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Lock-'em-up border policy gains favor Many enforcement hawks in Congress are counting on border walls to discourage illegal immigration and drug smuggling. In Del Rio, authorities are using prison walls instead. The ever-expanding Val Verde County Jail is filled with illegal immigrants ranging from would-be yard workers and maids to hardened gang members. They've been caught in a law enforcement dragnet known as Operation Streamline, a zero-tolerance program that began here and has spread east and west along the border. The lock-'em-up approach has its share of critics. They question the skyrocketing costs, complain of poor conditions in the detention facilities and predict that it ultimately won't stop immigrants and drugs from making their way north. But supporters here say the long arm of the law is reducing crime and pushing the numbers of illegal immigrants caught in the Border Patrol's Del Rio sector down to their lowest levels since the early 1970s....
A storm over Border Patrol policy Think back for a moment to images from September 2005 when long lines of cars, trucks and buses lined Interstate 45 north out of Houston as Hurricane Rita veered down on the Texas coast. Imagine now that a Category 4 or 5 hurricane is bearing down on the Rio Grande Valley, and there is little time to get out. But now, because of a new Border Patrol policy, tens of thousands of poor people will have to go through Border Patrol processing at three central sites before they can board buses to evacuate. Immigration officials are concerned that illegal immigrants, drug traffickers and others -- perhaps terrorists -- would take advantage of a storm to head deeper into the U.S. by boarding those buses. The announcement by Border Patrol officials in the Valley that they plan to screen all evacuees for citizenship status has stoked all kinds of dark scenarios in which thousands of people, including U.S. citizens, would rather ride out the storm than evacuate because someone in their family doesn't have or can't find the necessary documents. Although hurricane season begins June 1, most of the tropical depressions and hurricanes that have threatened the Valley usually have come late in the season. So the Border Patrol's argument could be that citizens and legal residents have time to find passports, birth certificates or other documents to prove that they are in the country legally. Even so, the Border Patrol's policy has many local officials dismayed and concerned about the safe movement of more than 200,000 from the area. Valley leaders worry that they won't be able to fully protect residents who choose to remain....
Illegal Alien's Defense Attorney Works for Mexican Government An illegal alien is facing the death penalty after being convicted May 8 of capital murder in the 2006 death of Houston police officer Rodney Johnson. The attorney who tried and failed to have him found not guilty by reason of insanity was paid by the Mexican government, according to newspaper and television reports. The Mexican government retained Danalynn Recer to defend Juan Leonardo Quintero through its Mexican Capital Legal Assistance program, which pays for the defense of Mexican citizens whose conviction in U.S. courts could result in a death sentence -- even those, like Quintero, who confess to the crime. Quintero's confession was videotaped, and days before his trial started in April, Recer said her client would plead guilty if he could be sentenced to life in prison, a plea bargain prosecutors rejected, according to The Houston Chronicle. On Oct. 13, 2006, Houston television station KTRK, Channel 13, reported that an argument took place in pre-trial hearings about who would defend Quintero and who would pay for his defense. "Quintero, a Mexican national in this country illegally, says he's too poor to pay for his defense," KTRK Channel 13 reported. "So now the Mexican government has stepped in. Danalynn Recer, hired by the Mexican Consulate, wants to be lead attorney. But Jim Leitner, appointed by the courts, does as well." State District Court Judge Joan Campbell said both attorneys could conduct Quintero's defense, a decision prosecuting District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal took issue with, the station reported. "Harris County should not have to pay for something that the Mexican government already plans to pay for," the station quoted Rosenthal as saying. On Nov. 29, 2006, The Houston Chronicle reported that Judge Campbell had reversed her earlier ruling and dismissed the appointed attorneys defending Quintero. "She ruled instead that the man's choice of attorneys, a Houston capital murder specialist hired by the Mexican Consulate, would be his attorney," the paper reported....
Mexico Town's Police Force Quits in Fear A southern Mexican town's 15-member police force has quit for fear of being assassinated in retaliation for a shootout with gunmen, a security official said Thursday. Zirandaro was the second town in less than two weeks to be left without its police force as Mexico's drug cartels wage increasingly bold attacks against security forces. On Monday, the military took over a town near Texas after all 20 of its police officers were either killed, run out of town or quit. Eight members of Zirandaro's police never returned to work after a May 13 shootout with gunmen that left a 32-year-old man dead, said Juan Heriberto Salinas Altes, the public safety secretary of the southern state of Guerrero. The other seven officers -- including the police chief -- quit days later. "The Zirandaro police quit the service because they feared the criminals would return to seek revenge," Salinas Altas told a news conference. The identities of the gunmen were not known, but Salinas Altas said cells of both the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels were operating in the area. President Felipe Calderon has said the attacks against Mexican police show that cartels feel threatened by his crackdown against drug trafficking. Since taking office in 2006, he has sent more than 25,000 troops to drug hotspots. But the disintegration of two municipal forces shows how vulnerable police feel in a country where, despite efforts to fight corruption, they can't be sure their colleagues are not on the cartels' payrolls....
11 more bodies found in Juárez Juárez recorded at least 11 more homicides linked to organized crime Friday, leading U.S. law enforcement officials to urge El Pasoans to use caution when traveling across the border. The deaths included the discovery of five bodies wrapped in blankets in an empty lot in an upscale east Juárez neighborhood about a mile from the border, near Prolongación Vicente Guerrero and Antonio J. Bermúdez streets. The grizzly find came less than a day after an anonymous e-mail warning predicted this would be the "bloodiest and deadliest" weekend in the city's history. Two of the bodies were decapitated and wrapped in white plastic. Attached to them was a note calling them "traitors" who were associated with a reputed leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel. The note was signed "La Linea," or The Line, a name given to corrupt police officers who allegedly protect drug traffickers, according to police documents. Also Friday, municipal police found three unidentified male bodies in the Santa Teresa colonia in a gold 1994 Oldsmobile, where police found a note in blue ink that read "X marranos traicioneros," or "treasonous pigs."....
270 Illegal Immigrants Sent to Prison in Federal Push In temporary courtrooms at a fairgrounds here, 270 illegal immigrants were sentenced this week to five months in prison for working at a meatpacking plant with false documents. The prosecutions, which ended Friday, signal a sharp escalation in the Bush administration’s crackdown on illegal workers, with prosecutors bringing tough federal criminal charges against most of the immigrants arrested in a May 12 raid. Until now, unauthorized workers have generally been detained by immigration officials for civil violations and rapidly deported. The convicted immigrants were among 389 workers detained at the Agriprocessors Inc. plant in nearby Postville in a raid that federal officials called the largest criminal enforcement operation ever carried out by immigration authorities at a workplace. Matt M. Dummermuth, the United States attorney for northern Iowa, who oversaw the prosecutions, called the operation an “astonishing success.” The illegal immigrants, most from Guatemala, filed into the courtrooms in groups of 10, their hands and feet shackled. One by one, they entered guilty pleas through a Spanish interpreter, admitting they had taken jobs using fraudulent Social Security cards or immigration documents. Moments later, they moved to another courtroom for sentencing. The pleas were part of a deal worked out with prosecutors to avoid even more serious charges. Most immigrants agreed to immediate deportation after they serve five months in prison....
Immigration Officials Arrest 905 in California Sweep Federal immigration agents have arrested 905 people in California in the past three weeks after a statewide search for those who had violated orders to leave the country. The operation was the latest in a series of national sweeps by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The arrests were the result of collaboration among teams in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco that began on May 5. “The focal point of this operation were people who had exhausted all of their due process in the courts,” said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego. “They have a final order of removal issued by a U.S. immigration judge, and they’ve failed to depart.” In the process of seeking each person on the list, Ms. Mack said, agents often encountered friends, family members and others who had violated immigration laws. “Agents may come to a house looking for a target, and someone answers the door, or there are other people in the house who have also violated immigration laws,” she said. Brian DeMore, acting director of the federal Office of Detention and Removal Operations in Los Angeles, said agents took into custody any person they encountered during an arrest who had violated immigration laws. Agents set out with a target list of just over 1,500 “fugitive aliens,” Mr. DeMore said, referring to people who have ignored orders to leave the country....
Fake border crossing hits home Gunshots ring out and sirens shriek, mixing with the ragged breath of muddy, panting humans. Suddenly, the full moon sweeping the ground like a searchlight reveals a disturbing scene: a group of illegal immigrants being handcuffed and led away by U.S. Border Patrol agents. But the U.S. border is 700 miles from this rugged municipal park in Hidalgo state, a three-hour drive north of Mexico City. The spectacle unfolding here isn't an actual border crossing attempt but a live simulation-adventure that attempts to give participants a taste of what it's like for the thousands of Mexican and other Latin American undocumented migrants trying to enter the promised land of "el norte." Dubbed the "Caminata Nocturna" (Night Hike), the three-hour simulation is a combination obstacle course, sociology lesson and PG-rated family outing. Founded in 2004, it's run by members of a local village of Hnahnu Indians, an indigenous people of south-central Mexico, whose population of about 2,500 has been decimated by migration to the United States. Every Saturday night, dozens of the remaining several hundred villagers take part in the Caminata. Many work as costumed performers impersonating Border Patrol agents, fellow migrants and masked "coyotes" and "polleros," the Mexican guides who escort migrants for a fee. The 7 1/2-mile hike, which involves quite a bit of running, costs about $10 per person....
FBI too badly organized to stop attacks: agent The FBI's counterterrorism section is too badly organized and too understaffed to be able to protect the United States effectively against attack, an FBI agent told lawmakers. "The FBI's counterterrorism division is ill-equipped to handle the terrorist threat that we're facing," Bassem Youssef, a top agent within the FBI's communications analysis unit, told a congressional hearing on Wednesday. "FBI's counterterrorism program cannot properly protect the United States from another catastrophic and direct attack from Middle Eastern terrorists," he added. Egyptian-born Youssef, who has been an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) since 1988, said only 62 percent of posts were filled in the counterterrorism unit. This chronic staff shortage was forcing the FBI to recruit staff with no relevant experience, specifically with Middle Eastern counterterrorism, possibly lacking pertinent language skills and cultural understanding. "The counterterrorism division is unable to keep agents, supervisors and analysts within the division, and 62 percent is an alarmingly low figure," he told a House subcommittee hearing on FBI whistleblowers....
Unmarked chopper patrols NY city from high above On a cloudless spring day, the NYPD helicopter soars over the city, its sights set on the Statue of Liberty. A dramatic close-up of Lady Liberty's frozen gaze fills one of three flat-screen computer monitors mounted on a console. Hundreds of sightseers below are oblivious to the fact that a helicopter is peering down on them from a mile and a half away. "They don't even know we're here," said crew chief John Diaz, speaking into a headset over the din of the aircraft's engine. The helicopter's unmarked paint job belies what's inside: an arsenal of sophisticated surveillance and tracking equipment powerful enough to read license plates—or scan pedestrians' faces—from high above the nation's largest metropolis. The NYPD also plans to spend tens of millions of dollars strengthening security in the lower Manhattan business district with a network of closed-circuit television cameras and license-plate readers posted at bridges, tunnels and other entry points. Police have also deployed hundreds of radiation monitors—some worn on belts like pagers, others mounted on cars and in helicopters—to detect dirty bombs. The helicopter's powers of observation come from a high-powered robotic camera mounted on a turret projecting from its nose like a periscope. The camera has infrared night-vision capabilities and a satellite navigation system that allows police to automatically zoom in on a location by typing in the address on a computer keyboard. The surveillance system can beam live footage to police command centers or even to wireless hand-held devices....
Fingerprint Registry in Housing Bill Fingerprints are considered to be among the most personal of information, and fingerprint databases created and proposed in the name of national security have generated much debate. Recently, “Server in the Sky” — a proposed international database of the fingerprints of suspected criminals and terrorists to be shared among the U.S., U.K. and Canada — has ignited a firestorm of controversy. As have cavalier comments by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that fingerprints aren’t “personal data.” Yet earlier this week, a measure creating a federal fingerprint registry totally unrelated to national security passed a U.S. Senate committee almost without notice. The legislation would require thousands of individuals working even tangentially in the mortgage and real estate industries — and not suspected of anything — to send their prints to the feds. The database and fingerprint mandates were tucked into housing and foreclosure assistance bills that on Tuesday passed the Senate Banking Committee by a vote of 19-2. The measure the committee passed states that “an indvidual may not engage in the business of a loan originator without first … obtaining a unique identifier.” To obtain this “identifier,” an individual is requiredto “furnish” to the newly created Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry “information concerning the applicant’s identity, including fingerprints for submission” to the FBI and other government agencies. And the database would cover a broad swath of individuals involved with mortgage lending. The amendment defines “loan originator” as anyone who “takes a residential loan application; and offers or negotiates terms of a residential mortgage loan for compensation or gain.” It states that even real estate brokers would be covered if they receive any compensation from lenders or mortgage brokers....
US residents in military brigs? Govt says it's war If his cell were at Guantanamo Bay, the prisoner would be just one of hundreds of suspected terrorists detained offshore, where the U.S. says the Constitution does not apply. But Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri is a U.S. resident being held in a South Carolina military brig; he is the only enemy combatant held on U.S. soil. That makes his case very different. Al-Marri's capture six years ago might be the Bush administration's biggest domestic counterterrorism success story. Authorities say he was an al-Qaida sleeper agent living in middle America, researching poisonous gasses and plotting a cyberattack. To justify holding him, the government claimed a broad interpretation of the president's wartime powers, one that goes beyond warrantless wiretapping or monitoring banking transactions. Government lawyers told federal judges that the president can send the military into any U.S. neighborhood, capture a citizen and hold him in prison without charge, indefinitely. There is little middle ground between the two sides in al-Marri's case, which is before a federal appeals court in Virginia. The government says the president needs this power to keep the nation safe. Al-Marri's lawyers say that as long as the president can detain anyone he wants, nobody is safe....
EPA tests plans to protect water from terrorists Water utilities would get earlier warning of viruses, bacteria or chemicals that could be introduced into drinking water systems by terrorists under a test monitoring program set for expansion beyond Cincinnati. The pilot program ordered by the Department of Homeland Security in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks uses continuous monitoring of public water for contaminants that could sicken or kill millions of people. Some utilities only do spot checks now for such germs, pesticides or radioactive materials. Some utilities might find that they need additional video cameras and alarms to warn of intruders at water tanks or other sites. Once the pilot program is complete, the Environmental Protection Agency hopes to have a national water security model that utilities could adopt at their own expense. "Water supplies are very, very accessible targets for biological or chemical weapons," said Donna Schlagheck, a Wright State University political scientist who specializes in American foreign policy and international terrorism. "There are so many potential targets — whether you are taking water from the ground or a river or a lake — and the vulnerability there is enormous."....
Gamblers' shuttle gets terrorism funds Colorado Springs-based Ramblin Express, which shuttles gamblers to mountain-town casinos, including Cripple Creek, has received $382,000 in anti-terrorism grants. The most recent grant, for $184,415, was announced this month as part of the Department of Homeland Security's $844 million Infrastructure Protection Activities program. Ramblin Express' grant is among the $11.2 million allocated to the Intercity Bus Security Grant Program, which is intended to assess risks and prevent attacks on that part of the nation's transportation system. It's not clear what threats Ramblin Express is addressing or what the grant money has gone for because the company's owner, Todd Holland, couldn't be reached for comment. A Federal Emergency Management Agency official said in written responses to questions the Ramblin Express' money is for vehicle security and GPS systems. FEMA also said spending is monitored. Homeland security expert James Carafano derided the program as a "ridiculous" expense. "This is checkbooks gone wild," said Carafano, a senior research fellow at conservative Washington, D.C., think tank The Heritage Foundation. "This is so stupid."....