News tooo good not to read

[hypoclear]

Ok here is one of the few interesting new flashes today.

 

Volunteers take up positions on U.S-Mexico border

Tuesday, April 5, 2005 Posted: 1:54 PM EDT (1754 GMT)

 

NACO, Arizona (AP) -- Clusters of citizens who volunteered to watch for illegal immigrants and smugglers dotted a swath of the Mexican border Monday as their monthlong effort to bolster authorized patrols got under way in earnest.

 

Volunteers for the Minuteman Project had a limited presence on the border during the weekend but spent Monday expanding their line southeast of this border community. They gathered in groups of three or four spaced out about every quarter mile. Some sat in lawn chairs, others stood scanning the desert with binoculars.

 

Dave Carpinello, a Denver investment banker who had a pistol on his hip and wore a T-shirt reading "I defended the border," said he was here out of concern that potential terrorists could penetrate the porous border.

 

"For me, it's not so much concern for the illegal immigration," said Carpinello, who spent part of the weekend in the desert. "Anyone and their mother could fly to Mexico and walk right over here. That's a scary thought."

 

Border patrol officials said the volunteers have been peaceful but have still been disrupting U.S. Border Patrol operations by unwittingly tripping sensors that alert agents to possible intruders. Agents have to respond to the false alarms, which pulls them off their normal patrols, said Andy Adame, a patrol spokesman.

 

When the volunteers aren't deployed, an alarm from a sensor -- some of which are as close as 25 feet from the border -- probably means there are illegal immigrants or drug smugglers in the area, Adame said.

 

"Now we not only have to look out for aliens and drug smugglers, now we have to look out for these untrained civilians who are unfamiliar with the landscape," he said.

 

The volunteers, many of whom were recruited over the Internet, plan to watch the border in shifts 24 hours a day during April and report any illegal activity to federal agents. It's an exercise some law enforcement officials fear could lead to vigilante violence or an accidental confrontation between armed volunteers and authorities.

 

Organizers said they would have 200 volunteers out Monday. There was no way to verify the count independently because authorities aren't keeping track of the numbers.

 

The idea, according to project organizers, is partly to draw attention to problems on the Arizona-Mexico border, considered the most vulnerable stretch of the 2,000-mile southern border. Of the 1.1 million illegal immigrants caught by the Border Patrol last year, 51 percent crossed into the country at Arizona.

 

But things were quiet in the area where Carpinello and a companion, Sean Donahue, a Denver mortgage banker, have been stationed. They had seen a few people across the border some 300 yards to the south, but no one came up to where they were Monday, Donahue said.

 

"No one's crossing, and that was the goal, to show the government that if we have people out here no one's going to cross," said Chris Simcox, Minuteman field operations director.

 

Adame said apprehension numbers have gone down since the volunteers arrived, an indication that fewer people might be trying to cross. But he also noted that the Mexican military and police have been conducting some kind of operation south of the Naco area, which tends to drive down crossings.

 

Hmmm give them a name, a gun and mission and some guys will do anything.. well except get real..

 

 

 

Now on the lighter side..

 

Delivery man stuck in elevator for 3 days

Tuesday, April 5, 2005 Posted: 10:56 AM EDT (1456 GMT)

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- A Chinese food delivery man was found trapped in a broken elevator Tuesday, more than three days after he was reported missing, police said.

 

Ming Kung Chen, 35, who worked for the Happy Dragon restaurant in the Bronx, was reported missing late Friday when he did not return an hour after setting out on a delivery.

 

Police said he was found about 6 a.m. on Tuesday and was hospitalized with dehydration.

 

Police were unable to question him immediately because he did not speak English.

 

Newspapers had reported the Chinese community feared that Chen, who is from Fuzhou province in China, might have been a victim of robbery or foul play by immigrant smugglers.

 

Kind of makes learning English a good thing..

 

Mark and Bea and Elizabeth

[Feathers268]

Mark,

Great story. On the side, it was much talked about on the Hannity show this afternoon and had given some people the chance to complain on air about the leagle immigration problems. I was hearing it on 3 hour delay so it was actually over, but all this month many shows will be hilighting this topic. If someone can get on, we might have a chance to be heard nationally.

[BuffaloPaul]

Don't worry, they will have to have a passport by 2008. That will stop the problem

[hypoclear]

update on our stuck Chinese delivery guy.

 

Deliveryman Rescue Raises Immigration Issues

 

UPDATED: 7:04 pm EDT April 6, 2005

 

NEW YORK -- A deliveryman who captured front page headlines this week by being trapped in a broken elevator for more than three days has drawn further scrutiny, this time over his immigration status.

 

It was widely reported that Ming Kuang Chen -- who first caused a stir by vanishing while delivering Chinese food to a high-rise apartment building in the Bronx -- entered the country illegally from his native China. Under city rules, police can seek residency information about a victim for investigative purposes, but not disclose it to anyone else.

 

"As far as I know, we did not give out the immigration status," Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters on Wednesday when asked about Chen. "It would be in direct violation of the executive order I signed."

 

The mayor blamed the reports on unauthorized leaks.

 

"Unfortunately, as you well know, sometimes people just for a variety of selfish reasons ... try to leak information and it's unconscionable," he said. "His immigration status had nothing to do with it whatsoever and should not have been divulged, clearly."

 

Chen, 35, became the subject of a widespread search after he failed to return to his Chinese restaurant Friday night with $200 in receipts, prompting speculation that he was the victim of a fatal mugging.

 

But at about 5 a.m. Tuesday, firefighters responding to an emergency call pulled Chen out of a stalled elevator at the apartment complex. He said he had been stuck there for 80 hours without food or water.

 

Chen, a native of China who speaks little English, claimed he had repeatedly cried out and pushed an alarm button in the elevator. But both police, who conducted a door-to-door canvass of the building over the weekend, and private security there insisted they saw no sign of him.

 

Chen appeared briefly at a new conference on Tuesday after being released from a hospital where he was treated for dehydration.

 

Officials offered no information on his whereabouts on Wednesday.

 

A spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Marc A. Raimondi, said the publicity had made the agency aware of Chen. But he suggested his case was not a priority.

 

"Getting locked in an elevator for three days doesn't make you immune to removal proceedings," Raimondi. "That said, we prioritize our investigative efforts to target those illegal aliens who pose the greatest threat to public safety and homeland security."

 

Mark