http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/07 ... 7_1_06.txt

Last modified Saturday, July 1, 2006 11:09 PM PDT

North County activists to attend immigration hearings

By: North County Times

North County activists say they plan to attend Wednesday's federal immigration hearing in San Diego.

Pro-immigrant rights activists have criticized the series of GOP-led hearings as a "farce" while anti-immigration activists said they hope the hearings lead to tougher immigration enforcement measures.

"There can be no better example of why we must focus first on enforcing our immigration laws than the dangerous state of our borders," said Claudia Spencer in a release issued Friday. Spencer is a Vista resident and a member the anti-illegal immigration group, You Don't Speak for Me.


Pedro Rios, a human rights activist with the San Diego office of the American Friends Service Committee, said the hearings were "one-sided proceedings masquerading as public hearings."

The hearing in San Diego will include testimony from Darryl Griffen, chief of the San Diego Border Patrol sector; T.J. Bonner, head of a union representing Border Patrol agents; and Andy Ramirez, a spokesman for Friends of the Border Patrol, a Covina, Calif.-based group that sends members to patrol the U.S. border with Mexico.

The hearing will begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the Imperial Beach Border Patrol Station, 1802 Saturn Blvd., San Diego.