U.S. Cites Rise in Violence Along Border With Mexico
By RACHEL L. SWARNS

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 — Mexican criminal syndicates are stepping up their attacks on American agents patrolling the border as officials of the Homeland Security Department intensify efforts to stem the flow of immigrants and drugs into the United States, American officials said this week.

In recent months, scores of Border Patrol agents have been fired upon or pelted with large stones as well as with cloth-covered stones that have been doused with flammable liquid and set ablaze. Since October, agents have been attacked in more than 190 cases, officials said on Thursday.

Most of the attacks have occurred along the Mexican border near San Diego, but shootings have also been reported along the border in Texas near the cities of Laredo and McAllen. In the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, there were 778 attacks on agents, up from 374 in the previous fiscal year, Homeland Security Department officials said.

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A War in Mexico: Drug Runners Gun Down Journalists
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico, Feb. 8 — René Martínez had just sat down to edit a batch of articles at 7:50 Monday evening when he heard the heavy tread of military boots just outside the newsroom and then, suddenly, like a scream on a quiet night, blasts of machine-gun fire.

The newsroom of El Mañana descended into panic. Reporters dived to the floor and crawled under desks. Bullets from high-powered weapons tore through glass and walls. One of the two heavily armed gunmen screamed a threat. Then a grenade went off and the air filled with dust and smoke, Mr. Martínez recalled.

But the brazen attack on El Mañana, the biggest newspaper here, underscored an ugly truth: Mexico has become one of the most dangerous places to practice journalism, outside of Iraq. Drug dealers and corrupt police officers regularly kill those who write about them, leading most reporters to censor themselves, journalists say.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based organization, says that at least four journalists have been killed in the last six years in direct reprisals for their reporting on drug dealers, and that one young investigative reporter from Hermosillo, Alfredo Jiménez Mota, is missing and presumed dead after writing about a drug gang called Los Numeros.

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Phoenix treats cheating laborers as a criminal act
Daniel González
The Arizona Republic

Standing in a grimy north Phoenix parking lot one chilly morning last week, Nemecio Martinez had no idea whether he would get hired. All around him were dozens of men waiting for the next pickup truck to roll in looking for day laborers. In a good week, Martinez might get hired six days. In a bad week, only three.

Martinez said unsteady work is part of life for day laborers. What is harder to swallow, he said, is getting ripped off by unscrupulous employers who hire workers and then don't pay. "These kinds of employers are thieves," said Martinez, 37, who lost $560 in wages after being stiffed twice this year.

A byproduct of overwhelming waves of undocumented immigration and a demanding growth market, wage theft is rampant among low-wage workers. Especially for day laborers like Martinez who form an integral part of the Valley's workforce and get paid under the table.

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Man in fleeing truck shot, killed at border
By Alexis Huicochea
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

A man was shot to death Thursday night at the Douglas port of entry as he attempted to run down at least two Customs and Border Protection officers, an official said Friday.

The incident occurred around 9:10 p.m. when the Douglas Police Department was trying to pull a vehicle over for speeding, said Sgt. Mark Wilkinson, a department spokesman.

As the officer was trying to catch up to the driver, the truck ran a red light, at which time the officer radioed in to warn the port of entry that the vehicle was heading toward them, Wilkinson said.

The man, whose name has not been released, was trying to drive into Mexico but was unable to get through the port because there were vehicles in the lanes, said Brian Levin, a Customs and Border Protection spokesman.

He then drove the truck, which was stolen, at high speed into the inspection area of the port of entry where several officers were standing, Levin said.

Two officers who were in the vehicle's direct path each fired one shot at him, he said.

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Girl left at Cruces store is reunited with mother
Dolores M. Bernal
Las Cruces Sun-News

LAS CRUCES -- A 2-year-old girl found abandoned early Wednesday morning at a Pic Quik convenience store in Las Cruces has been returned to Mexico.

The child, Carmen Aguilar Luna, was placed under the care of Mexico's Family Development Institute in Chihuahua, said Socorro Cordova, a spokeswoman for the Mexican Consulate in El Paso.

New Mexico's Children Youth and Families Department contacted the consulate after the child was identified as being from Mexico, Cordova said.

The consulate's office arranged the child's trip back to the Mexican state of Chihuahua, where she is from.

The girl's mother, Janete Luna, 21, was arrested early Wednesday by Las Cruces police when she and nine other people tried to illegally enter the United States, Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier said.

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21 injured in van crash on 905
Vehicle carrying 28 tried to elude Border Patrol
By Tanya Sierra
and Joe Hughes
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS

OTAY MESA – Twenty-one illegal immigrants were injured yesterday when one of three vans being chased by the U.S. Border Patrol overturned on state Route 905, plummeting down a 30-foot embankment and scattering passengers over a wide area.

Eight of the more seriously injured were quickly taken to four hospitals, although none of the injuries was life-threatening. Thirteen others were treated at a triage center set up on the roadway before being taken to hospitals.

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Border sheriffs seek reinforcements
By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT / WASHINGTON
(THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS)

"There is no way to sugarcoat this: There is a culture of corruption in Mexico," Mr. Bonner said, demanding that the U.S. government insist "in clear and unambiguous terms" that the incursions cease.

Texas border sheriffs pleaded Tuesday for more federal help to confront Mexican drug trafficking cartels that are arming themselves with more powerful weaponry and deploying tactics that pose an ever-greater danger to U.S. law enforcement.

Appearing before a congressional panel examining border incursions allegedly by Mexican soldiers protecting drug shipments, the sheriffs of El Paso and Hudspeth counties detailed deteriorating conditions in a region where rival cartels are locked in deadly competition.

Just a week after federal authorities confiscated caches of explosives and high-powered weapons in Laredo, Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West predicted that cartels will soon rig their drug loads to detonate if seized by law enforcement.