Author: mopress

Friday’s Dallas Morning News carries a report by Paul Meyer about another long-term immigrant, this time from Israel, who has been abruptly arrested, locked up at Rolling Plains prison, and scheduled for deportation on Monday.

50-year-old Yosi Taflin is a single parent, father of a 15-year-old American citizen. The high-school aged daughter will be left behind in the care of her maternal grandmother. The American mother of the child “died in November 2004 after a prolonged illness.”
Like other families we have been following, Taflin has a long and honorable record as a USA resident, but immigration authorities have refused to admit him. In Taflin’s case, the objection seems to be based on the fact that he was once caught at a party in Israel where hashish was alleged to be found.

The trigger event for Taflin’s arrest occurred on Jan. 22 when he sought permission to teach his daughter Helena how to drive. He presented his driver’s license to the Texas highway patrol (DPS); they found a warrant for deportation; he was immediately handcuffed and shipped to the Rolling Plains prison.

Helena, whose mother died more than two years ago, went home with a family friend and spent the night alone. Her maternal grandmother arrived the next day from Baltimore to care for her.

On Monday, Taflin is scheduled for deportation to Israel. If there is some way to keep Taflin in Texas, we’re for it. If Taflin’s deportation can’t be stopped, we are in favor of his return, just as we support the return of the Suleiman family who were deported in January with twin children of American citizenship.

Aside from our hopes for individuals and families in these cases, we also hope that this story contributes to media interest in the Rolling Plains prison, where Suzi Hazahza, her sister, two brothers, and father linger in immigration hell.

Here’s the link to “Honesty failing deportee: Listing drug offense sending Plano man back to Israel” (subscription may be required). A search of our archives shows that Meyer has also reported on two other stories of interest here: the Ibrahims and Hazahzas.–gm

“I don’t think America gets enough credit for trying to help improve people’s lives. And so my trip is to explain, as clearly as I can, that our nation is generous and compassionate,” said the USA President on his Latin America tour.

Meanwhile back home, Homeland Security officials:

-left two infants dehydrated for lack of mother’s milk when they flew 90 Guatemalan women to a Texas prison camp
-continued to hold children at the T. Don Hutto prison camp in Texas

-argued that a six-month term at a state prison was legal for an entire immigrant family who allegedly failed to appear for an immigration appointment

-and claimed that prison conditions were irrelevant to deciding the just cause of an immigrant family’s imprisonment

Mr. President, we read your lips. Please pick up a phone and free Suzi Hazahza.–gm

Yes, that’s right: along with a 30 percent increase in population during the last decade of the 20th Century, counties along the USA border with Mexico experienced a 30 percent decrease in crime rates. These are the findings of a report from the University of Texas at El Paso.

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Crime and Law Enforcement Since 1990:

crime in southwest border counties has dropped a dramatic 30 percent. Property crimes were down 40 percent between 1990 and 2000 and violent crimes, among the lowest in the nation making up only 12 percent of all crimes, dropped 29 percent in the same decade.

Border county crime rates place the region as 16th, as a 51st state, for both violent crimes and the federal crime index.

Border counties report the largest number of federal offenses creating a 1st ranking as a 51st state, primarily as a result of drug and immigration arrests by federal agencies.

Border prosecutors accept many cases from federal prosecutors, but are not fully funded to handle these cases.

Federal arrests in U.S. District Courts in border counties are two times more likely to involve immigration offenses than other crimes.

By Greg Moses

ILCA Online /
IndyMedia Austin / Houston / NorthTexas / L.A.

Better software combined with bad geography are the best explanations offered by Harris County voting officials for the large number of voters tagged as voting from out of county in the recently contested election for House District 149.

Comparing four years worth of reports of alleged illegal voting in Harris County to the Dec. report about voters of House District 149, the most striking result is an apparent increase in voters identified as moving out of county.

One has to go back to the last Presidential election of 2000 to find numbers that begin to compare with the 139 voters identified as voting from out of county in the hotly contested race for House District 149. Although 135 voters were listed as out-of-county during the 2002 general election, that was a county-wide total. HD 149 hugs only the edge of the western county line.

Reasons for the reported increase in out-of-county voters are twofold explains Ed Johnson, Manager of Harris County Voter Registration, in a conference call Thursday afternoon.

“About a year and a half ago we switched computer systems from a mainframe to a PC-based system with software provided by VOTEC,” explains Johnson. The new VEMACS software supplied by VOTEC, also used in places such as Cuyahoga County, Ohio, allows voting officials to more quickly and precisely identify the jurisdiction of addresses supplied by voters when they fill out statements of residence on election day.

“That state representative district has the longest county border of any in Texas,” explains Johnson. So by shape of sheer geography, the odds of voters crossing the county line are greater in HD 149 than anywhere else in Texas.

“All these people assumed they were voting in the same county,” explains Harris County Director of Voter Registration George Hammerlein, during the same conference call. He says the county line gets to be tricky business in some places and was at times confusing even to investigators during the recent election contest.

“Many of these voters live in condos or apartment complexes,” explains Hammerlein, so they would not be aware of where the property tax is paid.

Once again, if we take these explanations into account, it would appear that allegations of widespread voter misbehavior in House District 149 were in many ways both misleading and insensitive, taking an usually bad situation and exploiting it as an example of voter intent to steal an election.

The office of Harris County Voter Registrar Paul Bettencourt on Thursday faxed copies of cover memos sent during the past four years to the Harris County District Attorney following review of election materials after every major election.

The reviews are usually completed in March, April, or July of the year after the election. Following is a list of tables comparing the Dec. 20 report for HD 149 with county-wide summary reports from previous years:

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Nov. 2, 2004 General Election	Dec. 20, 2004 Report
Not Registered	4
Cancelled Registration	2
Registration Cancelled Out of County After Nov. 2 from Provisional Ballot	5
Registration Cancelled Out of County After Nov. 2 Statement of Residency	139
Voter Registration Cancelled Citizenship	1
Wrong Precinct	16
Grand Total	167

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Nov. 4, 2003 Joint Election	July 26, 2004 Report
Not Registered	182
Not Registered Prior To	239
D/F Felony	1
D/O Moved Out of County	23
D/B Not a Citizen	0
D/X Deceased	0
Wrong Precinct (Out of City)	226
Grand Total	671

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Nov. 5, 2002 General Election	Apr. 7, 2003 Report
Not Registered	554
Deleted Return Mail	129
D/F Felony	7
D/O Moved Out of County	135
D/B Not a Citizen	5
D/X Deceased	0
Grand Total	830

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Nov. 6, 2001 Joint Election	Mar. 25, 2002 Report
Not Registered	229
Deleted / Return Mail	316
D/F Felony	11
D/O Moved Out of County	56
D/B Not a Citizen	4
D/X Deceased	0
Wrong Pct. (Out of City)	76
Grand Total	692

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Nov. 7, 2000 General Election	Apr. 17, 2001 Report
N/R	2,929
D/O	248
D/F	26
D/B	21
Grand Total	3,224

The hard diagonal edge to House District 149 is the Harris County border with Fort Bend County.