News From the Border

Providing the news from a different front but from a war that we must win as well! I recognize the poverty and desperate conditions that many Latinos live in. We, as the USA, have a responsibility to do as much as we can to reach out to aid and assist spiritually with the Gospel and naturally with training, technology and resources. But poverty gives no one the right to break the laws of another sovereign nation.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

US agriculture and immigration tied in a knot
By Christine Stebbins
Reuters

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Agribusiness is warning Americans that the $12 trillion U.S. economy could be forced to go on an expensive diet if immigrant workers are restricted.

Immigrants have flooded into many industries for what President George W. Bush calls "the jobs Americans don't want." Agriculture is a prime area where mostly Mexican immigrants have sent down roots so strong that companies may no longer be able to operate without them.

"To find and deport workers who are in the country right now would throw a wrench into the economy of the United States that would leave people in disbelief," said Dave Ray, spokesman for the American Meat Institute, which represents beef and pork companies.

"What makes food so cheap in the United States is because we do things efficiently and if you wiped out that efficiency by creating an unnecessary labor shortage, it essentially will foist a high food price on to consumers," Ray said.

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Border drone crashes near Tubac
The Associated Press

An unmanned aerial drone used to help Border Patrol agents find smugglers and illegal immigrants crossing the border crashed Tuesday in southern Arizona, authorities said.

Operators lost contact with the $6.5 million Predator B drone about 3 a.m. Mountain time. A government helicopter found the crash site about three hours later, said Michael Friel, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Washington.

Friel said officials didn't know the extent of the damage done to the drone. The cause of the crash also remained under investigation.

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Official escapes injury in attack in Mexicali
FROM STAFF AND AP REPORTS

The man who oversees the police forces of Baja California state escaped injury in Mexicali Tuesday when at least 10 assailants fired on and threw grenades at the convoy carrying him.

The attack, plus the killing of a police officer in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, were the latest in a series of incidents that have revealed the depth of violence in parts of Mexico. Investigators say most of the bloodshed is caused by drug gangs who are battling for control of lucrative smuggling routes into the United States.

But Gerardo Carranza, the director of federal Attorney General's office in San Luis Rio Colorado, Son., said attacks against officers in that city are rare, and that organized crime is not a problem as it is in other parts of Mexico.

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Heroin, meth seized at San Luis port
FROM STAFF REPORTS

A 30-year-old man from San Luis Rio Colorado, Son., is in custody on suspicion of drug smuggling after a narcotics detection dog sniffed out heroin and methamphetamine in the vehicle he was driving across the border Monday morning.

Four pounds of heroin and 3 pounds of methamphetamine was seized from the vehicle by Customs and Border Protection Officers at the U.S. Port of Entry at San Luis, Ariz., the CBP said in a news release. The street value of the drugs was estimated at $535,000.

The drugs were found in a hidden compartment above the rear tires after Reno, the dog, picked up the scent of narcotics in the 1993 Mazda that the unidentified man was driving.

He was arrested and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for further investigation.

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Bush and Senate near illegal-immigrant deal
By Dave Montgomery
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON — President Bush delivered a breakthrough Tuesday in on-again, off-again efforts to push comprehensive immigration legislation through Congress this year, Senate leaders said following a White House meeting with the president.

Bush met with a bipartisan group of more than a dozen senators for an hour and went further than ever before in embracing the core ingredients of a sweeping bill that would grant citizenship to millions of illegal workers, participants said.

With Bush's stance, the senators expressed confidence that the compromise will pass the Senate by the end of May. Hard work lies ahead after that, however, in reconciling the Senate version with a tough border-enforcement-only bill passed in December by the House of Representatives.

In a statement issued after he'd met the senators, Bush said: "I strongly believe that we have a chance to get an immigration bill that is comprehensive in nature to my desk before the end of this year."

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