Free Republic

Mexicans are deeply frustrated with immigrants after a year of heightened migration from Central America through the country, according to a survey conducted by The Washington Post and Mexico’s Reforma newspaper. More than 6 in 10 Mexicans say migrants are a burden on their country because they take jobs and benefits that should belong to Mexicans. A 55 percent majority supports deporting migrants who travel through Mexico to reach the United States. Those findings defy the perception that Mexico — a country that has sent millions of its own migrants to the United States, sending billions of dollars in remittances...

MIAMI, March 16 -- Mauricio Funes, a former TV newsman who was recruited to run for president, declared himself the winner of El Salvador's presidential contest Sunday night, bringing into power a leftist party built by former guerrillas and ending two decades of conservative rule. Funes, a dynamic speaker and political outsider who compares himself to President Obama and pledged to be an agent of change in the small Central American nation, was leading the polls late Sunday night with 51.2 percent of the vote and more than 90 percent of the ballots counted. Turnout was high and election day...

SAN DIEGO – A member of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha street gang was caught among a group of illegal immigrants Monday by Border Patrol agents in rugged country near Jamul. Javier Cortez Majano, 23, was among a group of five people stopped about 6 a.m. about two miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, said Border Patrol spokesman Mark Endicott. A records check showed that Cortez, a Honduran national, was a member of the gang, also known as MS-13, and had a criminal history in Arkansas, Endicott said. Founded in Southern California by Salvadoran immigrants in the 1980s, Mara Salvatrucha has...

Crackdown on Gangs Brings Mexico Violence