McHenry County Blog

You can read who voted how below:

The Illinois House roll call on allowing those in the country illegally to obtain drivers licenses.

Locally, Jack Franks voted in favor. Tim Schmitz and Dave McSweeney voted, “No,” while Mike Tryon was not on the floor, “excused” for some reason.

The way Illinois State Senators voted on giving drivers licenses to illegal aliens

In the State Senate, Dan Duffy and Chris Lauzen voted against Senate Bill 957, while Pam Althoff did not vote.

“McHenry County has the highest percentage of uninsured children in Illinois.”

Map created by the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council (MCHC) showing percentages of uninsured children for each Illinois county.

That’s what is written next to the map created by the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council (MCHC) concerning its findings about those without health insurance (private or government) in Illinois.

10.9% or over 2,200 children in McHenry County in 2009 did not have health insurance.

The question, obviously, is “Why?”

I looked in vain for county-by-county information.  I found two lines, which you can see below.

First information for all those under age 65.

Second, take a look at the data from those aged 0-18.

It occurs to me that most of the uninsured in McHenry County may be those who are in America legally.

This chart is not for McHenry County, but may give a clue as to who is uninsured.  44% of “Hispanic, non-US citizens” in the Chicago metropolitan area have no health insurance.

Joe Walsh vows to maintain Congressional balance of power.

A press release from Congressman Joe Walsh:

Congressman Walsh Responds to Obama’s Amnesty Policy

Today the White House announced a new executive order that will halt the deportation of illegal immigrants coming over the border at a young age, while granting them work permits.

This executive order that bypasses Congress gives many illegal immigrants legal worker status.

Congressman Joe Walsh stated, “This election year move by President Obama floods the weak job market with many more workers, who will be competing with unemployed and underemployed Americans for jobs they sorely need.

“We just saw unemployment and jobless claims increase these past few weeks, and the President is willing to make it that much more difficult for Americans looking for work.”

Walsh went on to say,

“This move shows why we need an independent voice and a check on the abuse of power in Washington.

“Unlike my opponent, Tammy Duckworth, who has made it clear she is a rubber stamp for Obama’s policies, I will oppose this or any President’s power grab.

“Whether it is against this executive order or the President’s mandate that limits religious freedoms, I am committed to remaining a check on unchecked power to help return control of our government to the people.”

The McHenry County Sheriff’s Office and the County’s IT Department deserve a hefty “at-a-boy” for the web site update.

Sheriff Keith Nygren and Undersheriff Andrew Zinke are featured on the masthead of the opening web page.

For the first time, people can find who is incarcerated without making a phone call.

McHenry County Blog wrote about how behind the times McHenry County was in this respect in May of 2010.

Then, I found Lake, Kane, DuPage, Cook, and Winnebago Counties had internet inmate search functions.

I filed the following Freedom of Information request:

“Most of the large counties in Illinois have an Inmate Search function.  Under the Freedom of Information Act, I request any documents that exist concerning McHenry County’s developing such a service to the public.”

Here’s the answer I got:

“The McHenry County Sheriff’s Corrections Division does not have any documents concerning the development of this service.”

With the exception of Federal prisoners and those considered juveniles, photos and charges for McHenry County Jail inmates can now be found over the internet.

On Thursday, they ranged from

• Jose Aguilar, jailed for aggregated robbery, to
• Matthew S. Zeis, behind bars for DUI/BAC and criminal damage to property.

Court dates and courtrooms are given.

Bond is given.

For some, the message, “SUBJECT MAY HAVE A HOLD FOR ANOTHER AGENCY,” appears.

I see that for Ramundo Vazquez, for instance.

It’s really a fountain of integrated information.

Information about those recently released is also on the web site.

Information about those on for whom ICE pays the county $85 a day is not similarly available.

All that exists is a link to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement web site.

It seems to me that one pretty much has to know what one is looking for to be able to find it.

This was rolled out two years ago.

The information provided on McHenry County prisoners is so, so much more useful.

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

CHICAGO MAN SENTENCED TO THREE YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR DEFRAUDING ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF EMPLOYMENT INSURANCE

CHICAGO — A Chicago man was sentenced today to three years in federal prison for engaging in a fraud scheme that caused the Illinois Department of Employment Insurance to pay approximately $479,571 in unemployment insurance payments to approximately 57 ineligible claimants who were not legally allowed to work in the United States.

The defendant, Roberto Cisneros, pleaded guilty to mail fraud in January and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber in Federal Court.

Cisneros admitted that more than half of the fraudulently-obtained proceeds, approximately $261,017, was deposited into bank accounts he controlled.

Cisneros, 34, who was in the country illegally when he was arrested in June 2011, has remained in federal custody and will be subject to deportation following completion of his sentence.

He was ordered to pay restitution totaling $479,571 to IDES.

Patrick Fitzgerald

The sentence was announced by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, James Vanderberg, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General in Chicago; Gary Hartwig, Special Agent-in-Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Chicago; and Thomas P. Brady, Inspector-in-Charge of the U.S. Postal inspection Service in Chicago.

According to court documents, between 2006 and 2009, Cisneros accepted money to assist individuals whom he knew were ineligible for unemployment insurance payments by aiding another individual’s submission of fraudulent applications for benefits to an IDES employee for processing.

Unbeknownst to Cisneros, the individual to whom he provided the false applications had later begun cooperating with law enforcement.

Cisneros knew that the claims he submitted and assisted in submitting for unemployment insurance were fraudulent because the claimants were not legally allowed to work in the United States due to their immigration status, making them ineligible to receive unemployment insurance payments.

Cisneros admitted assisting in obtaining unemployment insurance benefits on behalf of 57 individuals using social security numbers that did not match their names and/or dates of birth, numbers that were not issued by the Social Security Administration, or whose numbers matched their names but were not eligible to work in the United States.

The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Halley B. Guren and Matthew Getter.

Shift change time at the ICE floor of the McHenry County Jail.

The crown jewel in McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren’s crown is the top floor of the McHenry County Jail.

Constructed by a County Board that thought McHenry County’s criminal population would grow, it was not built out until Nygren came into office.

He cut a deal with Federal immigration authorities to house illegal immigrants there.

That floor has been a cash cow ever since.

Now word comes word via an article by Marc Wiley in Illinois Review that Crete, Illinois, officials are negotiating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials for another place to put illegal aliens.

The $60 million facility would be privately financed, run by Corrections Corporation of America and would be on the tax rolls, village officials think.

Sounds like competition for McHenry County, maybe a way to drive ICE costs down.

A press release from the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Woodstock:

Woodstock Church to Screen Film on Controversial Border Fence

Woodstock–The film The 800 Mile Wall will be shown on Friday November 11, 2011, at 7 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Woodstock, 221 Dean Street. An open discussion of the film will follow the screening.

The 800 Mile Wall highlights the construction of the new border walls along the U.S.-Mexico border as well as the effect on migrants trying to cross into the U.S. “This powerful 90 minute film is an unflinching look at the failed U.S. border strategy that many believe violates fundamental human rights,” according to Sue Rekenthaler, chair of the congregation’s Social Justice Committee which is sponsoring the program.

The film is part of a new Second Friday film series featuring important documentaries of timely topics. After taking the month of December off, the series will resume in January.

The program is free and open to the public.

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

FORMER MIDWAY AIRPORT CUSTOMS OFFICER SENTENCED TO 46 MONTHS IN PRISON FOR RECEIVING BRIBES FROM RESTAURANT EMPLOYEES

CHICAGO — A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) supervisor at Midway International Airport was sentenced today to 46 months in federal prison for taking bribes totaling at least $28,500 to allow foreign employees of now-closed restaurants in Chicago and Downers Grove and their spouses to extend their stays in the United States.

Chicago's Midway Airport "Welcome" sign

The defendant, William Mann, received approximately $1,500 from at least 19 restaurant employees and their spouses to alter a law enforcement database and provide false immigration and travel documents showing that the restaurant workers and their spouses had just entered the United States and were eligible to legally stay in the country for another year.

Mann, 51, of Munster, Ind., was ordered to begin serving his sentence on Oct. 28 by U.S. District Judge Blanche M. Manning, who imposed the sentence in Federal Court in Chicago. Judge Manning also granted a preliminary order requiring Mann to forfeit $28,500 in bribe proceeds.
Mann pleaded guilty in February to one count of conspiracy, three counts of bribery, and three counts of immigration fraud, which were contained in an indictment that was unsealed in June 2010. A co-defendant, Rogerio Charu, part owner and general manager of the former Sal E Carvao restaurant, which had locations in Chicago, Downers Grove and Schaumburg, was indicted for allegedly conspiring with and aiding and abetting Mann. Charu, whose last know residence was in Downers Grove, remains a fugitive who is currently believed to be in Brazil.

The sentence was announced by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General in Chicago and the DHS Office of Professional Responsibility, Northeast.

According to court documents, in May 2005, Mann conspired to falsify the immigration records of restaurant employees to make it appear as though they were lawfully in the United States.

Mann admitted that restaurant employees and their spouses paid him approximately $1,500 each, by either handing him the money personally or by passing the money to him through another individual.

The same employees also provided their passports to Mann, who had taken an Immigration Form I-94 admission stamp from the CBP’s secure storage room at Midway Airport. Mann placed fraudulent I-94 admission stamps on the I-94 forms and placed those forms into each of the employees’ passports and wrote fraudulent exit dates next to the stamps.

After fraudulently altering the employees’ passports, Mann returned to Midway Airport and accessed the Treasury Enforcement Communications System (TECS.)

Once logged on to the TECS database, Mann fraudulently altered the employees’ immigration records to make it appear as though they had legally entered the United States on flights arriving after a certain date, when, in reality, they had been in the United States several months to several years prior to that date.

He also changed their required departure dates to a later date, making it appear to law enforcement and immigration officials that the employees and their spouses were legally present in the United States when, in reality, they had already overstayed their legal admission time and were subject to deportation.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Grohman.

The charges again Charu are not evidence of guilt. He continues to be presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

A press release from Congressman Joe Walsh:

Rep. Walsh Statement on President Obama’s Backdoor Amnesty Plan

“This new policy encourages breaking our sovereign laws and creates uncertainty for those seeking to become U.S. citizens.”

FOX LAKE – Congressman Joe Walsh (IL-08) today issued the following statement in response to the recent directive by the Obama Administration that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials become more lenient and halt deportation proceedings on a case-by-case basis against illegal immigrants:

Joe Walsh at his Wauconda American Legion Town Hall Meeting.

“President Obama has once again found a way to circumvent Congress and our Constitution.

“Instead of debating this topic under the watchful eye of the American people, the President has issued yet another one of his decrees to evade following the explicit intent of the law.”

“Illegal immigrants are here illegally – this is a fact that should not take a government bureaucrat to figure out.

“Instead, however, the President is granting authority to federal workers to choose who gets to stay and who gets to go.

“This sounds a lot like amnesty to me.

“This new policy encourages breaking our sovereign laws and creates uncertainty for those seeking to become U.S. citizens.

“We need to be talking about jobs – that is what Americans care about right now. I hope allowing illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S. is not part of the President’s jobs plan.”

The County Board's violation of the Open Meetings Act was the top story in the Northwest Herald on a news-heavy Saturday.

Kevin Craver is reporting in the Northwest Herald that five McHenry County Board members conducted an illegal meeting.

The five made sure that the majority of a committee were not in the room at the same time.

The committee in question was the 7-member Legislative Committee, charged with drawing the district map for the next decade.

Marc Munaretto, Legislative Committee member

Nick Provenzano, Legislative Committee member

You might think of what was done as a chain with five links going in a circle around a room through two doors. The five made sure that no more than two of the three Legislative Committee links were in the room at the same time.

That way, they apparently reasoned, a majority of the committee would not be meeting illegally.

John Jung, Legislative Committee member

McHenry County Board member Ken Koehler

The Illinois Attorney General’s Office of Public Counsel disagreed.

The five County Board members who met in this fashion were

• McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler (District 2)
• Tina Hill (District 5)
• Marc Munaretto (Committee member from District 1)

Tina Hill

• Nick Provenzano (Committee member from District 3)
• John Jung (Committee member from District 5)

No penalty was imposed for the infraction of the Open Meetings Act.

The story about the remap meeting for the whole board is here.

= = = = =

This story edged out

• the Appellate Court’s upholding of Judge Gordon Graham’s ruling against the County Board on the Special Prosecutor fee case,
• the Grafton Township Trustees’ Appellate Court victory over Supervisor Linda Moore concerning her ability to appoint a Township Attorney without their permission,
• a Federal Judge’s reversing a decision by a Federal Magistrate to allow the alleged murder-for-hire Algonquin attorney Jason Smiekel’s to have home detention, instead of staying in jail and
• Sheriff Keith Nygren’s charging Zane Seipler with perjury in Seipler’s Federal wrongful termination suit.

The last story, of course, was not shared with McHenry County Blog by the Sheriff’s folks.

Gus Philpott, who writes Woodstock Advocate, however, has an insightful article explaining how Seipler’s email address could have been attached as “a secondary email address” to the blog in question (“The Real MCSD Exposed”). Seipler’s blog is called “McHenry County Sheriff’s Department Exposed.”

Philpott notes the following about the Northwest Herald article:

“Funny how she (one of Nygren’s private attorneys) didn’t mention the confidential deposition of Scott Milliman that Sheriff Nygren told Undersheriff Zinke to give to Crystal Lake businessman Jose Rivera.

“Somehow that deposition got leaked to the Northwest Herald. And, somehow, the Northwest Herald story failed to mention that ‘indiscretion’”.