Thread: Advocates unite for strict immigration enforcement (W.Gheen)

Advocates unite for strict immigration enforcement

July 16, 2007

By RYAN PAGELOW rpagelow@scn1.com

GRAYSLAKE -- After watching a documentary Saturday that depicted how porous the U.S.-Mexico border is for smugglers of both humans and drugs, Wayne Curry of Winthrop Harbor was upset that laws were not being enforced down there.

"I get cranked up," he said, wearing a shirt with an American flag above the words, "Pray for our country."

He and wife Nancy were among about 200 people at a conference on immigration at the College of Lake County that included speakers from several local and national groups pushing for strict enforcement of immigration laws.

"I really feel that I've seen a whole new viewpoint," Nancy Curry said.

That's exactly what Fred Flannigan, the host of "A Citizen's Voice" on WKRS-AM, hoped for when he organized the conference.

"All we're trying to do is raise an awareness," he said. "There is a rising level of grass-roots anger. It's not so much against illegal immigrants. It's about the government not enforcing the laws."

He and others at the conference say the mainstream media has not accurately depicted their side of the immigration debate. They've turned to talk radio and the Internet for their information. Some believe that talk radio and its listeners are partly responsibly for stopping recent comprehensive immigration reform from passing out of the Senate.

"Talk radio and new media stopped that immigration bill," Flannigan said. "We had a small part to play."

He's looking for a "fair shake" from mainstream media, which he believes ignores his side. One of the issues Flannigan has been championing on his radio show and at the conference was the case of jailed border patrol agent Ignacio Ramos, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison for shooting and wounding an illegal immigrant and drug smuggler in 2005 near El Paso, Texas.

Flannigan invited Ramos' wife, Monica, to the conference, which raised money for her campaign to free her husband.

Ramos and his partner, Jose Campean, fired 15 shots at unarmed Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila and gave a false report to their supervisors. Aldrete-Davila was granted a temporary conditional visitor's visa in exchange for testifying against Ramos and his partner.

"I think he was used as a political prisoner to set an example," Monica Ramos said. "The government gave immunity to a drug smuggler who has total disregard for our country's laws."

Flannigan started planning his conference in January. It just happened to coincide with the hoopla over the Waukegan City Council seeking further immigration enforcement authority an Immigration and Customs Enforcement training program, known as 287(g), which would give police the ability to trigger deportation proceedings for violent offenders.

Waukegan has attracted the attention of national groups like Americans for Legal Immigration Pac which have a following on the Internet and are strong supporters of 287(g) as police tool.

"We're here because Waukegan has become a center point in the national debate," said William Gheen, president of the group in North Carolina and promoter of Sunday's "Shop in Waukegan Day" campaign.

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/news ... S1.article

Added to Home Page
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=N ... e&sid=2383

Originally Posted by Nouveauxpoor

Ramos and his partner, Jose Campean . . . gave a false report to their supervisors.

Is that how it happened? Or did they and their supervisors agree that filing a "weapon fired" incident report would tie them up all day, so they didn't?

The ranking supervisor was the one responsible to file the incident report anyway!

AND I HAVE ALSO HEARD THAT THE BALLISTICS REPORT WAS INCONCLUSIVE. SO IT IS SKETCHY WHETHER THE BP ACTUALLY HIT THIS GUY WHEN THEY SHOT AT HIM.

How do we know this man was unarmed?

He wasn't captured, was he? Or did I miss that?