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San Diego Fire and Rescue crews were called to the San Ysidro border crossing for nearly 160 childbirth emergencies in 2012 — one almost every other day. Such calls continued in 2013, with 15 childbirth emergency calls to the gateway into Tijuana in January, eight in February and 17 in March, according to city records obtained by U-T Watchdog. There are no statistics on how many of the moms being rushed by emergency crews to local hospitals are U.S. citizens, as federal laws prohibit emergency crews and hospital teams from asking. Babies born under the circumstances are U.S. citizens as...

The San Ysidro border crossing between Mexico and the United States partially reopened on Thursday, a day after a roof collapse dumped debris on cars, injured more than a dozen travelers and closed the port to northbound traffic.

SAN YSIDRO, Calif. -- A pedestrian struck by a car and killed just north of the international border was identified Friday as a 31-year-old Tijuana woman. Alma Luz Alfaro Gonzalez was crossing the street in a crosswalk at Paseo de las Americas at Siempre Viva Road when she was hit by a tractor-trailer rig making a right turn just after 6 p.m. Thursday, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office. San Diego police Officer David Stafford said the woman was talking on her cell phone and ignored a red light. Witnesses gave aid to the woman and called...

A U.S. Border Patrol agent is in custody for allegedly harboring illegal immigrants, including his father, in his San Ysidro, California, home, Fox5 San Diego reported Tuesday. Marcos Gerardo Manzano Jr., 26, was arrested Monday at the Imperial Beach Border Patrol Station, according to the FBI. Shortly before sunrise Tuesday, a federal SWAT team raided Manzano's house and arrested suspected undocumented immigrant Jose Alfredo Garrido-Morena, also 26. According to a complaint unsealed in U.S. District Court in San Diego Tuesday afternoon, Garrido-Morena had been living at the residence since at least November along with Manzano and the accused agent's 46-year-old...

Border Authorities Uncover A Cache of Weapons Inside A Vehicle At A Checkpoint Near San Ysidro July 19, 2010 Border authorities inspecting cars heading into Mexico on Saturday discovered a cache of ammunition and weapons, including five machine guns, hidden inside a Nissan, according to officials with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency. Also concealed inside the speaker box of the vehicle were two handguns, dozens of rounds of ammunition and tactical gear. The weapons were discovered at a checkpoint on Interstate 5 at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, just north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The driver, a...

Customs officers intercepted 12 alleged drug smugglers in a 24-hour period at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa border crossings and seized 763 pounds of marijuana, methamphetamine and cocaine worth an estimated $1.16 million, authorities said Friday. The spate of arrests took place between 6 a.m. Thursday and 6 a.m Friday. In three cases, authorities said the alleged smugglers were U.S. citizens who tried to walk across the San Ysidro border crossing with marijuana strapped to their bodies. About 7 a.m. Thursday, customs officers working with a drug-sniffing dog arrested a 19-year-old man -- a U.S. citizen who lives in...

SAN DIEGO – Four people were injured in a gunbattle today involving an attempt to smuggle illegal immigrants from Mexico at the busiest border crossing in the U.S., authorities said. More than 70 people traveling in three vans involved in the incident were in federal custody, said U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman Angelica DeCima. Details remained sketchy, but van drivers tried to storm past inspectors at the San Ysidro port of entry and make their way into the U.S. without stopping, DeCima said. “It was human smuggling, definitely,” said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs...

U.S. authorities have closed the San Ysidro Port of Entry on the border with Mexico after a gunfight there early Tuesday. San Ysidro is the nation's busiest border crossing. Roughly 40,000 vehicles cross there daily from Mexico. Three vans loaded with suspected illegal immigrants tried to speed through the crossing Tuesday afternoon, drawing gunfire from at least two U.S. agents, authorities said. Three people in the vans and a traveler in a nearby car were injured in the failed attempt to cross into San Diego from Tijuana. About 70 people inside the vehicles were taken into custody, according to authorities.

The Border Patrol is claiming success along a formerly chaotic five-mile stretch of the border between the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa ports of entry, where fencing was raised and reinforced with razor-studded concertina wire. Yesterday, agents in San Diego celebrated the completion of the wire project, begun in December and mostly finished about two months ago. The Border Patrol said both illegal-crossing arrests and assaults against agents in the area are down by more than 50 percent. However, a growing number of apprehensions and assaults are occurring west of the San Ysidro port of entry, and overall arrests in...

A man who is suspected of trying to disable a border camera east of the San Ysidro port of entry last week was arrested by Border Patrol agents after two accomplices abandoned him as he held tight to a surveillance tower. Video from a camera on a tower next to the one the three had targeted shows two people setting up a ladder and then a third person climbing the ladder to reach the tower's built-in rungs. When Border Patrol agents approached, the two people on the ground fled to Mexico and took the ladder, stranding the man who had...

(Babelfish) Flash: Elvira Arellano Already Has Been Deported To Mexico The activist pro immigrant Elvira Arellano already has touched Mexican soil. Towards the 10 p.m. was given by the agents of the Office of Control of Immigration and Customs (HOISTS) to civil employees of the Institute of National of Migracion (INM), revealed to La Opinion official...

CNN Pipeline was showing a protest of 5000-8000 Mexican teachers shutting down the Point of Entry into Mexico at San Ysidro. http://cad.chp.ca.gov/iiqr.asp?Center=BOCC&LogNumber=0279D0606 Incident: 0279 Type: Location: info as of: 6/6/2007 1:32:31 PM 1:05PM ^CMS SB 5 AND SB 805 ACTIVATED "SOUTH 5 PORT OF ENTRY CLOSED"

SAN DIEGO – A man being pursued after he illegally crossed into the United States from Mexico was run over by a freight train late Thursday morning as he tried to escape a Customs agent near the San Ysidro crossing, federal authorities reported. The man lost several fingertips on his right hand and had his left foot severed. He was taken to a San Diego hospital. There was no word on his condition. The incident took place in an area known to Border Patrol agents as “the loading docks,” a spot just east of the San Ysidro port of entry...

SAN DIEGO – A former border inspector who accepted more than $70,000 in bribes for allowing illegal immigrants into the country was sentenced to 57 months in prison Monday on bribery and smuggling charges. Richard Elizalda, 56, of Chula Vista, pleaded guilty to bribery and smuggling charges in September 2006. He admitted accepting between $70,000 to $120,000 in cash and automobiles and said he allowed hundreds of illegal immigrants into the country between 2004 and June 2006, when he was arrested. Before pronouncing the sentence, U.S. District Judge Larry Burns told Elizalda, “You're one of the gatekeepers for the security...

SAN YSIDRO, Calif. -- U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers arrested a U.S. man Tuesday morning after they say he tried to smuggle three migrants into the country hidden in the seats of his vehicle. CBP officers said they encountered the driver, a 33-year-old resident of Rosarito, Mexico, as he entered the port at about 5 a.m. driving a GMC Vendura van.

SAN YSIDRO – Border Patrol agents say 48 new video cameras, in use since last month along a 5.2-mile stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border, have helped increase apprehensions and reduce the number of attempted illegal crossings. Agents say the cameras allow them to get a bird's eye view of those trying to slip into the country, and to better track them until they can be detained. “It's like having a second pair of eyes out there,” said Wendi Lee, a Border Patrol spokeswoman. “This will help us monitor the area and let the agents in the field know what's going...

For the second time this week, a border inspector was arrested and charged with waiving smugglers into the country in exchange for bribes. Customs and Border Protection Inspector Richard Elizalda of Chula Vista was indicted Friday, along with seven other people, on conspiracy and other charges. The indictment was unsealed Thursday. Authorities said smugglers bribed Elizalda with cash and a Lexus automobile to allow them to use his lane at the San Ysidro border crossing to bring illegal immigrants and marijuana into the United States. Another inspector was brought into San Diego federal court Wednesday on similar charges. Authorities said...

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer is accused of helping smuggle illegal immigrants into the country in exchange for thousands of dollars. Officer Michael Anthony Gilliland, 44, was charged in federal court Wednesday with allowing immigrant smugglers to pass freely through his inspection lane at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry 15 miles southeast of downtown San Diego. He is being held without bail pending a hearing on Friday. He was arrested Tuesday following a two-year investigation by the Border Corruption Task Force, a multi-agency group that focuses on officers at the Otay Mesa and San Ysidro Ports of...

SAN DIEGO – U.S. authorities dug Monday into a crudely constructed cross-border tunnel that exits near a San Ysidro parking lot. Investigators could not say whether the tunnel had been completed. Drug cartels are suspected of building the cross border tunnels as a means of smuggling narcotics into the United States. The tunnel was found Friday, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but authorities disclosed little information on its discovery. “It was a result of an ongoing investigation,” Mack said Monday. “The investigation continued until agents opened it up at 6 a.m. this morning.” The...