Border Patrol bags 153 during raid on Yuma drop house
By Blake Schmidt, Sun Staff Writer

Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents busted a drop house Thursday morning that was packed with 134 illegal aliens, some of whom said they had been inside the single-wide mobile home for five days, according to a Border Patrol news release.

"The conditions inside (the trailer) were standing-room only ... dirty ... (and) with the sheer amount of people, body-heat-generated temperatures that were extremely high," said Border Patrol spokesman Rick Hays, adding that many of the aliens inside the trailer were women and children.

The trailer was discovered after agents saw two suspicious vehicles stop in front of the trailer in the 3000 block of 1st Street at about 9:30 a.m. Thursday

When agents investigated the vehicles, they found nine illegal aliens in a Mazda MPV and 10 illegal aliens in a Toyota pick up that had been reported stolen from Yuma.

After investigating the two vehicles, agents went on to investigate the mobile home, where they found the 134 illegal aliens inside.

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Smuggled immigrants arrested as smuggling accomplices

PHOENIX (AP) -- Fifty-four immigrants discovered in a pair of furniture trucks were being under arrest Friday for allegedly conspiring with their smugglers to sneak into the country illegally.

The arrests mark the first time local authorities have applied a new state law on migrant smuggling to smuggled immigrants.

The people were discovered Thursday about 50 miles west of Phoenix. Authorities said they obtained confessions from several in the group who said they paid smugglers - commonly called "coyotes" - up to $2,000 each to bring them across the border. All 54 were booked into a county jail.

Frustrated by the federal government's perceived inaction in repairing America's immigration system, state lawmakers approved the smuggling law a year ago that created the state crime of human smuggling.

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CBS4 Investigates 'English Speaking' Sign Flap
Brian Maass

(CBS4) DENVER Arapahoe County is threatening to fire a veteran Public Works employee for promoting the fact that he is an English speaking American.

"They claim it's offensive and I've been accused of discrimination and harassment, believe it or not, because of this," said Mike Gray, a heavy equipment operator with the Arapahoe County Road and Bridge Department for 16 years.

The problems began last spring. Gray, 50, owns a lawn service business on the side. He was routinely driving to work in his pickup truck towing a trailer that he uses to carry lawn mowing equipment for his business. On the side of his trailer, the married father of two affixed a sign that reads "Lawn Services Done With Pride!! By An English Speaking American."

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Agent shoots at attackers
Daniel Borunda
El Paso Times

A U.S. Border Patrol agent opened fire when he was attacked by men with rocks shortly before 11 a.m. Thursday near the Rio Grande in the Lower Valley, an agency spokesman said.

No injuries were reported in the incident, which remained under investigation Thursday night. The attack, officials said, is part of an increase of assaults on agents in the El Paso region.

The unidentified agent was about five miles east of the Zaragoza Bridge when he was assaulted with rocks by a group of possible undocumented immigrants, who ran back into Mexico, said Agent Ramiro Cordero, a Border Patrol spokesman.