Border Patrol, sheriffs take differing views on border incursion
By SUZANNE GAMBOA
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The chief of the Border Patrol urged U.S. House members Tuesday not to lose sight of the daily dangers faced by federal agents as the lawmakers respond to a recent confrontation between law enforcement and military-uniformed drug smugglers along the Rio Grande.

Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar said agents regularly encounter individuals hurling rocks at them from across the Mexican border, ramming their vehicles and sometimes firing at them.

"I do not want in any way to minimize the seriousness of each and every one of these incursions. I also do not want leave the impression our borders are under siege by the government of Mexico entities or people attempting to pass themselves off" as being with the Mexican government, Aguilar said.

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Mexican army burns seized pot, cocaine
By Blake Schmidt, Sun Staff Writer
Photo By Jacob Lopez/The Sun

SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Son. — Two billowing black plumes of smoke reached into the sky at the Mexican army's 22nd Regiment Base Tuesday as soldiers set ablaze more than 4 tons of marijuana and 20.5 kilograms of cocaine.

Law enforcement heads from Mexico and the United States gathered at the ceremony to celebrate a small victory in the war on drugs.

The burning bricks were from just two weeks of seizures the Mexican military has made at highway checkpoints on the outskirts of San Luis Rio Colorado, according to Gerardo Carranza, representative of the state attorney general's office in San Luis Rio Colorado.

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Border plan swells budget
Bush wants billions more to secure crossing
Mike Madden
Republic Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration wants billions of dollars for 1,500 more Border Patrol agents, 6,700 new beds in immigration detention facilities, increased prosecution of employers of undocumented workers and other border security measures.

Spending on the two main border and immigration agencies, Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, would go up by $1.3 billion, an increase of nearly 14 percent.

That includes $317 million to hire, train and equip 1,500 new Border Patrol agents, as well as $41 million for about 200 new ICE agents to investigate employers who break laws against hiring undocumented workers.

The budget would devote almost $300 million to construction of 6,700 new detention beds, allowing officials to process 100,000 more immigrants caught entering the country illegally, and $94 million to return them to their home countries quickly.

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Customs officers find pot stashed in load of squash
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

For the second time in less than a week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers have prevented an attempt to smuggle more than a half-ton of marijuana hidden in a tractor-trailer rig.

The latest incident occurred Monday when officers working at the Nogales port of entry found more than 1,400 pounds of marijuana hidden in a rig carrying squash, according to a news release from the agency.

"Snap," a drug-sniffing dog, alerted officers to the odor and as they unloaded the rig, they found 85 bales of marijuana, worth about $1.5 million, hidden among pallets of squash, the release said.

The driver of the rig, a 45-year-old man from Nogales, Sonora, was arrested and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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Mexican newspaper curtails gang coverage
By JORGE VARGAS
Associated Press Writer

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico (AP) -- The owner of a Mexican newspaper in this violent border town said Tuesday there will be no more investigative coverage of drug gangs, a day after the paper's offices were sprayed with bullets and a reporter hospitalized with five gunshots.

Under the new policy, El Manana will only report the basic facts of drug-related killings and will avoid mentioning names or doing any follow-up reporting.

"Zero investigations into the narco," the paper's owner, Ramon Cantu, said Tuesday while more than 50 state and federal police guarded his offices. The wounded reporter, Jaime Orozco Tey, remained hospitalized Tuesday in serious condition.

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Horn speech puts focus on border issues
Board chairman delivers State of County address
By Leslie Wolf Branscomb
Union-Tribune Staff Writer

Supervisor Bill Horn delivered an attention-grabbing State of the County address last night that assailed illegal immigration, border security, medical marijuana and gangs.

“The border has become a war zone,” Horn declared in the speech before an audience of about 400 at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.

Horn decried the recent discovery of the longest cross-border tunnel ever, a half-mile passage linking Tijuana to Otay Mesa, which authorities say was used to smuggle drugs. He said it was a reminder that the area is vulnerable to the importation of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

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Fresh calls for probe in Mexico after gunmen storm newspaper
By S. Lynne Walker
Copley News Service

ACAPULCO, Mexico – An attack on a newspaper in the violence-plagued border city of Nuevo Laredo brought renewed demands yesterday for investigations into the slayings and disappearances of Mexican journalists covering the country's escalating drug war.

Jaime Orozco Tey, a veteran reporter for the newspaper El Mañana, was critically injured after being shot five times by masked gunmen who burst into the offices of the fiercely independent paper Monday night and began firing on the reception area with assault rifles.

As Orozco lay in critical condition in a Nuevo Laredo hospital with a bullet lodged in his spine, President Vicente Fox ordered the federal preventive police to protect the newspaper, whose owner, Ramón Cantú, said his reporters no longer will investigate drug trafficking.