Mexico Says More Kids Crossing Illegally
By MARK STEVENSON
Associated Press Writer

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- The number of children deported from Arizona after U.S. agents caught them crossing the border illegally or found them in the desert more than doubled in the first three months of 2006, Mexico's Interior Department said on Friday.

Most deportees are simply released by U.S. authorities at border crossings, but children are handed over directly to Mexico's child-welfare agency, giving Mexican authorities a much more precise count.

From January through March, Mexican authorities took charge of 3,289 deported minors at border crossings in the state of Sonora, across from Arizona, more than double the 1,566 deported in the same period of 2005.

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An AP Interactive Map showing illegals state by state.

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Man sentenced for throwing rocks at Border Patrol chopper
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

An illegal immigrant who tried to bring down a U.S. Border Patrol helicopter by throwing rocks at it was sentenced to 38 months in federal prison, the U.S Attorney's office said.

Antonio Eretza-Florez, 33, will also be on supervised release for 36 months following his release for the July, 2004 incident. He was sentenced Thursday.

Eretza-Florez was a passenger in a stolen vehicle packed with immigrants that a police officer in Huachuca City tried to stop. A chase ensued and the officer ran his patrol car into a ditch.

U.S. Border Patrol agents arrived to help, and a helicopter and an unmanned aerial vehicle also were brought in to search for the fleeing vehicle and its occupants.

After the vehicle became stuck, Eretza-Florez ran into the desert and was chased by Border Patrol agents. As the helicopter flew low to guide the agents to him he threw several softball-sized rocks at the aircraft. The pilot had to take evasive maneuvers to avoid them, and one rock passed through the rotor blades.

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For Immigrants and Business, Rift on Protests
By MONICA DAVEY

In Bonita Springs, Fla., 10 restaurant workers were fired this week after skipping their shifts to attend a rally against legislation in Congress cracking down on illegal immigrants. In Tyler, Tex., 22 welders lost their jobs making parts for air-conditioners after missing work for a similar demonstration in that city.

And so it went for employees of an asbestos removal firm in Indianapolis, a restaurant in Milwaukee, a meatpacking company in Detroit, a factory in Bellwood, Ill.

In the last month, as hundreds of thousands of people around the country have held demonstrations pressing for legal status and citizenship for illegal immigrants, companies, particularly those that employ large numbers of immigrants, have found themselves wrestling with difficult and uncharted terrain.

They worry about how to keep their businesses operating, fully staffed, but also not to appear insensitive to a growing political movement that in many cases sustains their work force.

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McCain's lettuce-picking remarks yield unwanted green
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

As he steered his Straight Talk Express across the United States in recent weeks, Republican Sen. John McCain has tried to stay a-head of the immigration issue. But Friday the immigration issue delivered 36 or so heads to his Phoenix office — heads of lettuce, that is.

McCain has been getting skewered in the media for comments earlier this month to a union group in Washington, D.C., that immigrants are taking jobs no one else wants, and offered them $50 an hour to pick lettuce in the Arizona sun for a summer, suggesting they couldn't do it.

The senator didn't stick around long enough to process any applications, despite several offers to take him up on his offer from the audience.

So Friday more than three dozen demonstrators showed up at his office, many carrying lettuce picker applications in one hand, and a head of lettuce in the other to show they could do the job.

McCain was not on hand to greet them, but somehow it's probably not the kind of green he was hoping to collect for his budding presidential bid.

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Border arrests surge in S.D. region

Increased enforcement in Arizona pushing illegal immigrants west
By Leslie Berestein
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 15, 2006

Arrests of illegal border crossers have increased more sharply in the San Diego region than anywhere else in the Southwest during the past six months, as stepped up enforcement in Arizona has pushed human smuggling traffic west.

According to the U.S. Border Patrol, apprehensions of illegal border crossers in the agency's San Diego sector are up 43 percent for fiscal year 2006, which began Oct. 1, compared with the same time period a year ago. Agents made 80,436 apprehensions between Oct. 1 and Wednesday.

During that period one year ago, 56,355 apprehensions were made. The number of people who were arrested is actually less, because some crossers are arrested several times before either slipping into the country or giving up.

March and April are typically the peak months for illegal border crossings.

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Many Mexican migrants secure jobs in U.S. even before crossing the border
By Julie Watson
ASSOCIATED PRESS
8:44 a.m. April 15, 2006

SASABE, Mexico – When Pedro Lopez Vazquez crossed illegally into the United States last week, he was not heading north to look for a job. He already had one.

His future employer even paid $1,000 for a smuggler to help Vazquez make his way from the central Mexican city of Puebla to Aspen, Colo.

“We're going to Colorado to work in carpentry because we have a friend who was going to give us a job,” Vazquez said.

Vazquez, 41, was interviewed along the Arizona border after being deported twice by the U.S. Border Patrol. He said he would keep trying until he got to Aspen.

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Officers cite need for secure border
By Salena Zito
TRIBUNE-REVIEW

HOUSTON -- As pro-immigration protestors marched in U.S. cities, state drug-law enforcers meeting here agreed that the porous U.S.-Mexican border is open to criminal gangs as well as illegal aliens.

Donald DeGabrielle, U.S. attorney for Texas' southern district, told the National Alliance of State Drug Agencies that sharing intelligence is "critical" to stop "the flow of drugs, money-laundering and the gangs that come along with that."