U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Border Agents Find a Ton (Literally, 2,000 Pounds) of Weed Hidden in Charcoal

Today in Found at the border: A Mexican national tried to smuggle 2,000 pounds of weed into the United States by hiding the stash in bricks of charcoal.Thanks to Wilhelm Röntgen's 1895 discovery of the X-ray, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers were able to see late last week that the 1,000 ... More >>

Bill Montgomery's Apartheid Policies Challenged by Puente's Carlos Garcia in Videotaped Confrontation

Monty's head nearly explodes as he's challenged by Carlos Garcia of Puente Kudos to Carlos Garcia and his fellow activists at Puente for again confronting Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery on his policy of overcharging undocumented workers so as to make them ineligible for bail, coercing a g ... More >>

36 Taken Into Custody at Suspected Drop House, and Other Drop House Tips

It's drop house season.Federal agents and local law enforcement took 36 suspected undocumented immigrants into custody after serving a search warrant Wednesday on what they believe is a drop house. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Arizona DPS, and the Phoenix PD served the warrant on a hous ... More >>

Joe Arpaio, Bill Montgomery Lose Again: Undocumented Worker Found "Not Guilty"

Miguel Angel Morales was not supposed win Wednesday in Maricopa County Superior Court. Charged with ID theft and forgery after he was arrested in Sheriff Joe Arpaio's raid on Glendale's United Construction in September, Morales has spent more than six months in Arpaio's notorious jails, refusing t ... More >>

Bill Montgomery's Deaf Victim Diana Blanco Honored by Las Cafeteras

Kudos to Puente and Las Cafeteras for this beautiful, moving message to Diana Blanco Only the crassest and cruelest of individuals will be able to watch the video above minus a moist eye. In it Diana Blanco, the young deaf woman, whose mother, grandfather and grandmother were arrested in Sheriff Jo ... More >>

Bell Peppers Will Not Disguise 2,000 Pounds of Weed, Mexican National Discovers

A Mexican national discovered on Tuesday that a bunch of bell peppers won't conceal more than 2,000 pounds of marijuana from the authorities.U.S. Customs and Border Protection made the find while the man was attempting to enter the United States through a commercial facility in Nogales with the load ... More >>

Bill Montgomery's Victims Plead Not Guilty En Masse as Their Children Weep

The cattle call began a little after 8:30 a.m. Wednesday for the unfortunates arrested in the MCSO's Sportex Apparel raid in Tempe the first week of February. See also: -Bill Montgomery Is No Immigration Moderate -Bill Montgomery Fails to Convict an Innocent Man -S.A.N.E. Immigration Initiative Un ... More >>

Joe Arpaio Supporters Going for (Highly Improbable) Recall of Mary Rose Wilcox

We're not sure if this is a serious thing, but right-wingers are touting their response to the attempted recall of Sheriff Joe Arpaio -- an effort to recall County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox.Forgive us for being skeptical, but if you think it's a long-shot for Arpaio to be recalled, consider the fa ... More >>

Bill Montgomery Fails to Convict an Innocent Man

Mexican Man Breaks Record for Unsuccessful Arizona-Bound Marijuana Smuggling

A 26-year-old Mexican national is apparently a new record-holder in the world of marijuana smuggling.According to Customs and Border Protection, nobody's been caught with this much marijuana at an Arizona port of entry -- more than 14,000 pounds.See also:-230 Pounds of Cheese Seized at U.S./Mexico B ... More >>

Bill Montgomery's Ghost of Christmas Present: Injustice

If there were a law against keeping parents from their children for no good reason on Christmas, or any other day, then Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, and many of his functionaries, would be guilty as charged. Currently, neither the county attorney's office nor the Maricopa County Sheri ... More >>

Arpaio Awaits Justice as Election Looms

DREAM Activist Erika Andiola Says Mom Was Racially-Profiled, Mesa PD Denies Claim

Video of a Mesa PD stop of Andiola's mom, recently posted to YouTube Well-known Arizona DREAM Activist Erika Andiola claims her mom was racially-profiled last night by the Mesa Police Department, resulting in the 54 year-old woman being arrested, cited and released after being stopped, allegedly f ... More >>

Ask a Mexican on ICE and the Rich White Man

A Woman Was Held in Jail Because Authorities Thought She Was Illegal

Joe Arpaio's Racial Profiling Trial Ends, and Yes, Joe's Still Guilty as Sin

See also: Joe Arpaio's Racial Profiling Trial Begins, and, Yes, He's Guilty as Sin See also: Joe Arpaio's Taliban, Nativist Steve Camarota, and More Problems for the MCSO See also: Joe Arpaio's (ahem) Legal Scholar Brett "Shut Up" Palmer and Flunky Brian Sands Under Oath As U.S. District Judge G. M ... More >>

Joe Arpaio Supports Comprehensive Immigration Reform? And All Aboard the Undocubus

Arpaio's Kumbaya moment comes around 28 minutes in... See also: Puente Kicks Off "Undocubus" with Pro-Immigrant March See also: The complete slideshow of Puente's "Undocubus" Pro-Immigrant March Well, I reckon we can just forget about that racial-profiling trial underway against Sheriff Joe Arpaio ... More >>

Deputy Chief Brian Sands' Testimony Today Contradicted by His Statements in 2010; Busting Illegal Aliens was Sometimes the "Goal"

Brian Sands, one of Arpaio's deputy chiefs, told a federal judge today that busting illegal immigrants wasn't the goal of saturation patrols. Sands said something quite different in 2010 to investigators probing corruption within Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Office. As late as the fall of ... More >>

Obama's 287(g) Move Bogus, Activists Call on Feds to Cut Ties with Arizona

I'd have no problem with Governor Jan Brewer's whining like a stuck javelina about the Obama administration's jerking 287(g) agreements with Arizona, and promising to not pick up, or answer questions about every brown person 'Zona cops pull over. That is, if either her kvetching or the administratio ... More >>

SB 1070 Ruling: States Do Not Have Carte Blanche in Immigration Sphere

If right-wingers such as Arizona's clueless, incompetent Governor Jan Brewer had actually read today's U.S. Supreme Court's decision on Senate Bill 1070, they would not be so quick to issue press releases spinning the court's 5-3 ruling as a victory for xenophobes, or even for the idea of some sort ... More >>

DREAMers Score a Win with Obama's Immigration Initiative, But the War Is Far from Over

Joe Arpaio and MCSO Did Not Arrest a 6-Year-Old

Despite what you may have heard -- and how Joe Arpaio-ish it sounds -- Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies did not arrest a 6-year-old on Friday.MCSO spokesman Chris Hegstrom tells New Times deputies arrested 16 people during a human-smuggling operation, but the 6-year-old found in the van wasn't one ... More >>

ACLU Still Waiting for Pinal County Jail to Get It Together on Immigrant Detention

It's been a year since the American Civil Liberties Union demanded immigration officials fix the conditions in which immigrants are detained at the Pinal County Jail, and if you ask the ACLU, it's no better today.The ACLU's now asking that the Department of Homeland Security officials remove the imm ... More >>

Joe Arpaio and Barack Obama Protested by Puente Moms and Their Children

Many would like to believe that even the most guileful and nefarious of individuals are capable of compassion, particularly toward the weakest among us.Sadly, human behavior argues otherwise. To rationalize away the sufferings of others is a fairly easy mental trick, and when the payoff fo ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's Nemesis Sal Reza and His Bad News Bears Soccer Team

There's not much that would get me out on a hot Arizona afternoon to watch a high-school soccer match, but Sal Reza as "coach" is one of them.Reza, the bane of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former state Senate President Russell Pearce, the guy who's led thousands in marches protesting both Senate Bill 1070 ... More >>

President Obama "Involved" in Joe Arpaio Protests, According to (of Course) Joe Arpaio

​People plan on protesting Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his immigration policies again today, and apparently he suspects President Obama might be behind it.Combining the fact that Arpaio headlined the lunacy of a "birther" investigation into Obama, and Arpaio's trouble with the feds ... More >>

Joe Arpaio: Obama Now Not "Involved" in Protests. It's Currently a "Coincidence"

​Despite Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio scoffing at the idea of President Obama not being "involved" in the protests against him, the conspiracy-theory alert has now been downgraded to "coincidence."Last night, Arpaio was chatting up KPHO about the protests, and said, "If you don't think the p ... More >>

Paul Babeu Touts Gay Rights While LGBT Inmates in His Jail Suffer

Joe Arpaio Says He Shouldn't Be the "Poster Boy" of Immigration Protests, Notes MCSO Just Picked Up 54 Suspected Illegal Immigrants

​For once, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says he shouldn't be the center of attention.Six young people -- the oldest 23 years old -- were arrested by Phoenix police Tuesday during a protest at Trevor Browne High School, rallying against Arpaio's methods of immigration enforcement.To those six ... More >>

Jan Brewer Invited to Testify Before Senate Subcommittee on SB 1070. Governor's Apparently Not Thrilled With The Idea

​New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer sent a letter to Governor Jan Brewer yesterday, asking her to give testimony before his Senate Subcommittee on Immigration about Senate Bill 1070.According to a release from Schumer's office, the point of Brewer's testimony would be "to hear whether she ... More >>

Sheriff Arpaio's Office, in Seeming Defiance of Judge, Arrests Five Suspected Illegal Immigrants on Human-Smuggling Charges

​   The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office arrested five men last night on suspicion of human smuggling and conspiracy, days after a federal judge's ruling on such investigations. Looks like Sheriff Joe Arpaio, under more pressure than ever to reform his ways, is sticking to his state ... More >>

Arpaio Corruption: The Feds Have Spoken, But Justice Won't Be Served Until the Sheriff's Indicted

Joe Arpaio's Expectant Mom-Shackling Earns Him Another Lawsuit

Miriam Mendiola-Martinez, and her son angel, born Christmas week, 2009. Living in Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Maricopa County is like living in a medieval version of the movie Groundhog Day, where each morning one awakens with further reminders that we do not live in the civilized world.Two years ago, I fi ... More >>

Mexican Smugglers Exploit the Corrupt Reputation of U.S. Border Officers

Richard Taylor, Owner of Arizona Trailer Manufacturing, Convicted and Fined for Hiring 10 Undocumented Workers

​ A Buckeye trailer manufacturing firm and its owner were ordered by a federal judge to pay $30,000 in fines and received two years' probation for hiring undocumented workers. Richard Taylor and his company, Arizona Trailer Manufacturing, was convicted in U.S ... More >>

Phoenix DREAM Activist Recognized on Capitol Hill

Angelica Hernandez being recognized by U.S. Senator from Illinois Dick DurbinOn Tuesday, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held its first DREAM Act hearing since the legislation was first proposed a decade ago. Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat, announced the hearing last week. Durbin ... More >>

Undocumented Youth Blocked from Entering the U.S. Workforce Are Starting Their Own Businesses to Survive

Under Mark Spencer's Leadership, the Phoenix Police Union Has Become an Anti-Immigrant Juggernaut, to the Detriment of Its Members

Steve Smith, Wingnutty Hater, Wants To Turn Hospital Employees into ICE Agents

azleg.govState Senator Steve Smith: He wants emergency room staff to ask for your papersFreshman Republinut state Senator Steve Smith, the guy who knocked off Democrat Rebecca Rios in District 23 last year, longs to make a name for himself on the backs of impoverished and ill undocumented immigrants ... More >>

More Than $700,000 Worth of Marijuana Found Stuffed in Matress at Border

www.uppermichiganssource.com​U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stopped a furniture truck at the Arizona/ Mexico border and, as luck should have it, the rig was hauling more than just furniture.Officers found about 330 pounds of weed stashed in a mattress in the back of the truck as ... More >>

Hot Links: Elderly Woman Busted, Mesa Sued, and Food Tax

​A 94-year-old Mexican woman was arrested at the border near Nogales for allegedly trying to smuggle almost 11 pounds of marijuana into Arizona. According to authorities, the woman said she was crossing the border for a day of shopping, but agents became suspicious and found bundles of pot taped f ... More >>

Hot Links: Pot Bust, H1N1 Death, and a Two-Headed Baby

​A Douglas man was arrested at the U.S. port of entry with almost 700 pounds of marijuana Sunday night. The unnamed man, 20, was driving an F-150 truck loaded with pot, and was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement...An English teacher at Higley and Williams Field high schools has ... More >>

DPS Stops Refrigerated Truck With Produce and 97 Illegal Immigrants Chilling in 34 Degrees

Image: Wikimedia Commons​ When we read the headline to the latest news release from the Department of Public Safety, "Officer makes a traffic stop and discovers 97 undocumented aliens inside of a refrigerated commercial trailer," our first thought was -- good thing it was refrigerated, cause i ... More >>

ICE Agent and Customs Officer Charged With Fraud in Alleged Government Credit Card Scam

An agent with the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a Customs officer were arrested this morning after being indicted on suspicion of stealing government money. Agent Michael J. Kittson, 34, and U.S. Customs Patrol Officer Douglas R. Bothof are named in a 47-count indictment th ... More >>

Bishop Thomas Olmsted Does Little for His Hispanic Flock, and Joe's Protected by an Army of Louts.

Minor Violations? Sheriff Joe Arpaio's 287(g)-Trained Deputies Sometimes Bust Mexicans Who Commit No Violations

The Government Accountability Office's report on a program that gives local cops federal immigration powers tells Valley residents something they already knew: Some local law enforcement departments are using their 287(g) powers to bust illegal immigrants suspected of minor infractions instead ... More >>

Janet Napolitano Less Than Photogenic on Homeland Security Web Site Mug Shot

Janet, we thought we knew ya!At least, we've certainly seen better pictures of the former Arizona governor than this goofy mug shot placed recently on the Homeland Security Web site about her, the department's new boss.It almost appears that once she landed in Washington D.C., she must have been re ... More >>

Janet Napolitano Confirmed as Homeland Security Secretary; Jan Brewer to Take Oath as New Governor on Wednesday

Janet Napolitano was confirmed today as the third chief of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The department was created in 2003 as a reaction to the 9/11 attacks, and oversees the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Federal Emergency Management Agency and other agencies. I ... More >>

Not just for conspiracy theorists, anymore: Jay Johnson-Castro and Operation ENDGAME.

Welcome to Phoenix, the ethnic cleansing begins at noon.