MOUNT PLEASANT -- Pleasant Places, Inc. landscaping faces a $24,000 state fine for alleged violations of the South Carolina Illegal Immigration Reform Act, officials said Thursday. Since July 1, the state Office of Immigration Worker Compliance has cited 16 businesses for violations of the new law after conducting audits at 550 firms. Of those cited, only Pleasant Places, Inc. has failed to correct alleged violations, said Jim Knight, communications director for the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. The business is accused of failing to verify the legal status of 24 workers hired after July 1, he said. The maximum penalty per violation is $1,000. On Aug. 11, Pleasant Places, Inc., located on Long Point Road, was fined $4,250 for violations of the immigrant worker law, according to the immigration office.
A simple query from the Supreme Court is forcing the Obama administration to wrestle with the limits of states' authority to enforce immigration laws -- and also is throwing an uncomfortable spotlight on Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. On Monday, the justices asked the Justice Department to provide its views on Arizona's attempt to force employers to verify the immigration status of potential employees. The law being challenged in the cases was signed by Napolitano in 2007, when she was governor of Arizona. Napolitano, who was a defendant in the litigation, has stated that she believes the law is constitutional, but business groups and immigration reform advocates generally in President Barack Obama's camp are asking the Supreme Court to strike down the statute.
Washington (CNN) - Disagreement among Democrats over immigration language in the health care bill is complicating efforts by House Democratic leaders to round up votes needed to pass a bill by this weekend. Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus are pushing back against the addition of a provision to the bill that would bar illegal immigrants from buying health insurance using their own funds. This measure is already included in the Senate Finance Committee's version of the bill and is backed by the White House. The House Democrats' bill already includes requirements for immigrants to verify their citizenship before getting federal subsidies to buy health insurance. But some conservative Democrats have indicated they support the Senate language.
NEWARK, N. J. -- Immigrant rights organizations were alarmed by the election of Kim Guadagno as lieutenant governor of New Jersey because she has supported the implementation of 287 (g), which allows local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws, reports El Diario/La Prensa. In her position as Monmouth County Sheriff, Guadagno last year requested that the county allow correctional officers to perform the functions of immigration officers.
Friends and supporters accompanied Salvador Mejia-Perez and his wife Elida to San Francisco International Airport Wednesday night. The couple boarded a flight to Guatemala with their American born four-year-old daughter. They are leaving their teenage son and daughter behind in Marin County. Immigration officials raided the couple's home by mistake in 2007, found they had no documents and began the deportation process. An immigration judge had previously ruled the family could stay, but that decision was appealed by the Homeland Security and reversed.
WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats have blocked a GOP attempt to require next year's census forms to ask people whether they are a U.S. citizen. The proposal by Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter was aimed at excluding immigrants from the population totals that are used to figure the number of congressional representatives for each state. Critics said Vitter's plan would discourage immigrants from responding to the census and would be hugely expensive. They also said that it's long been settled law that the apportionment of congressional seats is determined by the number of people living in each state, regardless of whether they are citizens. A separate survey already collects the data. The plan fell after a 60-39 procedural vote made it ineligible for attachment to a bill funding the census.
LUDLOW -- Police said two illegal immigrants are in custody after they were found drinking in a gas station parking lot. Police responded on Sunday to a complaint of two men drinking in the parking lot of the Shell gas station on Main Street. Police said neither man could provide identification and further investigation revealed that Marcos Mendez-Romero and Sostenes Palma, both 29, both of Mexico, were illegal immigrants. Police cited the men for drinking and turned them over to U.S. Border Patrol for possible deportation proceedings.
Patrons hoping to dine at one local Mexican restaurant Wednesday were met with locked doors and no explanation. Eight employees of Fargo's Casa Ramos Mexican Restaurant were taken into federal custody early Wednesday and could appear in U.S. District Court as early as today on charges involving false immigration documents. The restaurant, which opened in August, employs 18 people, according to Forum archives. West Fargo police were called at 4:20 a.m. to a duplex at 413 7th Ave. E. for a report of loud voices, stomping and the sound of people falling, said Assistant West Fargo Police Chief Mike Reitan.
More than a month has passed since Rep. Joe Wilson's "you lie" moment during President Obama's health care speech to Congress. And, since then, as the debate over health care reform has raged on, it's been picked over and dissected by the media and has served as a launching pad for a range of discussions on civility, race and congressional conduct. A couple weeks ago it even inspired a copycat outburst by a Bay Area assemblyman directed at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. But at its core, Wilson's comment was - and still is - really about one thing: making sure the health care reform bill spelled out how the federal government would prevent illegal immigrants from receiving federal health insurance subsidies.
YUMA, AZ -- Border Patrol agents in Yuma responded to an emergency alert system Tuesday night and rescued six people in a remote desert area nearby. When the agents arrived on scene they found six undocumented immigrants that were severely dehydrated. Border Patrol agents say the group told them they had been stranded in the desert for almost two days without water. After the group was checked out by a Border Patrol agent, who is also an EMT, they were given water and were taken to the Yuma Regional Medical Center for medical care.
The Obama operatives at the Department of Homeland Security have pared back one of the most successful immigration-enforcement programs, known as 287(g). DHS's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has stripped the state and local law enforcement agencies in the popular program of the flexibility to design a customized, collaborative arrangement with immigration authorities. The changes recently implemented force state and local police into a Washington-dictated, one-size-fits-all model. And these changes fly in the face of Congress's original intent for the 287(g) program. There was never any requirement that 287(g) cases involve only actions against "serious" criminals or even be limited to criminal aliens.
A man from Harrington is in trouble for bringing illegal aliens to Maine to work at a sea cucumber processing plant. 48-year-old Juan Centen-Perez pled guilty in federal court in Bangor Tuesday to visa fraud, transporting and harboring illegal aliens, and conspiracy to hire them. He awaits sentencing, and could be imprisoned for up to ten years. He came to Maine as a migrant worker about ten years ago and opened a Mexican store and restaurant in eastern Maine.
El Salvadoran leaders of the MS-13 gang allegedly put out a contract on the federal agent responsible for a crackdown on its New York factions, the Daily News has learned. The brazen plot to assassinate the unidentified Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was revealed in an arrest warrant for reputed gang member Walter (Duke) Torres. Torres tipped authorities to the plan after he and four other MS-13 members were stopped by NYPD detectives for hassling passersby on Northern Blvd. in Queens last month.
NEW ORLEANS -- Ten billboards paid for by the federal government are going up in the New Orleans metropolitan area to alert people to the existence of human trafficking. The billboards are part of a campaign by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to highlight "the horrors and the prevalence of human trafficking," which the agency says is equivalent to "modern-day slavery." The words "hidden in plain sight" are displayed on the billboards and there is a toll free number people can call to report possible victims of human trafficking.
PHOENIX -- Maricopa County sheriff's deputies arrested 26 suspected illegal immigrants Monday evening during two separate traffic stops in the north Valley, authorities said. According to a news release from the sheriff's office, 18 of the suspected illegal immigrants were arrested on state human smuggling charges. The remaining eight were turned over to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said his office will continue to enforce immigration laws, despite the loss of part of his 287(g) agreement.
