1. Congress considers bill
2. Anti-Perry immigration ad
3. GA Gov. pressured on board
4. La Raza ends AZ boycott
5. Store owner, ATF sting

1.
Congress considering migrant farm worker bill
By Jim Cross
KTAR (AZ), September 12, 2011

Congress is considering a bill to allow a half-million migrant farm workers to be in the U.S.

Paul Muthart with Pasquinelli Produce in Yuma says the need for more farm workers there isn't as great as it is some other states because of Yuma's proximity to Mexico.

"But I really empathize with a farmer in the state of New York, a farmer who's trying to grow apples in Washington, whatever the produce might be . . . I'm really sympathetic to the farmer."

"By best estimations 25,000 of these Mexican citizens everyday in the Yuma area who are content to go back to their families and their schools and their medical care in Mexico."
. . .
http://ktar.com/category/local-news-articles/20110912/Congress-consideri...

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2.
Pro-Bachmann super PAC out with anti-Perry immigration ad
By Maggie Haberman
Politico (DC), September 11, 2011

The pro-Michele Bachmann super PAC Keep Conservatives United is planning to hit Rick Perry with a South Carolina radio spot about his "atrocious" immigration record:

The ad, which will air during conservative talk shows starting Tuesday, will seek to portray Bachmann as tough on illegal immigration and Perry as failing to crack down on it as governor. It’s being put out by Keep Conservatives United, a conservative Super PAC based in Raleigh, N.C.

“The difference is clear,” the ad says. “To stop illegal immigration, support Michele Bachmann.”

Perry opponents, including Mitt Romney, believe that hitting the Texas governor from the right on immigration will have an impact with early-state conservative activists.

In recent past GOP primaries, immigration has not been a huge driver or disqualifier, but Perry's opponents are looking to make it part of a larger narrative that he's not who he says he is.
. . .
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/63217.html

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3.
Deal pressured to remove member of immigration board
Anti-illegal immigration activist Phil Kent is target of concern
By Jeremy Redmon
The Atlanta Journal Constitution, September 11, 2011

Pressure is mounting on Gov. Nathan Deal to remove anti-illegal immigration activist Phil Kent from a newly created board aimed at helping enforce Georgia’s immigration laws.

Kent’s critics have started a petition drive to oust him from the Immigration Enforcement Review Board. Started by Steve Golden of the Young Democrats of Georgia, the petition calls Kent a “nativist” who uses “intense racist imagery to convey his terrible beliefs.”

As of last Thursday, the petition had attracted more than 1,800 signatures. Golden said he plans to present them to Deal. A spokesman for Deal declined to comment Thursday. Kent dismissed the petition as a “fundraising tool” for one of his other critics, the Southern Poverty Law Center, which he calls a “radical left-wing group.”

Kent’s board has been attracting controversy since last Friday, when Deal announced Kent and the other six men who have been appointed to serve in the unpaid positions. That same day, the SPLC condemned Kent’s appointment. The SPLC labeled the organization for which Kent is the national spokesman, Americans for Immigration Control, a hate group.

And on Wednesday, the Anti-Defamation League wrote Deal, asking him to reconsider Kent’s appointment, saying he has a history of making “deeply disturbing” comments about immigrants. The head of Georgia’s Legislative Black Caucus criticized the panel for not being more diverse. All seven of its members are white men.

The board is expected to have its first meeting and adopt its procedures before Oct. 1. It will have the power to investigate complaints that city, county and state officials are violating state immigration enforcement laws, hold hearings, subpoena documents, adopt regulations and hand out punishment. Members serve two-year terms. Reasons or methods for removing board members are not listed in the law.

The panel stems from Georgia’s new immigration enforcement law (House Bill 87), much of which went into effect July 1.

The SPLC is part of a group of civil and immigrant rights organizations suing in federal court to halt that law. The ADL filed court papers in June to support those efforts to block the law. Golden said he also opposes the law, calling it unconstitutional.
. . .
http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/6/article/55845/

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4.
National Council of La Raza calls off boycott
By Betty Beard and Megan Neighbor
The Arizona Republic, September 9, 2011

One of the nation's most prominent Hispanic groups announced late Friday that it is calling off its boycott of Arizona imposed in May 2010 after the Legislature and governor enacted the controversial immigration law Senate Bill 1070.

The National Council of La Raza said it was canceling its boycott because it successfully discouraged other states from enacting similar laws, and the boycott imposed a hardship on the workers, businesses and organizations it aimed to help.

Five other states, Alabama, Indiana, Georgia, South Carolina and Utah, passed similar laws and all of them face legal challenges and injunctions, according to La Raza.

The Washington-based group said that effective immediately it and two other La Raza-associated groups would ask other organizations to suspend their Arizona boycotts.

La Raza also said the boycott spurred political results in Arizona, namely an increase in Latino voters and defeat in the Legislature of more proposed immigration laws, including a measure that would have changed how U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants are granted citizenship.

Both Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon's office and the Real Arizona Coalition, a broad collection of state business, faith and Latino groups, in August sent La Raza letters asking it to end the boycotts and work toward immigration reform.

The Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau on Friday issued a statement saying, "The lifting of the boycott is clearly a step in the right direction. It acknowledges that illegal immigration is not just an Arizona issue but a national one, and it makes it easier for the community to get back to the business of booking conventions."
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http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2011/09/09/20110...

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5.
Gun store owner had misgivings about ATF sting
By Richard A. Serrano
Los Angeles Times, September 11, 2011

In the fall of 2009, ATF agents installed a secret phone line and hidden cameras in a ceiling panel and wall at Andre Howard's Lone Wolf gun store. They gave him one basic instruction: Sell guns to every illegal purchaser who walks through the door.

For 15 months, Howard did as he was told. To customers with phony IDs or wads of cash he normally would have turned away, he sold pistols, rifles and semiautomatics. He was assured by the ATF that they would follow the guns, and that the surveillance would lead the agents to the violent Mexican drug cartels on the Southwest border.

When Howard heard nothing about any arrests, he questioned the agents. Keep selling, they told him. So hundreds of thousands of dollars more in weapons, including .50-caliber sniper rifles, walked out of the front door of his store in a Glendale, Ariz., strip mall.

He was making a lot of money. But he also feared somebody was going to get hurt.

"Every passing week, I worried about something like that," he said. "I felt horrible and sick."

Late in the night on Dec. 14, in a canyon west of Rio Rico, Ariz., Border Patrol agents came across Mexican bandits preying on illegal immigrants.

According to a Border Patrol "Shooting Incident" report, the agents fired two rounds of bean bags from a shotgun. The Mexicans returned fire. One agent fired from his sidearm, another with his M-4 rifle.

One of the alleged bandits, Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, a 33-year-old Mexican from Sinaloa, was wounded in the abdomen and legs. Agent Brian Terry — 40, single, a former Marine — also went down. "I'm hit!" he cried.

A fellow agent cradled his friend. "I can't feel my legs," Terry said. "I think I'm paralyzed." A bullet had pierced his aorta. Tall and nearly 240 pounds, Terry was too heavy to carry. They radioed for a helicopter. But Terry was bleeding badly, and he died in his colleague's arms.

The bandits left Osorio-Arellanes behind and escaped across the desert, tossing away two AK-47 semiautomatics from Howard's store.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-atf-guns-20110912,0...