Ryn Gargulinski

Creativity on Fire

illegal

Illegal alien achieves dream of staying in America: Federal prison term for kicking, throwing rocks at Border Patrol

Jaime Martinez-Garcia, of Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico, was apparently not going to let anything stand in his way of achieving his goal of living in the United States.

The 'American Dream' is tangible for everyone/Thinkstock

Not even deportation. And surely not U.S. Border Patrol agents, whom he reportedly kicked and threw rocks at when they tried to stand in his way.

Martinez-Garcia’s dream of remaining in the U.S. came true this week when a federal judge in Tucson sentenced him to six years in federal prison, according to a news release from the District of Arizona Office of the United States Attorney.

His sentence came after a jury at his August trial found him guilty of two counts of assault on a federal officer and one count of illegal re-entry after deportation.

His success story began with a challenge from the get-go, as he was caught after illegally entering the United States and shuttled back to Mexico May 20, 2009.

Not to be deterred by that annoying thing called deportation, Martinez-Garcia returned to U.S. soil three days later.

But this time, alas, he encountered Border Patrol agents in Potrero Canyon, west of Nogales. When they told him to stop, he instead kicked one of the agents in the leg and ran.

Another agent nearly caught up with Martinez-Garcia when the Mexican man stopped and picked up a big rock. The agent drew his weapon and ordered Martinez-Garcia to put down the rock. So he threw it at the agent, hitting him in the leg.

Martinez-Garcia then picked up another rock and, once again, was ordered to drop it. He did not. The agent fired.

The release did not note where Martinez-Garcia was hit with the bullet, but we know the injury was not life-threatening as he was alive enough to attend his trial and alive enough to receive a federal prison term.

He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge David C. Bury.

Way to go, Martinez-Garcia. Perhaps he can serve as an example to others who try, but fail, to start a new life in this blooming land of opportunity.

The quote:

“U.S. Border Patrol agents patrol hundreds of deserted miles in our vast Southwestern Deserts protecting our border every day,” said U.S. Attorney Dennis K. Burke. “Just as our citizen’s safety is a priority for them, their safety is a priority of ours.”

The players:

The investigation in this case was conducted by Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Border Patrol. The prosecution was handled by Ann DeMarais, Assistant U.S. Attorney, District of Arizona, Tucson.

[tnipoll]



What do you think?

Do you think a prison term is a ploy to stay in the U.S.?

Are prison terms the way to go in such cases?

Legal and illegal aliens keep on coming: Massive job loss in U.S. does not slow immigration, study says

Woe is America. In the past 10 years we’ve experienced two recessions, an overall loss of 1 million jobs – and an influx of 13.1 million legal and illegal aliens streaming across the borders.

File photo from illegal alien bust with 97 packed in a truck

Somehow the math is not working here.

Take the United States back to the 1990s, which came with an overall growth of 21 million new jobs – yet an influx of fewer immigrants, at 12.1 million.

The verdict? Just because the country dries up, sours up and seems to have lost that shimmying sheen of the American Dream, people keep on coming.

These fun facts – and more – are in a report from the Center for Immigration Studies, which analyzed data from the Census Bureau’s March Current Population Survey.

Yes, we know. Pro-immigration folks are none too fond of the Center for Immigration Studies, calling it slanted and anti-human rights for illegal aliens.

Let’s continue anyway.

Census results are not yet available, but the Current Population Survey, also known as the Annual Social and Economic Supplement, gives us a glimpse into population trends.

The big immigration trend continues, the Center argues, because immigration is not based solely on job availability.

This does not mean the economy is irrelevant to immigration levels, the report notes. Rather it means that many factors in addition to the economy impact the flow new immigrants into the country.

Such factors as the desire to be with relatives, political freedom, lower levels of official corruption, and the generosity of American taxpayer-funded public services are all among the reasons people come to the United States.

These things do not change during a recession or even during a prolonged period of relatively weak economic growth, like the decade just completed.

Other fascinating findings from the study include:

– Among the states with the largest proportional increase in their immigrant populations over the last decade are Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Alaska, Mississippi, Arkansas, Washington, North Carolina, Maryland, and Nebraska.

– In 2008 and 2009, 2.4 million new immigrants (legal and illegal) settled in the United States, even though 8.2 million jobs were lost over the same period.

– The new data indicate that, without a change in U.S. immigration policy, the level of new immigration can remain high even in the face of massive job losses.

Not looking good for the math ever working here.

Some may immediately go on the defense, saying the numbers are all wrong and to look at 43 other studies from 62 other agencies that go and prove immigration is down or job loss never reached an overall 1 million or that Tennessee really did not experience a large proportional increase in immigrants.

Others may continue the crusade that immigration to America is a basic human right, regardless if its done through the proper channels or not and regardless of its impact on current U.S. citizens.

But no matter how much arguing is done until we’re all blue in the face, one solid observation remains the same – Woe is America.

Note on terminology: In its report, the Center for Immigration Studies uses the term “immigrant” to mean all persons living in this country who were not U.S. citizens at birth.


[tnipoll]

What do you think?

Has the past decade been woeful or joyful for you?

Have you lost a job due to the recession?

Have you found yourself in the process?

DPS officer assaulted, police vehicle stolen after traffic stop on pickup packed with suspected illegal aliens

You never know what you’ll get when you pull over a stolen pickup.

You never know what you get when you make a traffic stop/Thinkstock

You might get a tearful explanation, meek compliance or, as the Arizona Department of Pubic Safety found out Oct. 26, you could end up with a whole lot more.

A DPS traffic stop on a stolen truck uncovered a pickup packed with seven suspected illegal aliens, one of whom assaulted an officer then stole a police vehicle to flee into the desert, according to a DPS news release.

DPS was on the lookout for a stolen Dodge pickup, which was spotted around noon by DPS’s State Vehicle Theft Task Force.

A DPS detective called on Highway Patrol to help with the traffic stop, which did not go all that smoothly from the get-go when the stolen pickup drove into an unmarked DPS vehicle.

One of the undocumented aliens immediately fled, five remained on the scene and the seventh, the Dodge pickup’s driver, tried his own brand of escape.

The truck’s driver emerged from the stolen Dodge pickup, assaulted a DPS officer, and then hopped into a DPS vehicle, a Chevy Tahoe clearly marked as a police unit.

The guy drove the Tahoe west towards Phoenix but didn’t quite make it to the big city. He abandoned the stolen vehicle in the desert about 30 miles south of Phoenix.

The guy was taken into custody “a short time later,” with help in the pursuit from the Gila River Police Department and the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office.

While the release offered no further gritty details, we’re betting against meek compliance.

The six suspected UDAs, which included the driver, were turned over to Border Patrol while the seventh remains at large.

Note: Yes, the PC term for those entering the country without following the proper procedures has become “undocumented aliens,” a very cumbersome term that will be used, for the time being at least, interchangeably with “illegal aliens.”

[tnipoll]

What do you think?

Would you ever want to make a traffic stop around Arizona?

What is your preferred term for “undocumented aliens”?

Fleeing to Mexico does not always work: Foothills murder suspect, ‘Dangerous felon’ both back in U.S. jails

Running off to Mexico not only sounds wholly romantic, but it’s long been an ideal way to evade American law enforcement.

Stop sign in Mexico/Thinkstock

Usually.

Two men found out otherwise in two unrelated incidents that landed them both back in Arizona detention facilities.

One was a U.S. citizen, found hiding out in Sonora, wanted for murder in a Catalina Foothills neighborhood earlier this year.

The other was an illegal alien trying to slip south of the border by attempting to outrun U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers.

Murder suspect

Hector Ernesto Estrada/submitted photo

U.S. citizen Hector Ernesto Estrada, 33, who had a warrant out for his arrest following the April 8 homicide of 30-year-old Michael Estrada Rodriguez, was arrested in Mexico Oct. 14, according to a news release from the U.S. Marshals Service.

Rodriguez was found shot several times and left to die in a parking lot in the 270 block of East Camino Lomas, southwest of North First Avenue and Orange Grove Road, according to the initial news release from the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.

One of the homicide suspects, Raymond Negrete, 31, was arrested April 27 and charged with first-degree murder. But Estrada was nowhere to be found.

In May, the sheriff’s department asked U.S. marshals to help find Estrada. The marshals, in turn, asked Mexican authorities to help last week once marshals discovered Estrada was hiding out in Nogales, Sonora.

Investigators from the Sonora State Investigative Police (PEI) located and arrested Estrada, turning him over to marshals at the DeConcini Port of Entry to await extradition to Pima County.

Estrada now sits in Pima County Jail, charged with first-degree murder and held without bond.

“Dangerous felon”

Another man trying to flee to Mexico, a 42-year-old illegal alien with a laundry list of U.S. crimes, was nabbed trying to sneak back into his home country Oct. 12, according to a news release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The man, whose identity was not disclosed, was busted by CBP officers at the Douglas Port of Entry.

“The officers noticed the man who was suspiciously walking south toward Mexico in the pedestrian lane and stopped him for further interview,” the release said. “The man avoided the officers and attempted to run south into Mexico.”

He didn’t get very far.

Further investigation revealed the guy had been not only working in the U.S. as a marijuana mule, but he had several previous felony arrests. His past charges included battery with serious bodily injury, carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle, carrying a loaded firearm in public, transport/selling of contraband, possession of rock cocaine for sale, robbery in the first degree, infliction of corporal injury to a spouse – just to name a few.

This guy went to the Florence Detention Facility to await his appearance before a federal magistrate.

So much for these two evading law enforcement – but perhaps they still have a chance for romance.

[tnipoll]

What do you think?

Are you glad when criminals are found and brought back to U.S. or are our jails too packed already?

Where would you flee to if you were fleeing a crime?

Would you attempt to outrun officers at the border?

Ambushed after all? Medical 'experts' wrong in shooting case of Pinal County sheriff Deputy Louie Puroll

Bloody shirts don’t lie – and Pinal County sheriff Deputy Louie Puroll’s green shirt says he didn’t shoot himself in the back after all.

Pinal County Deputy Purrol's wound/submitted photo

Such is the conclusion after the Arizona Department of Public Safety tested Puroll’s shirt for gunshot residue.

The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, along with other law enforcement agencies, had investigated the April 30 shooting and found “the facts of the case confirmed the accounts of the event as Deputy Puroll described,” notes the most recent release from the sheriff’s office.

Two medical bigwigs then cried foul, saying Puroll had been shot at close contact. Neither of the medical “experts” had examined the wound, but merely glanced at photographs.

The Department of Public safety concluded its testing of Puroll’s bloody shirt Oct. 8 and, although DPS refuses to comment on the testing or any aspect of the case, the sheriff’s office fills us in.

Close up of Pinal Deputy Puroll's green shirt/submitted photo

The test results are “a hole was located on the back left side of the t-shirt. The area around the hole was microscopically and chemically processed for the presence of gunshot residues. Bullet wipe was found which is consistent with the passage of a bullet; however, no gun power was detected,” said the release.

Not only does this kill off a goodly number of conspiracy theories, but it leaves the two “experts” with a very tough decision:

Would they like the egg on their faces scrambled or fried?

To recap, 53-year-old Puroll, a 15-year-veteran with the sheriff’s office, was wounded on his left side while out tracking drug smugglers near Antelope Peak.

“He was ambushed and shot,” says a May 9 letter from Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, with the shooting resulting in a multi-agency sweep. “There were over 100 illegals apprehended within our security perimeter in the remote desert area south of I-8 and west of Casa Grande, just within 24 hours we were there.”

Then came the two medical “experts” who said that’s not what happened and offered their own opinions to the Arizona Republic.

Close up of Pinal Deputy Puroll's gunshot wound/submitted photo

Puroll had to be “within inches” of the weapon, not 25 yards away, claimed Dr. Michael Baden, co-director of the New York State Police Medicolegal Investigation Unit and former chief medical examiner for New York City.

“This was fired at contact range . . . with the muzzle of the gun lying against the skin,” the Republic quoted Dr. Werner Spitz, co-author of the textbook “Medicolegal Investigation of Death” and the retired chief medical examiner of Detroit’s Wayne County.

This is not the first time at least one of the “former” and “retired” medical examiners offered his two cents on a high profile case. This is also not the first time his two cents were not even worth a penny.

Baden took the stand as an “expert” witness in the case of Ted Binion, the Las Vegas tycoon who died under suspicious circumstances in 1998.

The defense said Binion, a reported heroin addict, died of a heroin overdose.

“By all initial appearances, it seemed like an open-and-shut case: suicide or accidental death of a life-long addict by lethal overdose,” CBS’s 48 Hours reported.

Baden said no, the guy was suffocated to death.

“Not just any kind of suffocation said Baden, but a rare method of murder dating back to 19th Century England called burking – suffocating an already intoxicated person leaving minimal evidence,” said CBS News.

“Baden said Ted’s burking was botched and pointed to circular marks on Ted’s chest, “‘which, in my opinion, matches up to the buttons on the shirt.’”

There goes Baden with another theory based solely on photographs.

While his testimony helped convict the two suspected murderers of Binion, a Nevada Supreme Court Judge overturned the convictions and a second trial cleared both suspects of the murder.

“Defense lawyers would have an amazing nine medical experts of their own testify that Baden’s burking theory was dead wrong,” CBS wrote of the second trial.

“‘And they have, in a singular voice, rejected as absurd the Baden theory of burking,’ (defense attorney Tony) Serra told the court.”

How strange the bigwig medical man keeps popping up during high profile cases. If we didn’t know any better, we’d perhaps think he’s just trying to get his name in the papers.

But that, of course, may qualify as a conspiracy theory.

NOTE: This post was amended to remove DPS from being named as an agency in the initial investigation that agreed with the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office on the investigation’s findings, although an earlier news release from the sheriff’s office reported it had. Terminology that refers to the case as “closed” has also been omitted.

Past posts on topic:

Who shot Pinal Deputy Puroll?

Shot deputy recovering

[tnipoll]

PHOTO NOTE: Two desert area photos include: one photo taken by “Secure Border Intelligence” that captured Deputy Puroll working the same area approximately one month prior to the shooting incident and one photo also from “Secure Border Intelligence” of armed suspects in the same location and on the same day that Deputy Puroll was photographed.

Armed suspects in area same day Puroll was photographed/submitted photo
Pinal Deputy Puroll patrolling area where he was shot about one month prior to shooting/submitted photo
Blue shirt that had been tied around Pinal Deputy Puroll's waist/submitted photo
Pinal County Deputy Louie Puroll/submitted photo

What do you think?

Do you now believe Deputy Puroll was ambushed?

Sept. 28 poll results on the question (as of Oct. 12):

Do you believe Deputy Puroll was ambushed by drug smugglers?
Yes 26%
No 59%
I don’t know. I’m too busy still wondering how O.J. was acquitted. 12%
Other – please explain in comment section of post. 0%

Free airfaire for illegal aliens who volunteer to return to Mexico as part of Mexican Interior Repatriation Program

For illegal aliens, American hospitality just keeps coming.

Mexican citizens boarding this year's final flight at Tucson International Airport/submitted photo

A total of 23, 384 illegal aliens this year were flown home to Mexico’s interior – for free – rather than being unceremoniously and inhumanely deported to grungy border towns.

What a deal.

The free plane rides are part of the Mexican Interior Repatriation Program (MIRP), which made its finale flight from Tucson to Mexico City last week with 130 Mexican citizens on board, according to a news release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The release did not note if the passengers also received free blankets and peanuts.

The deal, a joint effort between the U.S. and Mexico started in 2004, is open to Mexican citizens who are nabbed crossing the Sonoran Arizona desert region or other areas of U.S. Border Patrol’s Yuma and Tucson Sectors.

Those apprehended go to the Department of Homeland Security facilities in the Arizona cities of Nogales and Yuma, where they have to be medically screened, meet with officials from the Mexican Consulate and, if they don’t have criminal backgrounds or other problems, offered the free ride home.

Program participants, of course, have to be volunteers. It would be atrocious to fly anyone home for free against his or her will.

One of the program’s goals is humanity.

“MIRP reflects our mutual commitment to strong and effective enforcement of both nations’ immigration laws, and this program is proof that we can do so in a humanitarian way,” the release quotes Katrina S. Kane, field office director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in Arizona. “This program prioritizes the humane treatment of detainees throughout the removal process.”

Running from June to September, the program aims to save lives by discouraging repeat border crossing, at least during the sizzling summer, as well as “combat organized crime linked to the smuggling, trafficking and exploitation of persons.”

If taken far into the bowels of Mexico, former border crossers may be less likely to be sucked back into the coyotes’ webs of lies and deceit. They are also more likely to find jobs, or at least a better quality of life than in the sodden border towns, which is the fate of many deported against their will.

More people than ever are volunteering for this juicy deal, the Arizona Republic reports, with this year’s volunteers double that of last year and larger than any other year’s annual total.

Mexican citizens returned home in 2010 consisted of 85 percent men and 15 percent as well as 963 juveniles – accompanied by their parents to be eligible.

The Mexican Interior Repatriation Program, run by ICE, the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Mexican Ministry of the Interior, sounds like quite a sweet deal – and it better be, based on its price tag.

ICE spokesman Vincent Picard told the Republic the cost of this year’s operation was nearly $15 million.

[tnipoll]

What do you think?

Is the Mexican Interior Repatriation Program a dandy program or a bunch of hooey?