ELECTION ‘08: Indiana House District 46

Democrats have had a stronghold in the Indiana House District 46 for more than two decades, but Republicans have won the seat twice since 1994.

Incumbent Rep. Vern Tincher, D-Riley, touts his experience, serving 22 of the past 26 years as the district representative. He lost in 1994 to David Lohr, a former Vigo County GOP chairman, and in 2002 to Brooks LaPlante, a Vigo County businessman.

Tincher, retired, served 22 years in the Indiana State Police and worked as a bricklayer, later becoming a union representative. He said Indiana must address funding for worker unemployment compensation. He also advocates for a state illegal immigration law.

District 46 covers half of Vigo and Clay counties and all of Owen County, except one township, as well as a township in Monroe County. Some cities and towns in the district include Riley, Brazil, Center Point, Clay City, Stinesville, Spencer and part of Terre Haute.

Tincher, part of a House study committee, said the State of Indiana should adopt an illegal immigration law, one patterned after an Arizona law that has been upheld by a federal appellant court.

“Plus those illegal aliens are using our emergency rooms and we have to teach English as a second language. And in a few school corporations, the students that need English as a second language are the majority of the students. That is taking a lot of resources in education and medical attention and social services that cost the state dollars,” Tincher said. “By not having jobs for the illegal workers, this is protecting Hoosier jobs for our Hoosier citizens who need jobs,” he said.

Peter Brimelow Interview

My View: Mike Delph

Illegal immigration exposes security gaps

According to Rakesh Kochlar with the Pew Hispanic Center, 80 percent of immigrants entering the United States from Mexico are illegal. That highlights the frustration of many Hoosiers regarding the federal government’s constitutional performance as Washington continues to claim tougher border enforcement. The much-anticipated summer study committee on illegal immigration began its work this month.

Law professors told us how immigration policy is strictly in the domain of the feds. Demographic experts told us that Indiana is becoming an “emerging Hispanic state” and that the vast majority of illegal immigrants living in Indiana enter through Mexico. A longtime Hoosier patriot of Mexican descent defended the value of “undocumented workers” to the diversity and economic vitality of Indiana.

What’s lost in the discussion is the rule of law and the immediate national security threat to our state and nation from not knowing who is in our country and for what purpose. In 1986, President Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act giving amnesty to all illegal aliens who had remained underground for four years or more. It was billed as the “most comprehensive reform” to meeting the problem of illegal immigration.

The country was told that it would be the last amnesty program ever needed as it placed the burden on employers to validate the status of current and future employees. It attempted to hold employers accountable for knowingly and willingly hiring illegal workers. However, the only real enforcement of the law was the blanket pardon given to those living underground.

Today the problem has not been solved and, in a post-9/11 world, Americans are at risk because of the complacency and incompetence of Washington. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, no friend of the United States, continues to develop ties with Middle Eastern enemies. Al-Qaida continues to exploit the playbook of Hezbollah and Hamas in recruiting men and women in economic despair. And a hemisphere of potential recruits goes unnoticed while human rights are exploited in the unquenchable thirst for cheap labor and higher profits.

According to a recent congressional report, “a nuclear, chemical or biological weapon in the hands of terrorists remains the single greatest threat to our nation.” Hoosiers are a welcoming people and admire hard work and achievement. However, in a post-9/11 world, we have to be very careful and mindful of our surroundings.

I talked last year of the exploitation of human beings for profit and of the real cost borne every day by Hoosier taxpayers in health care, education and social services. This year I will continue to do so, but I will also try to get my fellow citizens to think about the security of our state and country. Thomas Jefferson once said that “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” If our state and nation are to continue to prosper, then we have to enforce the law. We have a right to set the rules by which others become citizens. We have a right to know who is in our country and for what purpose. And we have a right to hold those governments and people accountable for violating our laws.
Delph is a Republican state senator from Carmel.

Agents arrest illegal immigrants

By JOSEPH DITS, Tribune Staff Writer
By Beth Boehne

Federal agents arrested 47 illegal immigrants in South Bend, Mishawaka, Goshen, Elkhart and Nappanee in a four-day operation that ended Monday, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The immigrants were among 144 who were arrested in a wider operation that included Chicago and its suburbs, ICE reports.

A Goshen group will talk about the operation at its meeting Wednesday night.

ICE says it targeted “fugitive aliens” who failed to appear for immigration hearings or who didn’t leave the United States after being ordered to do so by a federal immigration judge.

Of them, 110 already had deportation orders against them, ICE reports.

They were arrested at workplaces and homes, says ICE spokeswoman Gail Montenegro.

Here, she says, is how many were arrested by community and country of origin:

— South Bend: one from El Salvador, one from China, three from Kenya;

— Mishawaka: two from Honduras, one from Mexico;

— Goshen: eight from Mexico, three from China;

— Elkhart: three from El Salvador, 12 from Mexico, seven from China, two from Malawi, two from Honduras;

— Nappanee: one from Honduras, one from Colombia.

“ICE has teams located across the country to specifically target anyone who ignores deportation orders handed down by federal immigration judges,” said Glenn Triveline, field office director for the ICE Office of Detention and Removal Operations in Chicago.

At its regular meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, the Goshen-Apan Community Center in Goshen will talk about deportation concerns, trying to allay fears. That meeting will be at Twin Pines Mobile Home Park Office, located at 2011 W. Wilden Ave.

Legislative panel looks at costs of illegal immigration

By Dan McFeely

Illegal immigration is costing the state millions of dollars in law enforcement, health care and education, though no one seems to know the extent of the problem or its full costs.

“Gangs are on the rise. Drugs are out of control. We also are seeing human trafficking, smuggling, kidnapping, extortion and murder,” Sherry Beck, a legislative liaison for the Indiana State Police, told lawmakers Tuesday.

“Can we say that these are directly related to illegal immigrants? No. But they do play a significant role,” she said.

…The cost to house those prisoners, feed them and provide medical care is about $9.9 million a year, according to Randy Koester, deputy commissioner of administration for the Department of Correction.

Additionally, the state provides English language courses at a cost of $318,000 for 201 of the offenders, he said, and the cost to transport them to Plainfield for federal deportation hearings is about $10,000 a year….

…Mitch Roob, the head of the Family Social Services Administration, provided a little insight into the cost to the state’s health-care system, telling the panel the state has spent more than $5.5 million in each of the past three years to reimburse hospitals for expenses related to the treatment of illegal immigrants…

Those numbers could help state Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, and other lawmakers make their case as they push for state legislation to crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants. A similar law in Arizona has led to a 34 percent reduction in the number of illegal immigrants, according to Todd Smith, chief counsel for the State Police.

Panel gets few cost answers on illegal immigration

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Lawmakers trying to determine how much illegal immigration is costing Indiana are getting few answers.

An interim legislative committee met Tuesday in hopes of gaining a clearer picture of the financial impact of illegal immigration in areas including Medicaid, prisons and schools.

Social services chief Mitch Roob (ROHB) said the state has to pay for pregnancy services and emergency medical care for illegal immigrants through Medicaid. The cost to the state is about $5 million a year.

But officials with the state’s child welfare agency and departments of health, education and corrections didn’t have precise figures on what illegal immigrants are costing them.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Pork producers welcome Latino workers

DANVILLE, Ind. — Indiana pork producers learned during the recent Midwest Pork Conference that their Latino employees might mean “no” when they appear to nod their heads “yes.”

Juana Watson, who is Gov. Mitch Daniels’ senior advisor for Latino and immigrant affairs, gave a speech on the face and voice of Latino immigrants at the eighth annual conference.

Latinos are “well entrenched in many of our livestock operations, hold managerial and technical positions, have a terrific work ethic, are well educated and are receiving high levels of pay,” said Michael Platt, executive director of Indiana Pork.

Latinos make up an estimated 40 percent of the workforce in Indiana’s livestock industry. The Indiana pork industry reports that it employs 13,000 people and contributes $3 billion a year to the Indiana economy.

“People misunderstand, and think everybody enters illegally,” Watson said in an interview. “It’s not so. Because of the laws between the U.S. and Mexico, a lot of Latinos come to work here with agricultural permits.”

Many Latinos enter the United States that way but then over-stay and become illegal, said Watson. Many others are here legally, either as U.S. citizens or because they have current work permits. So it’s hard to know who’s legal and who’s not.

ICE agents detain five workers in Goshen

By ROGER SCHNEIDER
THE GOSHEN NEWS

Agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency detained five workers at the China Buffet restaurant Saturday.

According to patrons of the restaurant, agents entered the restaurant and began asking staff members for their identification and Social Security cards. Six of the workers were taken outside and interviewed and their identifications checked. Five of the six were detained, handcuffed and taken away in a passenger van.

The workers detained appeared to be ethnic Chinese.

Agents at the scene would not comment on the raid. One officer referred all questions to ICE’s Chicago office. Personnel at that office could not be reached Saturday.

The officers conducting the raid were from ICE’s Indianapolis office.

The China Buffet is located at 2703 Caragana Court, across U.S. 33 from the entrance to the Super Wal-Mart.

The remaining staff members quickly scribbled a “closed Saturday” sign on a piece of paper and taped it to the front door. A waitress said the restaurant would reopen Sunday.

One customer was Cherie Whirledge of Goshen. She and her husband eat at the China Buffet most Saturdays. “We sure like the food,” she said, adding she hopes the restaurant is reopened in time for their next visit.

Study session shows split on immigration bill

INDIANAPOLIS — State lawmakers again are trying to confront illegal immigration in Indiana, six months after a “three strikes” bill to penalize employers of illegal aliens fell apart during the Legislature’s final hours.

Indiana increasingly is becoming a destination for undocumented, foreign-born workers, experts told lawmakers Tuesday during a legislative study committee on immigration.

But law professors warned that federal law supersedes state law on immigration, and Indiana would be better off waiting until the U.S. Supreme Court resolves conflicting laws in other states before passing its own bill.

The Interim Study Committee on Immigration Issues, which sprang from the deadlock over competing bills in March, held the first of its five summer meetings Tuesday and heard four hours of testimony from witnesses.

With migration into the U.S. from other nations now at levels not seen since the early 20th century, Indiana is one of the more rapidly growing immigrant destinations.

Sheriff’s immigration training plan delayed over grant

Amanda Iacone
The Journal Gazette

Allen County sheriff’s officers won’t be enforcing U.S. immigration laws, at least for now.

The department applied last fall to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to arrest illegal immigrants in Allen County. The department learned this week that no federal money is available this year for the training program, Chief Deputy Dave Gladieux said.

Immigration officials encouraged the sheriff’s department to apply again in November for money to pay for officers to participate in the five-week program next year, Gladieux said.

“We are probably going to reapply,” Gladieux said.

Sheriff Ken Fries hoped to send 10 civilian jail officers and 10 sworn officers to the training.

Immigration will dictate quality of life

STEVEN A. CAMAROTA
Special to The Washington Post

When the Census Bureau released its new population projections last month, most of the media focused on the country’s changing racial composition. But this was almost certainly not the most important finding. The projections show that the U.S. population will grow by 135 million in just 42 years — a 44 percent increase. Such growth would have profound implications for our environment and quality of life. Most of the increase would be a direct result of one federal policy — immigration. If we reduced the level of immigration, the projections would be much lower. The question we have to ask ourselves is: Do we want to be a much more densely settled country?

Native-born Americans have only about two children on average, which makes for a roughly stable population over time. But with an estimated 1.5 million legal and illegal immigrants settling in the country each year, and about 900,000 births to these immigrants each year, immigration directly and indirectly accounts for at least three-fourths of U.S. population growth.

An increase of 135 million people by 2050 is equivalent to the entire populations of Mexico and Canada moving here. Assuming the same ratio of population to infrastructure that exists today, the United States would need to build and pay for 36,000 schools. We would need to develop enough land to accommodate 52 million new housing units, along with places for the people who lived in them to shop and work. We would also have to construct enough roads to handle 106 million more vehicles.

Immigration on agenda for study panel

By Deanna Martin / Associated Press

State lawmakers charged with studying illegal immigration this summer are hoping to collect facts — not political grandstanding or heated rhetoric — during meetings next month.

The summer study committee on immigration issues has scheduled Statehouse meetings Sept. 9 and 16. The committee’s co-chairmen — Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, and Rep. Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City — said they may hold other meetings around the state.
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Pelath said the first meeting will focus on the scope of illegal immigration in Indiana.

“We want to find out how many illegal aliens are in our state right now, where they live and what they are doing to earn a living,” Pelath said in a news release this month.

The committee is made up of House and Senate members, including Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, D-Munster, who is the only Hispanic member of the House. Also on the panel is outspoken Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, who butted heads this year with several lawmakers, lobbyists and businessmen as he pushed for a bill to crack down on companies hiring illegal workers.

Committee takes on immigration

By DEANNA MARTIN • The Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS - State lawmakers charged with studying illegal immigration this summer are hoping to collect facts - not political grandstanding or heated rhetoric - during meetings next month.

The summer study committee on immigration issues has scheduled Statehouse meetings Sept. 9 and Sept. 16. The committee’s co-chairmen - Republican Sen. Dennis Kruse of Auburn and Democratic Rep. Scott Pelath of Michigan City - said they are considering holding other meetings around the state.

Pelath said the first meeting will focus on the scope of illegal immigration in Indiana.

“We want to find out how many illegal aliens are in our state right now, where they live and what they are doing to earn a living,” Pelath said in a news release this month.

The committee is made up of both House and Senate members, including Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, a Democrat from Munster who is the only Hispanic member of the House. Also on the panel is outspoken Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, who butted heads this year with several lawmakers, lobbyists and the business community as he pushed for a bill to crack down on companies hiring illegal workers.

Delph said during the legislative session that illegal immigration is a drain on tax dollars. The head of the state Family and Social Services Administration estimated in January that Indiana taxpayers spend about $5 million a year on Medicaid health care for illegal aliens, with more money coming from the federal government.

Speaker Discusses Illegal Aliens With Law Enforcement

By Evan Israel
Staff reporter

A more aggressive, unforgiving approach needs to develop for law enforcement nationwide on the subject of identifying and prosecuting illegal aliens, according to at least one man familiar with the issue.

Bob Najmulski, deputy sheriff in Allen County, Ohio, made a trip to Frankfort for a two-day program Monday and Tuesday about how to better determine an individual’s legal status.

Held in the public meeting room of the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office, the event was geared toward police and sheriff’s personnel, a number of whom attended at least one of the two programs.

Monday’s event centered more on police officers and sheriff’s deputies, while Tuesday’s gathering was relayed more toward dispatchers at both places.

While explaining to dispatchers Tuesday strategies and programs available to combat the perceived problem, Najmulski, who heads the “Criminal Alien Task Force” in his county, offered a very direct assessment of the situation.

“I think it’s a hole in our law enforcement job that we need to plug,” he said.

Enforcing borders might’ve saved life

Did immigrant shot in December flee police for fear of deportation?

Only one man knows why Jose Baudilio Lemus-Rodriguez fled from police on Dec. 23, and he’s dead – shot by an officer cleared of any wrongdoing by an independent report released this week.

But surely the question must be asked: Did Lemus-Rodriguez’s status as an illegal immigrant contribute to his fateful decision? Might he be alive today – and a young officer still blissfully ignorant of what it feels like to fatally shoot someone – if this nation had been more serious about enforcing its borders and laws?

As insensitive as such questions may seem, the refusal even to ask them would be downright cruel.

Did Guatemala native Lemus-Rodriguez refuse to stop his car for James Arnold and other Fort Wayne Police officers because he feared deportation for violation of immigration laws? Police Chief Rusty York says it’s possible. So does the attorney for Lemus-Rodriguez’s family.

Sen. Charbonneau added to immigration panel

INDIANAPOLIS | Indiana State Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso, was named Wednesday to a legislative panel that will spend the next few months studying the contentious issue of illegal immigration.

Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, also appointed Charbonneau to interim committees that will examine autism, education technology, shoreline development and transportation, including mass transit.

“I look forward to serving on these committees and addressing such important issues affecting Hoosiers, including illegal immigration,” Charbonneau said in a statement. “I will work diligently with other legislators in order to fully explore these subjects.”

The study committee is charged with charting the financial impact illegal immigrants have on health care, law enforcement, schools and welfare programs. Efforts to create a three-tiered punishment system for Indiana companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants fell victim to partisan gridlock in the final days of this year’s legislative session, which ended in March.

The interim committees, which will begin meeting later this month, research potential legislative issues and will make recommendations for the full General Assembly to consider when it reconvenes in January.

Charbonneau, who was appointed to fill a vacancy last year, represents Senate District 5, which includes all of Starke County and portions of six other counties, including Porter and LaPorte. Charbonneau is seeking a full four-year term this November against Larry Balmer, a Plymouth Democrat.

If Washingon won’t do it, states must take over

But study committee will find reaching consensus difficult.

Legislation aimed at curbing illegal immigration crashed and burned in the last session of the General Assembly, and an interim study committee won’t find reaching consensus an easy matter, either.

The committee should examine the costs of illegal immigration to Hoosier taxpayers, says the committee’s co-chair, Rep. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, including the price of health care, education, welfare and crime. But the impact of illegal immigration isn’t all negative, says Mary Jane Gonzalez, with the Indiana State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, so the committee should look at the economic benefits of having illegal immigrants in the work force.

Rep. Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City, the other co-chair, is right that both costs and benefits should be studied to arrive at an “economic balance sheet” and that the committee should examine the role of businesses that offer illegal immigrants low-wage jobs in Indiana. If we know the potential economic impact of something – both the pluses and minuses – we can make more-informed decisions.

But economic impact isn’t everything. Even more important is what kind of state we want to be. If we’re too punitive, will that send the message that Indiana is hostile to those who are different? If we are too lenient, will that send the message that we aren’t serious about the law here?

We shouldn’t even have to be having the discussion. There are few things most would agree the federal government should take care of, but protecting the nation’s borders is one of them. And it isn’t taking that job seriously. We are drifting to a political consensus that, well, nothing can be done about the 12 million or so illegal immigrants who are already here. There will be some sort of de facto legalization, which will just encourage more to come, so the cycle will endlessly repeat.

So states have to decide what to do. Indiana’s attempt was logical – punish the businesses that hire illegals, and the illegals will have little reason to come here. But the Indiana Chamber of Commerce is right to worry about unintended consequences – for small business, for innocent American workers, for the state’s economy.

Federalism, properly understood, requires states to take care of regional problems and the central government to take care of national problems. This is not federalism.

State to study immigration issue

INDIANAPOLIS - State lawmakers couldn’t agree on a contentious illegal immigration bill during this year’s legislative session. But some hope legislators on a summer study committee can at least reach common ground on the facts surrounding the complex topic.

“We want to better understand the problem and the ramifications of the issue,” said Sen. Mike Delph, a Republican from Carmel who sponsored a proposal to crack down on businesses that knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

Interim study committees are formed to inform lawmakers about issues between legislative sessions, and can lead to recommendations for future bills.

State study of immigration fraught with complications

A column by Kevin Leininger of The News-Sentinel

Indiana’s Medicaid program spent about $18 million on emergency services for illegal immigrants in 2006 - most of it on health care for mothers giving birth to children who automatically became full-fledged U.S. citizens.

If that complication wasn’t enough to doom this year’s attempt to address the situation in the Indiana General Assembly, pressure from business interests and ethnic lobbyists was.

So an area legislator is only too aware of the very large bull’s-eye on his back as he prepares to co-chair a committee charged with studying illegal immigration’s effect on Indiana - and with crafting a humane, effective and politically viable response to a problem not of its making and largely beyond its control.

“I always go into things with optimism, and maybe we’ll be able to reach consensus on some points,” said State Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, chosen by Senate President Pro-Tem David Long to lead the House-Senate study committee with Rep. Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City. “I don’t want to break up families, but if we pick and choose little bits, perhaps we can get something done.”

That kind of minimalism was lacking in the immigration bill authored by Mike Delph, R-Carmel - dubbed “Sen. Diablo” (devil) by an Indianapolis Latino newspaper - which passed the Republican-controlled Senate in January before dying in the House, where Democrats hold a slim majority. Among other things, Delph’s bill would have punished companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants by revoking their business license for up to 10 years.

That approach, Kruse said, could have jeopardized hundreds or even thousands of jobs - hurting the state’s economy and employees whose only crime was to work for unscrupulous bosses. He would prefer to impose stiff penalties on people who profit from the smuggling and transportation of illegal immigrants.

But Kruse and Long, R-Fort Wayne, know good legislation must be built upon good data - something they agree is lacking where Indiana’s 55,000 to 85,000 illegal immigrants are concerned.

“We need good, hard numbers on the effect on our schools, welfare, crime. How many do we have? How many people have been denied jobs (that went to illegal immigrants)?” Long said. “There is a lot of demagoguery on this issue, but Americans who pay taxes and don’t want to subsidize people here illegally expect (legislators) to do the best we can, and that’s a fair request. Immigrants who are here legally don’t have a problem with us cracking down.”

The Constitution might, however.

Because regulation of immigration and enforcement of the borders is properly the responsibility of the federal government, any state attempt to curb or punish illegal immigration is almost certain to attract legal scrutiny - especially from groups looking for cheap labor, ethnic clout or reliable votes. “We don’t want to be unconstitutional,” said Kruse, whose 14th District includes Allen, DeKalb and Steuben counties.

For that reason, Long said, any resulting bill may focus on limiting state services to people here illegally. Legislation may also help schools and other institutions cope with the cost and chaos that uncontrolled immigration inevitably creates.

And therein rests the perversity of this lingering national disgrace: A growing number of states, unable to care for their own citizens, want to attack illegal immigration but are limited by their lack of constitutional authority. The federal government, meanwhile - which has the authority to act - lacks the will, aided and abetted by everyone from corporate executives to church leaders whose compassion exceeds their judgment.

Kruse knows the need to respect the rule of law must be weighed against the real human costs that would come with any attempt to roll back decades of bureaucratic aiding, abetting and indifference. “We have a whole series of laws we don’t enforce,” he said, and that’s true enough.

But as America prepares to celebrate its independence, it’s worth pondering how borders bought with the blood of patriots are today often dismissed as irrelevant, xenophobic or worse. The open-borders crowd seems not to notice the irony of pursuing the American Dream by undermining the sovereignty of the nation without which that dream could not exist.

I wish Kruse luck. He’ll need it.

Indiana swears in 75 new American citizens

By Christine Won

Some wore red, white and blue clothing. Others proudly waved miniature versions of the Stars and Stripes. And on Thursday, their patriotic spirit dampened not a bit by the morning rain, they all became naturalized citizens.

At a traditional pre-Independence Day ceremony, 75 new citizens representing 35 countries took the oath of allegiance under the white canopy on the south lawn of the President Benjamin Harrison Home in Indianapolis.

Citizenship meant different things to the new citizens, though it might be a stretch to call Beverley Rockwell, 56, Charlestown, a “new” American. Rockwell’s family moved to the United States from England when she was less than a year old. In 2001, when she and her husband tried to vacation out of the country for the first time, she discovered she lacked documentation that proved she was a U.S. citizen.

Her father was an American in the military, but the military records in Kansas, documenting proof of her parentage and citizenship, had been lost in a fire.

“It was a big pain in the butt getting all the documents together,” she said.

But a year after she applied, Rockwell became a citizen Thursday, sporting a very English hat with red, white and blue decorations to match her bright blue dress.

“I’ve been here so long, I thought legally becoming a citizen would be no big deal,” Rockwell said. “But when the ceremony started, I got teary.”

Latinos’ lobbyist

By Ashley Petry / Star correspondent

Wilson “Wil” Reyes gets fired up when he talks about the immigration bills presented this year in the state legislature.

As a board member for the Indiana State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Reyes actively lobbied against those bills, which he says would have unfairly burdened Hispanic business owners who are U.S. citizens.
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The bills — which targeted business owners who hire illegal workers — did not become law, but they did ignite Reyes’ passion to improve perceptions of the local Latino community.

Toddler abandoned at Frankfort Wal-Mart

FRANKFORT — Investigators are asking for the public’s help in identifying a toddler abandoned Friday afternoon in the city’s Wal-Mart Supercenter, left with only a backpack and a handwritten note.

The boy is believed to be about 21/2 years old, named Martín and from Guatemala. Wal-Mart employees found him wandering in the store’s fabric department.

You can help The boy left Friday at a Frankfort Wal-Mart is described as Hispanic, about 3 feet tall and 30 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. He has a small scar on his lower back and on his forehead, just below his hairline. Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Frankfort Police Department at (765) 654-4431 or the Clinton County Department of Child Services at (800) 800-5556.