Raid Finds 70 Illegal Immigrants in House
By JACOB ADELMAN
Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES

Authorities raided a squalid house Friday, capturing 70 illegal immigrants and four suspected smugglers believed to have been holding migrants hostage while awaiting payment.

Federal agents and a sheriff's SWAT team entered the home before dawn, setting off flash-bang grenades to stun any smugglers inside.

Packed into the grimy one-story bungalow were 70 people from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Mexico. Some slept 20 to a room, authorities said.

"It was squalor, absolute squalor. Bug infestations, trash on the floor," said Frank Johnston, an agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The house had bars on the windows and a surveillance camera to monitor the outside, Johnston said. A handgun also was found.

Authorities were not immediately able to confirm whether any of the people were being held against their will.

Investigators learned of the home from a woman who called from Albuquerque, N.M., to say she had been held at the house and believed a relative was being held hostage there, Johnston said.

In Phoenix, more than 50 people accused of sneaking into the country in furniture trucks were charged Friday with conspiring with human smugglers in the first test of a new Arizona law that allows illegal immigrants to be prosecuted if they pay someone to transport them. They could face up to 2 years in prison.

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Recently dug tunnel found in Nogales
Arizona Daily Star

Border Patrol agents discovered a recently dug tunnel Thursday in downtown Nogales, Ariz., that led to Mexico.

Border Patrol agents from Nogales arrested several illegal entrants from Mexico, who they believed to have come through the tunnel, according to a news release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

While patrolling the area in which the arrests were made around 1 p.m., the agents overheard voices coming from a steel water grate, the news release said.

The agents realized that the people were below the city street. They removed the grate and went into the drainage system to see several men or boys run through the tunnel into Mexico.

An investigation revealed that the tunnel was dug to circumvent security obstacles placed underneath the border fence in the drainage system, according to the release.

The final destination of the tunnel remained unknown Friday.

Anyone with information is asked to call 1-877-USBP-HELP.

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U.S., Mexican lawmakers meet for talks in Mexican lakeside resort
By Jason Lange
Associated Press

Valle De Bravo, Mexico – U.S. and Mexican lawmakers met to discuss migration, security and trade on Friday, and U.S. legislators called on Mexico to do its part to help stem undocumented border crossing.

Members of the U.S. delegation said they were heartened by statements by their Mexican counterparts that both nations share responsibility in migration and border security, issues that have caused tension in bilateral relations in recent months.

“This is, I think, a very important step in the recognition of these important points,” said Sen. John Cornyn, the Republican from Texas who was co-leading the U.S. delegation of two senators and 11 congressional representatives.

“I think it represents a very positive step in the right direction because many Americans have felt that the Mexican government was essentially complicit in illegal immigration,” Cornyn said.

Mexico has been lobbying the U.S. congress since 2000 for a migration accord that would legalize the millions of undocumented Mexican workers living in the United States.

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Couple shot to death in violent Mexican border city
Associated Press

Nuevo Laredo, Mexico – Assailants shot and killed a couple Friday as they were arriving at their home in this border city, police said.

Humberto Vazquez, 32, and Maria Duque, 20, were ambushed in a pre-dawn attack by an unknown number of assailants shortly after they pulled into their driveway, said state investigator Oscar Sepulveda.

Vazquez, who owned a bar in Nuevo Laredo's red-light district; he and Duque were shot at least eight times, Sepulveda said.

Since the beginning of the year, 35 people have been shot and killed in ambush-styled attacks in Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas.

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Border Patrol agents shoot and kill illegal immigrant robbery suspect
U.S. Border Patrol agents searching an area along the Colorado River after receiving reports of illegal immigrants being robbed fatally shot an armed suspect who shot at them, Yuma County Sheriff's officials said Friday.

Officials said the agents were patrolling right along the river, in an area thick and dense with salt cedars and undergrowth, when the man began shooting at about 11 p.m. Thursday.

Agents returned fire, striking the man, who died at the scene.

His name was not released pending his family being notified.

A second man, identified as Diego Armando Mendieta de La Torre, 20, of Mexicali, was arrested and turned over to the sheriff's office, Maj. Leon Wilmot said.

Wilmot said Mendieta was booked into the Yuma County Jail on state charges of participation in a criminal syndicate. More charges could be filed, he said.