~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Los Angeles Times

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

El Salvador becomes drug traffickers' 'little pathway'

The country finds itself enmeshed in an expanding narcotics trade, a shift brought on by better enforcement of sea routes; a new, U.S.-funded highway; and gangs with roots in Los Angeles.

by Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times

March 22, 2011

Reporting from Dulce Nombre de Maria, El Salvador

The Mexican drug gangs rapidly infiltrating Central America call El Salvador "El Caminito," the little pathway.

Once a bystander in the region's narco-business, this tiny country now finds itself enmeshed in an expanding drug trade, a shift brought on in part by the presence of a new, U.S.-funded highway that provides an overland route for shipping cocaine north.

For years, traffickers used speedboats and small submarine-type vessels to move drugs from Colombia to northern Guatemala or Mexico, using water routes to circumvent much of Central America. But with government sea patrols improving and new cartels creating competition in parts of Guatemala, some Mexican gangs have switched to moving their shipments overland through Central America, using the new roadway through El Salvador.

The cartels' infiltration of the country has been abetted by ruthless street gangs with roots in Los Angeles and secretive networks left over from El Salvador's civil war. And with its use of the U.S. dollar as its official currency, the nation is a money launderer's paradise.

Those conditions have turned a country still struggling to emerge from the nightmare of a long civil war into a new setting for the Mexican drug cartels' violent turf wars. When President Obama arrives here Tuesday for talks with Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes, the regional struggle with security and organized crime will be a focus of their discussions.

"Mexican organized crime is a threat in all of Central America," the Salvadoran attorney general, Romeo Barahona, said after meeting with his counterparts in Mexico to share intelligence on the mounting crisis.

Weak institutions and corrupt governments made Central America a fertile field, especially for the ruthless Zetas gang, a Mexican paramilitary organization that has spread throughout the region and into the U.S.

The Zetas have taken charge of much of the Guatemalan countryside, and hundreds of people have been killed there, in Honduras and in El Salvador in the last six months. The government of Guatemala declared a state of emergency Dec. 19 in northern Alta Verapaz province bordering Mexico, and deployed the army in a bid to retake cities lost to the Zetas.

In Honduras, officials this month discovered a cocaine laboratory, possibly the first evidence that Mexican traffickers are making their own cocaine after years of Colombian monopoly. Even the placid, tourist-mecca country of Costa Rica is complaining that Mexican traffickers are setting up shop.

And here in El Salvador, authorities stumbled upon what they believe to be a Zetas training camp and recently dug up more than $15 million in drug money, buried in plastic barrels and thought to be but a fraction of hidden cash.

President Funes recently told The Times that Zetas were working in his country. Defense Minister David Munguia underscored that, saying the Zetas and other Mexican traffickers were "moving their strategic rear guard to Central America."

Mexican traffickers in El Salvador have been able to easily graft onto existing criminal organizations, most notably street gangs that were born in Los Angeles and deported to El Salvador during the last two decades — and that now dominate neighborhoods in most Salvadoran cities.

Also, networks built on both sides during El Salvador's civil war that morphed into smuggling operations have proved a godsend to Mexican cartels. One group, Los Perrones ("the big dogs"), smuggled cheap Honduran cheese into El Salvador for years until shifting to drugs. Another sent dozens of its members to be trained by the Zetas in Guatemala.

More than 60% of all cocaine that reaches the U.S. now passes through Central America, according to the State Department.

With the sea routes more problematic for traffickers, some gangs have shifted an important part of their transport operation to land routes through Central America, including the path across northern El Salvador.

It is a process of more, smaller shipments that "leapfrog" along the route, law enforcement officials say. Cargo comes in from Honduras and is offloaded and repackaged near Dulce Nombre de Maria, in El Salvador's northern Chalatenango province, then trucked across Chalatenango and Santa Ana provinces to Guatemala, virtually unhindered.

Police and intelligence sources say several businessmen and mayors are on the traffickers' payroll and serve as their money launderers. Dulce Nombre de Maria, once a sleepy, dusty town, is now a sparkling burg. The gazebo in the main square is painted in salmon and lavender and decorated with Corinthian columns. Grounds are well manicured, free of beggars and stray dogs. The ice cream vendor wears Ralph Lauren.

And in the realm of unintended consequences, the traffickers are benefiting from the U.S.-financed construction of a major roadway across northern El Salvador. It's part of a $461-million project sponsored by Millennium Challenge Corp., a U.S. government initiative to spur development in poor countries. The new highway widens to three or four lanes in places as it slices through steep hills that were arduous to cross during the civil war. Engineers are still working on steep retaining walls and terraced banks.

Law enforcement officials say the exorbitant drug profits flow mostly to the same small group of businessmen and political elite who have always controlled this and other Central American nations.

Like Mexico and Guatemala before it, El Salvador has witnessed the way drug money corrupts institutions, including the police and military, and the highest levels of government.

Capt. Hector Guillen was a ranking officer in the Salvadoran army's elite special forces. He had access to enormous supplies of military-grade weaponry, much of it, like one cache of half a million U.S.-supplied grenades and shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, left over from the war. In November, just outside Washington, he allegedly offered to trade 3,000 assault rifles, 20 pounds of C-4 plastic explosives and scores of grenades for drugs and money to people he thought were representing leftist Colombian guerrillas.

Instead, Guillen, 32, was trapped in a sting operation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. He was arrested and last month indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury on charges of attempting to provide material support to what Washington has designated as a terrorist organization, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. A trial was set for May.

It was the most significant case yet in establishing the depths of drug corruption in the Salvadoran military and might have reached higher levels had a press leak not shut down the investigation.

In another case, Salvadoran intelligence officials have identified 16 police and 10 military officers they suspect of working with an L.A.-born gangster known as El Burro, who has also affiliated himself with the Zetas. He controls much of the trafficking through western El Salvador and has laundered his money through hotels, resorts and car washes, the officials allege.

Mexican drug traffickers first made inroads in El Salvador with the Mara Salvatrucha, the country's oldest and most receptive gang, eager to hire itself out. The other major group, the 18th Street gang, was more suspicious of the Mexicans and resisted outside pressure until early this year, according to Salvadoran intelligence sources.

An attack on a passenger bus last month in which seven people were killed may have been an initiation test for the 18th Street gangsters to prove themselves to the Zetas, the sources said. Salvadoran gangs also have started delivering unsuspecting immigrants trying to cross into the United States into the waiting hands of Zetas, who then try to extort money from the victims' families upon pain of death.

Police say they recently discovered what they believe to be a Zetas training ground hidden in coffee fields on the edge of the Guazapa volcano, which dominates San Salvador's skyline.

Few discoveries, however, could match the plastic barrels discovered last fall buried on properties that authorities have tied to Jorge Mario Paredes-Cordova, who was convicted in the United States in April on drug charges and sentenced to 31 years in prison. The U.S. federal attorney handling the case described the Guatemalan as one of the world's most dangerous drug traffickers.

Paredes-Cordova liked to visit El Salvador and, apparently, thought it a good place to hide some of his millions. His numerous houses were full of trap doors and walls that moved with the touch of a button to reveal secret compartments, according to people who inspected the properties.

On an unoccupied farm, authorities acting on DEA intelligence discovered plastic water barrels with $100 bills and 500-euro notes — more than $10 million in cash.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-central-america-drugs-20110322,0,6618028,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Former Israeli President Katsav gets 7 years in rape case

The tearful politician tells judges, 'It's a lie,' and storms out of court. Other charges include sexual harassment and obstruction of justice.

by Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times

March 22, 2011

Reporting from Jerusalem

Israel's former President Moshe Katsav was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in prison for rape, sexual harassment and obstruction of justice, capping an emotionally charged trial that many Israelis viewed as a national embarrassment.

A Tel Aviv panel of judges, who found Katsav guilty in December, said their sentence was intended to show that no one is above the law in Israel and that rape is a serious crime.

"The defendant is a symbol," Judge George Karra said as he read the sentence. "The fact that Katsav committed the acts while serving in a high-ranking post is reason to judge him severely."

He added that rape is crime that "ruins souls" and that Katsav's sexual harassment "trampled the dignity" of female government employees who brought the complaint against him.

Katsav, who was forced from office in 2007 over the charges, could have received as few as four years and as many as 20 years, legal experts estimated.

As the sentence was read, a shaken, tearful Katsav lashed out judges, saying, "It's a lie. You're wrong. The girls know they lied." He stormed out of court with his sons, past a group of women picketing in support of the victims.

Katsav's attorneys vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court.

An attorney for one of the victims — whose name was not released — expressed satisfaction.

"The punishment suits the gravity of the acts," Danny Srur told Israel's Channel 1. "There is no doubt that [my client] feels a sense of relief and satisfaction."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the verdict as an example of Israel's independent legal system.

"This is a day of sadness and shame, but it is also a day of deep appreciation and pride for the Israeli justice system,'' he said. "The court issued a sharp and unequivocal ruling on the simple principle of equality before the law. Nobody is above the law, not even a former president."

Katsav, 65, will become Israel's high-ranking politician to serve jail time, but his case was only one of numerous government corruption and misconduct probes in recent years. Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is on trial on charges of fraud and bribery arising from past real estate deals. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is expected to be indicted soon for money-laundering in a case that has dragged on for a decade.

Katsav is expected to begin his jail term May 8.

The scandal broke in July 2006, when Katsav alleged that he was being blackmailed by a former employee. But investigators eventually came to believe the woman, particularly after two other former employees came forward with similar allegations of sexual misconduct.

Katsav rejected a plea bargain that would have allowed him to avoid jail by admitting to lesser charges.

As part of Tuesday's sentence, he was ordered to pay about $27,000 to the former Tourism Ministry employee he raped, and about $7,000 each to the other two women.

The rape victim plans to file a civil suit for punitive damages, Israeli media reported.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-israel-katsav-rape-20110323,0,2126021,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Judge orders mental exam for Jared Loughner

Jared Lee Loughner, the suspect in the deadly Tucson shooting rampage, will be evaluated at a specialized facility in Missouri. The examination will determine whether Loughner is competent to stand trial, not whether he was sane at the time of the attacks, the judge said.

From the Associated Press

March 21, 2011

Phoenix

A judge on Monday ordered the suspect in the January shooting rampage in Tucson to undergo a mental evaluation at a specialized facility in Missouri as soon as possible.

The evaluation will be videotaped and provided to prosecutors and defense attorneys, U.S. District Judge Larry Burns said late Monday. The judge ordered that the evaluation be conducted no later than April 29.

Jared Lee Loughner has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the Jan. 8 attack in Tucson that killed six and injured 13, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona. The Democratic congresswoman remains at a rehabilitation center in Houston, recovering from a bullet wound to the brain.

Prosecutors had argued that Loughner's exam should be conducted at a so-called medical referral center that provides forensic services and has increased resources, and recommended the federal Bureau of Prisons facility in Springfield, Missouri.

Loughner's lawyers have said the exam should be done by an outside expert at a Tucson prison and wanted assurances that the evaluation doesn't expand into a review of their client's sanity. Lead defense attorney Judy Clark wrote in a court filing last week that moving Loughner would harm the defense team's efforts to develop an attorney-client relationship.

Burns agreed that the Springfield facility is the best place for the exam, and ordered that the scope of the exam should be limited to whether Loughner is competent to stand trial, not whether he was sane at the time of the shooting.

"The question at issue is whether the defendant is presently suffering from a mental disease or defect rendering him mentally incompetent to the extent that he is unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against him, or to assist properly in his defense," Burns wrote.

He acknowledged that transferring Loughner would be inconvenient for defense attorneys but ruled that it is "unavoidable in light of the need to reliably and definitively resolve the question of the defendant's present competency." The judge also said the defense can visit Loughner while he is in Missouri.

Prosecutors have brought 49 counts against Loughner, including an attempted assassination of Giffords, attempting to kill two of her aides, and killing U.S. District Judge John Roll and Giffords staffer Gabe Zimmerman. Loughner also is charged with causing the deaths of four others who weren't federal employees, causing injury and death to participants at a "federally provided activity" and using a gun in a crime of violence.

Many of the counts could bring a death sentence, but prosecutors have not announced whether they will pursue that penalty. State charges are on hold until the federal case is completed but also carry the potential for the death penalty.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-naw-jared-loughner-mental-exam-20110322,0,1077123,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

9th Circuit rules that fibs can be protected speech

The appeals court strikes down the 2005 Stolen Valor Act that makes it a crime to lie about top military decorations. The action also vacates a Pomona man's sentence for falsely claiming to have been awarded the congressional Medal of Honor.

by Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times

March 22, 2011

"Saints may always tell the truth, but for mortals living means lying."

Those were the words of Chief Judge Alex Kozinski in Monday's decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that the Stolen Valor Act is an unconstitutional restraint on free speech and a threat to every citizen who fibs to embellish his or her image, avoid embarrassment or perpetuate a child's belief in Santa Claus.

The court struck down both the 2005 act of Congress and the fines and sentence meted out to a Pomona man convicted on criminal charges for falsely claiming to have been awarded the congressional Medal of Honor.

The Stolen Valor Act made it a crime punishable by up to a year in jail to falsely claim to have received high military decorations, as Xavier Alvarez did at a public meeting of the Three Valleys Municipal Water District in 2007.

But Alvarez's groundless boast of heroic service in the U.S. Marine Corps doesn't fall under any of the exceptions to 1st Amendment protection of words that are false, as with fraud and defamation, the full appeals court said in refusing to reconsider a 2-1 decision last year to invalidate the act in the court's nine-state region.

"If false factual statements are unprotected, then the government can prosecute not only the man who tells tall tales of winning the congressional Medal of Honor, but also the JDater who falsely claims he's Jewish or the dentist who assures you it won't hurt a bit," Kozinski wrote in defense of the 1st Amendment.

"Phrases such as 'I'm working late tonight, hunny,' 'I got stuck in traffic' and 'I didn't inhale' could all be made into crimes," Kozinski argued. "Without the robust protections of the 1st Amendment, the white lies, exaggerations and deceptions that are an integral part of human intercourse would become targets of censorship."

At least seven of his conservative colleagues on the appeals court disagreed, signing a dissent from the decision not to rehear the Alvarez case, the first in which someone was charged and convicted under the challenged act, the court said.

That expression of discord by more than a quarter of the court's 26 active judges could signal that a government petition to the U.S. Supreme Court is in the offing.

"The court striking down a federal statute is a significant thing, and something one might expect to eventually reach the Supreme Court," said Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael Raphael, noting that his office has not yet decided whether to recommend a high court appeal.

Tracy Schmaler, a Justice Department spokeswoman, declined to say whether the U.S. solicitor general was considering that move to rescue the Stolen Valor Act.

Kozinski and Judge Milan D. Smith wrote concurring opinions denouncing the six-year-old statute as overly broad and an assault on protected speech after the majority of the court's judges voted in secret against a full-court rehearing of the Alvarez case.

"Lying about being a military hero is despicable and may have some impact on the government's ability to recruit genuine heroes, but it's hard to understand why it's so much worse than burning an American flag, displaying a profane word in court, rubbing salt into the fresh wounds of the families of fallen war heroes," or other unpopular speech held to have constitutional protection, Kozinski said.

In the dissent written by Judge Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain and signed by six other judges, the majority was accused of misinterpreting 40 years of Supreme Court decisions. The dissenters said the high court has consistently held that "the right to lie is not a fundamental right under the Constitution" and that "the erroneous statement of fact is not worthy of constitutional protection."

Jonathan D. Libby, the federal public defender who represented Alvarez, said he expected the government to petition the Supreme Court for review because it usually seeks that ultimate judgment when a federal law is struck down in any of the judicial circuits.

"The judges have been looking at this from two very, very different perspectives," Libby said of the divided 9th Circuit. "One presumes the 1st Amendment protects all speech and the other view is that lies have no protection whatsoever under the 1st Amendment. They come to different results, but I think the majority got it right here."

Alvarez, now imprisoned on an unrelated fraud matter, according to Libby, entered a guilty plea in federal court in Los Angeles in 2008. He challenged the constitutionality of the law after being sentenced to three years' probation, 416 hours of community service and fines of $5,100.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-stolen-valor-act-20110322,0,7608059,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the New York Times

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New York's Prisons Fall Short, Again

Perhaps as many as three-quarters of New York State's 57,000 prison inmates need drug counseling or treatment to have a chance at productive, crime-free lives once they are released. A three-year study of drug and alcohol abuse programs in the New York State Department of Corrections suggests that prisons are failing to provide adequate treatment programs for the tens of thousands of inmates who need them.

The study by the Correctional Association of New York, a nonprofit group, examined drug treatment programs at 23 of the state's nearly 68 facilities. It found that the programs varied wildly in effectiveness and that most departed significantly from best practices laid out by the addiction research division of the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

The New York prison programs have several deficiencies in common. They fail to screen candidates based on the severity of their problems, which means they wastefully enroll large numbers of people in intensive programs they don't need. They also routinely enroll poorly motivated inmates, which limits effectiveness. In a particularly glaring oversight, they fail to coordinate prison treatment programs with those offered in the communities to which the inmates will return.

The correctional association's researchers found model treatment programs in at least four state prisons, including Hale Creek in upstate Fulton County. According to the report, these prisons use a three-phase system that begins with a six-month residential treatment program, in which the targeted inmates live in a separate prison dorm. This is followed by an integration component, under which people typically receive treatment during work release. Finally, newly released men and women are formally enrolled in community programs.

According to the study, the Department of Corrections could improve drug treatment without spending any more than the estimated $19 million it currently devotes to this problem by deploying the existing staff in better designed programs. The result would be better drug treatment, safer communities and less recidivism.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/opinion/22tue4.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Google News

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ICE Launches Self-Verify

Published March 22, 2011 | EFE

The U.S. government presented Monday E-Verify Self Check, an online service that will enable workers to check their own immigration status and correct any errors on their documents.

The service will be launched initially in Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, Mississippi, Virginia and the District of Columbia, and extended to 16 other states next year, the Department of Homeland Security said.

The authorities aim to make the Self Check service available nationwide in the future.

"E-Verify is a smart, simple, and effective tool that allows us to work with employers to help them maintain a legal workforce," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said. "The E-Verify Self Check service will help protect workers and streamline the E-Verify process for businesses."

Napolitano said that illegal immigration in the United States is chiefly a problem of supply and demand on the labor market, but that the U.S. government is committed to stopping undocumented immigrants from being hired.

E-Verify Self Check is a "voluntary, free, fast and secure service" that gives users the opportunity to submit corrections of any inaccuracies in their Homeland Security and Social Security Administration records before seeking employment, DHS said.

U.S. authorities have expanded E-Verify's capabilities with measures to prevent passport fraud, since it now compares photos on these documents with those in the State Department database.

In fiscal year 2009, E-Verify processed more than 8.7 million requests by employers to check the validity of immigration and Social Security documents.

Participation in E-Verify is voluntary for most companies, but is obligatory for those receiving contracts from the federal government.

Making E-Verify mandatory for all employers would require an act of Congress.

Since being put into effect, E-Verify has not escaped controversy. Pro-reform groups insist that the system is not exempt from errors and that in the end it harms people who are duly authorized to work in this country.

"The development of E-Verify Self Check reflects our commitment to the continual improvement of the E-Verify program," U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas said.

E-Verify is accurate in 96 percent of cases, he said.

E-Verify is currently used by some 255,021 companies, according to the USCIS.

So far in fiscal year 2011, which began Oct. 1, E-Verify has received some 7 million data searches, Mayorkas said.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/03/22/ice-launches-self-verify/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arizona Is Immigration Debate's Ground Zero With Hispanic Majority In View

Jay Stewart carries a handgun to protect his family from smugglers who move illegal drugs and people through the desert near his home south of Phoenix. Miguel Espinoza crossed the border 17 years ago to escape a Mexican territory where drug lords rule.

The men, a 46-year-old airline pilot with two children and a 32-year-old landscaper with four, are in different ways part of the Arizona's future. The makeup of the state, a flash point in the U.S. debate over immigration, changed so much in the last decade that if birth rates and other factors hold steady, Arizona will be majority Hispanic in a generation, said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institute in Washington.

The 2010 census found 43.2 percent of Arizonans under 18 were Hispanic and that whites were for the first time in a minority in that age group, at 41.6 percent. The ethnic and generational changes set the stage for Arizona to become a “test case” for responding to demographic trends as the U.S. becomes more diverse and increasingly Hispanic, said Jeff Milem, an education professoror University of Arizona in Tucson.

“Arizona seems to be in the forefront,” he said. “We've got to lay the groundwork now for people to come together.”

For Stewart, Espinoza illustrates the complexity of the issue. In the U.S. illegally, the landscaper is considering agreeing to deportation so he can apply from Mexico for residency. If not for Espinoza's four children, Stewart said, he would be happy to see him banished.

Immigration Laboratory

“We're talking about children who are by law American citizens,” said Stewart. “I don't think you can penalize those children. But where does it end?”

Tests of the limits and effectiveness of immigration policies and procedures are underway in Arizona, where the Hispanic population increased 46.3 percent between 2000 and 2010 to account for 29.6 percent of the 6.4 million residents.

The state has the country's most aggressive anti-illegal immigration law, which drew boycotts and complaints of racial profiling after Republican Governor Jan Brewer signed it last April. The Legislature last year banned ethnic studies courses in schools and community colleges. Attorney General Tom Horne declared the Mexican-American Studies Program in Tucson schools illegal, calling it “brainwashing.”

Last week, after lobbying by business leaders, the senate rejected bills designed to catch people in Arizona illegally, and to deny citizenship to illegal immigrants' children. Still alive in the House is legislation to allow Arizona to contract with other states to build walls along the border with Mexico.

‘Pointing Fingers'

Republicans, in the majority in the Legislature, have grown divided over the wisdom of pursuing the immigration agenda.

“When the economy was doing well and we had a $1 billion surplus, nobody was pointing fingers” at illegal immigrants, said Senator Steve Gallardo, a Republican. With a projected $1.4 billion deficit to deal with, “this is not an issue the state should be trying to solve.”

Brewer, the governor, has said Arizona should challenge the U.S. over immigration policy. Services provided to illegal immigrants costs the state about $1 billion a year, said Brewer spokesman Matthew Benson.

The law she signed requires immigrants to carry residency papers and forces police officers to check the status of anyone stopped for questioning. A federal judge blocked enforcement of the police provision while a lawsuit by the U.S. challenging its constitutionality makes its way through the courts.

Seeing Footprints

The U.S. Census Bureau doesn't distinguish between legal and illegal residents in its count.

According to census data released March 10, whites grew 12.9 percent to account for 57.8 percent of the Arizona population, while blacks gained 59.5 percent to 3.7 percent and Asians advanced 90.9 percent to 2.7 percent.

The overall growth rate of 24.6 percent means the state will gain a ninth seat in the U.S. House. The representatives now are five white Republicans, two Hispanic Democrats and one white Democrat. The U.S. senators, both white, are Republicans.

A new electoral map to be drawn for the 2012 elections isn't expected to bring major changes, said Tom Rex, associate director of Arizona State University's Center for Competitiveness and Prosperity Research. He said districts will likely remain either “heavily Democrat or heavily Republican.”

In his private plane last week, Stewart swooped over the cactus-strewn desert to see tire tracks left by smugglers who trade in both drugs and people. He said he's spotted campsites and abandoned vehicles, and has seen footprints near his house.

Carrying Guns

They are signs of the worst dangers of open borders, he said, because drug traffickers help Mexicans who want to make it to Phoenix to find work by hiring them as mules.

“I'll guarantee you right now there are people within a mile of us,” Stewart said. “They're just not easy to see.”

In September, Border Patrol agents flushed a drug gang spotter from a cave on a mountain peak overlooking Stewart's home, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said. A week earlier, one of Stewart's neighbors reported the theft of rifles, food, binoculars and clothing from her house.

Stewart decided to carry a pistol at home and to teach his wife, son and daughter how to shoot.

“Getting up every morning and putting on a gun is not a normal thing,” he said. “I fear for my family when I leave.”

Espinoza fears for his as well, he said outside a hearing room where he had just told a judge he would be voluntarily deported if it would expedite his application for residency.

‘I'm Scared'

That would mean going to a country where homicides related to organized crime increased by almost 60 percent last year to more than 15,273, according to Mexican government data. His home state is Sinaloa, for which the Sinaloa Cartel, among the oldest drug gangs in the country, is named.

“Going back to Mexico, I'm scared,” Espinoza said.

In that country, he said, “to provide a better life for my children is going to be difficult.”

Espinoza said he has little choice but to consider leaving. Since the anti-immigration law went into effect, he said his landscaping business has been cut in half because people aren't comfortable hiring him. He wants to become a citizen so he can vote, frustrated at not having had a say in the political progress that created a law he said “isn't just.”

‘Cloaked Brutality'

The publicity surrounding it may have limited growth in the Hispanic population, said Arizona State's Rex. “If you were a Mexican waiting for the economy to get better to cross the border, would you even consider going to Arizona with all of these restrictive laws rather than some other state?”

In Phoenix, there are still daily protests outside the Senate Office Building. Last week, Phoenix truck driver Jose Higuera, 64, a legal resident, marched as he held a sign saying “Cloaked Brutality -- Racial Profiling.” The business leaders who opposed the bills rejected by the senate last week said in a letter that the Legislature's focus on immigration was hurting the Arizona economy by driving away customers. Brewer has said boycotts have cost the state as much as $150 million.

Lawmakers in other states who followed Arizona's lead haven't succeeded so far. Bills to regulate immigration are stalled in the Kansas and New Mexico legislatures.

Utah took another approach, adopting a measure that would allow illegal immigrants with jobs and no serious criminal records to be legal residents under state law. President George W. Bush advocated a similar guest-worker program for the U.S.

‘Not Fair'

Immigration has proved volatile in Washington. The Dream Act, which would provide permanent residency to most college graduates and military veterans who arrived in the U.S. illegally, passed the House and was blocked in the Senate in December by a filibuster.

The alienation of conservative Hispanics, illegal or not, may be an unfortunate, unavoidable consequence of attempts to solve a serious problem, said Courtney Snell, a Tea Party activist who lives in Mesa outside Phoenix.

“Many of the people who have lived in Arizona for centuries and are of Hispanic descent are being grouped among the illegals,” said Snell, who has Hispanic in-laws and half- Hispanic grandchildren. “I agree that's not fair, but that's just life until you get it fixed.”

The state would be better served by focusing less on restrictive measures and more on how to prepare those already here for an increasingly competitive economy, said Milem, the University of Arizona professor.

Alienating Hispanics

Before the middle of the century, Arizona will depend on Hispanics more than whites to generate the taxes that will pay for services, including police protection.

“The future of the state depends on the education of young kids of color who have not been served well,” Milem said.

A 2007 survey of ability in reading, math and science found 58 percent of Hispanic fourth-graders “below basic,” according to an Arizona State University report, compared with 28 percent of whites and 20 percent of Asians.

There is an income gap as well, according to census data. The white non-Hispanic median household income in Arizona was $55,608 in 2009, and $39,133 for Hispanics.

Republicans should worry about alienating the state's fastest-growing population group, said Deedee Garcia Blasé, founder of Somos Republicans, or We Are Republicans, which claims 6,000 members nationwide, including 4,000 in Arizona. The solution, she said, is to vote out anti-immigration lawmakers.

“I'm for cutting off the hand of the GOP in order to save the whole body,” she said. “I'm seeing this first-hand destroy the Republican Party.”

The polarization disturbs Hannibal Chinchilla, a retired Marine and financial planner in Tucson. The heated debate may diminish as whites and Hispanics realize that they need each other to prosper, he said.

“Both need to come halfway,” Chinchilla said. “Here we are and we are a big part of the demographics and the growth of this country.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-22/arizona-is-immigration-debate-s-ground-zero-with-hispanic-majority-in-view.html

.