Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Meanwhile, on the Border,.....

(Kique, Please do not take this as a personal attack. I'm attacking the argument, not you personally.)

I'm calling your hand. Show us your cards. PROVE that "there are too many people that would rather not take that job because they are to proud." Prove it, not just quote what some other illegal immigrant supporter says. You said it, now back it up.

Waiting patiently for your evidence,

Plinker

"Great job Senor!!" quote Kique


Absolutely!

Well,.....this oughta get lotsa' ink,....and interminable talking head MSM coverage.

they seem to have quite a few things to protest, maybe they need some "Table of contents / index signs "

wonder if they'll have the "Boobs not Bombs" gargoyles in attendance,.....or the nekkid bicyclists?

Link: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/war-rally-protest-2124292-church-organizations

Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Protesters gear up for Saddleback presidential forum
Authorities expect 800 to 1,500 demonstrators to line up along sidewalks surrounding church.
By ALEJANDRA MOLINA
The Orange County Register
Comments 17| Recommend 6

LAKE FOREST � From opponents of illegal immigration to anti-war activists, demonstrators are gearing up for the presidential candidates' first and only confirmed joint appearance before the party conventions this Saturday at Saddleback Church.

Signs and banners are being made, e-mails are being sent and rally organizers are tidying up last-minute details before the big event.

Authorities expect anywhere between 800 to 1,500 demonstrators to line up along sidewalks surrounding the church, said Lt. Don Barnes, chief of police services for Lake Forest.

Ian Thompson with A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition (Act Now To Stop War & End Racism), said his group is expecting many hundreds to protest the war in Iraq, among other issues.

"We will certainly have a good and vibrant demonstration and we don't plan on having any problems," Thompson said. "Iraq should be for the Iraqi people. We need more jobs and more money for education, healthcare not endless funds for the Pentagon budget which goes to fund war on innocent people abroad."

Its most significant rally this year was on March 15, when about 10,000 hit the streets of Los Angeles to protest the Iraq war. The group also recently participated in the May 1 immigrant rights rally in LA.

At least 15 different protests are expected outside the church, including one organized by a coalition of Minutemen organizations.

More than 100 anti-illegal immigration activists and Minutemen members will rally with specific demands: to free former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean and to withhold federal funding to sanctuary cities.

"We would like the next president to make the commitment to examine the case, to pardon them because we feel their whole situation is a miscarriage of justice," said Deborah Craig with Campo Minutemen.

Ramos and Compean were convicted in 2006 and sentenced to 11 and 12 years in prison, respectively, for the February 2005 shooting of illegal immigrant and admitted drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete Davila on the Texas border near El Paso. Both men claimed they shot at Davila in self-defense.


Sheriff's officials have been in contact with organizations that plan to be at the event, Barnes said. Officials are also considering briefing protest organizers before the event to make sure no laws are broken while the organizations exercise their free-speech rights.

Groups maintain that they will voice their opinions without conflict, including Obama supporters who are also planning on being at Saddleback.

"We're expecting definitely a couple of hundred at least, and from all different areas of South Orange County," said Rancho Santa Margarita resident Karen Garber who will be with her fellow Obama supporters. "We're keeping it positive and respectful."




Contact the writer: amolinaocregister.com or 949

No Flames,......no particular comment on this,

other than it ties to very recent discussions on this ongoing thread.

I've worked on pipe laying barges, in the Gulf,.....tough racket.

This report has a ring of truth to it, sure certain.

Link: http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/aug2008/db2008084_341769.htm

Immigration August 4, 2008, 12:01AM EST text size: TT
U.S. Oil, Imported Workers
Oil staffing and service companies are accused of illegally employing non-U.S. workers on rigs in the Gulf of Mexico�and displacing American workers
by Moira Herbst

To Daryl Johnson of Orange, Tex., work as a rigger on pipe-laying barges seemed like a pretty sure bet. The pay was good�$18.50 an hour�and with oil exploration booming, Johnson felt secure with Houston-based Horizon Offshore Contractors, which had hired him in 1999. But Johnson, speaking through his attorney, says he got concerned when managers told him there were no openings for friends whom he referred for jobs, even while Horizon continued to hire Mexican and Malaysian nationals. Then, in 2007, Johnson lost his job. "They gave me no explanation," says Johnson.

However, in Johnson's mind and in those of other oil workers in the Gulf, the connection to the cheaper foreign workers is clear. His allegations are part of a lawsuit moving forward in federal court in Texas, which claims that a group of U.S. energy services companies operating in U.S. waters on the Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico are using workers recruited from Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, and other countries to displace U.S. workers, at less than half of the pay. According to the lawsuit, the staffing is illegal because non-U.S. workers are working without proper visas aboard foreign-flagged vessels that are in fact controlled by American companies.

"Paid Pennies on the Dollar"
For years, immigration has been a tense topic, mostly centered around the estimated 12 million low-wage, undocumented workers and the ability of Silicon Valley companies to secure extra visas (BusinessWeek, 3/6/08) to import thousands of skilled technology workers. But now, as a recession looms and the Presidential election heats up (BusinessWeek.com, 7/28/08), attention is turning to another booming industry: oil services. It's not widely known, but both onshore and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, non-U.S. workers can be found doing shipbuilding, pipe-fitting, welding, rigging, and related jobs. Some of them are here on temporary visas and some may be undocumented.

Johnson's suit, Cunningham, et al v. Offshore Specialty Fabricators, Inc. et al, was filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas, Texarkana Div. in December 2004. On July 21 the judge issued a scheduling order that calls for both sides to begin discovery and depositions on Aug. 10.

The case is about working conditions for both U.S. and non-U.S. workers, says plaintiff's attorney Tony Buzbee of Buzbee Law Firm in Galveston, Tex. The foreign workers "were paid pennies on the dollar, worked grueling hours for days on end, and were essentially captives on the rigs because they were paid when repatriated," says Buzbee. "This suit seeks remedy for the American workers who were paid less due to wage market suppression or who lost their jobs due to being replaced."

The oil services and staffing companies named as defendants in the suit declined to comment.

Incentive to Cut Labor Costs
It might seem like there is plenty of money to go around for the companies that explore for and produce oil. Crude-oil futures prices, after all, have jumped by 64% over the past year, to $125 a barrel. The largest untapped fields are to be found on the ocean floor, which is in part why spending on offshore drilling worldwide rose from $29.4 billion in 2000 to $61.8 billion in 2007 and will reach at least $77 billion by 2010, according to Spears & Associates, a Tulsa energy consulting firm.

However, with high demand has come a growing shortage of specialized drilling rigs. That has driven the drilling costs for some of the newest deepwater rigs in the Gulf of Mexico�the U.S.'s top source of domestic oil and natural gas supplies�to about $600,000 a day, compared with $150,000 a day in 2002. Experts say rising costs for vessels create a big incentive for companies to cut their labor costs.

Page 1 2 Next Page

U.S. Oil, Imported Workers
(page 2 of 2)

"The way to make a lot of money in energy is to keep labor costs down," say Katharine Donato, professor of sociology at Vanderbilt University, who has published research on immigration to the Gulf of Mexico. "Companies have access to international labor pools through a variety of avenues. They just have to figure out a way to pay [the workers]."

Recruiting in Malaysia
In a 2005 deposition, James Ireland, vice-president of the staffing firm Oceanwide Houston, a subsidiary of Netherlands-based Humares named in the suit, explained how his company met the challenge. He said Oceanwide took to "outsourcing to the offshore." He described the process of meeting with a client such as Stolt Offshore and discussing its employment needs, and then contacting another Humares subsidiary to fill the order. "We would send an e-mail or a fax to Cyprus (where OWI, another subsidiary of Humares, is located) saying we have an order for eight riggers," he said. "Sometimes you're more specific, maybe they want Malaysians or maybe they want Mexicans or whatever the nationality may be, please source and advise."

Ireland said a contractor such as OWI would recruit workers from communities such as the Iban tribe in the jungles of Malaysia. The recruited workers were taken to the U.S. embassy in their home countries, where they told the embassy that they would work on foreign-flagged vessels. That would place them outside the requirements of U.S. labor and immigration laws. The staffing firm then flew the workers to Houston or another Gulf-area location, Ireland said, where it informed customs that the workers were going to work for foreign vessels offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. After clearing customs, they would then be picked up by a shipping agent, taken to a shore-based helicopter base, and then to vessels offshore.

Ultimately, the lawsuit alleges, the workers perform projects for U.S. energy firms such as Houston-based J. Ray McDermott Inc., Houston-based Offshore Specialty Fabricators, Cal Dive International (DVR), Carlyss ( La.)-based Global Industries (GLBL), and Stolt Offshore, now Acergy (ACGY). Allegedly, the vessels are misleadingly marked with the flags of the Netherlands and Cyprus, meaning the crew is under the jurisdiction of those countries, even though they are performing work for U.S. companies.

150 Days on Vessels
Ireland's office at Oceanwide Houston declined requests for comment. Spokespeople for Humares and its subsidiaries declined to comment on the issues raised in the suit. A spokeswoman for C-Mar Group, another staffing company named in the suit, also declined to comment.

Once aboard the vessels, the workers are paid 20%-40% of what a U.S. worker such as Johnson would earn, says the plaintiff's attorney. For example, Jenggi Kaloum, an Iban worker for Stolt Offshore referenced in the 2005 Ireland deposition, was paid $40 per 12-hour day, while an American worker would make $200 or more per day for the same work. Kaloum could not be reached for comment. Once offshore, the workers can remain on vessels for 150 days in a row, earning no overtime, says Buzbee. He says the workers are paid only when they return to their home countries with money routed by the staffing firm.

Spokespersons for Offshore Specialty Fabricators, Offshore Express, J. Ray McDermott, Global Industries, and Acergy declined to comment on the lawsuit or on their hiring practices for Gulf of Mexico projects. A representative for Cal Dive did not return calls requesting comment. Buzbee says he believes defense attorneys will argue that the U.S. service companies did not know that the vessels were flying foreign flags. The case is expected to be heard in 2009.

With Brian Grow and Steve LeVine.

Herbst is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com in New York.

I'm also in the oil business and I've found that after 30+ years in the business, I've learned and I can tell you without reserve that "if you pay peanuts you get monkeys".

Many oil companies have to learn the hard way, because they are run by school kids and bean counters but it will be a learning curve for them also. If you want good people out there working for you, be ready to pay that extra money because in the end you save money, by avoiding wrecks and deaths.

J. Ray McDermott sure musta' changed a bunch,......I worked for them 40 years ago,....they were a pretty fair kinda' outfit.

GTC

No Chit,......BUCKETS of blood washing down the gutters in Old Mex. Towns.....

Link: http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_10204888

Gunmen kill eight in massacre at Ju�rez drug treatment center
By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 08/14/2008 06:47:48 PM MDT


EL PASO - Eight men were killed and five others wounded when a group of gunmen fired a barrage of more than 60 rounds during a religious service in a drug treatment center in Ju�rez on Wednesday evening.
The mass killing was believed to be largest during the rash of more than 760 homicides in Ju�rez this year.

The men had gathered for a religious service at around 7:45 p.m. when a "commando" style group entered and began shooting inside the Centro de Rehabilitacion para Adictos CIAD No. 8 (Rehabilitation Center for Addicts) at 324 Avenida de los Aztecas, Chihuahua state investigators said.

Six men died inside the center, two died at or while en route to a hospital. Five men, including three in critical condition, were hospitalized.

Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborundaelpasotimes.com; 546-6102.

I just saw that and was going to post the same thing....


Mass murder during a religious service in a rehab center..... special place in Hell

2W,......the Devil, he's walkin' abroad in daylight,

sure certain.

GTC

Yep... I always liked this.... he hates to be mocked:

http://www.seark.net/~jlove/screwtape.htm

From The Screwtape Letters, New York: Touchstone, 1961. C.S. Lewis prefaces this work with two quotations:
The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn. -- Luther
AND
The devil...the prowde spirit...cannot endure to be mocked. -- Thomas More

From what I'm seeing more and more are willing to make do with the "monkeys" if it means higher profit. If they are all doing it, they all get the higher profit, and those in the construction buisness who opt for better workmanship can't even get contracts.

Just check out any new subdivision in CA and look at the shotty workmanship in the track homes going up, yet they keep on selling because shotty workmanship is about all there is to choose from.

If you don't own your own buisness where you can take advantage of the cheap labor, or you didn't get a college education, you are pretty much screwed, because it has become apparent that our government has absolutely no intentions of cutting off the cheap labor...none.

I think it's almost comical that with this sort of thing running rampant, people here still see unions as a big problem.

Plinker,
No offense taken. A little taken over the illegal immigrant supporter comment, but oh well if thats how I sound, thats bad on my part.
I don't and never will support illegal immigration. Bottom line.

What I write is what I have witnessed not what someone else had said.
Being a manager of a store once, I would have lots of people come in and apply for jobs. They expected more money than the job was worth.
I talked to people about roofing jobs and mining jobs and other labor related jobs. Many were, well I am looking for an inside job and I can't see myself outside breaking my back.
You ask people around here. Illegal immigration has been a big topic. Many said they won't go out and work the fields.

My uncle is a proud idiot as far as I am concerned. He has two degrees and when he looks for a job he wants to start on top instead of working from the bottom up. If he don't start at the top he won't take it. To me you do what you have to to support your family even if its shoveling $hit in a corral.

Another example. I can go to every fast food joint here in the area, and I can bet and I know that 90 percent or better have help wanted signs. I sure don't see the teenagers taking those jobs. I don't see the enemployed taking those jobs.
I hit the Carl's jr drive thru on my way home last night. Seen a sign looking for cooks, cashiers, shift leads and managers. They said pay was 8 and change for the lower positions and the pay obviously went up for leads and management.
Why aren't those jobs being jumped on.

We have a $hitty unemployment rate not because illegals are taking the jobs.
Its because the enemployed either: don't want those jobs, don't want to work, or are too good and want more or better.
I don't know how you were raised, but I was always told to make do with whats out there until a better job comes along. A lot of people don't grasp that concept.

The illegals are doing what we let them do. We allow them to mooch off our medical system, we allow them to do our labor jobs, and we let the criminals run a muck.
Heck I bet if any of use seen or heard of a place that gave us free medical we'd be all over it.
I am sure the big businesses are making a killing off cheap labor, but at the same time, besides profits, what made them go find cheap labor. Maybe no one wanted those jobs? Maybe no one could pass a drug test or physical? Maybe having an illegal that had no union or legal rights would not sue or rat them out if they got hurt on the job?

I don't know. You want proof, read the above, look in the paper and see the gobs of jobs available, ask someone why they are unemployed.
I am sure many are not related to illegals taking there jobs.

It is a never ending cycle if you ask me. We send hundreds of people back every day and hundreds keep coming back.

You want the unemployment rate to go down. Have all states have laws like here in AZ where you have to be legal to work. Help some of these people that are unemployed get educated and find better jobs.
Get rid of welfare and force people to those minimum wage jobs that others are not taking.
Stop sending all our businesses over seas.
Correct the price of fuel so car Factories can start up again and hire Americans.
Thats how you stop unemployment, not sending millions of people back all over the world where they came from.
For those of you that drive Fords, Thank a Mexican. Ford has a Mostrous plant in Hermosillo Sonora. A few years ago they sunk another couple billion into it to make it more productive. You ask about unemployment, thank Ford for taking those jobs to mexico instead of leaving them here for Americans.

I may be young, but working contract with DHS has taught me and educated me on a ton of things.

I surely am not for illegals, I think they need to come over legally. But that is harder than it sounds. But no excusses they need to.
Get rid of cheap labor and people will complain how expensive produce is, how much more expensive houses are.

Bottom line, stop the handouts and get people off their behinds.

Kique

"Bottom line, stop the handouts and get people off their behinds."


But you can't buy votes that way!

"American Border Patrol
Report: Faulty design turned border fence into dam"

.....Like we expected them to get it right?

Knicker Knots sorta' issue,....IMHO

Link: http://www.americanpatrol.com/ABP/NEWS/2008-UP/080815-LUKEVILLE-FLOOD/LukevilleFlood080815.html

GTC

Sue the Country of Mex. ?

Link: http://www.americanpatrol.com/ABP/NEWS/2008-UP/080815-LUKEVILLE-FLOOD/LukevilleFlood080815.html

Suspect backs into deputy, he'll be okay
August 15th, 2008 @ 7:30am
by Sandra Haros/KTAR

A Maricopa County sheriff's deputy suffered minor injuries when he pulled over a car carrying about 15 suspected illegal immigrants in the north Valley.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio said the stop was made Thursday afternoon near Interstate 17 and Table Mesa Road.

``They (the suspects) were fleeing into the desert. The driver backed into one of our deputies. We're looking into charging the driver with assault. As they fled, I think he hit another occupant of the car."

Arpaio said two women and two children were among the car's occupants.

He said the incident demonstrates the dangers deputies face.

``Whenever our deputies enforce the law, there's always a chance for some type of violence," the sheriff said. ``There's always a chance for some tpe of violence. We've been very lucky with 1,100 arrests on criminal violations of human smuggling. We try to do the best we can."

He added, ``There's a lot of violence connected with illegal immigration. But, I don't lose any sleep at night. The reason is I have full confidence in my deputies. They know how to take care of business."

Those who tried to flee after Thursday's traffic stop were caught.

Another Stinker,....dammit,

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/border/93852.php

No, I'm not "Signing up" for the Tucson Citizen,..so can't post hard text

GTC

Dunno' a thing 'bout C. Baldwin,.....

to busy chasin' down the news,....

Link: http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2008/cbarchive_20080815.html

America's Greatest Threat
by Chuck Baldwin
August 15, 2008






Every time violence erupts somewhere in the world, our national leaders and news media make it sound like that particular outbreak is America's greatest threat. The conflict between Russia and Georgia is no exception. Almost as soon as news of the conflict broke, the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee, John McCain, was suggesting that the United States (or the United Nations) should send troops to the scene. I guess two wars are not enough for McCain; he now wants to start a third. (And with all his talk about bombing Iran, make that four.) And talk all over Washington, D.C., was mostly about what kind of military response the United States should take.

Have people lost their minds? Or do people really believe that the United States is the world's--or should we say the United Nations'--policeman? Apparently, that is what our national leaders from both major parties believe.

Let's face it: most of America's foreign policy over the last several decades has been more about fulfilling the U.N.'s global desires than protecting the people and property of the United States. And, yes, that includes America's invasion of Iraq.

Do readers not remember that soon after launching the invasion of Iraq, President Bush appeared before the United Nations and plainly told that sinister organization that the reason he had ordered the invasion of Iraq was to "defend . . . the credibility of the United Nations"? Frankly, I did not know the United Nations had any credibility worth defending. Nevertheless, G.W. Bush was willing to sacrifice over 4,000 American lives for the express purpose of defending the U.N.'s "credibility." Now, John McCain appears willing to send troops to Georgia.

I will not use this column to analyze the specific events leading up to Russia's attack against Georgia, except to say that one can count on the fact that there is much more to the story than what NBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN are telling us.

In addition, one of the major fallacies being perpetrated by most in Washington, D.C., is the notion that America is somehow strengthened and protected by aggressive meddling in the affairs of foreign countries. Such a philosophy was considered anathema to America's Founding Fathers. They rightly understood that such reasoning created more problems than it solved and that it made America more vulnerable, not more secure.

Regardless of what the underlying and overriding reasons for Russia's attack might have been, I will say here and now that the Russian-Georgian conflict is not America's greatest threat. I will also be so bold as to say that Iran or North Korea is not America's greatest threat, either. In fact, I will categorically state that no foreign nation (although, of all foreign nations, Red China should undoubtedly be our biggest concern--and none of our national leaders seem the least bit concerned about it) is America's greatest threat. America's greatest threat comes from within. And I am not alone in that opinion.

Daniel Webster warned, "There is no nation on earth powerful enough to accomplish our overthrow. Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence. I must confess that I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men, and become the instruments of their own undoing."

While the national media focuses on Russia, Georgia, Iraq, Afghanistan, or Iran, our own leaders are quietly molding the clay of our own demise right here at home. Both political parties, and the standard-bearers they select, are facilitating the surrender of our national sovereignty and independence. They are working in darkness to build an international community where the laws and principles of individual nation-states (including America's) are made subservient to the laws and principles of international entities. This is America's greatest threat.

For example, John McCain supports the International Criminal Court. Can you believe this? Can you imagine U.S. citizens being hauled off before an international court to be tried for crimes? Imagine an international court whose rulings and opinions overrule U.S. rulings and opinions. Imagine a court setting where the constitutional protections of the Bill of Rights are null and void. Imagine a court setting where international law trumps U.S. or state laws. If that is not a surrender of U.S. sovereignty, nothing is! And John McCain is all for it.

Furthermore, both John McCain and Barack Obama support NAFTA, the WTO, GATT, and the FTAA. Both major party candidates support the NAFTA superhighway, the creation of a North American Community (which is the precursor to a North American Union), the SPP, and the United Nations.

Ladies and Gentlemen, America is on the verge of losing its independence and its national sovereignty. And both major political parties (along with a compliant national media) are equally culpable. And mark this down: when America loses its independence and national sovereignty, we also lose our freedoms and liberties. Please remember that before a Constitution and Bill of Rights could be drafted, there was first drafted a Declaration of Independence. It is the Declaration of Independence that lays the cornerstone and builds the wall of protection around the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Lose the Declaration and we lose the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

No, the greatest threat to America does not come from Russia, Iraq, Iran, or any other foreign country. America's greatest threat comes from a complacent populace who would sit back and do nothing while our own civil magistrates surrender our nation's sovereignty and independence to international interests.

Think about it: 232 years after Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, and after our Founding Fathers pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to defend that document, our nation's leaders from both major parties are in the process of ceding America back to the kind of global empire from which we fought to break free. This is America's greatest threat!

*If you enjoyed this column and want to help me distribute these editorial opinions to an ever-growing audience, donations may now be made by credit card, check, or Money Order. Use this link:

http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/donate.php

� Chuck Baldwin

Heartwarming,...the "Family Values" that these opoor downtrodden
bring along with the quest for jobs that we won't do.

I'll call a spade a spade,.....ya'll make no mistake,...this has become a "Sport",....amongst deviant gang-bang, "Iglesia Satanico" types,.....killin's to good for 'em,......we need something worse,....

Link: http://www.ocala.com/article/20080815/NEWS/875745111/-1/news%26title=Man_charged_with_molesting_6_year_old_girl

Man charged with molesting 6-year-old girl

Star-Banner


Published: Friday, August 15, 2008 at 12:31 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, August 15, 2008 at 12:34 p.m.
OCALA - A 25-year-old man was charged Thursday with sexual battery on a child after he reportedly molested a 6-year-old girl, according to a Sheriff�s Office report.



MARION COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE Ricardo AmayaThe girl told investigators that Ricardo Amaya put her on a bed, pull her pants down and molested her. The girl said that when she tried to scream Amaya covered her mouth.

The girl told officials that she reported the incident to her mother, who in turn called deputies.

Amaya, who is an undocumented immigrant, was brought to the Sheriff�s Office for an interview. He declined to say anything.

He was then taken to the Marion County Jail.

- Austin L. Miller

Go,......Joe.

Link: http://www.azcentral.com/community/surprise/articles/2008/08/15/20080815sweepsfolo-CP.html

Arpaio's West Valley sweeps netted 102 arrests
by Brent Whiting - Aug. 15, 2008 05:58 AM
The Arizona Republic
At least 102 people have been arrested during a two-day crackdown by sheriff's deputies on human smuggling in the West Valley, authorities said late Thursday.

The arrests, including suspected smugglers, illegal immigrants and people wanted on criminal warrants, were reported at mid-afternoon Thursday by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

He said more arrests were expected as the sweep, described by Arpaio as a �crime suppression� effort, was to continue into the evening hours.
�We have sent out about 100 deputies and posse members,� Arpaio said.

By the numbers, Captain Paul Chagolla said in a statement that 81 of those arrested were identified as being in the United States illegally. Of those, 32 were booked on state charges, and 8 warrant arrests were made.

The operation was being conducted from a back parking lot at the sheriff's District III substation, 13063 W. Bell Road, in Surprise and reportedly focused on several West Valley areas, including a stretch of Grand Avenue between El Mirage and Surprise.

A number of Latino activists showed up Wednesday at the substation to protest the operation, but Arpaio was not present.

Instead, he met with reporters Wednesday evening at a briefing spot about two miles away in Sun City West at R.H. Johnson and Stardust boulevards.

Arpaio said Thursday that the public has donated nearly $36,000 to support such operations since Gov. Janet Napolitano in May took away the funding and redirected $1.6 million to a state-led fugitive task force. "The success of our illegal immigration enforcement efforts under state underscores the serious problem we face here in Maricopa County," Arpaio said in a statement released late Thursday.