Solving America's Illegal Immigrant Problem
By David Brody
Capitol Hil Correspondent

CWNews.com – YUMA, ARIZONA - The U.S. Senate plans to take up the controversial subject of illegal immigration soon. There are roughly 10 million immigrants here illegally.

Republicans and Democrats agree that something needs to be done, but trying to figure out exactly what to do is the problem.

Right on the U.S.-Mexican border stands San Luis, Arizona. It is now 9 p.m., and it’s pitch-black. A border patrol agent waits for some action. He is waiting for illegal immigrants.

It is a nightly routine for Border Patrol Agent Michael Gramley. It is a game of cat-and-mouse – real-life hide-and-seek.

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Border Patrol seizes millions worth of drugs

Border Patrol agents made a bust at a checkpoint on Highway 86 south of the Salton Sea yesterday. Inside they found more than 32 bundles of drugs.

It turned out to be one 3 lbs bundle of cocaine, valued at $83,000, and 31 bundles of crystal methamphetamine, valued at more than 1.3 million dollars.

It was found inside a Nissan Maxima driven by a citizen from Mexico with a valid visa. She's being held tonight in Imperial County.

This bust brings the seizure totals this year to 11,000 lbs of marijuana, valued at 8.7 million dollars, 132 lbs of methamphetamine, valued at 4.3 million dollars, and 214 lbs of cocaine, valued at more than 6 million dollars.

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Plans under way for new detention facility
By Blake Schmidt, Sun Staff Writer

SAN LUIS, Ariz. — Plans to build a private 87,000-square-foot detention center here with bedspace for 450 illegal immigrants and other federal detainees are under way, and the project could be done by February of next year, estimated the project's senior superintendent, Steve Nelson.

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Agents rescue 15 aliens, thanks to beacons
By Blake Schmidt, Sun Staff Writer

Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents rescued a group of 14 illegal aliens — including two 13-year-olds — who activated a rescue beacon Tuesday morning after they were abandoned in the desert south of Dateland by two smugglers, according to the Border Patrol.

Also Tuesday morning, agents rescued a single illegal alien who had been stranded in the mountains south of Telegraph Pass for what he said was four days, before he accessed a rescue beacon in the area, Border Patrol spokesman Michael Gramley said.

The two rescues brought the tally to four rescues that Wellton Station agents have made in the last three days, and it brought the total number of people rescued by Yuma sector agents to 144 this fiscal year — which is nearly three times as many rescues as Yuma sector agents had made this time last year, the patrol said. The sector extends from southeastern California to the Yuma-Pima County line.

The 14 subjects, all from Mexico's Oaxaca state, told agents that they have become exhausted and that the two smugglers who were leading them through the desert abandoned them when they could not continue, a patrol news release said.

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Who is checking workers' papers?
Businesses resist tough penalties for hiring where ID doubts exist
Mary Jo Pitzl and Yvette Armendariz
The Arizona Republic

Resistance from businesses has blunted efforts in the Legislature to curb undocumented immigration by penalizing employers.

The bill most likely to pass this session appears to be one that targets only employers who pay in cash and avoid any formal hiring process.

Efforts to require more thorough document checks faded amid employers' arguments that such efforts would be time-consuming and error-filled, and that checks are the responsibility of the federal government.

Beyond concern about the complexity of deeper document checks is the worry about what tougher checks could do to the availability of low-wage workers. Many employers continue to struggle to fill jobs that require manual labor.

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Senators to hear of violence on border
Kyl pins hopes on his legislation
Mike Madden
Republic Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Violence along the Arizona-Mexico border has increased dramatically over the past 20 years despite adding thousands of Border Patrol agents and spending millions of dollars in federal funds for security, witnesses will tell a Senate panel today.

The hearing, headed by Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, comes as the Senate prepares to begin debate on sweeping border security and immigration legislation on Thursday. The two Republicans are co-sponsors of a proposal that focuses heavily on increasing personnel and technology along the border to curtail illegal immigration and other crimes.

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Lawmakers move to put Guard troops on border speedily
By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services

PHOENIX — Rejecting objections of improper constitutional intrusion, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted Tuesday to force Gov. Janet Napolitano to put National Guard troops on the border immediately.

The move came despite opposition from Col. Ed Flinn who said the Governor's Office told his agency to oppose the measure. Flinn said that is because it "appears to usurp authority from the executive branch, not because they're opposed to the idea of the National Guard going to the border."

That drew an angry response from Sen. Dean Martin, R-Phoenix.

"If she believes this an infringement on her executive power, she should be the one that is saying it," said Martin. He called it "totally inappropriate" for a National Guard colonel to be at the Legislature lobbying for the governor.

"We need the National Guard defending our borders, not the Governor's Office," he said.