Bodies of two Yumans found in Mexico
By Blake Schmidt, Sun Staff Writer

SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Son. — The skeletal remains of two murder victims that were found buried on the outskirts of this Mexican border city last week have been identified as two men from Yuma, according to Crispin Castro, a state prosecutor at the local Ministerio Publico del Fuero Comun office in San Luis Rio Colorado.

The remains of Marcos Bracamontes, 18, and Carlos Alberto Aguilar Reyes, 21, were identified by family members on Friday, more than five months after the two were reported missing, Castro said.

According to the Mexican state police report, both bodies were found with adhesive tape around the ankles and mouths, and with bullet holes in their heads.

Reyes' skull had two bullet holes in it — one in the back , and one in the center front, the report said.

Bracamontes' skull had one bullet hole in the back.

"It appears to be an execution," Castro said.

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Military, Border Patrol unite to secure border
By Blake Schmidt, Sun Staff Writer

SAN LUIS, Ariz. — On the U.S.-Mexican border just east of the U.S. Port of Entry at San Luis, Ariz., the U.S. Army, Marines and Border Patrol are coming together for a project to build not one, but three, walls between two nations.

Alongside an existing fence, they are erecting a two-mile-long, 15-foot-tall wall and an additional two-mile length of chain-link fencing, thus forcing illegal border crossers to scale three fences in order to gain entry to the United States.

The additional barriers will help agents to make apprehensions "more efficiently" in urban areas such as around San Luis, said Michael Gramley, spokesman for the Border Patrol's Yuma sector.

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Mexican incursion confirmed
By Jeffrey Gautreaux, Sun Staff Writer

The U.S. Border Patrol has confirmed that a Mexican government helicopter crossed into the United States Tuesday evening.

The unmarked helicopter crossed into the U.S. near San Luis, Ariz., at 6:30 p.m. and traveled along the Colorado River for approximately a half a mile before returning to Mexico, according to a Customs and Border Protection release.

"After proper coordination and verifications with the government of Mexico, they confirmed that the helicopter belonged to the Mexican Attorney General's Office (PGR) and had mistakenly and unintentionally crossed into U.S. airspace," the release said.

PGR is the federal police force that investigates federal offenses, predominantly drug trafficking and organized crime.

Local border watcher Flash Sharrar, who saw the helicopter while on patrol near County 12th Street, remained steadfast that the helicopter was carrying Mexican soldiers, not federal agents. "That was Mexican military," he said. "You could see the uniforms."

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129 illegals caught near Wellton
From Staff Reports

A group of 129 illegal aliens were apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Wellton station around 11:30 a.m. Monday.

"It is very unusual for us to apprehend a group this size in the Yuma sector," said Michael Gramley, Border Patrol spokesman.

Gramley said a Customs and Border Patrol helicopter was tracking group and caught up with them on the east side of the Gila mountains, about 10 miles Southwest of Wellton.

The pilot of the helicopter radioed ground units from the Wellton station, guiding them to the location of the group, which was traveling on foot.

"This is obviously an organized smuggling attempt," Gramley said. "We are actively investigating in order to identify smugglers in the group."

Gramley said the aliens were transported to the Wellton station where they will be processed.

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Illegal aliens robbed trying to cross into U.S.
From Staff Reports

Forty-four illegal aliens were robbed twice Tuesday morning, first on their way into the United States and again once they crossed the border.

The Yuma County Sheriff's Office responded at 8 a.m. to County 18-1/2 Street and the Colorado River near Gadsden for the group who had been apprehended by the Border Patrol. Those in the group said they had been robbed in Mexico and then robbed again after they crossed the border.

"I don't know of anything they could have had left," said YCSO Capt. Eben Bratcher.

YCSO said the second robbery occurred just across the border. The illegal aliens were lined up and searched at gunpoint by four unknown suspects. The suspects were looking for wallets and any other items of value, YCSO said.

"It was the same modus operandi (as previous robberies)," Bratcher said. "They wait for them, they rob them and then they run back across the border."

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More illegal aliens robbed in U.S.
By Jeffrey Gautreaux, Sun Staff Writer

After 44 illegal aliens were robbed at gunpoint Tuesday morning near Gadsden, five more were robbed that evening in the same vicinity.

At 11 p.m., the group was robbed by at least four unknown suspects at County 18-1/2 Street and the Colorado River. The victims said the robbers were armed with a revolver, according to the Yuma County Sheriff's Office.

Unlike past illegal alien robberies, where the suspects flee back into Mexico after committing the crime, the four suspects may have stayed in the United States. The victims said they believed the suspects were from the San Luis area, said YCSO Capt. Eben Bratcher.

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Sheriffs to go before D.C. panels
More leaders will testify about border violence
Michael D. Hernandez
El Paso Times

The chorus of border sheriffs asking for greater support from the federal government is expected to grow this week in Washington, D.C., during congressional hearings addressing violence in communities near Mexico.

The Texas Border Sheriffs' Coalition has tapped sheriffs Todd Garrison of Doña Ana County and Larry Dever of Cochise County in Arizona to help provide testimony during Thursday's House subcommittee hearing titled, "Outgunned and Outmanned: Enforcement Confronts Violence Along the Southern Border."

"Whatever Congress decides to improve our situation should also go for the entire Southwest," El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego said about inviting his colleagues from New Mexico and Arizona. "We want to show solidarity and provide Congress with what the other sheriffs have experienced."

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Binational accord targets sexual exploitation
By Anna Cearley
Union-Tribune Staff Writer

TIJUANA – Baja California's attorney general signed an agreement yesterday to work more closely with a binational group that is attempting to combat the sexual exploitation of children and women along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Under the accord, the Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition will hold a series of workshops with the agency's police and staff on the special needs of sex crime victims.

“This formalizes what we have been doing for various years: Providing better attention to the victims of exploitation,” said state Attorney General Antonio Martínez Luna, before signing the document at his agency's Tijuana office.

Tijuana is considered a prime area for sexual exploitation due to its border location. Some young people come from other parts of Mexico because they can earn more money working as prostitutes for U.S. clients. Other U.S. citizens come to produce pornographic publications or Internet sites.

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Immigration loophole leads to spread of fake-ID mills
By Leslie Berestein
Union-Tribune Staff Writer

In the pre-dawn hours one late-November morning, federal agents with search warrants raided the Oceanside and Riverside offices of Golden State Fence Co., carting out boxes filled with payroll documents.

It was the second time in a year and a half that the Riverside-based fencing company was busted for hiring undocumented workers. During that period, federal investigators auditing the company's payroll records had found that 157 of its employees – close to one-third of the workers at the Oceanside and Riverside locations – were in the country illegally.

To get those jobs, nearly all of them had presented phony identification: Investigators found counterfeit green cards, Social Security cards and California identification cards. A criminal investigation into the company's hiring practices continues.

As politicians and activists raise the pitch of their arguments to stop illegal immigration at the border, scant attention has been paid to the legal loopholes that make it easy for employers to hire undocumented immigrants, creating an irresistible economic pull that undermines border enforcement.

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Troops-on-border debate heats up, widens

The Associated Press
PHOENIX - At one time, just the staunchest advocates for cracking down on illegal immigration backed the idea of putting National Guard troops along the Mexican border.

Now the idea has the blessings of Arizona's governor and has cleared half of the Republican-led Legislature.

The public's frustration with Arizona's role as the busiest illegal entry point has breathed new life into the idea, with a recent poll showing nearly two-thirds of voters favor it.