Now this is what you call a bad hombre!

From the Queens Chronicle:

A Jackson Heights man convicted of rape and twice deported from the United States was sentenced to 57 months in prison by a federal judge last Wednesday for illegally re-entering the country, prosecutors said.

Judge Sandra Feuerstein ruled that Rogelio Mendez, 38, a Mexican national who also has gone by “Rogelio Mendez-Puebla” will serve the time consecutively with the 30-month sentence he got in Suffolk County court last year after pleading guilty to third-degree rape.

He was working at a restaurant in Southampton, LI, when that crime occurred in September 2016. Mendez raped a woman at a house he shared with co-workers.

He’s incarcerated for the rape now.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, Mendez was first deported from America in 2004, after he served a two-year prison term for illegally possessing a loaded gun in Queens.

He came back to the United States in 2005 and was deported again in 2009.

Then, Mendez illegally re-entered the United States a year later.

Woodside visa fraudster cuffed

From Sunnyside Post:

A Woodside woman has been charged with visa fraud for filing false documents to get Filipino nationals work visas, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Rena Beduya Avendula, 50, who owned Woodside-based Professional Place & Recruitment Inc. (PPRI), would submit fraudulent documents claiming that her clients would be employed in “specialty occupations,” therefore qualifying for H-1B work visas, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Avendula is charged with five counts of visa fraud and with conspiring to defraud the U.S. by bringing in undocumented immigrants. The scheme allegedly took place from October 2009 through February 2015.

Following ICE on patrol

From PIX11:

ICE agents went to the Bronx Criminal Courthouse a few weeks ago to arrest Aboubacar Dembele, following the African immigrant's court hearing to contest an assault charge.

“The media does not focus on all of these criminals that we’re going after," Genalo said, "Rather than focus on the criminals that we’re trying to remove, and that we’re arresting in the community, they’d rather take and focus on the small percentage of the cases that you just mentioned."

In Jersey City, Genalo’s team made its final arrest of the day – cuffing a multiple drug offender from the Dominican Republic with two deportations on his record.

“I know I made a mistake," he said.

Jamaican immigrant Andrea Stibo, a legal resident, has mixed feelings about the direction of the nation's immigration policy.

“You're not supposed to overstay your visa,” she said.

Like so many legal, documented immigrants, Stibo wonders if there is room in some cases, for compassionate policy enforcement.

“If you coming, and you stay over your welcome, and you don’t commit no crime – no, you got the right to stay,” Stibo said.

When confronted with her contradiction, Stibo responded, “I don’t have no sympathy for criminals.”

The NY dairy farmer's conundrum

From NBC:

Dairy farms in New York are relying on workers in the country without documentation. Pablo Gutierrez reports on the issue.

This is a very interesting report. On the one hand, the farmers say no Americans are willing to do this work. To some extent that's probably true, but would they offer a wage that would be fair to an American? Probably not. They want to keep the cost of milking down, so they exploit undocumented labor by paying them poorly and forcing them to work extended hours. Yet they claim they want see a change in the Visa program which allows the workers to stay legally. If that happens, the workers will have to at least be paid minimum wage, if not a living wage as courts have ordered in the past. And then the cost of producing milk goes up and farms go under. We've created quite a mess in this country.

Mob tries to prevent ICE from arresting burglar

From NBC:

Dozens of residents banded together Tuesday to try to stop federal immigration agents from arresting an undocumented man wanted by police for burglary, according to reports.
The neighbors gathered on 112th Street in Richmond Hill as ICE agents were arresting 35-year-old Hardat Sampat.

Sampat is accused of burglary and re-entering the U.S. illegally, according to The Daily News. He was on his way to Queens Criminal Court Tuesday morning for a scheduled appearance when ICE agents in unmarked cars boxed him in and took him into custody.

NYC may stop getting some federal funds

From NY1:

The Trump administration is increasingly warning that if local law enforcement agencies don't cooperate with federal immigration officials, they could lose federal funding.

"A nation without borders is not a nation," Trump said.

It's been a Trump policy, signed in January in an executive order.

Attention lately is heightened after two Maryland high school students, including one here without papers, were accused of raping a classmate in a school bathroom. Henry Sanchez-Milian's lawyer says he is pleading not guilty.

Maryland lawmakers are considering a bill restricting how much local law enforcement can share with federal agencies.

"I would plead with the people of Maryland to understand that this makes the state of Maryland more at risk for violence and crime," Sessions said.

New York's rules limit cooperation with immigration agents. They don't end it. And its backers add the rules aren't just constitutionally sound, but make the city about the safest its been in generations.

Taking away federal funding jeopardizes that, they say. Not to mention, some of that money Trump is threatening to take helps protect his namesake tower.

Lawyers telling illegals to stay at Rikers

From the NY Post:

Federal agents trying to deport illegal-immigrant criminals are hitting a new roadblock in New York City — crafty defense lawyers who will put their clients in jail to keep them in the country, The Post has learned.

A Legal Aid lawyer took the extreme measure in The Bronx Thursday, when she claimed an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was waiting for her client and begged a judge to lock up the suspect.
The rookie judge — a Mayor de Blasio appointee — complied, setting $3,000 bail even though the defendant had been free for the six months since his arrest.

“I can’t believe this — every day Legal Aid is asking for no bail” for their clients, one insider told The Post.

“And now they’re asking for bail because even going to Rikers is better than being deported.”

Lawyers are also advising clients not to post even the lowest of bails so that they’ll go to Rikers Island rather than into the waiting arms of ICE agents, sources said.

And this is why we need border control...

Robert Capers

From the Wall Street Journal:

Sixteen alleged members of a Central American gang were charged Thursday for a range of crimes—including murder, assault and racketeering—in connection with three brutal slayings that rocked Brentwood on Long Island last year.

The U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York accused the alleged members of the MS-13 gang of killing two Brentwood High School students by beating them with a bat and attacking them with a machete in September. Prosecutors also alleged they stabbed and beat to death fellow gang member Jose Pena, also a Brentwood High School student, in June.

“These were terrible, heinous crimes,” U.S. Attorney Robert Capers said.

The 13 adult defendants’ ages range from 18 to 29. Some go by nicknames: “Muerte,” “Big Homie,” and “Smiley.” Three additional defendants are minors.

Prosecutors are considering the death penalty for some of the defendants. Most of the others could be sentenced to life in prison, if convicted.

Ten of the adult defendants are illegal immigrants, Mr. Capers said. He declined to say whether federal immigration agents had inquired about them.

De Blasio wanted to keep gang member

From the Daily News:

Mayor de Blasio lashed out Tuesday at Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials after their agents scooped up a 19-year-old Salvadoran immigrant in Queens.

ICE officials issued a detainer order to the city Department of Correction in May, telling them to place a federal hold on Velasquez. But the city released Velasquez from Rikers Island on Thursday after he served nearly five months for disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor.

Later that day, ICE agents busted Velasquez, whom they described as a gang member and a potential threat to public safety. Velasquez was in the midst of being deported late Tuesday.

De Blasio cried foul.

“The detainee was released after he pled guilty and served his time for an offense that does not qualify as a violent or serious felony under the city’s local laws,” said Rosemary Boeglin, a mayoral spokeswoman.

ICE officials said Velasquez admitted to agents he was a member of the MS-13 gang. He was one of at least 41 people the agency detained around the city in the last month.

Velasquez entered the U.S. illegally, ICE officials said. And in November 2015, a judge ordered he be deported. His criminal history in the U.S. includes reckless endangerment, criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, and disorderly conduct, ICE officials said.

De Blasio thinks undocumented drunk drivers should be protected from deportation

According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, nearly 10,000 Americans are killed each year as a result of drunk driving, or 27 people per day.

Small Long Island town has a big gang problem

From the NY Times:

Four dead teenagers. Two weeks. One town. And a ruthless gang, the authorities say, was most likely responsible for the toll. Again.

On Sept. 13, Nisa Mickens, 15, and her best friend, Kayla Cuevas, 16, were murdered, their battered bodies found near an elementary school here. A week later and just two miles away, the skeletal remains of two more teenagers — identified as Oscar Acosta, 19, and Miguel Garcia-Moran, 15 — were found in the woods near a psychiatric hospital. Oscar had been missing since May, Miguel since February. Their deaths have been ruled homicides.

Brentwood, a hardscrabble town of nearly 60,000 on Long Island, 40 miles east of Manhattan, has reached another crisis point. For nearly two decades, MS-13, a gang with roots in Los Angeles and El Salvador, has been terrorizing the town, the authorities say, especially its young people. Since 2009, its members have been accused of at least 14 murders, court and police records show.

School officials are scrambling. Police officers are searching. Students are frightened. Parents are anguished.

Tensions simmer here because some residents say they believe an increase in Central American migrants to town has led to the increase in gang violence. According to 2014 census figures compiled by Queens College, Brentwood’s population is 68 percent Latino or Hispanic, with more than 17,000 residents claiming to be from El Salvador.

Timothy Sini, who became the Suffolk County police commissioner 11 months ago, after his predecessor, James Burke, pleaded guilty to civil rights violations and obstruction of justice, has vowed to eradicate the gangs.

“There’s been a huge influx, to be honest with you,” said Ray Mayo, the president of the Brentwood Association of Concerned Citizens, who added that he was upset over undocumented immigrants crowding rental properties. “It seems like a whole new set of gang members who have stirred the pot up.”

We have plenty of MS-13 here in Queens but no one wants to talk about it. I wonder why?

Undocumented impact on NYC

This short Seth Barron piece in City Journal is the best essay I have seen thus far on illegal immigration in NYC. Give it a read.

De Blasio ok with hiring illegals

From Crains:

In a radio interview Thursday, Mayor Bill De Blasio cheered a Brooklyn supermarket owner who acknowledged hiring undocumented workers.

“Of course you’re running a business and if someone’s willing to work hard for you, you’re going to hire that person,” de Blasio told the caller, who was identified as Thomas in Brooklyn. “And you’re giving them a job that they get to feed a family on, and I thank you for that.”

The caller told the mayor he owns a supermarket in Brooklyn. “A large number of my employees are undocumented workers and, you know, I have to say that, you know, they are hard workers, they do get paid well,” he said. “Just as a businessman I’m caught between having these undocumented workers, which I’m not supposed to employ,” and the benefits of doing so.

De Blasio said neither the business owner nor the employees should be penalized, calling the current rules governing immigration “ridiculous."

Homeless take over Woodside parks

Sunnyside Post

From Sunnyside Post:

Several residents attended the 108 Police Precinct meeting in Sunnyside Tuesday to complain about a growing homeless problem in Windmuller and Doughboy parks.

Attendees claimed that there were homeless people hanging out near the bathrooms at Windmuller Park (located between Woodside Avenue and 39th Drive) and on the embankment of the adjacent Doughboy Park. Residents said that the homeless were using the bathrooms to keep themselves clean and were in there for an extended period of time. Some were concerned about the safety of children now that summer has begun and the pool at Windmuller has opened.

Captain John Travaglia, the commanding officer at the 108 Precinct, said that he had been getting phone calls about an older homeless lady and, separately, a younger man being there too.

Travaglia said that the police have stationed an officer by the pool and that should help. He said that being homeless is not a crime, although the police are able to ensure that they don’t go into a playground without a child.

Gennaro Massaro, who lives across the street from the park in Berkeley Towers, claimed that there was a lack of police around Windmuller in general and complained about teenagers smoking pot, drinking and noise from kids bouncing basketballs until 3 a.m.

He also said that many of the homeless are illegal immigrants and that it was not fair to US citizens. This led to some racial tension with other attendees.

Overcrowding leads to bad outcomes

From the NY Times:

According to the latest Census Bureau data, about 9 percent of all households — or nearly 280,000 units — in New York City have more than one person per room, a common government measure of crowding. A decade ago, the rate was 8 percent. The change represents nearly a 13 percent increase. By comparison, the national crowding rate is 3.4 percent.

The crowding problem in New York worsens considerably in specific neighborhoods, particularly those with large working-class and immigrant populations where it is not unusual for two families to cram into apartments intended for one, and laborers to sleep two, three or more to a room.

While the Bronx and Brooklyn have the highest percentage of crowded units among the boroughs, according to Census Bureau data from 2014, the community district with the highest rate of crowding is in Queens and encompasses Elmhurst and southern Corona. There, a quarter of all residential units are considered crowded. A study published in February by StreetEasy.com found that five of the top 10 most crowded neighborhoods in the city were in central Queens.

The overcrowded dwelling typically finds its most severe expression in illegally converted basement and cellar apartments, most of them overcrowded and riddled with safety hazards such as shoddy construction, dangerous wiring and improper means of exit in the case of a fire.

Will council allow illegal aliens to vote in city elections?

From the Queens Chronicle:

This bill, first reported by the New York Post on Monday, would grant illegal immigrants the right to vote in city elections. And that’s where a crystal clear line in the sand has to be drawn: absolutely not. No way. Never.

The bill has not been introduced yet; no record of it exists in the City Council’s online legislative database. According to the Post report, it is expected to be laid on the table in the spring. And it was recently discussed at a gathering of the Black and Latino Caucus.

Bertha Lewis, the former head of the leftist group ACORN, which was disbanded over its shady practices, is among those lobbying for the measure.

“We want to expand the right to vote for everybody, not suppress the vote,” the Post quoted Lewis as saying at the ethnic caucus event. “What a radical idea.”

Yes, it sure is a radical idea — when you want to expand the vote to people who either broke the law as soon as they arrived in the country, or did it when they violated the terms of their visas by not leaving when they agreed to leave.

That’s going to be a bridge too far for all but the most radical members of the Council, and seeing who supports the bill will be a good measure of determining who really is radical. According to the Post report, Lewis has discussed it with members including Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Councilman Jumaane Williams of Brooklyn and Dromm. Among those three, only Williams has said he supports it so far. Dromm’s office declined to comment on it when asked this week by the Chronicle.

There's no place like home

From the Daily News:

I was 10 years old when I crossed over the border into Arizona with my parents in 2005.

We moved to Jackson Heights. My parents, Roberta and Salvador Alarcon, left my younger brother with my grandparents in Veracruz.

In New York, my mother worked at a Laundromat and my dad got a job in construction. He built and demolished houses in Manhattan and Queens. His boss exploited him. My father worked for 12 to 14 hours a day for $80. He had no idea you could sue for lost wages. He was always afraid of being deported.

In 2011, the family was forced to move from a two-bedroom apartment to a one-bedroom. At one point, my father injured his ankle. He was afraid to go to a hospital. In 2012, my grandmother passed away from cancer. My parents decided to go back.

My parents now have a small store in the town. My father is now working on farming and my mother is taking care of the store.

They are happy. But obviously, it’s not the same. Over here, they had cell phones and money to go to restaurants once a month. Now, they don’t have the money and have to work harder to get those things.

I don't understand how they had money for cell phones and restaurants with mom working off the books at a laundromat and dad raking in $80/day. Sounds like Mexico was a better option. And in fact, more Mexicans are returning than arriving these days.

They scam their own first

From WPIX:

We’re not using her full name because she is an illegal resident of Queens. She and her family gave about $17,000 to a guy they say was the family priest, Rajesh Jhangdharie. He promised to get them work permits and green cards. We haven’t checked into his religious background because it’s not that relevant here. All that really matters is he has their money and they never received any papers and haven’t gotten a full refund.

New day laborer center to open in Queens

NY Times

From the Daily News:

The city will kick in half a million dollars to open and expand job centers for day laborers, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said Monday.

The centers serve as hiring halls for mostly immigrant laborers who have traditionally gathered on street corners waiting for work, instead providing a safe spot where contractors can show up to hire people for construction, roofing, and other jobs.

The $500,000 grant will go towards expanding an existing center in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, and opening new ones in Queens and Staten Island.

“Unfortunately day laborers often have to deal with harsh conditions and exploitive labor practices,” Mark-Viverito said. “A lot of times these workers are seen as dispensable. And they’re actually indispensable.”

They also help laborers negotiate a fair wage with bosses, in addition to connecting them with legal advice if they’re ripped off and offering training in skills like plumbing and electrical work.

HHC deep in the hole

From the Daily News:

The city's cash-strapped public hospital system will have to bring in hundreds of thousands more patients to overcome its dire financial troubles, Health and Hospitals Corp. President Ram Raju said Tuesday.

In a speech to hundreds of hospital workers, Raju pledged to increase the number of patients using the system’s 11 hospitals and other facilities to 2 million annually by 2020 from the current 1.4 million. And he said the hospitals corporation would double the number of people enrolled in its MetroPlus health insurance plan to 1 million during the same period.

The hospital system has been bleeding cash for years, and faces a $753 million deficit next year, which will balloon to $1.5 billion by 2019.

And because of Obamacare, the agency faces deep cuts to federal aid traditionally funneled to hospitals that care for large numbers of uninsured patients. Under that law, the Health and Hospitals Corp. expects to lose $180 million in 2017, and a total of $3 billion by 2024.

At the same time, hospital officials expect they’ll still have to care for many people who can’t get insurance despite Obamacare, particularly undocumented immigrants.

Bringing in more patients who have insurance or can pay for care will help offset those cuts, Raju said.