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Two people involved in an apparent human smuggling attempt are dead after the SUV they were riding in drove into Zacate Creek at about 1 p.m. today, according to emergency personnel. Another two occupants of the vehicle were pulled out of the creek alive. At about 3 p.m., Border Patrol, Laredo Police Department and Laredo Fire Department officials were on the scene at Zacate Creek, in an area where Marcella Avenue dead-ends a few blocks from Chihuahua Street in the old Azteca neighborhood. Emergency crews were in the process of determining whether there were more occupants of the vehicles. The...

New Mexico, Colorado and Texas are applying for federal funds to study the viability of a high-speed rail system from El Paso through New Mexico to Denver. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Sen. Tom Udall, DN.M., said Thursday the three states will submit a joint pre-application Friday for up to $5 million to pay for the study. Congress has authorized up to 11 high-speed rail corridors nationwide.

JUAREZ -- Law enforcement agents in our sister city have arrested four alleged members of the paramilitary Zeta gang. XHIJ Channel 44 in Juarez is reporting the suspects were allegedly trying to kidnap a Mexican Coca-Cola executive. Late Monday, Mexican soldiers spotted the suspects inside a truck and ordered them to stop. Some of the suspects inside the truck then proceeded to shoot at the soldiers, according to XHIJ. The confrontation then led to a high-speed chase and another shootout ensued. The soldiers were able to stop the suspects and rescue the alleged victim. Police officials said no one was...

MEXICO CITY — A top member of a breakaway Mormon sect was dragged from his home by marauders and killed early Tuesday in a village founded and named for the American families that settled the remote community in the northern Mexican desert. Benjamin LeBaron, 31, and Luis Widmar, 29, a brother-in-law who tried to help him, were grabbed by at least 15 commandos shortly after midnight in Colonia LeBaron, which is about 200 miles southeast of El Paso, witnesses said. The bodies of the men, both naturalized U.S. citizens with five children each, were found nearby shortly afterward, each shot...

As foreclosures climb, so does fraud by schemers preying on desperate homeowners hoping to modify their loans. State investigators have 750 open cases -- up from just 10 a year ago. Maricela Castellanos sat at her desk, the telephone pressed to her ear, a chill running through her body. A representative from her mortgage company was on the line with troubling information about the loan on Castellanos' Hesperia home. No one at the company had previously been in contact with her, Castellanos recalled the man saying. The bank had no record of a new loan agreement with her, he...

A bipartisan task force will recommend today that the United States overhaul its immigration system in response to national security concerns, saying that the country should end strict quotas on work-based immigrant visas to maintain its scientific, technological and military edge. "The continued failure to devise and implement a sound and sustainable immigration policy threatens to weaken America's economy, to jeopardize its diplomacy, and to imperil its national security," concluded an independent Council on Foreign Relations panel, co-chaired by former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R) and former Clinton White House chief of staff Thomas V. "Mack" McLarty III. The report...

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors By Norma Zager America’s poet laureate Robert Frost claimed “good fences make good neighbors.” I know there are numerous interpretations of the phrase, but I currently find myself wondering about the meaning of his statement in light of today’s world. Perhaps beginning by defining a good fence is the best place to start. What embodies a “good fence?” What is most important, strength, materials, positioning, size, height or design? What defines a fence? The United States Canadian border is practically invisible to the sight and minds of most Americans. Few have a need to cross...

The former ruling party appears set to govern the nation again after winning in Congress and leading gubernatorial races in two states deemed to be strongholds of the PAN, President Calderon's party. Reporting from Mexico City -- It was an old-style landslide for the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which used to rule Mexico from top to bottom. The party's hopes for once again ruling Mexico soared Monday after official tallies confirmed a sweeping nationwide victory in midterm elections a day earlier. In addition to a win in Congress, the party, known as the PRI, held leads in five of six governorships,...

For centuries, workers from many parts of the globe have been coming to the US to find work and support themselves. Many migrant workers have families back in their native countries who depend on them for remittances. But for some, a difficult economic climate, triggered by a collapse in the housing market, is causing the dream to evaporate. The worst US recession in decades has eliminated job opportunities for many immigrants, slowing the flow of money back home down to a trickle. That's especially true of the traditionally high-paying construction industry, often manned by Mexican workers.

For those interested in exploring one of the greatest internal and transnational threats to the United States, there is a new book out today by Samuel Logan, This is For the Mara Salvatrucha: Inside the MS-13, America's Most Violent Gang. The book traces the history of Brenda Paz, a young Honduran who joins MS-13 and eventually becomes the most effective police witness against the organization, before she was killed. But besides the individual story, the book shows just how powerful and ruthless the MS-13 has become. Given that it now has chapters in thousands of cities across the United States,...

Obama stayed away from hot-button words in remarks Thursday on immigration reform, but hinted that his immigration push will include some kind of “amnesty” or “legal path” for illegal immigrants already in the U.S. Obama also said Thursday he is making U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano a key point person on the immigration reform push

PALOMINAS — It isn’t along a highway, but Glenn Spencer’s billboard along the American-Mexican border carries a special message to those responsible for the nation’s security: Finish the Job. The day before the Fourth of July, Spencer, who heads the private nonprofit American Border Patrol (which should not be confused with the federal U.S. Border Patrol), and a number of helpers placed 3,000 small American flags and messages on part of the 18-foot high border fence, changing a 60-foot stretch of rusty metal into colorful patches of red, white and blue. This is the second year during the national independence...

SAN DIEGO -- President Obama recently reignited the immigration debate when he told reporters that congressional leaders of both parties were ready to "actively get something done and not put it off until a year, two years, three years, five years from now, but to start working on this thing right now." In the months ahead, keep an eye on two things: the calendar and the issue of guest workers. The calendar: "Right now" might not be soon enough. The conventional wisdom is that the longer Obama waits, the harder it will be to pass any immigration reform legislation. One...

When 21-year-old Rigoberto was working on construction sites in the US, he could earn up to $400 a week. Now that he is back home in Mexico, working as a farmhand, he makes just $65. And that is why there are estimated to be between eight and 12 million Mexicans in the US. It is also why the US economic crisis spells disaster for its southern neighbour. I met Rigoberto in a pretty little town in central Mexico called Jungapeo. I also met Martin, who has three sons working in the US. But times are hard for them too -...

Blue-collar workers who voted for Barack Obama may want to reconsider their support in light of current unemployment trends. The president is re-opening a campaign for "comprehensive immigration reform" (some call it amnesty) even as jobless rates keep rising. Legal and illegal immigrants have swelled America's labor force in the recent years. In fiscal 2008, 1.45 million new migrants were granted work permits. Combined with the influx of millions of undocumented workers, this excess supply became the equivalent of the housing bubble -- it was bound to burst. Since 2007, jobless rates have doubled. In the first quarter of this...

My Friend, As I travel around Arizona, I am always humbled by the dedicated men and women I meet in my home state. I am so honored to serve as one of Arizona's Senators and I want you to know that together, we have accomplished a great deal. We are taking positive steps toward economic reform and we are preparing for a vigorous debate on healthcare in the Senate. But there is still more to accomplish on issues like healthcare reform, national security and earmark reform and that is why I want to continue my service to our country as...

Border Patrol agents to spot tunnels with advanced ground-penetrating radarCriminals of all kinds are digging tunnels along the U.S. border at a fast and furious pace. Of every tunnel ever discovered by U.S. border patrol agents, 60 percent have been found in the last three years. Agents spot a new one every month. "All of them have been found by accident or human intelligence," said Ed Turner, a project manager with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T). "None by technology." To battle these secret burrows in the 21st century, S&T thinks this will have...

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- The United States may have been behind the killing of Neda Agha-Soltan, the 26-year-old Iranian woman whose fatal videotaped shooting Saturday made her a symbol of opposition to the June 12 presidential election results, the country's ambassador to Mexico said Thursday. "This death of Neda is very suspicious," Ambassador Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri said. "My question is, how is it that this Miss Neda is shot from behind, got shot in front of several cameras, and is shot in an area where no significant demonstration was behind held?" He suggested that the CIA or another intelligence...

WASHINGTON — President Obama told congressional lawmakers Thursday that he would push for an overhaul of the nation's immigration system by early next year. But during the White House meeting, a new political obstacle came into view: how to regulate the influx of foreign workers. The issue was raised by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a principal architect of past attempts to rewrite immigration laws. McCain challenged Obama and other Democrats to stand up to labor unions that are pushing a plan business groups fear could be overly restrictive in admitting future immigrant workers. "I would expect the president of the...

Policeman's killer, suspected accomplices appear to be illegal immigrants The gunman who fatally shot a Houston police officer in the back before being gunned down by another officer during an undercover sting late Tuesday is believed to have been an illegal immigrant from Mexico, law enforcement officials said Wednesday. Robert Rutt, agent in charge of the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement office of criminal investigations in Houston, confirmed that Houston police had asked for assistance in determining the immigration status of the gunman shot to death in a drug store parking lot after officer Henry Canales, 42, was fatally wounded....

President Obama moved the goalposts on getting immigration reform accomplished, saying Thursday that he wants a bill he can sign either this year or early next year. Shortly after the president adjourned a meeting with a bipartisan group of members from both chambers, a number of senators and congressmen from both sides of the aisle demonstrated why next year might be aiming too high. The White House has said that the president would like to see something this year, but a number of skeptics have questioned whether Congress can or will take any floor action in 2009. Obama said he...

(snip) I want to especially commend John McCain, who's with me today, because along with folks like Lindsey Graham, he has already paid a significant political cost for doing the right thing. I stand with him, I stand with Nydia Velázquez and others who have taken leadership on this issue. (snip)

Mexico vowed to keep looking for a mysterious island that could extend its offshore oil claims after university researchers said they couldn't find it. "The island doesn't exist" in the area where it was shown on maps, a National Autonomous University of Mexico study concluded after conducting studies with underwater sensing devices and aerial reconnaissance in the area. "Isla Bermeja" appeared on maps from the 1700s as a speck of land off the northwest coast of the Yucatan peninsula. A group of Mexican legislators hoped the island would help their decade-long effort to fend off what they describe as U.S....

Contrary to the popular assumption that the new swine flu pandemic arose on factory farms in Mexico, federal agriculture officials now believe that it most likely emerged in pigs in Asia, but then traveled to North America in a human. But they emphasized that there was no way to prove their theory and only sketchy data underpinning it. There is no evidence that this new virus, which combines Eurasian and North American genes, has ever circulated in North American pigs, while there is tantalizing evidence that a closely related “sister virus” has circulated in Asia. American breeding pigs, possibly carrying...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will meet Thursday with a bipartisan, politically diverse group of lawmakers to begin discussing a rewrite of U.S. immigration laws. But the effort faces stiff headwinds: a Washington agenda already packed with other priorities; a recession making Americans nervous about the job market; and the sidelining of the most vocal champions of an immigration overhaul. "Greater presidential leadership is going to be needed," said Clarissa Martinez, director of immigration policy at the National Council of La Raza, the largest Latino advocacy group. "It's an absolute necessity." The White House meeting will bring together lawmakers who...

June 24, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: June 24, 2009 Illegal alien pleads guilty to fake document conspiracy charges LOUISVILLE, Ky. - An illegal alien from Mexico pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy charges for his role in a local fraudulent document ring. This guilty plea resulted from an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Louisville Metro Police Department. Juan Manuel Calderon-Santana, 34, pleaded guilty June 22 to charges he conspired to possess document-making implements and false identification documents with the intent to illegally transfer them. The documents included: Permanent Resident Alien Cards (green...

Democratic congressional leaders are vowing to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill this year that would give amnesty to an estimated 11 million immigrants living and working the United States illegally. The votes are there, they say. All they need now is time to push it through. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday that he has the votes to pass such legislation, which also would create a new guest-worker program for employers. The stumbling block is persuading senators to deal with such a politically charged issue, he told reporters.

MEXICO CITY — Mexico vowed to keep looking for a mysterious island that could extend its offshore oil claims after university researchers said they couldn't find it. "The island doesn't exist" in the area where it was shown on maps, a National Autonomous University of Mexico study concluded after conducting studies with underwater sensing devices and aerial reconnaissance in the area. "Isla Bermeja" appeared on maps from the 1700s as a speck of land off the northwest coast of the Yucatan peninsula. A group of Mexican legislators hoped the island would help their decade-long effort to fend off what they...

Three Mexican men accused of holding 12 undocumented immigrants against their will have been charged with alien smuggling and conspiracy to smuggle aliens into the U.S., according to court documents. U.S. Magistrate Felix Recio on Tuesday ordered that Leonardo Juarez Torres, Abel Martinez-Rendon and Santiago Cisneros Diaz, all Mexican nationals, be held without bond until a detention hearing Friday morning. The immigrants, 10 Mexican men and two Salvadoran women, were being held in a house at 1936 Woodway Drive, said Brownsville police spokesman Sgt. Jimmy Manrrique. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is investigating several leads to identify other individuals possibly...

LAREDO, Tex. — When he was finally caught, Rosalio Reta told detectives here that he had felt a thrill each time he killed. It was like being Superman or James Bond, he said. “I like what I do,” he told the police in a videotaped confession. “I don’t deny it.” ... The young men all paid a heavy price. Jesus Gonzalez III was beaten and knifed to death in a Mexican jail at 23. Mr. Reta, now 19, and his boyhood friend, Gabriel Cardona, 22, are serving what amounts to life sentences in prisons in the United States. Other young...

A Tucson hospital's health-care package promises affluent Mexican women the chance to have their babies in posh surroundings with access to the latest medical equipment. But the marketing materials leave out a key draw in the arrangement: U.S. citizenship for the newborn. Tucson Medical Center's "birth package" gives an official nod to a generations-old practice of wealthy Mexican women coming to U.S. hospitals to give birth. Mexican families do the same thing at all local hospitals, but TMC is the only one actively recruiting their business. The practice is legal, but offensive to some advocates of tougher U.S. immigration standards.

Tropical Storm Andres formed overnight off the southwestern coast of Mexico, becoming the first named storm of the season in the Eastern Pacific and the latest arrival in 40 years, forecasters said Monday.

Federal wildlife managers have decided to allow an endangered Mexican gray wolf that has been linked to four livestock killings to remain in the wild in southwestern New Mexico. Despite a policy that allows the agency to remove a wolf from the wild after three livestock kills in one year, Tuggle said in a memo to the coordinator of the Mexican gray wolf recovery program ... Tuggle requested in his memo that the recovery program's interagency field team continue to monitor the San Mateo pack and try to prevent any further livestock kills by the pack.

WHILE President Obama’s future vision of “a world with no nuclear weapons” is certainly laudable, for the present America still needs to do everything it can to prevent a terrorist from detonating such a bomb on our soil. The Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, part of the Department of Homeland Security, is in charge of developing a worldwide nuclear-detection system that, primarily, would use technology to monitor vehicles and shipping containers along the various transportation networks by which nuclear weapons could be smuggled into America. Yet the Government Accountability Office found last year that the detection office “lacks an overarching strategic...

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s immigration circus got another ring Friday with Al Sharpton’s visit to Phoenix. The hard-line sheriff and the controversial civil-rights advocate, who has been a vocal critic of Arpaio’s immigration policies, met Friday afternoon in downtown Phoenix. The meeting resulted in protestors from both sides showing up at the Wells Fargo office complex in downtown Phoenix, site of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, where he and Sharpton were meeting. Phoenix police set up buffer zones to separate dozens of anti- and pro-Arpaio protestors. Arpaio protestors include those contending his immigration and crime sweeps unfairly target Hispanics....

PHOENIX — The Rev. Al Sharpton on Friday called for opponents of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has aggressively cracked down on illegal immigration, to videotape alleged racial profiling by the sheriff’s office. The civil rights leader said the videos will help the U.S. Department of Justice in an investigation of alleged civil rights abuses by Arpaio’s office. “We’re gonna start some freedom rides around this county, to show how people of a certain skin color are treated different than other people,” Sharpton told a crowd of several hundred people at the Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church in Phoenix. Sharpton...

When Mario Anguiano successfully ran for mayor of Colima three years ago, no one much cared that his brother and cousin were in prison on drug charges. Now that he's running for governor of Colima state, a banner appeared in the capital city mocking Anguiano's family ties by linking him to the Zetas, a gang of drug hit men: "Welcome to Colima! Soon to be territory of our boss of bosses, Mario Anguiano Moreno. The Zetas support you, and we are with you until death." The drug war is playing in Mexico elections like never before. Usually a taboo subject...

MEXICO CITY — When Mario Anguiano successfully ran for mayor of Colima three years ago, no one much cared that his brother and cousin were in prison on drug charges. Now that he's running for governor of Colima state, a banner appeared in the capital city mocking Anguiano's family ties by linking him to the Zetas, a gang of drug hit men: "Welcome to Colima! Soon to be territory of our boss of bosses, Mario Anguiano Moreno. The Zetas support you, and we are with you until death." The drug war is playing in Mexico elections like never before. Usually...

Mexico Drug Charges Against 7 Mayors, 20 Officials By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: June 19, 2009 MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexico levied organized crime and drug charges Thursday against seven mayors, the former state attorney general and 19 other officials in the western state of Michoacan for allegedly aiding a drug cartel. Three other mayors detained in raids across the state May 26 have not been charged, but will continue to be held pending investigations, officials said. The seven mayors are the largest group of Mexican elected officials arrested on drug charges in recent memory. They and the other suspects...

CHIHUAHUA, Mexico -- Multiple sources are reporting that a prominent member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been kidnapped on Monday afternoon. Meredith Romney, an American citizen and the former president of the LDS temple Chihuahua, Mexico, was abducted from his ranch property near Janos, according to KSL.com and ESPN.com. Romney, is also distant relative of former Salt Lake Olympics chief and one-time presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The U.S. State Department, the FBI and Mexican authorities are working jointly on the investigation. Romney's nephew, professional bull-rider Rocky McDonald was interviewed in an article posted on ESPN.com....

Julio Ledezma had been chief of police in La Junta, a town of 8,700 in northern Mexico, for barely three months when a pair of strangers paid him a visit. They said an aide to the mayor had sent them, and they bore gifts: a briefcase stuffed with cash and a truck for Ledezma's personal use. In return, the new chief was to distract federal police at security checkpoints with fake calls for assistance. He could take the bribe -- and be owned by the Juarez cartel. As drug violence has worsened in Mexico, businesspeople, journalists and other professionals have...

After twice postponing a highly anticipated meeting between President Barack Obama and congressional leaders on immigration reform, the White House is under increasing pressure to get legislation done this year. Winning congressional approval of an immigration measure by December is a steep climb, with the economy, health care and energy higher on the president’s agenda. So far, Obama has promised only to begin the discussion at the summit set for next week. But if the president does not move quickly, he will suffer the same fate as his predecessor, President George W. Bush, who left office acknowledging that failure to...

NEAR WESLACO — A 38-year-old man's location remains unknown after he was abducted by suspected Mexican drug traffickers Sunday evening. Isidro Rodriguez's abduction came after his two younger brothers allegedly stole a large amount of cash from an unidentified drug trafficking organization, said Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño. Rodriguez's relatives told sheriff's deputies that two men in a Range Rover SUV pulled up to his property at 318 Beto Garcia St., north of Weslaco, the sheriff said. The SUV's passenger hopped out, pointed a gun at Rodriguez and barked at him in Spanish to get inside the vehicle about 7...

Gunmen ordered a priest and two seminarians out of their vehicle and shot them dead in a drug-plagued region of western Mexico, authorities said Monday. The three were killed as they drove through the town of Arcelia in Guerrero state to nearby Ciudad Altamirano to organize a spiritual retreat, said the Archbishop of Acapulco, Felipe Aguirre Franco. Erit Montufar, Guerrero's director of investigative police, said no arrests have been made and no motive has been determined for the killings, which took place Saturday. But Roman Catholic clergy in Mexico have complained that they are increasingly the targets of attacks and...

The high court announced Monday it is refusing to consider a challenge to the Homeland Security secretary's ability to expedite border fence construction by waiving it from federal and local laws. The Supreme Court will not jump into the contentious debate over the construction of a 500 mile-long fence on the United States-Mexico border. The high court announced Monday it is refusing to consider a challenge to former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's decision to expedite border fence construction by waiving it from 37 federal and local laws. A collection of environmental groups, the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Indian tribe...

La Familia quickly set itself apart as a kind of criminal organization not seen before in Mexico. The cartel employed a public relations specialist known as El Tio, or the Uncle, and presented itself as a semi-legitimate company that hired only Michoacan residents and worked for the benefit of the mostly impoverished state. .... Rafael Pequeño García, chief of anti-drug operations at Mexico's Public Security Ministry, said La Familia filled a vacuum in social services and community development. "When you needed help, you didn't go to the government. You went to the narcos," he said. "They are a parallel structure,...

Authorities have found a massive underground drug smuggling tunnel snaking through the U.S.-Mexican border, and law officers are marveling over its sophistication. "This is one of the most elaborate tunnels I've seen," Border Patrol agent Michael Scioli said. Border Patrol agents found the uncompleted tunnel last week, the patrol said in a statement. Measuring 48 feet in the United States and 35 feet in Mexico, the tunnel contains side walls framed with 2-by-4 wooden studs and ceiling construction. "It's elegant in the sense it has electrical work wired into the Mexico side. It even has a hose for ventilation and...

Another tunnel apparently dug by drug smugglers has been found beneath the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales, Ariz. Scioli said it’s the 63rd smuggling tunnel found beneath the border in the Nogales area since October 1995, and the 16th since last October.

MCALLEN - Valley officials are calling it their last chance to stop the border wall. South Texas mayors, county judges, and state lawmakers are sending President Barack Obama a letter asking him to stop construction of the border fence until a full review of border security policy is done. The Texas Border Coalition sent the later earlier this week. The Department of Homeland Security has finished 630 out of the 670 miles of their border wall plan. Video