1. Repeat illegal entry offenses rise
2. Study reports 11% drop in illegals
3. VA exec. presses enforcement

1.
Man deported for fifth time; similar cases on rise
By Jason Cato
The Tribune Review (Pittsburgh), August 9, 2008

Javier Ixtlapale-Teozo was an old pro at being detained by law enforcement officers when Pittsburgh police stopped him in June.

He told the officers his name was Gonsalo Hernandes-Rojas, that he was born May 29, 1978, in Acapulco, Mexico, and that he was in the United States illegally. Everything but the name turned out to be true.

U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti this week sentenced Ixtlapale-Teozo, 30, to time served and ordered that he be removed from the United States -- for the fifth time.

Isaias Hernandez-Romero, 32, was sentenced to time served and ordered deported to Mexico after a hearing this week before U.S. District Judge Gary L. Lancaster in Pittsburgh. Hernandez-Romero was captured and removed from the United States four times between March 28 and May 9. He returned May 10 and was captured by police in Butler on June 29, federal authorities said.

In Western Pennsylvania, federal prosecutions of repeat illegal-entry defendants rose from just two in 2000 to 170 over the past four years, including 34 so far in 2008, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Friday.

When an alien is deported, federal law makes it a felony -- punishable by up to 20 years in prison -- for him or her to re-enter without permission.

"They need to get more serious sentences than a few months in prison and time served," said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington.

In some cases, judges do impose harsher sentences.
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http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_581963.html

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2.
Study finds 11 percent drop in illegal immigration
Population of illegal immigrants grows in some border states
By Ines Min
The Daily Texan (University of Texas, Austin), August 11, 2008

A study released recently that showed an 11 percent decrease in the U.S. illegal immigrant population has raised questions from illegal immigration opponents and immigrants' rights activists.

According to the report released last week by the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based nonprofit research organization that has been criticized in the media for being anti-immigration, the immigrant population has decreased because of stricter immigration laws and a slowing economy.

The report's findings are disappointing for groups such as the American Friends Service Committee, an organization that promotes equality in the workplace for immigrants. Josefina Castillo, who is program coordinator for the Austin office of the organization, acknowledged that the study recognized the difficult challenge presented by attempting to estimate the immigrant population, but said the variety of ethnicities within the population makes it difficult to accurately account for all the immigrants.
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http://media.www.dailytexanonline.com/media/storage/paper410/news/2008/0...

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3.
Stewart's crackdown in Virginia
By Dan Genz
The Examiner (Washington, DC), August 10, 2008

Prince William County -- Corey Stewart marched to the front lines of the war on illegal immigration convinced that it was the right thing to do, that it was popular, and that it was possible.

The young Republican was elected chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors in November 2006 to fill out the unexpired term of Sean Connaughton, who had been appointed U.S. maritime administrator. The following summer, he began cracking down on the county’s growing illegal-immigrant population, which many residents said was spiraling out of control and driving down the region’s quality of life.

Stewart, 40, unapologetically championed a policy that would direct police to check residents’ immigration status and restrict services to illegal immigrants.

When opponents charged that his efforts brought turmoil to the county, Stewart said “tumultuous can be a good thing.”

“Looking back on this whole thing, my whole mental makeup was built for this,” Stewart says. “I tend to be a bulldog, and the more that I heard the protest by outside groups and the media, the more I was determined to get the job done.”

His much-publicized crackdown catapulted Stewart to national prominence and made him a divisive figure who, in his words, is both “detested” and “admired.”

“Where some people may have had no opinion of me, or little opinion of me, before, they certainly have an opinion now, whether it’s good or bad,” Stewart says.

Many politicians and experts see a complex problem without clear-cut solutions, but Stewart considers illegal immigration an issue of right vs. wrong, legal vs. illegal, action vs. negligence.

“If you support cracking down on illegal immigrants, you like what we’re doing,” Stewart says. “If you think we should turn a blind eye toward illegal immigration, you’re going to hate what the county has done.”

Prince William’s original mandate was so far-reaching that it asked the directors of the county’s roads and technology departments whether it was possible to keep illegal immigrants off the streets and away from the county Web site.
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http://www.examiner.com/a-1529821~Stewart_s_crackdown_in_Virginia.html