Free Republic

One night in early April, Bobby Leal, Israel Banda, Abraham Serna and another unidentified suspect put a gun to someone’s head, beat and stabbed him repeatedly, then left him for dead in front of the Harlingen Sports Complex. Roughly one week later, violence broke out again in Harlingen when Leal and Alfredo Aguilar attempted to kidnap a Harlingen man at gunpoint outside his brother’s house. Aguilar was shot in the stomach and taken to the hospital after the victim fought back. Both Aguilar and Leal were arrested soon after the incident. What has concerned local police is both the violent...

Stepped up border patrols in Arizona may be responsible for an uptick in would-be immigrants caught hidden in vehicles at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, it was reported today. The surge started last year when nearly 50,000 would-be immigrants -- nearly double the 2003 figure -- were caught in vehicles traveling from Mexico to California, the Los Angeles Times reported. At the San Ysidro Port of Entry -- the state's busiest and largest on land -- authorities estimated that the number of noncitizens found secreted in vehicles last year had tripled, from 10,600 in 2000 to about 30,000 in...