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Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 12:17:32 GMT

TEST CASE
Immigration Crackdown
Targets Bosses This Time

Fake Papers and a Spy
Foiled IFCO Managers;
'César' Wore a Wire

By BARRY NEWMAN
February 27, 2007; Page A1

GUILDERLAND, N.Y. -- Early in April of 2005, a man whose friends knew him as César went looking for a job at a wholesale distribution hub near this upstate village. At a workshop run by IFCO Systems North America Inc., the nation's biggest recycler of wooden pallets, César let the boss know that he was in the country illegally, but would be trying to buy some fake "papers."

RELATED READING

See the complaint filed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement against IFCO managers.

"That will work," said Robert Belvin, the 42-year old IFCO site manager.

What Mr. Belvin didn't know was that César was an undercover informant working for federal immigration enforcers. Or that he was wearing a wire.

The conversation -- and many others César recorded -- helped build a case that is the biggest test so far of a heavily touted government campaign to control illegal immigration.

A year after César went to work, agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau pounced on 52 IFCO workshops in 26 states, arresting 1,187 foreigners. Unlike raids on many other companies -- including December's arrests of 1,282 workers at Swift & Co. -- the motivation for the raid on IFCO wasn't to catch foreigners. It was to catch the Americans who hired them. Seven IFCO middle managers were also arrested that day and charged, in identically worded complaints, under the same felony statute that punishes human smuggling. Five of them, people familiar with the case say, are expected to plead guilty today in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.

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Neither the company nor its top executives were named in the complaints, which allege that the managers "knowingly conspired with others" to transport, harbor and support undocumented workers for "commercial advantage or private financial gain." But the investigation isn't closed. Like any ICE operation today, one immigration official says, the objective is "to move up in the organization."

In 2005, the Department of Homeland Security announced that instead of imposing small fines for sloppy paperwork, its immigration-enforcement branch would flush out "egregious" employers and put them in jail. That demands proof and police work -- including undercover informants and secret recordings -- more common to drug busts than immigration audits.

• The Issue: Officials are targeting employers for their role in hiring undocumented workers.

• The Challenge: Nabbing offenders requires intensive law-enforcement efforts more common to drug busts.

• The Bottom Line: More cases are likely, as immigration officials take a more aggressive stance against undocumented workers.

Since ICE's creation in 2003, employer arrests have leapt from 25 in 2002 to 718 in 2006. Only last week, ICE arrested three executives of a Nevada-based janitorial service with national reach. But successful prosecutions have so far largely been limited to smaller labor contractors, restaurant owners, and a company putting up a fence on the Mexican border.

IFCO's parent, IFCO Systems NV, by contrast, has world-wide sales of nearly $650 million. Registered in Holland and managed out of Houston and Munich, it promotes itself as a smoothly run system, listing Target Corp., Cargill Inc. and Dell Inc. among many corporate customers. Repairing pallets -- the rough frames that carry goods from factory to warehouse -- is tough work. Up until last April, most IFCO pallet workers were Hispanic.

It was easy for ICE to swoop down on those working illegally. To accuse their bosses of a conspiracy, punishable by prison terms of up to 20 years, was a far greater task. The clues ICE collected, as disclosed in the complaints filed in federal court in Albany, resulted from a combination of lucky tips and accidents. The evidence was backed up by local police work, aggressive surveillance, and the unusual involvement of the Social Security Administration.

IFCO maintains that nothing points to illegal immigration as part of its formal business model. "We deeply regret that we had even a single ineligible worker on our payroll," the company said in a written statement. The company declined to comment further on the case.

The government claims that the immigration status of more than half of IFCO's 5,800 workers in the U.S. was suspect. It is unclear whether the U.S. Attorney in Albany, who is supervising the case, will bring charges against higher-level IFCO executives.

Still, the government's intrusive new style has petrified other companies that rely on foreign labor. "Everybody thinks these are show trials," says Amy Peck, an immigration lawyer in Colorado who represents corporate clients. "And at the same time, we're scared to death about what's going on."

The IFCO evidence, she and other lawyers acknowledge, appears to pull back the curtain of "plausible deniability" that effectively allows six million foreigners to work illegally in the U.S. To avoid discriminating, employers have argued for 20 years, they can't turn away candidates whose papers seem to be genuine. But at one upstate work site, the IFCO complaints allege, that was disingenuous.

The first hint came three months before César applied for a job, when the phone rang at the ICE office in Latham, 10 miles from here. The caller said he worked for IFCO, and said he saw some Spanish-speaking co-workers tearing up their W-2 tax forms. That made the immigration enforcers at ICE very curious: Why would anyone tear up a W-2?

The IFCO worker who phoned said that one of his bosses told him the men didn't need W-2s because they didn't file tax returns. "That's not something you hear every day," says Julie Myers, the DHS assistant secretary who heads ICE. Her agents decided IFCO was worth watching.

Toward the end of the month, a few IFCO workers were relaxing at the Governor's Inn, a motel near the pallet shop. "They like to drink," a Honduran named Reynaldo says now. "They went to the store to get more beer." (A forklift driver arrested in the raid, he has remained in the area and asked that his full name not be used.) As four men returned to the motel in a Chevrolet, the Guilderland police say, they crashed into a Subaru. Two young women were slightly hurt. The Chevy's driver jumped out and ran.

The police found the other three men in the motel. Mr. Belvin, the manager of IFCO's operation, arrived and went with his workers to the police station. All three, the police told Mr. Belvin, had admitted being in the country illegally. Mr. Belvin said that was untrue and that he had the documents to prove it. Mr. Belvin's lawyer didn't respond to phone messages seeking comment.

Then, in an unrelated incident in March, a woman called the police to say she had been attacked in a garage by a Hispanic man. An officer sent to the scene found no suspects. But he did interview six men at a nearby house in connection with the woman's complaint. The men all said they worked for IFCO. The police, recalling IFCO's connection to the earlier accident, notified ICE. Senior inspector John Tashjian said, "If there's any suspicion they're undocumented, we do that."

Responding, ICE agents found five men who didn't belong in the country and arrested them. In sworn statements, a Honduran said he didn't show any documents when IFCO hired him and a Salvadoran said he was told "that papers would be provided to him later."

It wasn't long before ICE decided to plant its spy.

"I have never heard of that being done in an immigration work-site enforcement action, never," says Paul Zulkie, an attorney who advises corporations on immigration policies and is also president of the American Immigration Law Foundation.

But ICE's orientation has changed. Many of its agents came out of the former Customs Service, which enforced import and export regulations. For them, getting evidence to prove that managers know full well that documents are fake means peeking behind the paperwork.

According to the complaints, ICE's informant had himself been arrested by the Border Patrol for entering the country illegally. After he assisted ICE in a human-smuggling case in Texas, the agency gave him temporary leave to remain in the U.S. -- plus a stipend -- in exchange for his cooperation to help with the IFCO investigation. In April, the complaints say, he introduced himself to some IFCO workers at a grocery.

The informant isn't cited by name in the complaint. But piecing together bits of information, former IFCO workers say they knew him as César, a Portuguese-speaking forklift driver.

The complaints detail how he ultimately got his fake green card and fake Social Security card directly from ICE. The name on the Social Security card wasn't the one he had given IFCO. Nor was the name on the green card. The picture, say the complaints, was of someone else. César showed the documents to Mr. Belvin's boss, James Rice.

Mr. Rice, then 35 years old, was a development manager who had come to open the Guilderland operation the previous October. But because it was a start-up, people close to the company say, its managers were having a hard time finding workers. Looking at the photo on the fake green card while César recorded him, Mr. Rice said, "It looks like you to me." Mr. Rice's lawyer had no comment.

Once hired, César did more at IFCO than drive a forklift. At Mr. Belvin's request and with assistance from ICE, the complaints say, he helped recruit more illegal workers. He got phony documents for five other new hires and he phoned an IFCO manager in Houston to ask about jobs here for two Mexicans who had crossed the border.

In July, César was promoted to foreman.

Already well along in its work, ICE opened a second line of inquiry into IFCO: It enlisted the Social Security Administration.

When numbers on tax returns don't match numbers on its books, Social Security tells employers by letter. A "no-match" can have many explanations, but to ICE it's a red flag of illegal immigration. Yet privacy law bans Social Security from showing ICE its data. Companies do volunteer for audits in return for shelter from raids, and they can check Social Security numbers of new hires themselves. IFCO didn't volunteer for such programs. But the sanctity of its records vanished the moment its recyclers were seen tearing up W-2s.

Destroying the forms was a violation that let Social Security in on the case. Through a subpoena of IFCO's payroll processor, says one official, its inspectors learned that 53% of IFCO's workers in 2005 had dud Social Security numbers. What's more, the complaints say, they discovered that in 2004 and 2005 IFCO received 13 letters in Houston informing it that "more than 1,000 social-security numbers" at "several" of its sites "did not match the records of the SSA."

IFCO didn't follow up on the letters. People familiar with IFCO's position say an employee set the letters aside unopened, failed to tell anybody about them, and then left the company for good.

In the fall of 2005, César traveled to an IFCO start-up in Westborough, Mass., the complaints recount. With Mike Ames, IFCO's site manager, he visited a bakery where Brazilian day-laborers gathered. After speaking in Portuguese with a woman there, César recorded an exchange with Mr. Ames, whose lawyer also didn't respond to requests for comment.

César said: "They don't have no documents, no papers, no permission to work in the United States."

Mr. Ames replied: "But, you know how to work the deal...I don't want it to end up where they can't be paid because of identity, ID, you know what I'm saying."

At least five Brazilians got jobs. Directed by Mr. Belvin and Mr. Rice, the complaints say, César drove three of them 150 miles to Guilderland "for training."

A few weeks later, Mr. Rice left IFCO. On Jan. 8, 2006, Mr. Belvin was fired. Neither departure, according to people familiar with the situation, had to do with immigration issues. Soon afterward, IFCO fired César. Officials won't say where he is now.

On the day of the IFCO raids last April, people following the case say, ICE agents interviewed dozens more managers around the country. The court granted ICE permission to search computers in Guilderland. And, according to the complaints, the federal Department of Labor also spoke to a former bookkeeper who claimed that piecework pallet repairmen were being systematically underpaid for overtime work.

Showing that IFCO broke wage rules could support a charge that it used illegally hired workers for commercial gain, say some legal experts. And connections among workers and managers at several sites could be used to argue -- as the government has in some other immigration cases -- that what ICE uncovered was no rogue operation.

IFCO denies the implication. "There was certainly no corporate strategy to hire undocumented workers or exploit any of our employees," the company said in a statement. Since the raids, it has added new payroll screeners and joined the Social Security verification system. Profits slumped in midyear, but having scoured its records, IFCO says its labor force is up to strength and is as legal as can be.

Of the workers rounded up in April, many have left the country or slipped underground. Reynaldo, the Honduran who drove a forklift for IFCO here, has stayed on in a frame house nearby. The arrest of his managers at IFCO was news to him.

"That really touches me," the 24-year-old said, sitting beside a messy bunk bed one evening as other men came and went. "These are people who offered us opportunities."

"They haven't committed a crime," said a Nicaraguan named Mario who sat next to him. He is 39, and fixed pallets at IFCO for 30 cents apiece. "At least," he added, "it's not a crime to me."

Write to Barry Newman at barry.newman@wsj.com

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 21:31:31 GMT

Central American Zone Qualification/Eliminatorias Zona Centroamericana

UNCAF Copa de Naciones Digicel
Group/Group 1

Group/Group 1	GP/PJ	W/G	L/D	T/E	+/-	PTS
El Salvador	0	0	0	0	0	0
Guatemala	0	0	0	0	0	0
Belize	0	0	0	0	0	0
Nicaragua	0	0	0	0	0	0

8.2.2007	Guatemala - Nicaragua	17:15	San Salvador, SLV
8.2.2007	El Salvador - Belize	19:30	San Salvador, SLV
10.2.2007	Belize - Guatemala	12:00	San Salvador, SLV
10.2.2007	El Salvador - Nicaragua	14:15	San Salvador, SLV
12.2.2007	Nicaragua - Belize	17:15	San Salvador, SLV
12.2.2007	El Salvador - Guatemala	19:30	San Salvador, SLV

Group/Group 2

Group/Group 2	GP/PJ	W/G	L/D	T/E	+/-	PTS
Costa Rica	0	0	0	0	0	0
Honduras	0	0	0	0	0	0
Panama	0	0	0	0	0	0

9.2.2007	Costa Rica - Honduras	19:30	San Salvador, SLV
11.2.2007	Honduras - Panama	14:00	San Salvador, SLV
13.2.2007	Panama - Costa Rica	19:30	San Salvador, SLV

Fifth Place/Quinto Lugar

15.2.2007

Group/Grupo 1 (3) - Group/Grupo 2 (3)

19:30

San Salvador, SLV

Semifinals/Semifinales

16.2.2007	Group/Grupo 2 (1) - Group/Grupo 1 (2)	17:15	San Salvador, SLV
16.2.2007	Group/Grupo 1 (1) - Group/Group 2 (2)	20:00	San Salvador, SLV

Third Place/Tercer Lugar

Final

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 21:28:37 GMT

Quarterfinal Series
First-Leg: 13-22.02.2007
Second-Leg: 27.02-01.03.2007

Semifinal Series
First-Leg: 13-15.03.2007
Second-Leg: 03-05.04.2007

Final Series
First-Leg: 17-19.04.2007
Second-Leg: 24-26.04.2007

Deportivo Marquense (GUA)

First-Leg: 22.02
Second-Leg: 28.02

Pachuca CF (MEX)

Houston Dynamo (USA)

First-Leg: 21.02
Second-Leg: 01.03

Puntarenas FC (CRC)

CD Guadalajara (MEX)

First-Leg: 13.02
Second-Leg: 28.02

W Connection (TRI)

D.C. United (USA)

First-Leg: 21.02
Second-Leg: 01.03

CD Olimpia (HON)

Friday, January 19, 2007

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 12:38:56 GMT

United Adds Emilio For Finishing Touch

By Steven Goff

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 17, 2007; Page E08

D.C. United's acquisition of Brazilian forward Luciano Emilio yesterday will not have the same public-relations punch as English superstar David Beckham's arrival in Los Angeles. It will not send season ticket sales soaring or attract global media attention.

That is fine with United. All the club wants from him is to fill an attacking void and score bunches of goals.

"His style of play is very athletic, he's fast, he's got a nose for the goal," United Coach Tom Soehn said during a news conference yesterday at RFK Stadium. "All those qualities are what's truly needed in our league and what survives in our league.

"Everything is up to him, but the opportunity is there for him to be special."

Emilio, who turned 28 last month, signed a four-year contract that includes three team-held option years. Terms were not disclosed, but sources familiar with MLS salaries estimated Emilio will earn $200,000 per season -- 50 times less than Beckham's reported playing salary of $10 million. (Beckham could earn tens of millions more through marketing and profit-sharing opportunities.)

Emilio exercised a clause in his contract with his previous club, Olimpia of Honduras, that essentially made him a free agent and allowed United to sign him without a transfer fee.

He is the first of possibly three South American imports to join United this winter following the club's decision to trade several veterans, including Freddy Adu and Alecko Eskandarian. Through those trades and other deals last year, United stockpiled more than $600,000 in player-acquisition funds.

Set to start alongside team captain Jaime Moreno, the 5-foot-11, 175-pound Emilio will wear uniform No. 11 -- Eskandarian's old number.

"Obviously, I don't arrive to the same passion as a player like Beckham does, but I'm here to help D.C. on the attack and that is going to be my goal," Emilio said through an interpreter.

Although United has been one of MLS's highest-scoring clubs in recent years, it has lacked a physically imposing target forward to complement Moreno's stylish play and playmaker Christian Gomez's ingenuity.

"He's big, strong, he's dynamic, he works very hard defensively," United technical director Dave Kasper said. "He has all the qualities that we feel it takes to be successful in our team and in our league."

Emilio grew up in a Brazilian town in Sao Paulo state and, at age 18, joined Cologne in the German Bundesliga before moving to Aachen in Germany. He returned to Brazil in 2001 and, a year later, moved to Honduras, where he became one of that league's most prolific scorers with Real Espa?a and then Olimpia, compiling 91 goals in four years. He also spent a half-year in the Mexican second division.

"Someone has to finish off those chances, and we brought him in here to score goals," Soehn said.

United first expressed interest in Emilio three years ago, but decided to pursue Gomez instead. Gomez went on to become MLS's most valuable player last season.

Emilio is scheduled to make his United debut against his former team, Olimpia, in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions' Cup quarterfinals next month in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

"It's a big challenge for me to come here," he said. "It's a new challenge. I wanted this opportunity. I'm ready for it and I can't wait to start."

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 22:49:59 GMT

My Honduran mom has surgery on Friday. Please pray for her health.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 20:41:55 GMT

Honduran Environmentalists Assassinated

From RightsAction:

On December 20th, Environmental Movement of Olancho (MAO) activists Heraldo Zuñiga and Roger Ivan Cartagena were shot and killed in the central plaza of Guarizama, in northern Olancho.

MAO denounces police sergeant Juan Lanza and other police officers linked to the powerful logging companies for the double murder, which brings the number of environmental activists murdered in Olancho in recent years up to six.


	YEAR-END FEATURE: Garífunas set sights on ecotourism

	by Thelma Mejía* TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras December 29, 2006 - The Garífuna communities along the Caribbean coast of Central America are placing their bets on ecological tourism as a means to escape poverty, which they say has been worsened by free trade policies. The Garífunas are descendants of escaped African slaves who mixed with indigenous Caribs on St. Vincent Island in the Caribbean Sea. Their language combines words and grammar of West Africa with the Caribbean's Arauak dialect, and some French, English and Spanish. An estimated four million Afro-descendants live in Central America -- around 10 percent of the region's total population of 38.7 million. "The vortex of free trade has entrapped us and leaves us smaller and smaller spaces for inclusion and cultural preservation," Celeo Alvarez Casildo, president of the Black Central American Organisation (ONECA), told Tierramérica. "They tell us that free trade will boost tourism. But what we see is a fight for land and the displacement of ecological tourism by other businesses, which includes privatising public beaches, isolating the tourist from the rich Garífuna culture," said Alvarez. ONECA held its 12th annual assembly in recent weeks, and the priority on the agenda was the challenges posed by free trade agreements and discrimination. The Central American black delegates agreed to manage and promote environmentally friendly tourism projects that would allow them to obtain land titles, higher-quality education, growth of micro-enterprise and preservation of their culture. "The Garífuna culture is not a predator of the environment. We believe that a mechanism to survive the free trade treaties with dignity is to train our people in ecotourism," Alvarez said. Although in Honduras the privatisation of beaches is not legal, in practice, it is nearly impossible for Honduran tourists to enjoy the public ones -- most are utilised by hotel complexes. In Central America, tourism generates 4.2 billion dollars annually, according to the Honduran Institute of Tourism. The country with highest tourism revenues is Costa Rica, at more than 1.34 billion dollars. In the rest of the region: El Salvador, 425 million dollars; Guatemala 770 million; Honduras, 410 million; Nicaragua, 167 million; and Panama, 906 million dollars. Costa Rica is also the one that has the most developed ecotourism sector. In Honduras, over the past two years the World Bank has supported a Sustainable Coastal Tourism project, particularly in the department of Atlántida, where the black population is most heavily concentrated. Since 1797, amidst disputes with the French, the British deported the Garífuna to the uninhabited island of St. Vincent. From there, they rapidly spread out along Central America's Atlantic coast, where they still live today. In general they work in the fishing industry, food sales, tourism and as sailors on ships. Their human development indices are among the region's most precarious. The Honduran National Institute of Statistics reports that the Garífuna and black English-speaking communities have relatively high rates of literacy, with four to nine percent being illiterate. In Nicaragua, of the population of 5.3 million, around 300,000 are Garífuna who live in the most isolated areas of the Atlantic coast, where four to 17 percent of households have electricity, compared to the national average of 49 percent, according to World Bank figures. "It is urgent to ensure the land ownership of the Garífunas, given that there are communities who have had to sell their land on the beaches at low cost, as a result of ignorance and discrimination," said community attorney Gautama Fonseca. "Gradually, some speculators appropriate the Garífuna lands, paying ridiculously low prices, and then turn the land into vast wealth by selling it to the investors, to the foreign hotel chains," said Fonseca. Miriam Miranda, of the Honduran Black Fraternal Organisation, said the Central American Garífunas should participate actively "in the trade treaties within the alternative tourism policies, to avoid being marginalised, like they are now." "In many Central America countries the political participation of Afro-descendants is extremely low," Miranda told Tierramérica. In Costa Rica, for example, this year there were no Garífuna representatives in the national Legislative Assembly, unlike in previous terms, according to ONECA. Meanwhile, in Honduras, for the first time in a half-century there are five Garífunas in Parliament. Of the seven million people in Honduras, more than 300,000 are Garífunas, considered one of the country's seven native ethnic groups. They are concentrated primarily in the Caribbean coastal departments of Atlántida, Cortés and Colón. Although 98 percent of the Garífuna population has completed primary school, just 17 percent have completed secondary school, and only three percent of those go on to university, according to official figures. (IPS) (*Thelma Mejía is a Tierramérica contributor. Originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme.)

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 17:38:56 GMT

Video about the raids.

http://www.greeleytrib.com/assets/mov/GR110041212.MOV

Federal raid puts families in limbo

Immigration agents looking for stolen IDs detain scores in Hyrum

By Jennifer Sanchez, Dawn House and Kristen Moulton
The Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated:12/13/2006 12:44:14 AM MST

HYRUM - If only for a few minutes, Maria felt like an ''illegal alien'' in her homeland - the United States of America.
    She thought she was going on break from her job at the Swift & Co. meat processing plant here on Tuesday, but instead she and others were forced to stand in a line by U.S. immigration agents. Non-Latinos and people with lighter skin were plucked out of line and given blue bracelets.
    The rest, mostly Latinos with brown skin, waited until they were ''cleared'' or arrested by ''la migra,'' the popular name in Spanish for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), employees said.
    ''I was in the line because of the color of my skin,'' she said, her voice shaking. ''They're discriminating against me. I'm from the United States, and I didn't even get a blue bracelet.''
    Maria was one of hundreds of plant employees targeted by federal agents. But she and her husband were the lucky ones - later Tuesday, they returned home to their three sons.
    The federal agents raided the Swift & Co. meat processing plant early Tuesday morning after arrest warrants had been issued for 60 workers, part of "Operation Wagon Train," a nationwide investigation involving undocumented immigrants using stolen Social Security numbers of U.S. citizens to gain employment.
    The northern Utah plant is among six Swift facilities that were raided by immigration agents in Cactus, Texas; Grand Island, Neb.; Marshalltown, Iowa; Worthington, Minn.; and at the company headquarters in Greeley, Colo. In Utah, ''Operation Wagon Train'' started in August at the Swift plant, formerly owned by E.A. Miller, when the company complied with a subpoena asking for a list of about 1,200 employees, according to an arrest warrant filed in 1st District Court in Logan. Federal investigators compared the list with documents from Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Texas, California and Puerto Rico. In October, agents snapped photographs of license plates of all vehicles parked at the plant and compared vehicle registrations with the suspect target list and documents.
    Swift has more than $9 billion in annual sales and is the world's second-largest processor of fresh beef and pork. Swift President and CEO Sam Rovit said operations at the six raided facilities have been suspended. He denied the company knowingly hired illegal workers.
    On Tuesday, as early as 8 a.m., agents began taking employees, many of them undocumented workers, away in white and black buses. Most were being held at a federal facility in Ogden.
    Federal officials declined to disclose the location of the facility or the number of actual detainees.
    In Cache County, minorities make up 12 percent - Latinos are 8 percent - of the population of 98,000 people.
    Women were crying as they were handcuffed with plastic ties and put on the buses. Some weren't allowed to get their belongings from their lockers. Maria, who declined to use her last name, argued with an agent because she was getting the coat for her 34-year-old niece, Blanca, who was arrested.
    ''She [the agent] told me, 'Do you think it's going to be cold in Mexico?' '' Maria said, holding back tears. ''I've never seen people get treated como animales.''
    Maria was able to give Blanca a goodbye hug and promised to pack up her trailer. Gloria Alvanes looked for her husband at the plant. He called a relative before he was arrested and taken away. She said she is upset because she doesn't understand why the government is treating undocumented workers as criminals when most of them are just here to work. Alvanes has been married to her husband for five years, but he hasn't become a legal U.S. resident because the immigration process is taking longer than they expected. Now, she and her daughter, Marilyn Cornejo, a high school junior, are worried because they have a tight budget, it's 12 days before Christmas and there is no money for an immigration lawyer.
    "What do they want us to do?" Marilyn asked. "Do they want us to drop out of school and get jobs?"
    At five schools in Cache County, counselors comforted students who feared their parents had been taken into custody. Some school leaders explained to Latino students what was happening and made sure there was someone at home.
    Latino leader Rolando Murillo, who happened to be at Mountaincrest High School in Hyrum, talked with about 100 students, including children whose parents are in this country legally but who fear "la migra."
    "La migra is a nightmare for them," he said.
    Father Clarence Sandoval of Saint Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church said church leaders called schools and had them give out the church's number if somebody needed help or child care for kids whose parents were arrested. As of Tuesday night, he hadn't received any calls.
    ''It takes away from being together for Christmas,'' he said of the raid. ''The problem with the raids is they don't [consider] the impact on the families, especially the children.''
    After news of the ICE raid broke, U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman called for a meeting Tuesday afternoon with Latino leaders in Salt Lake City. The leaders asked Tolman to expedite the meat-packing plant workers' cases.
    For Maria, it's not about immigration status, it's about ''being brown.''
    She said she hopes the authorities are not targeting Latinos.
    And she hopes no one ever has to live through an immigration raid, especially on the Day of the Virgin Mary celebrated by Catholics, which fell on Tuesday.
    ''My mom says, 'The raid was just a way of La Virgin de Guadalupe picking up all her people and taking them home to Mexico, where they'll be safe,' " she said.
    jsanchez@sltrib.com
    ---
    * Tribune reporters JUDY FAHYS and LISA ROSETTA contributed to this story.

   Where to call
    * Immigration officials have set up a toll-free telephone number, 866-341-3858, for families to contact for information on where their relatives are being detained. Operators speaking English and Spanish are available.

Friday, December 08, 2006

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 16:06:14 GMT

Hello Readers,

Please take a moment to visit http://www.ajshonduras.org/ and send a letter to the President of Honduras demanding justice for the murder that took place this Monday. I followed the email link and today faxed a letter to the US Embassy in Honduras.

Yesterday the President of AJS received a text message on his cell phone that he would be the next to be killed. Please pray and take action about this situation.

Thanks,
David

Update

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NGO lawyer investigating corruption murdered following death threats

Español: Tras amenazas, asesinan abogado integrante del equipo de investigación periodística de organización social

Country/Topic: Honduras
Date: 06 December 2006
Source: PROBIDAD
Person(s): Dionisio García, Robert Marín García, Dina Meza
Target(s): human rights worker(s) , journalist(s)
Type(s) of violation(s): death threat , killed
Urgency: Flash

(PROBIDAD/IFEX) - Honduran lawyer Dionisio García, aged 43, was murdered on the morning of 4 December 2006 by two hit-men on a motorcycle as he headed toward the Supreme Court. He died instantly of gunshot wounds. García was a lawyer for the Association for a More Just Society (Asociación por una Sociedad Más Justa, ASJ).

Together with Robert Marín García and Dina Meza, Dionisio García was part of ASJ's journalistic research team, which was investigating the improper practices of private security companies. Marín García and Meza had been threatened in recent months in relation to this work.

Dionisio García, who was married with a seven-year-old child, was legally representing security guards who were being mistreated by their private employers.

"We are shocked, enraged, pained and indignant because Dionisio was a great lawyer, a great person and very honest and honourable in his work. He would gladly help people without charging. We called him 'the lawyer of the poor'," stated Marín García.

ASJ has been investigating the operations of private security companies for a number of months, and has revealed various improprieties in their operations, including violations of labour laws. Dionisio García and the ASJ journalistic team recently informed a government official of their findings.

Legal actions were taken against ASJ's journalists as a result of this work. While these actions were unsuccessful, the journalists continued to face anonymous threats and other forms of harassment, including death threats sent via e-mail.

Dionisio García himself received just such a death threat in mid-November, which led him to file a formal complaint with the human rights organisation Comité de Familiares Detenidos-Desaparecidos en Honduras (Cofadeh).

Outraged at Dionisio García's murder, Meza has publicly accused Richard Swasey, the main stockholder of the security companies Delta Segurity and Setech, as well as their main manager, Róger Medina López, and the companies' main detective, Carlos Aguilar - "he is in charge of following the journalists and other staff of ASJ", says Meza - of responsibility for the crime.

"What happened to Dionisio is frightening and painful; we have all been threatened by people from Setech. The harassment to which we have been subjected has even been brought to the attention of the Human Rights Prosecutor (Fiscalía de Derechos Humanos), but nobody does anything - no one seems to care," said Marín García.

BACKGROUND:
The murder of Dionisio García is the first of its kind to occur in Honduras in the last three decades. It occurred one month after the third anniversary of the murder of the journalist Germán Rivas Morales in Santa Rosa de Copán. No one has been prosecuted for that crime.

The murder takes place at a time when threats to the exercise of the right of freedom of expression on the increase, as defamation cases proliferate, especially in cases involving the issues of corruption and organised crime.

This alert was prepared by PROBIDAD with information provided by the Committee for Free Expression (Comité por la Libre Expresión, C-Libre).

For further information, contact Sandra Murgas, PROBIDAD, Calle del Egeo No. 39, Col. Jardines de Guadalupe, Antiguo Cuscatlán, Depto. La Libertad, El Salvador, teléf: +503 2243 9806, fax: +503 2211 7829, correo electrónico: smurgas@probidad.org, Internet: http://www.probidad.org , or Noé Leiva or Thelma Mejía of C-Libre, e-mail: c-libre@multivisionhn.net, thelma_mejia@yahoo.com

**New case and update to IFEX alerts of 3 November, 5 and 3 October, and 26 and 15 September 2006**

PREVIOUS ALERT(S):

- Court dismisses defamation complaint against two journalists
- Security company takes social organisation's journalists to court for alleged defamation
- Harassment of social organisation and journalists intensifies
- Owner of private security company now seeking to avoid court proceedings after accusing journalists of defamation
- Journalists harassed after investigating private security companies

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 23:47:30 GMT

El Heraldo

Abogados nuevos objetivos de sicarios

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, uno de los países con mayores índices de violencia a nivel centroamericano, se ha vuelto a ver sacudido este martes por el asesinato de un abogado a 24 horas de haberse perpetrado la ejecución de otro, convirtiéndose en la tercera víctima de este gremio en 30 días.
El abogado Dionisio Díaz (44), conocido como el "defensor de los pobres" y especialista en asuntos laborales, se dirigía a la Corte Suprema de Justicia conduciendo un vehículo, cuando dos pistoleros en una motocicleta le propinaron cuatro balazos.

Díaz llevaba varios casos relacionados con reclamos y demandas laborales de empresas de seguridad, cuyos propietarios se resisten a pagar las prestaciones de labores a guardias que han despedido.

Solo en la última semana han sido asesinados tres abogados en la capital.

El presidente del Colegio de Abogados de Honduras (CAH), Ángel Aguilar, se mostró alarmado por las últimas muertes violentas ejecutadas en contra de los profesionales del derecho.

"Lamentamos los hechos muy significativos de muertes violentas que casi tienen una identificación plena con el ejercicio de la profesión y eso obviamente nos ha llamado a la alarma para poder analizar estas circunstancias que no ha sido común", expresó Aguilar.

Dirigentes del gremio de abogados dijeron que convocarán a una reunión de emergencia con las autoridades de la Secretaría de Seguridad, Ministerio Público y directivos del Colegio de Abogados para definir una estrategia ante la ola de violencia en su contra.

En un comunicado difundido este martes, el Colegio de Abogados exhortó a los presidentes de los poderes Ejecutivo, Legislativo y Judicial, así como al Fiscal General para que en conjunto establezcan un plan nacional de desarme.

Consultado por la AFP, Alfredo Landaverde, asesor de la Secretaría de Seguridad dijo que la violencia no es exclusiva contra el gremio de abogados.

"La única forma de robustecer la seguridad es fortalecer los organismos de inteligencia, al crimen organizado hay que salir a buscarlo no hay que esperar que actúe. No hay que reaccionar hasta que haya cometido un delito por grande o pequeño que sea", manifestó el funcionario.

Los organismos de seguridad han impulsado en las últimas semanas discusiones en comunidades de todo el país para analizar el tema de la violencia y buscar como evitarla.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 00:52:46 GMT

Translated by Bablefish

Sicarios completes defender of the poor men

04 DEC 2006 05:10 p.m.

By: Revistazo.com

To send a mail to the author-author

The Honduran society cries the game of Dionisio lawyer Diaz Garci'a, of the Association for one more a Righter Society, ASJ, one of the greatest defenders of the labor rights of the poor men, mainly of whom they work in the companies of private security and the restaurants of meals fast, after pestered by two sicarios.

Tegucigalpa. The poor men of the country lost this morning to one of their defending faithfuls, to Dionisio lawyer Diaz Garci'a, pestered this morning by two gunmen who conducted themselves in a motorcycle, to the height of the building of the Telethon, in the Boulevard Armed Forces.

For three months, Diaz Garci'a, who worked in the Labor project that impels the ASJ to support vulnerable groups, came until death receiving threats.

He took to several cases related to reclamations and labor demands of security companies, in several cases existed consent of some of them, but not thus in the Company Delta Security Service and of Technical the Seguridad Company of Honduras (SETECH), whose proprietors resist to pay to guards who have dismissed.

The defender of the guards also took five cases against the company Security Sistems of Honduras (more well-known like Inter-com), as well as of workers of other companies of private security that now have been consenting to fulfill their labor responsibilities. Also he was representing legal of several workers who are operated and abused in the fast companies of meals

The threats against Diaz Garci'a began when along with the judge executor of the Court of Letters First of the Work, Omar Antonio Towers, seized a vehicle to him to SETECH, who is property of Delta. This automotive one, was an embargo precuatorio to guarantee the payment of the labor rights of 12 guards of security.

Two days later the seized vehicle was robbed of the maintenance where it had been deposited, by subjects which they walked identified with the uniform of Setech, which Diaz Garci'a denounced before the Main directorate of Investigacio'n Criminal (DGIC), which was registered under number 8113.

Later, by "mysterious" the deviation of that vehicle, the SETECH representatives accused of robbery to Diaz Garci'a, always in the same DGIC. The denunciation of the defender of the guards never prospered, but the interposed one by the representatives of the security company.

Diaz Garci'a also denounced the case before the Office of the public prosecutor of Common Crimes, of the Public Ministry. Days later the company also put a similar denunciation against Diaz Garci'a, always in the same office of the public prosecutor. The SETECH denunciation advanced, not therefore the interposed one by the now murdered one whose file was even missing.

Ever since Diaz Garci'a began to obstruct the goods of Delta to repay the payment of the guards that represented, the threats intensified against him and the personnel of the ASJ, mainly to the equipment that works in this project of support to vulnerable groups.

The threats became through telephone calls, messages in the commentaries of the news that revistazo.com published on SETECH. A subject that was made happen as Hannibal and as Alejandra threatened execution.

Al to take off the commentaries, the intimidations were reinitiated to traverse of mensajitos on the cellular telephones del personal of the ASJ. Such situations were given to know before the Committee of Relatives of Disappeared Prisoners in Honduras (COFADEH) and before the Office of the public prosecutor of Human rights.

It does about 15 days, personnel of the ASJ received a message in his cellular one where they let know him that the life of Diaz Garci'a was in danger, situation that consists in another denunciation interposed in the COFADEH.

The last actions of the defender happened the day Wednesday 29 of November just last when it supported to a group of guards of Inter-with in a protest action that these made in front of the offices of his patrono, located in the La Paz Avenue, of Tegucigalpa.

30 by November Diaz Garci'a, it accompanied to an inspector from the work to the offices by SETECH located in the colony Hills, to consist the illegal dismissal of a worker, was filamdo by men there were called by a secretary of the company, when the inspector tried to state the dismissal. They took the cost of looking for the car of the victim of a murder who was parqueado near the company.

According to the successfully obtained testimonies to guards, SETECH is a company that at the moment does violence to the labor rights of the guards from the moment at which it contracts them, to such degree that from that moment makes sign its resignation, a receipt of which already it paid to its benefits and acquired rights to them, a receipt and payment of solution settlement and a act in agreement where they resign to all its rights: vacations, payment of holiday days, extra hours.

These arbitrary situations already are known by the legal adviser presidential house Enrique Flowers Lance, by the General Office of the judge advocate general of the Republic, by the Secretary of Labor and the Secretariat of Security. At the moment SETECH is the company of private security that more contracts it has with the State, which could be exposed to an international demand to grant contracts to companies that have the antecedents like which they are described.

Diaz Garci'a related that from the moment at which the inspector of the work and the dismissed one entered the offices of the company they began to be filmed by a subject that salio of those offices.

The lawyer whom several meters of distance had been had left, narrated that the individual that filmed was so "abusive" that arrived to where was waiting for to the inspector and the worker, doing all type of takings. "To which one is exposed to defend the poor men", Garci'a with the sweet laughter told Diaz that always characterized it.

At the time of his death the Professional of the Right conducted itself in his vehicle towards the Supreme Court of Justice to see as she marched each one his cases, which was winning in all the instances.

The School of Lawyers, as well as diverse sectors of the society, have shown his repudio the criminal act against one of the greatest defenders of the pressed ones and demand to the authorities to give with the intellectual and material people in charge of the fact.

After the recognition from the justice courts the body of Diaz Garci'a was transferred to the Morgue, soon to the Jerusalem undertaker, located in the Suyapa boulevard. The ASJ laments the death of a companion and friend and demands punishment for the intellectual and material guilty.

The denunciation of this criminal fact has been spread at international level by the COFADEH and the Committee by the Free Expression, C-Libre.

Sicarios ultiman a defensor de los pobres

04 Dec 2006 05:10 pm

Por: Revistazo.com

Enviar un correo al autora-autor

La sociedad hondureña llora la partida del abogado Dionisio Díaz García, de la Asociación para una Sociedad Más Justa, ASJ, uno de los más grandes defensores de los derechos laborales de los pobres, principalmente de aquellos que trabajan en las empresas de seguridad privada y en los restaurantes de comidas rápidas, tras se acribillado por dos sicarios.

Tegucigalpa. Los pobres del país perdieron esta mañana a uno de sus fieles defensores, al abogado Dionisio Díaz García, acribillado esta mañana por dos pistoleros que se conducían en una motocicleta, a la altura del edificio de la Teletón, en el Bulevar Fuerzas Armadas.

Desde hace tres meses, Díaz García, quien trabajaba en el proyecto Laboral que impulsa la ASJ para apoyar a grupos vulnerables, venía recibiendo amenazas a muerte.

El llevaba varios casos relacionados con reclamos y demandas laborales de empresas de seguridad, en varios casos existía anuencia de algunas de ellas, pero no así en la Empresa Delta Security Service y de la Empresa Seguridad Técnica de Honduras (SETECH), cuyos propietarios se resisten a pagar a guardias que han despedido.

El defensor de los guardias también llevaba cinco casos contra la empresa Security Sistems de Honduras (más conocida como Inter-com), así como de trabajadores de otras empresas de seguridad privada que ahora se han mostrado anuentes a cumplir con sus responsabilidades laborales. Asimismo era representante legal de varios trabajadores que son explotados y abusados en las empresas de comidas rápidas

Las amenazas contra Díaz García comenzaron cuando junto con el juez ejecutor del Juzgado de Letras Primero del Trabajo, Omar Antonio Torres, le decomisaron un vehículo a SETECH, el cual es propiedad de Delta. Este automotor, era un embargo precuatorio para garantizar el pago de los derechos laborales de 12 guardias de seguridad.

Dos días después el vehículo decomisado fue robado del parqueo donde había sido depositado, por sujetos que andaban identificados con el uniforme de Setech, lo cual Díaz García denunció ante la Dirección General de Investigación Criminal (DGIC), la cual quedó registrada bajo el número 8113.

Posteriormente, por el “misterioso” extravío de ese vehículo, los representantes de SETECH acusaron de robo a Díaz García, siempre en la misma DGIC. La denuncia del defensor de los guardias nunca prosperó, pero sí la interpuesta por los representantes de la empresa de seguridad.

Díaz García también denunció el caso ante la Fiscalía de Delitos Comunes, del Ministerio Público. Días después la empresa también puso una denuncia similar contra Díaz García, siempre en la misma fiscalía. La denuncia de SETECH avanzó, no así la interpuesta por el ahora occiso cuyo expediente incluso fue desaparecido.

Desde que Díaz García empezó a embargar los bienes de Delta para resarcir el pago de los guardias que representaba, las amenazas se intensificaron contra él y contra el personal de la ASJ, principalmente al equipo que trabaja en este proyecto de apoyo a grupos vulnerables.

Las amenazas se hacían a través de llamadas telefónicas, mensajes en los comentarios de las noticias que revistazo.com publicaba sobre SETECH. Un sujeto que se hacía pasar como Hannibal y como Alejandra amenazaban con ajusticiamiento.

Al quitarse los comentarios, las intimidaciones se reiniciaron a través de mensajitos en los teléfonos celulares del personal de la ASJ. Tales situaciones fueron dadas a conocer ante el Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras (COFADEH) y ante la Fiscalía de Derechos Humanos.

Hace unos 15 días, personal de la ASJ recibió un mensaje en su celular donde le hacían saber que la vida de Díaz García estaba en peligro, situación que consta en otra denuncia interpuesta en el COFADEH.

Las últimas acciones del defensor ocurrieron el día miércoles 29 de noviembre recién pasado cuando él apoyó a un grupo de guardias de Inter-con en una acción de protesta que estos realizaron frente a las oficinas de su patrono, ubicadas en la Avenida La Paz, de Tegucigalpa.

El 30 de noviembre Díaz García, acompañó a un inspector del trabajo a las oficinas de SETECH ubicada en la colonia Las Colinas, para constar el despido ilegal de un trabajador, allí fue filamdo por hombres fueron llamados por una secretaria de la empresa, cuando el inspector pretendía constatar el despido. Se tomaron el costo de buscar el carro del occiso que se encontraba parqueado cerca de la empresa.

De acuerdo a los testimonios recabados a guardias, SETECH es una empresa que actualmente violenta los derechos laborales de los guardias desde el momento en que los contrata, a tal grado que desde ese instante los hace firmar su renuncia, un recibo de que ya les pagó sus prestaciones y derechos adquiridos, un recibo y pago de finiquito de solvencia y una acta de acuerdo donde renuncian a todos sus derechos: vacaciones, pago de días feriados, horas extras.

Estas situaciones arbitrarias ya son conocidas por el asesor legal de casa presidencial Enrique Flores Lanza, por la Procuraduría General de la República, por la Ministra del Trabajo y por la Secretaría de Seguridad. Actualmente SETECH es la empresa de seguridad privada que más contratos tiene con el Estado, el cual podría estar expuesto a una demanda internacional por otorgar contratos a empresas que tienen los antecedentes como los que se describen.

Díaz García relató que desde el momento en que el inspector del trabajo y el despedido ingresaron a las oficinas de la empresa comenzaron a ser filmados por un sujeto que salio de esas oficinas.

El abogado quien se había quedado a varios metros de distancia, narró que el individuo que filmaba fue tan “abusivo” que llegó hasta donde se encontraba esperando al inspector y al trabajador, haciendo todo tipo de tomas. “A lo que se expone uno por defender a los pobres”, contaba Díaz García con la dulce risa que siempre lo caracterizó.

Al momento de su muerte el Profesional del Derecho se conducía en su vehículo hacia la Corte Suprema de Justicia para ver como marchaba cada uno de sus casos, los cuales iba ganando en todas las instancias.

El Colegio de Abogados, así como diversos sectores de la sociedad, han mostrado su repudio al acto criminal contra uno de los más grandes defensores de los oprimidos y exigen a las autoridades dar con los responsables intelectuales y materiales del hecho.

Después del reconocimiento de parte de los tribunales de justicia el cuerpo de Díaz García fue trasladado a la Morgue, luego a la funeraria Jerusalén, situada en el bulevar Suyapa. La ASJ lamenta la muerte de un compañero y amigo y exige castigo para los culpables intelectuales y materiales.

La denuncia de este hecho criminal ha sido difundida a nivel internacional por el COFADEH y por el Comité por la Libre Expresión, C-Libre.

CubsWinCubsWin's Xanga

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TEST CASE Immigration Crackdown Targets Bosses This Time

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

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Friday, January 19, 2007

United Adds Emilio For Finishing Touch

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Monday, January 01, 2007

Honduran Environmentalists Assassinated

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Friday, December 08, 2006

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

El Heraldo

Abogados nuevos objetivos de sicarios

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

TEST CASE
Immigration Crackdown
Targets Bosses This Time