Read our cover story, "The Lothario Notario," for more on immigration scams

​Chris LaRiche walked into City Hall to prosecute a lawsuit against Wayne and Greg Freeman, the father and son heads of Executive Suites of Minnesota, when he was arrested by police last November.

This week's cover story, "The Lothario Notario," chronicles LaRiche's alleged crimes leading up to his arrest. LaRiche's lawsuit against Executive Suites of Minnesota alleged that his "business" was damaged by the Freemans, who tell City Pages they had problems with LaRiche as soon as they began renting office space to him last March.

"We determined that he was living there," says Wayne Freeman, which was a violation of their lease agreement.

More >>

Read this week's cover, "The Lothario Notario," for more on Chris LaRiche's immigration scam

​This week's cover story, "The Lothario Notario," reveals how a local man allegedly scammed undocumented immigrants with false promises of citizenship.

Mario Alberto Martinez-Alanis used the fake name "Chris LaRiche" and promised to get jobs and legal status for undocumented immigrants who came to his downtown Minneapolis office. He was arrested in November on charged of perjury and forgery stemming from testimony Martinez-Alanis made under oath in a bizarre lawsuit against a former employee.

Our feature broke the news that Hennepin County prosecutors planned to charge Martinez-Alanis with theft by swindle. Assistant county attorney Paul Scoggin filed that charge yesterday morning in Judge Tanya Bransford's courtroom. The amended complaint details LaRiche's alleged scams and claims he "admitted that he only obtained about five jobs for the 900 people that he collected fees from."More >>

Owatonna Senior High School was the site of alleged discrimination.

​The St. Cloud school district has almost completed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education to end an investigation into anti-Muslim behavior at Apollo High School.

In March 2010, the Council on American Islamic Relations filed a formal complaint with the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education. The group alleged systematic anti-Muslim abuse at the schools, with students and teachers alike calling their Somali peers "towelheads" and mocking them for not eating pork bacon.

The original letter, mailed March 19, 2010, claimed that a World History teacher groaned, "Ugh, the Muslims are back" after a group of students returned from holiday break. Another teacher handed students an air freshener and told them to spray around the class when Somalis walked into the room. Even the students' bus driver got in on the action.

More >>

SEIU protested political contributions, anti-immigrant politics at Wells Fargo.

​SEIU Local 26 led a protest at Wells Fargo Saturday afternoon demanding an end to Wells Fargo's support of private prison and anti-immigrant politicians.

The event's organizers argue that Wells Fargo invites immigrants into its banks with Spanish-language marketing campaigns but betrays them by giving money to anti-immigrant politicians and owning stock in private prison companies.

"Let's call them what they are," said Gerardo Cajamarca, a janitor. "We're standing here in front of the hypocrites."

More >>

Samuel Benda's lawyer says she his birthdate was chosen at random.

​Samuel Benda's case will turn on the veracity of a birth certificate that's on its way from Sierra Leone.

Benda is charged with having sex with a minor and possession of child pornography. The former  charge, the more serious of the two, stems from an intermittent sexual relationship Benda had with a 15-year-old girl last year; the latter is the result of nude images on Benda's computer and cell phone of a 17-year-girl.

After Benda's defense attorney argued that the adoptee from Sierra Leone was actually 17, not 19, the judge in Benda's case ruled on Monday that he was an adult, and had been an adult during his alleged offenses. District court Judge Richard King decided that Benda had broken the law, and could stand trial as an adult, citing a slew of documentation that indicated Benda was born October 27, 1991.

But Lauri Traub, Benda's public defender on the case, told City Pages that the date is wrong. Traub said Benda's father, Jim Benda, had tracked down a Sierra Leone birth certificate that shows Benda was, in fact, born October 27 -- but in 1993, rather than 1991.

"I frimly believe that he's 17 years old an in an adult jail," Traub said.
More >>

Michele Bachmann and Joe Arpaio: best friends forever?

​Michele Bachmann went to Arizona this week for Sheriff Joe Arpaio's endorsement. She didn't get it, and likely won't.

But Bachmann did confess that America's self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff" gave her a pair of the pink boxers he forces inmates in his jail to wear.

She also elaborated on what immigration policy would look like in a Bachmann administration.

Bachmann's been outspoken about immigration in the past, saying that America "needs to go back to the 1950s" when immigrants had to "promise to learn English." Immigration policy in the 1950s is known for, among other things, restrictive quotas and Operation Wetback, a mass deportation of Mexicans orchestrated by President Eisenhower in 1954. What Bachmann told a local interviewer sounds remarkably like Wetback for the modern day.

More >>

Barack Obama announced a change in deportation policy, but experts are doubtful.

​The Obama administration announced last week that it will review "low-priority" deportation cases and allow certain illegal immigrants to remain in the country with work permits.

Reporters across the country jumped on the news, with many news outlets breathlessly reporting that the Obama administration will stop all deportations of immigrants without criminal records.

But Minnesota immigration experts point out that the feds' announcement echoes old memos about "enforcement priorities" and probably won't lead to much change in practice.
More >>

The ICE-men cometh to bust more undocumented workers.

​It's a bad time to be an undocumented worker in Minnesota.

Fresh off this winter's mass firings at Minnesota Chipotle restaurants, and a year after 1,200 local janitors were fired from ABM janitorial services, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is back again with another immigration audit.

More >>

Steve Drazkowski just wants a little unity.

​While his fellow Republicans in the Legislature promise to create more jobs, Rep. Steve Drazkowski wants to make sure that non-English speakers can't drive to theirs.

The Mazeppa Republican, who also wants an Arizona-style immigration policy in Minnesota, is back with his third attempt to make English the official language of Minnesota.

More >>

Do illegal immigrants depress American wages?

​We're not going to solve the illegal immigration debate here and now, but the story we broke yesterday about Chipotle going on a mass-firing binge of Latino workers prompted some smart comments from some of our readers.

We want to highlight one.

More >>