AZMEX I3 28 JUN 2014
Help planned for immigrants stuck at bus depot
10 hours ago • By Darren DaRonco
http://azstarnet.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/help-planned-for-immigrants-stuck-at-bus-depot/article_e4e055ef-79f4-560e-9fc2-bff1e2611a51.html
Undocumented women and children, who now spend up to three days stuck in Tucson waiting for a bus to take them someplace where they can await deportation hearings, may soon have a safer and more comfortable option.
The city is coordinating with nonprofit organizations, such as Catholic Community Services and the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, to set up an intake center near the downtown Tucson Greyhound Depot to provide the women and children with food, clothes and temporary housing as they transition through Tucson.
"Greyhound management has been patient as we worked to put these pieces together, but we can't continue to let people sit at the bus station," said Councilman Steve Kozachik, who arranged a meeting among nonprofits, representatives from the Ward 1 City Council Office and the Mayor's Office to discuss a plan.
He said the city won't be sinking dollars into the effort, but will coordinate with the charity groups.
"This is going to be nonprofit-driven," Kozachik said. "It's all about gathering the nonprofits together."
The women and children who have been apprehended and released to await deportation hearings are dropped off at the depot by federal officials.
Casa Mariposa and other charities have provided some assistance, including housing them while they get their bus ticket, but the volume of immigrants has overwhelmed the available resources.
Mayor Jonathan Rothschild said it's the appropriate response for the city to coordinate nonprofits as they assist the women and children before they move on.
Volunteers at the intake center will provide the women and children with travel bags, food, clothing and other needed supplies for their trip, Kozachik said. The nonprofits will provide temporary housing if needed.
"We will triage their needs. Some are only here for three hours while some are here three days," Kozachik said. "All we have to do is transition them to the next stop."
Kozachik said he orchestrated the meeting because it's clear the problem isn't going away anytime soon.
"Border Patrol said this could go on indefinitely," he said. "This is something the city should have done weeks ago."
Councilwoman Regina Romero said the city could do more to help the women and children.
She called on the city's Housing and Community Development Department to activate emergency shelters through the nonprofit groups the city already funds.
"We need our city employees to help coordinate the efforts. It's not enough for city staff to put their hands up and say we don't do these things directly," Romero said. "We need to be responsible as a city for this crisis."
The proposal is the latest effort to provide a solution for the growing number of immigrants flowing through Southern Arizona.
Earlier this week, Adelita Grijalva, president of the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board, proposed housing some of the unaccompanied migrant children at closed TUSD schools.
Catholic Community Services still needs items the Central American immigrant women and children arriving in our community. Current needs are:
Food for bus trips:
·Bottled water
·Gatorade
·Pedialyte
·Ramen noodles in cups (chicken)
·Snacks like granola bars (non-melting ingredients)
Travel size toiletry items such as:
·Toothpaste
·Toothbrushes
·Hair combs/brushes
·Deodorant
·Lotion
·Hand sanitizer
·Sanitary pads for women
Baby/Child care items:
·Diapers, sizes 3 and 4
·Diaper cream
·Wipes (in travel packs)
·Socks for children
·Underwear for children
Items may be delivered to Catholic Community Services, 140 W. Speedway, north entrance, between the hours of 8:30-12:00 noon and 1:00-5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
END
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Friday, June 27, 2014
AZMEX I3 27-6-14
AZMEX I3 27 JUN 2014
No timeframe set for processing kids in Nogales
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson speaks at a news conference Wednesday at the Nogales Border Patrol Station.
Posted: Friday, June 27, 2014 7:53 am | Updated: 9:07 am, Fri Jun 27, 2014.
By Curt Prendergast
Nogales International
http://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/no-timeframe-set-for-processing-kids-in-nogales/article_cf958c34-fe0a-11e3-abae-0019bb2963f4.html
Nogales likely will remain a key part of a federal effort to deal with thousands of Central American migrant children caught trying to cross the border illegally in South Texas.
During a press conference Wednesday outside Border Patrol's Nogales Station, part of which has been converted into an impromptu processing facility, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson did not provide a concrete answer to a question from a reporter about when the flow of minors to Nogales would end.
"We're going to deal with this influx," Johnson said. "I believe we will deal with this situation. But until we deal with it, we've got to continue to process these kids in a safe, lawful, and humane manner and Nogales is part of that solution."
A few minutes later, Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino warned of "a long summer" of more children arriving in the city. Federal officials had told him previously the flow of juvenile migrants to Nogales likely would end by September, but he said he has since been told "it might go longer than that."
He pointed to the roughly 500 Central American migrant children caught every day on the international border in South Texas who "end up in a processing center like this," he said.
About 140 children arrive at the Nogales station every day, with a similar number leaving daily after their immigration paperwork is processed, said Gov. Jan Brewer, who also toured the facility and met with federal officials Wednesday.
To deal with the flow of migrant children, a shelter in Tucson is being set up to house about 280 migrant children, she said. The "unsecure" shelter will allow the children to "come and go as they wish."
In order to resolve the situation, Brewer called on the federal government to "do its job" and secure the border.
"We have not sent a strong message to these countries that our borders are closed. We need a federal government to step up and secure the border. It's the problem that we have been facing for years now," she said.
"Until that happens, unfortunately, we're going to continue to see this kind of situation," she said.
As federal authorities search for a way to stop the flow of Central American children, Johnson said he is going to Guatemala on July 8 to discuss options for shutting down the "pipeline" of child migration to South Texas.
Warning signs
Brewer also questioned when federal authorities first became aware of the coming wave of Central American migrant children, noting a request from the federal government for a contractor to provide transportation services for unaccompanied minors "way back in January."
"They were not honest or forthright with us that this all of a sudden started because they were looking for a solution in January before they started transporting them to Arizona and then transporting them to here in Nogales and to Tucson and to Phoenix," she said.
The Jan. 29 request posted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the federal government's Federal Business Opportunities website was for information from contractors about providing transportation for unaccompanied migrant children from ICE custody to Office of Refugee Resettlement shelters located across the country.
The request proposes a one-year contract with an option for four additional years to transport an estimated 65,000 unaccompanied minors. The request does not clarify whether that number is for the initial year or for the total five years. An information request to ICE was not immediately answered Thursday.
Current estimates from DHS put the number of migrant children caught in South Texas at about 52,000 since October.
The contractor would have to be able to transport 25 percent of the minors by ground, 25 percent by ICE charter, and the remainder by commercial air transport.
END
No timeframe set for processing kids in Nogales
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson speaks at a news conference Wednesday at the Nogales Border Patrol Station.
Posted: Friday, June 27, 2014 7:53 am | Updated: 9:07 am, Fri Jun 27, 2014.
By Curt Prendergast
Nogales International
http://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/no-timeframe-set-for-processing-kids-in-nogales/article_cf958c34-fe0a-11e3-abae-0019bb2963f4.html
Nogales likely will remain a key part of a federal effort to deal with thousands of Central American migrant children caught trying to cross the border illegally in South Texas.
During a press conference Wednesday outside Border Patrol's Nogales Station, part of which has been converted into an impromptu processing facility, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson did not provide a concrete answer to a question from a reporter about when the flow of minors to Nogales would end.
"We're going to deal with this influx," Johnson said. "I believe we will deal with this situation. But until we deal with it, we've got to continue to process these kids in a safe, lawful, and humane manner and Nogales is part of that solution."
A few minutes later, Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino warned of "a long summer" of more children arriving in the city. Federal officials had told him previously the flow of juvenile migrants to Nogales likely would end by September, but he said he has since been told "it might go longer than that."
He pointed to the roughly 500 Central American migrant children caught every day on the international border in South Texas who "end up in a processing center like this," he said.
About 140 children arrive at the Nogales station every day, with a similar number leaving daily after their immigration paperwork is processed, said Gov. Jan Brewer, who also toured the facility and met with federal officials Wednesday.
To deal with the flow of migrant children, a shelter in Tucson is being set up to house about 280 migrant children, she said. The "unsecure" shelter will allow the children to "come and go as they wish."
In order to resolve the situation, Brewer called on the federal government to "do its job" and secure the border.
"We have not sent a strong message to these countries that our borders are closed. We need a federal government to step up and secure the border. It's the problem that we have been facing for years now," she said.
"Until that happens, unfortunately, we're going to continue to see this kind of situation," she said.
As federal authorities search for a way to stop the flow of Central American children, Johnson said he is going to Guatemala on July 8 to discuss options for shutting down the "pipeline" of child migration to South Texas.
Warning signs
Brewer also questioned when federal authorities first became aware of the coming wave of Central American migrant children, noting a request from the federal government for a contractor to provide transportation services for unaccompanied minors "way back in January."
"They were not honest or forthright with us that this all of a sudden started because they were looking for a solution in January before they started transporting them to Arizona and then transporting them to here in Nogales and to Tucson and to Phoenix," she said.
The Jan. 29 request posted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the federal government's Federal Business Opportunities website was for information from contractors about providing transportation for unaccompanied migrant children from ICE custody to Office of Refugee Resettlement shelters located across the country.
The request proposes a one-year contract with an option for four additional years to transport an estimated 65,000 unaccompanied minors. The request does not clarify whether that number is for the initial year or for the total five years. An information request to ICE was not immediately answered Thursday.
Current estimates from DHS put the number of migrant children caught in South Texas at about 52,000 since October.
The contractor would have to be able to transport 25 percent of the minors by ground, 25 percent by ICE charter, and the remainder by commercial air transport.
END
Thursday, June 26, 2014
AZMEX I3 26-6-14
AZMEX I3 26 JUN 2014
Immigrant women, children at Tucson bus station no longer coming from Texas
16 hours ago • By Perla TrevizoLoading…
http://azstarnet.com/news/local/border/immigrant-women-children-at-tucson-bus-station-no-longer-coming/article_274541e7-061b-5081-aafc-ba1c9ca1b6c7.html
Groups of women with their children continue to be dropped off each day at the Greyhound station in Tucson, but they no longer come from south Texas. Instead, all of them tried to enter the United States through Arizona.
Ana Carrillo waited at the bus station recently as her two children, 4-year-old Lady and 6-year-old Abner, ran around with other children in the waiting area.
The Guatemala native crossed through Agua Prieta, east of Tucson, after the smuggler she hired to get her over the border robbed her of her last 1,000 pesos — roughly $75 — in the middle of the night and told her to run.
She's not sure how far she went before she saw a Border Patrol agent, but her children were tired and crying.
"I was praying to God to please help me," she said in Spanish while she waited for her bus to leave for Memphis, where she has a brother.
Lady's face was covered in red spots — a reaction to the intense heat, her mother said. Their lips were so chapped from dehydration and the sun that volunteers ran to a nearby store to get ChapStick.
More than a year ago, volunteers from immigration advocacy group Casa Mariposa, who go to the bus station to help those released from immigration detention centers in the state, started seeing more women and children, said Blake Gentry, a volunteer coordinator.
Until Memorial Day, they would see about five to seven women with a child, maybe one with two children. Then the number jumped into the dozens.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it was processing 400 people who had been transferred from south Texas over the Memorial Day weekend.
Most of the women didn't know where they were or how to buy their bus ticket. They were hungry and dehydrated, and they needed basic things such as diapers for their babies.
This fiscal year, there's been a surge not only in children coming across the border without a parent or guardian, but also of women traveling with their young sons and daughters, mostly through south Texas. Federal officials have not released sector numbers, but nationwide, Border Patrol has detained more than 39,000 adults with children so far this fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30.
The government can't hold women with their children amid the general detainee population; there's only one facility in the country, and it has fewer than 100 beds. So many are released at bus stations in the Southwest, including Tucson and Phoenix, with a notice to appear before an immigration official at their final destination – normally where they have relatives. The federal government has not said how many have been released.
When news broke of the large number of women and children being dropped off in Arizona, there was an outcry from state officials, including a threat to sue by Attorney General Tom Horne.
On June 7, Customs and Border Protection released a statement saying the El Paso Sector was helping to process families apprehended in south Texas, while Tucson was prepared and expected to continue to process unaccompanied children.
Volunteers with the Phoenix Restoration Project said they are still seeing adults from the Florence and Eloy detention centers being released most nights, but they haven't seen families from Texas for about two weeks.
Alejandro Mayorkas, deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said the federal government will open more centers to hold families, starting with one in New Mexico for up to 700 adults and children.
Although most of the surge is coming from south Texas, Border Patrol officials and area nonprofits worry that those still coming through the Tucson Sector face some of the deadliest months of the year.
"What's abnormal is that we are not seeing the drop-off we normally see during the hottest months of the year," Gentry said. Since September, Casa Mariposa has helped more than 6,000 people at the Tucson bus station.
Last June, a Guatemalan woman with a 1½-year-old baby strapped to her back and her 17-year-old son were stranded in the desert in triple-digit heat. She was so desperate that she called Border Patrol to turn herself in.
In April, Border Patrol officials warned that this could be a particularly tragic summer if they didn't handle the issue of women and children crossing through the desert.
At the bus station are women who jumped the fence near Nogales, walked through the desert by Agua Prieta and even turned themselves in at ports of entry. But some crossed through the Tohono O'odham Nation at some of the most desolate and deadliest parts of the border.
Many are fleeing violence and poverty, they said. But in their villages they've also been hearing about permisos, the government notices to appear in court once they reach their intended destination. While most Mexican nationals can be turned back quickly, with Central Americans, in particular children, it's more complicated.
Carrillo, the mother of two at the bus station, said life is extremely hard in Guatemala. Her husband left her for another woman, something several women said was becoming prevalent in their community.
"My mom said it didn't used to be like this," she said. "When people got together, it was for the rest of their lives."
She wants to come to work and save money to buy a piece of land and build a home for her children, she said, "so that they don't grow up without even a piece of land."
By the numbers
Apprehensions in Arizona
Total apprehensions: 72,850
(for fiscal 2014, as of June 15)
By top three nationalities:
Mexico
Males: 51,890
Females: 6,040
Juveniles: 4,170
Guatemala
Males: 7,720
Females: 2,900
Juveniles: 3,920
Honduras
Males: 1,900
Females: 353
Juveniles: 380
Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Immigrant women, children at Tucson bus station no longer coming from Texas
16 hours ago • By Perla TrevizoLoading…
http://azstarnet.com/news/local/border/immigrant-women-children-at-tucson-bus-station-no-longer-coming/article_274541e7-061b-5081-aafc-ba1c9ca1b6c7.html
Groups of women with their children continue to be dropped off each day at the Greyhound station in Tucson, but they no longer come from south Texas. Instead, all of them tried to enter the United States through Arizona.
Ana Carrillo waited at the bus station recently as her two children, 4-year-old Lady and 6-year-old Abner, ran around with other children in the waiting area.
The Guatemala native crossed through Agua Prieta, east of Tucson, after the smuggler she hired to get her over the border robbed her of her last 1,000 pesos — roughly $75 — in the middle of the night and told her to run.
She's not sure how far she went before she saw a Border Patrol agent, but her children were tired and crying.
"I was praying to God to please help me," she said in Spanish while she waited for her bus to leave for Memphis, where she has a brother.
Lady's face was covered in red spots — a reaction to the intense heat, her mother said. Their lips were so chapped from dehydration and the sun that volunteers ran to a nearby store to get ChapStick.
More than a year ago, volunteers from immigration advocacy group Casa Mariposa, who go to the bus station to help those released from immigration detention centers in the state, started seeing more women and children, said Blake Gentry, a volunteer coordinator.
Until Memorial Day, they would see about five to seven women with a child, maybe one with two children. Then the number jumped into the dozens.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it was processing 400 people who had been transferred from south Texas over the Memorial Day weekend.
Most of the women didn't know where they were or how to buy their bus ticket. They were hungry and dehydrated, and they needed basic things such as diapers for their babies.
This fiscal year, there's been a surge not only in children coming across the border without a parent or guardian, but also of women traveling with their young sons and daughters, mostly through south Texas. Federal officials have not released sector numbers, but nationwide, Border Patrol has detained more than 39,000 adults with children so far this fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30.
The government can't hold women with their children amid the general detainee population; there's only one facility in the country, and it has fewer than 100 beds. So many are released at bus stations in the Southwest, including Tucson and Phoenix, with a notice to appear before an immigration official at their final destination – normally where they have relatives. The federal government has not said how many have been released.
When news broke of the large number of women and children being dropped off in Arizona, there was an outcry from state officials, including a threat to sue by Attorney General Tom Horne.
On June 7, Customs and Border Protection released a statement saying the El Paso Sector was helping to process families apprehended in south Texas, while Tucson was prepared and expected to continue to process unaccompanied children.
Volunteers with the Phoenix Restoration Project said they are still seeing adults from the Florence and Eloy detention centers being released most nights, but they haven't seen families from Texas for about two weeks.
Alejandro Mayorkas, deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said the federal government will open more centers to hold families, starting with one in New Mexico for up to 700 adults and children.
Although most of the surge is coming from south Texas, Border Patrol officials and area nonprofits worry that those still coming through the Tucson Sector face some of the deadliest months of the year.
"What's abnormal is that we are not seeing the drop-off we normally see during the hottest months of the year," Gentry said. Since September, Casa Mariposa has helped more than 6,000 people at the Tucson bus station.
Last June, a Guatemalan woman with a 1½-year-old baby strapped to her back and her 17-year-old son were stranded in the desert in triple-digit heat. She was so desperate that she called Border Patrol to turn herself in.
In April, Border Patrol officials warned that this could be a particularly tragic summer if they didn't handle the issue of women and children crossing through the desert.
At the bus station are women who jumped the fence near Nogales, walked through the desert by Agua Prieta and even turned themselves in at ports of entry. But some crossed through the Tohono O'odham Nation at some of the most desolate and deadliest parts of the border.
Many are fleeing violence and poverty, they said. But in their villages they've also been hearing about permisos, the government notices to appear in court once they reach their intended destination. While most Mexican nationals can be turned back quickly, with Central Americans, in particular children, it's more complicated.
Carrillo, the mother of two at the bus station, said life is extremely hard in Guatemala. Her husband left her for another woman, something several women said was becoming prevalent in their community.
"My mom said it didn't used to be like this," she said. "When people got together, it was for the rest of their lives."
She wants to come to work and save money to buy a piece of land and build a home for her children, she said, "so that they don't grow up without even a piece of land."
By the numbers
Apprehensions in Arizona
Total apprehensions: 72,850
(for fiscal 2014, as of June 15)
By top three nationalities:
Mexico
Males: 51,890
Females: 6,040
Juveniles: 4,170
Guatemala
Males: 7,720
Females: 2,900
Juveniles: 3,920
Honduras
Males: 1,900
Females: 353
Juveniles: 380
Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
AZMEX EXTRA 25-6-14
AZMEX EXTRA 25 JUN 2014
Eagle Pass Daily | News for Eagle Pass TX | EaglePassDaily.com
Del Rio Jury convicts two Los Zetas cartel members on federal charges
Written by Staff
Tuesday, 24 June 2014 14:17
http://eaglepassdaily.com
EAGLE PASS - Two senior members of the Los Zetas Cartel operating in Piedras Negras, Mexico, face up to life in federal prison after a jury convicted them of smuggling thousands of kilograms of marijuana and hundreds of assault rifles announced Robert Pitman, United States Attorney; Janice Ayala, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent in Charge of the San Antonio Division; Robert Elder, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Special Agent in Charge of the Houston Division; and, Christopher Combs, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent in Charge of the San Antonio Division.
On Friday afternoon, jurors convicted 29–year-old Emilio Villalobos-Alcala (aka "La Tripa"), and 27–year-old Jose Eluid Lugo-Lopez (aka "Cochi Loco") of one count of conspiracy to import marijuana; one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana; one count of conspiracy to possess firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime; and, two counts of smuggling goods from the United States.
According to courtroom testimony, Villalobos-Alcala, a purported leader of the Los Zetas Cartel activities in Piedras Negras and fellow senior level member Lugo-Lopez were involved in a large-scale marijuana and firearms smuggling scheme from July 2011 until February 2013.
Assault weapons, other firearms, magazines and ammunition purchased in San Antonio were transported inside hidden compartments in cars and trucks and smuggled through Eagle Pass, Texas, to Piedras Negras. Bundles of marijuana, smuggled across the river into Quemado, Texas, were transported to stash houses in Eagle Pass.
From there, the marijuana was transported to stash houses in San Antonio and ultimately to distributors in Dallas and Houston. Evidence presented during the trial included multiple threats made by Villalobos Alcala and Lugo-Lopez that they would kill people involved in the smuggling conspiracy or their family members if they did not pay money for drugs or weapons seized by law enforcement or agree to move drugs or weapons on behalf of the cartel.
In February 2013, Villalobos was arrested at the Port of Entry in Eagle Pass. Lugo Lopez was arrested in Eagle Pass in November 2012 after crossing into the country illegally.
Villalobos-Alcala and Lugo-Lopez remain in federal custody pending sentencing. Sentencing is scheduled for December 15, 2014, in Del Rio. This case was investigated by special agents with HSI, ATF, FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration together with the U.S. Border Patrol, Texas Department of Public Safety and the Zavala County Sheriff's Office.
FIN
Eagle Pass Daily | News for Eagle Pass TX | EaglePassDaily.com
Del Rio Jury convicts two Los Zetas cartel members on federal charges
Written by Staff
Tuesday, 24 June 2014 14:17
http://eaglepassdaily.com
EAGLE PASS - Two senior members of the Los Zetas Cartel operating in Piedras Negras, Mexico, face up to life in federal prison after a jury convicted them of smuggling thousands of kilograms of marijuana and hundreds of assault rifles announced Robert Pitman, United States Attorney; Janice Ayala, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent in Charge of the San Antonio Division; Robert Elder, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Special Agent in Charge of the Houston Division; and, Christopher Combs, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent in Charge of the San Antonio Division.
On Friday afternoon, jurors convicted 29–year-old Emilio Villalobos-Alcala (aka "La Tripa"), and 27–year-old Jose Eluid Lugo-Lopez (aka "Cochi Loco") of one count of conspiracy to import marijuana; one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana; one count of conspiracy to possess firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime; and, two counts of smuggling goods from the United States.
According to courtroom testimony, Villalobos-Alcala, a purported leader of the Los Zetas Cartel activities in Piedras Negras and fellow senior level member Lugo-Lopez were involved in a large-scale marijuana and firearms smuggling scheme from July 2011 until February 2013.
Assault weapons, other firearms, magazines and ammunition purchased in San Antonio were transported inside hidden compartments in cars and trucks and smuggled through Eagle Pass, Texas, to Piedras Negras. Bundles of marijuana, smuggled across the river into Quemado, Texas, were transported to stash houses in Eagle Pass.
From there, the marijuana was transported to stash houses in San Antonio and ultimately to distributors in Dallas and Houston. Evidence presented during the trial included multiple threats made by Villalobos Alcala and Lugo-Lopez that they would kill people involved in the smuggling conspiracy or their family members if they did not pay money for drugs or weapons seized by law enforcement or agree to move drugs or weapons on behalf of the cartel.
In February 2013, Villalobos was arrested at the Port of Entry in Eagle Pass. Lugo Lopez was arrested in Eagle Pass in November 2012 after crossing into the country illegally.
Villalobos-Alcala and Lugo-Lopez remain in federal custody pending sentencing. Sentencing is scheduled for December 15, 2014, in Del Rio. This case was investigated by special agents with HSI, ATF, FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration together with the U.S. Border Patrol, Texas Department of Public Safety and the Zavala County Sheriff's Office.
FIN
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
AZMEX EXTRA 24-6-14
AZMEX EXTRA 24 JUN 2014
Man, wife accused of bringing gun to argument with mechanic
Posted: Monday, June 23, 2014 6:14 pm
ILDEFONSO ORTIZ | THE MONITOR
http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/man-wife-accused-of-bringing-gun-to-argument-with-mechanic/article_12e52f26-fb2c-11e3-bb39-0017a43b2370.html
McALLEN — Federal agents arrested what they described as an irate customer and his wife after one pulled out a handgun on Friday on a mechanic that had spent three months fixing their car without results.
On Friday evening, McAllen police and agents with Homeland Security Investigations arrested 48-year-old Jesus Eduardo Cantu and his wife 43-year-old Mayra Lopez at a mechanic's shop at 5810 South 23rd Street after an employee called police claiming two people had a gun in the shop, agents with HSI said in their criminal complaint.
On Monday morning, Cantu and Lopez went before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Ormsby who formally charged each with one count of immigration charges and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm and ordered they be held without bond pending a detention hearing later this week
During questioning by authorities, Lopez told agents that three months prior her husband had brought to the shop a Ford Taurus and paid a $600 down payment for repairs that had not been completed, the agents noted in their complaint.
On Friday, Cantu had argued with the mechanics over the phone and then placed a .45 caliber handgun in Lopez's purse before driving over to the shop, and trying to speak with the mechanics so he could take his car, Lopez is quoted telling the agents in court records.
During questioning by agents, Cantu said he had taken the .45 caliber handgun to the shop but doesn't recall when he took it out of concealment before placing it back into his wife's purse.
The HSI agents noted in their complaint that both Cantu and Lopez had entered the country on tourist visas that had since expired meaning they couldn't possess a firearm.
END
Man, wife accused of bringing gun to argument with mechanic
Posted: Monday, June 23, 2014 6:14 pm
ILDEFONSO ORTIZ | THE MONITOR
http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/man-wife-accused-of-bringing-gun-to-argument-with-mechanic/article_12e52f26-fb2c-11e3-bb39-0017a43b2370.html
McALLEN — Federal agents arrested what they described as an irate customer and his wife after one pulled out a handgun on Friday on a mechanic that had spent three months fixing their car without results.
On Friday evening, McAllen police and agents with Homeland Security Investigations arrested 48-year-old Jesus Eduardo Cantu and his wife 43-year-old Mayra Lopez at a mechanic's shop at 5810 South 23rd Street after an employee called police claiming two people had a gun in the shop, agents with HSI said in their criminal complaint.
On Monday morning, Cantu and Lopez went before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Ormsby who formally charged each with one count of immigration charges and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm and ordered they be held without bond pending a detention hearing later this week
During questioning by authorities, Lopez told agents that three months prior her husband had brought to the shop a Ford Taurus and paid a $600 down payment for repairs that had not been completed, the agents noted in their complaint.
On Friday, Cantu had argued with the mechanics over the phone and then placed a .45 caliber handgun in Lopez's purse before driving over to the shop, and trying to speak with the mechanics so he could take his car, Lopez is quoted telling the agents in court records.
During questioning by agents, Cantu said he had taken the .45 caliber handgun to the shop but doesn't recall when he took it out of concealment before placing it back into his wife's purse.
The HSI agents noted in their complaint that both Cantu and Lopez had entered the country on tourist visas that had since expired meaning they couldn't possess a firearm.
END
AZMEX UPDATE 22-6-14
AZMEX UPDATE 22 JUN 2014
Note: From BP Local 2544, Tucson sector
Getting the truth out
As Agents are forced to read policy that they won't take pictures of illegal aliens and now we are hearing that some member of management telling his Agents not to speak to the press, we have to ask — WHY? What are they afraid of?
Are they afraid that their archaic enforcement operations have failed, that their story of "Secured Border" was a lie, that they wasted millions of dollars on programs and technology that didn't work, and that they are more interested in preserving their title and position than they are protecting the American Public would get out.
The Border Patrol is not equipped to handle long term housing of any person, much less juveniles and the Immigration policies of this country have failed and we are forced not to do our job by political appointees.
Why wouldn't any high ranking Border Patrol manager just come out and say it? Is really that hard? If you just came out and said it you wouldn't have to worry about Agents taking pictures or talking to the press.
If you won't… we will! We will continue to press our issues every time, will continue to expose the lies DHS has forced upon the American people, will continue to highlight the failures of ICE not doing their job!
Pres Del Cueto on PBS (here)
Del Cueto visits Nogalas (here)
http://www.local2544.org/pres-del-cueto-on-oreilly-factor/
http://www.local2544.org/getting-the-truth-out/
end
Note: But no worries about the many thousands "undocumented" and unchecked, coming though the AZMEX, TEXMEX border.
News
Schumer Concerned World Cup Fans Returning To U.S. Might Bring Back Mosquito-Borne Virus
One Species Containing Troublesome 'Chik-V' Strain Apparently Prevalent In Brazil
June 22, 2014 11:42 AM
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/06/22/schumer-concerned-world-cup-fans-returning-to-u-s-might-bring-back-mosquito-borne-virus/
Sen. Charles Schumer wants the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to alert medical professionals in the U.S. about the possibility that anyone who traveled to the World Cup might have potentially contracted the chikungunya virus. (Credit: Monica Miller/WCBS 880)
Sen. Charles Schumer wants the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to alert medical professionals in the U.S. about the possibility that anyone who traveled to the World Cup might have potentially contracted the chikungunya virus. (Credit: Monica Miller/WCBS 880)
Related Tags: 2014 FIFA World Cup, Brazil, Chik-V virus, Chikungunya Virus, disease-carrying mosquitoes, Sen. Charles Schumer
CBS New York (con't)
ALBANY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) — U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer is asking the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue a health alert to medical professionals in New York and around the country for identifying, treating and containing the chikungunya, or "chik-v," virus, a mosquito-borne illness that causes fevers, joint and muscle pain, headaches, joint swelling and rashes.
One of the mosquito species carrying the virus and responsible for disease transmission is prevalent in Brazil.
Schumer says there have been three confirmed cases in New York and 25 in Florida, and numbers could increase dramatically with the return of soccer fans from the World Cup.
So far, all of the infected Americans have contracted the virus in parts of the world where it is common.
Prior outbreaks have occurred in Africa, Asia, and Europe. Late last year, the virus was found for the first time on the Caribbean islands, where more than 100,000 people have been sickened.
"This is not a fatal infection; it's just a miserable infection," Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of Vanderbilt University's Department of Preventive Medicine, told CBS 2 earlier this month.
Schumer is also calling on U.S. Department of Homeland Security to increase border safeguards, citing the developing threat in the Caribbean, where more than 100,000 people have been affected.
end
Mesa father, son sentenced for drug trafficking
by The Associated Press
azfamily.com
Posted on June 20, 2014 at 7:55 AM
Updated yesterday at 7:57 AM
http://www.azfamily.com/news/Mesa-man-and-son-sentenced-for-drug-trafficking-263982591.html
PHOENIX (AP) -- A Mesa man and his son each have been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for operating a multi-state drug trafficking organization.
Federal prosecutors say 47-year-old Hector Raul Ortiz-Tarazon Sr. and 24-year-old Hector Francisco Ortiz Jr. were among 12 people indicted in the case.
The father and son were accused of running an organization that shipped marijuana to the Midwest and East Coast.
Authorities say the organization trafficked more than 1,300 pounds of marijuana and generating more than $1 million in cash and money orders.
Federal agents seized about $400,000 in assets including cash, eight vehicles, 39 firearms and numerous rounds of ammunition.
END
Note: From BP Local 2544, Tucson sector
Getting the truth out
As Agents are forced to read policy that they won't take pictures of illegal aliens and now we are hearing that some member of management telling his Agents not to speak to the press, we have to ask — WHY? What are they afraid of?
Are they afraid that their archaic enforcement operations have failed, that their story of "Secured Border" was a lie, that they wasted millions of dollars on programs and technology that didn't work, and that they are more interested in preserving their title and position than they are protecting the American Public would get out.
The Border Patrol is not equipped to handle long term housing of any person, much less juveniles and the Immigration policies of this country have failed and we are forced not to do our job by political appointees.
Why wouldn't any high ranking Border Patrol manager just come out and say it? Is really that hard? If you just came out and said it you wouldn't have to worry about Agents taking pictures or talking to the press.
If you won't… we will! We will continue to press our issues every time, will continue to expose the lies DHS has forced upon the American people, will continue to highlight the failures of ICE not doing their job!
Pres Del Cueto on PBS (here)
Del Cueto visits Nogalas (here)
http://www.local2544.org/pres-del-cueto-on-oreilly-factor/
http://www.local2544.org/getting-the-truth-out/
end
Note: But no worries about the many thousands "undocumented" and unchecked, coming though the AZMEX, TEXMEX border.
News
Schumer Concerned World Cup Fans Returning To U.S. Might Bring Back Mosquito-Borne Virus
One Species Containing Troublesome 'Chik-V' Strain Apparently Prevalent In Brazil
June 22, 2014 11:42 AM
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/06/22/schumer-concerned-world-cup-fans-returning-to-u-s-might-bring-back-mosquito-borne-virus/
Sen. Charles Schumer wants the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to alert medical professionals in the U.S. about the possibility that anyone who traveled to the World Cup might have potentially contracted the chikungunya virus. (Credit: Monica Miller/WCBS 880)
Sen. Charles Schumer wants the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to alert medical professionals in the U.S. about the possibility that anyone who traveled to the World Cup might have potentially contracted the chikungunya virus. (Credit: Monica Miller/WCBS 880)
Related Tags: 2014 FIFA World Cup, Brazil, Chik-V virus, Chikungunya Virus, disease-carrying mosquitoes, Sen. Charles Schumer
CBS New York (con't)
ALBANY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) — U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer is asking the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue a health alert to medical professionals in New York and around the country for identifying, treating and containing the chikungunya, or "chik-v," virus, a mosquito-borne illness that causes fevers, joint and muscle pain, headaches, joint swelling and rashes.
One of the mosquito species carrying the virus and responsible for disease transmission is prevalent in Brazil.
Schumer says there have been three confirmed cases in New York and 25 in Florida, and numbers could increase dramatically with the return of soccer fans from the World Cup.
So far, all of the infected Americans have contracted the virus in parts of the world where it is common.
Prior outbreaks have occurred in Africa, Asia, and Europe. Late last year, the virus was found for the first time on the Caribbean islands, where more than 100,000 people have been sickened.
"This is not a fatal infection; it's just a miserable infection," Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of Vanderbilt University's Department of Preventive Medicine, told CBS 2 earlier this month.
Schumer is also calling on U.S. Department of Homeland Security to increase border safeguards, citing the developing threat in the Caribbean, where more than 100,000 people have been affected.
end
Mesa father, son sentenced for drug trafficking
by The Associated Press
azfamily.com
Posted on June 20, 2014 at 7:55 AM
Updated yesterday at 7:57 AM
http://www.azfamily.com/news/Mesa-man-and-son-sentenced-for-drug-trafficking-263982591.html
PHOENIX (AP) -- A Mesa man and his son each have been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for operating a multi-state drug trafficking organization.
Federal prosecutors say 47-year-old Hector Raul Ortiz-Tarazon Sr. and 24-year-old Hector Francisco Ortiz Jr. were among 12 people indicted in the case.
The father and son were accused of running an organization that shipped marijuana to the Midwest and East Coast.
Authorities say the organization trafficked more than 1,300 pounds of marijuana and generating more than $1 million in cash and money orders.
Federal agents seized about $400,000 in assets including cash, eight vehicles, 39 firearms and numerous rounds of ammunition.
END
Saturday, June 14, 2014
AZMEX UPDATE 14-6-14
AZMEX UPDATE 14 JUN 2014
Sheriff: Gunmen used tactical clothing torched car in Weslaco slaying
Posted: Friday, June 13, 2014 9:31 pm
Ildefonso Ortiz | The Monitor
Posted on Jun 13, 2014by Ildefonso Ortiz
http://www.themonitor.com/sheriff-gunmen-used-tactical-clothing-torched-car-in-weslaco-slaying/article_efcf4db8-f36b-11e3-8c1d-001a4bcf6878.html
EDINBURG — Sheriff's investigators on Friday were still trying to identify at least four men who participated in the fatal shooting of two brothers and three other men near Weslaco late Wednesday night.
Hidalgo County sheriff's deputies responded to the shooting about 11 p.m. Wednesday outside of a house on the 2400 block of Melissa Drive, north of Weslaco, where they found two men who killed by multiple gunshots Sheriff Eddie Guerra said Friday.
Guerra identified the two fatal victims as 34-year-old Michael Zamorano and 21-year-old David Zamorano, who had been at the house with several others for a fish fry when the gunfire erupted.
"The suspects were wearing tactical type gear, camouflage clothing and ski masks," Guerra said. "At the scene we recovered multiple shell casings from various calibers including .223, 7.62 x 36 and buckshot."
The two calibers described by the sheriff are used in the sporting rifles commonly known as AR-15 and AK-47, while the buckshot is a term used to describe a type of shotgun shell.
The gunmen arrived at the residence in a maroon Cadillac with paper license plates and a red Ford Mustang without license plates.
"That same evening, we found a burned out vehicle matching the description of the maroon Cadillac about two miles north of the crime scene," Guerra said. "We believe that to be the suspect vehicle. The VIN numbers were burned out but we have been able to recover them."
Authorities tracked the vehicle to a Dallas address.
"At this point we are not ready to single out the motive. We are looking at the various motives that could be behind this homicide," the sheriff said.
When asked if the tactical gear, the weapons used and the disposing of the vehicles could be a sign that the homicide was a Mexican cartel- or gang-related hit, Guerra replied "you could make that deduction but that is not the only lead we are following."
Agents with the Texas Rangers, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Marshals Service are assisting the investigation.
END
Border agents in Rio Grande Valley warned not to talk to media
A hike with U.S Border Patrol agents through an illegal immigrant trail
Gabriel Hernandez
Former Monitor reporter Naxi Lopez talks to Border Patrol Agent Rosie Huey during a Border Patrol tour in 2011.
Posted: Friday, June 13, 2014 8:55 pm
CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN and ALICIA A. CALDWELL | AP
http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/border-agents-in-rio-grande-valley-warned-not-to-talk/article_078d8f00-f367-11e3-998f-001a4bcf6878.html
WASHINGTON (AP) — The surge in immigrant children caught crossing the southern border in Texas that has dominated headlines and risks becoming a political crisis for President Barack Obama and Congress includes a new threat facing Border Patrol agents: reporters.
An assistant chief patrol agent, Eligio "Lee" Pena, warned more than 3,000 Border Patrol agents that journalists looking for information about what Obama has described as a humanitarian crisis are likely to ask for information and "may try to disguise themselves." The email, obtained by The Associated Press, said agents should not speak to reporters, on or off duty, without advanced permission and warned that anyone who does could be charged with a crime or disciplined administratively.
Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske told the AP on Friday he was not aware of Pena's email warnings but said generally, "I am not a fan of telling people not to talk." Kerlikowske, who has pledged greater transparency since taking over the agency earlier this year, did not formally disavow the directive but added that Border Patrol agents should be focused on their jobs while on duty.
Pena's email was issued as national news organizations descended on the border to cover the immigration surge, especially children crossing the border alone from Central America. The problem has overwhelmed the Border Patrol. More than 47,000 children traveling alone have been found at the border since the start of the budget year in October.
Pena did not describe what sorts of disguises could be employed by reporters.
The issue has fueled the political debate in Washington about U.S. immigration policies, which contributed to this week's stunning election defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. Cantor's opponent had said the Republican leader supported "amnesty" for immigrants in the U.S. illegally, and said the surprise election outcome effectively dooms any prospects for legal changes to American immigration laws. Obama has disputed this and urged Congress to act this summer.
Agents in the Rio Grande Valley have made more than 173,000 arrests so far this budget year. Like the child border crossers, most of the immigrants trying to cross illegally are from Central America. The crush of children traveling alone and would-be immigrants traveling as families has prompted the Homeland Security Department to move both children and families to other Border Patrol sectors for processing. The children are later handed off to the Health and Human Services Department, where officials typically try to reunite them with parents or other relatives already in the United States. DHS has released an unspecified number of families with notices to appear at Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices near their final destinations within the United States.
The Obama administration has declined to say how many people have been released and how many have reported as ordered. Kerlikowske said Friday he did not know those figures.
The latest instruction to border agents in South Texas is not the first time the Border Patrol has directed officials not to speak with reporters.
Last year, the then-head of the Border Patrols' Southwest border media division told public affairs officials that the agency would "no longer provide interviews, ride alongs, visits, etc., about the border, the state of the border and what have you." In his Feb. 1, 2013, email, Bill Brooks advised that border officials should tell reporters that "you will have to see what you can do to get back to them" and then notify him.
The most recent information lockdown has made the local representatives of the Border Patrol agents' union the agency's de facto spokesmen on conditions inside overcrowded stations and the logistical challenges of processing so many immigrants.
___
Sherman reported from McAllen.
___
Sheriff: Gunmen used tactical clothing torched car in Weslaco slaying
Posted: Friday, June 13, 2014 9:31 pm
Ildefonso Ortiz | The Monitor
Posted on Jun 13, 2014by Ildefonso Ortiz
http://www.themonitor.com/sheriff-gunmen-used-tactical-clothing-torched-car-in-weslaco-slaying/article_efcf4db8-f36b-11e3-8c1d-001a4bcf6878.html
EDINBURG — Sheriff's investigators on Friday were still trying to identify at least four men who participated in the fatal shooting of two brothers and three other men near Weslaco late Wednesday night.
Hidalgo County sheriff's deputies responded to the shooting about 11 p.m. Wednesday outside of a house on the 2400 block of Melissa Drive, north of Weslaco, where they found two men who killed by multiple gunshots Sheriff Eddie Guerra said Friday.
Guerra identified the two fatal victims as 34-year-old Michael Zamorano and 21-year-old David Zamorano, who had been at the house with several others for a fish fry when the gunfire erupted.
"The suspects were wearing tactical type gear, camouflage clothing and ski masks," Guerra said. "At the scene we recovered multiple shell casings from various calibers including .223, 7.62 x 36 and buckshot."
The two calibers described by the sheriff are used in the sporting rifles commonly known as AR-15 and AK-47, while the buckshot is a term used to describe a type of shotgun shell.
The gunmen arrived at the residence in a maroon Cadillac with paper license plates and a red Ford Mustang without license plates.
"That same evening, we found a burned out vehicle matching the description of the maroon Cadillac about two miles north of the crime scene," Guerra said. "We believe that to be the suspect vehicle. The VIN numbers were burned out but we have been able to recover them."
Authorities tracked the vehicle to a Dallas address.
"At this point we are not ready to single out the motive. We are looking at the various motives that could be behind this homicide," the sheriff said.
When asked if the tactical gear, the weapons used and the disposing of the vehicles could be a sign that the homicide was a Mexican cartel- or gang-related hit, Guerra replied "you could make that deduction but that is not the only lead we are following."
Agents with the Texas Rangers, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Marshals Service are assisting the investigation.
END
Border agents in Rio Grande Valley warned not to talk to media
A hike with U.S Border Patrol agents through an illegal immigrant trail
Gabriel Hernandez
Former Monitor reporter Naxi Lopez talks to Border Patrol Agent Rosie Huey during a Border Patrol tour in 2011.
Posted: Friday, June 13, 2014 8:55 pm
CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN and ALICIA A. CALDWELL | AP
http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/border-agents-in-rio-grande-valley-warned-not-to-talk/article_078d8f00-f367-11e3-998f-001a4bcf6878.html
WASHINGTON (AP) — The surge in immigrant children caught crossing the southern border in Texas that has dominated headlines and risks becoming a political crisis for President Barack Obama and Congress includes a new threat facing Border Patrol agents: reporters.
An assistant chief patrol agent, Eligio "Lee" Pena, warned more than 3,000 Border Patrol agents that journalists looking for information about what Obama has described as a humanitarian crisis are likely to ask for information and "may try to disguise themselves." The email, obtained by The Associated Press, said agents should not speak to reporters, on or off duty, without advanced permission and warned that anyone who does could be charged with a crime or disciplined administratively.
Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske told the AP on Friday he was not aware of Pena's email warnings but said generally, "I am not a fan of telling people not to talk." Kerlikowske, who has pledged greater transparency since taking over the agency earlier this year, did not formally disavow the directive but added that Border Patrol agents should be focused on their jobs while on duty.
Pena's email was issued as national news organizations descended on the border to cover the immigration surge, especially children crossing the border alone from Central America. The problem has overwhelmed the Border Patrol. More than 47,000 children traveling alone have been found at the border since the start of the budget year in October.
Pena did not describe what sorts of disguises could be employed by reporters.
The issue has fueled the political debate in Washington about U.S. immigration policies, which contributed to this week's stunning election defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. Cantor's opponent had said the Republican leader supported "amnesty" for immigrants in the U.S. illegally, and said the surprise election outcome effectively dooms any prospects for legal changes to American immigration laws. Obama has disputed this and urged Congress to act this summer.
Agents in the Rio Grande Valley have made more than 173,000 arrests so far this budget year. Like the child border crossers, most of the immigrants trying to cross illegally are from Central America. The crush of children traveling alone and would-be immigrants traveling as families has prompted the Homeland Security Department to move both children and families to other Border Patrol sectors for processing. The children are later handed off to the Health and Human Services Department, where officials typically try to reunite them with parents or other relatives already in the United States. DHS has released an unspecified number of families with notices to appear at Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices near their final destinations within the United States.
The Obama administration has declined to say how many people have been released and how many have reported as ordered. Kerlikowske said Friday he did not know those figures.
The latest instruction to border agents in South Texas is not the first time the Border Patrol has directed officials not to speak with reporters.
Last year, the then-head of the Border Patrols' Southwest border media division told public affairs officials that the agency would "no longer provide interviews, ride alongs, visits, etc., about the border, the state of the border and what have you." In his Feb. 1, 2013, email, Bill Brooks advised that border officials should tell reporters that "you will have to see what you can do to get back to them" and then notify him.
The most recent information lockdown has made the local representatives of the Border Patrol agents' union the agency's de facto spokesmen on conditions inside overcrowded stations and the logistical challenges of processing so many immigrants.
___
Sherman reported from McAllen.
___
Friday, June 13, 2014
AZMEX UPDATE 13-6-14
AZMEX UPDATE 13 JUN 2014
Note: Interesting. True? False? Device "activated"? Word games?
.
NPD debunks reports of 'explosion' at plant
Jonathan Clark
An FBI bomb technician enters the lot at the UniSource Energy Services Valencia Plant on Wednesday afternoon.
Posted: Thursday, June 12, 2014 1:36 pm | Updated: 4:45 pm, Fri Jun 13, 2014.
By Manuel C. Coppola
Nogales International
http://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/npd-debunks-reports-of-explosion-at-plant/article_404ee04c-f271-11e3-8838-0019bb2963f4.html
Contrary to some non-local media reports, there was no explosion at the UniSource Energy Services Valencia Plant in Nogales on Wednesday.
An "incendiary-type device" was found next to a large-capacity diesel fuel tank at the plant in on Wednesday morning, prompting an evacuation of a nearby auto dealership and an investigation by federal officials.
"Preliminary investigation determined that the device failed to compromise the tank and UniSource personnel advised that the plant is functional and no services were affected," Nogales Police Lt. Carlos Jimenez said in a news release issued shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday. There were no injuries from the incident and there are currently no suspects.
The initial 911 call from UniSource came in at approximately 9:30 a.m. and reported a "suspicious item" at the plant at 1741 N. Grand Ave. NPD officers and Nogales Fire Department personnel responded.
"Upon arrival it was determined that for precautionary reasons that the plant and an adjacent business be evacuated," Jimenez said. "The plant was secured until additional resources arrived."
Those resources included personnel from the Arizona Department of Public Safety, bomb technicians from the FBI, and investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Federal agents were called in because the plant, which serves about 8,000 customers, is considered "critical infrastructure" that, if damaged, could have far-reaching repercussions.
The investigation is ongoing. "Further information will be available at a later time," Jimenez said.
No tragic results
The Horne Ford dealership, just north of the plant, was evacuated. "Naturally, they were not happy about it, but (principal partner Tony) Griffin was very cooperative and understanding. He recognized that it was in his employees' and customers' best interest," Jimenez said.
Attempts to reach Griffin for comment before press time were unsuccessful.
Media reports surfaced late Wednesday that there had been an actual explosion.
But Jimenez emphasized that, "the device activated, but all it did was leave char marks around the area.
The tank was not ruptured or compromised in any way."
He described the device only as "crude in nature. It could be made with common household items and held in one hand."
Whoever planted it, "had some working knowledge, but obviously did not get the response that was sought," Jimenez said. "Had it been gasoline, it might be a different story. Diesel has a much higher flash point than gasoline. We are all fortunate that there were no tragic results from this."
Ray Sayre, director of Santa Cruz County Emergency Management, said he was notified about 20 minutes into the episode and said: "I am tempted to write a letter to Chief (Derek) Arnson about how well the incident was managed."
Sayre was in Phoenix, but said he got constant updates, which in turn he used to keep state emergency management personnel advised as well.
"When I got on scene that afternoon, I saw everyone was in vest with functional group assignments," he said. "I like that. I like, too, that I was met by the liaison officer who knows me, but asked for identification anyway. He directed me where to park and escorted me. Now that was a well-managed incident."
Sayre chided some media outlets for falsely reporting an explosion, and lauded Jimenez for how he managed the information released to the media. "I read (the NI) story online and it was spot on," he said.
END
Note: Interesting. True? False? Device "activated"? Word games?
.
NPD debunks reports of 'explosion' at plant
Jonathan Clark
An FBI bomb technician enters the lot at the UniSource Energy Services Valencia Plant on Wednesday afternoon.
Posted: Thursday, June 12, 2014 1:36 pm | Updated: 4:45 pm, Fri Jun 13, 2014.
By Manuel C. Coppola
Nogales International
http://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/npd-debunks-reports-of-explosion-at-plant/article_404ee04c-f271-11e3-8838-0019bb2963f4.html
Contrary to some non-local media reports, there was no explosion at the UniSource Energy Services Valencia Plant in Nogales on Wednesday.
An "incendiary-type device" was found next to a large-capacity diesel fuel tank at the plant in on Wednesday morning, prompting an evacuation of a nearby auto dealership and an investigation by federal officials.
"Preliminary investigation determined that the device failed to compromise the tank and UniSource personnel advised that the plant is functional and no services were affected," Nogales Police Lt. Carlos Jimenez said in a news release issued shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday. There were no injuries from the incident and there are currently no suspects.
The initial 911 call from UniSource came in at approximately 9:30 a.m. and reported a "suspicious item" at the plant at 1741 N. Grand Ave. NPD officers and Nogales Fire Department personnel responded.
"Upon arrival it was determined that for precautionary reasons that the plant and an adjacent business be evacuated," Jimenez said. "The plant was secured until additional resources arrived."
Those resources included personnel from the Arizona Department of Public Safety, bomb technicians from the FBI, and investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Federal agents were called in because the plant, which serves about 8,000 customers, is considered "critical infrastructure" that, if damaged, could have far-reaching repercussions.
The investigation is ongoing. "Further information will be available at a later time," Jimenez said.
No tragic results
The Horne Ford dealership, just north of the plant, was evacuated. "Naturally, they were not happy about it, but (principal partner Tony) Griffin was very cooperative and understanding. He recognized that it was in his employees' and customers' best interest," Jimenez said.
Attempts to reach Griffin for comment before press time were unsuccessful.
Media reports surfaced late Wednesday that there had been an actual explosion.
But Jimenez emphasized that, "the device activated, but all it did was leave char marks around the area.
The tank was not ruptured or compromised in any way."
He described the device only as "crude in nature. It could be made with common household items and held in one hand."
Whoever planted it, "had some working knowledge, but obviously did not get the response that was sought," Jimenez said. "Had it been gasoline, it might be a different story. Diesel has a much higher flash point than gasoline. We are all fortunate that there were no tragic results from this."
Ray Sayre, director of Santa Cruz County Emergency Management, said he was notified about 20 minutes into the episode and said: "I am tempted to write a letter to Chief (Derek) Arnson about how well the incident was managed."
Sayre was in Phoenix, but said he got constant updates, which in turn he used to keep state emergency management personnel advised as well.
"When I got on scene that afternoon, I saw everyone was in vest with functional group assignments," he said. "I like that. I like, too, that I was met by the liaison officer who knows me, but asked for identification anyway. He directed me where to park and escorted me. Now that was a well-managed incident."
Sayre chided some media outlets for falsely reporting an explosion, and lauded Jimenez for how he managed the information released to the media. "I read (the NI) story online and it was spot on," he said.
END
Thursday, June 12, 2014
AZMEX I3 12-6-14
AZMEX I3 12 JUN 2014
Ariz. speaker, majority whip denied access to center in Nogales
By KTAR.com
Originally published: Jun 11, 2014 - 7:54 pm
http://ktar.com/22/1740746/2-Ariz-reps-denied-access-to-Nogales-center
PHOENIX -- Two Arizona representatives were denied access Wednesday to the detention center in Nogales where unaccompanied minors are being held.
House Speaker Andy Tobin and Majority Whip Rick Gray drove down to the center in Nogales but were then stopped by Border Patrol and refused entry.
The federal agency told the men they had to give a 72-hour notice. Tobin mentioned that Mesa Mayor Scott Smith was granted access earlier that morning.
"I understand what CBP [Customs and Border Protection] is up against, but as the Speaker of the House and member of the Arizona Legislature, it is important to verify how these children are being treated," said Speaker Tobin in a press release. "My fellow legislators want to know, and denying me access clearly demonstrates what is wrong with Washington."
Approximately 750 unaccompanied minors are being held at the facility. There have been reports of long holding times and no access to indoor plumbing.
Tobin and Gray did meet with Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino, who had toured the makeshift facility on Monday. He assured them that showers, toilets, medicine and phones were available to the children.
KTAR.com,
Updated 1 hour, 32 minutes ago.
Diplomat: Valley shelters cannot accept migrant kids from Nogales
By Martha Maurer
Originally published: Jun 11, 2014 - 2:47 pm
http://ktar.com/22/1740646/Consulate-Valley-shelters-cannot-accept-anymore-migrant-kids
PHOENIX -- Slightly more than 1,000 unaccompanied minors spent the night at a makeshift holding center in Nogales, Ariz. on Tuesday.
According to the Guatemalan Consul General Jímena Diaz, 351 are minors from El Salvador, 380 from Guatemala, 342 from Honduras, seven from Ecuador, six from India, four from Nicaragua and one from Peru.
"These can be kids as young as 5 and 6 years old to 16," said Diaz.
The minors are not going to stay in the Nogales. Once they are processed at the facility, they are relocated to shelters across Arizona. Diaz said, in the Phoenix area, there are eight shelters that are at capacity and cannot take in any more kids.
"They are full," Diaz said, adding each shelter houses approximately 200 minors.
Diaz said upwards of 130 minors will be transported to shelters in Ventura, Calif. by Friday.
Diaz corroborated news originally given by Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino that more supplies have arrived in the Nogales facility over the last few days. The sentiment is not shared by Honorary Honduran Consul Tony Banegas, who said conditions are still dire for the immigrant children in Nogales.
Diaz does not know exactly how many kids from her home country are housed in local facilities.
As for the reasons children and adult migrants are crossing the border, Diaz believes it is a combination of factors, including unrest and economic instability in their home countries.
She said the Guatemalan government is running a campaign to improve schools and services for women and children who may be in at risk. She added climatological events are also causing havoc in Guatemala, making it difficult for citizens to make ends meet.
"We have a lot of storms and affect the position of the people," she said, though she could not provide specific data of the impact of the storms.
Another reason, according to Diaz, is what she often hears from mothers and kids apprehended by Border Patrol.
"They say the reasons are because they don't have another way to be with their families."
Not all of the minors currently housed in Nogales crossed the border in Texas, as thousands are currently. A memo Diaz gave to KTAR said 892 of the minors had been transferred from Texas and the rest were apprehended in Arizona. As for the kids taken in by border Patrol on the Arizona side, Diaz said smugglers play a big role in getting the minors over to the U.S.
"The smugglers come to the children to Sonora," she said. "At the border they tell the kids they have to walk to a [specific] point. At that point, Border Patrol will come for you."
Diaz said she had not been told of any minors being deported.
As for the role of the Guatemalan Consulate in providing financial assistance to care for the minors housed in Nogales, Diaz said they do not provide direct monies to the U.S. government. She said her country is working to create a fund to help provide services for the children.
END
Officials give Nogales shelter for immigrant children high marks
4 hours ago • By Perla Trevizo
http://azstarnet.com/news/local/border/officials-give-nogales-shelter-for-immigrant-children-high-marks/article_73d443ea-1400-5e60-84ec-84d05bb67555.html
Unaccompanied minors in Nogales
Number of children being held in the Nogales Placement Center as of June 9 by nationality:
380: Guatemala
351: El Salvador
342: Honduras
7: Ecuador
6: India
4: Nicaragua
1: Peru
Source: Guatemalan Consulate in Phoenix
The children being held in the Nogales Border Patrol station seem to be in good physical health, officials who visited the center said Tuesday.
"I was very impressed with the progress they've made," said Santa Cruz Sheriff Tony Estrada. "They are taking good care of these kids."
Nearly 1,100 children and youth who crossed the border illegally without parents or legal guardians are being held in a makeshift detention center in Nogales. Estrada said about 60 percent of them are males. Most of them are in the 15-17 age range, but there are some as young as four and teen mothers with their babies.
About 82 percent of them were apprehended by the Border Patrol in South Texas — a region that has seen the largest influx of children — and the rest from Arizona.
So far, more than 100 of the children have been transferred to an Office of Refugee Resettlement-contracted shelter, where officials seek to reunite them with relatives or parents already in the United States while their immigration cases are pending.
Jimena Díaz, consul of Guatemala in Phoenix, said on Friday another 100 to 130 will be transferred to a military base in Ventura County, California, one of several the Defense Department has made available to temporarily house the children. Another 300 are scheduled to leave Saturday, but she didn't know the destination. Under normal circumstances, Customs and Border Protection has to turn over the youth to the Office of Refugee Resettlement within 72 hours, but due to the surge, the agency has run out of space.
The federal government has released little information about the transfer of the children and youth to Arizona. Details about what's happening are coming from consular officials from the Central American countries with the highest numbers — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — and more recently local and state government officials and non-profit representatives who are being allowed inside the center.
The Border Patrol refurbished the old Factory 2-U warehouse in the mid 2000s to quickly process Mexican nationals, but it closed several years ago as the traffic through the Tucson sector slowed.
The children are being served three meals a day and are eating in groups of 200, said Sean Carroll, a priest and executive director of the Kino Border Initiative, a binational organization that work on immigration issues.
The children and youth, separated by age group and gender, are sleeping on plastic cots, but Carroll said they were told 2,000 four-inch mattresses were expected to arrive Wednesday or today .
"Most looked good, but it's hard to know for sure how they are doing in other ways, psychologically and spiritually," he said. Visitors did not speak with the children.
Local churches and non-profits want to help, Carroll said, but the federal government has not set up a plan to coordinate the assistance.
"We are ready to help, but we need so direction to best meet the needs of the children," he said.
END
Ariz. speaker, majority whip denied access to center in Nogales
By KTAR.com
Originally published: Jun 11, 2014 - 7:54 pm
http://ktar.com/22/1740746/2-Ariz-reps-denied-access-to-Nogales-center
PHOENIX -- Two Arizona representatives were denied access Wednesday to the detention center in Nogales where unaccompanied minors are being held.
House Speaker Andy Tobin and Majority Whip Rick Gray drove down to the center in Nogales but were then stopped by Border Patrol and refused entry.
The federal agency told the men they had to give a 72-hour notice. Tobin mentioned that Mesa Mayor Scott Smith was granted access earlier that morning.
"I understand what CBP [Customs and Border Protection] is up against, but as the Speaker of the House and member of the Arizona Legislature, it is important to verify how these children are being treated," said Speaker Tobin in a press release. "My fellow legislators want to know, and denying me access clearly demonstrates what is wrong with Washington."
Approximately 750 unaccompanied minors are being held at the facility. There have been reports of long holding times and no access to indoor plumbing.
Tobin and Gray did meet with Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino, who had toured the makeshift facility on Monday. He assured them that showers, toilets, medicine and phones were available to the children.
KTAR.com,
Updated 1 hour, 32 minutes ago.
Diplomat: Valley shelters cannot accept migrant kids from Nogales
By Martha Maurer
Originally published: Jun 11, 2014 - 2:47 pm
http://ktar.com/22/1740646/Consulate-Valley-shelters-cannot-accept-anymore-migrant-kids
PHOENIX -- Slightly more than 1,000 unaccompanied minors spent the night at a makeshift holding center in Nogales, Ariz. on Tuesday.
According to the Guatemalan Consul General Jímena Diaz, 351 are minors from El Salvador, 380 from Guatemala, 342 from Honduras, seven from Ecuador, six from India, four from Nicaragua and one from Peru.
"These can be kids as young as 5 and 6 years old to 16," said Diaz.
The minors are not going to stay in the Nogales. Once they are processed at the facility, they are relocated to shelters across Arizona. Diaz said, in the Phoenix area, there are eight shelters that are at capacity and cannot take in any more kids.
"They are full," Diaz said, adding each shelter houses approximately 200 minors.
Diaz said upwards of 130 minors will be transported to shelters in Ventura, Calif. by Friday.
Diaz corroborated news originally given by Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino that more supplies have arrived in the Nogales facility over the last few days. The sentiment is not shared by Honorary Honduran Consul Tony Banegas, who said conditions are still dire for the immigrant children in Nogales.
Diaz does not know exactly how many kids from her home country are housed in local facilities.
As for the reasons children and adult migrants are crossing the border, Diaz believes it is a combination of factors, including unrest and economic instability in their home countries.
She said the Guatemalan government is running a campaign to improve schools and services for women and children who may be in at risk. She added climatological events are also causing havoc in Guatemala, making it difficult for citizens to make ends meet.
"We have a lot of storms and affect the position of the people," she said, though she could not provide specific data of the impact of the storms.
Another reason, according to Diaz, is what she often hears from mothers and kids apprehended by Border Patrol.
"They say the reasons are because they don't have another way to be with their families."
Not all of the minors currently housed in Nogales crossed the border in Texas, as thousands are currently. A memo Diaz gave to KTAR said 892 of the minors had been transferred from Texas and the rest were apprehended in Arizona. As for the kids taken in by border Patrol on the Arizona side, Diaz said smugglers play a big role in getting the minors over to the U.S.
"The smugglers come to the children to Sonora," she said. "At the border they tell the kids they have to walk to a [specific] point. At that point, Border Patrol will come for you."
Diaz said she had not been told of any minors being deported.
As for the role of the Guatemalan Consulate in providing financial assistance to care for the minors housed in Nogales, Diaz said they do not provide direct monies to the U.S. government. She said her country is working to create a fund to help provide services for the children.
END
Officials give Nogales shelter for immigrant children high marks
4 hours ago • By Perla Trevizo
http://azstarnet.com/news/local/border/officials-give-nogales-shelter-for-immigrant-children-high-marks/article_73d443ea-1400-5e60-84ec-84d05bb67555.html
Unaccompanied minors in Nogales
Number of children being held in the Nogales Placement Center as of June 9 by nationality:
380: Guatemala
351: El Salvador
342: Honduras
7: Ecuador
6: India
4: Nicaragua
1: Peru
Source: Guatemalan Consulate in Phoenix
The children being held in the Nogales Border Patrol station seem to be in good physical health, officials who visited the center said Tuesday.
"I was very impressed with the progress they've made," said Santa Cruz Sheriff Tony Estrada. "They are taking good care of these kids."
Nearly 1,100 children and youth who crossed the border illegally without parents or legal guardians are being held in a makeshift detention center in Nogales. Estrada said about 60 percent of them are males. Most of them are in the 15-17 age range, but there are some as young as four and teen mothers with their babies.
About 82 percent of them were apprehended by the Border Patrol in South Texas — a region that has seen the largest influx of children — and the rest from Arizona.
So far, more than 100 of the children have been transferred to an Office of Refugee Resettlement-contracted shelter, where officials seek to reunite them with relatives or parents already in the United States while their immigration cases are pending.
Jimena Díaz, consul of Guatemala in Phoenix, said on Friday another 100 to 130 will be transferred to a military base in Ventura County, California, one of several the Defense Department has made available to temporarily house the children. Another 300 are scheduled to leave Saturday, but she didn't know the destination. Under normal circumstances, Customs and Border Protection has to turn over the youth to the Office of Refugee Resettlement within 72 hours, but due to the surge, the agency has run out of space.
The federal government has released little information about the transfer of the children and youth to Arizona. Details about what's happening are coming from consular officials from the Central American countries with the highest numbers — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — and more recently local and state government officials and non-profit representatives who are being allowed inside the center.
The Border Patrol refurbished the old Factory 2-U warehouse in the mid 2000s to quickly process Mexican nationals, but it closed several years ago as the traffic through the Tucson sector slowed.
The children are being served three meals a day and are eating in groups of 200, said Sean Carroll, a priest and executive director of the Kino Border Initiative, a binational organization that work on immigration issues.
The children and youth, separated by age group and gender, are sleeping on plastic cots, but Carroll said they were told 2,000 four-inch mattresses were expected to arrive Wednesday or today .
"Most looked good, but it's hard to know for sure how they are doing in other ways, psychologically and spiritually," he said. Visitors did not speak with the children.
Local churches and non-profits want to help, Carroll said, but the federal government has not set up a plan to coordinate the assistance.
"We are ready to help, but we need so direction to best meet the needs of the children," he said.
END
AZMEX EXTRA 11-6-14
AZMEX EXTRA 11 JUN 2014
Gun runner sentenced to 57 months
Posted: Tuesday, June 10, 2014 10:00 pm
By MARK REAGAN The Brownsville Herald
http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/local/article_539879f6-f10e-11e3-99d1-0017a43b2370.html
A federal judge Tuesday sentenced a Brownsville man to nearly five years in prison on a gun running conviction.
Cruz Moises Garcia was arrested at his house on Nov. 4, 2013, one day after a 24-hour firefight that left 13 people dead in Matamoros and on the highway to Reynosa.
Garcia pleaded guilty on Feb 4 to attempting to export five guns and five ammunition magazines on the United States Munitions List without a license or written authorization, court records show.
U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen sentenced Garcia to 57 months in federal prison.
Garcia's co-defendant, Julio Cesar Solis-Castilleja, was arrested at the Gateway port of entry after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found a Norinco MAK 90 SPORTER 7.62x39mm caliber rifle; a Bushmaster .308 caliber rifle; a DPMS Panther rifle; a FN Herstal .308 caliber rifle; a PTR 91C .308 caliber rifle; four 7.62x51mm magazines; and one 7.62x39mm magazine, all of which are designated as defense articles on the United States Munitions List and require a license or written authorization from the State Department to export.
Court records show that Garcia exchanged the weapons with Solis-Castilleja in a parking lot before the men were arrested.
Solis-Castilleja is scheduled for sentencing on June 30 and has pleaded guilty to exporting weapons on the United States Munitions List without written authorization or a license.
END
Arms supplier for the Gulf Cartel sentenced to prison
Posted: Tuesday, June 10, 2014 7:31 pm
Ildefonso Ortiz | The Monitor
Posted on Jun 10, 2014
http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/arms-supplier-for-the-gulf-cartel-sentenced-to-prison/article_b670a2a6-f0ff-11e3-b5b8-001a4bcf6878.html
McALLEN— A federal judge sent to prison Tuesday a man who had been buying rifles and handguns in bulk in order to have them smuggled to Reynosa for the Gulf Cartel.
U.S. District Judge Randy Crane sentenced Salatiel Duran Reyes to 3 years and 7 months in prison Tuesday morning, months after he pleaded guilty to exporting firearms without a license.
On Nov. 15, federal agents got information from an unnamed source that Duran Reyes was set to buy five AK-47 rifles at Basilica of Our Lady San Juan del Valle parking lot. After a surveillance operation, the agents caught Duran with $4,540 in cash that he was going to use to buy the rifles from the unnamed individual.
---
For the most complete version of this article, view it on our free trial of MyMonitorNews.com.
Gun runner sentenced to 57 months
Posted: Tuesday, June 10, 2014 10:00 pm
By MARK REAGAN The Brownsville Herald
http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/local/article_539879f6-f10e-11e3-99d1-0017a43b2370.html
A federal judge Tuesday sentenced a Brownsville man to nearly five years in prison on a gun running conviction.
Cruz Moises Garcia was arrested at his house on Nov. 4, 2013, one day after a 24-hour firefight that left 13 people dead in Matamoros and on the highway to Reynosa.
Garcia pleaded guilty on Feb 4 to attempting to export five guns and five ammunition magazines on the United States Munitions List without a license or written authorization, court records show.
U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen sentenced Garcia to 57 months in federal prison.
Garcia's co-defendant, Julio Cesar Solis-Castilleja, was arrested at the Gateway port of entry after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found a Norinco MAK 90 SPORTER 7.62x39mm caliber rifle; a Bushmaster .308 caliber rifle; a DPMS Panther rifle; a FN Herstal .308 caliber rifle; a PTR 91C .308 caliber rifle; four 7.62x51mm magazines; and one 7.62x39mm magazine, all of which are designated as defense articles on the United States Munitions List and require a license or written authorization from the State Department to export.
Court records show that Garcia exchanged the weapons with Solis-Castilleja in a parking lot before the men were arrested.
Solis-Castilleja is scheduled for sentencing on June 30 and has pleaded guilty to exporting weapons on the United States Munitions List without written authorization or a license.
END
Arms supplier for the Gulf Cartel sentenced to prison
Posted: Tuesday, June 10, 2014 7:31 pm
Ildefonso Ortiz | The Monitor
Posted on Jun 10, 2014
http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/arms-supplier-for-the-gulf-cartel-sentenced-to-prison/article_b670a2a6-f0ff-11e3-b5b8-001a4bcf6878.html
McALLEN— A federal judge sent to prison Tuesday a man who had been buying rifles and handguns in bulk in order to have them smuggled to Reynosa for the Gulf Cartel.
U.S. District Judge Randy Crane sentenced Salatiel Duran Reyes to 3 years and 7 months in prison Tuesday morning, months after he pleaded guilty to exporting firearms without a license.
On Nov. 15, federal agents got information from an unnamed source that Duran Reyes was set to buy five AK-47 rifles at Basilica of Our Lady San Juan del Valle parking lot. After a surveillance operation, the agents caught Duran with $4,540 in cash that he was going to use to buy the rifles from the unnamed individual.
---
For the most complete version of this article, view it on our free trial of MyMonitorNews.com.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
AZMEX UPDATE 12-6-14
AZMEX UPDATE 12 JUN 2014
Note: IED?
Makeshift bomb explodes at Nogales power plant
By Associated Press
Originally published: Jun 11, 2014 - 7:42 pm
http://ktar.com/22/1740741/Bomb-explodes-at-Nogales-power-plant
NOGALES, Ariz. -- The FBI is investigating an explosion at a power plant in southern Arizona caused by a makeshift bomb.
Nogales police say the explosion Wednesday morning at the UniSource Energy Services Valencia Plant ruptured a diesel storage tank and caused a small spill, but the fuel didn't ignite.
Authorities say there were no reported injuries and they're still looking for suspects and any witnesses to the explosion which occurred around 9:30 a.m.
The FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were called to the scene along with the Arizona authorities.
Nogales police spokesman Lt. Carlos Jimenez told The Arizona Republic that the plant is an electrical substation and has about 30,000 customers in the area.
Jimenez says the entire border town of Nogales depends on the plant for power.
___
END
Note: IED?
Makeshift bomb explodes at Nogales power plant
By Associated Press
Originally published: Jun 11, 2014 - 7:42 pm
http://ktar.com/22/1740741/Bomb-explodes-at-Nogales-power-plant
NOGALES, Ariz. -- The FBI is investigating an explosion at a power plant in southern Arizona caused by a makeshift bomb.
Nogales police say the explosion Wednesday morning at the UniSource Energy Services Valencia Plant ruptured a diesel storage tank and caused a small spill, but the fuel didn't ignite.
Authorities say there were no reported injuries and they're still looking for suspects and any witnesses to the explosion which occurred around 9:30 a.m.
The FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were called to the scene along with the Arizona authorities.
Nogales police spokesman Lt. Carlos Jimenez told The Arizona Republic that the plant is an electrical substation and has about 30,000 customers in the area.
Jimenez says the entire border town of Nogales depends on the plant for power.
___
END
AZMEX I3 4-4-14
Note: A re-send to the larger lists 4 April 2014 is the correct date
AZMEX I3 4 APR 2014
BORDER PATROL CHIEF: OBAMA'S DEPORTATION LENIENCY LEADS TO INFLUX OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CHILDREN
by TONY LEE 3 Apr 2014
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/04/03/Border-Patrol-Chief-Obama-s-Deferred-Action-Policies-Leading-to-Influx-of-Illegal-Immigrant-Children
The new head of Customs and Border Protection said on Wednesday that the Obama administration's leniency on deportations and deferred action programs have contributed to the increase in the number of illegal immigrant children crossing the country's southern border.
Gil Kerlikowske told the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee that the agency's "facilities are not designed to hold these large numbers, nor are our ports of entry." Therefore, border patrol agents should not spend their time babysitting foreign children from south of the border.
"The deferred action, the family unification, is an issue," Kerlikowske said, according to CQ Roll Call. "But I've also looked at the surveys of some of these people who were talked to back in 2013. ... The crime and the gang issues in their own country are a push-out — sometimes there's family violence also." He added, "And then of course there's the economic incentive to come to America, which has always been there. But I certainly understand this issue of family reunification being a part of what is really a complex problem."
According to reports, the number of "immigrant children entering the United States has spiked from about 6,000 in fiscal 2011 to roughly 34,000 in fiscal 2013," and officials estimate that around 60,000 more "will have entered by the end of fiscal 2014."
Rep. John Carter (R-TX) said that though he recognizes and is sympathetic "to the humanitarian obligations we give these young victims," Congress "cannot ignore that politics are creating a gravitational pull so strong that parents are willing to support vile criminal networks and to place their precious children in harm's way."
In a year that many have said would be the last chance to pass immigration legislation, Democrats and pro-amnesty advocates are pressuring Obama to enact more executive orders--perhaps for illegal immigrants who serve in the military and the parents of DREAMers--to ease deportations.
Breitbart News previously reported that "parents in Central American countries may be sending their children to illegally cross the U.S. border into Texas after hearing that Democrats and Republicans are pushing for more laws granting amnesty to illegal immigrant minors."
Immigration officials told the Los Angeles Times that "up to 120 unaccompanied youths are arriving each day." Breitbart News has chronicled why illegal immigrant children have had every reason to believe the odds of permanently remaining in the United States will be in their favor if they enter the country. First, "Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said that those who came to the United States before 2013 should be eligible for amnesty."
Additionally, "House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) has been pushing for his version of the DREAM Act." Furthermore, "amnesty advocates have been calling on President Barack Obama to not only stop deportations but also expand the Deferred Action program that he enacted through executive action to also include the parents of the children of illegal immigrants."
As Breitbart News has also reported, though the House GOP's immigration principles state that there "will be a zero tolerance policy for those who cross the border illegally or overstay their visas in the future," they also state that one of the "great founding principles of our country was that children would not be punished for the mistakes of their parents." If that is the case, it would be impossible not to perpetually give children amnesty, which is a point U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) National Council President Kenneth Palinkas addressed in a letter to Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA).
END
AZMEX I3 4 APR 2014
BORDER PATROL CHIEF: OBAMA'S DEPORTATION LENIENCY LEADS TO INFLUX OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CHILDREN
by TONY LEE 3 Apr 2014
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/04/03/Border-Patrol-Chief-Obama-s-Deferred-Action-Policies-Leading-to-Influx-of-Illegal-Immigrant-Children
The new head of Customs and Border Protection said on Wednesday that the Obama administration's leniency on deportations and deferred action programs have contributed to the increase in the number of illegal immigrant children crossing the country's southern border.
Gil Kerlikowske told the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee that the agency's "facilities are not designed to hold these large numbers, nor are our ports of entry." Therefore, border patrol agents should not spend their time babysitting foreign children from south of the border.
"The deferred action, the family unification, is an issue," Kerlikowske said, according to CQ Roll Call. "But I've also looked at the surveys of some of these people who were talked to back in 2013. ... The crime and the gang issues in their own country are a push-out — sometimes there's family violence also." He added, "And then of course there's the economic incentive to come to America, which has always been there. But I certainly understand this issue of family reunification being a part of what is really a complex problem."
According to reports, the number of "immigrant children entering the United States has spiked from about 6,000 in fiscal 2011 to roughly 34,000 in fiscal 2013," and officials estimate that around 60,000 more "will have entered by the end of fiscal 2014."
Rep. John Carter (R-TX) said that though he recognizes and is sympathetic "to the humanitarian obligations we give these young victims," Congress "cannot ignore that politics are creating a gravitational pull so strong that parents are willing to support vile criminal networks and to place their precious children in harm's way."
In a year that many have said would be the last chance to pass immigration legislation, Democrats and pro-amnesty advocates are pressuring Obama to enact more executive orders--perhaps for illegal immigrants who serve in the military and the parents of DREAMers--to ease deportations.
Breitbart News previously reported that "parents in Central American countries may be sending their children to illegally cross the U.S. border into Texas after hearing that Democrats and Republicans are pushing for more laws granting amnesty to illegal immigrant minors."
Immigration officials told the Los Angeles Times that "up to 120 unaccompanied youths are arriving each day." Breitbart News has chronicled why illegal immigrant children have had every reason to believe the odds of permanently remaining in the United States will be in their favor if they enter the country. First, "Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said that those who came to the United States before 2013 should be eligible for amnesty."
Additionally, "House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) has been pushing for his version of the DREAM Act." Furthermore, "amnesty advocates have been calling on President Barack Obama to not only stop deportations but also expand the Deferred Action program that he enacted through executive action to also include the parents of the children of illegal immigrants."
As Breitbart News has also reported, though the House GOP's immigration principles state that there "will be a zero tolerance policy for those who cross the border illegally or overstay their visas in the future," they also state that one of the "great founding principles of our country was that children would not be punished for the mistakes of their parents." If that is the case, it would be impossible not to perpetually give children amnesty, which is a point U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) National Council President Kenneth Palinkas addressed in a letter to Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA).
END
AZMEX Fwd: Press Release- National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers, Inc.
Begin forwarded message:
Subject: Press Release- National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers, Inc.Date: June 10, 2014 9:58:18 PM PDT
Dear Friends and Fellow American Patriots;
Attached is a press release from the National Association of Border Patrol Officers.
We would be very honored and Americans would be much better informed if you would take a few minutes to send it to your email lists, elected officials and media outlets throughout America and foreign countries.
This level of Political Deception of true Americans must stop and it is up to voting Americans to do it.
As ever,
Zack Taylor, Chairman and Border Security Expert
National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers, Inc.
NAFBPO.org
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
AZMEX I3 10-6-14
AZMEX I3 10 JUN 2014
Note: A story going around about numerous cases (50) of TB in San Luis Rio Colorado, just south of Yuma, AZ. (Spanish)
http://www.elimparcial.com/EdicionEnLinea/Notas/Sonora/09062014/851049-Existen-50-casos-de-tuberculosis-en-SLRC.html
end
Updated Jun 9, 2014 - 7:09 pm
Nogales mayor tours makeshift 'transition center' for migrant kids
By Mac & Gaydos
Originally published: Jun 9, 2014 - 6:43 pm
Listen: Nogales Mayor - Arturo Garino
http://ktar.com/22/1739953/Mayor-tours-transition-center-for-migrant-kids
Mac and Gaydos talk with Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino about the facility set up for unaccompanied minors from Central America.
PHOENIX -- Border Patrol agents in Nogales, Ariz., have set up a makeshift transition center for the hundreds of unattended children that have crossed the border.
Hundreds of unaccompanied migrants children have been transported from Texas to a makeshift center in Nogales.
Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino toured the center on Monday, and he feels comfortable with the assistance the federal agency is giving.
"This process of having close to 1,000 [children] in there...for anybody else it would probably be a nightmare, but for Border Patrol, they're doing a good job," Garino told News/Talk 92.3 KTAR's Mac & Gaydos Monday.
Garino was adamant about the center being one of transition, not of detention.
"What they have is not going to be considered a detention center; it's a transition center," he explained. "They're processing anywhere from 200 to 300 of the kids and then from there, they're being taken to other locations where they're going to finalize, probably, making that connection with the parents or continuing the immigration process."
Garino estimated there were between 900 and 1,100 kids there right now, the majority of them teenagers. The center has been divided up by age and sex. There are also two cafeterias that have been cordoned off and a caterer is providing food. Each section contains portable toilets that are connected to the Border Patrol building's ventilation system.
"They transported six semi-truck-types...for bathing and one semi-truck that (is) a laundromat that's going to be right attached to the building," he said.
A medical staff has been brought in to vaccinate all the children and a row of phones has been set up. Garino said the phone numbers of three Central American consulates have been written near the phones, however, he said that many of the children have the contact information of their relatives here in the states.
The mayor admitted he did not know what the next step was going to be for these displaced children.
"From what I understand, everyone is going to be processed through (the center) -- none of them are going to stay there," he said. "I think at the second phase of it or the second location where they get transported to, that's where they're going to go through the immigration process. I don't know if it's deportation or what, but none of that is going to happen here in Nogales. Nogales is just a transition area."
end
Note: BC is for Baja California, not British Columbia
In BC announce "Become Mexican" campaign for foreign residents
Organización Editorial Mexicana
June 9, 2014
http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldemexico/notas/n3422128.htm
Tijuana -. Tijuana government announced the "Become Mexican " campaign to provide identity and legal certainty to foreign residents of Mexican parents who live on this border.
The official registrar, Mary Alice Barrutia Calderon said during the campaign will be next July and aims to provide citizens the processing of documents for some reason they can not perform.
Even said that during this campaign is expected to decrease the cost to extend this service since daily applications are interested in registering as Mexicans, and this campaign is an opportunity for it.
He noted that the process through this campaign will save more than 40 percent of the total cost, and said that since then can initiate such proceedings, as some requirements take up to a week for shipment.
He explained that the requirements for interested persons are present his birth certificate notarized, translated into Spanish and certified by the Judicial Council of the State, and the certificate of no Birth registration.
You should also go to start the process with the original and copy of a photo ID of the parent with Mexican nationality; if the registrant has more than 18 years shall include official identification translated into Spanish.
In the case of a minor, the parents will have to make the request and, in special cases, can be represented by a special agent for the act to be ratified before a notary public.
NOTIMEX
- See more at: http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldemexico/notas/n3422128.htm # sthash.0QbVZwc4.dpuf
En BC anuncian campaña "Hazte mexicano" para residentes extranjeros
Organización Editorial Mexicana
9 de junio de 2014
http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldemexico/notas/n3422128.htm
Tijuana.- El gobierno de Tijuana anunció la campaña "Hazte mexicano", para otorgar identidad y certeza jurídica a los residentes extranjeros hijos de padres mexicanos que radican en esta frontera.
La oficial del Registro Civil, María Alicia Barrutia Calderón, explicó que la campaña será durante el próximo julio y pretende facilitar a los ciudadanos el trámite de documentos que ellos por alguna razón no puedan llevar a cabo.
Incluso, comentó que durante esta campaña se prevé que disminuya el costo para ampliar este servicio, ya que a diario se reciben solicitudes de interesados en registrarse como mexicanos, y esta campaña representa una oportunidad para ello.
Anotó que el trámite a través de esta campaña permitirá ahorrar más de 40 por ciento del costo total, y aclaró que desde luego se pueden iniciar dichos trámites, pues algunos requisitos tardan hasta una semana para su expedición.
Explicó que los requisitos para las personas interesadas son presentar su acta de nacimiento apostillada, traducida al español y certificada por el Consejo de la Judicatura del Estado, y el certificado de inexistencia de Registro de Nacimiento.
También deberá acudir para iniciar el trámite con original y copia de una identificación oficial con fotografía de los padres que tengan nacionalidad mexicana; si el registrado tiene más de 18 años deberá incluir identificación oficial traducida al español.
Cuando se trate de un menor, los padres tendrán que hacer la solicitud y, en casos especiales, pueden ser representados por un mandatario especial para el acto que será ratificado ante un notario público.
Notimex
- See more at: http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldemexico/notas/n3422128.htm#sthash.0QbVZwc4.dpuf
Note: A story going around about numerous cases (50) of TB in San Luis Rio Colorado, just south of Yuma, AZ. (Spanish)
http://www.elimparcial.com/EdicionEnLinea/Notas/Sonora/09062014/851049-Existen-50-casos-de-tuberculosis-en-SLRC.html
end
Updated Jun 9, 2014 - 7:09 pm
Nogales mayor tours makeshift 'transition center' for migrant kids
By Mac & Gaydos
Originally published: Jun 9, 2014 - 6:43 pm
Listen: Nogales Mayor - Arturo Garino
http://ktar.com/22/1739953/Mayor-tours-transition-center-for-migrant-kids
Mac and Gaydos talk with Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino about the facility set up for unaccompanied minors from Central America.
PHOENIX -- Border Patrol agents in Nogales, Ariz., have set up a makeshift transition center for the hundreds of unattended children that have crossed the border.
Hundreds of unaccompanied migrants children have been transported from Texas to a makeshift center in Nogales.
Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino toured the center on Monday, and he feels comfortable with the assistance the federal agency is giving.
"This process of having close to 1,000 [children] in there...for anybody else it would probably be a nightmare, but for Border Patrol, they're doing a good job," Garino told News/Talk 92.3 KTAR's Mac & Gaydos Monday.
Garino was adamant about the center being one of transition, not of detention.
"What they have is not going to be considered a detention center; it's a transition center," he explained. "They're processing anywhere from 200 to 300 of the kids and then from there, they're being taken to other locations where they're going to finalize, probably, making that connection with the parents or continuing the immigration process."
Garino estimated there were between 900 and 1,100 kids there right now, the majority of them teenagers. The center has been divided up by age and sex. There are also two cafeterias that have been cordoned off and a caterer is providing food. Each section contains portable toilets that are connected to the Border Patrol building's ventilation system.
"They transported six semi-truck-types...for bathing and one semi-truck that (is) a laundromat that's going to be right attached to the building," he said.
A medical staff has been brought in to vaccinate all the children and a row of phones has been set up. Garino said the phone numbers of three Central American consulates have been written near the phones, however, he said that many of the children have the contact information of their relatives here in the states.
The mayor admitted he did not know what the next step was going to be for these displaced children.
"From what I understand, everyone is going to be processed through (the center) -- none of them are going to stay there," he said. "I think at the second phase of it or the second location where they get transported to, that's where they're going to go through the immigration process. I don't know if it's deportation or what, but none of that is going to happen here in Nogales. Nogales is just a transition area."
end
Note: BC is for Baja California, not British Columbia
In BC announce "Become Mexican" campaign for foreign residents
Organización Editorial Mexicana
June 9, 2014
http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldemexico/notas/n3422128.htm
Tijuana -. Tijuana government announced the "Become Mexican " campaign to provide identity and legal certainty to foreign residents of Mexican parents who live on this border.
The official registrar, Mary Alice Barrutia Calderon said during the campaign will be next July and aims to provide citizens the processing of documents for some reason they can not perform.
Even said that during this campaign is expected to decrease the cost to extend this service since daily applications are interested in registering as Mexicans, and this campaign is an opportunity for it.
He noted that the process through this campaign will save more than 40 percent of the total cost, and said that since then can initiate such proceedings, as some requirements take up to a week for shipment.
He explained that the requirements for interested persons are present his birth certificate notarized, translated into Spanish and certified by the Judicial Council of the State, and the certificate of no Birth registration.
You should also go to start the process with the original and copy of a photo ID of the parent with Mexican nationality; if the registrant has more than 18 years shall include official identification translated into Spanish.
In the case of a minor, the parents will have to make the request and, in special cases, can be represented by a special agent for the act to be ratified before a notary public.
NOTIMEX
- See more at: http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldemexico/notas/n3422128.htm # sthash.0QbVZwc4.dpuf
En BC anuncian campaña "Hazte mexicano" para residentes extranjeros
Organización Editorial Mexicana
9 de junio de 2014
http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldemexico/notas/n3422128.htm
Tijuana.- El gobierno de Tijuana anunció la campaña "Hazte mexicano", para otorgar identidad y certeza jurídica a los residentes extranjeros hijos de padres mexicanos que radican en esta frontera.
La oficial del Registro Civil, María Alicia Barrutia Calderón, explicó que la campaña será durante el próximo julio y pretende facilitar a los ciudadanos el trámite de documentos que ellos por alguna razón no puedan llevar a cabo.
Incluso, comentó que durante esta campaña se prevé que disminuya el costo para ampliar este servicio, ya que a diario se reciben solicitudes de interesados en registrarse como mexicanos, y esta campaña representa una oportunidad para ello.
Anotó que el trámite a través de esta campaña permitirá ahorrar más de 40 por ciento del costo total, y aclaró que desde luego se pueden iniciar dichos trámites, pues algunos requisitos tardan hasta una semana para su expedición.
Explicó que los requisitos para las personas interesadas son presentar su acta de nacimiento apostillada, traducida al español y certificada por el Consejo de la Judicatura del Estado, y el certificado de inexistencia de Registro de Nacimiento.
También deberá acudir para iniciar el trámite con original y copia de una identificación oficial con fotografía de los padres que tengan nacionalidad mexicana; si el registrado tiene más de 18 años deberá incluir identificación oficial traducida al español.
Cuando se trate de un menor, los padres tendrán que hacer la solicitud y, en casos especiales, pueden ser representados por un mandatario especial para el acto que será ratificado ante un notario público.
Notimex
- See more at: http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldemexico/notas/n3422128.htm#sthash.0QbVZwc4.dpuf
Sunday, June 8, 2014
AZMEX I3 7-6-17
AZMEX I3 7 JUN 2014
Also of local interest:
http://www.abc15.com/news/national/immigrants-bringing-diseases-across-border
Updated 15 minutes ago.
Arizona rushes supplies to site holding migrant kids
By Associated Press
Originally published: Jun 7, 2014 - 8:00 am
http://ktar.com/22/1739250/Arizona-rushes-supplies-to-site-holding-migrant-kids
PHOENIX (AP) -- Angry about the federal government sending from Texas to Arizona immigrants who are in the country illegally, Arizona officials say they are rushing federal supplies to a makeshift holding center in the southern part of the state that's housing hundreds of migrant children and is running low on the basics.
Gov. Jan Brewer's spokesman, Andrew Wilder, said Friday that conditions at the holding center are so dire that federal officials have asked the state to immediately ship the medical supplies to the center in Nogales.
A Homeland Security Department official told The Associated Press that children are sleeping on plastic cots but about 2,000 mattresses have been ordered, and portable toilets and showers have been brought to the holding center -- a warehouse that has not been used for detention in years.
The official, who who spoke on condition of anonymity because there was no authorization to discuss the matter publicly, said the Nogales holding center opened for children because the Department of Health and Human Services had nowhere to turn.
"They became so overwhelmed and haven't kept up with planning," the official said.
U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has said the immigrants were mostly families from Central America fleeing extreme poverty and violence.
Wilder said a total of 432 unaccompanied minors detained in Texas arrived in Nogales on Friday, with 367 more expected both Saturday and Sunday.
The Homeland Security official said as many as 1,400 children are expected to be eventually brought to the warehouse, which has a capacity of about 1,500.
Federal authorities plan to use the Nogales facility as a way station, where the children will be vaccinated and checked medically. They will then be sent to facilities being set up in Ventura, California, San Antonio, Texas, and Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
The Homeland Security official said that the children are being moved out of the Nogales site as soon as Health and Human Services finds places for them. But the official said: "As quickly as we move them out, we get more. We believe this is just a start."
The children being held in Nogales are 17 or younger. The official estimated three of every four were at least 16.
Wilder said reports from consulates that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was stopping the program to fly migrant families to Arizona and then bus them to Phoenix were incorrect. Instead, the program that has shipped unknown thousands of adult migrants and their children to Arizona since last month shows no sign of stopping, he said.
"The adults, the adults with children, families -- that continues unfettered and we have no idea where they are going," Wilder said.
In a statement Friday, Homeland Security officials said "appropriate custody determinations will be made on a case by case basis" for migrants apprehended in South Texas. The department declined to comment on the reports that the program of flying migrant families to Arizona was being halted.
Homeland Security started flying immigrants to Arizona from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas last month after the number of immigrants, including more than 48,000 children traveling on their own, overwhelmed the Border Patrol there.
The immigrant children were flown from Texas, released in Arizona, and told to report to an ICE office near where they were traveling within 15 days.
Brewer sent an angry letter to President Barack Obama on Monday demanding that the program of dropping off families at bus stations in Phoenix stop immediately. She called the program dangerous and unconscionable, asked for details and demanded to know why state authorities weren't consulted or even informed.
The governor said she hadn't received a response to her letter by Friday.
"I have reached out to Federal Homeland Security Director Jeh Johnson for answers. Meanwhile, I reiterate my call on President Obama to secure our southern border and terminate this operation immediately," Brewer said in a statement.
Brewer's staff spent Friday in a series of calls with officials from FEMA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security.
Wilder said FEMA's Region 9 administrator was being sent to the holding center in Nogales on Saturday to oversee efforts to deal with the hundreds of arriving children.
The federal emergency supplies are held in Arizona warehouses, and Wilder said the state is working to send them to the holding center.
On Friday night, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that young lawyers and paralegals are being sought for the community service program AmeriCorps to provide legal assistance in immigration proceedings to children who come to the U.S. illegally. Officials say about 100 lawyers and paralegals will be enrolled as members of AmeriCorps in a new division called "justice AmeriCorps."
Immigration officials can immediately return Mexican immigrants to the border, but they are much more hard-pressed to deal with Central American migrants who illegally cross into the U.S. In recent months, waves of migrants from nations south of Mexico have arrived in Texas.
The Homeland Security official said that legally, only their parents or guardians can take custody if the government makes the children eligible for release.
Spagat reported from Tijuana, Mexico. Associated Press writer Alicia A. Caldwell contributed to this report.
Conditions 'improving' for hundreds of Central American children held in Nogales
36 minutes ago • By Perla Trevizo Arizona Daily Star
http://azstarnet.com/news/local/conditions-improving-for-hundreds-of-central-american-children-held-in/article_5d58ec21-bff4-538b-8c3c-6ed5677739e6.html
About 750 immigrant children were being held at a detention center in Nogales as of Saturday, officials said, the result of an influx of border crossers in South Texas that has the federal government scrambling to keep up.
Jimena Díaz, consul general of Guatemala in Phoenix, visited the center Friday and said there were about 250 children from Guatemala, with the rest of the group coming from El Salvador and Honduras.
The children are being kept in separate groups, divided by age and gender. Most of them are between 15 and 17, Diaz said, but there are a few much younger than that. Teen mothers with their children are also being detained separately.
The placement center, part of the Nogales Border patrol Station on West La Quinta Road in Nogales, was recently reopened to handle the new arrivals. It is a refurbished warehouse with no indoor plumbing but portable toilets were moved in and showers were installed, Diaz said.
José Joaquín Chacón, consul general of El Salvador in Arizona, visited Saturday and said that while the situation was not optimal, the condition of the minors was good and it was improving.
While the mood was anxious, with some of the minors at the center for three days, the children had been given plastic balls and playing cards to pass the time. Border Patrol agents were also working to set up a recreation area, Chacón said.
Consular Officials from the Central American countries have been explaining the process they are going through and the children have been in contact with family members in the United States.
"What they want is to be with their families, we are asking them to be patient," Diaz said. "Due to the large quantity it's something that's going to take some time."
Border Patrol cannot send them to their families directly, Diaz said, but once they are at a shelter can family reunification begin. The problem right now is that all the shelters are full.
In a statement, Customs and Border Protection said that once the youths are processed, certain individuals will be transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where appropriate custody determinations will be made case-by-case, prioritizing national security and public safety.
The surge in border crossers, especially unaccompanied minors, is the sum of various factors, Diaz said, including poverty and crime in the children's home countries and smugglers spreading rumors of amnesty.
According to reports, federal officials told Gov. Jan Brewer's office more than 1,000 minors would be coming into Arizona over the weekend.
end
State sends supplies to site holding migrant kids
By Associated Press
Originally published: Jun 7, 2014 - 8:48 pm
http://ktar.com/22/1739250/Arizona-sends-supplies-to-site-holding-migrant-kids
NOGALES, Ariz. (AP) -- Mattresses, portable toilets and showers were brought in Saturday for 700 unaccompanied migrant minors who spent the night sleeping on plastic cots inside an Arizona warehouse, a federal official said.
The Homeland Security official told The Associated Press that about 2,000 mattresses have been ordered for the makeshift holding center -- a warehouse that has not been used to shelter people in years.
Gov. Jan Brewer's spokesman, Andrew Wilder, said Friday that conditions at the center are so dire that federal officials have asked the state to immediately ship medical supplies to the center in Nogales.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security started flying immigrants in the country illegally to Arizona from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas last month after the number of immigrants -- including more than 48,000 children traveling on their own -- overwhelmed the Border Patrol there.
Immigrant families were flown from Texas, released in Arizona, and told to report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office near where they were traveling within 15 days. ICE has said the immigrants were mostly families from Central America fleeing extreme poverty and violence.
The Homeland Security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because there was no authorization to discuss the matter publicly, said the holding center opened for unaccompanied migrant children because the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had nowhere to turn.
"They became so overwhelmed and haven't kept up with planning," the official said.
At the holding center, vendors are being contracted to provide nutritional meals, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, meanwhile, will provide counseling services and recreational activities.
The Homeland Security official said the number of children at the warehouse was expected to double to around 1,400. The warehouse has a capacity of about 1,500.
END
Posted: Friday, June 6, 2014 8:46 am
Nogales International | 0 comments
http://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/migrant-teen-reports-robbery-abduction/article_ab38f38c-ed91-11e3-ae08-0019bb2963f4.html
A 16-year-old migrant from Southern Mexico told police in Nogales, Sonora that two men robbed him with a knife and abducted two of his cousins, who are also minors.
According to a bulletin from the municipal police, officers were patrolling the area of Elías and Internacional streets at around 6 p.m. Wednesday when they were approached by the youth. He said he had come to the city from the state of Oaxaca in hopes of crossing the border illegally to reunite with his mother, who lives in the United States.
The youth said he had been walking through the neighborhood with his two male cousins, ages 16 and 17, when they were intercepted by two knife-wielding men. The assailants stole his wallet, containing 500 pesos ($39), and his backpack of clothes, and then drove off with his cousins.
The officers searched the area and found no trace of the teens or their alleged abductors. A local judge ordered that the youth who reported the incident be examined by medical personnel and taken to a shelter for repatriated migrants.
END
Also of local interest:
http://www.abc15.com/news/national/immigrants-bringing-diseases-across-border
Updated 15 minutes ago.
Arizona rushes supplies to site holding migrant kids
By Associated Press
Originally published: Jun 7, 2014 - 8:00 am
http://ktar.com/22/1739250/Arizona-rushes-supplies-to-site-holding-migrant-kids
PHOENIX (AP) -- Angry about the federal government sending from Texas to Arizona immigrants who are in the country illegally, Arizona officials say they are rushing federal supplies to a makeshift holding center in the southern part of the state that's housing hundreds of migrant children and is running low on the basics.
Gov. Jan Brewer's spokesman, Andrew Wilder, said Friday that conditions at the holding center are so dire that federal officials have asked the state to immediately ship the medical supplies to the center in Nogales.
A Homeland Security Department official told The Associated Press that children are sleeping on plastic cots but about 2,000 mattresses have been ordered, and portable toilets and showers have been brought to the holding center -- a warehouse that has not been used for detention in years.
The official, who who spoke on condition of anonymity because there was no authorization to discuss the matter publicly, said the Nogales holding center opened for children because the Department of Health and Human Services had nowhere to turn.
"They became so overwhelmed and haven't kept up with planning," the official said.
U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has said the immigrants were mostly families from Central America fleeing extreme poverty and violence.
Wilder said a total of 432 unaccompanied minors detained in Texas arrived in Nogales on Friday, with 367 more expected both Saturday and Sunday.
The Homeland Security official said as many as 1,400 children are expected to be eventually brought to the warehouse, which has a capacity of about 1,500.
Federal authorities plan to use the Nogales facility as a way station, where the children will be vaccinated and checked medically. They will then be sent to facilities being set up in Ventura, California, San Antonio, Texas, and Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
The Homeland Security official said that the children are being moved out of the Nogales site as soon as Health and Human Services finds places for them. But the official said: "As quickly as we move them out, we get more. We believe this is just a start."
The children being held in Nogales are 17 or younger. The official estimated three of every four were at least 16.
Wilder said reports from consulates that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was stopping the program to fly migrant families to Arizona and then bus them to Phoenix were incorrect. Instead, the program that has shipped unknown thousands of adult migrants and their children to Arizona since last month shows no sign of stopping, he said.
"The adults, the adults with children, families -- that continues unfettered and we have no idea where they are going," Wilder said.
In a statement Friday, Homeland Security officials said "appropriate custody determinations will be made on a case by case basis" for migrants apprehended in South Texas. The department declined to comment on the reports that the program of flying migrant families to Arizona was being halted.
Homeland Security started flying immigrants to Arizona from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas last month after the number of immigrants, including more than 48,000 children traveling on their own, overwhelmed the Border Patrol there.
The immigrant children were flown from Texas, released in Arizona, and told to report to an ICE office near where they were traveling within 15 days.
Brewer sent an angry letter to President Barack Obama on Monday demanding that the program of dropping off families at bus stations in Phoenix stop immediately. She called the program dangerous and unconscionable, asked for details and demanded to know why state authorities weren't consulted or even informed.
The governor said she hadn't received a response to her letter by Friday.
"I have reached out to Federal Homeland Security Director Jeh Johnson for answers. Meanwhile, I reiterate my call on President Obama to secure our southern border and terminate this operation immediately," Brewer said in a statement.
Brewer's staff spent Friday in a series of calls with officials from FEMA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security.
Wilder said FEMA's Region 9 administrator was being sent to the holding center in Nogales on Saturday to oversee efforts to deal with the hundreds of arriving children.
The federal emergency supplies are held in Arizona warehouses, and Wilder said the state is working to send them to the holding center.
On Friday night, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that young lawyers and paralegals are being sought for the community service program AmeriCorps to provide legal assistance in immigration proceedings to children who come to the U.S. illegally. Officials say about 100 lawyers and paralegals will be enrolled as members of AmeriCorps in a new division called "justice AmeriCorps."
Immigration officials can immediately return Mexican immigrants to the border, but they are much more hard-pressed to deal with Central American migrants who illegally cross into the U.S. In recent months, waves of migrants from nations south of Mexico have arrived in Texas.
The Homeland Security official said that legally, only their parents or guardians can take custody if the government makes the children eligible for release.
Spagat reported from Tijuana, Mexico. Associated Press writer Alicia A. Caldwell contributed to this report.
Conditions 'improving' for hundreds of Central American children held in Nogales
36 minutes ago • By Perla Trevizo Arizona Daily Star
http://azstarnet.com/news/local/conditions-improving-for-hundreds-of-central-american-children-held-in/article_5d58ec21-bff4-538b-8c3c-6ed5677739e6.html
About 750 immigrant children were being held at a detention center in Nogales as of Saturday, officials said, the result of an influx of border crossers in South Texas that has the federal government scrambling to keep up.
Jimena Díaz, consul general of Guatemala in Phoenix, visited the center Friday and said there were about 250 children from Guatemala, with the rest of the group coming from El Salvador and Honduras.
The children are being kept in separate groups, divided by age and gender. Most of them are between 15 and 17, Diaz said, but there are a few much younger than that. Teen mothers with their children are also being detained separately.
The placement center, part of the Nogales Border patrol Station on West La Quinta Road in Nogales, was recently reopened to handle the new arrivals. It is a refurbished warehouse with no indoor plumbing but portable toilets were moved in and showers were installed, Diaz said.
José Joaquín Chacón, consul general of El Salvador in Arizona, visited Saturday and said that while the situation was not optimal, the condition of the minors was good and it was improving.
While the mood was anxious, with some of the minors at the center for three days, the children had been given plastic balls and playing cards to pass the time. Border Patrol agents were also working to set up a recreation area, Chacón said.
Consular Officials from the Central American countries have been explaining the process they are going through and the children have been in contact with family members in the United States.
"What they want is to be with their families, we are asking them to be patient," Diaz said. "Due to the large quantity it's something that's going to take some time."
Border Patrol cannot send them to their families directly, Diaz said, but once they are at a shelter can family reunification begin. The problem right now is that all the shelters are full.
In a statement, Customs and Border Protection said that once the youths are processed, certain individuals will be transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where appropriate custody determinations will be made case-by-case, prioritizing national security and public safety.
The surge in border crossers, especially unaccompanied minors, is the sum of various factors, Diaz said, including poverty and crime in the children's home countries and smugglers spreading rumors of amnesty.
According to reports, federal officials told Gov. Jan Brewer's office more than 1,000 minors would be coming into Arizona over the weekend.
end
State sends supplies to site holding migrant kids
By Associated Press
Originally published: Jun 7, 2014 - 8:48 pm
http://ktar.com/22/1739250/Arizona-sends-supplies-to-site-holding-migrant-kids
NOGALES, Ariz. (AP) -- Mattresses, portable toilets and showers were brought in Saturday for 700 unaccompanied migrant minors who spent the night sleeping on plastic cots inside an Arizona warehouse, a federal official said.
The Homeland Security official told The Associated Press that about 2,000 mattresses have been ordered for the makeshift holding center -- a warehouse that has not been used to shelter people in years.
Gov. Jan Brewer's spokesman, Andrew Wilder, said Friday that conditions at the center are so dire that federal officials have asked the state to immediately ship medical supplies to the center in Nogales.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security started flying immigrants in the country illegally to Arizona from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas last month after the number of immigrants -- including more than 48,000 children traveling on their own -- overwhelmed the Border Patrol there.
Immigrant families were flown from Texas, released in Arizona, and told to report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office near where they were traveling within 15 days. ICE has said the immigrants were mostly families from Central America fleeing extreme poverty and violence.
The Homeland Security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because there was no authorization to discuss the matter publicly, said the holding center opened for unaccompanied migrant children because the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had nowhere to turn.
"They became so overwhelmed and haven't kept up with planning," the official said.
At the holding center, vendors are being contracted to provide nutritional meals, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, meanwhile, will provide counseling services and recreational activities.
The Homeland Security official said the number of children at the warehouse was expected to double to around 1,400. The warehouse has a capacity of about 1,500.
END
Posted: Friday, June 6, 2014 8:46 am
Nogales International | 0 comments
http://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/migrant-teen-reports-robbery-abduction/article_ab38f38c-ed91-11e3-ae08-0019bb2963f4.html
A 16-year-old migrant from Southern Mexico told police in Nogales, Sonora that two men robbed him with a knife and abducted two of his cousins, who are also minors.
According to a bulletin from the municipal police, officers were patrolling the area of Elías and Internacional streets at around 6 p.m. Wednesday when they were approached by the youth. He said he had come to the city from the state of Oaxaca in hopes of crossing the border illegally to reunite with his mother, who lives in the United States.
The youth said he had been walking through the neighborhood with his two male cousins, ages 16 and 17, when they were intercepted by two knife-wielding men. The assailants stole his wallet, containing 500 pesos ($39), and his backpack of clothes, and then drove off with his cousins.
The officers searched the area and found no trace of the teens or their alleged abductors. A local judge ordered that the youth who reported the incident be examined by medical personnel and taken to a shelter for repatriated migrants.
END
Saturday, June 7, 2014
AZMEX EXTRA 6-6-14
AZMEX EXTRA 6 JUN 2014
McAllen man sentenced in gun, money trafficking scheme
Posted: Friday, June 6, 2014 8:11 pm
Karen Antonacci | The Monitor
Posted on Jun 6, 2014
i
http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/mcallen-man-sentenced-in-gun-money-trafficking-scheme/article_b81dce5c-ede0-11e3-ad41-001a4bcf6878.html
A McAllen man was sentenced to more than eight years in prison Friday after pleading guilty to trafficking assault rifles from Houston to Mexico.
Angel Aquino-Pineda, 27, was sentenced to the weapons charges in U.S. District Court in Corpus Christi. He was driving a truck with 35 AK-47-style rifles and $26,000 in cash concealed in a false compartment through Kingsville in 2013 when he was pulled over for a traffic stop, a U.S. Attorney's Office news release said.
Authorities discovered the money and weapons, including seven rifles with filed down serial numbers.
The weapons were traced to a purchasing and trafficking ring run out of Houston, where buyers who could pass a background check purchased the weapons and handed them off to transporters who moved them to Mexico. So far, six people besides Aquino have pleaded guilty in the investigation and await sentencing, the news release said.
Aquino was sentenced to eight years and four months in prison after pleading guilty March 26.
When U.S. District Judge Hayden Head handed down Aquino's sentence, the judge expressed relief the weapons were found, calling them "weapons of war," the news release said.
END
McAllen man sentenced in gun, money trafficking scheme
Posted: Friday, June 6, 2014 8:11 pm
Karen Antonacci | The Monitor
Posted on Jun 6, 2014
i
http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/mcallen-man-sentenced-in-gun-money-trafficking-scheme/article_b81dce5c-ede0-11e3-ad41-001a4bcf6878.html
A McAllen man was sentenced to more than eight years in prison Friday after pleading guilty to trafficking assault rifles from Houston to Mexico.
Angel Aquino-Pineda, 27, was sentenced to the weapons charges in U.S. District Court in Corpus Christi. He was driving a truck with 35 AK-47-style rifles and $26,000 in cash concealed in a false compartment through Kingsville in 2013 when he was pulled over for a traffic stop, a U.S. Attorney's Office news release said.
Authorities discovered the money and weapons, including seven rifles with filed down serial numbers.
The weapons were traced to a purchasing and trafficking ring run out of Houston, where buyers who could pass a background check purchased the weapons and handed them off to transporters who moved them to Mexico. So far, six people besides Aquino have pleaded guilty in the investigation and await sentencing, the news release said.
Aquino was sentenced to eight years and four months in prison after pleading guilty March 26.
When U.S. District Judge Hayden Head handed down Aquino's sentence, the judge expressed relief the weapons were found, calling them "weapons of war," the news release said.
END
AZMEX I3 6-6-14
AZMEX I3 6 JUN 2014
Note: "I3" is illegal immigrant issues. As always, in news stories, "immigrant" or "migrant" means those here illegally.
Updated Jun 6, 2014 - 4:31 pm
No plans to stop immigrant drop-offs in Arizona, including a spike in unaccompanied minors
By Martha Maurer
Originally published: Jun 6, 2014 - 4:17 pm
http://ktar.com/22/1739159/No-plans-to-stop-immigrant-dropoffs-in-Ariz
Maria Eva Casco, left, and her son Christian Casco of El Salvador, sit at at the Greyhound bus terminal, Thursday, May 29, 2014 in Phoenix. About 400 mostly Central American women and children caught crossing from Mexico into south Texas were flown to Arizona this weekend after border agents there ran out of space and resources. Officials then dropped hundreds of them off at Phoenix and Tucson Greyhound stations, overwhelming the stations and humanitarian groups who were trying to help. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
zoom
PHOENIX -- A day after it was believed DHS would stop transporting migrant families from Texas to Arizona, a spokesman for Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer says that is not the case.
Andrew Wilder tells KTAR they expect the drop-offs and transporting to continue.
"The State of Arizona connected and spoke with federal officials this afternoon and got information from DHS, FEMA, ICE, both locally and nationally that contradicts that information."
Wilder said ICE has no immediate plans to stop the operation in the foreseeable future. He also disputed reports there were no unaccompanied minors arriving in the state.
"Today alone, June 6, 432 unaccompanied minors are being transported and arriving in Arizona," Wilder said. "Tomorrow, June 7, [there will be] 367."
The DHS began transporting hundreds of undocumented immigrants from southern Texas to Arizona over the Memorial Day weekend and then releasing them at Greyhound bus stations in Tucson and Phoenix.
DHS officials say the U.S. Border Patrol didn't have the manpower to handle a surge in immigrants from Central America crossing the border illegally in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer sent a letter Monday to President Barack Obama, saying she was alarmed that federal officials didn't notify state and local law enforcement.
Martha Maurer, News Editor
Central American minors flood into BP's Nogales Station
A bus used to transport detained migrants waits inside the Nogales Border Patrol Station compound on Thursday afternoon.
Posted: Friday, June 6, 2014 5:20 pm | Updated: 5:53 pm, Fri Jun 6, 2014.
By Curt Prendrgast
Nogales International | 0 comments
http://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/central-american-minors-flood-into-bp-s-nogales-station/article_8c68d790-edd9-11e3-8d02-001a4bcf887a.html
Hundreds of juvenile migrants from Central American countries were sent from Texas to the Border Patrol's Nogales Station this week, and agents say they are being pulled from the field to respond to the influx.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has offered little detail on the situation at the station, other that to confirm that CBP is "assisting with the processing of apprehended immigrants, many of whom are family units from South Texas, including unaccompanied minors." A spokesman referred additional questions to the Department of Homeland Security, which did not reply to an information request by Friday afternoon.
Art Del Cueto, president of the Local 2544 Border Patrol agents union, said agents at the Nogales Station are processing immigration paperwork for "hundreds" of juvenile migrants, the "large majority" of whom are juveniles.
The migrants are being detained at the station, but they are "getting proper treatment," including regular meals, Del Cueto said.
"They're even getting rec time," he added. "I know they are allowing them to play, to run around, like recess, kind of."
After the paperwork is processed, the migrants will be released and some will take buses to live with family members in the United States, he said. Since they are from Central American countries, they cannot be deported to Mexico through Nogales.
The juveniles at the Nogales station are among thousands from countries like Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador who arrived in Arizona after being apprehended in Texas trying to cross the border illegally. The number of unaccompanied minors crossing the Southwest border – especially minors from Central America crossing into South Texas – has skyrocketed in the past year, creating what President Barack Obama on Monday called an "urgent humanitarian situation."
A Nogales International reporter was denied access to the Nogales Border Patrol Station on Thursday afternoon, but watched as a bus used to transport detained migrants pulled out of the gated compound, followed by a Nogales Fire Department vehicle. NFD Chief Hector Robles said one of his EMS crews responded to the station Thursday on an unrelated matter and were told that there were approximately 600 children being held there.
The Border Patrol set up a medical station to attend to the detainees and asked NFD crews to provide standby assistance, Robles said. The Border Patrol also contacted Carondelet Holy Cross Hospital to organize a plan for medical care, according to hospital spokeswoman Dina Sanchez.
Brewer complains
The Department of Homeland Security has recently been sending undocumented immigrants from Texas to Arizona and dumping them off at bus stations in Tucson and Phoenix, sparking the ire of Gov. Jan Brewer, who sent a letter Monday to President Obama urging him to "end this dangerous and unconscionable policy immediately."
A spokesman for Brewer's office told The Associated Press Friday that families and unaccompanied minors from Central American countries would continue to be flown from Texas to Arizona. Spokesman Andrew Wilder told the AP that 432 unaccompanied minors detained in Texas arrived in Nogales on Friday, with 367 more expected both Saturday and Sunday.
However, Jose Joaquin Chacon, consul general of El Salvador in Arizona and New Mexico, said the last two buses carrying juvenile migrants left Texas for Arizona on Thursday.
Chacon was in New Mexico on Friday to help 200 families who were scheduled to arrive Friday and Saturday in nearby El Paso after being detained in McAllen, he said. From there, they will be sent to locations in Texas rather than Arizona.
He said he planned to fly to Tucson on Friday afternoon and visit the Nogales Station on Saturday.
Requests to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to enter the Nogales Station on La Quinta Road and speak with the migrants went unanswered by Friday afternoon.
Out of the field
The sudden influx of juvenile migrants to the Nogales Station has forced the Border Patrol to post agents inside the facility rather than in the field, watching the border, Del Cueto said.
"We're taking agents that are working the field and now they're having to work in the processing center, so that obviously diminishes the amount of agents that are actually watching the line," he said. "That's the major thing."
Although he did not know how food is being delivered to the migrants in this case, the Border Patrol has a contract with a company to bring food for detained migrants, Del Cueto said.
When asked if local charities could provide food for the juvenile migrants, Del Cueto said that likely would not be allowed.
"You never know what they're going to give them, so that would be an issue for the agency," he said. "Somebody brings them food and we don't know what kind of food it is. If somebody gets sick, then who's responsible? Then it falls on us."
In terms of agents' feelings about dealing with the influx of juvenile migrants, he said: "We've had to deal with this before. It's our job, we're trained."
Scrambling to respond
According to CBP data, more than 47,017 unaccompanied minors had been detained in fiscal year 2014 as of May 31, more than 33,000 of them in the Border Patrol's Rio Grande Sector in South Texas. At this time last year, the Rio Grande Sector had detained just 12,484 youths.
Arizona sectors, by comparison, saw the number of unaccompanied minor immigrants drop slightly, from 6,766 last May 31 to 6,518 this year.
And while more than 80 percent of unaccompanied minors that the agency apprehended on the Southwest border as recently as 2010 were coming from Mexico, that number has fallen to only about 25 percent this year, according to CBP statistics. The other three-quarters are coming from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
The federal government is now scrambling to respond, with the number of unaccompanied minors predicted to hit as many as 60,000 this year.
In a memorandum Monday, the president directed the Department of Homeland Security to develop a coordinated plan between federal agencies to respond to the surge. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was tapped to coordinate the response, which is expected to involve the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services and others.
Sources said FEMA had been summoned to provide aid at the Nogales Border Patrol Station, but a call to the agency's Region IX, which includes Arizona, was referred to a recorded conference call with the press earlier this week that did not address the specific situation in Nogales.
(Additional reporting from the Cronkite News Service.)
Feds may release hundreds of undocumented immigrants to El Paso
By Luis Carlos Lopez / El Paso Times
POSTED: 06/06/2014 10:11:31 PM MDT
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_25916964/el-paso-may-see-an-influx-undocumented-immigrants
Judy Elizabeth Martinez, holding Marjorie, tries to reach family after being released by ICE at a Greyhound Bus station in Phoenix May 28, 2014. She is
Judy Elizabeth Martinez, holding Marjorie, tries to reach family after being released by ICE at a Greyhound Bus station in Phoenix May 28, 2014. She is from Guatemala and was flown from Georgia to Arizona by ICE. The Border Patrol says about 400 migrants were flown from Texas to Arizona because of a surge in migrants being apprehended in Texas. (Michael Chow / AP Photo)
El Paso may see more than 100 undocumented immigrants being dropped-off at the Downtown Greyhound station daily because of a change in federal immigration enforcement, officials said.
Michael Friel, a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said that El Paso's CBP sector is assisting with "the processing of individuals, many of whom were families apprehended in South Texas."
It's not known when the bus loads of immigrants will arrive in El Paso, and an official said planes carrying immigrants also will arrive in El Paso.
"Immigrants apprehended crossing the border in South Texas will be flown to El Paso so Border Patrol can assist with processing," a CBP official said.
"(The) Tucson Sector is prepared to and expects to continue to process unaccompanied children from South Texas," Friel added.
Tony Banegas, the honorary consul of Honduras to Arizona, said, the new drop-off point for many apprehended along the Texas-Mexico border will be at 200 West San Antonio in El Paso.
"We were told that they were not going to send any more buses to Phoenix ...they were going to direct buses to El Paso, Texas," Banegas said.
Banegas stated that after he noticed Phoenix buses dropped off more than 1,000 immigrants at the Phoenix Greyhound station since Memorial Day, he asked local ICE officials to specify how many more buses would be arriving.
Banegas added that he asked because he wanted to see how he could best organize to offer assistance to the newly-arrived immigrants — most of whom were women and children from Central America.
"We wanted to get a sense of how many more buses were going to come to Phoenix," Banegas said.
The potential influx of immigrants in El Paso has Banegas and officials of some Arizona immigrant shelters concerned.
They said they feel that the El Paso's shelters might not be ready to handle the volume of undocumented immigrants released from custody.
Cyndi Whitmore, a volunteer for the Restoration Project in Phoenix, said that it has taken her group a couple of years to provide adequate help for immigrants.
She said most of the immigrants have travelled for days and are in need of water and other urgent necessities.
"We are concerned that another organization in the El Paso area is not going to be prepared to see this kind of volume of families," Whitmore said.
Executives of the Annunciation House, which helps undocumented immigrants in El Paso, could be reached for comment.
Melissa M. Lopez, executive director of diocesan migrant and refugee services at the El Paso Diocese, said that while the diocese focuses on providing legal services to immigrants, local organizations may be ready to meet the challenge.
"I would say there's limited resources here in El Paso, but El Paso saw a huge increase in asylum seekers after violence in Juárez escalated," Lopez said.
"I think El Paso responded well. The service and shelters responded well. We try to work together to do the best that we can,"
It's not known how many undocumented immigrants will be sent to El Paso.
The Associated Press reported that because of a surge of undocumented immigrant traffic across South Texas, President Barrack Obama's administration is releasing immigrants inside the U.S.
The AP also reported that there's a growing perception that immigrants — particularly families — are being allowed to stay in the country freely.
Cecilia Muñoz, director of domestic policy for the White House, said those rumors are false and that immigrants caught at the border, "regardless of their age, still face deportation," the AP reported.
The immigrants released in the U.S., including those in El Paso, will have to report to immigration officials within 15 days as directed by federal authorities, the AP reported. "Immigrants apprehended crossing the border in South Texas will be flown to El Paso so Border Patrol can assist with processing. The vast majority of individuals transferred were family units from Central America and Mexico with children," an El Paso official said.
He said the Department of Homeland Security is screening every individual, taking biometrics, and putting them in the system.
Luis Carlos Lopez may be reached at 546-6381.
Rumors of asylum raise hopes for migrant families
Christopher Sherman
Posted: Friday, June 6, 2014 8:12 pm
http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/rumors-of-asylum-raise-hopes-for-migrant-families/article_d392d628-ede0-11e3-8559-001a4bcf6878.html
In this June 3, 2014 photo, 14-year-old Brian Duran, from Comayagua, Honduras, who traveled alone to the U.S.-Mexico border, collects his line-dried laundry at the Senda de Vida migrant shelter during his journey north in Reynosa, Mexico. The word has spread about young children migrants being reunited with parents in the U.S., but there is no new asylum for children, or their parents. Nonetheless, more migrant families are being released in the U.S. because there is nowhere to house them. Many are being allowed to continue to their U.S. destinations with an order to appear before immigration authorities once they arrive. (AP Photo/Christopher Sherman)
Posted: Friday, June 6, 2014 8:12 pm
Christopher Sherman | AP
REYNOSA — The 27-year-old Honduran woman is desperate to know if the rumor is true: that she'll be allowed to stay in the United States because she is traveling with her 2-year-old daughter.
At a shelter for immigrants, Jennys Aguilar Cardenas and other women have heard about mothers being released with their babies, about children being reunited with relatives in the U.S. Like a game of telephone, the word has spread, giving hope to an apparently growing number of migrants willing to risk the dangerous crossing — with their young children — to escape intense poverty and crime at home.
The truth is there is no change in the law for children or parents. In practice, though, so many Central American migrants are illegally entering the U.S. with young children that there is nowhere to hold them while they wait for deportation hearings. With full capacity at the nation's lone family detention center, an 85-bed center in Pennsylvania, migrants simply are being freed with orders to appear before immigration authorities at a later time.
How many are complying with the order is unknown. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman said the agency did not have numbers available.
But as stories about releases spread in Honduras, Guatemala and elsewhere, shelter workers and Border Patrol agents are seeing more parents attempting to enter the U.S. with their children. The Department of Homeland Security has not said how many so-called "family units" it has processed this year. Officials, however, do report a dramatic spike in the number of children caught traveling without any adult relative or guardian.
Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley sector made more than 160,000 apprehensions between October 2013 and May, about a 70 percent increase over the same period a year earlier. Nearly one third of those detained — 47,000 — were children traveling alone. President Barack Obama last week called the phenomenon "an urgent humanitarian situation," and asked Congress to approve additional spending to house the children at two military bases.
The spike in migrant detentions comes as Obama is under pressure both to reform immigration laws and to do more to stop illegal entries. Republican lawmakers have suggested the rise in child migrants is a result of lax enforcement. The Border Patrol acknowledges there is a problem in families being released, with deputy chief Ronald Vitiello noting in a May 30 draft memo that such actions are "incentives to additional individuals to follow the same path."
Aguilar Cardenas, a single mother of four, tried to enter the U.S. alone last year. She barely made it over the Rio Grande before she was caught and sent back to Honduras. This time, she brought her young daughter, Keillin Mareli, on the 1,400-mile journey, traveling by foot and freight trains to reach Reynosa, where she hopes to find a guide willing to help them cross for free.
"I decided to leave with my daughter so that maybe, this way, they'll give me the chance to help my children advance," she said, as the girl played with a white bear decorated with stars like an American flag.
At another shelter in Reynosa, another single mother from Honduras, Sandra Calidono, said she's also heard vague stories about the U.S. offering political asylum to children. "Almost all the families in Honduras are emigrating because they heard this talk," she said, watching her 3-year-old daughter playing with a migrant boy even younger.
Calidono was unable to find work in Honduras and was eager to escape a crime wave that has made it one of the most dangerous countries on Earth. The nation's murder rate of 90.4 per 100,000 people is more than 15 times the global average.
With only a dark future for the children at home, migrants are eager to believe the rumors of freedom for children and families.
"It's not uncommon when you are in a desperate situation and you need to believe what you want to believe," said Stacie Blake, director of government and community relations at the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. "In this case, it's not the reality."
Ana Bulnes, the Honduran consul for South Texas, said Wednesday it is hard to discourage families from making the trip when U.S. authorities, in fact, are releasing them — sometimes dropping them off at bus stations in Texas and Arizona.
"The message also has to be from both sides, from both governments," Bulnes said in McAllen. "We have to work in the same direction."
The rumors are spreading by word of mouth, not through any mass media channels such as radio that can be monitored, she said.
"We have not found anywhere any kind of publicity that's, 'Come to the United States. Bring your kids, we'll let you pass,'" Bulnes said. "The people who are able to enter are those who send the message back."
Texas Gov. Rick Perry last week asked that the Department of Homeland Security stop releasing immigrants with notices to appear. On Monday, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer asked the same for the hundreds of immigrants, mostly women and children, who in recent weeks have been flown to Arizona from South Texas for processing.
Richard Rocha, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in an email decisions regarding detention are made on a case-by-case basis, with top concern given to national security and public safety. "To be clear," he said, "they are subject to removal, but may not be detained through the length of their proceedings."
With her little Perla, Calidono hopes to cross the border as soon as she comes up with the money to pay a guide to help them. Then, she'll join a brother who lives in the Carolinas — she didn't know if it was the north one or south one. Either way, she's heard, life is better there.
___
Associated Press writer Alicia A. Caldwell in Washington contributed to this report.
Note: "I3" is illegal immigrant issues. As always, in news stories, "immigrant" or "migrant" means those here illegally.
Updated Jun 6, 2014 - 4:31 pm
No plans to stop immigrant drop-offs in Arizona, including a spike in unaccompanied minors
By Martha Maurer
Originally published: Jun 6, 2014 - 4:17 pm
http://ktar.com/22/1739159/No-plans-to-stop-immigrant-dropoffs-in-Ariz
Maria Eva Casco, left, and her son Christian Casco of El Salvador, sit at at the Greyhound bus terminal, Thursday, May 29, 2014 in Phoenix. About 400 mostly Central American women and children caught crossing from Mexico into south Texas were flown to Arizona this weekend after border agents there ran out of space and resources. Officials then dropped hundreds of them off at Phoenix and Tucson Greyhound stations, overwhelming the stations and humanitarian groups who were trying to help. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
zoom
PHOENIX -- A day after it was believed DHS would stop transporting migrant families from Texas to Arizona, a spokesman for Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer says that is not the case.
Andrew Wilder tells KTAR they expect the drop-offs and transporting to continue.
"The State of Arizona connected and spoke with federal officials this afternoon and got information from DHS, FEMA, ICE, both locally and nationally that contradicts that information."
Wilder said ICE has no immediate plans to stop the operation in the foreseeable future. He also disputed reports there were no unaccompanied minors arriving in the state.
"Today alone, June 6, 432 unaccompanied minors are being transported and arriving in Arizona," Wilder said. "Tomorrow, June 7, [there will be] 367."
The DHS began transporting hundreds of undocumented immigrants from southern Texas to Arizona over the Memorial Day weekend and then releasing them at Greyhound bus stations in Tucson and Phoenix.
DHS officials say the U.S. Border Patrol didn't have the manpower to handle a surge in immigrants from Central America crossing the border illegally in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer sent a letter Monday to President Barack Obama, saying she was alarmed that federal officials didn't notify state and local law enforcement.
Martha Maurer, News Editor
Central American minors flood into BP's Nogales Station
A bus used to transport detained migrants waits inside the Nogales Border Patrol Station compound on Thursday afternoon.
Posted: Friday, June 6, 2014 5:20 pm | Updated: 5:53 pm, Fri Jun 6, 2014.
By Curt Prendrgast
Nogales International | 0 comments
http://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/central-american-minors-flood-into-bp-s-nogales-station/article_8c68d790-edd9-11e3-8d02-001a4bcf887a.html
Hundreds of juvenile migrants from Central American countries were sent from Texas to the Border Patrol's Nogales Station this week, and agents say they are being pulled from the field to respond to the influx.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has offered little detail on the situation at the station, other that to confirm that CBP is "assisting with the processing of apprehended immigrants, many of whom are family units from South Texas, including unaccompanied minors." A spokesman referred additional questions to the Department of Homeland Security, which did not reply to an information request by Friday afternoon.
Art Del Cueto, president of the Local 2544 Border Patrol agents union, said agents at the Nogales Station are processing immigration paperwork for "hundreds" of juvenile migrants, the "large majority" of whom are juveniles.
The migrants are being detained at the station, but they are "getting proper treatment," including regular meals, Del Cueto said.
"They're even getting rec time," he added. "I know they are allowing them to play, to run around, like recess, kind of."
After the paperwork is processed, the migrants will be released and some will take buses to live with family members in the United States, he said. Since they are from Central American countries, they cannot be deported to Mexico through Nogales.
The juveniles at the Nogales station are among thousands from countries like Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador who arrived in Arizona after being apprehended in Texas trying to cross the border illegally. The number of unaccompanied minors crossing the Southwest border – especially minors from Central America crossing into South Texas – has skyrocketed in the past year, creating what President Barack Obama on Monday called an "urgent humanitarian situation."
A Nogales International reporter was denied access to the Nogales Border Patrol Station on Thursday afternoon, but watched as a bus used to transport detained migrants pulled out of the gated compound, followed by a Nogales Fire Department vehicle. NFD Chief Hector Robles said one of his EMS crews responded to the station Thursday on an unrelated matter and were told that there were approximately 600 children being held there.
The Border Patrol set up a medical station to attend to the detainees and asked NFD crews to provide standby assistance, Robles said. The Border Patrol also contacted Carondelet Holy Cross Hospital to organize a plan for medical care, according to hospital spokeswoman Dina Sanchez.
Brewer complains
The Department of Homeland Security has recently been sending undocumented immigrants from Texas to Arizona and dumping them off at bus stations in Tucson and Phoenix, sparking the ire of Gov. Jan Brewer, who sent a letter Monday to President Obama urging him to "end this dangerous and unconscionable policy immediately."
A spokesman for Brewer's office told The Associated Press Friday that families and unaccompanied minors from Central American countries would continue to be flown from Texas to Arizona. Spokesman Andrew Wilder told the AP that 432 unaccompanied minors detained in Texas arrived in Nogales on Friday, with 367 more expected both Saturday and Sunday.
However, Jose Joaquin Chacon, consul general of El Salvador in Arizona and New Mexico, said the last two buses carrying juvenile migrants left Texas for Arizona on Thursday.
Chacon was in New Mexico on Friday to help 200 families who were scheduled to arrive Friday and Saturday in nearby El Paso after being detained in McAllen, he said. From there, they will be sent to locations in Texas rather than Arizona.
He said he planned to fly to Tucson on Friday afternoon and visit the Nogales Station on Saturday.
Requests to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to enter the Nogales Station on La Quinta Road and speak with the migrants went unanswered by Friday afternoon.
Out of the field
The sudden influx of juvenile migrants to the Nogales Station has forced the Border Patrol to post agents inside the facility rather than in the field, watching the border, Del Cueto said.
"We're taking agents that are working the field and now they're having to work in the processing center, so that obviously diminishes the amount of agents that are actually watching the line," he said. "That's the major thing."
Although he did not know how food is being delivered to the migrants in this case, the Border Patrol has a contract with a company to bring food for detained migrants, Del Cueto said.
When asked if local charities could provide food for the juvenile migrants, Del Cueto said that likely would not be allowed.
"You never know what they're going to give them, so that would be an issue for the agency," he said. "Somebody brings them food and we don't know what kind of food it is. If somebody gets sick, then who's responsible? Then it falls on us."
In terms of agents' feelings about dealing with the influx of juvenile migrants, he said: "We've had to deal with this before. It's our job, we're trained."
Scrambling to respond
According to CBP data, more than 47,017 unaccompanied minors had been detained in fiscal year 2014 as of May 31, more than 33,000 of them in the Border Patrol's Rio Grande Sector in South Texas. At this time last year, the Rio Grande Sector had detained just 12,484 youths.
Arizona sectors, by comparison, saw the number of unaccompanied minor immigrants drop slightly, from 6,766 last May 31 to 6,518 this year.
And while more than 80 percent of unaccompanied minors that the agency apprehended on the Southwest border as recently as 2010 were coming from Mexico, that number has fallen to only about 25 percent this year, according to CBP statistics. The other three-quarters are coming from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
The federal government is now scrambling to respond, with the number of unaccompanied minors predicted to hit as many as 60,000 this year.
In a memorandum Monday, the president directed the Department of Homeland Security to develop a coordinated plan between federal agencies to respond to the surge. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was tapped to coordinate the response, which is expected to involve the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services and others.
Sources said FEMA had been summoned to provide aid at the Nogales Border Patrol Station, but a call to the agency's Region IX, which includes Arizona, was referred to a recorded conference call with the press earlier this week that did not address the specific situation in Nogales.
(Additional reporting from the Cronkite News Service.)
Feds may release hundreds of undocumented immigrants to El Paso
By Luis Carlos Lopez / El Paso Times
POSTED: 06/06/2014 10:11:31 PM MDT
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_25916964/el-paso-may-see-an-influx-undocumented-immigrants
Judy Elizabeth Martinez, holding Marjorie, tries to reach family after being released by ICE at a Greyhound Bus station in Phoenix May 28, 2014. She is
Judy Elizabeth Martinez, holding Marjorie, tries to reach family after being released by ICE at a Greyhound Bus station in Phoenix May 28, 2014. She is from Guatemala and was flown from Georgia to Arizona by ICE. The Border Patrol says about 400 migrants were flown from Texas to Arizona because of a surge in migrants being apprehended in Texas. (Michael Chow / AP Photo)
El Paso may see more than 100 undocumented immigrants being dropped-off at the Downtown Greyhound station daily because of a change in federal immigration enforcement, officials said.
Michael Friel, a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said that El Paso's CBP sector is assisting with "the processing of individuals, many of whom were families apprehended in South Texas."
It's not known when the bus loads of immigrants will arrive in El Paso, and an official said planes carrying immigrants also will arrive in El Paso.
"Immigrants apprehended crossing the border in South Texas will be flown to El Paso so Border Patrol can assist with processing," a CBP official said.
"(The) Tucson Sector is prepared to and expects to continue to process unaccompanied children from South Texas," Friel added.
Tony Banegas, the honorary consul of Honduras to Arizona, said, the new drop-off point for many apprehended along the Texas-Mexico border will be at 200 West San Antonio in El Paso.
"We were told that they were not going to send any more buses to Phoenix ...they were going to direct buses to El Paso, Texas," Banegas said.
Banegas stated that after he noticed Phoenix buses dropped off more than 1,000 immigrants at the Phoenix Greyhound station since Memorial Day, he asked local ICE officials to specify how many more buses would be arriving.
Banegas added that he asked because he wanted to see how he could best organize to offer assistance to the newly-arrived immigrants — most of whom were women and children from Central America.
"We wanted to get a sense of how many more buses were going to come to Phoenix," Banegas said.
The potential influx of immigrants in El Paso has Banegas and officials of some Arizona immigrant shelters concerned.
They said they feel that the El Paso's shelters might not be ready to handle the volume of undocumented immigrants released from custody.
Cyndi Whitmore, a volunteer for the Restoration Project in Phoenix, said that it has taken her group a couple of years to provide adequate help for immigrants.
She said most of the immigrants have travelled for days and are in need of water and other urgent necessities.
"We are concerned that another organization in the El Paso area is not going to be prepared to see this kind of volume of families," Whitmore said.
Executives of the Annunciation House, which helps undocumented immigrants in El Paso, could be reached for comment.
Melissa M. Lopez, executive director of diocesan migrant and refugee services at the El Paso Diocese, said that while the diocese focuses on providing legal services to immigrants, local organizations may be ready to meet the challenge.
"I would say there's limited resources here in El Paso, but El Paso saw a huge increase in asylum seekers after violence in Juárez escalated," Lopez said.
"I think El Paso responded well. The service and shelters responded well. We try to work together to do the best that we can,"
It's not known how many undocumented immigrants will be sent to El Paso.
The Associated Press reported that because of a surge of undocumented immigrant traffic across South Texas, President Barrack Obama's administration is releasing immigrants inside the U.S.
The AP also reported that there's a growing perception that immigrants — particularly families — are being allowed to stay in the country freely.
Cecilia Muñoz, director of domestic policy for the White House, said those rumors are false and that immigrants caught at the border, "regardless of their age, still face deportation," the AP reported.
The immigrants released in the U.S., including those in El Paso, will have to report to immigration officials within 15 days as directed by federal authorities, the AP reported. "Immigrants apprehended crossing the border in South Texas will be flown to El Paso so Border Patrol can assist with processing. The vast majority of individuals transferred were family units from Central America and Mexico with children," an El Paso official said.
He said the Department of Homeland Security is screening every individual, taking biometrics, and putting them in the system.
Luis Carlos Lopez may be reached at 546-6381.
Rumors of asylum raise hopes for migrant families
Christopher Sherman
Posted: Friday, June 6, 2014 8:12 pm
http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/rumors-of-asylum-raise-hopes-for-migrant-families/article_d392d628-ede0-11e3-8559-001a4bcf6878.html
In this June 3, 2014 photo, 14-year-old Brian Duran, from Comayagua, Honduras, who traveled alone to the U.S.-Mexico border, collects his line-dried laundry at the Senda de Vida migrant shelter during his journey north in Reynosa, Mexico. The word has spread about young children migrants being reunited with parents in the U.S., but there is no new asylum for children, or their parents. Nonetheless, more migrant families are being released in the U.S. because there is nowhere to house them. Many are being allowed to continue to their U.S. destinations with an order to appear before immigration authorities once they arrive. (AP Photo/Christopher Sherman)
Posted: Friday, June 6, 2014 8:12 pm
Christopher Sherman | AP
REYNOSA — The 27-year-old Honduran woman is desperate to know if the rumor is true: that she'll be allowed to stay in the United States because she is traveling with her 2-year-old daughter.
At a shelter for immigrants, Jennys Aguilar Cardenas and other women have heard about mothers being released with their babies, about children being reunited with relatives in the U.S. Like a game of telephone, the word has spread, giving hope to an apparently growing number of migrants willing to risk the dangerous crossing — with their young children — to escape intense poverty and crime at home.
The truth is there is no change in the law for children or parents. In practice, though, so many Central American migrants are illegally entering the U.S. with young children that there is nowhere to hold them while they wait for deportation hearings. With full capacity at the nation's lone family detention center, an 85-bed center in Pennsylvania, migrants simply are being freed with orders to appear before immigration authorities at a later time.
How many are complying with the order is unknown. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman said the agency did not have numbers available.
But as stories about releases spread in Honduras, Guatemala and elsewhere, shelter workers and Border Patrol agents are seeing more parents attempting to enter the U.S. with their children. The Department of Homeland Security has not said how many so-called "family units" it has processed this year. Officials, however, do report a dramatic spike in the number of children caught traveling without any adult relative or guardian.
Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley sector made more than 160,000 apprehensions between October 2013 and May, about a 70 percent increase over the same period a year earlier. Nearly one third of those detained — 47,000 — were children traveling alone. President Barack Obama last week called the phenomenon "an urgent humanitarian situation," and asked Congress to approve additional spending to house the children at two military bases.
The spike in migrant detentions comes as Obama is under pressure both to reform immigration laws and to do more to stop illegal entries. Republican lawmakers have suggested the rise in child migrants is a result of lax enforcement. The Border Patrol acknowledges there is a problem in families being released, with deputy chief Ronald Vitiello noting in a May 30 draft memo that such actions are "incentives to additional individuals to follow the same path."
Aguilar Cardenas, a single mother of four, tried to enter the U.S. alone last year. She barely made it over the Rio Grande before she was caught and sent back to Honduras. This time, she brought her young daughter, Keillin Mareli, on the 1,400-mile journey, traveling by foot and freight trains to reach Reynosa, where she hopes to find a guide willing to help them cross for free.
"I decided to leave with my daughter so that maybe, this way, they'll give me the chance to help my children advance," she said, as the girl played with a white bear decorated with stars like an American flag.
At another shelter in Reynosa, another single mother from Honduras, Sandra Calidono, said she's also heard vague stories about the U.S. offering political asylum to children. "Almost all the families in Honduras are emigrating because they heard this talk," she said, watching her 3-year-old daughter playing with a migrant boy even younger.
Calidono was unable to find work in Honduras and was eager to escape a crime wave that has made it one of the most dangerous countries on Earth. The nation's murder rate of 90.4 per 100,000 people is more than 15 times the global average.
With only a dark future for the children at home, migrants are eager to believe the rumors of freedom for children and families.
"It's not uncommon when you are in a desperate situation and you need to believe what you want to believe," said Stacie Blake, director of government and community relations at the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. "In this case, it's not the reality."
Ana Bulnes, the Honduran consul for South Texas, said Wednesday it is hard to discourage families from making the trip when U.S. authorities, in fact, are releasing them — sometimes dropping them off at bus stations in Texas and Arizona.
"The message also has to be from both sides, from both governments," Bulnes said in McAllen. "We have to work in the same direction."
The rumors are spreading by word of mouth, not through any mass media channels such as radio that can be monitored, she said.
"We have not found anywhere any kind of publicity that's, 'Come to the United States. Bring your kids, we'll let you pass,'" Bulnes said. "The people who are able to enter are those who send the message back."
Texas Gov. Rick Perry last week asked that the Department of Homeland Security stop releasing immigrants with notices to appear. On Monday, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer asked the same for the hundreds of immigrants, mostly women and children, who in recent weeks have been flown to Arizona from South Texas for processing.
Richard Rocha, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in an email decisions regarding detention are made on a case-by-case basis, with top concern given to national security and public safety. "To be clear," he said, "they are subject to removal, but may not be detained through the length of their proceedings."
With her little Perla, Calidono hopes to cross the border as soon as she comes up with the money to pay a guide to help them. Then, she'll join a brother who lives in the Carolinas — she didn't know if it was the north one or south one. Either way, she's heard, life is better there.
___
Associated Press writer Alicia A. Caldwell in Washington contributed to this report.
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