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Officials disclaim Bulletin 'tipping' report

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is refuting a Daily Bulletin report that the U.S. Border Patrol provided information to the Mexican government about the whereabouts of civilian border watch groups. "Today's report by the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, `U.S. tipping Mexico to Minuteman patrols,' is inaccurate," read the statement issued Tuesday evening. "Border Patrol does not report activity by civilian, non-law enforcement groups to the government of Mexico." Kristi Clemens, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection, would not elaborate on the agency's statement other than to say the U.S. gives information to Mexican officials under the rules of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963, which provides foreign nationals being detained by a government the right to consular access. "This is the same agreement that protects United States citizens when they travel to foreign countries," according to the statement. An August 2005 document, "Third Report on the Activities of Vigilantes" -- posted on Mexico's Secretary of Foreign Relations Web site -- suggests U.S. officials were giving out more details than required by the Vienna Convention. Part of that information was the location of U.S. citizens participating in volunteer border patrols. The Daily Bulletin reported on the contents of that document and two others on the Mexican Web site in a story published in Tuesday's editions. Mexican consulates also went beyond the boundaries of the Vienna Convention, asking U.S. Border Patrol officials to provide them with information on "vigilantes" operating along the U.S. border, according to the August 2005 document. Some of the information cited in the Mexican document originally was given only to U.S. Border Patrol and law enforcement officials, border watch organizers said. "Nobody but law enforcement and Border Patrol knew where we were at," said Andy Ramirez, chairman of the Chino-based nonprofit group Friends of the Border Patrol. "So how is our base address on a Mexican government document dated last August? Nobody, not even media, had this information." Ramirez said he revealed the location of his base camp only to local and federal officials. The Mexican document gives the exact location of his group's site, which was on private property near San Diego....

Read the disputed article: U.S. tipping Mexico to Minuteman patrols

See the Mexican Government Web page: www.sre.gob.mx/eventos/minuteman/reporte3


Is the U.S. Giving Mexico Intelligence about Americans?

Apparently aware that this is a powder keg, DHS is scrambling to justify itself. Initially, a CPB spokesman confirmed the assertions of the Mexican government website. Now, however, a back-peddling DHS is labeling the Daily Bulletin story “inaccurate.” As Malkin reports today, DHS categorically asserts that the “Border Patrol does not report activity by civilian, non-law enforcement groups to the Government of Mexico.” Rather, “During a detention of a legal or illegal immigrant that produces an allegation of improper treatment, Border Patrol reports the allegation and allows the appropriate consulate to interview the individual in custody.” The DHS statement is noteworthy in two respects. First, while attempting to discredit the report about providing Mexico with intelligence, it does not clearly deny transmitting information about Minuteman patrols—something the CPB spokesman previously conceded quite matter-of-factly (saying, “It’s not a secret where the Minuteman volunteers are going to be”). DHS instead says it “reports the allegation” if “improper treatment” is alleged. But we are not told what DHS considers “improper treatment” (e.g., does it consider patrols by the Minutemen—whom the President has labeled as “vigilantes”—to be improper?). Nor are we told how comprehensively DHS “reports” the matter to Mexico (e.g., does it simply notify Mexico that an arrest has been made, or does it convey an expansive summary of the case?). Second, DHS seems to be saying that it was compelled to disclose whatever information it may have given to Mexico by the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which President Nixon ratified in 1969. This latter claim bears scrutiny. The consular-notification convention, and in particular its Article 36, comes into play whenever an alien—legal or illegal—is arrested in the United States. It absolutely does not require U.S. authorities to provide any investigative information or other intelligence to foreign governments. Indeed, it does not necessarily require our government to give a foreign government any information whatsoever. On the contrary, it provides that when a foreign national is detained, he has a right to have his nation’s consulate in the United States informed of the fact of the arrest. If he does not want his nation so advised, the U.S. is under no obligation to provide notice....

Border Patrol Union Condemns US Giving Mexico Info on Minutemen

Superiors at the US Border Patrol are tipping off the Mexican government about the locations the Minuteman Project members on the border. And the Mexicans are diverting illegals away from those areas for crossing, according to CNN pundit Lou Dobbs. The Border Patrol Agents union Local 2544 responded to this story with a statement: "This Local has nothing to do with any management directives to report the location of the Minutemen volunteers to the Mexican government. "Our position on the Mexican government and their military is very clear. They are corrupt, they shoot at us, they smuggle drugs, they encourage illegal aliens to invade this country by the millions, they are not to be trusted, and they should have ZERO input into the internal policies of the United States of America. "We have received a lot of e-mail on this issue. Rank-and-file Border Patrol agents have been angry for years about the Mexican Consulate invading our work stations, demanding interviews with prisoners, and basically being given free reign to do whatever they want....

U.S. Government Endangers Law Abiding Citizens

In an unprecedented policy, the Bush Administration has acknowledged that it has been providing information about the location of Minutemen patrols to the Mexican government. In spite of widespread criticism of its failure to protect America's security by regaining control of the border, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency has been devoting manpower to monitoring the activities of the Minutemen, even as record numbers of illegal aliens pour across our borders. The information being turned over by the Bush Administration to the Mexican government is meant to reassure them that the rights of illegal border crossers are being protected. Mexican authorities have been kept abreast of where the Minutemen are patrolling and when they have made apprehensions of illegal aliens. Both Presidents Bush and Fox have referred to the Minutemen as "vigilantes," despite the fact there has not been a single documented case of abuse in more than a year of civilian patrols. "This policy is a shocking and disgraceful display of pandering to the government of Mexico," reacted Dan Stein, president of FAIR. "Compounding this egregious behavior is the fact that the Department of Homeland Security is recklessly endangering the lives of law abiding citizens. Many of those running the border smuggling operations are violent criminals who would not hesitate to use deadly force against anyone who stands in their way."....

Borderline Tragedy

Today, Refuge Officer Drew Cyprian cruises towards that wasteland, his big Dodge passing through a forest of parked Border Patrol agents, and among a thick web of renegade trails and roads. Border Patrol agents themselves are suspected of adding to this web, or of at least making liberal use of it. That's not something you're going to hear from Cyprian, however. Preserves like Buenos Aires need the Border Patrol, he says. A graying soul patch beneath his lip, a stout rifle by his side, Cyprian likewise pulls long shifts policing this range. He's one of only four officers trying to protect a 118,000-acre refuge that has, in places, become a sacrifice zone of trash, illicit byways and abandoned vehicles shimmering beneath an indifferent sun. It's a hugely expensive problem: Despite the beefy Border Patrol presence, each year, Buenos Aires spends nearly one-third of its $1.5 million budget for law enforcement. Even carting off hundreds of vehicles, often jettisoned in remarkably godforsaken spots, can cost up to $300 a pop. "So, some of them just sit there," Cyprian tells me, "until we have the budget to have them towed." You might call Buenos Aires a tragic juncture of geography and politics. If the refuge didn't share nearly six miles of borderline with Mexico, it likely wouldn't host up to 3,000 illegal migrants and smugglers on any given night. Nor would it have 500 tons of trash yearly from that commerce, or an army of Border Patrol agents rumbling about in their trucks and ATVs....

Sheriff's posse targeting illegal immigrants set to launch

A 250-member Maricopa County sheriff's posse was set to fan out across desert areas and major roadways Wednesday, seeking illegal immigrants to arrest on felony charges under a state smuggling law. And those who aren't arrested will face deportation. Until now, apprehending illegal immigrants in Arizona has been the exclusive charge of federal agents with the U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement. That was until August, when a state law went into effect making human and drug smuggling a felony in Arizona, the busiest illegal entry point along the U.S.-Mexico border. Smuggling already was a federal felony. The new distinction allowed local law enforcement agencies to arrest smugglers on state-level felony charges. But since March, deputies in Arizona's most populous county have been arresting illegal immigrants under the law. Under an opinion issued by Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas in September, the smuggling law can apply to the smuggle immigrants themselves. Thomas argues that by paying a smuggler to enter the country through the Arizona desert, illegal immigrants are committing conspiracy to smuggle, punishable by up to 2 years in jail under the new law. Thomas's opinion also said that local law enforcement officers have the authority to ask presumed illegal immigrants about their immigration status. The law has yet to be tested in court, but Thomas said he intends to use his power as the county's chief prosecutor to charge any illegal immigrants arrested under the smuggling law. So far, only the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office is arresting illegal immigrants under Thomas's interpretation....