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Forthecause.us: Maryland Police Officer Stephanie Mohr - Still Serving 10 Years for Apprehending Two Guilty, Deported Criminal Aliens

Officer Stephanie Mohr explained: "Mendez made a move as if to flee the scene. In accordance with my training, I released my dog, Valk, who was trained to perform the standard "bite and hold" move. He did so, biting Mendez on the leg and holding him until I and the other officers could handcuff him. Both of the suspects were charged with 4th degree burglary. Cruz pled guilty and was deported to Mexico. Mendez was convicted of illegally entering the U.S. and selling crack cocaine and was deported to San Salvador. So imagine my shock - five years later - when the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it would indict me for 'violating' Ricardo Mendez's civil rights by allowing my police dog to bite his leg!" The jury voted to acquit me 11-1. And that's when things really got ugly. Civil rights groups were furious. Everyone from Amnesty International to the NAACP declared the arrest "racist" and demanded further investigation. The Justice Department insisted on a second trial because of the one lone juror who had sided with the prosecution. I was convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison for apprehending a drug dealer!" Stephanie Mohr is currently serving her sentence at FPC Alderson, a minimum security facility housing female offenders. This facility is located in the Town of Alderson, West Virginia. Her projected release date is November 27, 2011. This story is written by Stephanie's younger brother David Mohr, who is a Sergeant assigned to the District 1 Station located in Hyattsville, Maryland.

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AmericanFreedomRiders: The Untold Story of Border Patrol Agent Gary Brugman - Falsely Charged, Wins Freedom

Written by his own hand, former U.S. Border Patrol Agent Gary Brugman tells how, in the performance of his duty, he was falsely charged and convicted of violating the civil rights of an alien caught entering the U.S. illegally at the Mexican border. This case, along with the cases of Ramos and Compean, Hernandez, Sipe, and who knows how many more, serves as proof of the agenda of malicious prosecution by Johnny Sutton against law enforcement officers who dare to uphold our immigration laws. Once again, as in the Ramos and Compean case, Sutton worked in concert with the Mexican Consulate to locate a deported Mexican national and payed his way back to the United States many months later to testify against a Border Patrol agent on false assault charges. A Mexican national who had registered no previous complaint against Agent Brugman. What incentive was he given? Who knows. It is known that a member of his family subsequently received chemotherapy treatment in the U.S. In a post trial interview, Johnny Sutton went so far as to thank the Mexican Consulate for cooperation in locating the deported alien.

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The Orange County Register: Immigration Reform - Navigating Passage

The debate about how to reform the nation's immigration system will soon heat up again on both sides of the Capitol. With the Democratic takeover of Congress, two lawmakers long active in this issue will lead the House and Senate immigration subcommittees where policy decisions start. At his news conference Wednesday, President Bush reiterated his support for a comprehensive fix and said he believed this was an issue he could work on with the new majority. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, leads the House panel, and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., heads the Senate subcommittee. Lofgren recently sat down with The Orange County Register to talk about her plans for immigration. Kennedy declined an interview but answered by e-mail the questions posed to Lofgren. Here are excerpts.
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CNN Lou Dobbs -

video: Elite Businesses Say Tightening of Borders Incompatible with North American Union Top-level meetings in Ottawa have hammered out changes in border security, the energy grid, and regulations among the United States, Canada and Mexico. That, too, part of an effort to integrate the economies of the three nations by 2010. The plan is moving quickly at the highest levels of our government, and, of course, at the highest level of corporate America. Three governments working closely with 30 big corporations called the North American Competitiveness Council. This diverse group of companies presented a wish list to its governments -- "improving the secure flow of goods and people within North America." From breakfast cereal to food safety inspections, cutting red tape "...minimizing minor differences between standards and regulations between three countries." Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) said: "They may well be doing something decent and good. Who knows? Maybe there are some benefits of these things they are suggesting. But to me, it's sort of a collusion between secret government and big business, and I don't like what I see coming." He and other border security advocates see a move toward open borders. They point to business community statements like "... any tightening of the borders between Canada, Mexico, and the United States, threatens to erode the North American advantage created by NAFTA."

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The Washington Times: Mexican Wives Seek Ouster of Husbands from U.S.

The women of Tecalpulco, Mexico, want the U.S. government to enforce its immigration laws because they want to force their husbands to come back home from working illegally in the United States. They have created an English-language Web page where they identify themselves as the "wetback wives" and broadcast their pleas, both to their men and to the U.S. government. "To the United States government -- close the border, send our men home to us, even if you must deport them (only treat them in a humane manner -- please do not hurt them)," it reads. In poignant public messages to their husbands, the women talk about their children who feel abandoned, and worry that the men have forsaken their families for other women and for the American lifestyle. "You said you were only going to Arizona to get money for our house, but now you have been away and did not come back when your sister got married," one woman writes to a man named Pedro. "Oh how I worry that you have another woman! Don't you love me? You told me you love me."

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CNN Lou Dobbs -

video: Mexican Truckers to Ride U.S. Highways Soon

Mexican truckers apparently will soon be hitting American highways. The U.S. Department of Transportation announced a plan that allows Mexican trucking companies to begin making deliveries in the United States. That is, if the Bush administration has its way and follows through on an announcement made not in the United States but in Monterrey, Mexico. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters making the announcement today, saying the authority to launch the program is granted to the DOT under the North American Free Trade Agreement. It is not a program that sits well with the leader of the Teamsters Union. James Hoffa said: "What's happening here is that the Bush administration is buckling to the pressure of Mexican business and the Mexican government, and U.S. business, to have cheaper trucks and cheaper truck drivers on the highway at the sacrifice of American safety on the highway, so that corporations can make more money."
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CNN Lou Dobbs

video: Illegal Alien Advocates Demand Holding Facility for Families be Closed

Protests about conditions at a Texas detention center for illegal aliens... That facility holds families of illegal aliens who are caught entering the United States. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says the facility is humane and safe, but illegal alien advocates want to shut down the facility. The detention center is clean. There are toys, videogames and computers. But critics say the Hutto family detention center in Texas is not appropriate for children, because of its prison-like environment. The Department of Homeland Security opened Hutto last year. Prior to that, most illegal alien families were simply released into the U.S. population. Human smugglers would take advantage of that policy by often borrowing children to bring in adult illegal aliens. Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies said, "We always want to treat children, I think, with special care. Nonetheless, it is their parents, not the United States' government, not the American people, who have created this situation by knowingly and willfully violating U.S. immigration law and dragging their child with them."

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OneNewsNow.com: New Evidence Prompts Renewed Call for Pardon of Border Agents

A North Carolina congressman is once again calling on President Bush to pardon two imprisoned Border Patrol agents in light of the release of court transcripts from their trial. The lawmaker says he hopes to make public a letter to the president on the matter in hopes of rallying Americans to the defense of the agents. Representative Jones is seizing on a report that shows the judge in the case did not allow the defense to present evidence to the jury of a second drug offense committed by the illegal alien. That revelation prompted yet more outrage from critics who say the government was more interested in prosecuting the agents than the drug smuggler. The lawmaker explains he and more than 50 of his Republican House colleagues plan to solicit the president's intervention in getting Ramos and Compean out of prison until all the appeals have been heard. "I believe sincerely that the prosecutor, Mr. Sutton, down in Texas ... was overzealous in this effort," says Jones. "I think there's too many questions about the indictment and the prosecution for these men to be sitting in federal prison."

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The Washington Times: Senate Hearing to Push Bush on Immigration

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy will hold a hearing next week that he hopes will get the Bush administration to confirm publicly that it wants "comprehensive immigration reform" this year. "Chairman Leahy is looking for the Bush administration to walk the walk on comprehensive immigration reform," Tracy Schmaler, spokeswoman for the Vermont Democrat, said yesterday. "President Bush has publicly indicated his support for comprehensive reforms that would provide a realistic solution to bringing millions out of shadows, improve internal and border security and meet the pressing needs of employers for willing workers." Several Republicans on Capitol Hill who supported last year's comprehensive reform, however, now complain that they have been left out of negotiations. As a consequence, they and others worry that the bill is being pushed further to the left than last year's final bill.