Free Republic

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is expected to discuss Australia's policy on asylum seekers with Indonesian officials when he visits Jakarta on Tuesday. Mr Rudd is making the trip to attend the inauguration of the Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The Opposition has criticised Mr Rudd's decision to ask Indonesian authorities to stop a boatload of Sri Lankans reaching Australia last week. Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard has told Channel Nine that Australia and Indonesia are cooperating well on people smuggling. "I don't want to give the impression that somehow nothing is happening now. "There is very close cooperation with Indonesia...

People who have been smuggled into Sweden should be deported, a leading Social Democrat politician has said. Allowing those who have paid thousands to people smugglers to stay is not fair on people who can't afford to pay to leave their homelands. Göran Johansson, leader of Gothenburg Council, said he based his views on the fact that many of the 20,000 Iraqis expected to come to Sweden this year came here illegally, often with the help of people smugglers. "If it is obvious that someone has been smuggled in they should be sent back again," Johansson told newspaper GT. People...

Four Mexicans accused of sneaking across the border pleaded guilty Tuesday under a new state law targeting immigrant smugglers. They were among the first 48 alleged customers of smugglers to be charged as conspirators to the crime. The four, who pleaded guilty to solicitation to commit immigrant smuggling, were sentenced to two years supervised probation and expected to face deportation proceedings. Critics say the law was intended to be used against smugglers, not their customers. Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas has said the customers of smugglers need to be held accountable. In all, 19 of the 48 have pleaded guilty...

Seven people were injured when the driver of a pickup truck fleeing from Border Patrol agents crashed into a second pickup in Marana. A Border Patrol agent spotted the Chevrolet truck on Arizona 86 near Sandario Road about 10:30 p.m. Sunday, said Agent Sean King, a Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. The agent was suspicious because the truck had no license plate. He tried to pull it over, but the driver sped away, King said. A helicopter followed as the truck turned onto Interstate 19 and then Interstate 10, he said. It left the freeway at Tangerine Road and ran...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government is bracing for increased violence against Border Patrol agents as Mexican smuggling rings retaliate against a high-profile crackdown by federal law enforcement, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday. While declining to elaborate on reports that smugglers may be planning contract-style hits on Border Patrol agents, Chertoff acknowledged "an uptick in violence" against the federal officers after months of intensified enforcement aimed at crushing immigrant- and drug-smuggling rings. "I do think we have to be prepared for the fact that as we press hard on these criminal organizations, some of them will want to fight...

Feb 24, 2004 One or more shooters remained on the loose in Mexico Monday after firing on Border Patrol agents who had intercepted a load of illegal aliens being ferried across the Colorado River on an inflatable raft. Multiple gunshots rang out and bullets whizzed over agents' heads as they were subduing the smuggler of the aliens at the river's edge near County 7th Street at 6:45 a.m., the patrol said. The gunfire was followed by one or more shots fired from an undetermined location on the U.S. side of the river. No one was injured in the shooting, but...

VICTORIA, Texas, May 14 — Sheriff’s deputies responding to reports of a disturbance at a truck stop in south Texas early Wednesday found 17 people dead in and around an abandoned trailer. Radio reports said the victims appeared to be illegal immigrants being smuggled from Mexico.