Mexicans GO Home

DENVER — Not only did Bruno Kirchenwitz’s U.S. Border Patrol baseball cap help get him fired, it almost got him shot.

Mr. Kirchenwitz, 54, was dismissed from his part-time job at 7-Eleven in Basalt after he was threatened by two Hispanic men who are suspected of later pumping five bullets into the store.

Mr. Kirchenwitz, who left work less than an hour before the shooting, was terminated by Southland Corp., which owns the 7-Eleven chain of convenience stores, for violating the company’s “non-confrontation policy.”

He contends he was fired for his views on illegal immigration and seeks a lawyer to sue Southland on his behalf.

“I want to put the hurt on their pocketbook because that’s all they care about, apparently,” Mr. Kirchenwitz said.

The June 26 episode transformed him into a kind of folk hero on talk radio and within the secure-borders movement.

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posted by USA Citizen

But no sooner than does a series of articles about the Collier County Sheriff’s Office program to deport troublesome illegal aliens conclude than an illegal alien is in the headlines, and not in a good way.

The sheriff’s program, as outlined in stories Sunday and Monday, targets illegal immigrants who run afoul of the law. Deputies, through extra training, are empowered to enforce federal laws and begin deportation proceedings as they see fit. In places without the program, local authorities have to rely on federal agents to undertake the deportation process against known illegal immigrants residing in their jails, a demand the feds are not always prepared to meet.

The program and the articles about it elicited the predictable responses from good-hearted people who see tragedy in the separation of families. They fret over the anxiety experienced by those who skirted the rules to find a better life in the United States yet are one traffic stop away from losing it.

Then along comes Mauricio Escalante. The 33-year-old illegal immigrant was arrested Saturday for stabbing to death a 17-year-old on the streets of Immokalee.

The teenager’s affront that set off the fatal confrontation — daring to speak English in America.

According to Sheriff’s Office reports, around 3 a.m. Saturday Charlie Guzman and some friends gathered at the laundry of an apartment complex on Colorado Avenue. Three others, including Escalante, were already there and the two groups began talking until a dispute erupted over the victim’s group speaking English, not Spanish.

Escalante went to a nearby apartment, got a knife, and fatally stabbed Guzman, according to reports.

So much for the notion that illegal immigrants are universally a hard-working, law abiding set committed to doing the jobs Americans won’t do, all while trying to assimilate.

posted by USA Citizen

11 indicted in Ohio marriage fraud scheme

COLUMBUS, Ohio – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and local officers in the metro-Columbus area arrested nine people charged with participating in a central Ohio based scheme to arrange sham marriages in order to evade U.S. immigration laws. Two additional arrests were made in New Orleans and Philadelphia. Two defendants remain at large. All 11 people were named Dec. 8 in federal indictments unsealed in federal district court.

Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and Brian Moskowitz, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Investigations in Ohio and Michigan, announced the arrests.

“ICE will not tolerate those who engage in sham marriages to circumvent and exploit our nation’s immigration system,” said Moskowitz. “Marriage fraud poses a significant vulnerability that must not go unchallenged. ICE aggressively investigates those who take illegal shortcuts to citizenship, whether they do so to gain an immigration benefit or simply for personal profit.”

The indictment alleges that Columbus-area residents Hasan Salohutdinov, Dimitry Pani, Sviatlana A. Piskunova and Laura Elizabeth Grace Scott recruited U.S. citizens and foreign nationals, primarily Eastern Europeans, to enter into sham marriages to evade immigration laws, starting in January 2007. The foreign nationals paid about $17,000 to marry U.S. citizens. The foreign nationals were allegedly promised legal residency in return for marrying citizens and the citizens were promised monetary compensation.

The indictment also alleges that defendants would counsel sham wedding partners regarding actions to take in order to lend the appearance of being a legitimate marriage, and assist non-citizens in preparing fraudulent documents to present to immigration officials.

“The indictment alleges that the defendants took part in a scheme to arrange marriages between U.S. citizens and foreign nationals,” Stewart said. “The grand jury alleges that motivation for the Americans who entered into these marriages was money. The motivation for the ones they married was American citizenship.”

Each count of conspiracy to commit marriage fraud and marriage fraud is punishable by up to five years imprisonment, a fine of up to $250,000 and three years of supervised release. Foreign nationals also face deportation after any prison time served. A list of those charged is below:

Charged foreign nationals Name City Status
Hasan Salohutdinov
Columbus
In custody

Dmitri Pani
Columbus
In custody

Sviatlana Piskunova
Columbus
In custody

Laura Scott
Columbus
In custody

Courtnie Good
Columbus
In custody

Sobithon Mirzaev
New Orleans
In custody

Elbek Saidjanov
Philadelphia
In custody

Iskander Tairov
Columbus
In custody

Brent Woods
Columbus
In custody

LaDawna Tackett
Columbus
At large

Djafar Sobirov
Columbus
At large

Stewart commended the investigation by ICE agents, and the assistance of the ICE Office of Detention and Removal, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the Columbus Police Department, Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and Reynoldsburg Police Department.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

– ICE –

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security.

ICE comprises four integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities. For more information, visit www.ICE.gov. To report suspicious activity, call 1-866-347-2423.

Last Modified: Tuesday, December 8, 2009
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

posted by USA Citizen

WALNUT CREEK — More than 40 employees at the downtown Target store quit their jobs after an internal probe raised suspicions about their immigration status, according to lawyers who have met with the workers.

Managers summoned the overnight crew of the North Main Street department store to meetings last month and gave workers the chance to prove their eligibility to work in the United States by bringing in the proper documents, the lawyers and Target representatives say.

Most of the questioned workers voluntarily resigned, Target spokeswoman Kate Gillen said. The Minnesota-based retailer would not say how many workers left the Walnut Creek store, but advocates for the employees say it was dozens.

“Forty-five people are without a job,” said lawyer Rocio Avila of La Raza Centro Legal, a San Francisco legal group pressing Target for more information. “Many of the workers there were long-term workers. There was one gentleman who had been (at Target) for 19 years, and the average was five to six years. These weren’t temporary workers, seasonal workers for the holiday season. These were loyal workers who had been there for a long time.”

Avila met with many of the workers and said the group, all of them Spanish speakers, are confused about what happened Nov. 11 and Nov. 12, when supervisors, paychecks in hand, held staff meetings at the beginning of the graveyard shift.

It is unclear, she said, why the predominantly Latino overnight shift was targeted while other employees were not.

“None of the workers are able to articulate exactly what happened,” Avila said. “None of these workers ever got anything in writing. None. That’s a huge red flag.”

The store’s probe of so many of its workers was unusual, especially for a brand-name retailer, but may become more common as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement heightens its enforcement of employers who hire illegal workers, whether knowingly or not. The agency this year has launched civil inspections of hundreds of California employers, though Gillen made clear that the Target store was not one of them.

The company, she said, launched its internal investigation on its own after fielding allegations — she will not say from whom — that some of its Walnut Creek employees were working at the store illegally. All American workers must fill out I-9 forms on the first three days of a job to verify their identity and authorization to work legally in the country, so the store began reviewing those forms.

The employees who were being investigated were “given the opportunity to provide Target with further information and documents to reestablish their ability to work in our store,” Gillen said in a statement.

Although the retailer uses the program elsewhere in the country, Target said the Walnut Creek store is not registered for E-Verify, the federal database that helps companies confirm the legal status of their workers.

Most of the employees worked late at night and early in the morning, when the store is closed, but employees use forklifts, ladders and their hands to stock the store with newly arrived products. Others clean the store, which has been open since 1999.

The retailer gave no warning to county officials about firing a large group of workers. Companies are required to notify local government following a mass layoff but not if the employees were fired for a special reason or left voluntarily, said Stephen Baiter, executive director of the Workforce Development Board of Contra Costa County.

posted by USA Citizen