Illegals easy targets on border
By Blake Schmidt, Sun Staff Writer

Since the beginning of this year 2006, 109 immigrants have reported assaults in Border Patrol's Yuma sector or in Mexico south of the Yuma area, according to statistics from the Mexican Consulate in Yuma's Protection of Mexicans Department.

That means that in the last three months, nearly three times as many immigrants reported being assaulted than in all of 2005, and more immigrants reported assaults than in all of the last four years combined, according to the consulate's statistics.

Statistics from the Yuma County Sheriff's Department show a similar trend.

Since the beginning of this year, the Sheriff's Office has received 128 reports from illegal immigrants who reported being robbed when crossing the border, said Maj. Leon Wilmot.

That's more robberies than 2004 and 2005 combined, YSCO data shows.

"That's just the one's we know of. How many cases go unreported? Lord knows how many more there are out there," Wilmot said.

Oliva said the assaults are generally robberies by "bajadores," or bandits who wait along immigrant thoroughfares, or bandits posing as guides, as in Rason's case.

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Minuteman patrols ready to return to Arizona border
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star

Minuteman Civil Defense Corps volunteers will return to Arizona in two weeks with the aim of shining the national media spotlight on the problem of illegal immigration again.

Love or hate 'em, those who follow the illegal immigration debate say the original Minuteman Project conducted in April 2005 in Cochise County and a subsequent patrol in October brought increased national attention to the Arizona stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border. Some even credit the group with pushing legislators to create border enforcement bills.

"Clearly, the success of the Minuteman project and its relatively mature conduct helped create an environment where the House enforcement bill could pass," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigration think tank in Washington. "Even in the Senate, which is much more hostile to immigration enforcement, the pro-enforcement climate that the Minuteman contributes to is making it more difficult for the open borders and amnesty people to get their way."

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$3 Million in Narcotics Seized by CBP at Arizona Ports of Entry This Weekend
Convicted Sex Offender Also Arrested
Tucson, Ariz.– U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officers at Arizona ports of entry continued their mission of protecting the American public this weekend, seizing more than $3 million in cocaine and marijuana and apprehending 11 fugitives.

CBP Officers at the Nogales port of entry arrested three women in connection with a series of attempts to smuggle cocaine with a street value of more than $2.5 million into the country on March 18th. Officers discovered almost 62 pounds of cocaine hidden in a Mitsubishi Galant driven by a 53-year-old woman from Nogales, Sonora; 5 pounds of cocaine hidden under the clothing worn by an 18-year-old woman from Nogales, Sonora; and more than 32 pounds of cocaine hidden in a Ford Ranger, driven by a 34-year-old woman from Imuris, Sonora. All three women were arrested and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

On March 17th and 18th, CBP Officers at the Douglas, Nogales, and San Luis ports of entry stopped four attempts to smuggle marijuana with a street value of almost $500,000 into the country hidden in different vehicles.

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Border artifacts, cultural sites are in danger

Billy House
Republic Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Archaeological and historical sites along the U.S. border with Mexico and other valuable cultural resources are being destroyed, including areas held sacred by Native Americans, according to a new report from a presidential advisory panel.

The culprits: dynamic population growth and urbanization in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and California, combined with increased cross-border traffic and illegal immigration through the region and related border enforcement.

Unless many of these cultural and natural resources along the U.S.-Mexican border are better protected, and soon, they will not be available for future generations, the panel warns.

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U.S. Customs and Border Patrol

Frontline News
March 2006

In this issue...

1. CBP officers seize almost $800,000 in narcotics

2. CBP Border Patrol seizes 1,220 pounds of marijuana

3. CBP officers seize over $4 million of heroin at JFK Airport

4. CBP officers in Hidalgo apprehend man named in 26-count federal indictment alleging meth

conspiracy

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Sheriffs to discuss Operation Linebacker
Louie Gilot
El Paso Times

Border sheriffs are meeting this week in El Paso to discuss Operation Linebacker, the border security initiative by the Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition, sheriff's officials said.

The sheriffs plan to discuss crime trends and whether their efforts have caused smugglers to move West.

"We think it's important that whatever strategy is employed by the Coalition doesn't adversely affect our fellow sheriffs in New Mexico, Arizona or California," said Rick Glancey, coalition interim executive director.

Glancey also said the sheriffs might decide to expand the coalition beyond Texas, to all border sheriffs.

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Western Union new force in migrant debate
Its parent firm creates a $10 million fund to promote immigration reform.
The Arizona Republic

Western Union, the world's biggest money-transfer company, and its parent firm, First Data Corp., are quietly becoming a force in the debate over illegal immigration.

In recent years, Denver-based First Data has openly campaigned for immigration reform and created a $10 million "Empowerment Fund" for the same purpose.

It has held seminars on migration law, published how-to guides for migrants, sponsored English classes, given money to a charity that helps Mexican women whose husbands are in the United States, and showered immigrant-sending communities with aid.

It also fought Arizona's Proposition 200, an initiative to limit public services to illegal immigrants that voters approved last year, a First Data official told the Mexican Senate.

Critics accuse the company of encouraging immigrants, both legal and illegal.

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Snapshots of border drama
The Arizona Republic

The photos are grainy and often out of focus.

One shows a man scaling a flimsy barbed-wire fence before jumping illegally into the United States.

Another shows a Minuteman volunteer, binoculars pressed to his brow, scanning the rain-swept horizon for illegal immigrants.

The two images are the result of an unusual photo project that provides a rare peek inside two opposing worlds related to illegal immigration: illegal immigrants on the perilous journey to enter the United States and Minuteman volunteers determined to stop them.

For three months last summer, three filmmakers with ties to Arizona passed out hundreds of disposable cameras to the two groups.

The 1,500 photos received so far capture the raw human struggle that plays out daily in southern Arizona and along the rest of the U.S.-Mexico border.