1. GOP platform draft opposes amnesty
2. Raid needed despite E-Verify
3. TX county to communicate with ICE
4. Police group asks for action in AZ
5. Issue taken with focus of reporting
6. Illegal's death to be probed

1.
GOP Platform Opposes Amnesty
By Josiah Ryan
The CNS News, August 28, 2008

A draft copy of the GOP platform, which was obtained by CNSNews.com on Wednesday, says “We oppose amnesty” for illegal immigrants.

But Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the presumptive presidential nominee for the Republican Party, has been a leading proponent in Congress for giving illegal aliens a “pathway to citizenship.”

The GOP platform is being written in Minneapolis this week in preparation for the Republican National Convention, scheduled for early September.

“It [the rule of law] does not mean driver’s licenses for illegal aliens, nor does it mean that states should be allowed to flout the federal law barring them from giving in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens. We oppose amnesty,” the draft says.

"Amnesty has to be an important part of [any immigration solution] because there are people who have lived in this country for 20, 30 or 40 years, who have raised children here and pay taxes here and are not citizens. That has to be a component of it,” McCain reportedly told the Tucson Citizen on May 29, 2003.

In June, McCain told the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials that comprehensive immigration reform is his "top priority -- yesterday, today and tomorrow."
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http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=34747

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2.
U.S. Businesses Complain Over E-Verify's Lack Of Protection For Employers
By Vittorio Hernandez
Gant Daily (Clearfield, PA), August 28, 2008

Laurel, MS -- Despite its enrollment with E-Verify, Howards Industries was raided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Monday, highlighting the lack of protection the program offers American employers.

U.S. employers said the E-Verify is a double-bladed sword for American firms who hire migrant workers as they risk being raided if they do not sign up, but will have to shoulder extra cost, face labor stoppages and discrimination complaints if they do.

Many of the 600 arrested illegal migrant workers had valid Social Security numbers, but apparently the digits were not theirs. E-Verify could not detect if the number used by a worker is his or another person's.
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http://www.gantdaily.com/news/11/ARTICLE/29270/2008-08-28.html

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3.
Harris County Deputies Will Work with ICE
Nine deputies will have the ability to start the deportation process.
By Alan Scaia
The KTRH News (Houston, TX), August 27, 2008

The Harris County Sheriff's Office has trained nine deputies to work with immigration agents. The deputies will work in the jail and have the ability to trace aliens' lineage and start the deportation process.

"This really helps on a local level having deputies who can do that," says Major Bob Van Pelt. "It helps ICE out, and it helps the community out. They can identify those individuals who come under their purview and who are booked into the Harris County Jail."

Nine deputies have completed the training and will work at the jail. They will look into the immigration status of suspects under the supervision of federal investigators.
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http://www.ktrh.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=&artic...

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4.
AZ police group says feds must move on illegal immigration
By Jim Cross
The KTAR News (Phoenix, AZ), August 28, 2008

The head of the Arizona Police Association says illegal immigration is a federal issue and the government is providing no direction on how to deal with it.

Dale Norris said a policy must be adopted soon or problems associated with illegal immigration will balloon.

Smugglers have become increasingly violent and do not care who they have to hurt or kill to get drugs and people across the border, Norris said.

``As we make the consequences of the smuggling act harsher on the people doing it, their resistance to being arrested is going to get higher and higher."

Border Patrol agents are frustrated at the lack of federal leadership, said Norris.

``You can see the frustration that they're facing. `Why am I out here risking my life to arrest people when you're behind my back talking about, well, the ones that get past you, maybe we won't do anything with them.'"
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http://ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=946824

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5.
Victim's Sister Rips Focus On Suspect's Immigration Status
The Suncoast News (Tampa, FL), August 28, 2008

Tampa -- The two Apollo Beach restaurant employees who were attacked and raped Aug. 16 are working to reassemble their lives, but "the healing will be long-term and extensive," said Jacey Laundree, the sister of one of the victims.

In an e-mail to The Tampa Tribune, Laundree wrote that her family is grateful that the people accused in the attack have been arrested. A MySpace page, www.myspace.com/apollobeachvictim2, is devoted to the victims.

But, Laundree wrote, she also is concerned about how media coverage about the rapes lately has focused on immigration issues.

Rigoberto Moron Martinez, the man her sister accused of being the ringleader in the attacks, is an undocumented immigrant, according to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman. Martinez, who was arrested Aug. 20, also has been linked to two July attacks in Hillsborough County and an Aug. 3 rape and robbery in St. Petersburg, investigators said.

On Aug. 5, Hillsborough deputies had arrested Martinez on a domestic violence-related charge. According to Hillsborough County deputies and St. Petersburg police, ICE was contacted then about his immigration status. Hours later, Martinez was released from jail.

U.S. Rep Ginny Brown-Waite on Sunday called for a review of the interaction "or lack thereof" between Hillsborough law enforcement and immigration officials in connection with Martinez's Aug. 5 arrest. Sheriff David Gee on Monday said Brown-Waite's comments were politically motivated and that his agency followed proper procedures. Immigration officials haven't commented in detail about Martinez but said this week that even if ICE had received notification about him, he would not have met the qualifications for a high-priority case.
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http://suncoastpinellas.tbo.com/content/2008/aug/28/victims-sister-decri...

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6.
Relatives of illegal immigrant who was in coma at UIC Medical Center seek review of his death
Wife wants negligence ruled out, she says
By Azam Ahmed and Judith Graham
The Chicago Tribune, August 27, 2008

Grief-stricken relatives called for Cook County's medical examiner to look into the death of Francisco Pantaleon, an illegal immigrant who died Tuesday in the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago after lying in a coma for more than a month.

The circumstances of his death remain unclear, and family members are angry about what they say was a failure by the hospital to inform them that Pantaleon, 30, was near death. They are asking for the investigation to be sure that negligence did not play a role in Pantaleon's death, they said.
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-coma-patient-deport-webaug2...