Immigration issues nag at GOP candidates

By LIBBY QUAID
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ask the leading Republican presidential candidates about dealing with illegal immigration, and inevitably the answer focuses on tightening border security and building fences.

What voters aren't hearing a lot about is giving legal status, under certain conditions, to illegal immigrants in the United States, even though each of the top three GOP candidates has supported such a policy.

The reason has a lot to do with a deep fissure in the GOP base: Business and industry are demanding more low-wage workers, while grass-roots conservatives are demanding that those workers be shipped home.

From coffee shops in Iowa to barbecue joints in South Carolina, GOP voters troubled by what they see as an unchecked influx of immigrants into their communities are peppering the candidates with often-angry questions at campaign stops.

Officers seize $1.8 million in drugs

BY NICOLE E. SQUIBBS, SUN STAFF WRITER

April 23, 2007 - 10:57PM

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the U.S. Port of Entry at San Luis, Ariz., seized almost $1.8 million in illicit drugs, including 297 pounds of marijuana and 78 pounds of cocaine, within nine days.

The string of seizures involved six significant attempts at smuggling illicit drugs into the U.S., beginning around noon April 13, when CBP officers found roughly 49 pounds of marijuana hidden inside the gas tank of a 1992 Ford Explorer.

They arrested the driver, a 20-year-old man from San Luis Rio Colorado, Son., in connection with the failed smuggling attempt, according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security news release.

Border agent charged with murder

By EDUARDO MONTES, Associated Press Writer
Mon Apr 23, 8:29 PM ET
A Border Patrol agent was charged Monday with first-degree murder in the shooting of an unarmed illegal immigrant at the border in January.
The shooting, which drew condemnation from the Mexican government, occurred while Corbett was trying to apprehend Dominguez-Rivera and three others who were trying to enter the country illegally.
In the days after the shooting, the Border Patrol said that a scuffle had led to it and that the agent had "feared for his life."
More than 300 pages of documents later released by prosecutors revealed that Corbett's account didn't match witness testimony or forensic evidence.
Corbett told colleagues he shot at a man who looked like he was going to throw a rock.
But three witnesses who were being apprehended along with Dominguez-Rivera — his two brothers and a sister-in-law — told investigators Corbett fired while pushing Dominguez-Rivera to the ground.

The witnesses are not only also illegally in the country but they are related to the man who was shot and our judicial system is siding with them over the border patrol. They would say anything to keep from being persecuted and perhaps win a huge civil settlement. Unbelievable! -mm

NAFTA Superhighway hits bump in road

Given severe blow as Texas Legislature voting to block program
Posted: April 23, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

EL PASO – The Texas legislature moved closer to blocking the Trans-Texas Corridor last week with a bill that would place a two-year moratorium all public-private partnerships that would involve the construction of new toll roads financed and operated by private foreign investment groups.

Last Thursday, the Texas Senate unanimously approved Senate Bill 1267, requiring the study of long-term partnerships such as the Texas Department of Transportation recommended in the construction of TTC-35, a four-football-fields-wide NAFTA superhighway financed and operated for 50 years by the Cintra investment consortium in Spain.

Shipments from Mexico draw special U.S. scrutiny

Spotlight increases on port security
By Diane Lindquist
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Photo courtesy of SAIC
April 23, 2007

When Mexican President Felipe Calderón launched his sweeping campaign against narcotrafficking late last year, he sent navy ships and thousands of troops to the port of Lázaro Cárdenas to clamp down on the reputed hub for smuggling drugs to the United States.

Drugs aren't the only contraband that is troublesome at foreign ports such as Lázaro Cárdenas. The ports – growing transit points for boxcar-sized containers bound for the American heartland – are crucial in keeping the United States free from terrorist attack.

With nearly the equivalent of 17.3 million cargo containers arriving by ship at U.S. seaports each year, concerns are heightening that maritime cargo might be used to deliver nuclear, chemical or biological weapons or to carry bands of terrorists into the United States.

Storm gathers over trade corridor

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

April 23, 2007

ALPINE -- There are signs on U.S. 67 on the edge of town saying the highway is part of 'La Entrada al Pacifico' corridor, but until recently most locals paid little attention to them.

That changed last month when a series of public meetings about the proposed 812-mile trade corridor from the Mexican port of Topolobampo to Midland-Odessa brought the proposal into sharp focus.

Instead of a vague plan, residents were alarmed to learn that the route could be finalized in a little over a year.

Visions of hundreds of big rigs rumbling down the streets of Alpine and Marfa, bringing gridlock and pollution, created an uproar in the Davis Mountains communities, pitting the interests of the tourism-minded Big Bend region against the economic dreams of Midland-Odessa.

Cross-border collaboration landing U.S. suspects in Mexican courts

California leads nation in pursuing Mexico prosecutions.

The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO -- Criminals have long fled across borders to escape prosecution, but growing cross-border collaboration between California and Mexico is landing more of these fugitives in court in their native country.

In the past, criminal suspects like Alvaro Gudino, charged in the shooting deaths of two men in Santa Rosa, Calif., would have fallen through the cracks. Instead, the increased international cooperation has landed him in a Mexican jail, where he waits to be tried for the 1995 murders.

Since 1980, California has led the nation in pursuing cases that rely on a little-known Mexican law which allows the American justice system to seek prosecution in Mexico of citizens suspected of committing crimes in the United States. State and local authorities have sought convictions in 277 cases with help from prosecutors in Mexico.

Rally targets illegal aliens

By Arlo Wagner
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
April 23, 2007

Hundreds of people gathered yesterday outside the White House, calling for stricter immigration laws and chanting such messages as "no more amnesty" and "protect our borders."
The rally was organized by the Dustin Inman Society, a nonpartisan group that educates the public and elected officials on the consequences of illegal immigration and unsecured borders, according to the group's Web site.
"Thank you," said group Director D.A. King. "They surely heard that."
The group is named after Dustin Inman, a 16-year-old killed in a car accident involving an illegal alien in 2000.

United on immigration, Democrats divide voters

By Stephen Dinan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published April 23, 2007

In New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina, the questions about immigration arise repeatedly -- and Democratic presidential candidates say they know they are alienating some of their strongest supporters by calling for legalization of illegal aliens.
"It's a bad vote. It loses you votes. I've never found anybody that won on immigration," New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said this month at a town hall forum at New England College.
The issue has received far more attention among Republicans, but Democratic presidential candidates are facing the same polarizing questions.

Circumventing Legal Authority

By Alan Nathan
Washington Times | April 23, 2007

Whether it's about illegal aliens, property rights, or reconciling our jurisprudence with international law, inferior vestiges of government power have circumvented an authority not vested in them by our Constitution, and the proof is disturbingly self-evident.

For the last two years, a slight majority of poll respondents have said that they are open to guest-worker programs and pathways to citizenship for non-documented residents. However, 70 percent correctly insist that we should first seal up the borders against the hundreds of thousands of people entering our home illegally every year.

America's governing bodies deny our pleas by cowering behind lofty claims of needed comprehensive immigration reform. It's a maneuver to supplant their responsibility with an excuse to prolong noncompliance with our Constitution.

The nation's illegal-immigration debate resembles a dysfunctional family, who, when confronted by a leaky roof, would rather fight about where to place limited buckets instead of simply repairing the holes. Just as sealing the ceiling shouldn't be hostage to buying more pails, so implementing constitutional law shouldn't be contingent upon legislative law not yet written.

Rapid expansion raises doubt over integrity of recruits

By Jacques Billeaud / Associated Press
Article Launched: 04/23/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT

ARTESIA, N.M. -- The U.S. Border Patrol's push to expand the number of agents on the lookout for illegal crossings has some current and former agents worried that the pressure will lead to corner cutting and will jeopardize public safety.

Raising the Border Patrol's numbers from about 12,000 to 18,000 by the end of 2008 is a key element of President Bush's plan to improve security along the border, crossed by tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants each year.

The sprawling Border Patrol Academy in southeastern New Mexico recently started launching two 50-student classes each week, compared to one class every two or three weeks before the expansion plan was announced nearly a year ago.

Some critics worry that pressure to meet the hiring goal will lead the agency to admit recruits with integrity problems.

New deputies will chase illegal migrants, smugglers

The Associated Press

Published: 04.23.2007

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office is getting funds to hire 15 deputies whose main job will be to arrest illegal immigrants and human smugglers and enforce Arizona's anti-coyote law.

The office has been using the law to arrest the people who are smuggled across the border as conspirators with human smugglers.

Deputies have arrested 523 illegal immigrants under the law in the last year, said sheriff's spokesman Lt. Paul Chagolla.

Students asked to boycott school for immigration demonstration

Apr 23, 3:10 AM EDT

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- Tucson activists are calling for high school and college students to boycott school and participate in a planned May 1 march for immigrant rights.

The march will coincide with similar work and shopping boycotts in Phoenix and throughout the country on May 1.

Tucson students are being asked to boycott school to protest an Arizona law passed by voters in November. Proposition 300 requires students to show proof of legal residency to receive in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.

Newsom pledges to make SF a sanctuary for illegal immigrants

Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, April 22, 2007

(04-22) 18:56 PDT -- Mayor Gavin Newsom vowed Sunday to maintain San Francisco as a sanctuary for immigrants and do everything he can to discourage federal authorities from conducting immigration raids.

The mayor cannot stop federal authorities from making arrests, Newsom told about 300 mostly Latino members of St. Peter's Church and other religious groups supporting immigrants. But no San Francisco employee will help with immigration enforcement.

"I will not allow any of my department heads or anyone associated with this city to cooperate in any way shape or form with these raids," Newsom declared. "We are a sanctuary city, make no mistake about it."

The Board of Supervisors first declared San Francisco a "sanctuary city" in 1989. The designation, which many U.S. cities across the country took on during the 1980s, has no legal meaning.

Is It Wrong For Us To Call Ourselves Americans?

Memo From Mexico, By Allan Wall

"Although we realize that the term American is commonly used to refer to the U.S. population, we view American as including other North and South Americans as well. Therefore we have tried to limit the use of this term when referring to the United States."

These words of wisdom are from the introduction to Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society, a book that VDARE.COM columnist Athena Kerry has informed us was foisted upon education majors in her university.

So is it wrong for us citizens of the U.S.A. to call ourselves Americans?

Last year, there was a proposal in the Michigan Department of Education to prohibit the use of the term "Americans" from referring to U.S. citizens and Karen Todorov, the Social Studies advisor to the Michigan Department of Education, went so far as to assert that "It is ethnocentric for the United States to claim the entire hemisphere."

Mrs. Todorov’s [send her mail] point of view did not carry the day at the Michigan Department of Education—not yet anyway. After the outcry over her proposal last year, Michigan Superintendent Mike Flanagan released a statement to reassure Michiganders that:

"We are not seeking to do away with the terms ‘America’ or ‘American’ from classroom instruction, it’s not going to happen. I consider myself an American. We live in the United States of America. We are citizens of the United States of America…we’re Americans." State is not Removing "America" from Classroom Instruction in Michigan , May 24, 2006

DUI illegal arrested, convicted 9 times since 2003

Authorities can't explain why alien who killed father of 5 still in U.S.

Posted: April 21, 2007 7:15 p.m. Eastern

© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

When Isidro Pena Soto's SUV slammed into an oncoming pickup truck, after passing another car at 90 miles-per-hour, the illegal alien who had been arrested or convicted at least nine times since 2003 made Kent Boone the fifth fatality in two weeks along a dangerous stretch of Northern California highway.

The notorious two-lane roadway, known as "blood alley," runs through Napa, Solano, Sacramento and San Joaquin counties. It averaged more than 10 deaths a year during the five-year period ending in 2005.

Pena, 26, was driving without a license while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. California Highway Patrol officers found two pounds of methamphetamine in his vehicle and more at his home. It was not his first brush with U.S. law, and that's what Boone's survivors find so hard to understand.

"He needs to be in prison, there's no way they're going to be able to deport him and keep him out of our country," Boone's widow, Regina Sorisio, told the Oroville Mercury Register.

Boone, a 33-year-old pipe fitter and father of five, was killed on March 31 as he drove to work.

More women rule, and die, in Mexico's drug gangs

By Robin Emmott
REUTERS

TIJUANA, Mexico – Challenging the stereotype of macho Mexico, women are moving into positions of power in male-dominated drug cartels but in the process suffering gruesome deaths in turf wars among traffickers.

At least 20 women drug smugglers have been killed by rival gangs so far this year, many of them suffocated with tape, compared to about 15 for all of last year, police say.

The highest-profile case is that of Enedina Arellano Felix, who now jointly runs the Tijuana cartel based across the border from California after one of her brothers, top trafficker Francisco Javier, was captured last August.

Plan to legalize first-term abortion sparks showdown in Mexico City

Lawmakers to vote on measure Tuesday

By S. Lynne Walker

COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

April 22, 2007

MEXICO CITY – Bomb threats. Protests. Vows by Catholic bishops that legislators, doctors and women will be excommunicated.

As Mexico City lawmakers prepare to vote Tuesday on legalizing first-trimester abortions in the nation's capital, the Catholic Church and anti-abortion groups are waging an emotional campaign against the measure that is pushing the city to the brink of violent confrontation.

Several council members have received death threats in recent days. The colonial building in downtown Mexico City where they will vote was the target of a bomb threat. And police are blocking downtown streets in response to daily protests.

Border Patrol video of shooting leaked to Internet

By Greg Gross
UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM
11:25 a.m. April 20, 2007

CALEXICO – Surveillance video of a deadly shooting last month of a would-be illegal migrant by a Border Patrol agent is prompting calls by the Mexican government for an investigation, although it shows the agent apparently firing in self-defense.

A Border Patrol video of that incident, derived from those surveillance images and originally meant as an internal report to Border Patrol headquarters in Washington, has since been leaked onto the Internet.

Ramiro Gamez Acosta, 20, was shot once in the chest by an agent armed with an M-4 carbine last March 26. He died within minutes.

Drug cartel linked to hospital gunfight

Plea for peace at a farewell to the fallen
By Anna Cearley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 21, 2007

TIJUANA – Mourners pleaded for an end to violence during yesterday's memorial service for two law enforcement officers killed Wednesday when several gunmen stormed General Hospital in Tijuana.

Evangelina Balderas de García, the widow of state prison guard Rodolfo García Parrales, blamed the gunmen for robbing her family of “a spouse, a father and . . . a great element of the corporation he belonged to.”

Authorities have linked the Arellano Félix drug cartel to the shootout with police, which started near the city's main bus station. One suspected cartel member died at the scene and another suspect was wounded and taken to General Hospital, where his fellow gunmen tried to remove him.

Cartel hiring teens in Texas as hitmen

VIOLENCE ALONG THE BORDER
One youth was able to keep killing after bonding out twice on murder charges in Webb County

By SUSAN CARROLL
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

LAREDO — If the teenage hitman had stayed locked up in his concrete cell after the first murder, maybe Moises Garcia would still sing goofy Spanish songs to his son.

Maybe Noe Lopez, a 27-year-old father of four, wouldn't be buried under a sapling in the city cemetery.

Maybe.

If a judge hadn't reduced Gabriel Cardona's bail after the second murder charge, perhaps Mariano Resendez would be close to finishing his junior year of high school.

If the justice of the peace hadn't decreased Cardona's bail on another murder charge and a charge of engaging in organized crime from a total of $3 million to $200,000, maybe Jesus Maria Resendez would still take his nephew Mariano fishing.

Maybe.

Three employees at Colorado potato farm arrested by ICE on criminal charges for possessing false ID cards, aggravated ID theft

19 illegal aliens also arrested on immigration violations during execution of the search warrant

MONTE VISTA, Colo. — Special agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday executed criminal arrest warrants for three employees who worked at “Worley & McCullough Inc.,” a potato farm and processing plant here; 19 illegal aliens were also arrested on administrative immigration violations while a search warrant was executed at the facility.

The April 17 operation followed an 11-month investigation into the alleged illegal hiring practices at the facility. The six-count November 2006 criminal indictment had only been unsealed late yesterday.

The following Worley & McCullough employees were arrested at the potato farm on criminal charges of obtaining and possessing false identification cards, and aggravated identity theft: Michael Abeyta, 40 — the company general manager; Luis Trujillo, 42 — a company foreman; and Javier Fuentes-Sotelo, aka “Pollo,” 32 — a company employee. Abeyta and Trujillo are U.S. citizens; Fuentes-Sotelo is a U.S. permanent resident from Mexico. Fuentes-Sotelo was also indicted on charges of transferring more than four identification documents.

Illegal crossers' last try: brazen dash through city

After failing in the desert, hope remains of breaching urban border

By Brady McCombs

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

NOGALES, Sonora — Gabino Ibarra leans against a white stucco wall outside a church in the late-afternoon shadows, prying a few remaining cactus splinters from his calloused hands.

It's mid-April and the 37-year-old father of four from Veracruz, Mexico, is staying at a migrant shelter, resting from three weeks of failed attempts to cross illegally into the United States through the Altar Desert near Sasabe.

The grueling desert treks have left Ibarra 17 pounds lighter and less enthusiastic about his northern quest than when he left Veracruz, more than a thousand miles away in southeastern Mexico. But, he planned to make one last-ditch effort. Like many before him, he will try to scale the steel fence that marks the international line in Nogales.

"This will be the last try," he says in Spanish. "So I don't have to go home defeated."

For would-be-illegal border crossers who have failed to slip into the United States through remote deserts and mountains, the imposing urban border can start to look beatable.

2 seizures yield over ton of marijuana

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

U.S. Border Patrol agents seized more than a ton of marijuana in two incidents southwest of Tucson.

At 5 a.m. Friday, an agent using night-vision goggles spotted a Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck driving across the border illegally near the village of San Miguel on the Tohono O'odham Nation, said Gustavo Soto, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman.

San Miguel is about 60 miles southwest of Tucson.

After a helicopter began tracking the truck, the driver turned off the lights and continued north at high speed on a dirt road. The truck rammed into a parked Border Patrol Ford pickup that was facing south, Soto said. The smuggler left the truck and ran into the desert, Soto said.

An agent inside the pickup was momentarily dazed but not hurt, Soto said.

The agent found 1,061 pounds of marijuana, a two-way radio and a bulletproof vest inside. Agents said they believe the driver escaped back to Mexico. The truck was reported stolen out of Tucson, he said.

Senate approves fix of flaw in immigrant-smuggling law

The Associated Press

Published: 04.20.2007

The Arizona Senate approved a proposal Thursday that's intended to fix a flaw in a state law targeting immigrant smugglers.

Some authorities have complained that they have found it hard to hold illegal immigrant witnesses to the crime when they haven't been accused of working as smugglers or charged with state crimes.

The bill extends the time state authorities can hold such "material witnesses" from three days to seven days.

"I want to see convictions of smugglers go up, and (prosecutors) told me this would fix it," said Republican Rep. Jonathan Paton of Tucson, sponsor of the proposal and co-author of the 2005 smuggling law.

Dupnik setting up border crime unit

It's unclear if it will enforce federal immigration laws

DAVID L. TEIBEL

Published: 04.21.2007

Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik, who for years has bemoaned the strain that border crime places on his department, is forming a squad of officers who will fight crime along the Pima County-Mexico border.

A sergeant and six deputies will enforce state and local laws along the border, the Sheriff's Department said in a news statement Friday.

It was not immediately clear whether the deputies also will be told to enforce federal immigration law, something Dupnik for years has said is a federal responsibility he would not shoulder.

Dupnik has stressed that he considers his responsibility to be the enforcement of local laws and investigating crimes, such as murder, robbery, burglary and auto theft. He has said he does not have enough deputies or money to enforce those laws and federal immigration laws.

Basics of an expansion of the Border Patrol

Apr. 22, 2007 11:20 AM

Basics of an expansion of the Border Patrol

QUALIFICATIONS: Recruits must have either a college education or a year of work experience that exposed them to stressful situations demanding quick decision-making. They are required to pass a drug screening, medical exam, physical fitness test and an interview by agency officials. They can't have felony or domestic violence convictions and must agree to a background investigation that reviews the last 10 years of their lives.

STARTING PAY: Ranges from $35,000 to $45,000, depending on the education and previous work experience of each agent. Officials said the job also could have opportunities for overtime that could push up an agent's salary up as much as 25 percent.

LENGTH OF TRAINING: Seventeen weeks at the Border Patrol Academy, followed by a two-year probationary period that includes field training.

PERSPECTIVE: The goal is to add 6,000 agents in just over two years. The last big expansion added nearly 5,000 new agents in a five-year hiring push that began in 1996.

MCSO to beef up immigration patrols

The Associated Press
Apr. 22, 2007 09:36 AM

MESA - The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office is getting funds to hire 15 new deputies whose main job will be to arrest illegal immigrants and human smugglers and enforce Arizona's anti-coyote law.

The sheriff's office has been using the law to arrest the people who are smuggled across the border as conspirators with human smugglers.

Deputies have arrested 523 illegal immigrants under the law in the last year, according to sheriff's spokesman Lt. Paul Chagolla.

Cocaine seized at Calexico port of entry

FROM STAFF REPORTS

April 20, 2007 - 9:28PM

CALEXICO - A 32-year-old Mexican man was arrested Wednesday for allegedly attempting to smuggle 119 pounds of cocaine into the United States at the Calexico downtown port of entry, according to a news release.

The cocaine seized is valued at roughly $1.2 million.

Around 11:30 a.m., U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers encountered the Las Vegas, Nev., resident when he entered the port driving a 1999 Chevrolet Tahoe. CBP officers determined the vehicle and occupant required further investigation and referred them into the secondary inspection
area.

During the secondary inspection, CBP officers utilized a narcotic detector dog that further alerted authorities. Officers then scanned the vehicle through an X-ray machine that displayed anomalies within the four tires. They subsequently discovered and extracted from the tires 48 packages, which field-tested positive for cocaine.

Feds aid Gilbert PD on immigration issues

Dianna M. Náñez
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 20, 2007 11:26 AM

Last month, federal immigration officials told The Arizona Republic they instituted a policy in September to ensure ICE would respond to every call from local police departments asking them to pick up undocumented immigrants involved in criminal activity. The policy was instituted after the departments complained about ICE's poor response.

Alonzo Peña, special agent in charge of ICE for Arizona, said that since launching the effort, ICE has maintained a 100 percent response rate.

Peña praises partnerships with Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and Phoenix Police Department to target immigration control. The Sheriff's Office will join fewer than 10 law enforcement agencies across the country that have similar agreements to receive ICE training to combat illegal immigration.

A less formal partnership between ICE and Phoenix to curb criminal activity related to illegal immigration is a first for the city.

Mexico leads in migrations

A World Bank report released Sunday shows that Mexico sends more migrants abroad than any other country on earth exceeding even the flows from nations that are much bigger, much poorer or convulsed by war and famine.

Two million Mexicans left their homeland between 2000 and 2005, according to the study, most of them to seek employment in the United States. China, whose population is more than 12 times larger than that of Mexico, saw 1.95 million of its citizens leave the country. More than 1.8 million Pakistanis left their homeland. Neighboring India produced 1.4 million migrants.

Program for illegals draws fire

By: MARGARET GIBBONS , Times Herald Staff

COURTHOUSE - Montgomery County's Prenatal Service Program (PSP), which targets pregnant illegal aliens who can't get health insurance, is under fire from several citizens who contend that the undocumented immigrants should be deported rather than be provided with health services.

However, county officials defend the program.
"Deportation is not in our domain," county human services Director Joseph Roynan said. "Our domain is the care of infants, to make as sure as possible that they are not born with birth defects or other disabilities regardless of the status of the infant's mother."
"Before that child is born, the mother is here illegally and should be deported," maintained East Norriton resident Ruth Miller, claiming that the county was facilitating illegal immigration by offering the prenatal program.

Illegitimate Births Among Immigrants

Study: Overall Rate Now Nearly the Same as Natives, Hispanic Rate Higher

WASHINGTON (April 2007) — President Bush and others argue that one of the benefits of immigration is that immigrants have a stronger commitment to traditional family values than native-born Americans. However, a new analysis of birth records by the Center for Immigration Studies shows that out of wedlock births have grown dramatically for both groups, and rates are now about the same for immigrant and native mothers. The report provides information for states, metro areas, and counties. Children born to unmarried parents are at higher risk for a host of social problems. This may be especially true for the children of immigrants, because they need strong families to adjust to life in America.

Woman dies in Boynton crash with bus carrying illegal migrants

By Jerome Burdi
Sun-Sentinel.com
Posted April 18 2007, 9:30 AM EDT

BOYNTON BEACH -- A 94-year-old woman was killed in a crash about 4:45 p.m. Tuesday in the 700 block of West Boynton Beach Boulevard when she failed to yield the way to a bus, police said.

Julia Ernst was headed west and was in the left hand turn lane waiting to turn onto Southwest Eighth Street. A bus with 30 illegal Latin American migrants and a legal Honduras native was driving eastbound in the center lane, police said. Ernst failed to yield the right of way and pulled in front of the bus where her car was hit and she died on the scene, police said.

Newspaper in Mexico drug war hotspot hit by grenade

REUTERS

11:20 a.m. April 18, 2007

MEXICO CITY – An unknown assailant tossed a grenade into the offices of a northern Mexican newspaper a day after gunmen snatched a reporter from a nearby city, part of a campaign against the media by drug gangs.

The grenade exploded inside the offices of Cambio newspaper in the northern city of Hermosillo Tuesday night, breaking windows and startling reporters. Nobody was injured, newspaper director Roberto Gutierrez told Reuters.

The attack came a day after gunmen in the city of Agua Prieta on the U.S. border, which is in the same state of Sonora as Hermosillo, snatched a crime reporter investigating the country's bloody war between rival drug cartels.

3 Killed at Tijuana Hospital

Apr 18, 9:17 PM EDT

By LUIS PEREZ
Associated Press Writer

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) -- Police and soldiers battled gunmen at a hospital in the border city of Tijuana Wednesday in violence that left at least three people dead before the authorities subdued the attackers, officials said.

Shooting first erupted when about seven masked gunmen entered the public hospital and were confronted by a group of state police who happened to be escorting prisoners for routine treatment, said Tijuana Police Commander Jaime Niebla.

Two state police officers and one of the gunmen were killed in the clash, Niebla said.

Red Cross representative Fernando Esquer said he believed the gunmen were trying to free one of the prisoners receiving treatment.

2 officers killed in gunbattle

Photo by JOHN GIBBINS / Union-Tribune

Man will be charged with assaulting border agent

By Tammy Fonce-Olivas / El Paso Times

Article Launched: 04/19/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT

A 28-year-old man will face a charge of attempted assault on a U.S. Border Patrol agent in connection with a shooting Tuesday at an East-Central auto supply business.

Gerardo Felipe Ortiz of El Paso is being investigated by the FBI on allegations of trying to run over a Border Patrol agent in the Alamo Auto Supply parking lot at 5923 Gateway West, FBI spokeswoman Andrea Simmons said Wednesday.

Simmons said the incident happened after the agent and his partner followed a gray Dodge truck and a white Dodge car to the parking lot of the auto supply business.

The agents approached the truck and car after observing suspicious behavior between the vehicles' drivers.

As the agents identified themselves, Ortiz, who was driving the truck, allegedly attempted to run over one of the agents. In response, the agent fired his gun.

Ex-agent is convicted of bribery, extortion

Article Launched: 04/19/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT

A former agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement faces up to 18 years in prison after his conviction Tuesday of bribery and extortion under color of law, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton announced Wednesday.

Santiago Efrain Valle, 43, was convicted in U.S. District Court in El Paso. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 9 by U.S. District Judge David Briones.

According to Sutton's office, the two-day trial revealed that Valle agreed to accept $20,000 in exchange for dismissing pending criminal charges against a detainee at the El Paso Service Processing Center and changing the detainee's risk classification. Valle was arrested on March 16 by federal agents after accepting $20,000 from undercover officers.

Tammy Fonce-Olivas

Newsman abducted in Agua Prieta

The Associated Press

Published: 04.19.2007

PHOENIX - A reporter for a small Mexican newspaper was kidnapped in front of the police station in the Mexican border town of Agua Prieta, Mexican law enforcement officials and family members said.

Saul Martinez Ortega, 36, was taken from his sport utility vehicle on Monday by men with assault-style weapons, said his brother, Edgar Martinez. He was a reporter for the Interdiario/El Centenario de Agua Prieta.

A spokesman for the Sonoran Attorney General's Office said that a milky powder believed to be used to dilute cocaine was found in his vehicle, plus ammunition, and that officials suspect he was involved in drug running.

Slaying suspect faces deportation to Mexico

He convinced officials of citizenship after his earlier conviction in assault

Love Bhakta
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 19, 2007 12:00 AM

SCOTTSDALE - A man suspected of first-degree murder in what police describe as a plot to get a $500,000 life insurance policy is facing deportation to Mexico, a U.S. immigration official said Wednesday.

The U.S. Immigration Office will place Jose Quintero-Figueroa, 30, in removal proceedings following his arrest in connection with Friday's shooting death of 26-year-old Travis Hartline-Seffern.

Quintero-Figueroa, who had been a legal permanent resident of the U.S., should have been deported after he was convicted of aggravated assault.

He continued to live in the U.S. after his release from prison in 2006 only because he convinced officials he was born here, said Virginia Kice, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman.

2 suspects in Green Valley migrant killings indicted

Apr 18, 8:40 PM EDT

By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN
Associated Press Writer

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- A Pima County grand jury has indicted two Mexican citizens on murder charges in the shooting deaths of two suspected illegal immigrants among a group attacked in a pickup truck, authorities said.

The indictment charges Rosario Humberto Araujo-Monarrez, 21, and Martin Esrain Flores-Gaxiola, 18, each with two counts of first-degree murder and 21 counts of endangerment, Deputy County Attorney Rick Unklesbay said. The men are from the Mexican state of Sinaloa.

The men were charged in the indictment handed up last week with the March 30 attack on a pickup hauling 23 suspected illegal immigrants near Green Valley - the latest of at least four fatal assault incidents this year on illegal immigrants. Each defendant is being held under a $1 million bond in the Pima County Jail, Unklesbay said.

Mexico arrests border city chief of drug gang

REUTERS

10:25 a.m. April 17, 2007

MEXICO CITY – Mexican police have arrested the local head of the notorious Gulf Cartel drug gang in a city on the U.S. border as part of President Felipe Calderón's nationwide crackdown on organized crime.

Juan Oscar Garza was the cartel's leader in the city of Reynosa, just south of McAllen, Texas and was sought in Mexico for smuggling drugs, guns and people across the border, the attorney-general's office said Tuesday.

He was arrested at a nightclub in Reynosa along with his brother, sister and girlfriend. Officials declined to say when the arrest took place.

The Gulf Cartel is one of the country's two most powerful trafficking gangs and is locked in a bitter fight with rival smugglers from the Pacific coast.

Crisis on the border

Failure to solve immigration issues causes real suffering

April 18, 2007

BY CAROL MARIN cmarin@suntimes.com

PIMA COUNTY, Ariz. -- We like to say there are two sides to every story. But here on the front lines of the immigration wars, there are 10 sides. Maybe more.

Last week we made our annual trek to a great old horse ranch on the Arizona side of the Mexican border. It is here, every year, that we leave the city behind, lope the desert and drink in the beauty of the West. But midway through the week, the desert took on all sorts of different dimensions. Down the road were the Minutemen -- people from all over the United States, young and old, who volunteer their time to come down, camp out, watch the border and report sightings of illegal immigrants to law enforcement. Their critics consider them vigilantes. The Minutemen consider themselves patriots dedicated to having the borders secured and the law against illegal immigration obeyed.

Alleged rape at center of human rights controversy in Mexico

By David Ovalle

McClatchy Newspapers

MEXICO CITY - In life, Ernestina Ascencio was an unheralded 73-year-old grandmother who lived quietly in a rural village 120 miles from here. In death, she's become the center of a controversy that's raising questions about Mexican President Felipe Calderon's commitment to human rights.

Political analysts say they're baffled by the uproar that's surrounded Ascencio's death since prosecutors charged two months ago that four Mexican soldiers had beaten and raped her in a field.

Allegations of abuse of Mexico's indigenous population by soldiers are hardly unprecedented - such criticism is a regular feature of human-rights group reports - and the Defense Ministry said it would use semen samples to track down the guilty parties. The governor of the state of Veracruz visited Ascencio's family and vowed to pump resources into her tiny village, Soledad Atzompa, in the mountainous Zongolica region.

EU Official Criticizes U.S.-Mexico Wall

Apr 18, 12:13 AM EDT

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Tuesday criticized U.S. plans to extend barriers along its border with Mexico, saying immigrants should not be treated like criminals.

"A wall that separates one country from another is not something that I like or that the European Union members like," Solana said at a news conference in Mexico City. "We don't think walls are reasonable instruments to stop people from crossing into a country."

The EU believes immigrants should be treated "like people, not like criminals," he said.

Um, excuse me, Mr. "I haven't used up my fifteen minutes yet" but we neither care what you like nor are interested in what you think. Mismanage your own affairs and stay out of ours. As the TV lawyer Shark once said, "When I want your opinion, I'll stop ice skating in hell and ask for it!" -mm

Border Patrol agent wounds alleged assailant in truck

By Daniel Borunda and Tammy Fonce-Olivas / El Paso Times
El Paso Times

The shooting occurred after two agents in street clothes spotted a cash transaction between the driver and another man who got into the truck in the parking lot of Alamo Auto Supply, 5923 Gateway West at Trowbridge Drive, Border Patrol spokesmen said.

Border Patrol officials said the incident began when agents saw the Dodge truck and a Dodge Stratus, driven by a man with his wife and children, meet in the parking lot of Alamo Auto Supply. The agents saw the man in the Stratus go into the store, exit and get into the passenger side of the pickup.

"There, the agents observed the transfer of a roll of cash between the subjects" in the vehicles, Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier said.

The agents went up to the truck, identified themselves and were wearing badges around their necks, officials said. The passenger raised his hands in surrender as he got out of the truck, but the driver rolled up his window and allegedly tried to run over one of the agents, who fired multiple shots. The truck and wounded driver were later found at Thomason Hospital.

SUV driver fondling female before crash killed 8, survivors say

The Associated Press

Published: 04.17.2007

The driver of a sport utility vehicle crammed with suspected illegal immigrants was fondling a female when he lost control and crashed, killing eight men, authorities said, based on accounts from survivors.

It contradicts the driver's claim that he was trying to avoid an animal when the Chevy Suburban rolled a few hours before dawn Monday in southeastern Utah.

"The passengers say no, he wasn't swerving to miss a horse, that he was fondling a female passenger in the front seat of the vehicle," Sgt. Rick Eldredge of the Utah Highway Patrol told The Salt Lake Tribune in a story posted on its Web site Tuesday.

The vehicle rolled several times on U.S. 191 in the Four Corners area of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. Six people died at the scene. Two more later died, and six others were injured, one critically.

Feds: Suspect in slaying should have been deported to Mexico

Apr. 18, 2007 07:22 AM

SCOTTSDALE - A man being held on first-degree murder charges in connection with a shooting here last week should have been deported to Mexico a year ago for a prior felony conviction, authorities said.

The U.S. Immigration Office in Phoenix has placed a hold on Jose Quintero-Figueroa and will move to deport him after his court proceedings and potential sentencing.

Quintero-Figueroa is in the country only because he was able to dupe authorities into believing he was a native of United States, said Virginia Kice, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman.

Prosecutor to decide soon whether charges filed against agent

Apr 18, 4:23 AM EDT

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- A U.S. Border Patrol agent involved in the fatal shooting of an illegal immigrant near Douglas may find out whether he'll face criminal charges within two weeks, authorities said.

Cochise County Attorney Ed Rheinheimer said hopes to make a decision by April 27 in the case involving agent Nicholas Corbett, 39.

Rheinheimer's office is reviewing an enhanced video version of the incident from a Border Patrol surveillance camera that was sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Rheinheimer's office viewed the original blurry digital video on compact disc but was hoping to see an enhanced version before deciding whether to press charges against Corbett, who shot and killed 22-year-old Francisco Javier Dominguez-Rivera, of Puebla, Mexico, on Jan. 12 about 150 yards north of the border between Bisbee and Douglas.

Chertoff, Gutierrez, Rice: Plotting Bush’s North American Union

April 16, 2007

By Daniel Sheehy

[Previously by Daniel Sheehy: Fighting Immigration Anarchy At The Grass Roots]

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is a busy guy these days securing our border with Mexico—at least that’s what the "mainstream media" wants Americans to think.

During President Bush’s tour of Yuma, Arizona on April 9, we were shown pictures of Bush and Chertoff posing in front of a Predator B unmanned aerial vehicle, implying that the Predator is being used along the border to catch illegal aliens.

Other pictures showed Bush pointing to fencing that has been erected at the border since he visited the same spot one year ago.

"This border is more secure, and America is safer as a result," the president told several hundred border agents, National Guard personal, and local law enforcement officials during his visit to Yuma. "I appreciate the hard work of Secretary Michael Chertoff."

Police: East Texas Boy Is Murdered and Sexually Assaulted

4/16/07-Carthage

An East Texas 4-year-old boy was sexually assaulted and murdered by a man, police say, worked and lived with his family. Police were called out to a home in Carthage Sunday morning. Residents there say they are stunned, such a horrible murder could happen where they live.

Teddy bears and flowers are a makeshift memorial to 4-year-old Joey Zhang-Liu who, residents say, used to greet customers at his parents' Chinese restaurant in Carthage.

"He was just joyful, always playing, every time I would come and grab my leg, would just hug me he was real nice and sweet," says Liketia Harris, who remembers the little boy.

Police say Rogerio Chaves Garcia, 27, has confessed to strangling and sexually assaulting the boy. Police say he worked at the restaurant and lived with the family in their home.

Mexican trucks to enter U.S. in 15 seconds

Test program would minimize inspections of loads
Posted: April 17, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Mexican trucks carrying loads of consumer goods into the United States under a test program could be across the border in as little as 15 seconds, according to government officials setting up the procedures.

A spokesman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has confirmed to WND Mexican trucks participating in the cross-border program would be eligible to participate in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Free and Secure Trade system.

Participation in the FAST program would keep physical inspections of truck trailers or shipment containers to a minimum, and speed their processing on lanes specially designated for the shipments.

While some implementation details of the plans still are being resolved, WND has learned that several government agencies will be involved with the effort to allow Mexican long-haul rigs to have the run of the United States.

Border not stopping prosecutions

Collaboration landing American suspects in Mexican courts
By JULIANA BARBASSA
Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO - Criminals have long fled across borders to escape prosecution, but growing cross-border collaboration between California and Mexico is landing more of these fugitives in court in their native country.

In the past, criminal suspects like Alvaro Gudino, charged in the shooting deaths of two men in Santa Rosa, would have fallen through the cracks. Instead, the increased international cooperation has landed him in a Mexican jail, where he waits to be tried for the 1995 murders.

Little-known Mexican law|

Since 1980, California has led the nation in pursuing cases that rely on a little-known Mexican law which allows the American justice system to seek prosecution in Mexico of citizens suspected of committing crimes in the United States. State and local authorities have sought convictions in 277 cases with help from prosecutors in Mexico.

ICE arrests 49 immigration violators, criminals and fugitives in Willmar, Minn.

Four-day operation Cross Check nets sex offender, welfare fraud perpetrators

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers arrested 49 illegal aliens, criminals and immigration fugitives during a four-day enforcement operation in Willmar, Minn., and the surrounding area.

Called "Operation Cross Check," this localized, targeted enforcement initiative, which began April 10 and concluded April 13, is part of an ongoing nationwide initiative focused on arresting criminal aliens. During the operation, ICE officers arrested 49 illegal aliens, including 18 with criminal convictions. Also among those arrested were six fugitives - illegal aliens who had been ordered removed by a federal immigration judge but failed to surrender or leave the U.S. - and 25 aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law.

More than half of those arrested falsely claimed to be U.S. citizens born in Puerto Rico.

Police Find 17 Bodies Across Mexico

Apr 17, 12:07 AM EDT
By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO
Associated Press Writer
AP Photo/Israel Leal

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Police found 17 bodies stuffed in cars or dumped on streets in garbage bags across Mexico on Monday in the latest wave of violence apparently triggered by warring drug gangs.

In the resort city of Cancun, the bodies of three men and two women were found in an SUV with their heads covered in tape and their hands bound behind their backs, Quintana Roo state police said.

Police spokesman Antonio Coral said he could not immediately confirm the cause of death.

Mexico City police found more three bodies in an SUV parked in a middle-class neighborhood in what the Mexico City attorney general said appeared to be killings linked to a turf war between drug gangs.

Two more bodies were found in a car in Iguala, about 100 miles south of Mexico City. A note found at the scene threatened Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the alleged head of the Sinaloa Cartel who escaped from a federal prison in 2001.

_____

Mexico drugs cartels feud erupts

At least 20 people have been killed in what Mexican police say is a violent feud between rival drugs gangs across the country.

Police said bodies were found in several of the country's states from the early hours of Monday.

Some of those killed were found with evidence of torture or were wrapped in plastic bags, while others had had messages pinned to their bodies.

The killings are being blamed on drugs cartels fighting for control.

Execution-style killings

The bodies of five victims, two of them women, were found in a car parked at the entrance of an exclusive neighbourhood in the resort city of Cancun, reports say.

_____

Dozens of police held in drug sweep
From Times Wire Reports
April 17, 2007

Mexican troops arrested more than 100 policemen as part of a national drive against powerful drug gangs and the police officers on their payrolls.

Soldiers and police swept into more than a dozen police stations across the northern border state of Nuevo Leon, which was long one of Mexico's more peaceful regions but has seen a wave of execution-style killings in the last year.

Nicaragua Says It's Dismantled Drug Cell

Apr 16, 11:37 PM EDT

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) -- Nicaraguan police on Monday announced the arrest of more than two dozen local members of Mexico's powerful Sinaloa drug cartel but said they were still seeking the group's leader.

Among the 26 people detained over the weekend was Mexican national Jose Juvenal Mendoza Gonzalez, the purported chief of territorial logistics for the local group, said National Police Chief Cesar Cuadra.

Also arrested were five other Mexican nationals, two Guatemalans and 16 Nicaraguans, Cuadra said. Still at large was the alleged leader, Carlos Cisnado Pasos.

Authorities on Friday arrested five alleged Mexican members of the cell, including Mendoza Gonzalez, in northern Nicaragua. They also nabbed two Nicaraguans linked to the cell, Cuadra said.

State panel hears testimony on immigration bills

By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau
Article Launched: 04/17/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT

AUSTIN -- The Sin Fronteras farmworker center in South El Paso might not exist today had a bill that lawmakers considered Monday been in place a decade ago, said city attorney Charles McNabb.

The House State Affairs Committee heard testimony on a gaggle of immigration-related bills Monday. Most of the proposals were meant to limit employment opportunities for undocumented workers and help track how much illegal immigration costs Texas.

One of the bills would prohibit cities from spending money to build day-labor sites that help undocumented workers find jobs.

State Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, filed the bill intended to prohibit cities from creating and operating day-labor sites.

"A day-labor center that knowingly facilitates the employment of illegal workers is aiding and abetting a federal immigration crime already in process," Zedler said.

CBP Border Patrol Seizes More Than $2 Million in Narcotics

Monday, April 16, 2007

Falfurrias, Texas — U.S. Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol agents seized more than $2 million in illegal narcotics. The driver was arrested.

The seizure occurred April 16, when Border Patrol agents assigned to the Falfurrias Border Patrol checkpoint on Highway 281, questioned the driver of a tractor-trailer as to his citizenship. While determining the driver’s citizenship, a CBP Border Patrol canine alerted to the back of the utility-trailer. The driver was directed to the secondary inspection area where a search of the trailer led to the discovery of 107 bundles of Marijuana. The total weight of the Marijuana was 2,537 pounds with an estimated value of $2,029,600.

CBP Border Patrol Seizes $3 Million Worth of Marijuana

Agents Interdict Four-Vehicle Narcotics Convoy
Monday, April 16, 2007

Chula Vista, Calif. — U.S. Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol agents seized four sport utility vehicles containing 4,042 pounds of marijuana worth more than $3 million and arrested one driver last week.

At 8:30 a.m. April 12, a Border Patrol agent working in an area near Tecate, Calif. observed a four-vehicle caravan covered in dust, driving on State Route 94. The agent linked the convoy to a gate that had been forced open near the International Boundary. The agent was able to stop the last vehicle of the convoy and discovered numerous marijuana bundles inside the vehicle. The Mexican citizen driver was turned over to Operation Alliance, a collaborative multi-agency anti-drug taskforce.

Border clearing ongoing, but county sheriff wants more done

BY JEFFREY GAUTREAUX, SUN STAFF WRITER

April 16, 2007 - 10:02PM

Yuma County Sheriff Ralph Ogden said his hollering, stamping feet and letter-writing have led to some results in clearing a few hundred acres of brush along the southern border. He is hoping for thousands more.

The clearing of non-native vegetation, such as salt cedar and arrow weed, between the Colorado River and the levee aims to decrease illegal activity by improving surveillance. Ogden briefed the Yuma County Board of Supervisors about the issue Monday.

"You can have all the cameras in the world, but if all you're looking at is brush, you can't see anything until the guy is right in front of you," he said.

Housing Slump Takes a Toll on Illegal Immigrants

April 17, 2007

By EDUARDO PORTER

HURON, Calif. — Some of the casualties of America’s housing bust are easy to spot up and down California’s Central Valley.

From Fresno to Sacramento, big tangles of wire and PVC pipes clutter vacant lots in silent subdivisions, waiting for houses to be built — some day. Dozens of “For Sale” signs already dot the lawns across new residential communities. And right next to the ubiquitous billboards from builders are fresh signs offering homeowners help to avoid foreclosure.

But another set of losers is less visible: the immigrant workers, mostly illegal, who rode the construction boom while it lasted and now find jobs on building sites few and far between.

Mexico industrial output flat, fuels economy fears

By Greg Brosnan
REUTERS
4:00 p.m. April 13, 2007

MEXICO CITY – Mexican industrial output was unchanged in February from a year earlier as even the booming construction sector slid, surprising analysts who had expected a rise and fueling concerns about a slowing economy.

Manufacturing fell 0.1 percent after a lull in auto production. The construction sector, which has picked up slack from floundering exporters recently, slid 1.1 percent.

Analysts had expected industrial production to increase by 3.06 percent, according to the median estimate of a Reuters poll.

The weak numbers raised fears that an economic slump could be worse than previously thought. The slump was already expected to cut growth to 3.6 percent this year from 4.8 percent in 2006 due to a slowdown in the U.S. economy, the buyer of most Mexican exports.

Mexican officials rescue 54 at border

Feared immigrants would be victimized
By Anna Cearley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 14, 2007

TIJUANA – Mexican authorities plucked a total of 54 immigrants and two suspected immigrant smugglers from the border near Tecate yesterday in what they said was a rescue effort.

“The objective was to prevent them from becoming victims of the criminals that operate in these zones,” according to a joint news release from seven state and federal agencies.

Heriberto García, coordinator for the regional office of the National Commission of Human Rights, said his office had documented cases of immigrants being attacked by bandits in this region near the U.S.-Mexico border over the past few weeks.

García said it's illegal for authorities to round up immigrants from the south side of the border because of Mexico's law of free transit. (Emphasis mine -mm) However, that right is waived in cases of safety and rescue.

Mexican Smugglers Seize U.S. Territory

MSM (And Bush Administration, Needless To Say) Asleep

VDARE.com note: Readers are aware of how much we like to publish what the MSM is too politically correct and cowardly to report. This PowerPoint slideshow from NumbersUSA is an example of exactly that.

What is this un-reportable information? That there are armed and dangerous foreigners manning Listening Posts and Lookout Posts (LP/OPs) for at least 200 miles into US soil. They are heavily armed Mexicans, with military and police training, who have invaded and occupied southern Arizona to protect drug runners—who are also, of course, illegal alien smugglers. And we have the pictures to prove it.

Anti-Illegal Immigration Radio Hosts Head for Washington

By Nathan Burchfiel
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
April 16, 2007

(CNSNews.com) - More than 30 talk radio hosts and hundreds of their listeners are scheduled to converge on the nation's capital next week to lobby against comprehensive immigration reform measures that would offer what critics views as "amnesty" to illegal immigrants.

The conservative Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and San Diego radio talk show host Roger Hedgecock are sponsoring a marathon of talk radio and Capitol Hill lobbying, dubbed "Hold Their Feet to the Fire 2007."

The four-day event will kick off on Sunday, April 22, with a rally near the White House. From Monday through Wednesday, 36 radio hosts will broadcast from the Phoenix Park Hotel near the U.S. Capitol while an estimated 700 volunteers will visit elected officials and urge them to oppose what they consider to be "amnesty."

Immigration efforts help economy of one-time mining town

Monday, April 16, 2007 8:23 AM MST

AJO, Ariz. (AP) -- The federal government's push for better security along the U.S.-Mexican border has pumped new life into this one-time mining town.

Most of the more than 200 Border Patrol agents who now work in Ajo have moved to town. About 100 more agents are on the way.

Those recent arrivals are in addition to the National Guard members who have rotated through since President Bush last May announced a border enforcement initiative.

This seasonal retiree haven, which saw its copper mine close nearly 25 years ago, now finds its economy humming year-round. More customers shop at the stores. More businesses stay open for the summer than in years past. Finding a house to rent is difficult.

When U.S. Border Patrol Agent Bill Martin moved to Ajo more than a decade ago, fewer than 25 agents worked in town. "We're giving the town a year-round clientele," he said.

The increased presence at the border has triggered an economic burst across much of southern Arizona.

Ex-agent gets prison in drug smuggling

Article Launched: 04/14/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT

A former El Paso immigration inspector who was on the run for more than a dozen years after being convicted of allowing millions of dollars worth of marijuana into the United States has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison, the U.S. attorney's office in San Antonio announced Friday.

Jose Trinidad Carrillo, 46, was convicted in 1994 of conspiracy to import marijuana, three counts of importation of marijuana and three counts of accepting bribes. Carrillo fled before being sentenced and was arrested in El Paso in December.

He was sentenced to federal prison Tuesday and forfeited his house, four vehicles, 10 guns and about $20,000 in cash.

Times wire reports

Drug ringleader sent to prison for life

Article Launched: 04/14/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT

A convicted leader of an El Paso-Juárez drug ring that included a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission employee was sentenced to life in prison Friday, U.S. attorney officials said.

Hector Marquez Ramos was convicted last September of conspiracy to possess, distribute and import marijuana. He was also convicted of conspiracy to kill Maria Elidia Liuzza, 47, at the Juárez house of his brother, Mario Marquez, who is a fugitive. Also sentenced Friday was former El Paso real estate agent Horacio Fernandez, who received more than 13 years in federal prison.

Louie Gilot

Juárez police commander, 4 officers charged

By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 04/14/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT

A police commander is among five Juárez municipal police officers facing charges of framing a man in the fatal shooting of a woman earlier this week, the Chihuahua attorney general's office and police officials said.

The attorney general's office said in a statement on Friday that an ongoing investigation could expand to six more officers.

"For the good police officers that risk their lives daily for the citizenry, all our respect and support. For those officers who don't understand why they are in the police and are bad officers, the full force of the law," police Chief Marco Antonio Torres Moreno said.

The case stems from Wednesday's shooting that killed 34-year-old Monserrat Morales Arellanes and wounded her brother, 41-year-old Martin Morales Arellanes. Investigators had said the pair were involved in a dispute with neighbors over the killing of a dog.

CBP Frontline News

In this issue...
1. President lauds progress on southwest border
2. Secure Freight Initiative begins testing at two foreign ports
3. CBP officers recover stolen wedding dresses
4. Newsbytes

Bipartisan immigrant bill called a 'lie'

Tucson rights group says legalization path in plan is too strict
By Brady McCombs
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Some immigrant-rights groups are voicing opposition to a bipartisan immigration proposal that includes a temporary-worker program and a path to legalization for some illegal entrants.

Members of the Tucson-based Coalición de Derechos Humanos say the proposal, by U.S. Reps. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Luis Guiterrez, D-Ill., contains 700 pages of policing measures that perpetuate border militarization and falsely advertise a "path to citizenship."

The House bill has been labeled "Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy."

Even though the STRIVE Act is more all-encompassing than an enforcement-only House bill of 2006, Derechos Humanos also is calling it unacceptable.

Saw 728 illegal entries, Minuteman Corps says

The Associated Press
Published: 04.16.2007

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps has reported spotting more than 725 illegal immigrants crossing the Arizona-Mexico border in the past two weeks.

"They're actually swarming through there," said Al Garza, the group's executive director.

The Minutemen have been patrolling the border since the beginning of the month.

Garza said Minuteman volunteers operating in Altar Valley have called the U.S. Border Patrol to report sightings of 728 illegal immigrants. He said 234 of those spotted were later apprehended.

AWC and NAU-Yuma will begin verifying students' legal status

BY SARAH REYNOLDS, SUN STAFF WRITER
April 15, 2007 - 9:39PM

When college students line up to register for their next semester of classes, they will have to prove they are in this country legally.

And local college officials are concerned that some students may be dissuaded from continuing their education.

A new law, which Arizona voters approved as Proposition 300 in November, requires all state university and community college students to verify their legal residency prior to registration, or they will not be eligible for in-state tuition.

These requirements went into effect Dec. 7. It is getting its first real test now as students sign up for their summer and fall classes.

Matamoros officer arrested during marijuana raid

April 12, 2007, 1:10AM
Associated Press

BROWNSVILLE — An off-duty Matamoros, Mexico, police officer was one of four people arrested Wednesday during a drug raid where more than 600 pounds of marijuana were seized in a home in Brownsville, Cameron County authorities said.

Agents with the Cameron County District Attorney's Office found police credentials in the wallet of Officer Alvaro Camacho, 35, and notified Matamoros officials of his arrest, Commander Miguel Sanchez said.

Sanchez said agents acting on a tip asked tenants of the house if they could search the residence. He said they found 663 pounds of marijuana in two closets in the home, the Brownsville Herald reported in today's editions