Illegal aliens snared after crash
BY JEFFREY GAUTREAUX, SUN STAFF WRITER
PHOTO BY ALFRED J. HERNANDEZ/THE SUN

Two illegal aliens from Mexico were expected to be flown to a Phoenix hospital with severe spinal injuries after a wreck Friday morning, the third alien smuggling crash near Yuma in three days.

A Chevrolet Blazer carrying 14 illegal aliens flew approximately 100 feet after speeding over a canal embankment in an attempt to evade U.S. Border Patrol agents and return to Mexico, according to the U.S. Border Patrol's Yuma sector.

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Smugglers say wall will raise prices
BY ROSA MARÍA MÉNDEZ FIERROS
El Universal
Miami Herald, página 1

MEXICALI, Baja California - The wall proposed by U.S. lawmakers is unlikely to stop illegal immigration, but it will give the "polleros" - guides for illegal migrants - the opportunity to raise their prices, say several traffickers.

El Rito, El Chuy and El Coco, "polleros" who work separately in Mexicali offering their services to undocumented immigrants, all agree that a wall between the Mexican city of Mexicali and Calexico, California, will not stop them, but will require them to be more creative.

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Some immigrants must seek amnesty by today
Louie Gilot
El Paso Times

Today is the last day for as many as 100,000 undocumented immigrants to apply for a green card under a 20-year-old amnesty program.

The strange loophole is the result of successive lawsuits that argued that the U.S. government unfairly denied green cards to some immigrants during a 1986 amnesty. But government officials and experts warned that only a specific group of people, the ones who were named in the class-action suits, can apply.

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Border Patrol agents use simple technique to track crossers

FABENS, Texas -- Agent Juan Galaviz had just started his morning patrol shift when a U.S. Border Patrol dispatcher called. A group of illegal immigrants had just tripped one of the thousands of underground motion sensors along the Texas-Mexico border.

Galaviz immediately steered his unmarked Chevy sport utility vehicle toward a patchwork of fields, pecan orchards and irrigation canals in Fabens _ a favorite spot for illegal immigrants sneaking across the border just east of El Paso _ to where other agents were on foot, looking for "signs" left by the group.

Steel pole ends smuggling attempt
FROM STAFF REPORTS
Dec 29, 2005

An attempt to smuggle 20 illegal immigrants came to an abrupt halt near Yuma early Thursday morning when the vehicle carrying them got hung up on the end of a steel post sticking out of the ground.

The Chevrolet Suburban struck the pole near County 21st Street and Avenue B as it was trying to elude the U.S. Border Patrol by driving at high speed in the dark with the headlights off, said Michael Gramley, spokesman for the Yuma Sector Border Patrol.

The aliens, all from Mexico, fled the vehicle but were later found and detained in a nearby field by Border Patrol agents, Gramley said.

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3 arrested in Mexico rape, killing of teen

Associated Press
Dec. 30, 2005 12:00 AM

JUAREZ, Mexico - Three men have been arrested in the Christmas Eve rape and slaying of a 17-year-old girl in this violent city on Mexico's northern border, authorities said Thursday.

According to statements from two of the suspects, the three men were drinking with Claudia Flores Javier in her home in the early hours of Dec. 24 when one of them proposed having sex with her. She refused before the three raped her, said Claudia Elena Banuelos, spokeswoman for the state Attorney General's Office.

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Hunter argues for border fencing

Addition may cost about $2.1 billion

By Leslie Berestein
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

December 30, 2005

A local Republican congressman who is calling for additional fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border took his cause to the border fence near Otay Mesa yesterday.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, added an amendment calling for nearly 700 miles of additional fencing in four states to a sweeping immigration bill that passed 239-182 in the House of Representatives on Dec. 16. Last month, he introduced his own legislation calling for a 2,000-mile fence from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.

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Minutemen to heighten post-holiday patrolling

Louie Gilot
El Paso Times
Friday, December 30, 2005

A local Minuteman group that has been patrolling the Fabens area off and on since October is getting ready for a "push in the next couple of weeks," said Minuteman volunteer Ken Muise, an El Pasoan.

Muise said the increased activity of the group, the Texas Minutemen, will coincide with a traditional increase in crossings of undocumented immigrants returning from Mexico after the holidays.

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Increase in Migrants Test Stamina of CGC Vigilant

U.S. Coast Guard | December 27, 2005

CARIBBEAN SEA - The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Vigilant, homeported in Cape Canaveral, Fla., has experienced first-hand the increase in the number of migrants attempting to reach the United States. Coast Guard data shows that as of Dec. 16, 2005, 2,683 Cubans had been intercepted at sea. That amount is nearly double the number for all of 2004 and the highest level since the 1994 exodus sanctioned by Fidel Castro.

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A first for Santa Cruz County: Mexican bank opens in downtown Watsonville

By TOM RAGAN
SENTINEL STAFF WRITER

WATSONVILLE — Bancomer, the only Mexican bank between here and San Jose, is open for business downtown.

Located at 428-430 Main St., the bank opened last month hoping to serve the city's 80 percent Latino population.

In Watsonville, there are several banks that cater to the unique services that Mexican nationals demand — whether offering special deals and debit cards that effectively wire money to Mexico in a matter of minutes or accommodating undocumented immigrants by opening up checking accounts with national ID cards issued by the Mexican consulate.

Here is a Mexican company opening up in the USA specifically to cater to the illegals! Amazing! -mm

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TWO MEN FACE CHARGES AFTER ICE AGENTS UNCOVER HUMAN SMUGGLING “DROP HOUSE” IN RIVERSIDE
Migrants report being held for more than a month, fed only once a day

LOS ANGELES - Two Guatemalan men, who served as “enforcers” in an Inland Empire human smuggling “drop house” where aliens were reportedly held against their will for weeks and fed only once a day, are expected to make their initial appearance in federal court here this afternoon to face human smuggling and hostage taking charges.

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ICE-LED INVESTIGATION DISMANTLES DRUG TRAFFICKING ORGANIZATION OPERATING IN THE CARIBBEAN

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico— ...announced the criminal indictment and arrests of nine alleged members of a drug trafficking organization in a complex international drug trafficking scheme that spanned from Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to the United States.

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Illegal immigration is all about money

By Louis G. Dominguez, Greenwich
12/30/2005

The nation's newspapers and magazines are full of it and TV networks can't let a day go by without reporting about new proposals from the federal government to deal with what has become a national emergency: what to do about the illegal invasion of America.

With more than 20 million illegal entrants in the U.S., the solution seems to elude everyone and every new proposal gets immediately shut down by critics because it does not go far enough or because it does not solve the problem.

What most politicians will not admit is that special interest is what keeps fueling the invasion of America: unscrupulous businesses making money are the magnets that keep the illegals coming.

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Sex Offender Arrested Re-Entering U.S.

Man In Vehicle Allegedly Carrying Cocaine

SAN ANTONIO -- A convicted sex offender was arrested in San Antonio Wednesday after he illegally sneaked back into the country, police said.

Angel Ruiz Bernal, 35, was taken into custody following a routine traffic stop in the 1600 block of Harness Lane.

He was arrested eight years ago and served a five-year sentence for rape. After being released from prison, Bernal was deported to Mexico.

This is one they caught. How many have returned and not been caught? - mm

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Mexico promises new, more humanistic policy for migrants on its southern border

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico has drawn up a new, more "humanistic, democratic and realistic" plan for handling migrants _ mainly Central Americans _ on its southern border, including legal changes, the Interior Department said on Thursday.

The announcement comes a week after human rights officials criticized Mexico's treatment of migrants and noted that Mexico uses some of the same methods to combat undocumented migration that it criticizes in the United States.

Believe this and I've got a bridge in NYC that I can sell you at a bargain! -mm

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U.S. pays Mexico to secure border

Chris Hawley
Republic Mexico City Bureau

MEXICO CITY - It was a sunny day in Texas, and the mood was upbeat at George W. Bush's ranch as the U.S. president shook the hand of his Mexican counterpart and thanked him for helping keep America safe.

"In this age of terror, the security of our borders is more important than ever, and the cooperation between Mexico and American border and law enforcement is stronger than ever," Bush said during the March 2004 summit.

Like Bush, U.S. officials have repeatedly praised Mexico's efforts to bolster security on its side of the border as the countries try to present a united face against criminals and terrorists in the wake of Sept. 11. But the reality is that U.S. taxpayers have bankrolled much of Mexico's increased border vigilance. From X-ray scanners and helicopters to intelligence training, the United States has been quietly pouring millions of dollars into Mexico in the hopes of bolstering U.S. national security.

Columnist Hal Rothman: On how the Las Vegas Valley will inevitably become a predominantly Spanish-speaking community

Hal Rothman is a professor of History at UNLV. His column appears Sunday.

•••

Feliz Navidad. If you don't know what that means, you had better find out.

The most significant demographic change in Las Vegas in the past 15 years is neither the emergence of a retirement community nor the growth of a transplanted upper-middle-class. It is, wholeheartedly and without a doubt, the remarkable growth of the Spanish-surnamed population.

No group of people has become more visible in recent years in Las Vegas than Latinos. They have come from everywhere, from East Los Angeles and now South Central, increasingly Latino instead of African American.

They leave Mexico in droves, fleeing the poverty of the cities and oppression of the highlands. Middle-class people from Nicaragua, Salvador, Guatemala and Panama come, fleeing the anarchic and often lethal dangers of life in societies with private armies and rampant poverty, where riding in limousines surrounded by armed escorts makes you a target. Filipinos arrive in an ever-growing stream. We have even imported the show that Fidel Castro does not want you to see.

Tougher measures aim to rein in uncontrolled immigration
By MARK KRIKORIAN
Published on: 12/29/05

All the usual suspects have denounced the immigration-control bill passed this month by the U.S. House of Representatives. Rather than represent the jackboot of fascism, the bill, sponsored by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), is a belated response to the public's outrage over Washington's refusal to enforce the immigration laws.

The illegal population in the United States has grown to some 11 million people, not because immigration is some kind of irresistible force, like the tides or the weather, but because the special interests that benefit from uncontrolled immigration — employers of cheap labor, ethnic pressure groups, left-wing organizations, immigration lawyers — are not counterbalanced by any special interests that benefit from immigration controls.

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Local births mirror nation
Trend continuing: Hispanic babies born at greater rate than other groups
By Tom Polansek
STAFF WRITER

Elgin continued to follow a national trend in 2005 as Sherman Hospital delivered the largest percentage of Hispanic babies in its history.

Of 2,429 babies born at Sherman so far this year, 58.2 percent were Hispanic, a hospital spokesman said. That compares with 56.1 percent in 2004 and 55.3 percent in 2003.

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No one's on the fence as Mexico rips 'disgraceful' plan, U.S. cites security
By DUDLEY ALTHAUS and JAMES PINKERTON
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

MEXICO CITY - It hasn't even been built, but already a proposed 15-feet-high fence along nearly a third of the U.S.-Mexico border has ignited fiery passions on both sides of the international line.

To diehard supporters, the proposed fence isn't just metal and concrete, it's a way to help protect the United States, cut crime and reduce the threat of terrorism.

But some critics say such a barrier is inhumane and ill-conceived, a logistical nightmare that could jeopardize local border economies, threaten the environment and ultimately cost U.S. taxpayers billions upon billions of dollars.

The fence proposal, which passed overwhelmingly in the House of Representatives on Dec. 16, calls for a double-layered barrier along some of the most vulnerable stretches of the 1,951-mile border, including a 227-mile section of the Rio Grande in Texas.

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The Cornerstone Report: Volume 2, Issue 3

The Currency Transaction Report
Controversial To Some—Essential To All

$4.7 million in seized smuggled currency—some still in their Federal Reserve wrappers. BSA reporting requirements force criminals to use risky and vulnerable methods to move and store their proceeds.

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Immigration: A Tool in the Enemies’ Toolkit
By Olivia Albrecht FOX News

Illegal or fraudulent immigration into the United States is an important tool in the toolkits of America’s enemies – and it has been exploited tirelessly, and tragically, all too successfully.

The problems resulting from the amenable and porous borders of the United States have metastasized beyond the socio-economic concerns of ruinous welfare and health care loads, and unemployment. The immigration issue has been elevated to a critical problem of national security that demands our attention.

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Ala. could join states that require drivers know English
By Mike Linn, USA TODAY

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A state judge could rule soon on whether Alabama must give driver's license exams only in English or can test potential motorists in 12 other languages as it has since 1998.

A long-running legal battle pits English-only advocates here against the state and civil rights groups. The driver's license issue, which states have grappled with for decades, is part of a debate over immigration that has reached Congress and state legislatures.

Six states still require residents to take the written exams in English, says K.C. McAlpin, executive director of ProEnglish, an Arlington, Va.-based organization that supports laws or constitutional amendments declaring English the USA's official language. It also defends the rights of states to make English the official language of government operations.

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Treason For Fun And Profit: Peter Schey And His “Mexico Project”

By Thomas Allen

The Mexican government, and its American allies, are not content with merely advising Mexican nationals about how to evade U.S. immigration law enforcement on their way into the U.S.

They now offer advice about how to use the latest in U.S. law to change status from illegal alien to permanent legal resident after arrival.

Using the Spanish-language media, Mexican consulates in California, Arizona, Texas and Illinois are advertising the benefits of the soon-to-be issued U-visa directly to individuals they know are in the U.S. illegally

Insanity Reigns -- Gov't 'Aids and Abets' Illegal Aliens! (Part 1 - Overview)

By Daneen G. Peterson, Ph.D.

As a nation, it seems we've already left behind our proud history, becoming more and more impotent, day by day. We seem to be sitting quietly on the sidelines, while our American culture and language are being ripped from our control! Why have we allowed the government of Mexico to execute a de facto war by encouraging tens of millions of their poorest citizens to illegally enter America? The Mexican illegal alien invasion is an 'act of war' that has reduced our country to nothing but a lawless territory, with little or no sovereignty left!

Misc. Madness: Gov't 'Aids and Abets' Illegal Aliens (Part 2)

By Daneen G. Peterson, Ph.D.
December 28, 2005

After reading Insanity Reigns . . .(Part 1 - Overview), it should be patently clear why our borders have been left wide-open!(1) "We the People" have already been sold down the river. Everyone is aware that NAFTA + CAFTA = SHAFTA for the American worker. The miscellaneous governmental insanities, found in this research paper, will provide additional proof about how the Council on Foreign Relation's (CFR's) global elites are working overtime to erase our borders and dismantle our sovereignty. We MUST stop the insanity by voting out of office those who facilitate the CFR's plans before our constitution ends up in the dustbin of history! During the 2006 election cycle American citizens must DEMAND that the Military be placed on our borders and that our immigration laws be enforced!

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Motorist flees Border Patrol, leaves 400 pounds of pot at crash scene
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

A motorist who was fleeing from a Border Patrol agent abandoned 400 pounds of marijuana after running a red light and crashing on the Interstate 10 frontage road at Orange Grove Road, officials said.

The agent had tried to stop the driver of a blue Chevrolet Monte Carlo with Sonora plates on Interstate 10 around 7:40 p.m. Tuesday. But the vehicle drove off when the agent got out of his vehicle, said Sean King, a Border Patrol spokesman.

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Official: Yuma cabs used in alien smuggling
BY BLAKE SCHMIDT, SUN STAFF WRITER

Though most taxi drivers in Yuma are not involved in alien smuggling, there is a "small element" of drivers who are involved in organized human trafficking, charging people higher-than-average cab fares to pick them up after they have crossed the border illegally, according to Gramley.

Typically, the aliens are picked up in San Luis, Somerton, or on the agricultural outskirts of Yuma County and brought to the city, Gramley said.

In Yuma, they will wait in drop houses or other places to begin the next leg of their journey north, he said.

Several Yuma law enforcement agencies have told The Sun that taxi smugglers have been an ongoing problem, particularly in south Yuma County.

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Funding for children of illegal immigrants expanding in Nevada

LAS VEGAS A Nevada state program providing monthly welfare payments to children born in the United States to illegal immigrants has expanded for the last three years.

State figures show the program -- called nonqualified, noncitizen assistance -- has risen from an average of 670 monthly cases statewide in 2003 to 765 cases in 2005.

The program cost increased over the same period from two-point-one to two-point-five (M) Million dollars.

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Feds clamp down on corruption in Arizona
Public servants under scrutiny
Dennis Wagner
The Arizona Republic

In southern Arizona, more than 40 soldiers, airmen, border guards and correctional officers took bribes from FBI agents posing as cocaine smugglers.

In Maricopa County, dozens of workers at the state Motor Vehicle Division conducted side businesses selling fraudulent driver's licenses on the black market.

In Marana, the mayor was indicted on a charge of attempted extortion.

Pat Schneider, the top federal criminal prosecutor in Arizona, said he doesn't know whether government corruption is getting worse or it just seems that way because more public servants are getting caught.

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CBP Border Patrol Agents Arrest Homicide Suspect
Agents Capture Criminal Alien Attempting to Flee to Mexico

(Tuesday, December 27, 2005)

Harlingen, TX – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol agents in Harlingen, Texas apprehended a suspect on December 21, 2005, who was wanted in connection to a homicide that occurred in Winston Salem, North Carolina. The Winston Salem Police Department issued a warrant for the arrest of Christian Omar Pacheco-Torres after he fled the N.C. area and was attempting to flee the country to avoid prosecution.

Rescue beacons lead to rescue of 14 aliens
FROM STAFF REPORTS

Fourteen illegal aliens are in custody after U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents rescued them at a military bombing range.

At approximately 9 p.m. Sunday, a CBP rescue beacon located in a remote area of the Barry M. Goldwater Range was activated.

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Fight over 'birthright citizenship' to heat up
The Associated Press

NEW YORK - A proposal to change long-standing federal policy and deny citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants on U.S. soil ran aground this month in Congress, but it is sure to resurface - kindling bitter debate even if it fails to become law.

At issue is "birthright citizenship" - provided for since the Constitution's 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868.

Section 1 of that amendment, drafted with freed slaves in mind, says: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."

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Teenage girl found killed in Mexican border city

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- The semi-naked, bullet-ridden body of a teenage girl was found in an apartment in Ciudad Juarez, a border city notorious for killings of women, officials said Monday.

Federal investigators say that more than 350 women have been slain in the city since 1993. About 100 killings followed an eerily similar pattern in which young women were sexually assaulted, strangled and dumped in the desert.

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Radio station segment alerts listeners to Border Patrol agents
By: Associated Press

SAN ANTONIO -- A segment warning undocumented immigrants about immigration agents could be delaying San Antonio's leading Spanish-language radio station from renewing its license.

In the recurring KROM-Radio segment, callers report sightings of immigration agents.

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CASTORENA-IBARRA SENTENCED IN CONNECTION TO COUNTERFEIT IMMIGRATION IDENTIFICATION RELATED DOCUMENTS

DENVER - A high-ranking member of the Castorena Family Organization was sentenced today to 87 months in prison for money laundering related to the production and sale of fraudulent and counterfeit immigration identification documents. The sentence was announced by Bill Leone, U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado, and Jeffrey Copp, special agent-in-charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Denver Office.

Francisco Javier Castorena-Ibarra, 46, from Mexico City, Mexico, was sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Lewis T. Babcock to serve 87 months (more than seven years) in federal prison.

Lawmakers Considers Penalty on States That Give Illegal Aliens Driver's Licenses

Some advocates say illegal immigrants should be granted driver's licensees, at least as a way to keep track of them. But critics complain it would reward aliens who have already broken U.S. law.

The debate has led some U.S. lawmakers to threaten financial consequences to their own states.

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Smuggled for the holidays
FROM STAFF AND AP REPORTS

An increasing number of smuggling suspects have been arrested trying to bring children from Mexico, an annual problem as illegal immigrants working in the United States arrange to have their kids shipped north for holiday reunions.

While the problem has been on the rise elsewhere along the border, the number of unaccompanied children detained by the U.S. Border Patrol in the Yuma sector remains constant, spokesman Michael Gramley said.

Apprehensions of unaccompanied minors take place every day in the Yuma sector, he said, but the apprehension numbers have not increased during this holiday season.

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Mexico tries to purge drug gang-corrupted force
REUTERS

MEXICO CITY – Mexico is trying to purge 800 corruption-tainted federal agents from an elite force modeled on the FBI but infiltrated by drug gangs, the attorney general's office said Saturday.

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U.S.: Mexican Military Rife with Drug Corruption
NewsMax.com Wires

WASHINGTON -- U.S. officials and analysts say there are new signs that drug corruption is spreading within the Mexican military, an institution long regarded as more professional and less prone to criminality than the country's law enforcement agencies.

In interviews, four senior U.S. officials, a senior Mexican intelligence official and three independent analysts all expressed concern about the expanding role of the Mexican military in the drug war. Some pointed to low pay among the middle and lower ranks as making military personnel vulnerable to offers from cartel leaders who may double or triple their pay.

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Officials focus on puppy smuggling from Mexico

Dogs sold in U.S. at exorbitant prices are often unable to survive
By ELLIOT SPAGAT
Associated Press

SAN DIEGO - Smugglers are buying puppies at rock-bottom prices in Mexico and selling them in the United States for up to $1,000, often to owners who later discover the canines are too sick or too young to survive on their own, authorities said.

The Border Puppy Task Force — a group of 18 animal control and health agencies and animal protection groups — said last week that a two-week operation at San Diego's two border crossings confirmed what they long suspected: Mexico is a breeding ground for unscrupulous puppy peddlers.

Experts: Millions of immigrants remain in U.S. after visas expire

PHOENIX (AP) -- Millions of undocumented immigrants - many from Canada, Mexico and Europe - have entered Arizona and U.S. states legally with student, work or tourism visas and then remain after their visas expired.

Known as "overstays," they have received scant attention in the national debate over immigration reform and homeland security, even though the government estimates overstays make up at least a third of the nation's total undocumented population of about 11 million people.

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State lawmakers to renew push to target illegal immigrants
By JACQUES BILLEAUD
Associated Press Writer

PHOENIX (AP) -- Some states struggling with illegal immigration and associated problems will see a renewed push by their state lawmakers in the coming year to punish businesses that hire undocumented workers and bar illegal immigrants from getting in-state tuition.

Both ideas rank among the top proposals state lawmakers across the country will offer as they try to address the problems caused by the thousands of people crossing the border illegally each year.

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Lawmakers hope to compel Washington to change immigration rules
By GIOVANNA DELL'ORTO
Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA (AP) -- Those who favor cracking down on illegal immigration and those who want more benefits for all immigrants, legal or not, agree on one thing - the federal government might be the one with the power to create and enforce immigration policy, but it's failing at it.

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Mexico City combats sidewalk pornography
By Mark Stevenson
ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEXICO CITY – Mexico City launched an uphill battle this week against street vendors who have turned many of the city's sidewalks and subway entrances into in-your-face displays of graphic, triple-X movies and magazines.

Some 600 city police confiscated thousands of pirated pornographic videos from a five-block stretch Tuesday in an effort to force some of the city's unlicensed street vendors to be more discreet with their X-rated wares in this socially conservative society.

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Official gets deported for beating death
UNION-TRIBUNE

Former Mexican state investigator Ramon Guerrero Martínez, who allegedly participated in beating a bank robbery suspect to death in Tijuana four years ago, was deported to Mexico this week to face charges there.

Guerrero, whom Mexican authorities had been seeking since the 2001 beating, was arrested by San Diego police March 29 after a domestic disturbance call in which he was accused of beating his 9-year-old daughter.

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Fewer Mexicans head home for holidays

Those going south fear they may not be able to get back into the U.S. It's a three-year trend.
ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN
Associated Press Writer

For the third straight year, fewer illegal immigrants are returning to Mexico from Arizona for the holiday season, likely fearing tightened borders will make it too tough to re-enter the U.S., a Mexican consular spokesman said.

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Nation's Police Chiefs Say Illegal Alien Gang Linked to Al-Qaeda

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 103 members of the violent street gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) in six major U.S. cities as part of a new anti-gang initiative called “Operation Community Shield,” according to a report received by the National Association of Chiefs of Police.

The hundreds individuals arrested to date are accused of violations that range from felony charges of re-entering the United States after deportation, to violating state anti-gang injunctions, to violating the terms of their immigration status due to prior convictions for attempted murder, sodomy, assault, arson, weapons possession and narcotics violations. Roughly half of these 103 individuals have prior arrests or convictions for violent crimes. Several also have charges of murder pending against them.

…. many MS-13 members derive income from the sale of illegal drugs and other contraband, making them subject to ICE’s counter-drug, financial and other investigative authorities. MS-13 is also suspected of collaboration with members or associates of the Al-Qaeda terrorism network. Seizure and forfeiture of funds, property and other illegally derived assets will be another part of the Operation.

Merry Christmas to all!

It is my hope that during these days of celebration that you will join with those shepherds and wisemen of long ago and seek out He who was given to us and is Christ the King!

Next update will be Monday, December 25.

‘People will find a way to cross’
BY PAIGE LAUREN DEINER, SUN STAFF WRITER
Dec 22, 2005

SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Son. — Ignacia Perez Valadez remembers when there was only a chain-link fence separating this border city from San Luis, Ariz.

She said her grandchildren used to wiggle under the fence to play soccer in the open fields on the United States side. That was more than 12 years ago and since then, the United States has constructed a large metal fence that separates San Luis Rio Colorado from its U.S. sister city.

If Congress has its way, Mexicans living all along the nearly 2,000-mile border with the United States will one day look at a similar obstruction.

The U.S. House of Representatives, acting to curb illegal immigration, passed a measure last week that would extend walls along those portions of the border where they currently do not exist.

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Border Patrol saves two illegal aliens in canal
FROM STAFF REPORTS
Dec 22, 2005

The rescue of two illegal aliens Thursday morning were the 59th and 60th rescues made since Oct. 1 by the U.S. Border Patrol's Yuma sector.

At 4 a.m., a group of more than 20 illegal aliens who crossed into the United States near San Luis, Ariz., was spotted by Border Patrol on a remote-video-surveillance camera.

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Man sentenced for immigrant trafficking, money laundering

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) -- A Texas man who brought Mexicans to North Dakota to work at Asian restaurants has been sentenced to nine years in federal prison.

Shan Wei Yu, 51, of McKinney, Texas, was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court for illegal immigrant trafficking and money laundering.

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Guards gave prison gang riot weapons, officials say
Louie Gilot
El Paso TImes
Friday, December 23, 2005

Prison guards organized and provided the weapons for the fatal gang riot at the Cereso prison in Juárez, Juárez officials said Thursday.

Guards not only provided one gang, the Aztecas, with knives, shields and helmets, but also let 600 Aztecas members into the segregated area housing members of the rival Mexicles gang, said Patricia González, the attorney general for the state of Chihuahua.

González also said that the riot was the result of years of lawlessness and corruption at the prison.

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Mexico Admits Poor Treatment of Migrants
By MARK STEVENSON
The Associated Press
Wednesday, December 21, 2005; 10:39 PM

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's federal Human Rights Commission acknowledged on Wednesday that the country uses some of the same methods in dealing with illegal migrants that it has criticized the United States for employing.

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Inside ICE: Volume 2, Issue 25
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Newsletter

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Living 'in a state of fear'

Police buildup in border town fuels hopes of security
By ABE LEVY
Associated Press

LAREDO - Alarmed that rival drug cartels in Mexico's Nuevo Laredo might spread violence into the United States, federal and Texas politicians in 2005 began sending money and resources in waves to this border town.

Gov. Rick Perry pledged $10 million to sheriffs in border counties. A binational intelligence-sharing plan began as a way to weed out the region's violent offenders. Congress proposed spending $10 million annually to fund a Laredo-based police task force.

20 arrested in $1 million meth bust
Michael Kiefer
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 22, 2005 05:40 PM

A police shootout in July launched an investigation into a dangerous drug ring that ended with the arrest of 20 suspects and the confiscation of more than $1 million worth of methamphetamine and $1.5 million in cash.

Police identified the ringleaders as William Shaffer McDowell, 30, and Michael Alvarez Fiore, 39. Police said they believe co-conspirators would import the methamphetamine in a raw form from the Mexican state of Sinaloa and cook it into the final product in Valley labs.

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Ton of pot found among cucumbers in truck
Associated Press
Dec. 22, 2005 05:45 PM

NOGALES, Ariz. - A truck hauling veggies was actually a ruse to smuggle a ton of pot into the U.S.

The feds found the pot under cucumbers in a trailer pulled by a truck that tried to cross the border at Nogales.

Border Patrol agents screened the trailer looking for contraband. When results of a scan looked odd, the feds say agents boarded the trailer and uncovered 104 bales of marijuana buried under cucumbers.

The pot has a street value of more than $1.5 million. The driver was arrested and handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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Mexican tribunal reduces sentences of drug cartel kingpins
By Eduardo Castillo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
6:40 p.m. December 22, 2005

MEXICO CITY – A Mexican tribunal has slashed the sentences of two brothers convicted in 2004 of heading a drug cartel that smuggled tons of methamphetamines into the United States, the Federal Attorney General's Office said Thursday.

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Mexico treats migrants same way U.S. does
But it criticizes House bill trying to make illegal entry a felony and calling for troops on border.

The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY - Mexico uses some of the same methods to deal with illegal migrants, mainly Central Americans, that it opposes in the United States, human rights officials here said yesterday.

The admission comes as Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez called on Latin American countries to unite against a U.S. House of Representatives bill to toughen border enforcement.

Article 123 of Mexico's Population Law states that "foreigners illegally entering the country will be subject to punishment of up to two years in prison" and fines up to $28,220. Such prison sentences are rarely imposed.

Jose Luis Soberanes, president of the rights commission, said that Mexico also uses many government agencies, such as the police and the military, to detain illegal immigrants, even though Mexican law technically doesn't allow that.

Mexico asking Latin American countries to unite over fight against U.S. immigration bill

ASSOCIATED PRESS
12:37 p.m. December 21, 2005

MEXICO CITY – Mexico is asking Latin American governments to build a united front to fight U.S. plans for a border wall, the foreign secretary said Wednesday.

Foreign Secretary Luis Derbez said during a news conference that Mexico has contacted several governments in the region to ask them to denounce the U.S. measures, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives Friday, to build a 700-mile wall to keep out migrants.

Agents nab 74 illegals in 4 busts
BY BLAKE SCHMIDT, SUN STAFF WRITER

Yuma sector Border Patrol agents seized a pickup truck with a shell trailer, two vans, a Chevrolet Suburban and a Blazer all crammed with illegal aliens in four different busts Monday night, according to a Border Patrol news release.

The grand tally of the four busts was 74 illegal aliens, though dozens got away after they fled into Mexico on foot, according to the release.

"That's a high number of smuggling loads to be apprehended in one evening," Yuma sector spokesman Michael Gramley said.

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Fewer Arizona families going to Mexico during Christmas break

PHOENIX (AP) -- Fewer families seem willing to take their annual Christmas trek to Mexico if they aren't in the U.S. legally and that means fewer children are missing school when classes resume in January.

Every year at this time, principals launch campaigns to get all children back to school after the holidays, sending out reminders about when classes end and start again for winter break.

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Feds: Smugglers get violent with illegal immigrants in Xmas season

PHOENIX (AP) -- As the flow of illegal immigration across the Arizona border slows during the Christmas season, federal authorities fear an increase in violence toward undocumented immigrants by smuggling gangs trying to make up for a decrease in profits.

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Hiring enforcement likely to get tougher
Louie Gilot
El Paso Times

Raids of employers of undocumented immigrants are often high profile, but have become so infrequent that most undocumented workers work for years without a problem.

In September, authorities stopped 12 undocumented immigrants on their way to work at a construction site inside White Sands Missile Range. Earlier this year, Wal-Mart agreed to pay $11 million to settle allegations that its cleaning contractors hired undocumented immigrants. None of the El Paso Wal-Marts were cited for hiring undocumented workers.

But these cases are exceptions.

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Examiner Editorial - The hidden costs of cheap labor

The ongoing political debate over whether it takes a village - or a family - to raise a child takes on new meaning when the whole village seems to be living in a house originally designed for one family.

Ordinances governing single-family neighborhoods in Fairfax County have been flagrantly violated for years. For example, a house located on a quiet residential street in Annandale was retrofitted with two additional front doors - for a total of three - in full public view. Despite numerous complaints from neighbors, nothing happened. It's not hard to spot expanded driveways built to accommodate up to 10 vehicles overnight or loads of debris left at the curb on trash day that even the most wasteful nuclear family would have a hard time generating in one week.

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Drug trade intertwined with illegal immigration
Mason Stockstill and Sara Carter, Staff Writers
San Bernardino County Sun

It's dangerous enough to enter the United States illegally through the Arizona desert. Temperatures can top 100 degrees Migrants often don't carry enough water to remain hydrated for the days-long hike. And unscrupulous smugglers have been known to abandon their charges if they've already paid the crossing fee.

Now, imagine doing it high on amphetamines.

Border Patrol agents say that's happening more and more, as hapless border crossers find themselves entangled with drug smugglers looking for a way to get their product into the country. In exchange for carrying drugs across the border, the smugglers called "narcotraficantes" or "polleros" cover some of what the immigrants pay to their guides. The crossers then take a pill typically speed so they'll have enough energy to make it to the drop site.

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Homeland Insecurity:
Porus border stokes terror fears
By Sara A. Carter & Mason Stockstill, Staff Writers

Juan Carlos is just another unsuspected face. He speaks English with only a slight accent. His fair complexion and light hazel eyes rarely garner him a second glance once he's crossed into the United States.

He's a gang member. He's an ex-convict. And he's here illegally.

Mexicans react with rage, frustration to U.S. proposal for wall along border

By Mark Stevenson

ASSOCIATED PRESS

12:17 p.m. December 20, 2005

MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government, angered by a U.S. proposal to extend a wall along the border to keep out migrants, has struck back with radio ads urging Mexican workers to denounce rights violations in the United States.

Facing a growing tide of anti-immigrant sentiment north of the border, the Mexican government is also hiring an American public relations firm to improve its image.

Authorities at Mexico City airport capture man believed to be top drug hit man
ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEXICO CITY – Federal police at the Mexican capital's airport Monday captured a suspected top hit man for one of the country's most-violent drug cartels, authorities said.

Jesus Lopez, was detained aboard a pre-dawn flight arriving at Benito Juarez International Airport from the western U.S.-Mexico border city of Mexicali, according to a statement released by the federal attorney general's office.

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Fox calls U.S. plans for wall 'shameful'
The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY - Mexican President Vicente Fox stepped up his attacks on the U.S. plan to build a fence along its southern border yesterday, saying it was a "shameful" move for a democracy.

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Mexican official says U.S. plan for border wall 'stupid' and 'underhanded'

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico's foreign secretary Monday levelled his country's sharpest criticism yet at a U.S. proposal for a fence along parts of its southern border, condemning it as "stupid" and "underhanded."

In a radio interview, Luis Ernesto Derbez said U.S. legislators who approved the bill are turning a blind eye to the contributions millions of migrants from Mexico and elsewhere make to the U.S. economy and culture. "It's a law that looks underhanded to everybody...stupid," Derbez said.

Farm labor shortage in Yuma gives rise to cash pay
BY BLAKE SCHMIDT, SUN STAFF WRITER
Dec 18, 2005

SAN LUIS, Ariz. — A shortage in farm laborers has given rise to a controversial cash pay system in the Yuma agricultural industry.

Some area growers and farm labor contractors, competing for workers from a diminishing pool of labor, offer workers "la tira," Spanish for "the throw," a daily cash advance of $20 to $50 that is to be taken out of workers' paychecks.

The employers say the system is a necessary evil and the result of companies competing for fewer and fewer workers amid a shortage, which growers say is being exacerbated by enforcement efforts of the U.S. Border Patrol.

But opponents of the cash advance say the pay system fosters a tax-evading, illegal work force. They say cash in hand at the end of each day for farm workers promotes the poverty cycle for workers, and makes it next to impossible for workers to file complaints against employers and contractors.

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Most agree cash payment attracts the undocumented
BY BLAKE SCHMIDT, SUN STAFF WRITER
Dec 18, 2005

A daily cash advance pay system offered by some Yuma-area growers and labor contractors could attract undocumented or falsely documented workers, opponents say.

The system, known as “la tira,” gives those undocumented workers the security of cash in hand at the end of the day, when the possibility of deportation makes it undesirable to wait around for weekly or biweekly paychecks.

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Many options, no easy solutions

Susan Carroll
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 19, 2005 12:00 AM

ON THE BORDER WEST OF DOUGLAS - From the dirt road that parallels the U.S.-Mexican border, a lush, green valley stretches out from southeastern Arizona into Mexico. On the desert floor, dozens of foot trails snake north toward the United States. The barbed-wire fence droops to the ground. It doesn't even keep the cattle from wandering across.

Not all the 1,951-mile border is like this. In big cities such as San Diego and El Paso, and even some smaller towns, including Nogales, the federal government has built towering steel and concrete-post walls and doubled then tripled the number of U.S. Border Patrol agents. They made 1.17 million arrests in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

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Fox to Americans: Don't forget your immigrant roots
Sun Dec 18, 2005 3:56 PM ET
By Alistair Bell

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Angered by a bill in the U.S. Congress aimed at cracking down on undocumented workers, Mexican President Vicente Fox urged Americans on Sunday not to forget that many of their ancestors emigrated to the United States.

The legislation, which foresees building a high-tech fence on parts of the U.S.-Mexican border to stop illegal immigrants, neared passage in the U.S. House of Representatives last week.

The legislation, which has divided Republicans, would also make it harder for U.S. employers to hire illegal aliens and make it a felony to live in the United States illegally.

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Deported immigrant speeds back to Colorado
By GARY HARMON The Daily Sentinel
Sunday, December 18, 2005

When Federico Ortega was deported to Mexico in November, it was, in the words of a U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement spokesman, “in order that he didn’t go back onto our streets.”

Within a week after he was sent across the border, according to law enforcement officials familiar with him, Ortega, 30, was haunting the dusty back roads of Delta County, packing a loaded .45-caliber handgun, two clips, a packet of methamphetamine and a pipe for smoking it.

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Minuteman-inspired groups gain popularity
By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN
Associated Press

TUCSON, Ariz. - The Minuteman Project started earlier this year amid fears that racist extremists would confront and possibly injure illegal immigrants crossing into Arizona.

But there were no significant confrontations - no fights, and rarely any excitement - when hundreds of people traveled to the Arizona desert during April to watch for border crossers and report them to immigration agents.

Since then, the movement has taken hold with Minuteman-inspired organizations springing up in several states, including Texas, and even critics acknowledge the participants are more than just a band of misfits, bigots and extremists.

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USCIS ISSUES CITIZENSHIP AND NATURALIZATION FACTS

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Read the latest entry from VDare.com
“Human Directionals”—The Cheap Wage/Expensive Land Economy Personified

By Steve Sailer

America's proud history as a middle class country rests fundamentally on two advantages of settling a mostly empty continent: a small supply of labor and a large supply of land.

This meant relatively high wages and low land prices, so Americans could afford to buy their own farms and homes.

In turn, this virtuous cycle encouraged Americans to invent labor-saving devices like the reaper, the washing machine, the assembly line, and the semiconductor.

Which made Americans even richer and more independent.

Sadly, immigration has created a wasteful abundance of cheap labor and contributed to a shortfall of cheap land.

House passes bill to tighten immigration law at border, workplace

By JIM ABRAMS
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House acted Friday to stem the tide of illegal immigration by taking steps to tighten border controls and stop unlawful immigrants from getting jobs. But lawmakers left for next year the tougher issue of what to do with the 11 million undocumented people already in the country.

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San Luis Fire Chief: Border security a challenge
BY BLAKE SCHMIDT, SUN STAFF WRITER

SAN LUIS, Ariz. — The new San Luis fire chief said border-related emergencies will be a challenge for what he says is an understaffed, underpaid fire department in this growing border city.

He said that on a daily basis, the fire department resources are being called to the U.S. Port of Entry at San Luis, Ariz., to pick up patients being sent to the United States from Mexico, and escort them to Yuma Regional Medical Center.

In the summer, his crews often come to the rescue of illegal aliens who are suffering from heat-related illnesses.

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Mexico criticizes U.S. immigration bill focusing mostly on border security

By Ioan Grillo
ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government Friday slammed the U.S. Congress for approving the construction of a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, while Mexican human rights groups said it will only cause more deaths.

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Two state police officers, one assailant killed in clash in Mexican border city
ASSOCIATED PRESS

TIJUANA, Mexico – A double attempt Friday against a state commander's life in this border city left two police officers and an assailant dead, authorities said.

Gunmen traveling in at least three cars opened fire just past midnight at the house of state police commander Carlos Gomez. Gomez responded to the attack, killing one of the assailants, said Alfredo Garcia, a spokesman for the attorney general's office in Baja California, where Tijuana is located.

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U.S. House OKs construction of 700-mile fence along U.S. border

Louie Gilot
El Paso Times

El Paso could get a border fence in less than two years --two layers of reinforced fencing with lights, cameras and sensors that many critics are calling a wall.

The House voted Thursday to add an amendment to the immigration bill HR4437 calling for the 700-mile fence to be built in five sections, leaving roughly 1,300 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border between the unfenced sections. One section would start five miles west of the Columbus, N.M., port of entry and end 10 miles east of El Paso.

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Steroid suppliers busted in 'huge' hit

Investigation largest ever in U.S. history

By Onell R. Soto
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Federal authorities announced yesterday that they have broken up a group of Mexican companies that supplies most of the illegal steroids used by hundreds of thousands of athletes, bodybuilders and others in the United States.

The steroid investigation resulted in the indictment of 23 people and eight Mexican companies, and was the largest in U.S. history, said John S. Fernandes, the special agent in charge of the San Diego DEA office.

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Man With Decades-Old Homicide Warrant Nabbed at Arizona Border

contacts for this press release

SAN LUIS, AZ - U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers Friday were conducting routine checks on a man attempting to enter the country at the San Luis, Arizona port of entry when they discovered something unusual—a 20-year-old homicide warrant.

Emidio Ramirez Macias was found to have an outstanding warrant to a crime committed in Los Angeles in 1985. He was taken into custody at the San Luis port of entry at 3:30 a.m. and turned over to U.S. Marshals for return to California.