Mexican immigration official arrested
By IOAN GRILLO
Associated Press Writer

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- The U.S. Border Patrol arrested a Mexican immigration official who was allegedly trying to help a group of undocumented migrants sneak into the United States, the Mexican government said Sunday.

Immigration agent Francisco Javier Gutierrez was arrested at a checkpoint near Alamogordo, N.M., about 100 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, the Mexican Interior Department said in a news release.

Gutierrez had been fired on corruption allegations last year but returned to his job after winning a court case in which he claimed he had been unfairly dismissed, according to the National Immigration Institute.

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Mexican man arrested in border tunnel case

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- A Mexican citizen was arrested on drug charges in the investigation into the longest cross-border tunnel ever found along the U.S.-Mexico border, U.S. officials said Monday.

The suspect, whose identity was not immediately released, was taken into custody during the weekend by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

He was expected to be arraigned Monday on charges of conspiracy to import a controlled substance.

The 2,400-foot-long tunnel ran from an area near the airport in Tijuana to a warehouse in San Diego. It was unclear how long the tunnel had been in operation, but more than 2 tons of marijuana were found inside.

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Good comments from the Instapundit on Immigration.

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Arresting a Crime Wave
Southern California cops take on the illegal-alien problem.

Imagine the following: While out on patrol in one of L.A.'s less fashionable neighborhoods, I spot a man I recognize as someone I have previously arrested. I have personal knowledge that this man was convicted of an offense against the people of California, for which he was bundled off to serve a stretch in the penitentiary. I also have personal knowledge that this man is an illegal alien, and that following his prison sentence he was turned over to federal authorities and deported to his country of origin. Yet, to my surprise, there he is enjoying the blessings of America as he strolls down the avenue just as boldly as you please. And now the question: What am I to do next?

Well, it depends whom you ask. Even within the Los Angeles Police Department there is a difference of opinion as to whether I should — or even can — detain the man unless I have reasonable suspicion of current criminal behavior. Mere suspicion that he has illegally reentered the country is not, some would argue, sufficient cause for me, a local police officer, to detain him and inquire as to his business here in el norte.

Since 1979, when the LAPD enacted Special Order 40, police officers in Los Angeles have been prohibited from taking any action "with the objective of discovering the alien status of a person," and from detaining or arresting anyone based solely on the suspicion that he has illegally entered the country. "Undocumented alien status in itself is not a matter for police action," the policy states. "It is, therefore, incumbent on all employees of [the LAPD] to make a personal commitment to equal enforcement of the law and service to the public, regardless of alien status."

Much has changed in Los Angeles since 1979. Among the more notable of these changes has been what Manhattan Institute Fellow Heather Mac Donald describes as an "illegal alien crime wave." Testifying last April before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims, Mac Donald cited some troubling figures:

• The L.A. County Sheriff reported in 2000 that 23 percent of inmates in county jails were deportable, according to the New York Times.
• In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide in the first half of 2004 (which totaled 1,200 to 1,500) targeted illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) were for illegal aliens.
• The Los Angeles Police Department arrests about 2500 criminally convicted deportees annually, reports the Los Angeles Times.

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Cocaine ring in Houston is linked to land deals here
By Peter Shinkle
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

The Garcia family of Houston has worked hard for decades, building a small empire consisting of a business that imported food from Mexico, two restaurants, a meat market and even a ranch for raising race horses.

It seemed a classic tale of immigrant success, and an example of the booming cross-border trade with Mexico.

Then, in 2004, family member Francisco Serna-Garcia was charged with being part of a conspiracy that imported something from Mexico besides food - cocaine.

It marked the unraveling of what Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Delworth called one of the biggest cocaine trafficking operations ever uncovered here. Prosecutors say that now, 33 guilty pleas later, it is about down to its loose ends.

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Smuggling tunnel details come to light
Door, on wheels, only was opened from below
By Tony Manolatos
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

The floor is layered concrete and ceramic tile 2 inches thick. You can't tell there's anything different with the four large tan tiles in the corner.

But it's a secret door, one that could be opened only from below.

It's this passageway that federal authorities said was the exit point for drug smugglers who built a massive underground tunnel to bring tons of marijuana into the United States from Tijuana.

Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement discovered the tunnel last week. It runs 2,400 feet, or the length of about eight football fields, and is equipped with lighting, ventilation and groundwater drainage.

When asked yesterday whether any arrests have been made, Special Agent Michael Unzueta only would say the investigation is “moving swiftly.”

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Mexican authorities using new database to identify dead, missing migrants
By Olga R. Rodriguez
ASSOCIATED PRESS

In the last decade, more than 3,000 migrants have died trying to sneak into the United States. Of those, at least 1,000 remain unidentified and many are buried in pauper graves in cemeteries along the border, Mexican officials say.

Other migrants disappear into new lives, using false names and leaving behind relatives in Mexico who may not have phones or may be difficult to contact.

The government's new program, known as the System for Identifying Remains and Locating Idividuals, links the Foreign Relations Department's 35 offices in Mexico and 45 consulates in the United States to an Internet database.

The offices will be able to feed the database with photos and information, including tattoos and birthmarks, that might help officials find those missing or identify the dead, said Marco Antonio Fraire, a spokesman for the program.

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This is not your typical smuggling story! -mm

Four men arrested for immigrant smuggling
A.J. FLICK
ajflick@tucsoncitizen.com

Four Mexican men were arrested Wednesday and are being held in federal detention on suspicion of transporting illegal immigrants.

Detention and preliminary hearings are set Monday for Pablo Rodriguez, Siad Contreras-Corral, Felipe Torres-Beltran and Javier Cota-Palafox, said Sandy Raynor, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona.

A complaint filed in U.S. District Court offers the following account:

Rodriguez was driving an SUV stopped by Border Patrol Agents on Interstate 10 near Picacho. A passenger said Contreras-Corral was armed and a pistol and ammunition were found in the vehicle.

The passenger said he and others had crossed the border when they were taken at gunpoint and that two other vehicles with armed men and kidnapped immigrants were involved.

Minutes later, an SUV matching a description the passenger had given drove by the agents.

That SUV was stopped near the Interstate 8 junction. Torres-Beltran was driving with Cota-Palafox in the front passenger seat. Agents found two assault-type rifles between the front seats and a pistol in the glove box.

The four men allegedly drove from Phoenix to Duval Mine Road to pick up the illegal immigrants. Torres-Beltran said they drove to Tucson to rob or steal from illegal immigrants and that he and Cota-Palafox stole the second SUV at gunpoint.

One passenger said the illegal immigrants were to be taken to Phoenix, where the kidnappers would demand money from their families to release them.

Mexicans doing this to other Mexicans! - mm

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The Plan of San Diego—Then…And Now?

By Steve Sailer

The Mainstream Media has finally noticed what VDARE.com has been reporting for years: the constant incursions by Mexican military units into American territory, typically while guarding drug and immigrant smugglers. By one estimate, the Mexican military has violated our largely unfenced border 231 times in the last decade. [Reports Cite Incursions on U.S. Border, By Richard Marosi, Robert J. Lopez and Rich Connell, LA Times, January 26, 2006]

This has reminded Americans with good memories of Pancho Villa's murderous raid on Columbus, New Mexico in 1916 and of the Zimmerman Telegram of 1917, in which Imperial Germany offered to help Mexico retake Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona (reserving California for Japan).

Mexican President Venustiano Carranza rejected the Zimmerman proposal – but only after studying the feasibility of a reconquista for several months.

Yet, almost nobody in America other than radical Aztlan separatists has heard of the sinister Plan of San Diego of 1915.

It's not a pretty story, so it's not surprising that few want to remember it.