PHOENIX — Federal authorities say 69 suspected illegal immigrants, including two children and an infant, have been rescued from a drop house in Phoenix.

A neighbor called police Tuesday and said he’d seen a pickup dropping off about 30 people Monday evening. Police say responding officers found the people inside the house and turned the case over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Detectives believed those inside were undocumented immigrants at a stop on their way from Mexico. ICE spokesman Vincent Picard says there were no reports of mistreatment, and no coyotes or human smuggling operatives were arrested

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/27/AR2010042705545.html

A new law that penalizes employers who hire illegal immigrants goes into effect Tuesday. But the impact can already be seen in many ways here in the Valley.

The Mexican Consulate located in downtown Phoenix is swamped.

Undocumented immigrants are going there to get Mexican birth certificates for their U.S. born children that will ease the way for the kids to be enrolled in school, and will assure there are no problems should the family be deported.

Some say they are fearful without the certificate because Child Protective Services could take custody of their children.

Deputy Counsul Alfonso Navarro-Bernachi says applications for Mexican birth certificates are up 100 percent since last year.

People are also filling out forms claiming their personal property so it will not be subject to an import tax when they cross the border.

Some employers say they’ve been hit hard.

Placido Castellanos, owner of Casa de Mariache in Phoenix, says because he’s lost some employees and a good portion of their customer base, he may have to sell.

"We’re only making about 0 a day," he said. "With our mortgage at several thousand dollars a month, we just can’t make it."

http://www.abc15.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=5b597b82-815f-4f23-9fc0-96c52f18e2a1

An Arizona Senate committee approved the measure on Tuesday.

The bill basically expands Arizona’s trespassing law. If passed, local law enforcement would be able to arrest people for being in the country illegally. The first offense would be a misdemeanor, the second a felony. Local prosecutors could try those who are arrested, which could lead to prison time.

Also under the bill, people could sue city officials who limit the full enforcement of federal immigration laws.

Sgt. Tommy Thompson of the Phoenix Police Department said three large drop houses have been busted in the past week alone, and nearly 70 this year. More than 1,000 illegal immigrants have been taken into custody at those drop houses and then handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

http://www.azfamily.com/news/local/stories/phoenix-news-061009-immigration-enforcement-bill.68d19f67.html.

For the people who push for immigration laws, How could more and more vacant apartments, and more foreclosed homes in America be a good thing? The rent and mortgages were being paid. And I seriously doubt CHAD will move into the neighborhoods the Hispanics live in.

Illegal immigrants fleeing apartments in Arizona

Arizona’s employer-sanctions law is driving illegal immigrants to leave the state, as intended.

The departures were first felt at stores and businesses that cater to such immigrants. Sales suddenly dropped.

Now, apartment complexes, especially those with affordable rents in neighborhoods with large immigrant populations, are feeling the effects. Individuals and entire families are moving, leaving behind empty apartments that can’t be filled.

Some renters are handing over their keys and breaking leases because they’ve lost their jobs due to the sanctions law and can’t pay the rent. Others are simply skipping out in the middle of the night.

"Most folks aren’t even telling us; they are just leaving," said Estela Bojorquez, manager of the Villa de Sonora apartments in west Phoenix, which is trying to fill 59 vacant apartments out of a total of 156. Bojorquez attributes half of the vacancies to illegal immigrants moving out of the state because of the sanctions law. Job losses because of a slowdown in the economy – especially in housing construction, which employs many immigrants – also are contributing to the departures.

The massive government bailout of the nation’s financial system could help thousands of illegal immigrants who obtained home loans from banks that were encouraged to offer them by the federal agency in charge of preserving and promoting public confidence in the system.

The controversial 0 billion bailout will offer foreclosure relief for those at risk of losing their homes and that includes thousands of illegal immigrants who got mortgages from U.S. financial institutions thanks to a push from Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which began encouraging banks to offer services to illegal immigrants a few years ago.

Headquartered in Washington D.C., The FDIC insures more than trillion of deposits in U.S. banks and is managed by a five-person board of directors appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the Senate. In the last few years the agency succeeded in getting several large lending institutions to offer a variety of banking services to illegal aliens, including home loans.

Now U.S. banks routinely offer services to people without Social Security numbers by accepting the Mexican identification called matricula consular to open accounts. Some states—like Illinois and Wisconsin—even used millions of dollars in public funds to provide low-interest home loans for illegal immigrants with no credit history or documentation in the U.S.

The loan default rate among illegal immigrants is high because they are inherently unreliable, are prone to fraud and may be forced by circumstances to return to their home nation at any point, according to a congressman representing a state that operated a large mortgage fraud ring featuring hundreds of unqualified borrowers that used fake identities to get money.

The veteran Colorado Representative, Tom Tancredo, wants to assure that the bailout, set to pass this week, doesn’t offer incentives for illegal aliens. In a letter to his colleagues in Congress, Tancredo asked that safeguards be included on the bailout plan to verify the legal residency and identity of potential homebuyers. This will prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining federally backed home loans and assure that U.S. taxpayers are not absorbing their debts or bad loans made by banks to illegal aliens.

Could it be a coincidence that the area’s hardest hit by home foreclosures happen to be illegal immigrant sanctuaries like Las Vegas, large parts of southern and northern California and the famous Arizona sanctuary of Phoenix?