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From the Los Angeles Times

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Fast and Furious weapons were found in Mexico cartel enforcer's home

Guns illegally purchased under the ATF operation were found in April hidden in violence-plagued Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, court records show.

by Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau

October 8, 2011

Reporting from Washington

High-powered assault weapons illegally purchased under the ATF's Fast and Furious program in Phoenix ended up in a home belonging to the purported top Sinaloa cartel enforcer in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, whose organization was terrorizing that city with the worst violence in the Mexican drug wars.

In all, 100 assault weapons acquired under Fast and Furious were transported 350 miles from Phoenix to El Paso, making that West Texas city a central hub for gun traffickers. Forty of the weapons made it across the border and into the arsenal of Jose Antonio Torres Marrufo, a feared cartel leader in Ciudad Juarez, according to federal court records and trace documents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The smugglers' tactics — quickly moving the weapons far from ATF agents in southern Arizona, where it had been assumed they would circulate — vividly demonstrate that what had been viewed as a local problem was much larger. Six other Fast and Furious guns destined for El Paso were recovered in Columbus, N.M.

"These Fast and Furious guns were going to Sinaloans, and they are killing everyone down there," said one knowledgeable U.S. government source, who asked for anonymity because of the ongoing investigations. "But that's only how many we know came through Texas. Hundreds more had to get through."

Torres Marrufo, also known as "the Jaguar," has been identified by U.S. authorities as the enforcer for Sinaloa cartel chieftain Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. The Fast and Furious weapons were found at one of Torres Marrufo's homes April 30 when Mexican police inspected the property. It was unoccupied but "showed signs of recent activity," they said.

The basement had been converted into a gym with a wall covered with built-in mirrors. Behind the mirrors they found a hidden room with the Fast and Furious weapons and dozens more, including an antiaircraft machine gun, a sniper rifle and a grenade launcher.

"We have seized the most important cache of weapons in the history of Ciudad Juarez," Chihuahua state Gov. Cesar Duarte said at the time, though he did not know that many of the weapons came from the U.S. and Fast and Furious.

Torres Marrufo has been indicted in El Paso, but authorities have been unable to locate and arrest him.

In the U.S., intelligence officials consider the Sinaloa cartel the most powerful drug trafficking organization in the world. Weekly reports from U.S. intelligence authorities to the Justice Department in the summer of 2010, at the height of Fast and Furious, warned about the proliferation of guns reaching the Sinaloa cartel.

Under Fast and Furious, begun in fall 2009, the ATF allowed illegal buyers to walk away with weapons in the hope that agents in Phoenix could track the guns and arrest cartel leaders.

Three months into the program, El Paso began to emerge as a hub, perhaps the central location, for Fast and Furious weapons. On Jan. 13, 2010, El Paso police stumbled upon 40 firearms after following a suspicious dark blue Volkswagen Jetta that backed into a garage at a local residence, according to federal court records.

Alberto Sandoval told authorities he acquired the weapons three days after they were purchased from someone he knew only as "Rudy." He said he was paid $1,000 to store the guns and "knew the firearms were going to Mexico."

Sandoval pleaded guilty in federal court in El Paso and was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison. A month later, on Dec. 17, 2010, he escaped from a minimum-security prison in Tucson; officials believe he fled to Mexico.

Two others, Ivan Chavira and Edgar Ivan Galvan, were subsequently charged in that gun recovery, along with the recovery of 20 Fast and Furious weapons on April 7, 2010, in El Paso. Those guns also were discovered by chance by local authorities, and ATF trace records show that the weapons were purchased in Phoenix two weeks before they were found in El Paso.

Chavira and Galvan pleaded guilty. Chavira received eight years in prison; Galvan is to be sentenced next month.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-atf-guns-20111009,0,4399155,print.story

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Brown signs California Dream Act

The law grants illegal immigrants access to state aid at public universities and colleges. It is one of 50 education-related bills weighed by the governor.

by Patrick McGreevy and Anthony York, Los Angeles Times

October 9, 2011

Reporting from Sacramento

Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday granted illegal immigrants access to state financial aid at public universities and community colleges, putting California once again in the center of the nation's immigration debate.

But he vetoed a measure that would have allowed state universities to consider applicants' race, gender and income to ensure diversity in their student populations.

Deciding the fate of 50 education-related bills, the governor also rejected an effort to make it more difficult to establish charter schools. But he accepted a move to improve college life for gays, lesbians and bisexual and transgender people and a measure to restrict the privatization of libraries.

None of the other proposals, however, has drawn the attention — or rancor — surrounding the California Dream Act. Most Republican legislators voted against it, and anti-illegal-immigration groups denounced it as unfair.

Brown's signature on the bill fulfilled a campaign promise to allow high-achieving students who want to become citizens the opportunity to attend college, regardless of their immigration status.

"Going to college is a dream that promises intellectual excitement and creative thinking," Brown said in a statement. "The Dream Act benefits us all by giving top students a chance to improve their lives and the lives of all of us."

Beginning in 2013, illegal immigrants accepted by state universities may receive assistance from Cal-Grants, a public program that last year provided aid to more than 370,000 low-income students.

The new law also makes students who are not legally in the country eligible for institutional grants while attending the University of California and California State University systems. And it permits them to obtain fee waivers in the community college system.

Students must graduate from a California high school after attending school in the state for at least three years and must affirm that they are in the process of applying to legalize their immigration status. They also must show financial need and meet academic standards.

The bill was by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles), who praised Brown for showing courage in signing it.

"After having invested 12 years in the high school education of these young men and women, who are here through no fault of their own," Cedillo said, "it's the smartest thing for us to do to permit these students to get scholarships and be treated like every other student."

Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles, said Saturday was "a great day for California, for education and for immigrant students who have kept their end of the bargain and continue to give their best to the only nation they know as their home."

But Republican lawmakers and conservative groups assailed Brown for approving AB 131.

"It's morally wrong," said Assemblyman Tim Donnelly (R-San Bernardino). "We have just created a new entitlement that is going to cause tens of thousands of people to come here illegally from all over the world."

Donnelly said he plans a referendum drive to repeal the legislation and believes the issue will hurt Democrats in next year's elections.

Assemblyman Curt Hagman (R-Chino Hills) said Brown's signature "absolutely sends the wrong message. It says if you violate the law, it's OK."

Also opposed is the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a national group pressing for a crackdown on illegal arrivals. Spokeswoman Kristen Williamson called the bill "a reckless use of taxpayer money" at a time when the state is broke, has raised tuition and has cut many services to legal residents.

Brown downplayed the cost to taxpayers. He said the California Department of Finance estimates 2,500 additional students will qualify for Cal-Grants as a result of the Dream Act, at a cost of $14.5 million.

The Cal-Grant program costs $1.4 billion, so about 1% of all Cal-Grant funds could be affected, the governor said.

But the community college fee waivers and institutional grants will likely increase the price tag. A Senate committee analysis has predicted that new costs resulting from the legislation would be $40 million a year, all told.

Brown signed another bill related to undocumented students Saturday, AB 844 by Assemblyman Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens). It allows them to serve in student government on public campuses and receive grants, fee waivers and expenses for doing so.

The governor's actions came while Congress is gridlocked over immigration reform and followed efforts by other states, including Arizona, Georgia and Alabama, to tighten laws on illegal immigration. But in 2001, Texas Gov. Rick Perry allowed undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at public universities. And earlier this year, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn approved private financial aid for undocumented students and allowed them to enroll in state tuition savings programs.

"There's division of opinion among the states about what to do about immigration," said Kevin Johnson, dean of UC Davis School of Law. "We will continue to get these types of differences until Congress comes up with some kind of federal immigration reform and starts to answer some of those questions in a national, as opposed to a state, way."

In California, the legislation that would have allowed the UC and Cal State systems to factor race and gender into admissions decisions was also controversial.

Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina) said he wrote the bill, SB 185, to avert a clash with a 1996 voter-approved prohibition against preferential treatment for minorities in public institutions. Brown's veto statement said he agreed with the goal of the bill and noted that, as California's attorney general, he had argued that courts should allow universities to consider race to the extent allowed by the U.S. Constitution.

But "our constitutional system of separation of powers," he wrote Saturday, "requires that the courts — not the Legislature — determine the limits of Proposition 209," the measure voters passed.

The governor also vetoed AB 86, which would have required at least half of the classified staff at a school to sign petitions for it to become a charter. Brown, who started two charter schools in Oakland, said in his veto message to Assemblyman Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) that charter schools are already hard to establish and even more difficult to maintain.

Brown signed AB 438, by Assemblyman Das Williams (D-Santa Barbara), restricting the privatization of public libraries, a growing trend as municipal governments have fallen on hard times. Those that are privatized must continue to pay government wages.

The governor also approved a measure by Assemblyman Marty Block (D-San Diego) that will encourage state university systems to collect data on students' sexual orientation and encourage the legislative analyst to use it to recommend improvements in the quality of life for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students. That bill is AB 620.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-brown-dream-act-20111009,0,4299032,print.story

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Alabama's immigration law prompts alarm

The bulk of the law, the nation's strictest, is now in effect. Some praise it as 'attrition through enforcement'; others see a humanitarian crisis.

by Richard Fausset, Los Angeles Times

October 8, 2011

Reporting from Leeds, Ala.

Alabama's estimated 130,000 illegal immigrants are worried. They are confused. And in some cases, they have disappeared.

They have disappeared from classrooms and from tomato fields.

Last week, some had disappeared from the Guadalajara Jalisco restaurant, a former diner now serving Tex-Mex fare to a largely American-born clientele in this sleepy town east of Birmingham.

Manager Fredy Vergara had lost three of his 12 employees, and more workers said they planned to leave soon, fleeing in fear of Alabama's new immigration law.

Waiter Ever Salas struck out for Washington state. Elbia Manzilla, for Texas. A hostess named Joana was a legal resident, but her parents were not, Vergara said. They would probably head out soon for Chicago.

On Wednesday afternoon, the regulars were rolling in for the lunch rush, and Vergara's staff was making do, serving up enchiladas and chile rellenos, brisk and courteous.

"But all we're thinking about," said Vergara, a legal resident from Colombia, "is immigration."

The bulk of the new immigration law, the nation's strictest, is now in effect after being upheld Sept. 28 by a federal judge.

Among other things, the law requires police to check the immigration status of suspects and turn illegal immigrants over to federal authorities. It requires school officials to demand birth certificates from students enrolling for the first time, though the schools may not turn students away. It forbids illegal immigrants to engage in business transactions with state government.

On Friday, the Justice Department asked the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to block the law until the court could consider it fully. Government lawyers argued, as they have about similar legislation in other states, that the law contravenes the federal government's immigration enforcement function.

So far, the evidence of an Alabama exodus is anecdotal. But proponents are already hailing the law as an example of "attrition through enforcement."

Others, like Mary Bauer, legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, are calling the law a "humanitarian crisis." She said her anti-discrimination group had set up a hotline after the judge's ruling and received 2,000 calls from worried families.

Callers were afraid to drive sick relatives to the doctor. Kids at school were being bullied. Municipal water companies were refusing to establish new service for people who couldn't prove they were legal.

"It is a dark day here in Alabama," Bauer said.

Some businesses are already feeling the effects. In northeast Alabama, the owners of Smith & Smith Farms were trying to harvest 90 acres of tomatoes with three trucks of workers each day instead of the usual 12.

"We have hired some whites," said Kathy Smith, wife of co-owner Leroy Smith. "Some of them work out a little bit. Some might work three hours and they quit."

Jimmy Latham, a Tuscaloosa contractor and president of Alabama Associated General Contractors, said the law would slow down the rebuilding effort underway in the wake of the devastating spring tornadoes.

"We're seeing smaller crews and seeing work taking longer to accomplish," he said. The bill's authors, he said, may have assumed that native Alabamians would take the jobs that Latinos left behind, with state unemployment at 10%.

"That has not been the case so far," he said.

State officials, meanwhile, have been battling widespread confusion. The state's homeland security director, Spencer Collier, has begun touring the state to brief law enforcement officers on how to apply the law.

The state education department has sent Spanish-language audio files to radio stations promising listeners that the immigration details they collect will not be passed on to federal officials, but to the Legislature to tabulate how many illegal immigrants were in schools.

It seemed to be working, education spokeswoman Malissa Valdes said: On the Monday after the ruling, 2,285 Latino students, about 6% of the statewide total, stayed home from school. Two days later, the number was back down to 4%, the typical rate of absence.

In Tarrant, a working-class suburb of Birmingham, Latino parents with questions crammed into an information session at an elementary school with children in tow. This small school district was "maybe 1%" Latino a decade ago, Supt. Shelly Mize said. Today it's closer to 10%.

Monica Hernandez, an organizer with the Southeast Immigrant Rights Network, advised the parents not to open the door for anyone unless the person had a warrant — and to give only their name and address to police until they could obtain the services of a lawyer.

The parents asked about rumors: Could the police nab you just for walking your kids to school?

No, Hernandez told them, the police must be conducting an investigation and must have a "reasonable suspicion" that a person is here illegally.

Is it true they are targeting male drivers, not female? No, she said. And no to many others.

"Fear is normal," she told them in Spanish. "But the only thing we can do is try to be as strong as possible."

Afterward, a 30-year-old factory worker also named Monica was one of many who pressed up with more questions. She was a single parent and a homeowner, she said. If she moved, she wondered, what would become of her house?

"I feel so depressed," she said. "I can't drive anywhere. I only go to the store. I'm afraid."

At the Guadalajara Jalisco restaurant, patrons had complicated feelings about the law and the restaurant, which was started by a Mexican businessman about 15 years ago.

Janice and John McLaughlin have been regulars for years. When the place opened, John said, they were thrilled "to have something to eat that wasn't a burger."

But Janice said the law was the law: "I basically think that if you're here illegal, you need to be sent back."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-alabama-immigration-20111009,0,3008988,print.story

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From Google News

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North Carolina

C.O.P.S are back in the neighborhood

But they're not just out cruising the streets looking for people who are up to no good. They're walking the sidewalks of three specific Burlington neighborhoods, trying to protect and encourage a sense of community.

The C.O.P. unit is part of Burlington Police Department's Special Operations Division and targets crime in areas of the city with the highest crime statistics. It's Burlington's second time using the specialized unit, following the original C.O.P. unit that began in 1994 and was cancelled due to manpower shortages.

Assistant Chief Chris Verdeck was on that first team, when then-Chief John Glenn put two officers in the Tucker Street community. “There was a big push to get officers out of the cars and into the community,” said Verdeck. He said police conducted a study to pinpoint which area needed the most concentrated coverage, and the Tucker Street area was first on the list.

Verdeck said the original two C.O.P. officers grew to six, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice's Cops-Hiring grant. The unit also covered the Beverly Hills and Morningside Drive neighborhoods. Even after the grant ran out, the original C.O.P. unit continued into the early 2000's, until manpower shortages cancelled it.

Now, the program has gotten its second wind, federally funded by the U.S Department of Justice's three-year Community Oriented Policing Services grant. The $885,036 paid for six new patrol positions to replace the six experienced officers who were transferred from patrol to the C.O.P. unit. Verdeck said the department applied for the grant because the department wanted to rejuvenate its community policing and “get it back in the neighborhoods.”

Two of the three neighborhoods are the same as they were in 1994. “After we pulled out, 10 years later, we've got to go back,” said Verdeck. After again reviewing crime statistics, the Tucker Street and Beverly Hills neighborhoods still showed need, though the latter has expanded past its original boundaries. The third current neighborhood is in the area of Beaumont Apartments and includes the Burlington Housing Authority's Crump Village.

THERE ARE TWO officers in charge of each area, chosen specifically for the job because of traits they exhibited while they were still on patrol. “They needed to be self-motivated,” Verdeck said, explaining each of the men chosen for the job had already taken initiative to work with families, mediate and improve the quality of life for those with whom they interacted.

Pfc. Ben Waller and Officer DeMario Chavis are in charge of the Tucker Street neighborhood, Cpl. Winston Meadows and Pfc. Joel Thomas patrol the Beverly Hills neighborhood, and Pfc. Gregory Aspiazu and Cpl. Al Smith are the C.O.P. officers in charge of the Beaumont Apartments Community.

Ernest Mangum, executive director of the BHA, said Aspiazu and Smith have helped Crump Village, which is included in their neighborhood patrol. He said people benefit from seeing law enforcement at times other than when something's wrong, eliminating the “fear factor.” Mangum said, “It's beginning to work already.”

Navonya Jones, property manager of Beaumont Apartments, said, “We've had a bit of crime before they came,” explaining troublemakers would loiter in the neighborhood and openly sell drugs. She said there was also an issue with a path in the woods behind the apartments leading to a community of homeowners. “(People) were actually drug trafficking back there,” said Jones. But Aspiazu and Smith worked with both communities to put up no trespassing signs and lock the gates.

The officers agree that drugs, prostitution and gangs are the largest problems in the neighborhoods. And since June, when the C.O.P. unit began, C.O.P. supervisor Staff Sgt. M.J. Rascoe has kept track of drugs and currency seized, arrests, charges, vehicle stops and warrants served for each month of the program.

From June to August, the unit seized $4,720.59 in currency, 10.5 grams of crack cocaine and 569.9 grams of marijuana. Rascoe also keeps track of how many contacts officers make within the communities. In those three months, they made 369 contacts, and continue to do so.

“We have more time to focus on a specific area and get to know the people,” said Aspiazu. They've gone door-to-door, introduced themselves, and talked with people in the streets. “People tend to talk to you more,” said Waller. “And they start asking for you by name.” That recognition of personal police presence has already led to crime tips and drug busts in the neighborhoods. But it's also doing more to foster and improve relationships among residents.

“We've been able to build some trust between citizens and residents there,” said Chavis of the Tucker Street neighborhood. Consistent interactions have led to friendships between residents who had previously regarded each other as enemies, and Verdeck said it helps prevent crime before it happens. “You try to lead things off before they get to that point,” he said.

NOW THAT THEY'VE established their presence in the neighborhoods, Verdeck said the C.O.P. officers are working on gathering communities together, starting with community meetings. But they're also taking care of problems that regular patrol officers may not have known were living condition issues in the neighborhoods.

Aspiazu and Smith have held several meetings with the Beaumont Apartments community and made contacts with nearby business owners. “We've had an overwhelming, pleasant response (from people) coming out and expressing their concerns with their community,” said Smith. He said residents bring up questions about trash pickup, trees blocking street lights and disturbances, and he and Aspiazu can get them in contact with the right people. “If you didn't have that relationship with those people, you wouldn't necessarily think that those things are troublesome in the neighborhoods,” Smith said.

People in the Tucker Street neighborhood told Waller and Chavis about 10 burnt-out streetlights. “The entire area behind the apartments (was) dark,” and people living there were afraid to go out at night because “a bad element would come in,” said Waller. He and Chavis got the residents in contact with Duke Energy and had the problem fixed. They're also working with the city's Public Works Department to get speed tables put in on Center Avenue, after residents complained of speeding on the 700-foot road, home to 250 children.

Chavis said he and the rest of the C.O.P. officers are like liaisons to the necessary departments and companies whom residents would otherwise not know how to contact. “We're just a guide and tool for them,” he said.

Meadows and Thomas are in the process of getting a playground in the Beverly Hills neighborhood, to give kids there a safe place to play. Meadows said they're working with the BHA and the city's Recreation and Parks Department to get equipment put in on city-owned property at Eva Barker Park.

The C.O.P. officers eventually want to organize an athletic event for children in all three neighborhoods, which could also potentially improve relationships among adults in the areas. And while they continue to crack down on crime, they hope to help empower the individuals in each community.

“We want to take ownership away from the criminal aspect and place it back with the people who live there,” said Smith.

http://www.thetimesnews.com/common/printer/view.php?db=burlington&id=48422

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