give people the confidence to go out and not be able to physically cross it and die," he said. "He may actually lead someone to their doom with the device... an unintended consequence. If they think a cell phone is going to get them through 80 miles of desert, south of Yuma. They are mistaken."

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/border-220422-people-desert.html

Video - Congressman Brian Bilbray on Illegal Immigration

Video - Michael Savage Talks To Hero Congressman John Culberson

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Part II

Database program nets arrests of 22,000 illegal aliens with criminal records

More than 22,000 illegal immigrants with criminal charges or convictions have been arrested in Texas through a 1-year-old program that links FBI and federal immigration databases, Homeland Security officials said Thursday.

About 12 percent of them, or 2,700 people, were charged or convicted of what authorities call "level one" crimes such as murder, rape, kidnapping or narcotics violations with a sentence of more than one year.

"We, in a world of limited resources, are focusing on the worst of the worst," John Morton, assistant secretary of Homeland Security who oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a telephone news conference.

The Dallas County Sheriff's Department was one of the first law enforcement agencies in the country to use the new program, part of an initiative called "Secure Communities."

Those using the program in the Dallas-Fort Worth area include jails in Dallas, Kaufman , Denton, Collin, Tarrant, Johnson, Grayson and Hunt counties. Others include the police departments of Irving, Farmers Branch , Carrollton, Mesquite and Richardson.

Before Secure Communities, prisoners' immigration status was only checked if jailers called federal authorities or if ICE agents were stationed in the jails.

Under the new system, fingerprints are run simultaneously through a national database to check criminal history and through a Homeland Security database to check the person's immigration status. All those arrested in jurisdictions using Secure Communities will have fingerprints checked in both databases, Homeland Security officials said.

"A key point is we do this for everyone," Morton said. "There is no distinction between citizen and noncitizen."

Morton said such blanket use would reduce racial profiling.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/crime/stories/DN-secure_13met.ART.State.Edition1.4b86a11.html

Seafaring smugglers' attempts to land illegal aliens in U.S. foiled

Mexican immigrant trafficking groups continue trying to smuggle illegal immigrants by boat, with federal authorities disrupting three attempts to land immigrants on San Diego County beaches and harbors since Saturday, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.

The most recent incident occurred early Tuesday morning, when agents spotted a 15-foot boat heading toward Beacon's Beach in Encinitas. Agents arrested 21 illegal immigrants -- 19 men and two women -- on the beach.

On Saturday, agents intercepted an 18-foot Bayliner carrying eight illegal immigrants off Imperial Beach near the border. The next day, 10 Mexican citizens and three Bolivians were arrested at the Oceanside Harbor marina after being dropped off by a 22-foot Cobalt boat.

The latest incidents are part of a surge in maritime smuggling attempts as traffickers avoid increased enforcement on land.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/11/3-attempts-to-smuggle-immigrants-by-boat-disrupted-since-saturday-officials-say.html

Video - Illegal Aliens Use Children As Slaves In America