U.S. facing severe worker shortage

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The United States faces a severe worker shortage in the near future, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday in advocating better education for Americans and changes in immigration law to allow in more foreign workers.

Chamber President and CEO Thomas Donohue, at a news conference outlining business prospects in 2006, said the country is ill-prepared to deal with the impending retirement of 77 million baby boomers.

"We have yet to secure an adequate supply of working taxpayers to run a growing economy and support an explosion of retirees," he said in his organization's report on the state of U.S. business.

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Juarense arrested after drugs found in van
Louie Gilot
El Paso Times

Customs officers found 254 pounds of marijuana hidden in the side panels of a 1979 Ford Econoline van Jan. 4 at the Paso del Norte Bridge, Customs and Border Protection officials said Friday.

The driver of the van, Guadalupe Alvidrez, 36, of Juárez, was arrested, officials said. CBP officers working at ports of entry in the El Paso area made 10 drug seizures in the past seven days, including 1,196 pounds of marijuana and less than an ounce of cocaine. Officers also stopped three people with steroids.

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Non-drug bridge busts total $4,525 in citations
Louie Gilot
El Paso Times

Some border crossers returning from Mexico in the past week brought food and plants back with them and were fined a total of $4,525, Customs and Border Protection officials said.

Customs officers discovered 33 smuggling attempts in the past seven days. Among the prohibited items were pork meat, bologna, pork skins, chorizo, lard, sugar cane, avocados, oranges, tangerines, guavas, mangos, hawthorne fruit, apples, pears, yams, quail eggs, bird seed, hibiscus leaves, citrus leaves, lemon grass and potted plants. Hundreds of similar items were abandoned at the ports of entry after being declared by border crossers.

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First big Hall County drug bust of 2006
By Jerry Gunn

GAINESVILLE - At the Hall County Detention Center two suspected illegal immigrants are behind bars in the first big drug bust of the new year by local narcotics officers.

The Multi Agency Narcotics Squad, Gang Task Force and FBI arrested the man and woman from Atlanta Thursday after they allegedly delivered 50 pounds of marijuana in south Hall County in Buford on Cherry Wood Circle.

Undercover investigators determined the big load of pot had an estimated street value of $100,000 and officers say with its confiscation they stopped around 800 illegal sales.

Twenty-eight year old Diego Valente-Heredia and 25 year old Reina Jimenez-Bernal were both charged with trafficking in marijuana and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.

Hall County Sheriff's Major Jeff Strickland said the couple is also being held for investigation by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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MS-13 gang growing extremely dangerous, FBI says

By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY

In early November, the FBI and Houston police learned that six suspected members of Mara Salvatrucha, a violent Central American gang known as MS-13, were raiding a house on Liberty Street where a rival gang had stashed drugs.

MS-13 — the focus of a nationwide crackdown by FBI and federal immigration agents — has become known in recent years for home invasion robberies, drug dealing and machete attacks on its enemies. But what happened in Houston on Nov. 2, FBI and Houston police officials say, has heightened concerns that MS-13 could be far more dangerous than thought.

The MS-13 suspects swept through the house like a well-trained assault team, using paramilitary tactics including perimeter lookouts, high-powered weaponry (an AK-47 rifle was among the weapons recovered later), and a quick, room-by-room sweep of the house that was notable for its precision and sophistication, Houston police spokesman Alvin Wright says.

When the MS-13 suspects were challenged by authorities, the result was an intense shootout that killed two suspects, identified as Juan Antonio Bautista, 29, and Jose Antonio Pino, 33. The four others were arrested and face an array of state charges, including robbery and assault.

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Suspect illegally in U.S. for 20 years
By Greg Bruno
Times Herald-Record
gbruno@th-record.com

Highland Falls - The Honduran's rap sheet reads like a business traveler's passport: California, Texas, West Virginia, Washington, D.C.

But it's his latest trip - an accidental swing through this sleepy Hudson River village - that could send him packing for good.

For two decades, Manuel J. Sandoval-Henriquez has criss-crossed the country after entering the United States illegally, police records show. He's been arrested seven times since 1986, and each time was ordered to leave, police say.

But he kept coming back, apparently because authorities failed to follow up on their orders.

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Mexico's contradictions playing U.S. for fools
Conor Friedersdorf, Staff Writer
San Bernardino County Sun

Since the 1910 Mexican Revolution, our neighbor to the south has chosen exactly one leader in a fair election, current President Vicente Fox.

He presides over a nation where disparities of wealth between the working poor and the politically connected corrupt are as disheartening as the 40 percent of citizens living below the poverty line a figure that excludes those millions of poor Mexicans who immigrated to the United States seeking a better life.

The U.S. dollars earned by expatriate Mexicans and sent home as remittances keep hungry families from starving and a dysfunctional country from collapse. It is thus no surprise that President Fox fears a crackdown on illegal immigration. If the United States succeeds in keeping out illegal immigrants, Mexico won't benefit from a portion of their toil.

It is surprising, however, that Mexican government and media elites demonstrate their nation's dependence on illegal immigrant-sent remittances not with appeals to good will, but with righteous indignation.

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Illegal workers create ID crisis
Meatpacking towns say fake identities can create 'ghost' population
BY JIM RAGSDALE
Pioneer Press

AUSTIN, Minn. — In Minnesota towns where hogs and turkeys meet their ends at the hands of workers from foreign lands, local officials often find themselves asking newcomers a simple question.

Who are you?

A worker with questionable immigration status may be carrying equally questionable identification. In Austin, where immigrants are lured by pork processing jobs, Mower County Attorney Patrick Flanagan has seen enough bad-ID cases to worry about a sizable "ghost'' population of misidentified residents.

"If you're a ghost, how can we help you? How can anyone help you?" he asked.

Imagine a small, rural community where people are used to knowing one another and where an unknown number of immigrants live and work under dubious names. Police agencies, courts, schools, health clinics and banks — all could be sitting on a shifting foundation.

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Border Patrol: Rise in Shootings at Agents along Rio Grande

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) - Border Patrol agents say they have dodged bullets fired at them from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande in two shootings within the past week.

Federal authorities were investigating the shootings and say they signal an increase from last year. Authorities believe the shooters were likely drug or people smugglers whose operations were interrupted by agents

A spokesman for the Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley sector says about ten shots were fired at agents near the Veteran's International Bridge at Los Tomates last night. One Border Patrol vehicle was hit, but none of the agents was injured.

Officials say four agents patrolling upriver from the bridge on boats reported up to 25 shots were fired at them.

None of the four agents was hurt in the shooting Friday, but one boat was hit five times.