Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has filed an open records lawsuit against the Pasadena Police Department (PPD), and PPD Police Chief Christopher Vicino, to obtain documents related to the department’s alleged illegal alien sanctuary policy. Chief Vicino reportedly indicated that the department prevents his officers from “asking about anybody’s legal status unless it is a matter of national security,” which may be a violation of federal immigration law. On June 4, Judicial Watch sent the PPD a request under the California Public Records Act seeking access to the following:

Any and all records of PPD’s policies, procedures, or directives concerning, regarding, or relating to undocumented (illegal) aliens.
Any and all records of PPD’s policies, procedures, or directives concerning, regarding or relating to contacts or communications between PPD officers or employees and federal immigration officials regarding a person’s immigration status.

To date, the PPD has not provided any documents responsive to this request, nor has the department indicated when a response is forthcoming.

According to a May 16, 2010, issue of the Pasadena Star News commenting on the PPD’s illegal immigration policy: “[Vicino] said that the Pasadena Police Department has the policy of not asking about anybody's legal status unless it is a matter of national security.”

In 1996, Congress enacted legislation that specifies that a Federal, State, or local government entity or official may not prohibit, or in any way restrict, any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual. However, the Obama administration recently announced that it will not penalize so-called sanctuary cities, such as Pasadena, that prevent the police from communicating freely with ICE.

“If the Pasadena Police Department has nothing to hide then why keep these records secret? The citizens of Pasadena have a right to know if their own police department has enacted a dangerous policy that violates federal immigration law,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “It is beyond belief that the Obama Justice Department has decided to allow localities to violate federal immigration laws while suing a state such as Arizona that expressly upholds the law. This is the very definition of injustice.”

Judicial Watch’s lawsuit against the PPD is part of its nationwide campaign to enforce our nation’s immigration laws. Judicial Watch has initiated legal campaigns against sanctuary policies in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Chicago and Washington, DC, among other cities. July 14, Judicial Watch filed a “Motion to Intervene” on behalf of Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce, author of Arizona’s new illegal immigration law SB 1070, in an Obama Justice Department lawsuit challenging the law, which is set to take effect on July 29. On July 20, Judicial Watch also filed a memorandum on behalf of Senator Pearce with the United States Court for the District of Arizona opposing the Obama Justice Department’s “Motion for Preliminary Injunction,” which would prevent sections of Senator Pearce’s SB 1070 from taking effect as scheduled.

A collective sigh of relief is undoubtedly resonating from the White House now that testimony in Rod Blagojevich’s trial has concluded, sparing two top Obama Administration officials from traveling to Chicago to testify in the ousted governor’s defense.

Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s chief of staff, and Valerie Jarrett, the president’s longtime friend and adviser, were subpoenaed to testify in the corruption trial and were expected to take the stand sometime next month. Blagojevich also vowed to testify in his defense and was scheduled to do so this week before reneging at the last minute. Today, after six entertaining weeks of profanity-laced Blagojevich wiretaps, the defense rested and closing arguments have been scheduled for Monday.

The famously corrupt politician, for years under federal investigation for selling the influence of his office, lucrative state jobs and contracts, was tried on 24 felony counts of bribery, extortion and conspiracy for attempting to sell Obama’s old U.S. Senate seat. Among the considered candidates were talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. and Jarrett, Obama’s longtime confidante.

Obama and Emanuel, a former Illinois congressman, were embroiled in the scheme from the start and both were repeatedly mentioned throughout the trial. Blagojevich’s chief of staff, John Harris, testified that Obama supplied his boss with a list of “acceptable” candidates and the testimony was collaborated with FBI recordings played for the jury.

Union leader Tom Balanoff, a longtime Obama ally, testified that the president called him personally to push for Jarrett to fill his Senate seat before she opted for a White House job. Harris also testified that Blagojevich asked him to call Emanuel to confirm that Obama was “still in agreement” with Jackson Jr. getting the Senate appointment after Jarrett had pulled out of the running. This clearly indicates that negotiating was taking place between Obama and Blagojevich.

The White House has scrambled to put distance between the president and the monstrous political scandal. Without offering any details, the president has steadfastly denied any involvement in selecting his successor. In fact, when the scandal broke just weeks after Obama won the presidential election, he responded by initiating an “investigation” that he assured would clear his good name.

The president assigned his first White House Counsel, Greg Craig, to conduct the laughable probe that, not surprisingly, fully exonerated him. Craig concluded that Obama, then president-elect had “no contact or communication with Governor Blagojevich or members of his staff about the Senate seat.” Court testimony in Blagojevich’s trial contradicted that assessment repeatedly.

Judicial Watch has been investigating the massive corruption in the Blagojevich Administration for years. In 2006 Blagojevich refused a Judicial Watch public records request for subpoenas relating to the federal investigation of his crooked administration and in 2007 Judicial Watch filed an open records lawsuit in Cook County Court to obtain them. Last year Judicial Watch obtained public records that prove Obama and Blagojevich had repeated contact after Obama became president even though the White House has vehemently denied it.

In an insane case of political correctness, a federal government agency has classified an illegal immigrant arrested for cultivating marijuana in a national forest as a “displaced traveler from Michoacán Mexico.”

The illegal alien (Gauldry Almonte-Hernandez) was recently busted during a U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement Operation raid of illegally grown marijuana plants in northern California’s Shasta-Trinity National Forest. So far this month, the feds have eradicated more than 92,000 marijuana plants throughout the 2.1 million acre national forest that encompasses five wilderness areas and hundreds of mountain lakes.

In the first few days of July alone, about 50,000 plants were eradicated from six sites throughout the forest, which is California’s largest. More than two dozen suspects have been arrested for operating the illegal pot farms on federal land, most of them illegal immigrants from Mexico, according to a task force of local and federal authorities.

The U.S. Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has classified the Mexican marijuana farmers as displaced travelers. The government agency actually put it in a press release, which was reprinted in a local newspaper after the Forest Service pulled it from its web site.

Addressing the case of Almonte-Hernandez, who tried to flee when officers entered his marijuana garden, a columnist for the Redding paper writes: “Displaced foreign traveler? Makes it sound like he meant to go to Disneyland, got lost, and ended up at a pot plantation in the woods south of Hayfork.”

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce has filed a memorandum with the United States Court for the District of Arizona opposing the Obama Justice Department’s “Motion for Preliminary Injunction,” which would prevent sections of Senator Pearce’s SB 1070 from taking effect on July 29. Senator Pearce, author of the new enforcement measure, filed a “Motion for Intervention” with the Court on July 14 seeking to uphold the law. Unsurprisingly, the Obama administration objects to Sen. Pearce’s legal effort to allow him the opportunity to defend the law he authored.

According to Senator Pearce’s memorandum (Case No. 10-cv-01413-SRB), filed by Judicial Watch on July 20, 2010:

The law of this Circuit is clear. In 1983, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that nothing in federal law precludes a city from enforcing the criminal provisions of immigration law. Gonzalez v. City of Peoria, 722 F.2d 468, 476 (9th Cir. 1983). By enacting Senate Bill 1070, as amended by House Bill 2162 (“SB 1070”), the Arizona legislature simply codified already existing enforcement provisions of federal law that has been the law of the land in some regard for more than fifty years.

By seeking to enjoin Sections 1-6 of SB 1070 from taking effect, Plaintiff seeks to overturn 20 years of precedent. Plaintiff also asks that this Court ignore Congress’ intentions that states and localities play a vital role in immigration enforcement efforts…Plaintiff’s motion is without merit and a preliminary injunction is not warranted.

On April 23, 2010, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law legislation authored by State Sen. Pearce that, among other provisions, codifies into state law already existing enforcement provisions of federal immigration law. Sen. Pearce crafted the language in the bill consistent with federal law. However, the Obama Justice Department filed a lawsuit challenging the law and requested a preliminary injunction preventing the law from taking effect.

State Senator Pearce issued the following statement on his new court filing to defend SB 1070:

“As I’ve said all along, SB 1070 makes no new immigration law, it simply enforces the laws already on the books. Barack Obama has put politics before the safety of citizens of Arizona who are under the gun from the illegal alien crisis in our state. I refuse to apologize for standing up for America and the rule of law. I hope the Court does not allow the Obama administration to run roughshod over the rule of law.”

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton issued the following statement today on the new push to defend SB 1070:

“The Obama Justice Department’s lawsuit has absolutely nothing to do with the rule of law. The Obama White House is desperate to kill this law because the President knows if it is allowed to stand, other states will follow suit, and the federal government may finally have to do its job and secure the border. And securing the border is something President Obama is loath to do. President Obama and his appointee Eric Holder are letting politics get in the way of enforcing the law. Let’s hope, for the sake of Arizona and the sake of the country, the Court allows this immigration law to take effect next week,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

To review the reply to the government's opposition to the motion to intervene, click here.

In a story that the U.S. government has worked hard to keep quiet, a major news organization reveals that numerous Afghan soldiers attending English classes at a Texas Air Force base have disappeared with the help of their Mexican girlfriends.

The young men, all members of the Afghan military, were participating in a special exchange program at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio when they went AWOL (absent without leave), according to a diplomatic official quoted in the news story. Most were attending the Defense Language Institute’s English Language Center, a precursor to receiving specialized military training at sites throughout the U.S.

Some of the deserters are believed to be in Canada and others have vanished to unknown locations, according to authorities quoted in the piece. Most of the Afghans disappeared with the help of Mexican girlfriends they met at local bars, many of them illegal immigrants. The ring of abettors is affectionately referred to as “Big Mexican Women” by their Afghan boyfriends.

Because many of them are illegal aliens, the women have offered the Afghan soldiers great tips on traveling throughout the U.S. without documentation. Authorities estimate that at least 46 members of the Afghan military have gone AWOL from the language institute in the last few years.

Embarrassed U.S. officials clearly prefer to keep this from going public. The Department of Defense has deferred all inquiries to the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is supposedly the lead agency responsible for the AWOL Afghans. ICE, in turn, claims that all inquiries should go the Defense Department. For its part, the FBI says that is has “an interest in locating these individuals.”

The Utah state employees suspected of outing more than 1,000 illegal immigrants living in the state have been placed on administrative leave and will likely be criminally charged.

Last week a list of 1 ,300 suspected illegal aliens was circulated anonymously to various state and federal agencies as well as media outlets. Accompanied by a letter from "Concerned Citizens of the United States," the 29-page list includes the illegal aliens’ phone numbers, addresses and birth dates. The letter claims that the group "observes these individuals in our neighborhoods, driving on our streets, working in our stores, attending our schools and entering our public welfare buildings."

Calling it the “deplorable” work of a “small rogue group,” Utah Governor Gary Herbert quickly launched an investigation and vowed to punish any public employees responsible for participating in the outing. So far two employees with the Utah Department of Workforce Services have been suspended and at least eight others are under investigation. All face criminal charges for violating state and federal privacy laws, according to the governor.

Utah has long protected illegal immigrants and provided them with endless public benefits, including discounted tuition at public colleges and universities as well as other perks not afforded under federal law. Two of the state’s largest cities—Salt Lake City and Provo—have official sanctuary policies that forbid public employees or law enforcement officers from inquiring about a resident’s immigration status.

Earlier this year Utah proudly became the nation’s first state to offer a special class of driver’s licenses for illegal aliens who won’t be ineligible to obtain the cards when new federal security standards kick in. For years, Utah was one of only a handful of states to offer illegal immigrants driver’s license.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton submitted the following letter to the Judiciary Committee regarding the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court of the United States:

Dear Chairman Leahy and Senator Sessions:

Judicial Watch is a non-partisan, educational foundation that advocates for transparency and accountability in government, politics, and the law.

Judicial Watch is America’s largest and most effective government watchdog, with nearly 200,000 active supporters who are committed to the rule of law.

On their behalf, I urge you to reject the nomination of Elena Kagan to the United States Supreme Court.

President Obama's nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court is irresponsible. Ms. Kagan is a liberal activist and political operative with no experience as a judge. A Supreme Court nominee ought to have significant practical experience as a lawyer or a judge — especially a nominee for the nation's highest court. Her decision to throw military recruiters off the campus of Harvard Law School during a time of war shows she is far to the left of mainstream America.

The United States Senate should ensure that only a justice who will strictly interpret the U.S. Constitution is approved. There’s no reason to believe that Ms. Kagan meets this standard.

Her biography includes work for the campaigns of ardent liberals Elizabeth Holtzman and Michael Dukakis. She only practiced law a total of three years, one of them for the Clinton White House. She also clerked for the late Thurgood Marshall, one of the most activist Supreme Court members in recent history.

The rest of her career was spent working as a domestic policy aide in the Clinton White House and in academia, where she became the first female dean of Harvard Law School. Accordingly, barely four years (if one includes her on-the-job training as United States Solicitor General) of practical legal experience—and a few years clerking in the federal courts—is too little experience for the High Court.

And frankly, that she continued to work for former President Bill Clinton after he lied under oath is highly questionable. It may not be politically correct here in Washington to note that he abused his office and lied under oath. However, Judicial Watch believes that lawyers like Kagan need to account for why they continued to work for the impeached former President despite his contempt for the rule of law. Details of her work defending Clinton on his various scandals have been largely withheld from the public.

We trust that President Obama picked a nominee who buys into his questionable standards for judicial nominations — which means nominating judges who are results-oriented, are biased in favor of liberal causes or favored groups, and substitute their personal opinions and political views for the plain words of the U.S. Constitution.

Many observers suggest that Ms. Kagan should be confirmed because she did not make any major “gaffes” during her hearings. Why has this become the qualifying factor for Supreme Court confirmation? We should not be overly concerned about gaffes or slips of the tongue that occur during a hearing. We should be more concerned about the questionable choices made by the nominee throughout their career. And Elena Kagan has made many questionable choices. (See, to note just two examples, her aggressive actions and problematic testimony on her banning of military recruiters and her machinations for partial-birth abortion.)

Again, Judicial Watch believes that the Committee should reject Ms. Kagan’s nomination for the High Court.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Thomas Fitton
President

cc: Senate Judiciary Committee Members
By: Fax and Mail

Proving that the illegal immigration crisis is not limited to border states, an undocumented alien in a Midwest prison for a felony conviction fleeced U.S. taxpayers for tens of thousands of dollars worth of medical care, including surgery for an inflatable penis pump.

The unbelievable story was recently made public by officials in a tiny Minnesota town—Shakopee—that has been enormously impacted by illegal immigrants. In the last few years, the cost of incarcerating illegal aliens has grown nearly tenfold in the small county (Scott) that encompasses the town of about 25,000 residents.

Last year alone Scott County, with a population of about 114,000, spent $307,000 to jail illegal aliens and nearly $1 million in the last four years combined. The figure doesn’t even include medical coverage, education or welfare for illegal aliens, which local officials say state and federal laws require them to provide.

Incredibly, the mandatory coverage includes penis pumps, which in this particular case, was billed as an “emergency” medical procedure that cost taxpayers $50,000. Jailed for identity theft, the illegal immigrant has also incurred tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills in addition to that emergency penis pump surgery.

After serving 98 days for that felony in the Scott County Jail — at a $12,000 cost to local taxpayers — the man was supposed to be held for deportation. Instead, he was released and assigned a deportation court date even though he has a history of jumping bail. The same illegal immigrant had an arrest warrant for skipping bail involving a separate crime when he got booked in Scott County for identity theft.

The information regarding this and other similar cases came to light because county prosecutors launched a probe of the financial toll created by illegal immigrants after a gang-related stabbing earlier this month. The gang bangers who murdered the Coon Rapids man during a turf fight lived in Shakopee and belonged to the notoriously violent Latin Kings.

This illustrates that rural America has indeed been hit by an illegal immigration crisis once thought to affect only border states. Minnesota officials point out that, although Scott County is thousands of miles from the U.S.-Mexican border, illegal immigrants are devastating their community. That’s why one Scott County lawmaker, Commissioner Barbara Marschall, applauds Arizona officials for saying “we’ve had enough.”