Tuesday, January 24, 2012

No Kidding?

Per Rotoworld

Fausto Carmona (Heredia) to miss spring camp
Indians skipper Manny Acta acknowledged Tuesday that Fausto Carmona will miss spring training.
No surprise here. Carmona was revealed to be faking his age and full name (he's actually Roberto Hernandez Heredia, and he's 31 not 28) a few weeks ago in his native Dominican Republic. The Indians are trying to speed up his case, but he faces false identity charges and will have to resolve those before attempting to re-enter the United States. It could take several months. ( ya think)

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Baseball player arrested for Fraud

According to a report by broadcaster Yancen Pujols, Indians' right-hander Fausto Carmona was arrested in his native Dominican Republic for using a false identity.
The story was passed along by Jorge Arangure of ESPN Deportes. Maximo Baez Aybar, who handles PR for the Dominican police, confirms that Carmona (whose real name is actually Roberto Hernandez Heredia) was arrested outside the consulate while trying to secure a work visa. Details are still pouring in, but remember that right-hander Juan Carlos Oviedo (formerly known as Leo Nunez) was able to avoid jail time in the Dominican Republic after faking his identity and even agreed to a new contract with the Marlins this week. However, Oviedo is still trying to get his visa situation figured out and similar issues could cause Carmona/Heredia to miss the start of spring training or even the season. The Indians picked up his $7 million club option for 2012 in October, despite a 5.25 ERA over 32 starts last season. Stay tuned for further developments.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Romney May Rue Immigration Comments Come General Election Showdown With Obama

After his narrow victory in Iowa and resounding win in New Hampshire , Mitt Romney may well be on his way to locking up the Republican nomination before the primary is even a month old. But the damage that the GOP fight has done to his chances of winning the general election may prove to be severe if he cannot convince Latino voters to give him another shot.

While Romney's efforts to woo his party's conservative voters have clearly helped him in the two contests thus far, the former Massachusetts governor has veered far to the right on the issue that most affects Latinos: immigration.

Only days before the Iowa caucuses, for instance, Romney said that as president he would veto the DREAM Act , a bill that would provide a path to citizenship for some undocumented children of immigrants who attend college or serve in the military. The fall-out from Latinos was immediate. The next day I asked Juan Rodriguez, a Republican businessman in Des Moines, if he would back Romney. Rodriguez didn't hesitate in his response.

"I wouldn't vote for Romney because he doesn't support immigration reform or the DREAM Act," he said. "My business depends on Hispanics basically, and if there's no immigration reform we are going to be very affected. Not just me, but all the businesses that, like us, depend on the Latino community."

The next week in New Hampshire, I sat down with Esteban and Selma Lopez, a Latino couple in Goffstown who will vote for the first time in the general election this fall, and asked if they could imagine voting for Romney now.

"I work in education and I know first-hand how important the DREAM Act is for Latino youth, for kids who are in this country without having taken part in the decision to come here," Lopez replied. "The short answer is, I wouldn't vote for Romney."

Even the country's largest Latino Republican group - Somos Republicans - said they would oppose Romney due to his immigration policies.

The Obama campaign has wasted no time in trying to portray Romney as the most extreme candidate on the issue of immigration. In the days since Romney's DREAM Act statement, a slew of Latino Democrats has fanned out to rip Romney. After all, there's a lot at stake here: Latinos are the nation's fastest-growing voting bloc, with an estimated 12.2 million set to vote in this year's general election, according to a projection by the National Association of Latino Elected & Appointed Officials (NALEO).

"It really demonstrates how far he is from understanding the issue," said Rep. Charlie Gonzalez of Texas, the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, on a conference call with reporters last week. "I understand that in that particular field one will try to out-pander another, but you still have to be responsible."

"How do you paint yourself into such a corner on immigration where you can't walk back from that statement?" he asked.

On primary night in New Hampshire I sat down with Rep. Xavier Becerra , D-Calif., who emphasized that Democrats are going to remind Latino voters time and time again about Romney's immigration stance.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Woman's deportation stayed for a year

"A local woman set to be deported next month has been granted a stay, according to a U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement memo. The federal agency on Thursday notified an attorney for Victoria Lorenzo-Calmo that she can remain in the United States for one year

Saturday, January 7, 2012

US Tenn Self Deports herself... ICE complies

WOW

A Texas teenager who was deported to Colombia after claiming to be an illegal immigrant was returned to the United States and remains at the center of an international mystery over how a minor could be sent to a country where she is not a citizen

Friday, January 6, 2012

Some proposed Immigration Relief

Now, Citizenship and Immigration Services proposes to allow the immigrants to obtain a provisional waiver in the United States, before they leave for their countries to pick up their visas. Having the waiver in hand will allow them to depart knowing that they will almost certainly be able to return, officials said. The agency is also seeking to sharply streamline the process to cut down the wait times for visas to a few weeks at most.