Mom Sells 5-Month-Old Baby In Pueblo, CO

**Update
–Jose-Juan Lerma, now believed to be an American citizen from Mexico, claims that transaction was intended to be similar to adoption–a legal transfer of custody, and also to help out the baby’s mother

How much is a 5-month-old baby worth?

For three Mexican nationals in Pueblo, Colorado–about $10,000 (video):

Police say a mom sold her 5-month-old baby to get money for a down payment on a car.
. . .
Police say 23-year-old Nicole Uribe, a Mexican national, sold her baby boy to a couple on February 21.

Court documents show Uribe sold the baby for $10,000 cash. She then put a down payment on a Dodge Intrepid.

“Mom obviously wanted to get rid of the child for one reason or another and these other people were willing to take the child and then there was an exchange of monetary money.” said Sgt. Brett A. Wilson with the Pueblo Police Department.

Police say Uribe sold the baby to 28-year-old Irene and 48-year-old Jose-Juan Lerma, who are also both Mexican nationals.

Uribe and the Lermas were arrested on charges of trafficking a child.

Uribe is also on an immigration hold because she is in the country illegally. She is being held on $50,000 bond in the Pueblo County Jail.

If she is convicted, she would serve her sentence in the United States and then be deported.
. . .
Child trafficking carries a prison sentence of up to 24 years and up to a $750,000 fine.

Not sure of the laws in Mexico, but north of the border there are laws against human trafficking. Thankfully, the baby boy appears to be okay. Born in Pueblo, he is an American citizen.

Of course, when you are in the country illegally, it is expected that the laws of the land don’t apply, isn’t it?

Sham Raids: Proof Illegal Immigration Raids Are Just For Show

Previous raids on suspected illegal immigrants in December at or just last week have raised the prospect that ICE officials and the government in general are more interested in conducting “show raids” than actually confronting illegal immigration.

Want proof?

Just ask some of those suspected illegal immigrants constructing military housing targeted in a raid outside Buckley Air Force Base near Denver last year:

Illegal immigrants say they were working on a military housing project outside Buckley Air Force Base within days after a major immigration raid there last year.

Immigration officials said at the time that they were protecting national security and sending a message to employers with the Sept. 20 raid, which nabbed more than 120 workers.

Most of the workers were from Mexico and were quickly deported. Others came from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Three had outstanding criminal warrants and were turned over to Aurora police.

Julio Cesar Rodriguez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, told the Rocky Mountain News he was back on the job a few days after the raid.

So was Martin Torrez, who said he saw about a dozen workers who returned to Buckley after they were deported.

Several workers claim they were not fully paid for their work, which included hundreds of hours of overtime. A number also said they received off-the-books payments in cash.

Federal immigration officials said the raid was part of a nationwide crackdown on illegal immigrants who could pose a security risk to the nation’s “critical infrastructure facilities.”

The housing site is near the giant golf ball-like satellite monitoring systems on the base, which assist in global surveillance, missile warnings and homeland defense operations.

Lemme get this straight–the government targets suspected illegal immigrants out of concern for security risks and then, in its infinite wisdom, allows them back to work on housing near a potentially sensitive military installation?

Anyone else doubt that the raids are a sham?

ICE claims that precautions have been taken:

“ICE routinely and continuously works with representatives from critical infrastructure facilities – such as Buckley AFB – to ensure that only authorized personnel have access to sensitive areas.”

Asked to respond to claims by illegal immigrants who said they were rehired at the Buckley site after the ICE raid, Rusnok said: “The process of ensuring that only properly authorized people work in sensitive area is an ongoing process. That’s why ICE maintains close ties with representatives from these facilities.”

Apparently ICE is more interested in targeting the cleaning staff at restaurant chains than maintaining a watchful eye on construction workers near a military base. How’s that for priorities?

CU Creative Writing Instructor Won White Supremacy Essay

Ideological balance brought to you by CU:

The Anti-Defamation League on Thursday condemned a white supremacist essay attributed to a composition instructor at the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus.

But the civil rights group also noted that instructor Joshua McNair’s views are protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution.

ADL regional director Bruce DeBoskey praised CU officials, who also have backed McNair’s constitutional rights.

McNair’s essay, “Organization, Cooperation and Action,” won a prize in a 2004 contest sponsored by the white supremacist group Stormfront.

The essay says, “And though it may hurt to acknowledge, we cannot ignore the tremendous success of that most solid, focused and thus most powerful group in our midst today and how they amassed the supremacy they now enjoy. It was not through simple individual merit, but instead first through cooperation and organization, then by action.”

That description is usually applied to Jews in white supremacist literature.

The Boulder Daily Camera reported on the essay Thursday and posted it on the newspaper’s Web site. The Camera said the essay came from the Stormfront Web site.

The essay was no longer available on that site, however, by late Thursday.

McNair did not return an e-mail message seeking an interview and verification that he was the author of the essay.

McNair is a first-year graduate student, CU spokesman Bronson Hilliard said. While he was an undergraduate, McNair sponsored a campus speech by a Holocaust denier, Hilliard said.

McNair is an instructor in the campus’ composition program.

McNair’s poorly written essay. Looks like the left-wing hate-America types (Ward Churchill, who else) and white supremacist kooks at CU have much more in common than first thought–an inability to write well.

CU has established itself as a hotbed of liberal lunacy. Benjamin Whitmer’s sophomoric defenses of his Ethnic Studies Idol Churchill earned him a glowing review from the campus’ fawning newspaper. Then there is this week’s meltdown by CU law professor Paul Campos charging Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds of being a fascist (Reynolds’ response) and the “right’s Ward Churchill”.

So it has finally come full circle.

More ICE Raids In Denver And Across Nation, Targeting Hard Rock Cafe, ESPN Zone, And Dave And Busters

**Welcom Michelle Malkin readers, scroll for updates

A map of the raid’s scope

**Update–Execs indicted for pocketing $18.6 million in unpaid taxes:

Federal authorities have accused three cleaning company executives of pocketing more than $18.6 million in unpaid taxes collected from employing hundreds of illegal immigrants from Mexico, Central America, and Haiti, according to an indictment CNN obtained Thursday.

The money was placed by the three Rosenbaum Cunningham International executives into “shell companies,” and then was used to purchase such “extravagant” items as beach homes and racehorses, the document stated.

RCI Inc.’s president, vice president and controller were arrested along with 200 of the Florida-based company’s employees in a recent sweep by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the assistant secretary of homeland security for ICE, Julie Myers, announced at a news conference.

A message on the company’s voicemail said that “RCI has ceased operations as of February 22, 2007.”

The employees were arrested in 17 states and the District of Columbia late Wednesday into Thursday as they were starting or leaving their shifts, Myers said.

They face various immigration violations and could be deported, she said.

Another sham raid designed to deflect criticism from Teddy Kennedy’s upcoming amnesty bill? Probably–video of ICE explaining the most recent raid:

Federal agents raided big restaurant chains like the Hard Rock Cafe, ESPN Zone, and Dave and Busters in a national sweep that occurred late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning.

The agents fanned out in 63 locations nationwide, including several places in Colorado, grabbing hundreds of illegal aliens working as cleaning people. Investigators said the raids were carried out in 17 states and Washington, D.C.

ICE officials said that approximately 220 people were arrested and taken into custody as they started their shifts or ended their shifts at the restaurants where they were working. 7NEWS has learned that 12 people in Colorado were taken in the raid.

Those who were taken away are employed by a Nevada-based company called RCI, which acts as a cleaning contractor for various businesses.

Most of RCI’s employees are Mexican, Honduran and Guatemalan nationals.

RCI employs approximately 340 people so about 60 percent of their workforce were impacted by the sweep, ICE officials said.

RCI’s co-owners, plus another company official, are named in a 23-count indictment. They face charges including criminal fraud and tax crimes.

Government officials said that company officials hired and recruited illegal immigrants to do the work and paid them in cash.
. . .
The 20-month investigation started in 2005, with concerns about cleaning crews in a Michigan resort.

RCI’s clients include House of Blues, Planet Hollywood, China Grill and Yardhouse as well as Hard Rock Cafe, ESPN Zone and Dave and Busters.

Richard Rosenbaum, RCI’s founder and president, was arrested and faces charges of conspiracy to defraud the government and harboring illegal immigrants. RCI’s employees are also accused of obtaining fake green cards for workers.

Like the raid of meatpacking plants in December, these ICE actions carry little in the way of anything more than symbolic efforts. Netting a few hundred illegal immigrants as a result of a 20-month investigation is good work, but ignores the millions of others lurking in plain sight at businesses all across the nation. Anyone remember the millions living large in the shadows of the enormous parades last year? Not exactly difficult to find.

The punishments for employing illegal immigrants and committing fraud by obtaining fake “documentation” for illegal employees should be excessive and demonstrative. Likely they will be neither. Though this raid targeted high-profile businesses like Hard Rock Cafe and ESPN Zone, it succeeded in only netting 12 illegal immigrants for the entire city of Denver. Hardly a drop in the bucket.

Meanwhile, the inexorable march toward amnesty appears to continue unabated.

The immigration moonbats and open-borders amnesty crowd respond:

“This far reaching raid and others like it have disrupted lives and terrorized entire communities. We are at a crossroads as a nation in deciding what kind of country we want to be and how we value family unity, community, and human rights.

How many more immigrants must die at our borders and how many more children do we make orphans of before we fix our broken immigration system? The current broken system pushes hard-working families into the shadows of our society, and creates incentives for unscrupulous employers to take advantage of workers and taxpayers.

The stepped up arrest and detention of immigrant workers and family members who have been contributing to this country and their communities has only succeeded in polluting the problem and sending a terrible message to the nation and to the world.

The time is now for Congressional leaders to act swiftly and boldly on passing a comprehensive immigration reform bill that is fair and just, bringing immigrant workers out of the shadows of our society and onto a path to citizenship, and taking away incentives for low road employers to manipulate a broken system for profit.

The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition calls on the Bush Administration to put an immediate end to these immoral and inhumane public relations stunts.”

They undoubtedly will be delighted with Teddy Kennedy’s amnesty plan. However, even the open-borders crowd see the raids as publicity stunts–though contrary to their assertions they are legal, necessary and justified. Unfortunately they aren’t part of a larger, meaningful attempt to deal with the problem.

And so it continues . . .

Related:
Want A Government Job In Adams County, CO? Better Speak Spanish

Sticking It To Taxpayers–Insurance Premiums To Go Up

Increasing insurance coverage requirements without increasing the penalties for failing to be covered–penalizing the law-abiding citizens:

Colorado lawmakers advanced a measure Thursday that could increase car insurance premiums by roughly $200 a year.

The plan seeks to cover the estimated $80 million lost each year by trauma centers and first responders in the state since Colorado switched car insurance laws in 2003.

The Senate Local Government committee approved Senate Bill 193 on a 4 to 3 vote. The measure would require Colorado drivers buy $25,000 worth of coverage for all “medically necessary and accident-related health care expenses for bodily injury” and $25,000 for all “rehabilitation, treatments or occupational training for five years after an accident.”

“We never ever want to have to use a first responder, but we most certainly want to make sure they’re available,” said Sen. Lois Tochtrop (D-Thornton), the sponsor of the bill.

Tochtrop says since Colorado switched from a no-fault insurance system to a tort-based, or fault-based, system in July 2003, first responders and trauma centers have incurred the same amount of costs without the same amount of reimbursement from insurance companies. The lack of prompt payment has threatened emergency services in some areas of the state. Chiropractors, physical therapists and massage therapists also complain about not being reimbursed under the new system.

“Trauma systems are a public good, similar to police departments and fire departments,” said Dr. Charles Mains, a trauma surgeon at St. Anthony’s Hospital. “The problem with the trauma system is that the reimbursement for them is only there if they put out the fire.”

Critics of the plan lamented the measure was introduced and given a public hearing with only a day’s notice for the public to attend. They argued a significant policy change like this should be vetted by consumers who are bound to cover the cost if the measure passes.

“By my take, if this passes, you’re in essence going to give me a great big pay raise,” said State Farm Agent Rick Hayes. “Because premiums will go up, commissions will go up.”

A separate State Farm representative told lawmakers their average premium would go up $180 per year if the measure passed. An Allstate representative testified before lawmakers its average customer in Colorado would pay, on average, $200 more per year.

So shortcomings in the insurance law and failure by insurance companies to reimburse first responders can only be solved by requiring citizens to buy even more insurance? Where is the logic in that? And what about those needing assistance who will never reimburse because they don’t have insurance coverage?

Nevermind, I think we know the answer to both.

George Washington’s Birthday

Powerline–Remembering the indispensible man.

George Washington’s Birthday

Powerline–Remembering the indispensible man.

Environment And Public Works Blog And Video

Want to know who is engaging the enviro-moonbats at the Senate level?

Here’s the video feed–and here’s the blog.

Anyone interested in combatting the “climate change” shills now in power in Congress should bookmark the blog and subscribe to the video feed. Unique among the Senate committees as one of the only blogs available and with a traffic high enough to shut down the Senate’s servers (thanks to Drudge), the outstanding work by the minority party, especially Sen. James Inhofe, deserve credit.

Need more incentive?

Enviro-moonbats encourage you to “Heed the Goracle.”

Fearing Dick Wadhams

A formidable force to be reckoned with, says one Colorado liberal.

Richardson Visits Denver, Selects Colorado Staff

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has chosen former Democratic candidate for Senate in 1996 and 2002, Tom Strickland, as one of his Colorado campaign co-chairs, and attended a fundraiser this evening.

The glaring absence of media coverage indicates the amount of attention directed at Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama–and the vast chasm that separates the Democratic frontrunners from the dark horse candidates in their party. Though it appears that the GOP frontrunners have solid leads, they are far from being anointed the clear choice. Democratic also-rans appear to be steadily fading into the background noise for the top spot.

At this point, Richardson might be angling for VP consideration, and this could be the best possible scenario for this former Clinton Cabinet member, banking on his own ethnicity and the “up-for-grabs” Mountain West as leverage for consideration.

Others believe he is being overlooked.

**Update, which essentially backs conclusions made here earlier:

Other political observers see Richardson as a compromise candidate if the current front-runners badly bruise each other, or as an attractive vice presidential candidate to tilt the ticket West.

“Because the West is going to be important to Democrats in 2008, perhaps more important than ever before, he would be a strong candidate for vice president,” said Gayle Berardi, a Democratic political science professor at Colorado State University at Pueblo.

But Richardson doesn’t see himself running for the second spot on the ticket.

“You don’t run for president to be vice president,” he said. “I’m in the race to win.”

He may not see himself as running for VP consideration, but unless both Hillary AND Obama become damaged goods and are DOA as potential candidates by this time next year, it is difficult to imagine Richardson garnering enough support to make it to the Democratic Convention in Denver as anything other than the VP on the ticket.