1. ICE chief announces resignation
2. FL amendment fails to rescind old law
3. AZ co. sheriff, attorney re-elected
4. Activists claim increased threat
5. DC day laborers often exploited
6. Indictment issued for NV kidnapping
7. Kidnappings expose brutality
8. Ex-BP agent imprisoned

1.
Bush Immigration Chief Julie Myers Out
By Spencer Hsu
The Washington Post, November 6, 2008

Wasting little time after the election before jumping ship, Julie L. Myers, head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will leave the Bush administration on Nov. 15, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announcement today.

Myers, 39, did not say if she planned to re-enter private practice after 12 years in government, but ICE spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said, "She is very passionate about these [immigration] issues and will carry that passion into future endeavors."

Myers, a niece of former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Richard B. Myers, served as Chertoff's chief of staff when he headed the Justice Department's criminal division. She rejoined Chertoff in 2006 and helped oversee ICE during the Bush administration's failed immigration overhaul push. Her tenure began rockily, as concerns about her youth and lack of previous executive and immigration experience led senators to delay her confirmation, forcing Bush to use a recess appointment to install her. She was finally confirmed by the Senate last December.
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http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/11/05/bush_immigration_c...

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2.
In Florida, an Initiative Intended to End Bias Is Killed
By Damien Cave
The New York Times, November 6, 2008

Miami -- An obscure ballot initiative in Florida intended to end a legacy of bias against Asian-Americans was defeated Tuesday, apparently because voters incorrectly assumed it would prevent illegal immigrants from owning property.

Had it passed, the initiative, known as Amendment No. 1, would have removed from the stateÕs Constitution language adopted in 1926 allowing the Legislature to prohibit foreigners who were barred from citizenship Ñ Asian-Americans at the time Ñ from owning land.

No such legislation was ever enacted here, and every other state that had such laws has scrapped them on grounds of equal protection. But on Tuesday, FloridaÕs effort to delete the provision went down, with 52 percent voting ÒnoÓ and 48 percent voting Òyes.Ó

Immigrant advocates said they were stunned.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/us/politics/06florida.html

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3.
Results mean immigration will remain key issue
By Daniel Gonz‡lez
The Arizona Republic (Phoenix), November 6, 2008

The re-election of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas keeps the issue of illegal immigration at the forefront of Arizona politics, even though it has fallen off the national radar.

"Thank goodness we still have great men in power. . . . At least they will help keep Phoenix safe," said Bill Chenausky, 41, of Phoenix.

Chenausky said he voted for Arpaio and Thomas because he is frustrated with illegal immigration and they seem to be the only ones doing anything about it.

Both Arpaio and Thomas vowed to continue to combat illegal immigration, and they suggested they may even step up their efforts in light of their victories.

But the prospect of a new level of immigration enforcement disturbs civil-rights advocates.

"These (Arpaio and Thomas) are folks who have terrorized our community," said Raul Yzaguirre, the former president of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil-rights organization, and now a professor at Arizona State University.

Yzaguirre said Tuesday's election results show that voters in Arizona remain deeply frustrated over illegal immigration.

"I thought the pendulum was swinging the other way," he said.

In addition to the incumbents' victories, voters in Arizona also rejected Proposition 202, a measure backed by business groups that would have weakened aspects of the state's tough employer sanctions law.

Despite the votes, some experts say it would be wrong to interpret them as simply an endorsement of the sheriff's immigration crackdowns, which have bitterly divided the community, spurred civil rights lawsuits and ignited accusations of racial profiling.

Although the crackdowns clearly helped Arpaio and Thomas win votes, other factors also played a significant role in their victories, experts say.

"It's important not to jump to conclusions. It may or may not be a mandate on illegal immigration," said Rodolfo Espino, a political science professor at ASU.

For example, Arpaio and Thomas both had the advantage of name recognition and incumbency. Their main Democratic opponents - former Buckeye Police Chief Dan Saban, who ran against Arpaio, and Phoenix attorney Tim Nelson who ran against Thomas - were not well known, Espino said.
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http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2008/11/06/200811...

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4.
Hispanic Activists Cite an Uptick in Threats of Violence
By Darryl Fears
The Washington Post, November 6, 2008; Page A02

Andrea Baz‡n said she has thick skin and is not easily frightened by death threats. But when the Hispanic activist arrived home one day to find her voice mail packed with profanity, and when she noticed a man watching her house in Durham, N.C., from a white commercial van with no license plates, her heart started to pound.

On a recent Monday night, she said, an unidentified man pounded on the front door of her house, frightening her. About a month earlier, on Labor Day, her house was broken into, and the smoke detectors were removed. "I am a mother. . . . I was scared," said Baz‡n, president of the Triangle Community Foundation in Durham and a board member for the National Council of La Raza. "I've been open with them about the fact that sometimes I have a bodyguard."

For some Hispanic activists such as Baz‡n, this is life on the front lines of the debate over illegal immigration. Leaders of the largest Hispanic civil rights groups -- the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), and La Raza -- have received anonymous threats of violence and death. Baz‡n's home address and the names of her daughters were posted on a Web site.

Last month, a Raleigh man was convicted and sentenced to 45 days in federal prison for e-mailing death threats to La Raza and a Muslim advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Christopher Michael Szaz, 42, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges of sending e-mail threats, and the U.S. attorneys said his prosecution was a message to others that sending anonymous threats and racist e-mail is a federal crime. Szaz, who said he was drunk when he sent the e-mails, must also perform 100 hours of community service at a Hispanic or a Muslim organization.

There are no statistics that specifically track threats against Latino activists. But leaders of several groups cite anecdotal evidence of increasing attempts at intimidation. "We've seen a rise in threats directed at Hispanic groups," said Janet Murgu’a, president and chief executive of La Raza. "We've seen a rise in hate groups. This is not just a feeling."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/05/AR200811...

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5.
Few Options For Cheated Day Workers
In Survey, Many Say They Are Denied Pay
By N.C. Aizenman
The Washington Post, November 6, 2008; Page DZ03

Day laborers in the District are often cheated out of wages and subjected to unsafe conditions, yet they receive little help from city and federal agencies charged with protecting them, according to a survey of 140 workers released last week.

The study, by the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, found that more than 60 percent of city day laborers had not been paid at some point, and about half had been paid less than the promised wage. Nearly 40 percent of the workers surveyed said employers charged them for a ride from the hiring location, and 45 percent said they had been abandoned at a work site and left to find and pay for transportation home.

In addition, almost half of those surveyed said they were made to work without necessary safety equipment, 39 percent had been injured at work and, of those, less than 15 percent received medical compensation from their employers.

"Not only are these employers preying on these vulnerable workers every day, but there is no deterrent. It's a major, major problem," said Laura Varela, director of the committee's Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project.

An estimated 500 day laborers seek construction jobs and menial labor at informal hiring sites, such as the Home Depot off Rhode Island Avenue in Northeast. About one-third are black homeless men; most of the rest are Latino.

According to the report, both groups face barriers when they try to seek redress through government channels.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/05/AR200811...

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6.
Immigration indictment issued in Nev. abduction
By Ken Ritter
The Associated Press, November 5, 2008

Las Vegas (AP) -- A man named by authorities as a figure in the drug ring kidnapping of a 6-year-old Nevada boy was indicted on an immigration charge Wednesday by a federal grand jury, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Jose Luis Lopez-Buelna, 48, was charged with being a deported alien found unlawfully in the United States, said Natalie Collins, spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Gregory Brower. No arraignment date was immediately set.

The charge keeps Lopez-Buelna in federal custody following his release from state custody last week. He spent more than a week in the Clark County jail following his Oct. 17 arrest by police investigating the Oct. 15 abduction of first-grader Cole Puffinburger.

The boy became the focus of Nevada's longest Amber Alert and an intensive search in neighboring states before he was found unharmed late Oct. 18 on a Las Vegas street.

Las Vegas police characterized the abduction as a message from "Mexican nationals" and methamphetamine traffickers to the boy's grandfather, Clemens Fred Tinnemeyer.
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http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gTV3mn_HiSgnqf1izYeAEJ8XdrRAD9492ESO1

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7.
Child Kidnapping Shows Callousness of Smugglers -- and Desperation of Immigrant Parents
By Ray Stern
The Phoenix New Times, November 5, 2008

The Guatemalan woman had worked in the United States illegally in the past. Her four-year-old son was born here, but she took him to her home country before moving to Miami a few months ago.

When she decided to bring the boy to the United States, she trusted the same smugglers. But the boy "apparently changed hands" at some point, says Vincent Picard, a spokesman for the local office of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau.

The 4-year-old ended up in a Mesa motel, kidnapped by thugs who told the mom they'd sell the boy's organs if she didn't scrape up a ransom, Picard says.

It's the third high-profile child kidnapping in as many weeks.

The case ended happily, sort of. ICE rescued the boy in the nick of time. The boy's mother, Marlene Garcia, who lives in West Palm Beach, Florida, now faces deportation after calling police to report the threats against her son.
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http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2008/11/child_kidnapping_sh...

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8.
Ex-border agent gets prison for civil rights violations
The Houston Chronicle, November 5, 2008

A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a former Border Patrol agent convicted of violating the civil rights of two undocumented immigrants to one year in prison.

Santiago Perez, 28, of Edinburg, Texas, admitted as part of a guilty plea in August that he assaulted a Guatemalan and a Mexican man on separate occasions. Perez admitted to authorities that he pistol-whipped a Guatemalan man in December 2006. Perez also admitted to taking a Mexican man out to a remote South Texas ranch and holding a gun to his head, and trying to force him to admit he was a smuggler.
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/6097238.html