dl425's Blog

Volunteers In Medicine free clinic stopped accepting illegal immigrant patients in September because Martin Memorial officials say the health system no longer can afford to provide medical tests for them.

Martin Memorial Health Systems provides diagnostic services and therapy — everything from blood analysis to body scans — for the Volunteers In Medicine clinic, which provides free care for impoverished, uninsured Martin County residents. Last year, Martin Memorial did $2.3 million in work for the clinic's 1,000 patients.

"We have worked closely with Volunteers In Medicine," Martin Memorial spokesman Scott Samples said. "We both agree that neither of us has the financial resources to continue providing care for undocumented immigrants."

Martin Memorial provided $26.4 million in charity care last year. Insurance reimbursements are falling, and the ranks of un- or under-insured patients are growing. The health system is choosing to focus on caring for legal residents, Samples said.

Providing long-term care for uninsured patients unable to pay their bills never has been a policy at Martin Memorial, Samples said. But the hospital does provide emergency care to anyone.

In at least one case — Luis Alberto Jimenez, an illegal immigrant who called Martin Memorial home for years, at a cost of $1.5 million — emergency care turned into long-term care because the patient had nowhere else to go. That case was rare, Samples said, but does illustrate the larger problem health-care facilities across the country are struggling with — how to treat patients who are in the country illegally.

Since September, Volunteers in Medicine is only treating the 100 undocumented patients already enrolled in their program. Volunteers In Medicine's $550,000 annual budget can't pay the bills Martin Memorial used to, Executive Director Mary Fields said. Without those tests, doctors can't really treat a patient.

"It's very difficult to tell a doctor to look at a chart different for one patient than for another," Fields said. "To tell someone, 'You can get this, but not that.' That's really hard. You can't do that to someone."

Since the new policy went into effect Sept. 12, Volunteers In Medicine still has a month-and-a-half-long waiting list for patient enrollment.

All new patients will have to show proof of citizenship or legal immigration status along with meeting the income, insurance and Martin County residency requirements.

The clinic's medical director, Dr. Howard Voss, said he sympathizes both with patients and Martin Memorial. Word has gotten out among immigrants — even those still in their native countries — that Martin Memorial is a place to get care, Voss said, and the health system can't absorb the cost forever.

"This hospital cannot be the acute care center for a whole nation of Mexicans or Guatemalans," Voss said.

Going to get your drivers license in Florida will be soon be a little different.

Channel Three Capitol Reporter Whitney Ray tells us what's changing.

Brittany Hughes just passed her driving test.

Brittany Hughes / 18 Year Old:L "I parked up a hill, down a hill, then I did a three point turn."

In six years Brittany will have to renew her license and when she does she'll be asked to bring more ID than is currently required.

Whitney Ray / Reporter: "Starting October 1st you'll no longer be able to get a new license just using your old one.

Now drivers will be asked for proof of their social security numbers."

DMV Spokeswoman Ann Nucatola says the new policy will help the state keep better records.

Ann Nucatola / DMV Spokeswoman: "These changes are going to help us strengthen our ability to verify identification and legal presence and its going to help us continue in our efforts to protect our customers, our citizens, our visitors while improving domestic security."

Zachary Walker is using his Virginia drivers license as his main source of ID to get his Florida license. But in two weeks that changes. People will need a birth certificate, passport or naturalization papers as their main source of ID when applying for a Florida license.

Zachary Walker / New Floridian: "Reporter: Are you glad you got in here before October 1st? Yes, now that I hear about this yes."

One change already in affect drivers can now renew their tags every other year instead of annually.

Doug Hughes / Driver: "I would love it, you know to be able to pay one fee and then wait two years to do it."
The changes should shorten lines driver's license offices across the state.

The cost of renewing your license will also go up.

Starting October 1st, it will cost you 20 dollars to renew instead of 15, but the license will also be valid for eight years instead of just six.

Last Updated: Friday, September 19 2008, 07:43 PM

Illegal aliens with past criminal records won’t be able to skirt past the Duval County jail any longer.

Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford introduced a partnership during a news conference this afternoon between the jail and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement designed to identify illegal aliens with felony records in other countries.

The partnership, which Rutherford said is only enacted in the jail post-arrest on felony charges, gives detention officers access to federal databases on illegal-alien felons and the authority to deport them without waiting for immigration agents.

Rutherford said the initiative cuts out the need for immigration officials to check the records of inmates and determine which felons are in the country illegally. He said the former process sometimes took so long that these felons served their time and were released back into the community before Immigration and Customs was able to determine their illegal status.

A team of 10 trained officers for the computer systems will be stationed in the jail once the equipment is installed, said Jail Chief Tara Wildes.

NEAR MISSION - Police say a suspected illegal immigrant working for a Democratic state representative brutally beat another man to death with a bat Monday morning.

Froylen Casares, 24, was working at a ranch owned by state Rep. Kino Flores near the intersection of North Tropser and Yukon Roads when he killed a young Hispanic male whose name authorities have not released, said Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño.

"It was a very bloody, very bloody, very gruesome crime scene," Treviño said.

Authorities continue to search for Casares, of Honduras, who fled the scene before they arrived at about 5:30 a.m. Flores, who has owned the ranch for eight years and uses it to ride his horses, said he hired the man without checking his background because he didn't appear to be an illegal immigrant.

"He was preppy. He looked the part. No indication. He fit in extremely well, he had family members here," the Democrat from Palmview said. "It just looks bad in general ... of course it's going to grab more traction. I certainly don't want to go around challeng-ing people's status."

Flores, a six-term representative who is running unopposed for reelection this fall, was out of town for the holiday and was reached by phone Monday afternoon. He said he did not know the victim.

Treviño said the suspect's immigration status and whether Flores broke the law was a federal issue that would have to be investi-gated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Flores purchased the five-acre tract in 1986, expanding it in April this year with an additional six acres. The property was appraised at $143,648, according to county records.

ORLANDO, Fla. - The LPGA Tour boasts players from all over the world, and it wants all of them to be able to speak English.

Golfweek magazine reported on its Web site Monday that speaking English will be a requirement starting in 2009, with players who have been LPGA members for two years facing suspension if they can’t pass an oral evaluation of English skills.

The tour held a mandatory meeting with South Koreans last Wednesday at the Safeway Classic to inform them of the new policy.

There are 121 international players from 26 countries on the LPGA Tour, including 45 players from South Korea.

Golfweek said that while South Koreans were informed of the rule, LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens has not given them a written explanation. But the message already appears to be lost in translation. The magazine said every South Korean player it interviewed believed she would lose her card — not be suspended — if she failed the English evaluation.

Angela Park — born in Brazil of South Korean heritage and raised in the United States — said the policy is fair and good for the tour and its international players.

“A lot of Korean players think they are being targeted, but it’s just because there are so many of them,” Park said.

Seon-Hwa Lee, the only Asian with multiple victories this year, said she works with an English tutor in the winter. Her ability to answer questions without the help of a translator has improved in her short time on tour.

“The economy is bad, and we are losing sponsors,” Lee said. “Everybody understands.”

The policy was endorsed by at least one tournament director, Kate Peters of the LPGA State Farm Classic.

“This is an American tour,” Peters said. “It is important for sponsors to be able to interact with players and have a positive experience.”

Arturo Zapata

A Lake County sheriff's deputy was hurt in a hit-and-run crash early Sunday morning, authorities said.

Deputy John Caston, who was on duty at the time of the crash, suffered lacerations to his head and arms during the crash and was treated at Florida Hospital DeLand and later released, authorities said.

Caston reported that he had been involved in a crash at the intersection of Lake Street and Bouganvilla Avenue in Paisley at 2:17 a.m. Residents at the scene  told deputies that the driver who hit Caston had fled on foot.

Deputies said that a woman told them her boyfriend, Arturo Zapata, was driving the vehicle that hit the officer, and that he had run because he was scared. Bloodhounds tracked down Zapata, who was taken into custody. Authorities said Zapata is in the country illegally.

Last Updated: Thursday, Jul 17 2008 7:50 AM

Manuel Castillo was driving a truck through Alabama hauling onions and left with a $500 ticket for something he didn't think he was doing: speaking English poorly.

Castillo, who was stopped on his way back to California, said he knows federal law requires him to be able to converse in English with an officer but he thought his language skills were good enough to avoid a ticket.

Still, Castillo said he plans to pay the maximum fine of $500 rather than return to Alabama to fight the ticket.

"It just doesn't seem fair to be ticketed if I wasn't doing anything dangerous on the road," he said.

Federal law requires that anyone with a commercial drivers license speak English well enough to talk with police. Authorities last year issued 25,230 tickets nationwide for violations. Now the federal government is trying to tighten the English requirement, saying the change is needed for safety reasons.

Most states let truckers and bus drivers take at least part of their license tests in languages other than English. But the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has proposed rules requiring anyone applying for a commercial drivers license to speak English during their road test and vehicle inspection. The agency wants to change its rules to eliminate the use of interpreters, and congressional approval isn't required.

Drivers could still take written tests in other languages in states where that is allowed, and they wouldn't have to be completely fluent during the road test, said Bill Quade, an associate administrator with the agency.

"Our requirement is that drivers understand English well enough to respond to a roadside officer and to be able to converse," said Quade, who heads enforcement. Drivers need to be able to communicate with authorities about their loads and their vehicles, he said.

A handful of states and organizations are supporting the change, and no one opposed the new rule in comments submitted to the agency.

The rule change, which Quade said would likely take effect next year, could particularly affect the nation's fast-growing Spanish-speaking population.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated last year that more than 17 percent of the nation's 3.4 million truck drivers were Hispanic, as were more than 11 percent of its 578,000 bus drivers. It's unknown how many speak both Spanish and English.

The issue of English-speaking drivers also could become larger if the Bush administration succeeds with efforts to make it easier for trucks to enter the United States from Mexico. Trucks already are allowed to enter border areas under a pilot program.

An Alabama state trooper thought Castillo, 50, couldn't speak English well enough to drive an 18-wheeler when he was headed back to California from picking up onions in Glennville, Ga. A driver for 20 years, Castillo was stopped in west Alabama for a routine inspection.

Castillo, who says he speaks English at roughly a third-grade level, said he understood when the trooper asked him where he was heading and to see his commercial driver's license and registration. He said he responded in English, though he speaks with an accent.

Castillo wasn't speeding, and the inspection and computer check turned up no offenses, so he was surprised to get a ticket for being a "non-English speaking driver."

"I had heard that Congress had passed that law, so I knew people were getting tickets," he said in an interview in Spanish. "But it didn't seem fair to me because I was communicating fine with him. I don't know a lot of things, but when it comes to my work I understand everything people say to me."

Castillo, a permanent U.S. resident who lives in a farming community near Fresno, said he took his California license test in Spanish because it's the language he's most comfortable speaking.

Jan Mendoza of the California Department of Motor Vehicles said the state gives the written test in both English and Spanish, but the roadside portion of the exam is in English only because of the federal rule.

Limiting the road portion of the CDL test to English-only conversation would help eliminate drivers who don't speak English well enough to talk to an officer on the roadside, Quade said. He sees no conflict in continuing to let applicants take the written test in languages other than English.

"The level of English proficiency we are looking for at the roadside is basic. The (written) CDL is a whole different level. There's multiple choice, fairly in-depth quarters that require more of an understanding of the English language."

English-only testing for commercial licenses is limited to just seven states, according to the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which tracks the issue. Those include Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wyoming and Missouri, which recently passed the rule, according to the group.

The OOIDA supports the English-language rules for commercial drivers, as does the American Trucking Association, said spokesman Clayton Boyce.

"It doesn't require them to be super fluent, just to follow road signs, directions and be able to comply with an officer," said Boyce. "It's not a cultural requirement, it's a safety requirement."

Boyce's group teamed with another industry organization, the Truckload Carrier Association, in recent years in a driver recruitment campaign that included trying to bring more Hispanics into trucking amid a driver shortage.

Deborah Sparks, a spokeswoman for the Truckload Carrier group, said the driver shortage has eased now, she said, but language and driver recruitment could become an issue again.

"Once the economy picks up we'll have a shortage again," she said.

Thirty states now have laws specifying that official government communications be in English, says U.S. English, a group that promotes the laws. This year such bills are under consideration in 19 legislatures.

"It's multiplying tremendously," says Mauro Mujica, a Chilean immigrant and chairman and CEO of U.S. English. "We've made huge progress."

Critics do not see progress. Some say the increase in the measures nationwide sends a hostile message to newcomers.

"It just poisons the atmosphere in local communities," says John Trasvina, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Typically the proposed laws require that documents, ballots and other communications be published in English. Exempt are communications to protect public health and safety or efforts to promote tourism.

This year:

•In May, the Ohio House of Representatives approved a bill making English the state's official language. It is now before the state Senate.

•In April, the Oklahoma House passed a bill requiring the majority of state business to be conducted in English. It is before the Senate.

•Missouri will decide this fall on an amendment to the constitution requiring English for "all official proceedings."

Advocates say they are not suggesting that English be the only language spoken but that it be the only language used in dealing with government.

Mujica, who speaks Spanish in his home, says requiring English for official business encourages immigrants to learn English. That will help them to assimilate into U.S. society and prosper in its economy, he says.

"We're making it too easy for people to function in other languages," he complains.

But the effectiveness of the movement is in question since federal sometimes trumps a state's official English law. For instance, the Voting Rights Act requires certain localities to publish bilingual ballots.

"They've raised the level of ire against languages other than English (but)… haven't really changed the government's or businesses' way of doing business," Trasvina said.

Rob Toonkel, spokesman for U.S. English, says that is not true. He says the laws do not cover everything but ensure that things like driver's licenses, zoning forms and the day-to-day activities are overwhelmingly in English.

"We want to be sure (immigrants) are becoming part of America and American society," he says. "That's what official English is about."

There is one issue the two sides appear to agree on — more can be done to help non-English speakers learn English.

Sam Jammal, legislative attorney in MALDEF's Washington, D.C. office, says making English classes more available for adult immigrants is a better solution than official English.

"We fully agree with that," Mujica says.

7 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has made it easier for some foreigners who overstay their visas to seek to remain in the United States legally.

The court ruled 5-4 Monday that someone who is here illegally may withdraw his voluntarily agreement to depart and continue to try to adjust his status while in the United States.

The case involved two seemingly contradictory provisions of immigration law. One allows people to avoid being deported by agreeing to leave the country voluntarily. The advantage to that course is that the wait to get back to the United States is shorter.

The other provision allows immigrants who are here illegally but whose circumstances have changed to make their case to immigration officials. To do that, however, they must remain in the country.

WASHINGTON - President Bush has signed an executive order requiring contractors and others who do business with the federal government to make sure their employees can legally work in the U.S.  

Bush signed the order Friday and the White House announced it Monday.

The federal government has had some embarrassing moments when illegal workers have been discovered to be working for contractors they've hired, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a news conference. For that reason it's trying to get its own house in order, Chertoff said.

"The federal government should lead by example and not merely by exhortation," he said.

The order says federal departments and agencies must require contractors to use an electronic system to verify that the workers are eligible to work in the U.S.

Homeland Security operates the Web-based E-Verify system, which Chertoff said 1,000 employers a week are signing up to use. The system allows employers to check Social Security numbers provided by employees. The order would affect hundreds of thousands of workers, at the least, and potentially millions, Chertoff said.

Bush's order is aimed at cracking down on hiring of illegal immigrants. But people who overstayed visas or came to the country legally but do not have permission to work, such as some students or those awaiting work permits, also could be snagged with the system.

"It is the policy of the executive branch to enforce fully the immigration laws of the United States, including the detection and removal of illegal aliens and the imposition of legal sanctions against employers that hire illegal aliens," the executive order says.

The order comes as a worker verification bill has essentially stalled in Congress. A Democratic immigration enforcement bill would require employers to check the citizenship and legal status of all their employees.

"I think it's a great decision. I think it's what the American people have been asking for, common-sense, basic things that are not Draconian or dramatic. Employer verification addresses the real problem and that is illegal employment," said Rep. Brian Bilbray, a California Republican who heads the Immigration Reform Caucus, a group of lawmakers who support tougher immigration laws.

Most employees fill out I-9 forms and submit accompanying documents that employers generally look over to determine whether the worker is legitimate. With E-Verify system, employers enter a name and Social Security number into a computer using the Internet..

E-Verify checks various government databases to make sure the number is legitimate and that it goes with the name that was submitted. If the there are problems, the person is tagged as a potentially illegal worker and must resolve the discrepancy.

The issue of using E-Verify has run into opposition over the years from business groups who say the system is burdensome and civil libertarians who say it will lead to discrimination and job losses by U.S. citizen workers misidentified as illegal workers.

Concerns about the system's effect on privacy was to be the topic of a House subcommittee hearing on Tuesday. Several members of Congress were to testify at the hearing.

Chertoff said the system gives correct results 99.5 percent of the time and legal workers are able to resolve problems in less than two days.

But Tim Sarapani, senior legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union, said with Americans starting new jobs 55 million times a year, a 4.5 percent error rate can be a problem.

Also Monday, Chertoff said Homeland Security is awarding Boeing Co. contracts to build two sections of Arizona "virtual fence" that would are a version of a prototype known as Project 28 that failed to perform as expected. Chertoff said Boeing will use fixed towers, radar, remote-controlled cameras, sensors and other technology in two areas of Arizona.

___

On the Net: Homeland Security Department: http://www.dhs.gov

Some might say it was a picture of irony when two dozen suspected undocumented workers - some builders, some painters - went to jail after officials with ICE say they worked on a jail illegally.

"You might say it was somewhat of an embarrassment for the county to arrest people that were working for the county," said Tom Leonardo of the Fort Myers City Council.

That's why the City of Fort Myers wants its contracted workers to dig into their employees' histories.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Immigration Reform and Control Act which criminalizes employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers.

Immigration lawyer David Mourick says workers who are in Southwest Florida illegally often trick employers. They simply fake it.

Mourick: If they've got a social security number, why would you question anything else? Why should you have to?
NBC2: So if the paperwork seems credible, a lot of employers just let it go?
Mourick: Yes, and to be quite honest, a lot of them don't really want to look that closely at it.

Certain subcontractors for the Lee County Jail project say they did look closely when they hired these workers. Now, the City of Fort Myers urges the same for those behind efforts like street scape.

When it comes to the major projects, the last thing city leaders want to do is play police. They say that's what the federal government is for when it comes to undocumented workers.

Instead, what they want to do is put a lot more pressure on subcontractors when it comes to doing the background checks.

"It's not something that we ought to try to be enforcing," said Leonardo. "If we take a moral position on city council, it sends a message to the development community."

And Monday night, the Fort Myers City Council decided it can only do so much to keep illegal workers off the payroll. Members say they will leave it up to the feds to protect our borders.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS
Visit our website:  http://www.nafbpo.org
Sign up for our report at:  m3report@yahoo.com
Foreign News Report

The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis. You are free to disseminate this information, but we request that you credit NAFBPO as being the provider.

Poll: 42 million Mexicans would opt for living in the U.S. if they could
 
El Sol de Mexico  (Mexico City; also in some forty other papers of the "o.e.m." nationwide chain) 5/6/08
 
A poll by the Mitofsky Consultants shows that 40.7 % of Mexicans, some 42 million persons, would opt for living in the United States if they could; in 2005, only 21% answered the same question in the affirmative.

The polling firm contacted one thousand persons older than 18 from April 24 to 29 and found that 50.5 % of those between 18 and 29 years of age answered the question in the affirmative, as did 42.1 % of those between 30 & 49 years of age. Of those 50 years or older, 22.3 % were also inclined to do so.

And 43.6 % of middle class persons also answered in the affirmative.

The polling firm also said that three of every ten Mexicans, that is to say around 30 million persons, would accept going to the United States even in an illegal condition. The poll also showed that four out of ten Mexicans have a relative in the United States. Some 20 million persons of Mexican origin live "in that country" (read: the U.S.) of which half do so illegally. Every year half a million Mexicans cross over into the United States in search of better working conditions.
 
The month of May has already brought about 80 executions in Mexico including federal agents and state and city police officers, all attributed to revenge or settlement of accounts by organized crime groups.

The government has been forced to increase its federal and military personnel forces in Sinaloa, Guerrero, Chihuahua and Baja California due to the increase of murders of military and police at all levels. Just yesterday there were six executions in Sinaloa, three in Guerrero, three in Michoacan, two in Chihuahua, two in Distrito Federal, one in Durango and one in Jalisco.
------------------
 
El Diario  (Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua)  5/6/08
 
Four different actions by the military in the state of Chihuahua resulted in the seizure of 9.6 tons of marihuana, a number of assault rifles, over a thousand rounds of ammo and some radio communication equipment.
------------------
 
El Financiero  (Mexico City)  5/6/08
 
When an Italian tourist in Cancun came out of a convenience store near his hotel after buying some beer he was beaten and robbed of 500 Euros and 600 dollars. But the thieves were three Cancun policemen whom he later identified; all three have been charged.
-----------------
 
El Pulso  (San Luis Potosi, S.L.P.)  5/6/08
 
The wave of violence in Chihuahua caused thirteen other deaths in that state between the weekend and this Monday, mostly in confrontations between different organized crime groups.
-----------------
 
El Debate  (Culiacan, Sinaloa)  5/6/08
 
The state of Sinaloa's Att'y. Gen. acknowledged that State Ministerial Police members are resigning their positions because of the wave of violence which has occurred in the last few days, but he declined to say how many agents have done so. The mortal attacks against the police agents began on April 3rd, then were repeated eleven days later. On the 28th there was yet another and two days later two more agents were killed.

The paper's main editorial again deals with the lawlessness which they say prevails in Culiacan and neighboring Navolato and which holds Sinaloa in a state of siege.
-----------------
 
Milenio  (Mexico City)  5/6/08
 
(Portions of the first & last paragraphs of an op/column by Luis Miguel Gonzalez, "The era of internal migration")
 
Construction workers from Oaxaca in Jalisco, day laborers from Veracruz in Sinaloa, the Sinaloan middle class in Tijuana, Distrito Federal professionals in Colima. In every case there are hundreds or thousands. They are evidence of an internal migration, a phenomenon which is similar in size to the migration to the United States, without the same public awareness. Theory holds that a migrant population enriches the area where they settle. In practice, it generates tensions derived from the contrast of the cultures and the competition for scarce resources.. The majority of our cities is not prepared to assimilate this internal migration. They have neither the physical infrastructure nor the mentality.
-----------------
 
La Prensa Grafica  (San Salvador, El Salvador)  5/6/08
 
There were 3,491 murders in El Salvador by the end of 2007, a drop of 437 compared with 2006. And as of last Sunday there has been a reduction of 167 murders this year in comparison with 2007; but the daily murder average this year is 8.7.

BANGOR, Maine—An El Salvador native who became a U.S. citizen in 2006 and started a floor cleaning business in Bangor has been sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison for harboring and employing illegal aliens.

Cornejo, 30, of Lewiston, also was sentenced Tuesday to three years of supervised release after he gets out of prison and was ordered to pay a $3,000 fine.

Prosecutors said Cornejo, owner of M.C. Cleaning LLC, employed at least 11 illegal aliens and also provided housing for them, often at his home.

His company was hired as a subcontractor by a Danvers, Mass., firm to clean the floors of eight Hannaford supermarkets in Greater Bangor, Bucksport and Belfast.

His employment of illegals came to light when Social Security numbers sent by Cornejo to Hannaford Bros. Co. headquarters in Scarborough failed to match the corresponding names of the workers when the Social Security Administration ran a check of them.

Cornejo faced a maximum sentence of 10 years and a fine of up to $250,000 for harboring illegal aliens and six months in prison and a fine of up to $3,000 for each of the 11 undocumented workers he employed.

Judge John Woodcock told Cornejo that he added a day onto the prosecution's recommended one-year sentence to allow him to earn good time and return to his wife and 2-year-old daughter in less than a year.

"It is time to remind you that obeying the laws of this country is a primary duty of U.S. citizens," Woodcock told the defendant. "This country gave you its prized possession -- citizenship -- and you paid the United States back by breaking its laws."

Two of Cornejo's ex-employees also pleaded guilty to criminal charges in connection with their illegal entry into the country and were expected to be deported after being sentenced to time already served in jail.

------

Information from: Bangor Daily News, http://www.bangornews.com

Study Shows 25 Percent Of L.A.'s Welfare Goes To Illegal Aliens

 Monday, 05 May 2008 Supervisor says county spends more than $1 billion a year on benefits to illegals.

 According to new data from the Department of Public Social Services, nearly twenty five percent of Los Angeles County ’s welfare and food stamp benefits goes directly to the children of illegal aliens, at a cost of $36 million a month -- for a projected annual cost of $432 million.
 
“The total cost for illegal immigrants to County taxpayers far exceeds $1 billion a year – not including the millions of dollars for education,” said Antonovich.  “With $220 million for public safety, $400 million for healthcare, and $432 million in welfare allocations, illegal immigration continues to have a devastating impact on Los Angeles County taxpayers.”
 
In March, illegals collected over $19 million in welfare assistance and over $16 million in food stamp allocations.

NORFOLK

A federal judge sent a message to the commercial fishing community on Wednesday that getting caught employing illegal immigrants will land you in jail.

Despite calls for leniency from prosecution and defense attorneys, U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson gave Yvonne Michelle Peabody, operator of the Peabody Corp., 90 days in prison for employing undocumented workers over a four-year period.

The Newport News-based Peabody Corp. owns a fleet of trawlers used mostly for scalloping. Michelle Peabody, as she is known, and her father, company founder William “Frankie” Peabody, pleaded guilty to employing illegal immigrants.

The elder Peabody was sentenced Wednesday to five months of home confinement with electronic monitoring. Jackson also ordered Michelle Peabody to serve four months of home detention after she gets out of custody.

The Peabodys previously agreed to pay $6.9 million in fines and forfeitures, which represents the profits they made using the undocumented workers. But the question of jail time remained unanswered as Jackson considered the backgrounds of the defendants and other factors.

“The court finds your conduct to be egregious,” Jackson told Michelle Peabody, noting that the government could have easily charged her with felony crimes.

As company vice president, Michelle Peabody handles day-to-day operations and was held largely responsible for employing 126 illegal immigrants over a four-year period, through 2006, a problem that law enforcement officials said is pervasive in the fishing industry.

Jackson gave a number of reasons for giving Peabody prison time but noted in particular her role as chairwoman of the law enforcement subcommittee of the regional fisheries council while conducting the illegal activity. The maximum sentence for her crimes was a year in prison.

Her attorney, Kenneth D. Bell, in arguing for leniency, said he’d never seen in 25 years of practice someone with no criminal record getting jail time for a first misdemeanor offense.

Michelle Peabody apologized to the judge and tried to explain why it happened.

“We never as a business or a family sat down and decided to hire illegals, but we did. We’re very sorry and I’m very sorry,” she said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph E. DePadilla recommended that she serve community confinement, such as in a halfway house, based on her cooperation with the government since her arrest.

He said she has assisted in a drug case. She also has assisted in another illegal immigrant case, her attorney said.

Both sides also agreed that the workers were treated and paid fairly.

The workers earned more than $10,000 per fishing trip, the prevailing wage for scallopers.

“During this investigation, no evidence of mistreatment of workers was uncovered,” DePadilla wrote in a court filing. “Peabody Corp. officers valued foreign born workers because they were diligent workers who did not complain.”

Peabody faced tougher punishment than her father because she also pleaded guilty to unauthorized access of a government computer.

She admitted that she obtained sensitive information from her one-time Coast Guard boyfriend. The boyfriend, Morris Wade Hughes, was convicted of related charges and is awaiting sentencing.

Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com