FBI to investigate immigration rally

NF Reporter · 05-04-2007, 02:41 AM

AP - The FBI will open a civil rights inquiry into the Los Angeles Police Department's actions at an immigration rally at which officers cleared a park by wielding batons and firing rubber bullets, the bureau said Thursday.

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waltky · 05-13-2008, 03:43 AM

Immigration puttin' a stop to the identity thieves...

Up to 700 illegals arrested in Iowa
May 12,`08 (UPI) -- U.S. agents raided an Iowa meatpacking plant Monday, arresting up to 700 people suspected of being illegal immigrants or criminals, authorities said.

Quote:

At least 300 people had been taken into custody at the Agriprocessors Inc. meat processing facility at Postville, with the total expected to reach as high as 700, The Des Moines Register reported. The plant is the largest kosher meatpacker in the United States, the newspaper said.

Tim Counts, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the agents conducted the raid under the auspices of a criminal search warrant allowing them to look for evidence related to aggravated identity theft fraudulent use of Social Security numbers and other illegal acts. A civil search warrant also allowed the agents to look for illegal immigrants, he said. The newspaper reported the staff of Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, was told 600-700 arrests were likely. The plant employs about 1,000 workers.

"Based on information thus far developed in the investigation, it appears, based on 2007 fourth-quarter payroll reports, that approximately 76 percent of the 968 employees of Agriprocessors were using false or fraudulent Social Security numbers in connection with their employment," a federal affidavit filed in the case said.

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waltky · 09-16-2008, 09:07 AM

Legal residence should be a requirement for admission...

Arkansas AG Says State Colleges Can Admit Illegal Aliens
Monday, September 15, 2008 - Arkansas' colleges and universities can admit illegal immigrants, the Arkansas attorney general's office says.

Quote:

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said in an advisory opinion Wednesday that schools don't have a duty to verify the citizenship status of potential students they admit. The state's higher education director earlier this year ordered schools to check the immigration status of potential students. "It is my opinion in response to your specific questions that undocumented individuals may enroll in Arkansas' public colleges and universities and that such schools are not obliged to verify citizenship as a condition of enrollment," McDaniel said in the opinion, answering questions submitted by state Rep. Rick Green, a Republican.

McDaniel's opinion, however, noted that there was nothing barring schools from making citizenship a requirement of admission to a school or from checking immigration status on their own. The state's higher education chief earlier this year sent out a letter warning schools not to offer illegal immigrants in-state tuition, unless they wanted to give the same benefits to an out-of-state student. The department began polling the state's two- and four-year colleges and universities after that to find out their admissions practices.

Higher Education Director Jim Purcell in May said after checking a statewide database of student information that about 2,000 people enrolled at state colleges and universities attended class under dummy Social Security numbers. Some of those could have been illegal immigrants, while others could be international students or legal U.S. residents who haven't registered with the Social Security Administration.

The opinion was requested by Green, who has been pushing for more state-level laws targeting illegal immigration. Green said Wednesday he had not yet read the opinion and did not know if he would introduce legislation requiring schools to not admit illegal immigrants. The opinion from McDaniel's office, prepared by Assistant Attorney General Elisabeth Walker, avoids interpreting any federal law on the admission of illegal immigrants. Instead, it says that the federal Homeland Security Department has said it's up to states to decide whether to allow illegal immigrants to attend public colleges and universities.

CNSNews.com - Arkansas AG Says State Colleges Can Admit Illegal Aliens

waltky · 10-21-2008, 03:07 AM

How could using someone else's SS# not be ID theft??

Supreme Court Eyes Illegal Aliens And ID Theft
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20, 2008 - Supreme Court To Decide Whether Aliens Using SS Docs Should Be Prosecuted For ID Theft

Quote:

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether people picked up on immigration violations also can face charges of identity theft if they use Social Security and other identification numbers that belong to others. Federal appeals courts have split over whether the defendant must know that the phony ID numbers belong to a real person and the court said it will resolve the question. Federal prosecutors have increasingly been bringing the more serious identity theft charges against undocumented immigrants, including many who were arrested in raids on meatpacking plants. Defense lawyers have argued that their clients should not be charged with stealing someone else's identity because the immigrants only were seeking documentation that would allow them to work. They didn't know if the numbers were fictitious or belonged to someone else, their lawyers say.

The Bush administration, however, has said that it doesn't matter under federal law. CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen says no matter what the Justices decide, this trend toward charging undocumented immigrants with identity theft is here to stay. "And if the Court says that current law restricts what prosecutors can do, then Congress can simply change the law to make such charges easier to prove. This issue is not going to go away no matter what the Justices decide. And if this weren't an election year it's likely that Congress would be voting on how to give prosecutors more leeway to go after undocumented immigrants for identity theft charges,'' said Cohen. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in St. Louis, agreed with the administration and upheld the conviction of Ignacio Carlos Flores-Figueroa.

Flores-Figueroa, a Mexican national, worked at a steel plant in East Moline, Ill., since 2000. Originally, he worked there under an assumed name, and false Social Security and alien registration numbers. In 2006, he told his employer he wanted to be known by his real name and submitted new identification documents. This time, though, the Social Security number belonged to someone else, and his green card number was that of yet another person. Suspicious, the employer contacted immigration authorities, who arrested Flores-Figueroa. The five-count indictment against him included two counts of aggravated identity theft. Federal appeals courts based in Atlanta and Richmond also have ruled in the government's favor in similar cases, while the appeals court in Washington, D.C., has sided with defendants. The case, which will be argued next year, is Flores-Figueroa v. U.S., 08-108.

Court Eyes Illegal Aliens And ID Theft, Supreme Court To Decide Whether Aliens Using SS Docs Should Be Prosecuted For ID Theft - CBS News