1. Denver police defend actions
2. Activists fast for votes
3. Native American nation mulls workers
4. Killer previously deported
5. Man shot in AZ during arguement
6. Illegal arrested in MD

1.
Immigration gaps drive study
A man charged in Aurora in three deaths drew no alerts before the September crash.
By Tim Hoover
The Denver Post, October 21, 2008

Golden, CO -- Aurora police Tuesday defended their role in the case of Francis Hernandez, the illegal immigrant accused of driving a vehicle that killed three people last month.

Speaking at a special gathering of law enforcement officials, state lawmakers and other policymakers, Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said that despite multiple arrests and contacts with several law enforcement agencies, authorities never detected that Hernandez was not a citizen. In part, that was because Hernandez spoke with only a slight accent and appeared to be "completely Americanized," Oates said.

Hernandez, 23, who police say is a native of Guatemala, always claimed he was from California, Oates said. It took a senior immigration agent to figure out that Hernandez was from Guatemala, he said.

"We had no indication this person was an illegal immigrant," Oates told the gathering of more than 30 officials, appointed by Gov. Bill Ritter to look at immigration enforcement gaps among local agencies and the federal government.

The "action group" plans to have meetings through November in hopes of producing suggestions that lawmakers could use in the upcoming legislative session.

Hernandez has been charged with three counts of vehicular homicide and three counts of leaving the scene of a deadly accident. Police say Hernandez was driving a Chevrolet Suburban on Sept. 4 when he crashed into a Mazda pickup and shoved it into a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop.
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http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_10779098

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2.
Veteran activist shows support for immigrant rights protesters
Dolores Huerta tells group fasting in Olvera Plaza that they are fighting for the future of their children, immigrants, California and the nation.
By Anna Gorman
Los Angeles Times, October 22, 2008

As the immigrant rights protesters finished their first week of fasting, longtime activist Dolores Huerta on Tuesday came to Olvera Plaza to show her support.

She told the crowd that they were fasting for the future of immigrants and their children, but also for the future of California and the nation.

"Let's all join in this spiritual movement, the movement for justice for our immigrants," she said.

Then she reminded them to drink lots of water and led them in a chant: "¡Que viva los immigrantes! ¡Que viva Cesar Chavez!"

About 30 people are camping out in downtown Los Angeles to mobilize 1 million Latinos to vote and to call upon the new administration to stop the raids and legalize the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. Some are fasting only for a day, while others have pledged to participate for 21 days, until the presidential election. The crowd swelled during the weekend, but many returned to school and work Monday.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-me-huerta22-2008oct22,...

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3.
Yakama Nation considers licenses or permits for foreign workers
A member of the Yakama Nation is working to create a tribal guest-worker program that would require licenses or permits for foreign workers and nontribal citizens working on reservation lands.
The Associated Press, October 22, 2008

Yakima, WA (AP) -- A member of the Yakama Nation is working to create a tribal guest-worker program that would require licenses or permits for foreign workers and nontribal citizens working on reservation lands.

The tribal council recently approved the program, Schaptakay Labor Works LLC, which is incorporated under the tribe. Former tribal Councilman Wendell Hannigan now plans to talk to growers in hopes of getting their cooperation.

Yakama land has many orchards, hop fields and vineyards that lure a large migrant work force each year. But tribal leaders have no way of knowing who is coming onto the 1.2 million-acre reservation, whether they are in the U.S. legally and how long they plan to stay.

Hannigan said concerns about crime on the reservation and a growing number of undocumented workers in the area prompted him to consider such a program. He says he's not trying to hamper the farming industry but wants to help create a legal and stable work force on the reservation.

"Hopefully, the community would embrace that effort," he told the Yakima Herald-Republic for a story Tuesday.

Agriculture officials are giving a mixed response to the effort, which may be the first of its kind in Indian country.

Dan Fazio, director of employer services with the state Farm Bureau, said he's interested in the plan.

But Mike Gempler of the Washington Growers League isn't convinced that a tribe could obtain authority in immigration issues, a responsibility that largely belongs to the federal government.

"I think we would need to see what the position of the United States government was before we would be willing to take the next step," he said.

Yakama leaders did not return several phone calls seeking comment on the issue.

Because tribes receive federal benefits and tribal members are U.S. citizens, they are not viewed as sovereign nations when it comes to immigration law, said federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lorie Dankers in Seattle.

Dankers said the Yakamas probably would not have the authority to enforce U.S. immigration laws, but she declined to elaborate, saying she would need to do more research with federal attorneys at ICE.
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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008295673_yakama22.html

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4.
Deported suspects return to Metro Jail
Screening program once caught suspect in slaying
By Janell Ross
The Tennessean (Nashville), October 22, 2008

When a hard-working Indian immigrant was shot in his Nashville store in September, Metro police identified the primary suspect as Edgar Rodriguez, a 19-year-old Mexican national.

But perhaps more surprising than the crime itself — Rodriguez had been arrested, screened though Davidson County's 287g immigration program and deported from the United States less than a year before.

The program gives local law enforcement agencies power to identify illegal immigrants who have been arrested and put them on the path to deportation.

But of the 4,235 people processed through the program since it launched in March 2007, 73 ended up back in the Metro Jail, accused of more crimes.

That's a return-to-jail rate far lower than the 70 percent of the jail's general population, said Sheriff Daron Hall, who brought the program to Davidson County. The Rodriguez case typifies both the potential of 287g to prevent serious crime and the failings of the broader immigration system, Hall said.

He said the program aims to remove illegal immigrants from the city and, by doing so, prevent crime.

"What I can't control is what is going to happen at the border and maybe what's driving an attraction back to this community," Hall said.

The program's detractors say it's making immigrants, legal and illegal, feel unwelcome and driving some to endure dangerous situations because they fear any contact with police will lead to a 287g screening session at the jail.

Traffic violations are the primary offense that snare most illegal immigrants processed through 287g. Of the 73 listed as re-offending, 36 were arrested on traffic violations, altering a title or registration or failure to appear in court and 37 for more serious offenses, including DUI, drug possession and assault.

They come back because the poverty and related problems in their native lands are still there, said Nashville immigration lawyer Mario Ramos. Many come back to relatives, homes, bank accounts and jobs.

Plus, Ramos said, they've already learned how to get into the U.S. without authorization.

"(The Rodriguez) case sounds like a terrible tragedy but just points out how flawed our entire immigration system, including 287g, really is," said Ramos, who has practiced immigration law for 17 years.

In Davidson County, every foreign national brought to the jail is booked and interviewed by federally trained sheriff's deputies. Those suspected of entering the country illegally are brought to the attention of U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ICE holds those individuals, and in most cases sends them to Oakdale, La., for an immigration court hearing and deportation.

Neither side is wrong

The Rodriguez case challenges Hall's claims that 287g is making Nashville safer, said Stephen Fotopulos, executive director of the Nashville-based Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.

"It's clear that from this case that local immigration enforcement initiatives are a fairly weak tool, considering the dire need for comprehensive reform of our immigration system," he said.

"What we have been saying all along to the sheriff is that you can try to make our little corner of the world right, but it won't work … if the immigration courts don't work and the legal immigration system doesn't work."

Hall's analysis isn't wrong but neither is Fotopulos', said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization that supports more restrictive immigration policy.

"It's been very effective, but 287g isn't a silver bullet," Krikorian said. "It looks to me like the local authorities are doing what they can, but the federal authorities need to step up on their end and institute some real reform across the system."
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http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081022/NEWS03/810...

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5.
Man shot after arguing with immigrant smuggler
By Najat Omer
The Arizona Republic (Phoenix), October 21, 2008

A man was shot Monday evening by another man who helped him enter the country illegally, officials said.
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http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2008/10/21/20081021a...

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6.
Early home-invasion victim was ‘one of the lucky ones'
Hyattsville man charged with murder, armed robbery
By Andrew Ujifusa
The Gazette (Frederick, MD), October 21, 2008

A Chevy Chase Village woman who police say is one of the early victims of the Hyattsville man charged last week with murder and robbery in connection with a string of home invasions targeting the elderly considers herself fortunate.

"I'm just extremely glad that he's apprehended, because it seems like with each incident he got a little rougher," she said. "I guess I was one of the lucky ones."

She was assaulted and tied up for 90 minutes, she said. The Gazette does not identify crime victims.

Police say the suspect killed his most recent victim, Mary Frances Havenstein, 63, of Bethesda.

Montgomery County Police on Friday charged Jose Garcia-Perlera, 33, of the 5800 block of 32nd Avenue, with one count of first-degree murder in Havenstein' s death. She was the only homicide in a series of five home invasions across the downcounty over the past year, police said. Garcia-Perlera, reportedly an illegal immigrant who told police he was a self-employed electrician, was also charged with four counts of robbery and one count of armed robbery for the five home invasion robberies.
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http://www.gazette.net/stories/10212008/prinnew191256_32513.shtml