Mandatory Guard-on-border bill is vetoed

By Howard Fischer

CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES

PHOENIX — There won't be any National Guard troops in Southern Arizona — at least not yet.

As vowed, Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed a $10 million appropriation for the Guard because it ordered her to put the troops on the border. In a five-paragraph letter to legislators, she cited a state constitutional provision that makes her commander-in-chief of the Guard.

"The Legislature has no constitutional or other authority to control when or how the Guard is deployed," she said.

But Napolitano insisted she's still interested in putting troops in Southern Arizona and promised that if lawmakers send her a bill with the funds — but without the mandate — she would sign it and begin deployment.

That option may already be in progress. On Thursday the House gave preliminary approval to another bill to appropriate funds to deploy Guard troops in Southern Arizona for "border security functions." The new bill has none of the language the governor found offensive.

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2 agents arrested in smuggling case
Union-Tribune

Two supervising U.S. Border Patrol agents were arrested yesterday on suspicion of smuggling undocumented immigrants in exchange for bribes from a smuggling ring, federal officials said.

Mario Alvarez, 44, and Samuel McClaren, 43, both of Imperial, were indicted Tuesday on eight counts that include conspiracy to bring in aliens for financial gain, conspiracy to commit bribery and filing false tax returns, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced.

The indictment said the agents received about $300,000 in bribes from members of the Javier Sanchez-Perfino smuggling organization.

They also released or facilitated the release from custody of illegal immigrants and of the smugglers, who were also undocumented, officials said. The immigrants were then turned over to the smuggling organization in exchange for money.

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Study examines border-area conditions
Report could shed light on immigration debate
Associated Press And The Union-Tribune

Washington – If the 24 counties along the nation's Southwest border were a 51st state, it would rank first in federal crimes, second in tuberculosis and near the bottom in education, per capita income and access to health care.

Members of the U.S./Mexico Border Counties Coalition released a report including those estimates yesterday as senators began to grapple with proposals for overhauling the nation's immigration system.

“The fundamental question we asked of researchers was this: As a region, if these 24 counties made up a 51st “border” state, how would we compare with the rest of the nation?” said San Diego County Supervisor Greg Cox, the border group's president. “Some of these results are surprising.”

Among them: This “U.S./Mexico border state” is first in federal crimes, primarily due to drug and immigration arrests by federal agencies. It is second in the nation in incidence of tuberculosis, Cox said, and also ranks second in the percentage of population under the age of 18. The border region is third in deaths from hepatitis, fourth in military employment, and fifth highest nationally in diabetes-related deaths.

Cox added that this combined border “state” ranks 37th in low birth weight babies, 39th in infant mortality and 42nd in percentage of teen pregnancy. There are also relatively few physicians to treat these patients: It ranks lower than all 50 states in the number of primary health care professionals per capita. It also ranks 50th in insurance coverage for adults and children and 50th in percent of the U.S. population that has completed high school.

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5 tons of pot found in truck at border
Union-Tribune

Otay Mesa – More than 5 tons of marijuana worth an estimated $5 million was found among TV sets in a truck that crossed the border from Mexico, federal authorities said yesterday.

The driver, a Mexican citizen from Guadalajara, was arrested Tuesday after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found 10,863 pounds of marijuana in packages in his tractor-trailer.

The packages showed up among 100 boxed television sets when officers sent the truck into an imaging scanner at the Otay Mesa cargo port. The sets were headed to Long Beach for shipment to Panama, customs spokesman Vince Bond said.

A drug-sniffing dog reacted to the cargo. Bond said officers opened the truck doors and saw 670 cellophane-wrapped packages of marijuana stacked with the TVs.

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Immigrant found hidden in car using SENTRI lane
Driver is arrested after customs officer looks inside trunk
By Karen Kucher
Union-Tribune Staff Writer

A 33-year-old El Cajon man using a fast-pass border crossing card was arrested Monday evening after a U.S customs officer found an undocumented immigrant hidden in the trunk of his car, officials said.

The man, a U.S. citizen, was entering the United States in a 1995 Chevrolet Impala through the SENTRI lane in San Ysidro about 9:15 p.m. Monday when the officer looked in the trunk and found the woman, said Angelica De Cima, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Under SENTRI – Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection – participants use crossing cards and transponders attached to their windshields to drive through fast-pass lanes along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“We fingerprint them, make sure (there is) no criminal history,” De Cima said. Names also are run through other law enforcement databases.

De Cima said this is the first time this fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, that someone with a SENTRI pass has been arrested for trying to smuggle someone across the border.

Last fiscal year, 11 people with SENTRI passes tried to smuggle drugs or people across the border, De Cima said. The year before that, there were eight such cases.

The SENTRI program was implemented at the Otay Mesa border crossing in 1995 and at San Ysidro in 2000. Nearly 70,000 travelers from both sides of the border are registered participants.

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Mexico sees organized crime behind border shooting of police chief
By Mark Stevenson
Associated Press

Mexico City – Organized crime members – apparently drug traffickers – were behind a brazen daylight attack that killed a state police chief and one of his officers in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar said Wednesday.

He said that federal prosecutors may take over the case of the Tuesday attacks in Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas, and said the killings – like others that have occurred over the past two years – were apparently related to internal struggles for control of the drug cartels.

“The initial information indicates that organized crime was involved in the killings of these two public servants,” Aguilar said of the gangland-style shooting.

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Border Patrol may be ordered to hire 12K
The figure more than doubles the agency's size over 2 years, but no money was provided for new hires.
Mike Madden
Citizen Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - The Senate Judiciary Committee approved ordering the Border Patrol to hire 12,000 new agents in the next two years, more than doubling the current force.

Border Patrol officials and experts say that number exceeds what the agency can handle in terms of training and the panel didn't include any money to fund the new hires.

Yesterday lawmakers pushed ahead with immigration reform plans, hoping to finish work by the March 27 deadline imposed by GOP leaders.

Along with more agents, they propose replacing old fences along the border with 25 miles of new barricades in the desert west of Naco.

They put off action on contentious issues such as whether to make illegal presence in the United States a federal crime.