Arizona deputy wounded in desert shooting

His confrontation with apparent drug smugglers is likely to inflame passions over the state's tough new law on illegal immigrants.

By Paloma Esquivel and Nicholas Riccardi, Los Angeles Times

May 1, 2010

Reporting from Antelope Peak, Ariz., and Phoenix

A Pinal County sheriff's deputy was shot by an apparent drug smuggler and suffered a superficial wound Friday night in an encounter sure to inflame passions in the state that recently passed the toughest law against illegal immigration in the country.

Arizona has been fiercely criticized for the new law, which makes it a state crime to lack immigration paperwork and requires police to determine whether people they stop are in the country legally.

Opponents have contended that the law will force police to racially profile people. Its backers deny that and say lawmakers were forced to act by incidents like Friday's shooting. Arizona is the top entry point for illegal immigrants crossing the Mexican border, and the shooting took place along a well-known drug smuggling route.

Paul Senseman, a spokesman for Gov. Jan Brewer, who signed the law last week, said the governor deplored "the horrendous violence, drug trafficking and human smuggling due to Arizona's insecure border."

He said Brewer was outraged "that Arizona must act on its own if the federal government continues to fail us as it did again today."

Lt. Tamatha Villar said that Deputy Louie Puroll, 53, was patrolling on his own along a stretch of Interstate 8 that runs through the empty desert south of Phoenix about 4 p.m. when he saw five men on foot hauling a load of marijuana. The moment Puroll left his vehicle, he was shot.

The bullet grazed Puroll's stomach. He was flown to a hospital and was expected to be released late Friday. The gunman and other men fled, and a massive search was underway well after sunset.

The route is where smugglers frequently run drugs from Mexico up to Interstate 8, where they are picked up and driven west into California, say law enforcement officials familiar with the area.

In March, an apparent smuggler shot and killed a rancher, Robert Krentz, on the rancher's property just north of the Mexican border in southeastern Arizona. The killing helped galvanize support for the new anti-illegal- immigration law. Supporters have regularly cited the Krentz case and the cases of two Phoenix police officers killed by illegal immigrants since 2007.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-arizona-shooting-20100501,0,2748044,print.story

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Chinese schools beef up security after attacks on children

The violence terrifies parents throughout the country. In the latest incident, a man with a hammer injures five children before setting himself on fire.

By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times

May 1, 2010

Reporting from Beijing

All of 110 pounds, security guard Chen Xiu might not pack much heft, but he says no knife-wielding attackers will get past the red iron gate where he watches over an elementary school in downtown Beijing.

"If they come in here, I'm ready to beat them up," said Chen, 49, pumping the air with a bare fist. "You have to be brave to take on criminals."

Despite his bravado, Chen said he was grateful that police were also patrolling the school.

The extra security has been added after a string of attacks against schoolchildren, some as young as 4, who have been stabbed, slashed, bludgeoned and, most recently, set on fire.

There have been five attacks in five provinces in little more than a month, three in the last three days alone. The latest came Friday morning when a 45-year-old farmer crashed through the front gate of an elementary school in Weifang, in the eastern province of Shandong, armed with an iron hammer and a jug of gasoline.

The man, identified as Wang Yonglai, attacked children with the hammer, then tried to immolate himself while clutching two students. Teachers pulled the children away from Wang, who set himself on fire and died of his injuries. Five injured children were reported in stable condition.

Few Chinese have guns, so the attacks have all involved knives, cleavers and other household tools. Many people believe the assailants, mostly unemployed men, were venting their frustration against social inequity, attacking the most defenseless element of society, young children.

Throughout China, school districts were distributing police batons, pepper spray and metal sticks with hooks on the end to subdue attackers with knives.

In Beijing, police have been standing guard the last month in front of schools during the peak hours in the morning and afternoon when children are coming in and out, and on Friday special riot police were ordered to join the patrols. In Changsha, Hunan province, parents are banding together to patrol the schools. A businessman in southern China was reported to have hired a well-known kung fu master to protect his 6-year-old daughter.

Since an attack in late March, 10 people have been killed, dozens injured and millions more terrorized, although the Chinese news media have offered scant reporting on the rampages, trying to avoid public hysteria and to discourage copycats.

"We can't understand why this is happening," said Celine Li, 38, an elementary school teacher in Beijing and mother of a 12-year-old. "You don't know when some crazy person is going to jump out and attack you."

Luke Liu, 28, was part of a crowd milling about at a hospital in Taixing, Jiangsu province, where 32 people were being treated for stab wounds after an attack at a kindergarten Thursday.

"This leaves a deep impression on everybody," he said. "We love our children."

Liu said he believed that the attacker had gone after youngsters because "they can't protect themselves."

The Taixing case involved the youngest victims to date, children as young as 4, some of whom had their throats slashed, and ears and hands nearly severed. None of the children were reported to have died, although five were in critical condition.

One of the attackers, Zheng Minsheng, who stabbed eight pupils to death March 23 in Nanping, Fujian province, was a community health doctor who was unable to afford to buy an apartment and who lost his job. He was executed Wednesday.

Hao Bin, a Beijing psychiatrist affiliated with Peking University, said people should not try to read political motives into the attacks.

"I don't think these people are terrorists," Hao said. "They are a people with psychological problems who weren't able to get the professional help they need."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fg--china-stabbings-20100501,0,7721819,print.story

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Appeals court upholds receiver for state prisons

A federal judge acted within his authority when he appointed a receiver to correct problems in the California prison network that deprived inmates of their constitutional rights to adequate medical care, a federal appeals court panel ruled Friday.

The decision by the three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's dismissal of a challenge brought by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to the appointment of a receiver to enforce court orders.

The orders had been issued in 2002, after years of class-action litigation brought by prisoners who claimed their 8th Amendment rights to be spared cruel and unusual punishment had been violated by abysmal medical care. U.S. District Judge Thelton E. Henderson agreed with the prisoners that prisoner care “too often sinks below gross negligence to outright cruelty.”

State officials didn't appeal the 2006 appointment of a receiver but challenged it three years later after the appointee, J. Clark Kelso, drew up plans to build 10,000 new prison beds and sought more than $200 million from the state budget for the construction.

The 9th Circuit panel, all appointees of Democratic presidents, affirmed the dismissal of the state's motion to terminate Kelso and dismissed on jurisdictional grounds the state's request that it nix the construction plans.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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California's monitoring of sex offenders needs fixes, report finds

California should improve its monitoring of sex offenders, rethink restrictions on where they live and find a better way to evaluate their likelihood of committing new crimes, according to a state panel that investigated the case of an ex-con who pleaded guilty to killing two San Diego County teenagers.

The report by the state's California Sex Offender Management Board concluded that "it is unlikely that a parole revocation for living near a school would have changed the outcome of the crimes" committed by John Albert Gardner III.

"Residing close to a school has not been found by studies to be related to where sexual re-offense occurs," the report found. "At the time of Chelsea King's rape and murder, for example, Gardner was living in Riverside County, but the crimes occurred in San Diego County, nowhere near his home."

Still, the board said Gardner's parole conditions prohibited him from living near a school so he should have been required to move or face the possibility of having his parole revoked. 

The 31-year-old registered sex offender pleaded guilty April 16 to murdering Chelsea, 17, and Amber Dubois, 14, both during rape attempts. He had previously served five years in prison for beating and molesting a 13-year-old girl. The board report said electronic monitoring and lifetime supervision should be used for those judged to be exceptionally high-risk offenders, and state law should be changed to create "exclusion zones" prohibiting high-risk offenders from going into parks and other places where children congregate.

"There is no evidence that restricting where sex offenders live will prevent repeat sexual offending against children. In fact, residence restrictions could not have prevented the murder of Chelsea King," the report found.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/04/californias-monitoring-of-sex-offenders-needs-fixes-report-finds.html#more

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Manson follower tried to incite race war, should stay in prison, D.A. tells Schwarzenegger

A convicted killer who has been described as mass murderer Charles Manson's “right hand man” should not be released from prison, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley told Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday.

Bruce Davis, 67, who has served 38 years in prison for the 1969 killings of musician Gary Hinman and ranch hand Donald “Shorty” Shea, was recommended for release by a two-member Board of Prison Terms panel in January.

In a letter to the governor, who has the power to reverse parole recommendations, Cooley wrote that he believes that Davis “continues to minimize, rationalize and offer excuses” for his role in the killings.

“The viciousness of the Gary Hinman and Shorty Shea murders, the relationship of those murders to an effort to incite a race war ... and Bruce Davis's attempts to minimize his criminal responsibility make him an unreasonable risk of danger to society,” the county's top prosecutor wrote.

Davis' attorney, Michael Beckman, said his client has taken responsibility for the crimes and has changed since entering prison. Davis has a sterling disciplinary record, Beckman said, and has become ordained as a minister and has earned his masters and PhD in philosophy and religion via correspondence school while in prison.

“If the goal of prison is to rehabilitate and get prisoners back into society, he's a textbook example,” Beckman said. “He's not going to bother anybody. He's just going to go home to his wife and his child.”

Davis was not involved in the 1969 Manson family murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others. But, according to Cooley, he “occupied a major role in the Manson family hierarchy.” He was convicted in the killing of Hinman, an aspiring musician, and Shea, a stuntman and a ranch hand at the Chatsworth ranch where Manson and his followers lived. 

Police found a Black Panther symbol at Hinman's murder scene, which prosecutors later said was an attempt by the Manson family to incite a race war, which they called “Helter Skelter.” Manson and most of his co-defendants have repeatedly been denied parole.

Onetime Manson family member Susan Atkins died last September, shortly after a state parole board panel rejected her plea for a “compassionate release” from prison because of brain cancer.

Davis had been denied parole 25 times before. At his 26th parole hearing, a two-person panel recommended that he be freed. The governor can allow the decision to stand, reverse it or send it back for further reconsideration by the entire parole board.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/04/manson-follower-tried-to-incite-race-war-should-not-be-released-from-prison-da-tells-schwarzenegger.html#more

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Family of doctors volunteers at L.A. free clinic

A Woodland Hills physician, his parents and a brother in medical school help fill the shortage of medical professionals needed to treat thousands of needy patients.

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times

April 30, 2010

When organizers of a massive free clinic scrambled this week to find volunteer doctors to treat thousands of needy patients at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, the Vaisman family answered the call.

Dr. Boris Vaisman , 34, a family practitioner who works with his mother in Woodland Hills, recruited his father, who practices in Studio City, and his brother, who will graduate from medical school in June.

Dr. Sofia Vaisman , 61, treated women, some of whom had never seen a gynecologist and did not know what a mammogram was. Dr. Mark Vaisman , 61, who also is a family practitioner, and his son Boris performed general medical exams. Joe Vaisman, 25, worked triage.

The Los Angeles County Medical Assn. estimates there are nearly 30,000 doctors licensed locally. Organizers had hoped to attract at least 300 doctors, dentists, nurses and other medical professionals each day. But no more than 200 are preregistered for any remaining day of the clinic, which ends Monday.

Some medical stations and dental chairs sat empty as patients waited -- with hundreds of patients each day asked to return.

"Everybody tends to think somebody else will do it," said Dr. Natalie Nevins, the clinic's medical director. "We need optometrists, ophthalmologists, desperately."

UCLA and USC notified doctors, dentists and nurses in advance and sent contingents of medical students to the clinic. UCLA sent more than 150 medical staff and students. USC sent a mobile dental unit, instructors and students.

Although e-mails went out to the 157 hospitals in the Hospital Assn. of Southern California and the 10,500 members of the Cooperative of American Physicians-Mutual Protection Trust, a malpractice insurer, other sources went untapped.

Clinic organizers said they met with representatives from the Los Angeles County Medical Assn., but Sean O'Brien, the association's executive director, said he first learned of the clinic on the news Wednesday. On Thursday, O'Brien said that he was willing to notify members but that it was probably too late.

"Physicians have very busy schedules, so it's really something you have to plan in advance," he said.

California Medical Assn. officials said they were not contacted by clinic organizers. Spokesman Andrew Lamar said some of the association's more than 35,000 members probably were reluctant to volunteer because such work is not covered by their malpractice insurance.

The association and the state medical board support pending state legislation that would require the state to cover such doctors if they volunteer and are later sued by a patient. Another way to increase volunteers would be to open California clinics to professionals licensed out of state, which pending legislation would allow.

The Vaismans, who began the day at 5:30 a.m., said it shouldn't take out-of-state doctors to staff the clinic. On Thursday, they were hopeful that as the weekend approached, more doctors would clear their schedules.

"I'm booked for two months, and I rearranged my schedule," Sofia Vaisman said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-free-clinic-20100430,0,1664965,print.story

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Judging video games

California wants to ban the sale of violent video games to minors; the problem is the 1st Amendment.

May 1, 2010

Less than a week after the Supreme Court refused to carve out an exception from the 1st Amendment for videos depicting real violence against animals, it has agreed to consider California's argument that it should withhold constitutional protection from virtual violence against people. The justices will review a sensible decision by a federal appeals court striking down a state law punishing the sale of "violent video games" to minors. We hope a majority of the court recognizes that the principle in the two cases is the same — that even offensive speech is protected by the 1st Amendment.

The measure struck down by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was well intentioned but the wrong response to the exposure of children to games such as Grand Theft Auto. Under the law, a 4-square-inch label reading "18" would have to be affixed to violent video games. Anyone who sold such a game to a minor could be fined as much as $1,000. The state never made a convincing case that criminalizing the sale of such video games was the only or the best way to protect children from content unsuitable to their age. As a matter of policy, the Legislature should have left that task to parents, aided by a voluntary rating system.

But the video-game law challenged the longstanding constitutional doctrine that speech can be abridged only when there is a compelling government interest furthered by a narrowly tailored law. The 9th Circuit concluded that the video-game law failed that test. Proponents of the law justified it by citing assorted studies linking violent video games to greater aggression in children, but the court noted that none of the research established a causal link. In fact, the court observed, "some of the studies caution against inferring causation."

The state had another argument, however, which it is expected to press on the Supreme Court. Essentially, it is a plea for the courts to treat violent content as a form of obscenity. In a 1968 case, the Supreme Court upheld restrictions on the sale to minors of "girlie magazines" that wouldn't be considered obscene if sold to adults. The 9th Circuit declined to extend that exception to video games, pointing out that obscenity has been denied constitutional protection because it involves the narrow category of sexual titillation. For the court to allow violent video games — or films, books or magazines — to be regulated in the same way would create a gaping loophole in the 1st Amendment.

Last week the Supreme Court declined to create a similar exception to the 1st Amendment for depictions of cruelty to animals. It should show the same solicitude for free speech when it considers the video-game law. Then parents can play their proper role, by taking control of the joystick.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-video-20100501,0,3418403,print.story

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From the Daily News

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Oprah tells drivers: Put down your phones

"It's like Russian roulette every time you pick up your phone in the car," Winfrey told her viewers from Chicago on Friday. She dedicated her TV show to urging people to sign pledges not to chat or text from behind the wheel.

Safety advocates hope Winfrey's star power will bring attention to the growing scourge of distracted drivers, who are blamed for an estimated 6,000 deaths and a half-million injuries a year.

The advocates hope to mimic the success of safety campaigns in the 1980s that helped reduce drunken driving deaths and increased the use of seat belts.

"We need to really break people's bad habits," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said at a Washington rally against distracted driving. "Everybody has a bad habit of thinking they can talk on their phone or text and drive, and you can't do it safely."

Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia prohibit drivers from texting behind the wheel; six states bar drivers from using hand-held cell phones.

Congress is considering legislation to push all states to ban texting by drivers, and the federal government is encouraging all states to restrict cell phone use behind the wheel.

Since Winfrey launched her campaign in January, more than 200,000 people have taken the pledge. They can choose one of three promises for their driving: no texting; no texting and only handsfree calling; or no texting or calls.

Friday's broadcast included "No Phone Zone" rallies in Detroit, Boston, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Washington.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_14993121

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From the Department of Homeland Security

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A Discussion on U.S.-Mexico Cooperation

David C. Kernell, 22, was convicted by a federal jury in Knoxville, Tenn., today for intentionally accessing without authorization the e-mail account of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and obstruction of justice, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney James R. Dedrick for the Eastern District of Tennessee announced.

After a week-long trial, a jury found Kernell guilty of one count of misdemeanor unauthorized access to obtain information from a computer and one count of obstruction of justice. The jury found Kernell not guilty of wire fraud. The jury could not reach a verdict on the identity theft charge and the judge declared a mistrial as to that charge.

According to evidence presented at trial, on Sept. 16, 2008, Kernell, a resident of Knoxville, obtained unauthorized access to Gov. Palin's personal e-mail account by resetting the account password. Evidence showed that after answering a series of security questions that allowed him to reset the password and gain access to the e-mail account, Kernell read the contents of the account and made screenshots of the e-mail directory, e-mail content and other personal information. Kernell posted screenshots of the e-mails and other personal information to a public Website. Kernell also posted the new e-mail account password that he had created, thus providing access to the account by others.

Evidence at trial showed that Kernell became aware of a possible FBI investigation on Sept. 16, 2008, following the illegal entry into the e-mail account. The evidence further showed that Kernell began to delete records and documents with the intent to impede an anticipated FBI investigation.

At sentencing, Kernell faces a maximum of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine for unauthorized access and 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for obstruction of justice.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Krotoski currently detailed to the Criminal Division's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Weddle of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee. CCIPS Trial Attorney Josh Goldfoot provided significant assistance. The case was investigated by the FBI's Knoxville field office.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/April/10-crm-509.html

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From ICE

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596 criminal aliens arrested in targeted ICE operation throughout the southeastern U.S.

Operation Cross Check yields the largest-ever number of arrests

WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its law enforcement partners arrested 596 foreign nationals with criminal records during a three-day enforcement surge throughout the southeastern United States, making it the biggest operation targeting at-large criminal aliens ever carried out by ICE in the region.

During the operation, which concluded late last night, ICE officers and agents worked in teams with the U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and local law enforcement agencies in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Puerto Rico.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for ICE John Morton cited the operation – which involved nearly 400 federal and local law enforcement officers and agents – as another example of ICE's focus on indentifying and removing criminal aliens from the United States.

"We are a compassionate nation with a proud history of immigration," said Morton. "But we are also a nation governed by laws specifically designed to protect its citizens and residents. Those who come to the United States to prey upon our neighbors and communities will be prosecuted for their crimes and ultimately returned to their home countries. The results of this week's operation demonstrate ICE's commitment to that principle."

Arrests in Florida and Puerto Rico accounted for the largest number of apprehensions during the operation where a total of 258 aliens were taken into custody. The Atlanta Field Office recorded the next highest number of arrests with 232. The arrestees, 544 men and 55 women, represent 60 different nations, including countries in Latin America, Asia, Europe, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Because of their serious criminal histories and prior immigration arrest records, at least 12 of those arrested during the enforcement surge face federal prosecution. A conviction for felony reentry carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

Some of the worst of the offenders caught this week during Operation Cross Check include the following case examples:

• Oriel Bernard McCarthy, of Jamaica, was arrested Tuesday by the Atlanta Fugitive Operation Team in Jonesboro, Georgia. McCarthy was recently arrested for aggravated assault and possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime. McCarthy's criminal history includes convictions and arrests in four states, including New York, South Carolina, Maryland and Georgia for crimes including felony forgery, stalking, criminal domestic violence, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and manufacture, aggravated assault, sexual abuse and forcible contact, possession of stolen property, and robbery. He was ordered removed by an immigration judge on October 21, 2009 in New York City.
  
  
• Jose Oscar Avalo-Molina, of El Salvador, was arrested Wednesday by the Miami Fugitive Operations Team in Pembroke Park, Florida. Avalo-Molina's criminal convictions include first degree murder for which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. On Feb. 28, 1991, he was ordered removed to El Salvador by an Immigration Judge. Avalo-Molina was removed on Aug. 13, 1997 and subsequently illegally re-entered. This case has been accepted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for prosecution for the crime of re-entry after deportation.

Any of the foreign nationals arrested during this operation who have active warrants will be referred to the associated local law enforcement agency and ICE will place detainers to ensure they return to ICE custody following disposition of their criminal cases. Those who have outstanding orders of deportation, or who returned to the United States illegally after being deported, are subject to immediate removal from the country. The remaining individuals are in ICE custody awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge, or pending travel arrangements for removal in the near future.

This week's special enforcement action was spearheaded by ICE's Fugitive Operations Program, which is responsible for locating, arresting, and removing at large criminal aliens and immigration fugitives — aliens who have ignored final orders of deportation handed down by the nation's immigration courts. ICE's Fugitive Operations Teams give top priority to cases involving aliens who pose a threat to national security and public safety, including members of transnational street gangs and child sex offenders. This week's operation focused on the apprehension of criminal aliens, which are not necessarily fugitives.

The officers who conducted this week's special operation received substantial assistance from ICE's Fugitive Operations Support Center (FOSC) located in South Burlington, Vt. The FOSC conducted exhaustive database checks on the targeted cases to help ensure the viability of the leads and accuracy of the criminal histories. The FOSC was established in 2006 to improve the integrity of the data available on at large criminal aliens and immigration fugitives nationwide. Since its inception, the FOSC has forwarded more than 550,000 case leads to ICE enforcement personnel in the field.

This week's enforcement operation is just one facet of the Department of Homeland Security's broader strategy to heighten the federal government's effectiveness at identifying and removing dangerous criminal aliens from the United States. As a result of this strategy, ICE removed a total of 136,126 criminal aliens from the United States last year, a record number.

For more photos from Operation Cross Check, visit the ICE media gallery .

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1004/100430washingtondc.htm

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28 arrested in Chicago area during ICE operation targeting gang members

CHICAGO — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, in close partnership with local law enforcement officers, made 28 arrests during a three-day operation targeting illegal aliens with ties to violent street gangs in the Chicagoland area. This is the latest local effort in an ongoing national ICE initiative to target foreign-born gang members.

The arrests were made as part of Operation Community Shield, a national initiative whereby ICE partners with other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to target the significant public safety threat posed by transnational street gangs. Partnerships with local law enforcement agencies are essential to the success of Operation Community Shield.

The multi-agency operation, which ended April 27, targeted foreign-born gang members and associates. All 28 men arrested are documented members of the following gangs: Latin Kings, Maniac Latin Disciples, Sureño 13s, Insane Deuces, Norteño 14s, Spanish Cobras, Latin Counts, Spanish Gangster Disciples, Latin Eagles and OMC Street Crew.

Of the 28 gang members arrested, 26 have prior criminal histories. Some of their arrests and convictions include: robbery, aggravated battery/weapon, aggravated battery/great bodily harm, aggravated battery on a government official, residential burglary, mob action, domestic battery, and unlawfully using a weapon with a silencer. Of those arrested, 25 were from Mexico, one from Honduras and one from El Salvador.

One U.S. citizen with an outstanding warrant was also arrested; Carlos Gonzalez, 18, of Elgin, was arrested April 25 and turned over to local authorities on an outstanding state warrant for drug possession.

One of those arrested was Abraham Monroy-Perez, a Mexican national who was previously deported in 2005. ICE agents arrested Monroy-Perez, 27, of Elgin, on April 25. He was charged in U.S. District Court in Chicago on Thursday for illegally re-entering the U.S. after being formally deported, which is a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Also turned over to local authorities was Oscar Anicua, a Mexican national and Latin Kings gang member with three outstanding warrants in DuPage County and Kane County. Anicua will be returned to ICE for deportation once the local charges against him are completed.

Arrests were made in the following communities: Aurora, Chicago, Elgin, Mount Prospect, Prospect Heights, West Chicago, Wheeling and Wood Dale.

The 25 currently in ICE custody are charged with administrative immigration violations and are pending removal from the United States. ICE does not release the names of those arrested on administrative immigration charges.

"Street gangs are responsible for committing a significant amount of crime in our neighborhoods and communities, " said Gary Hartwig, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Chicago.  "ICE works closely with our local law enforcement partners to identify, locate and arrest these gang members in the name of public safety. Ultimately, we remove those who are deportable from the United States."

ICE was assisted in the operation by the police departments of Aurora, Elgin, West Chicago, Wheeling and Prospect Heights. Since Operation Community Shield began in February 2005, ICE agents nationwide have arrested more than 16,700 gang members and associates linked to more than 900 different gangs. More than 200 of those arrested were gang leaders.

The National Gang Unit at ICE identifies violent street gangs and develops intelligence on their membership, associates, criminal activities and international movements to deter, disrupt and dismantle gang operations by tracing and seizing cash, weapons and other assets derived from criminal activities.

Through Operation Community Shield, the federal government uses its powerful immigration and customs authorities in a coordinated, national campaign against criminal street gangs in the United States. Transnational street gangs have significant numbers of foreign-born members and are frequently involved in human and contraband smuggling, immigration violations and other crimes with a connection to the border.

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1004/100429chicago.htm

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From the FBI

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Northeast Georgia Man Pleads Guilty to His Role in Internet Child Molestation

GAINESVILLE, GA—GREGORY HUNTER, 50, of Mt. Airy, Georgia, pleaded guilty today in federal court in Gainesville, Georgia, to coercing a 9-year-old girl to engage in sexually explicit conduct before a webcam for the purpose of transmitting a live depiction of the child and the graphic images over the Internet.

United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said, “This defendant conspired with the stepfather of a 9-year-old to have the child engage in sexually explicit conduct before a webcam. Our children deserve our protection, and those who abuse and prey on children deserve to go to prison.”

Brian D. Lamkin, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Atlanta, said, “The national investigation which uncovered the victimization of this 9-year-old child as well as child predator Gregory Hunter reminds us that the Internet can be a dangerous place in that it provides access by these predators to our children. The FBI has many agents throughout the country dedicated to working with their local and state law enforcement partners regarding crimes against children matters and the value of the information sharing process in these investigations cannot be overstated.”

According to United States Attorney Yates and information presented in court: A national FBI child pornography investigation initiated in Oklahoma between 2008 and 2009 led agents to a number of subjects across the country, including HUNTER. Based on evidence gathered during the investigation, a federal search warrant was executed at HUNTER's home on February 3, 2009, and HUNTER was arrested. HUNTER acknowledged that in 2008 he began communicating via the Internet with a man in California regarding child pornography. The California man ultimately offered that his own stepdaughter, who at the time was 9 years old, was available for live, sexually explicit performances before a webcam in his home. On numerous occasions over the course of the next three months, HUNTER conspired with the stepfather to persuade and induce the girl to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of a live webcam session that he transmitted over the internet to HUNTER. During the sessions, HUNTER repeatedly made graphic requests of the girl and on at least one occasion suggested that the stepfather get the child “a little drunk” and engage in sexual intercourse with her.

In August 2009, in Sacramento, California, the stepfather was sentenced to 30 years in prison following his convictions in federal district court for producing, transporting, and possessing child pornography.

HUNTER is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Court Judge Richard W. Story, who has not yet set a date for the sentencing hearing. HUNTER faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. In determining the actual sentence, the court will consider the United States Sentencing Guidelines, which are not binding but provide appropriate sentencing ranges for most offenders.

This case is being investigated by special agents of the FBI.

Assistant United States Attorney Brent Alan Gray is prosecuting the case.

For further information please contact Sally Q. Yates, United States Attorney, or Charysse L. Alexander, Executive Assistant United States Attorney, through Patrick Crosby, Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Attorney's Office, at (404) 581-6016. The Internet address for the HomePage for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia is www.usdoj.gov/usao/gan .

http://atlanta.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/at043010.htm

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