Little Saigon's Kathleen Thi Hoang Luong thought she could smuggle another woman's eight-year-old Vietnamese boy into the United States illegally, but she had no covert activity skills.

Luong owns a small Garden Grove food catering business.

On the night of March 17, 2009, she flew out of Vietnam with Tuan Quoc Nguyen on the first leg of their flight to the U.S. and landed at Changi Airport in Singapore. 

Nguyen, a Vietnamese national, carried a doctored U.S. passport under the fake name Andrew Pham.

An alert Singapore immigration official spotted the trickery, arrested Luong and threw her into a bedless, concrete prison for six months for "importing a child under false pretenses."

While everyone in DC and their local apologists dithers about "comprehensive immigration reform," the Orange County Dream Team (OCDT), as usual, is taking action.

Calling clearly for an 'inclusive legalization process,' the DREAMers are revving up for an ambitious week of action as the national debate continues. Distancing themselves from Gang of Eight and White House proposals, DREAMers are pushing for a pathway to citizenship within five years for all eligible folks.

Cue the hilarious haters in 5, 4...

Picketing workers assembled along Orangethorpe Avenue in Placentia today outside Prime Waterproofing Incorporated. In an action sponsored by Chican@s Unidos, they held signs calling out local contractor Paul LaHaye as a rat for questionable practices in an ongoing labor dispute.

As owner of the company, LaHaye was hit with wage violation complaints from Jesus and Jose Ramirez, two employees who filed them on September 5, 2012. Prime Waterproofing was formally served a month later. Shortly after, LaHaye contacted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the father and son from Norwalk.

"My dad actually just got his work permit," Jose Ramirez tells the Weekly. But as a 19-year-old, he himself was still in the process of applying for a work permit under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) memorandum. Lawyers with Weinberg, Roger & Rosenfeld, the firm representing the workers, took the issue very seriously, warning the family to leave their house and not to open the door if ICE agents arrived.

It is difficult to know all the key details of Sergio Alcala-Sanchez's multiple, successful attempts to enter the U.S. illegally only to be caught, imprisoned and deported with only the clothes on his back. 

Judges inside the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana have inexplicably sealed from public view basic court documents involving his border crossings from 1999 to 2008.

The boat weaved through commercial freightliners in an attempt to avoid detection, but the Coast Guard followed it for 70 miles up the California coast toward San Clemente Island.

The U.S. government agents eventually stopped the boat and found 15 Mexicans and one El Salvadorian onboard. 

None of the boat occupants had valid U.S. immigration entry documents, according to a Homeland Security report obtained by the Weekly.