In September of 1992 the headline of our newsletter read: HEADLINE: "L.A.'S NUMBER ONE IMPORT: POVERTY" -- Was I right?

"America is importing permanent poverty and California is heading for a train wreck... when the next downturn comes, and it will, state revenue will disappear overnight..." -- Glenn Spencer, Treachery and Treason in America

Ten years ago I began to document the illegal immigration problem in a series of videos under the general title "Immigration: Threatening the Bonds of Our Union" (A quote taken from a speech by Bill Clinton). Today the American Patrol Report is featuring segments of one of those videos -- "Treachery and Treason in America" -- produced in 2000. Take the time to watch these segments and ask yourself: Was I right?

Was I right that the 1982 Supreme Court decision, Plyler vs. Doe, led to the destruction of the Los Angeles school system? Was I right when I said that Gov. Gray Davis broke the law when he killed Proposition 187? Was I right nine years ago when I said that California was importing poverty and that it was heading for a fiscal train wreck?

There is treachery and treason in America and it has led to the destruction of California. I have the facts to prove it. If you watch these short segments you will understand why the open borders crowd hates me.

 Watch Moment of Peril (2 min.) / Words (2 min.) / Prop. 187 (10 min.) / Importing Poverty (6+ min.)

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Guatemalan police agent lynched
A group of neighbors in San Martin Jilotepeque, an indigenous community in western Guatemala, lynched an agent of the National Civil Police (PNC) whom they accused of extorting the driver of a public bus.  A spokesman for the PNC said the lynching happened this morning. 

The agent, 36, was captured by a mob of locals last night who accused him of extortion. 

He was disarmed by them and tied to a post, according to the spokesman, "and for several hours, subjected to blows and torture until this morning when he was doused with gasoline and burned alive."  A study by the humanitarian Mutual Help Group (GAM) in Guatemala showed that in the first nine months of 2009, 110 cases of attempted lynchings have occurred, 28 of them successful. 

These events are attributed to the insecurity caused by the lack of response by enforcement agencies.
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Marihuana load stopped in Chile

Santiago de Chile.  Five people in a drug trafficking gang were arrested transporting 200 kilos of processed marihuana brought in from the Araucania region [central Chile].  The group, led by a Paraguayan, had smuggled the load into Chile from Argentina through a remote pass.
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More info on the Tijuana tunnel
The four men arrested in connection with the tunnel project discovered in Tijuana, Baja California, last week [M3 Report 11/8/09] have been formally ordered held for 40 days while the investigation continues.  The construction of their 122-meter tunnel was less than half way to crossing under the border into the US near the western edge of the Tijuana International Airport.
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El Debate (Sinaloa) 11/16/09

Mexican Army scores again
The Mexican Army delivered another blow to narcotraffic by seizing a load of over 12 tons of marihuana and four vehicles - one, a large Kenworth truck - in the town of Choix, Sinaloa.  No arrests were reported. 

National Association Of Former Border Patrol Officers
 Visit our website: http://www.nafbpo.org

The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis.  

Five days ago Lou Dobbs abruptly quit his CNN anchor job. The truth behind this sudden move is beginning to emerge. Last night Bill O'Reilly made it clear that illegal immigration was the issue that forced Dobbs out of CNN. Dobbs argued that it wasn't that he was tough on illegal immigration; he said the difference was who was President of the United States.

"It is the only difference between the way I was conducting myself under this administration and the previous administration." CNN told Dobbs that advocacy journalism was not going to be a part of its approach.

O'Reilly said this didn't make any sense since 'every show that doesn't have an opinion is dying.' Dobbs agreed. After CNN chief Jonathan Klein pressured Dobbs to stop expressing his views on the air his ratings began to drop.

O'Reilly : According to polls most Americans are not anti-immigration but they are firmly against chaos and the quasi-open borders system the New York Times embraces. (The New York Times attacked Dobbs over illegal immigration)

Critics say Dobbs was on safe ground so long as he was criticizing George W. Bush, but that the new power structure in Washington included so many open-borders advocates, including President Obama, that the pressure on CNN to drop Dobbs was overwhelming. 'The United States is being invaded by Mexico and Lou Dobbs was a sort of radar who merely reported what he saw,' said Glenn Spencer of the American Patrol Report. Spencer said the Mexican invasion will become a major issue in coming months and those advocating for the dissolution of the U.S., especially Barack Obama, are working to defeat any defenses the U.S. might have.

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By early next year the country's immigration system will be overhauled, guarantees Napolitano, who is the president's point person on the matter. The former Arizona governor dispelled suggestions that the administration is too busy with health care, Middle Eastern wars and other pressing issues to postpone enacting immigration legislation. 

Addressing a liberal policy group in Washington D.C., Napolitano said that legalizing illegal immigrants will enhance national security and protect American workers from unfair competition created by lower-paid, easily exploited illegal immigrants. "Let me emphasize this: we will never have fully effective law enforcement or national security as long as so many millions remain in the shadows," Napolitano affirmed. 

Under the plan Congress will provide temporary worker programs and a path to citizenship for an estimated 12 million people currently living in the U.S. illegally. In return, the illegal aliens must take a number of steps such as pay back taxes and fines, learn English and pass criminal background checks. 

Unlike the legislation that Congress nixed in 2007, Napolitano says this one will pass because Obama has achieved border security and enforcement against employers hiring illegal immigrants. This may sound like a joke, but the Homeland Security chief is dead serious. "I know a major shift when I see one and what I have seen makes reform far more attainable this time around," proclaimed a confident Napolitano.  

Leaked tidbits of the highly touted overhaul bill reveal that the measure is guaranteed to be "compassionate," according to the lawmaker (Illinois Democrat Luis Gutierrez) drafting the House version. Besides the citizenship path for millions of undocumented immigrants, it includes strict rules for humane treatment of illegal aliens in U.S. prisons and a plan to adjust (increase) foreign visa quotas for American employers. 

Under the plan illegal immigrants will also get coveted discounted tuition at public colleges and universities nationwide and families will be allowed to remain together in the U.S. even when several members are in the country illegally. This opportunity to come out of the shadows will present the only practical and humane solution to the nation's illegal immigration crisis, according to the legislators putting the final touches on the bill

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High unemployment rates, overpopulation, and declining public services motivated grassroots activists to attend one of the many tea parties.

While not drawing huge crowds, the events were planned on short notice, and could point towards a growing movement.

Several hundred turned out for the event in the border city of San Diego that's consistently in the crossfire of the illegal immigration issue. Just a two months ago, three vans crashed the border trying to smuggle people across the border illegally. Protesters in San Diego said Saturday's protest was only the beginning.

"It is not fair for those in power to give our country away to illegal immigrants," said a San Diego attendee. "This is my first rally and it looks like I'll have to attend many more to make sure this travesty doesn't come true."

In Alexandria, protesters stood outside of Rep. Jim Moran's (D-Va.) district office, fighting against any amnesty plans from Congress.

"If the situation continues as it is, we are powerless unless we speak out like this," an attendee said. "Cut off the funds and maybe they will go home."

Hundreds turned out at a rally in the embattled city of Phoenix where American Citizens United helped organize the event.

"We need to have borders, secure borders. We cannot give amnesty, because once you say amnesty, they keep coming more and more," said Anna Gaines from ACU.

Events were also held in Decatur, Ill., Denver and Durango, Colo., and Ft. Worth to name a few. ALIPAC began organizing the grassroots movement just a few weeks ago, trying to play off the national tea party movement and the recent passing of the health care reform bill in the House, which provides loopholes for illegal aliens to receive health care benefits. Then on Thursday, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano announced her support for an amnesty bill while speaking to the American Center for Progress. And Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) plans to unveil amnesty legislation later this month.

ACORN and other open-borders groups showed up at several of the tea parties, but there were no major confrontations.

You can learn more about the Anti-Amnesty Tea Parties by visiting AgainstAmnesty.com.

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• La Raza and FAIR Face Off on Providing Taxpayer-Subsidized Health Care to Illegal Aliens
• Napolitano Affirms Amnesty Legislation is on the Agenda in Early 2010
• Illegal Alien Files Million Dollar Suit against Sheriff in Attempt to Undermine 287(g)
• British Prime Minister Acknowledges "Cost" of Immigration, Advocates Reduction

La Raza and FAIR Face Off on Providing Taxpayer-Subsidized Health Care to Illegal Aliens

Last week, FAIR's President, Dan Stein, and the National Council of La Raza's (La Raza) Vice President, Eric Rodriguez, penned competing editorials over the issue of whether illegal aliens should be able to access the "exchange" marketplace created by the House health care bill. (For FAIR's editorial, click here; For La Raza's editorial, click here). In addition, Stein authored another editorial that was published on November 12 by USA Today (available here).

In the La Raza editorial, La Raza's primary argument for allowing illegal aliens to participate in the "taxpayer-subsidized" exchange centered on the issue of cost. According to La Raza, illegal aliens should be allowed to use their own money to purchase insurance through the exchange because "[m]ore workers in the health exchange will help control costs and ensure that Americans are not exploited when purchasing health insurance." (Id.). However, as FAIR's President Dan Stein pointed out in USA Today, this is simply untrue. As Stein put it: "Uncompensated care for illegal aliens already costs taxpayers $11 billion a year. Extending health insurance to illegal aliens would be even more expensive. [The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has] concluded 'that for most preventive services, expanded utilization leads to higher, not lower, medical spending overall.'" (See USA Today, November 12, 2009; See also CBO, August 9, 2009).

One area where FAIR and La Raza do agree is that the exchange will be, as La Raza put it, "taxpayer-subsidized."  In other words, taxpayers will be paying for a system that benefits anyone participating in the exchange.  As the CBO has indicated, under the House health care bill, taxpayers will be paying between $41 to $51 billion for the initial set-up and operation of the exchange.  (See CBO score).  Nearly half (46.5 percent) of the 25.6 million non-citizens in the United States are illegal aliens, and about 59 percent of illegal alien adults currently lack health insurance. This means that illegal aliens will constitute a substantial portion of those using the exchange.  (CRS Report, November 2, 2009).  As a result, it is highly likely that allowing illegal aliens to buy into the exchange would dramatically increase the bureaucratic costs of the taxpayer-funded exchange.  This will inevitably lead to increased costs for American taxpayers. FAIR's USA Today editorial also pointed out that an increase in the number of persons accessing health services, without a corresponding increase in the number of doctors, nurses, hospital beds, and doctor's offices, "could impact health care quality for all Americans, resulting in longer waits at the doctor's office and reduced access to services." (USA Today).

Napolitano Affirms Amnesty Legislation is on the Agenda in Early 2010

On Friday, November 13, Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, gave a speech at the Center for American Progress (CAP). Napolitano used the speech to highlight the Obama Administration's continued support for a mass amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, promising amnesty legislation in early 2010.

Napolitano - who has been designated as President Obama's point person on the issue of immigration reform - described the administration's vision of immigration legislation as consisting of a "three-legged stool." This so-called "stool" consists of: (1) a mass amnesty for the approximately 12 million illegal aliens currently living in the United States; (2) "improved legal flows for families and workers" which means a dramatic increase in legal immigration; and (3) empty promises of "serious and effective enforcement." (Secretary Napolitano's Prepared Remarks, November 13, 2009). As for when the administration expects to see Congress take up an amnesty bill, Napolitano stated that she expected to see legislation move in "the first part" of next year. (CAP, November 13, 2009).

In addition to advocating amnesty, Napolitano utilized last Friday's speech to dismiss concerns that legal immigration is adversely affecting U.S. workers. During a brief question-and-answer period following the completion of her speech, a member of the audience expressed concerns about foreign workers obtaining engineering jobs over equally-qualified American workers. With unemployment now over ten percent for the first time in 26 years (Bureau of Labor Statistics, November 6, 2009), Napolitano answered by alleging that the questioner had posed a "false dichotomy," and added that she "think[s] there's enough engineering jobs for everybody." (CAP).

Illegal Alien Files Million Dollar Suit against Sheriff in Attempt to Undermine 287(g)

Last Tuesday, an illegal alien filed a federal lawsuit against officials in Frederick County, Maryland, claiming that her civil rights were violated when deputies arrested her last year.  The plaintiff, Roxana Orellana Santos, a Salvadoran immigrant, alleges she was detained despite committing "no criminal offense under Maryland law," though it seems clear from her detention by immigration authorities that she was held for being in the country illegally.  (CNN, November 11, 2009). 

Her attorney would not confirm her immigration status to CNN, responding, "We're not commenting on that at all."  (Id.)  Santos, backed by pro-amnesty groups Latino Justice PRLDEF and Casa de Maryland, is suing Sheriff Jenkins, Deputy Openshaw, the Frederick County Board of Commissioners, and current and former immigration officials for allegedly questioning and detaining her based solely on her ethnic appearance.  (Washington Post, November 11, 2009; CNN, November 11, 2009).  Santos, who does not speak English, claims that she was eating lunch when two deputies asked her for identification, then detained her and turned her over to immigration authorities for possible deportation after she produced a national identification card from El Salvador.  (Frederick News Post, November 13, 2009).  However, Sheriff Jenkins disputes this characterization, stating that the deputies were doing a routine check of the area when she jumped up and ran behind a storage container after seeing the deputies.  (The Gazette, November 12, 2009).  The deputies checked her identification against a federal immigration database, and learned the plaintiff had an outstanding arrest warrant from ICE for failing to appear in court.  (Id.). 

At issue in this lawsuit is 287(g), the highly successful federal program that allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to provide training to state and local law enforcement agencies to assist in the enforcement of federal immigration laws.  In addition to accusing the Frederick County Sheriff's Office of racial profiling, the suit claims the local law enforcement officers exceeded the scope of their authority under 287(g).  (Complaint, November 10, 2009).  This latest attack on 287(g) is not surprising, given the determination of amnesty proponents to eliminate the program altogether, and the Administration's ongoing efforts to undermine its effectiveness.  (See FAIR's Legislative Update, October 13, 2009). 

Earlier this year, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that DHS was changing the program, placing a new emphasis on aligning 287(g) with "the identification and removal of criminal aliens." (See FAIR's Legislative Update, July 13, 2009).  According to the author of the legislation that created 287(g) (House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-TX)), the new approach contradicts the legislative intent of the program. (See FAIR's Legislative Update, July 13, 2009).  Smith noted at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing in March that "the goal [in creating 287(g)] was to really enable those local law enforcement authorities who wanted to enforce the immigration laws in whatever way they thought best...and that's really a decision made by the government in individual situations." (House Homeland Security Committee Hearing, March 4, 2009).  Last month, a bipartisan group of 54 Representatives sent President Obama a letter expressing their support for 287(g), which stated that 287(g) was not intended to be "limited to 'dangerous' criminals, as some have suggested, but designed to let state and local law enforcement officials help enforce all immigration laws and to remove illegal immigrants from the streets before they go on to commit preventable crimes."  (See Letter, October 26, 2009; See also FAIR's Legislative Update, November 2, 2009). 

This lawsuit is a consequence of DHS's attempts to weaken 287(g) by disregarding Congress's original intent for the program.  The complaint asserts that the "main objective of the 287(g) program is to address serious criminal activity, such as violent crimes, gang activity, narcotics smuggling and other felonies committed by foreign nationals."  (Complaint, November 10, 2009).  As previously reported by FAIR, this is a blatant misstatement of the legislative intent of the program.   Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX), who authored 287(g), has said that 287(g) should be tailored to suit the needs of participating law enforcement agencies, "and that might or might not include those who have committed serious crimes." (See FAIR's Legislative Update, July 13, 2009).

This lawsuit is not only an attack on 287(g), but is also an attack on Sheriff Jenkins, who is a "vocal crusader against illegal immigration."  (Washington Post, November 11, 2009).  The complaint in the lawsuit recognizes that Sheriff Jenkins campaigned for sheriff on promises of increased immigration enforcement, and charges that after assuming office, he "engaged in anti-immigrant rhetoric."  (Complaint, November 10, 2009).  Jenkins has said that Casa de Maryland has always been a critic of his office's participation in 287(g), but that he remains undaunted by the lawsuit.  (The Gazette, November 10, 2009).

British Prime Minister Acknowledges "Cost" of Immigration, Advocates Reduction

Last week, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown acknowledged what the overwhelming majority of American citizens have understood for decades: unrestricted mass immigration suppresses wages, takes jobs away from those who desperately need them, and creates social tension. Brown's comments came in the face of an increasing public outcry in Great Britain demanding that, in the face of rising unemployment, the government take action to address the issue of immigration.

According to British media reports, Brown delivered a speech last Thursday in which he "accepted people's fears that [immigration] has undermined wages, affected job prospects for children and whether families can live near each other." (The Telegraph, November 12, 2009). Acknowledging that immigration has a disproportionately harmful effect on the unemployed and other struggling families and individuals, Brown stated: "If you work in a sector where wages are falling or an area where jobs are scarce, immigration will feel very different." Brown elaborated: "If you're living in a town which hasn't seen much inward migration before, you may worry about whether immigration will undermine wages and the job prospects of your children - and whether they will be able to get housing anywhere near you." (Id.).

The attitudes of mainstream American citizens toward mass immigration are strikingly similar to those of the citizens of Great Britain. A recent poll conducted by CNN and the Opinion Research Corporation found that 73 percent of Americans "would like to see a decrease in the number of illegal immigrants in the country." (CNN, October 22, 2009). A Gallup poll conducted in August 2009 found that 50 percent of Americans say immigration should be decreased, while only 14 percent support an increase. (Gallup, August 5, 2009). Furthermore, an April 2009 Pulse Opinion survey found that strong majorities of progressives and liberals believe that high levels of immigration into the United States have harmed the nation's quality of life, environment, and job prospects for legal workers. (Progressives for Immigration Reform, April 14, 2009).

In addition to his comments addressing British citizens' concerns with unrestricted mass immigration, Brown "pledged to create thousands more jobs for British workers by reducing the number of skilled occupations that are open to foreign workers." (The Telegraph). FAIR has consistently advocated this same type of reduction as a way to create jobs in the United States, as well. However, it does not appear that the Obama Administration feels the same way. On Friday, November 13, President Obama's Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, responded to a questioner who expressed concerns about foreign workers obtaining engineering jobs over equally-qualified American workers by saying that she "think[s] there's enough engineering jobs for everybody." (Center for American Progress, November 13, 2009). Secretary Napolitano's statement is astonishing, especially in light of recently issued numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicating that the nationwide unemployment rate is now 10.2 percent - the highest it has been in 26 years. (BLS, November 6, 2009).

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The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is a national, nonprofit, public-interest, membership organization of concerned citizens who share a common belief that our nation's immigration policies must be reformed to serve the national interest. 

FAIR seeks to improve border security, to stop illegal immigration, and to promote immigration levels consistent with the national interest-more traditional rates of about 300,000 a year.  

The irony comes from the Obama administration's systematic dismantling of immigration enforcement. After it lost the 2007 amnesty fight, the Bush administration began in earnest to step up enforcement on the border, in the interior, at worksites, and in cooperation with state and local police. Since arriving in Washington, the Obama team has steadily weakened enforcement. Obama has launched an intimidation and delegitimization campaign against popular Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, fettered the 287(g) program, stood down on worksite enforcement arrests, fought efforts to continue building the border fence, and begun implementing anti-enforcement demands of ethnic special interests. The new regime is even practically reverting to "catch and release."

After rapid moves that have politically activated many Americans, particularly programs of profligate spending in the hundreds of billions and trillions and other incomprehensible denominations, and government power grabs in ways unprecedented in America, the Obama team has overdrawn its political capital. Witness the slowing pace of the president's top legislative priority, health reform. This goal is taking a lot longer to accomplish than the Democratic Congress or the White House had bargained for. The opposition has steadily mounted. And peripheral issues, including illegal immigration and abortion, have contributed to health care's slowing pace.

Given that immigration has played as contentious a role in the health reform debate as it has, it's hard to imagine how pushing amnesty and more guestworkers -- that is, an open-borders agenda -- is expected to be achievable for this administration. Obama's vast overspending of taxpayers' money in bailouts, ineffective and wasteful "stimulus," government takeovers of Wall Street firms, banks, and the domestic auto industry, a failing push for an energy tax scheme, plus heath care may well mean the administration's political capital is in the red ink zone near the $1.4 trillion annual budget deficit this administration has perpetrated.

Besides, the American public hasn't forgotten about the immigration issue. It remains a highly controversial issue with elites on one side pushing amnesty and normal Americans on the other standing athwart "flyover country" yelling "stop." And the public isn't stupid. Napolitano, Obama, and other elites will prove just how out of touch they are if they follow through with a fresh amnesty push.

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INSANITY EXHIBIT A:  Sec. of State Hillary Clinton went to the Philippines to promise to bring more of its workers to compete with Americans. 

The ABC News report shows the story was even crazier than that.  It began with Clinton lecturing the University of St. Tomas in Manila about the fact that the Philippines needs to stop exporting so many of its workers, especially the educated and trained ones. 

She was giving wise support to a movement within that country to persuade ambitious, energetic Filipinos to find ways to contribute and serve their own country and people.

The Philippines needs you.

-- Hillary Clinton

What a great thing to say.  But then some other brain seemed to take over Clinton's mouth  when she was asked when the U.S. is going to change its immigration policy.

We're hoping that we can achieve comprehensive immigration reform, which is something that I feel strongly about. . . . We have so many priorities. I can't even adequately describe what it was like coming into office eight years after the prior administration, when problems have been stacked up. It felt like there were thousands of planes circling in the air that we have to bring safely to a landing, and immigration reforms is one of those. . . . We hope to get to comprehensive immigration reform and this issue will be part of the legislation that we introduced.

-- Hillary Clinton

Got that?   While explaining how she had worked so hard for "comprehensive immigration reform" as a Senator and a Presidential  candidate, she promised to push through a law that will entice millions more of the most enthusiastic citizens of the Philippines to abandon their families, communities and country to take jobs from U.S. workers!

INSANITY EXHIBIT B:   Top U.S. immigration official Napolitano claims her enforcement is working against illegal immigration and, thus, the nation needs to bring in more foreign workers BECAUSE THE U.S. ECONOMY IS SO BAD!   

The logic is so convoluted that I'm sure many Americans just passed over some of the craziness in her highly reported speech this week pledging to push an amnesty and major increase in immigration as a top priority in 2010.

First, she ran down a list of what she said were huge advances in enforcing immigration laws.

The head of the Department of Homeland Security claimed that Senators who voted against the amnesty in 2007 had said they would vote for one later if the feds could prove they could enforce the law.  So, she argued, based on her amazing record of stopping illegal immigration and driving illegal aliens out of their jobs this year, "comprehensive immigration reform" ought to pass in 2010.

Hmmm, haven't we spent most of the year counting the ways that Janet Napolitano and the Obama Administration have stopped worksite raids, watered down 287(g) agreements and tied the hands of local officials, halted the no-match letters that send illegal aliens scampering for the exits, and many more examples of deteriorated enforcement?

Moreover, the immigration debate in 2007 happened during a period of historically high levels of illegal entry into the United States. Two years later, because of better enforcement and the current economic circumstances, those numbers have fallen sharply. The flow has reduced significantly - by more than half from the busiest years, proving we are in a much different environment than we were before.

-- Janet Napolitano

Let's see if I've got this right:  Because the economy is so bad and jobs are so scarce that fewer foreign workers are breaking the law to  come here, Napolitano says we should give permanent work permits to 7 million current illegal foreign workers.

And it got worse.

Businesses must be able find the workers they need here in America, rather than having to move overseas.

-- Janet Napolitano

Let me get this straight:  First she implies that any business in America right now can't find workers?  And she also seems to suggest that if pay is so low, working conditions so rotten and benefits so scarce that no American will work for a business, that business has to be provided with a foreign semi-slave?  That is the Obama Administration's idea of the U.S. competing in the global economy?

In the midst of the bad economy that is keeping illegal immigration lower, she pitched "comprehensive immigration reform" to dramatically increase the numbers of new legal foreign workers to be brought in permanently each year. Is she aware that the nation's high unemployment rate is probably Pres. Obama's biggest domestic problem right now?

INSANITY EXHIBIT C:  Former Bush Administration and Mexico officials and a panel of elites agrees that Mexico should stop the mass illegal migration into our country -- AFTER we give an amnesty to the millions of illegals already here.

The bi-national task force was co-chaired by Robert C. Bonner, a top customs official for both Bush Administrations.

The Washington Post reported this conclusion of the task force:

If the United States legalizes most of its illegal immigrants and allows for a flexible flow of legal workers, Mexico should stop illegal immigration from its side of the border, the panel said.

OK, if this panel of experts from big-name universities, think tanks and government agencies believes that Mexico will be able to stop the illegal flow AFTER an amnesty, why not just do it  now!!!!

But like most of our nation's elites, these experts can't imagine that it would be a good thing for 7 million unemployed Americans to have the jobs that 7 million illegal aliens currently hold.

And notice that the amnesty isn't enough.  Mexico shouldn't be expected to stop encouraging and helping its citizens to break our immigration laws to take jobs from U.S. citizens until we dramatically increase the number of Mexicans legally allowed to take jobs from U.S. citizens. 

INSANITY EXHIBIT D:  The Census Bureau is enlisting foreign consulates to help count illegal aliens next year.

The Los Angeles Times reported:

In an effort to allay any fears between the immigrant community and federal authorities, officials with the 2010 Census met with consuls of several Latin American countries to ask for support in their communities to spread the word about the importance of being counted.

Does anybody worry a little about the signal that is being sent to illegal aliens.  How are they supposed to know that the American people -- and U.S. laws -- want them to go home, when federal officials ask their home country governments to lobby them to step forward to cooperate with federal officials BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING TO FEAR -- THE GOVERNMENT WILL DO NOTHING TO INTERFERE WITH YOUR ABILITY TO ILLEGALLY TAKE JOBS FROM U.S. CITIZENS.

The immigration status of the individual is an issue that has generated some fear among immigrants', said Eddie Bedon, Ecuador's Consul General. 'The Office of the Census has assured us that the confidentiality of the information will be safeguarded.' . . . 'For Ecuador, the information gleaned from the census will be very important. The statistics regarding the number of Ecuadoreans who live and work here will help us meet their needs, and defend their rights and interests'.

Mighty glad that Census is using taxpayer money to work with foreign governments to defend the full rights and interests of their citizens who are breaking our laws and illegally driving up the American unemployment rate. 

William Jarquin, Consul of El Salvador, also affirmed that his government is committed to working with the census. 'For Salvadorans it is extremely important because we need to know just how many of us are out there'.

Well, folks there are a million stories of insanity in The Naked City in which the emperor and most federal politicians and officials wear garments spun with invisible logic and see-through compassion -- these were just four of them.

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ROY BECK is Founder & CEO of NumbersUSA

 UN idea rejected

A number of business organizations in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, have called for a United Nations peace force to come to their city to quell the violence of narco-traffic and other organized crime activities, but President Calderón today rejected that possibility or any other involving foreign intervention.  In his statement, Calderón said, "Clearly, it is not a case that requires it.  Mexico would not accept the presence or any foreign intervention in the country, for these are matters of internal security."

Another tunnel found in Baja California

An anonymous tip to Baja California state police led to the discovery of a narco-tunnel in Mexicali, the state capital bordering Calexico, California.  The five-meter tunnel under construction contained sophisticated pneumatic equipment, valued at over 75,000 dollars, for excavation and removal of soil.  Three people were arrested in connection with the construction.

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Arrests of 51 for narco-traffic in Chiapas

Federal agents carried out 17 search operations in the state of Chiapas, netting 51 arrests for narco-activities.  The operation also resulted in the seizures of drugs, ammo and vehicles.

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Good morning, Uruapan

Presumed rival gangs of thugs shot it out in Uruapan, Michoacán, early this morning, gaining the attention of the police who joined in.  The battle involved AK-47 assault rifles and at least one fragmentation grenade.  No deaths and only one injury, a police agent, resulted from the firefight.  The gangs fled, dispersing into the streets with the police in pursuit.  No arrests were reported.

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Big bucks seized

The Mexican Army in Tijuana, Baja California, seized over two million dollars stashed in a home in the Playas de Tijuana section of the city.  The discovery was made due to a citizen report.  The Army also seized five firearms.  The National Secretary of Defense qualified the seizure as "a forcible blow to the economic base of narco-traffic and organized crime."

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More Sinaloa violence

Authorities in Culiacan, Sinaloa, discovered the incinerated bodies of four people in a taxi.  Two of the bodies were inside the auto and the other two were in the trunk.  This discovery brings the execution style murders in the state to over 1,000 so far this year.

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Novel idea from Mexico

The El Universal editorial, "Reduce it, already," opens with the following paragraph:

Alianza Civica, one of the civil organizations with major purpose and prestige in Mexico, in the past few days launched a campaign as attractive as it is simple: reduce the budget of the political parties. Reduce it already! is the title, an idea that - perhaps like none other - can unite the great majority of citizens around the same cause.

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 Cambio de Michoacan (Morelia, Michoacan) 11/13/09

 Mexican profiling

Added to constant citizen reports against the Mexican federal police in the state of Michoacán for abuse of power and other misbehavior, now they are accused of extortion against Mexican citizens returning from travels to the US.  At the Morelia Airport, various cases have been detected in which federal agents detain arriving travelers on the pretext of inspecting them, but in reality, are seeking minor irregularities as grounds for demanding up to 1,500 pesos [$115] to prevent them from going to jail.  The agents zero in on flights arriving from Chicago, Los Angeles and San Jose to check people for any suspected infraction with which to "obtain some benefit."

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 Cuarto Poder (Chiapas) 11/13/09

 Community takes law in own hands

Due to the increase in crime and the incapacity of the municipal police to combat it, a community on the north side of the city of San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, has organized to arrest criminals and carry out their own form of justice.  This decision was reached in a meeting of the community's board of directors and the residents.  Neighborhood watches were formed with four watchmen assigned to each street and avenue.  Residents will use alarms and whistles to alert others of crimes in progress or other emergencies.   A representative of the colony said that when a thief is caught in possession of the stolen articles, he will be detained by the inhabitants "to give him a strong lesson in order to educate him and then he will be turned over to the municipal police."

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 El Diario de Juarez (Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua) 11/13/09

 US needs to join the fight against crime: Governor of Chihuahua

The governor of Chihuahua, Jose Reyes Baeza, said that before thinking about United Nations participation in the fight against crime in his state, the US should help.  He said that the problem of violence is Mexico's responsibility, but that the US should commit to preventing arms traffic into Mexico, since it puts Mexico in danger. 

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 El Porvenir (Monterrey, Nuevo Leon) 11/13/09

 Unemployment figures greater this year in Mexico

In the third trimester of this year, 2.9 million people in Mexico are unemployed, with the rate at 6.2%.  Last year at this period, the unemployment rate was 4.2%.

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 Frontera (Tijuana, Baja California) 11/13/09

 "Crystal" seized

Two men in possession of six kilos of "crystal" [a form of methamphetamine], two 9mm pistols, 7,000 dollars and 8,000 pesos were arrested by the Mexican Army in Tijuana.  Also seized was a Ford sedan with California plates.  [No number given].

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 Sunday 11/15/09

 El Universal (Mexico City) 11/14/09

 Mexican Army dismantles narco-lab

Specialists and chemists certified that the amount of synthetic drugs in a clandestine laboratory dismantled by the Army in Sinaloa comes to at least 718 kilos with a market value of over 687 million pesos [$52.5 million US].   The lab was discovered near the village of Los Duarte in the ongoing Operation Culiacan-Navolato.  The end product of the lab was methamphetamine in the form of "crystal".

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 Cambio de Michoacan (Morelia, Michoacan) 11/14/09

 Crime a good gamble in Mexico

According to a report from a publication of canalsonora.com [reliability unknown], after three years of Mexican federal combat against organized crime, 75% of those arrested for narco related offenses were later released.  From January 2007 to September 2009, there are records of 226,677 people arrested by the Department of justice (PGR). The publication notes the state of Michoacán as one of the three where the presence of the military is prevalent to combat criminal groups.  Nevertheless, only 3,153 arrests have been made and one of every two of those arrested have been absolved of crime.  In addition, the authorities pronounced judgment on only 862 people in 36 months.  The states that lead in the capture of most presumed narco criminals are Jalisco, with 43,153; Baja California, 32,895; Guanajuato, 28,003; and the Federal District, 27,366.  These three states and the Federal District represent 57.9% of the total arrests in the country.

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 Monday 11/16/09

 El Universal (Mexico City) 11/15/09

 Comment from the editorial staff

An editorial comment from El Universal states: In order to play, you have to pay.  Simple.  A group of security experts urged the government to change their anti-narcotic strategy and focus their artillery on attacking the financial structure of the cartels.  The argument is lineal: if it is with money that they buy arms, corrupt police and authorities, and seduce hundreds of youths who find, in dealing out violence, a way to survive and carry home money, then the source of financing must be dealt a blow in order to cut the head off the serpent.  Otherwise, the only thing that will increase is the number of victims.  This is what the experts say.

--

Marihuana seized near Reynosa

Mexican federal agents discovered more than three tons of marihuana and some firearms in the community of Arguellas, near the border city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas.  Also seized were three vehicles.  One, a Chevrolet pickup, had Texas plates SNV-T53.

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 El Financiero (Mexico City) 11/15/09

 Mexican police statistics in brief

Mexico has 2,090 police departments within the three levels of government, federal, state and local, which total 409,536 agents, according to the federal Secretary of Security.  In all, 68.3% have a primary education, a quarter of them have completed high school and 4.5% have higher education.  Half of the departments have 20 or fewer officers, making rotation of superiors difficult and the lack of permanence of officers facilitates corruption.

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 La Jornada (Mexico City) 11/15/09

 Mexican arsenal seized in Nicaragua

Managua. During an operation of the National Police and Army, an arsenal presumably belonging to the Mexican Sinaloa cartel was seized.  The arms consisted of 53 AK [sic} rifles, 19,000 rounds of ammo, an M-79 grenade launcher, 10 M-19 grenades, 10 200-gram bags of TNT and another 10 of 400-gram dynamite.  The arms were believed to have been in transport to Mexico when intercepted.  After a brief exchange of gunfire, those transporting it fled and there were no injuries or arrests.

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 El Imparcial (Hermosillo, Sonora) 11/15/09

 Gun battles in Nogales

Two gun battles in Nogales, Sonora, left three dead this morning.  At the site of one gunfight, shells from AK-47 rifles were found along with a revolver handgun.

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Another gunfight, poorly reported

A gunfight near Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, resulted in the deaths of four people, injuries to three others and four arrested. [This was the essence of the report.  A reader comment follows.]  Between who was the gun battle?  Police and bad guys?  The other ones who died and others who were wounded? Or were the victims innocents?  Did they capture all the participants of the fight or were the four only part of the total?

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National Association Of Former Border Patrol Officers
Visit our website: http://www.nafbpo.org

The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis. 
 

Friday, 11/13/09

Prensa Libre (Guatemala City, Guatemala) 11/12/09

Cops and robbers I

In Guatemala, a court has ordered the arrest of eleven members of the National Civil Police ("PNC") suspected of involvement in the theft of a load of 119 kilos of cocaine last August. Among the eleven is Porfirio Perez, who was then the head of the "PNC"; he is already detained due to the theft of 350,000 dollars found in a vehicle in Chimaltenango. Other high and mid-level officials of the "PNC" are included in the arrest order. The truck where the cocaine was found is believed to have been carrying more than 1,000 kilos of the drug.

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Excelsior (Mexico City) 11/12/09

Cops and robbers II

A week ago, in Mexicali, Baja Calif., two federal police officials were murdered and a third one was wounded. Three armed men who carried out the attack have now been detained. All three turned out to be officers of the "Ministerial Federal Police" of Mexico.

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Norte (Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua) 11/12/09

Juarez & Chihuahua tidbits

Today's item headlines in the paper's "Insecurity" section:

Two state security chiefs assassinated in Chihuahua * * * * Another business locale set on fire * * * * One patrol unit crash every day; there's now 333 this year * * * * Witnesses say a military convoy allows extortionists to escape * * * * Six murdered yesterday; three others wounded* * * * Judge orders prison for state police agents.

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El Sur (Acapulco, Guerrero) 11/12/09

Weapons in Guerrero state

Near La Union, Guerrero (up the coast from Acapulco) federal police and naval personnel seized weapons believed to belong to the "Familia Michoacána" criminal group. The items located included 19 rifles (AK47, AR15 & MAK90), a .50 cal. Barret rifle, 9 handguns, 14 fragmentation grenades, 4,606 rounds of ammo, 134 loaders, vests, belts & other gear.

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Agora (Chihuahua, Chih.) 11/12/09

Weapons in Ciudad Juarez

An anonymous report caused Mex. military to arrest Hector Retana Garcia, 39, in Juarez. Retana was driving an '03 Suzuki with Texas lic. V20DGM. Inside the vehicle: five AK47 rifles, two AR15 rifles, a 9 mm. sub-machine gun, 38 loaders, and ammo.

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El Heraldo, (Tegucigalpa, Honduras) 11/12/09

Homicide data from Honduras

There have now been 4,214 homicides in Honduras this year, a monthly average of 421 victims and a daily one of 14. This October ended with 498 homicides. The causes are blamed on organized crime and gang membership rivalries. There have also been 92 victims of kidnapping his year. [Honduras is slightly larger than Tennessee.]

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La Hora (Guatemala City, Guatemala) 11/12/09

Homicide data from Guatemala

The president of the "Mutual Support Group" ("GAM") of Guatemala, Mario Polanco, stated that constant changes of personnel in government agencies are the main reason why the wave of violence flailing the country is not brought to a halt. "GAM" data shows that there have been 3,286 homicides in Guatemala so far this year and that the total for the last three years is now 9,910. This year's monthly average of homicide victims is 328. Polanco foresees that next year will be even worse.

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La Hora (Quito, Ecuador) 11/12/09

FARC reaches out to Colombian military

Leaders of FARC [the drug trafficking Colombian guerillas) have reached out to members of Colombia's military to join them in rejecting the accord signed between Bogota and Washington, which allows the U.S. to use seven military bases in Colombia. The FARC's message, sent via the internet, does not indicate clearly whether they wish for the military to be insubordinate or to leave the military ranks as a form of rejecting the military cooperation accord, which FARC calls "a poison dagger buried" in the country. Last October 30, Colombia and the U.S. signed a 10 year, renewable agreement which grants U.S. civilian and military personnel access to seven Colombian military installations, thus amplifying a years-long cooperation and presence. Colombia has insisted that the operations from the bases are against drug traffic and subversion, and that they will be restricted to national territory. But nations such as Venezuela have said that the U.S. forces represent a "threat" to their national security because Washington seeks to de-stabilize its government.

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Frontera (Tijuana, Baja Calif.) 11/12/09

Border walls [last paragraph of an op/col. by Oscar Genel re: anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall]

There are walls still to be torn down. Some are already built and others are still projects, but both divide, separate and place farther apart the peoples who, in that reality, suffer the weight of the stronger one, the oppression of the richer one, the arrogance of the developed one. That eyesore that is there, in plain view of all, at the reach of any hand, as a wound when it is intended and as an affront when it is reality. The walls to be torn down are many and the official desires for that to happen are quite few; they almost do not exist in the minds and programs of governments of the countries of the so-called first world. The Germans enjoyed the fall of the wall that separated them. We Mexicans will most likely not see the fall of the bricks that offend us, that affront us as a people who deserve respect and consideration from their neighbors, because we don't have the government officials which we deserve, because there are no social leaders with such stature, because we are destined as a country to be the back yard of the house inhabited by the rich ones from the North.

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Scroll down to see the attachment, a cartoon from "El Financiero". The goon wears a belt buckle which reads: "Organized Crime'. His victims are Lady Justice and the Winged Victory statues. The latter refers to the angel atop the well known Mexico City monument on the city center's Paseo de la Reforma.

---------------------------------------------

Foreign News Report

The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis.

---------------------------------------

National Association Of Former Border Patrol Officers
Visit our website: http://www.nafbpo.org/
Foreign News Report

The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis. You are free to disseminate this information, but we request that you credit NAFBPO as being the provider.

Reported on November 5, 2009

El Centro Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Guatemala near Calexico, California. During processing, the subject admitted to being an 18th Street gang member. Records checks revealed he had been previously removed from the United States.

Laredo Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Honduras near Laredo, Texas. During processing, the subject admitted to being a Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13) gang member. Records checks revealed he had been previously removed from the United States.

Tucson Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Naco, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject had an extensive criminal history, to include prior convictions for burglary, obstruction of public official, false impersonating and probation violation in the State of California. He had also been previously removed from the United States.

Tucson Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Nogales, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for manslaughter in the State of California and had been previously removed from the United States.

Reported on November 6, 2009

Del Rio Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested two illegal aliens from Mexico and seized 236 pounds of marijuana near Comstock, Texas. The two subjects scaled down a 40-foot rock in an attempt to avoid apprehension. One subject sustained injuries and was transported by local emergency medical services to a local hospital for treatment. A subsequent search of the area revealed the marijuana.

El Centro Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico at the traffic checkpoint near Calexico, California. Records checks revealed the subject had prior convictions for kidnapping and sexual assault, and had also been previously removed from the United States.

Rio Grande Valley Sector - Border Patrol agents seized 1,112 pounds of marijuana near La Rosita, Texas. Agents observed subjects loading large bundles of suspected marijuana into the bed of a Dodge Ram pickup truck. Upon seeing the agents, the subjects absconded, abandoning the vehicle and the marijuana.

Tucson Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested two illegal aliens from Mexico near Why, Arizona. The subjects claimed that two bandits robbed them of $250 and a pair of shoes. The case was referred to local law enforcement officials for investigation.

Reported on November 7, 2009

Rio Grande Valley Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Honduras near Falfurrias, Texas. During processing, the subject admitted to being an MS-13 gang member. Records checks revealed he had prior convictions for possession of marijuana and assault causing bodily injury in the State of Texas. He had also been previously removed from the United States.

Tucson Sector - Border Patrol agents seized 975 pounds of marijuana and a 1996 Lincoln Town Car near Palominas, Arizona. Agents followed footprints from the international border to a residence, received consent to search, and discovered 35 bundles of marijuana in the residence. There were an additional nine bundles in the vehicle.

Tucson Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Sasabe, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for cruelty toward a child and had been previously removed from the United States.

Reported on November 8, 2009

Tucson Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested a United States Citizen (USC) near Nogales, Arizona for smuggling three illegal aliens from South Africa. Records checks revealed the USC had an extensive criminal history, to include a prior conviction for manslaughter in the State of Arizona.

Yuma Sector - Border Patrol agents seized 2,303 pounds of marijuana and two Chevrolet Tahoes near San Luis, Arizona. Agents discovered a breach in the international border fence and detected two vehicles traveling north. Before agents reached the vehicles, the drivers had abandoned the trucks and absconded to Mexico. Agents discovered 194 bundles of marijuana inside the vehicles.

Reported on November 9, 2009

El Paso Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Fort Hancock, Texas. During processing, the subject admitted to being a member of the Fatherless gang. Records checks revealed he had an extensive criminal history to include prior convictions for possession of marijuana, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, burglary of habitation, theft, and engaging in organized criminal activity. He had also been previously removed from the United States.

Tucson Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Big Fields, Arizona. During processing, the subject admitted to being a Sureno gang member. Records checks revealed he had a prior conviction for a sex offense against child in the State of California and had been previously removed from the United States.

Tucson Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Nogales, Arizona. Records checks revealed he had a prior conviction for sexual assault, indecent assault, corruption of minors in the State of Pennsylvania and had been previously removed from the United States.

Reported on November 10, 2009

Del Rio Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Eagle Pass, Texas. The subject was identified as a member of the Locos 2000 gang, and records checks revealed he had been previously removed from the United States.

Rio Grande Valley Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from El Salvador near La Grulla, Texas. Records checks revealed he was the subject of an outstanding warrant for homicide issued in the State of Florida.

Tucson Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Willcox, Arizona. During processing, the subject admitted to being a member of the El Escuadron gang, an affiliate of the Sureno gang. Records checks revealed the subject had an extensive criminal history, including assault with intent to cause seriously injury, gang assault, and possession of a firearm. The subject had also been previously removed from the United States.

San Diego Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien near Tecate, California, who claimed to have been shot in the leg by bandits in Mexico. A Border Patrol emergency medical technician provided first aid until local emergency medical services arrived and transported the subject to a local hospital for treatment.

Reported on November 11, 2009

El Centro Sector - Border Patrol agents seized $284, 945.00 from a USC near the Calexico, California Port of Entry. The USC and vehicle were encountered during a vehicle stop. A CBP canine alerted to the vehicle, and a subsequent x-ray conducted at the Calexico Port of Entry revealed the hidden currency.

El Centro Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Calexico, California. The subject was identified as a member of the Surenos 13 gang and had also been previously removed from the United States.

Rio Grande Valley Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested two illegal aliens from Mexico and seized 1,299 pounds of marijuana near San Pedro, Texas. Border Patrol personnel observed approximately 19 subjects carrying bundles near a river levee. Agents responded, and the group abandoned the marijuana and fled into Mexico, with the exception of the two subjects arrested at the scene.

Rio Grande Valley Sector - Border Patrol agents seized 1,305 pounds of marijuana and a 2001 Chevrolet Suburban near Garceno, Texas. Agents observed several subjects loading suspected narcotics into the Suburban which departed the area. Shortly thereafter, agents discovered the vehicle abandoned with 73 bundles of marijuana inside.

Rio Grande Valley Sector - Border Patrol agents seized 1,287 pounds of marijuana and a 1994 Ford truck near La Casita, Texas. Agents observed several subjects loading bundles of suspected narcotics into the truck. When agents approached, they discovered the vehicle abandoned with 63 bundles of marijuana in the bed of the truck.

 --------------------------------

*This overview is compiled from incidents reported to Office of Border Patrol and is not intended to reflect all Border Patrol enforcement actions. Most arrests and seizures fail to meet the requirements for mandatory reporting to Border Patrol Headquarters.

Appropriately titled, PAYBACK Act (Preventing All Your Bucks from Aiding non-Citizens is Key), the measure would save the U.S. government billions of dollars annually and ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to fund health care services for illegal immigrants, according to its author, U.S. Representative Zack Space.

Medical bills for illegal aliens would be passed along to their country of origin, according to the proposed law, which was introduced in the House this month. The government would mostly collect by deducting the cost of illegal immigrants' healthcare from the foreign aid their home countries would normally get from the U.S.

If the U.S. does not offer foreign assistance the country would get billed for 110% of the medical costs. In the case where illegal immigrants are from nation's to whom the U.S. owes money, the cost of medically treating their citizens would be reduced from the debt. The money would be applied to strengthening border security. "It is fundamentally unfair and outrageous to foot the bill for immigrants unlawfully in the United States," said Space, who has represented Ohio's 18th congressional district since 2007. 

U.S. taxpayers spend tens of billions of dollars annually to provide free medical care for illegal immigrants with states that border Mexico taking the biggest hit. The expense has become so unbearable in California-long an illegal alien sanctuary-that several municipalities eliminated the perk this year to save tens of millions of dollars in the midst of the state's dire financial crisis.

Adding to the problem is the fact that Mexico, the country that provides the largest amount of illegal immigrants in the U.S., has long promoted America's generous public health centers. It even operates a Spanish-language program (Ventanillas de Salud, Health Windows) in about a dozen U.S. cities that refers its nationals-living in the country illegally-to clinics where they can get free medical care without being turned over to immigration authorities.

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Guatemalan strategy re U.S. immigration reform

Haroldo Rodas, Guatemala's Minister of Foreign Relations, [Sec. of State] yesterday revealed the strategy that the country will utilize in the U.S. so that an eventual migratory reform in the country [the U.S.] might include 11 points which would make it "integral" for fellow citizens, especially for Guatemalans. It deals with a proposal reached in consensus with the networks of Guatemalan migrants in the U.S., which El Salvador joined to give it greater impulse.

At a press conference, Rodas revealed that the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is aware of Guatemala's proposal because he sent her a letter last August containing the 11 issues regarding better treatment of migrants. Among other aspects, it seeks to make the migrants' special protection mechanisms stronger, more flexible and humane, especially when the return to their country of origin may result in high risk, such as with the Temporary Protection Status program. [ A program granting temporary, renewable, legal status to citizens of certain countries due to political upheavals, including civil war, in their countries of origin, which results in high personal insecurity as a result of that political instability.]

 Rodas added that with the addition of more countries there would be better possibilities of advancing [the issue]. Besides El Salvador, it is expected that Mexico, Belize and the Dominican Republic will join Guatemala's initiative, although the country is already lobbying.

Benjamin Monterroso, of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and coordinator of the Guatemalan Work Team for Migratory Reform, expressed optimism about the interest shown by senators and congressmen, such as Luis Gutierrez. Those present agreed that, added to President Barack Obama's campaign offer to implement that reform, and the naming of Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security, to be in charge of following up on the matter, it makes this a "good moment."

The Chancellor stated that 1.5 million Guatemalans are to be found in the United States and that 60 percent - some 800 thousand - could benefit from the reform. Monterroso explained that if the migratory problem is not resolved before the end of May 2010, it will take three to five years to bring it up again, and he underscored the "279 Votes" campaign, the necessary number to approve the new law, that is to say, 218 congressmen, 60 senators and one president.

Eddy Garrido, of the National Council for Assistance to the Guatemalan Migrant ("Conamigua"), stated that the leaders of the organizations will themselves be the lobbyists who will promote these points in the American Congress.

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La Hora (Quito, Ecuador), La Razon (La Paz, Bolivia)  11/10/09

Press group condemns violence

At the closing assembly of the Inter-American Press Society ("SIP") there was a unanimous vote of condemnation against governments and criminal organizations because of attacks against press media and journalists. The meeting took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and that country, plus Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela were named as places where the government was the main responsible party for restrictions on the freedom of expression by the press through control of information. "SIP" also condemned the murders this year of 3 journalists in Honduras, 8 in Mexico, 2 in Guatemala and one in El Salvador. "La Razon" added that the "SIP" demanded that Evo Morales, President of Bolivia, "abstain from insults and verbal aggressions" against journalists and communications media.

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Tiempo (Tegucigalpa, Honduras)  11/10/09

Another cocaine load

An abandoned truck which had entered at Las Manos, eastern Honduras, from Nicaragua, was found to have a hidden compartment where 685 kilos of cocaine had been hidden. The load of drugs was covered with a shipment of flour and oats. Police believe part of the cocaine had already been unloaded before they arrived at the scene. There were no arrests.

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La Prensa Grafica (San Salvador, El Salvador)  11/10/09

El Salvador military as police

Salvadorans approved and welcomed the assignment of 2,500 military to assist in combating crime and violence in that country. There have been 54 homicides there between the 1st and 5th of November. Today began with the finding of two more murder victims.

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El Debate (Culiacan, Sinaloa)  11/10/09

Hanging: a new trend?

The body of a tortured, shot, semi-nude man was found Tuesday morning in Culiacan, Sinaloa state. He had been hung from a highway overpass and his hands had been tied behind him. Firemen called to the scene had the task of removing and bringing down the body.

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La Cronica de Hoy (Mexico City)  11/10/09

Police purge

The mayor of Tlanepantla [in the "Distrito Federal" some dozen miles north of Mexico City] announced that 220 policemen had been let go for "acts of corruption, consumption of drugs, and even taking part in robberies and various crimes." Members of the Tlanepantla police force are being subjected to drug detection, background and personality exams to detect criminal activity. Another 108 members of that police force were let go last February for the same reasons.

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Norte (Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua)  11/10/09

Keeping score in Juarez

There was the following phrase at the end of an article recounting the events surrounding the latest homicides in Juarez: "According to journalistic records and official figures of the state authorities, these assassinations yesterday bring up to 2,190 the number of victims of homicide this year."

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National Association Of Former Border Patrol Officers
Visit our website: http://www.nafbpo.org
Foreign News Report

The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis. You are free to disseminate this information, but we request that you credit NAFBPO as being the provider.     
 

The hearing violated the spirit of open, oppositional discourse essential to the functioning and preservation of democratic institutions. The farce was also a sham. In an unseemly spectacle, leaders of religious denominations, hedging their testimony with equivocation, sought to convey the impression they speak in the name of their flocks, traducing their religious bona fides in a futile effort to lend an aura of credibility to misrepresentation.

Lack of balanced testimony in a national forum as significant as a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing is deplorable under all circumstances, but particularly insidious when it involves religion. This hearing mocked freedom of conscience. What Sen. Schumer undertook was a thinly veiled attempt to anoint those who support open-borders immigration as the Party of God while implicitly damning opponents as heartless heretics.

Sen. Schumer's opening statement set the tone. Combining affected earnestness with slippery argumentation, he sounded like Moliére's Tartuffe in his unctuousness. Speaking out of both sides of his mouth, the senator simultaneously upheld and subverted the rule of law, excoriated illegal immigration while urging it be rewarded, then tried extricating himself from these and similar contradictions by pole vaulting over the nation's present immigration crisis - begging scores of unanswered questions - and adumbrated a future immigration policy that would "encourage the best and the brightest" while "managing the flow of the low-skilled." This policy outline did not mention extended family reunification, an article of faith in the "immigration reform" advocated by every witness. But none of the politically savvy clerics betrayed even fleeting discomfort. Schumer is far too important to the attainment of their sectarian goals to risk ruffling his feathers.

The usual suspects were present - Cardinal McCarrick testified for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, while the Sisters of Mercy of America, the American Friends Service Committee, the American Jewish Committee, and the Anti-Defamation League submitted written statements - but it was the testimony of Evangelical Protestant leaders and preachers, the Rev. Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) above all, that was the high point and, according to Sen. Schumer, a historic coup. Anderson claimed the heads of the churches that comprise his umbrella group had chosen unanimously to embrace "comprehensive immigration reform." This purported socio-cultural game-changer was the hearing's raison ď'être. Sen. Schumer crowed over the scale of the endorsement, triumphantly announcing the advent of a new ally with 45,000 churches from over 40 denominations representing some 30 million parishioners. He noted, "It is now no longer possible to think of immigration as an issue that only matters to the Latino community. As these witnesses attest, this issue crosses faith lines, party lines, ideological lines."

For those who view religious institutions as inescapably social and political entities and interpret robust support for open-borders immigration by the Roman Catholic Church and the National Association of Evangelicals in more prosaically partisan, self-interested sectarian terms - constituency politics camouflaged by high-flown theological, ethical, and civic rhetoric - Anderson's testimony offers a more trenchant way to reframe Sen. Schumer's assertion about Latinos and immigration. The substitute formulation is Latinos "no longer only matter to the Roman Catholic Church." Evangelicals recognize they can and must win converts among these born-first-Catholics. It's key to remember that Roman Catholics and Evangelicals are old historical antagonists, more often bitter enemies than friends, and fierce competitors not only in the same business but the identical market niche. In an emphatic point in his testimony, the second paragraph where he launches his argument, Anderson gives the game away: "Our fastest growing churches are found in immigrant communities. In some of our denominations more than half the congregations have substantial numbers of immigrant members." In his peroration he states, "Immigrants are evangelical Christians who are in our denominations and churches by the millions. They are us."

That's not quite the case yet, at least in organizational terms. According to the Pew Forum's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, only 7 percent of American Evangelicals are Hispanic, but there's a huge potential market of religious switch-hitters: four out of ten Americans change religions in their lifetime. Also, some 16 million Hispanics in America - their legal status is academic - currently belong to churches affiliated with the largely Pentecostal National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. A large percentage of Hispanic men have walked away from the Catholic Church and disaffiliated from all religion. Over time these umbrella groups will work out their institutional politics and a merger is a safe bet.

The battle over warm immigrant and illegal-alien bodies to fill emptying Catholic pews and bursting ones in Evangelical mega-churches is also reflected in Cardinal McCarrick's testimony when he states, "The Catholic Church is an immigrant church. More than one-third of Catholics in the United States are of Hispanic origin." (He downplays the fact that 65 percent of American Catholics are non-Hispanic Whites, of whom it may be safely said an overwhelming majority oppose amnesty and open borders.) So compelling is the Church's interest in eliminating barriers to illegal immigration and amnestying the 11 million illegal aliens, the majority Mexican, that its pastoral letter endorsing "comprehensive immigration reform" titled "Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope" was drafted jointly by U.S. and Mexican bishops.

The Catholic Church's motives are mixed and signatories of the pastoral letter are undoubtedly responding to sincere ethical concerns, though unabashedly parochial ones. But it is difficult to avoid concluding that by partnering with the Mexican Church the U.S. Conference of Bishops' first allegiance is to Roman Catholic sectarian interests rather than to those of the American people and nation. In the zero-sum game of contemporary immigration, they define their loyalties in confessional, not national terms: the bishops have chosen to show greater concern for the well-being of illegally resident foreign Catholics than for that of their fellow citizens. This discordant theme is a leitmotif throughout McCarrick's testimony. Though peppered with scriptural citation, references to church doctrine, and moral commentary, unlike that of the other witnesses McCarrick's testimony is no homily. It doesn't sound or read like pulpit oratory; rather, the document appears to have been written by policy wonks, with the ecclesiastical window-dressing a later accretion. The tightly composed, politically savvy 18-page testimony focuses solely on the interests of illegal aliens and critiques legislation and policy paradigms that would advance or hinder them.

McCarrick's testimony not only wholly ignores the suffering of Americans facing the bleakest economic circumstances since the Great Depression - there's not so much as a passing genuflection to this crisis - but it also dismisses the issue as an irrelevancy. This attitude is incomprehensible when the current federal U-6 Unemployment Rate (which totals the unemployed looking for work, those too discouraged to, and those able to find only part-time work) is nearing 20 percent. The cardinal's testimony includes only two oblique references to the impact of mass immigration on American workers, both from controversial, extremely partisan sources: the purist libertarian Cato Institute, an odd ally for the Roman Catholic Church with its "social responsibility" agenda; and the North American Integration and Development Center (NAID), a center of globalist determinism which devalues American sovereignty and is funded by the government of Mexico. These studies maintain the economic hardships faced by American workers have nothing to do with competition with cheap immigrant labor.

A substantial body of research from more mainstream sources refutes this thesis, including a major study by the prestigious National Academy of Science, "The New Americans: Economic, Demographic and Fiscal Effects of Immigrants." See also Steven Camarota's "The Labor Market Impact of Immigration: A Review of Recent Studies," "Dropping Out: Immigrant Entry and Native Exit from the Labor Market," and Vernon Briggs, Jr., testimony to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, "Illegal Immigration: The Impact on Wages and Employment of Black Workers." McCarrrick's testimony doesn't anticipate or respond to these important findings, exhibiting a cavalier attitude to counter arguments that undermines his credibility.

The greatest failing in the cardinal's testimony is not intellectual, however problematic his arguments and sources; it lies in its stunted moral imagination, whose chief cause is a disturbing lack of catholicity. Lack of empathy for those outside one's sectarian sphere, a feature of both McCarrick's and Anderson's testimony, is evidenced by their failure to mention, let alone express sympathy with, the hardest hit group in America - African-Americans, whose unemployment in many urban centers is twice the national average during the Great Depression. This callousness seems explicable only because African Americans form but a small percentage of Roman Catholics and NAE member denominations. McCarrick's and Anderson's repeated calls for compassion and justice for immigrants ring hollow; they appear as no more than special pleading for special constituencies.

Throughout the hearing Schumer treated his clerical witnesses with great deference as he gently led their responses, asking only softball questions to which he already knew the answer. But on two occasions he appeared to slip, opening the door to inconvenient truths. He asked the three witnesses who claimed to represent religious denominations, "How many of your colleagues would you say agree with your views on immigration? Do you know of specific leaders who are not here today who would like to be?" Hoping to elicit impressive numbers, the question produced a disappointing result. Anderson cited the unanimous vote of his 75-member board. Cardinal McCarrick said he spoke for 300 active Bishops and "120 of us retired old geezers."

Rather than wasting limited question time on a matter so trivial and, we shall see, irrelevant as the size of the leadership cadres endorsing "comprehensive immigration reform," Schumer could have pursued a line of interrogatory with large political implications. One question, above all, was fairly crying out to be asked, but in so partisan a hearing its omission was predictable. Not a single senator evidently wished to know on what basis the cardinal and pastor claimed to speak on behalf of some 75 million Roman Catholics and 30 million Evangelicals. Assuming the witnesses answered honestly, their responses would have revealed the political meaninglessness of their endorsements, not to mention contempt for the opinions of their co-religionists. It surely matters to those in whose name "comprehensive immigration reform" received their denomination's endorsement to know how the decision was made. It's equally important to all Americans to know whether these ostensibly weighty endorsements are the result of a democratic decision-making process or represent no more than dicta by unrepresentative sectarian oligarchies.

In fairness to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the board of the National Association of Evangelicals, it should be noted that no religious denomination in the United States - Christian or Jewish - operates in a different way. All are oligarchies. None makes its decisions through democratic processes. Some hold conventions at which public policy is deliberated - the appearance of being representative is important though not the reality - but attendees represent an enhanced leadership cadre, not average congregants. It would be a cheap shot, indeed, to assert the Catholic Church's hierarchical structure makes it particularly susceptible to anti-democratic governance. The Central Conference of American Rabbis of Reform Judaism, or the Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism - both of which have endorsed "comprehensive immigration reform" - didn't arrive at that conclusion any more democratically than did the bishops. (I've written a Backgrounder on the spurious mandate of the American Jewish establishment regarding immigration policy.) The same could be said of mainline Protestant churches.

The point, however, is that the American people are unaware how these decisions are made across the religious spectrum. They don't know they are invariably taken by tiny elites. They need to know.

That the decision by the Catholic Church and the National Association of Evangelicals was taken by miniscule hierarchies rather than through consultation, dialogue and debate among the body of the faithful is coyly revealed in Cardinal McCarrick's citing 420 Bishops and no one else, and Rev. Anderson's citing only his 75 board members as endorsing open-borders immigration. But it isn't necessary to read between the lines of their self-serving responses. Survey data reveals a huge gulf between the pro-amnesty, open-borders immigration policy backed by the Roman Catholic hierarchy and the views of ordinary American Roman Catholics. The same data show an even wider chasm separating the leadership of the National Association of Evangelicals from the great majority of Born-Again Christians.

The stark divide between the pulpit and pew is reflected in dramatic findings of a survey by Zogby International undertaken for CIS published in 2006. The survey's chief purpose was to ascertain whether most Americans supported the enforcement-only bill passed by the House or a Senate bill that would have increased immigration (the survey reveals only 2% of Americans believe immigration is too low) and permitted illegal aliens to apply for legal status - the identical poles of the debate three years later. The survey revealed Americans favored the House version by 2 to 1. Conducted by telephone interviews of 1,000 likely voters, the findings were broken out by religious affiliation, among other criteria. We'll focus on a handful of key findings which, in sum, show huge majorities of both Roman Catholics and Evangelicals oppose increased immigration, are united in the belief that current immigration is too high, are supportive of an enforcement-only approach, and share the belief the federal government has never made a proper effort to control illegal immigration.

Question #1 asks Americans whether they want immigration reduced, and the survey offers respondents three choices: (1) reduce immigration in order to better assimilate the immigrants already here; (2) since immigrants are assimilating fine we should continue the current level of immigration; and (3) not sure. 65 percent of Roman Catholics chose to reduce immigration, with 29 percent supporting continuing immigration at current levels. 80 percent of Born-Again Christians chose to reduce immigration, with only 14 percent supporting continuing immigration at current rates. Question #2 asks whether Americans believe current immigration is too high, and offers four choices: (1) Too High; (2) Too Low; (3) Just About Right; and (4) Not Sure. 64 percent of Catholics responded immigration is Too High; and 0 percent said is was Too Low. 30 percent said it was About Right. 78 percent of Born-Again Christians said immigration is Too High; and only 1 percent responded Too Low. 18 percent responded Just About Right. Question #3 asks whether Americans prefer the House ("enforcement only") approach, and respondents are offered three choices: "Good or Very Good Idea; Bad or Very Bad Idea; and Not Sure. 66 percent of Catholics responded that an "enforcement only policy" is a "Good or Very Good Idea;" 30 percent responded Bad or Very Bad Idea. 77 percent of Born-Again Christians responded "enforcement only" was a "Good or Very Good Idea;" and 19 percent responded Bad or Very Bad Idea. Finally, Question #9 asks Americans whether enforcement of immigration laws has been adequate or inadequate, offering respondents three choices: "Efforts have been grossly inadequate and the government has never tried to enforce immigration laws;" or "We made a real effort to enforce immigration laws but failed because we are not allowing enough immigrants in legally;" and "Not Sure." 73 percent of Roman Catholics responded that "Efforts have been grossly inadequate;" and 18 percent responded "We made a real effort but failed." 78 percent of Born-Again Christians responded that "Efforts have been grossly inadequate;" and 13 percent responded "We made a real effort but failed."

Though the senators never directly probed the fictitious mandates their witnesses cleverly didn't so much positively assert as not disavow - allowing a false impression to stand uncorrected - the interrogatory became more problematic when Schumer asked a question on the issue's periphery, unwittingly opening a door he and his witnesses would rather have kept shut. He asked, "Do you think there are some religious leaders who do not speak out in favor of immigration reform particularly to their congregants for fear of reprisal from the congregation or disfavor or anything like that. Tell me what you think." Two witnesses responded. Leith Anderson did his best to fob off and minimize the issue. But the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, an association of Born-Again Christians and New Evangelicals who belong to 25,434 churches and total some 16 million Hispanic Evangelicals, surprised all present by doing the unheard of: he told the truth. He responded, "Absolutely, there's a disconnect between the pulpit and the pews, particularly in non-ethnic congregations." ("Ethnic" has evidently become another euphemism for Hispanic in current parlance.) He quickly added the NAE's endorsement of "comprehensive immigration reform" would help close the cultural divide, making support for open-borders "no longer a Latino thing or a Hispanic church issue, now it's the collective evangelical community." But this reassurance didn't quite dispel the image of the pulpit and pew at loggerheads. Subsequent revelations would dispel it altogether.

The purported unanimity among the member churches of the National Association of Evangelicals claimed by Rev. Anderson turns out to be illusory. Subsequent clarifications by member churches demolish the optimistic assessment of Rev. Rodriguez, raise questions about the veracity of Rev. Anderson's testimony, and reveal as hollow Sen. Schumer's erroneous assertion that the great majority of America's Evangelical Christians support "comprehensive immigration reform." Immediately following Leith Anderson's announcement of NAE's "unanimous support," there was an uprising in those obstreperous pews against the pulpit. The following headline appeared on Numbers USA's website on October 23: "GOOD NEWS: 75% of Evangelical Member Denominations DON'T Sign NAE's Pro-Amnesty Document."

As reported by Numbers USA, following outraged phone calls, emails and faxes sent to denominational headquarters by huge numbers of congregants, many member churches of NAE posted statements on-line disavowing support for "comprehensive immigration reform." At present, just 11 of the 42 affiliated churches (25 percent) endorse the statement. Rev. Anderson may brag that his two largest denominations - the Assemblies of God and the Church of the Nazarene - are signatories, but it's a safe bet their support reflects the views of a body of senior pastors, certainly not a majority of parishioners.

Thus, as is the case with virtually ever other identifiable sociological demographic one could name in the United States, the leadership cadre of the National Association of Evangelicals has usurped the voice of its members with regard to support for open-borders immigration. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has done the same to the great majority of American Catholics who are not Hispanic (and even many who are). Immigration is no less the "perfect policy storm" for Evangelicals or Catholics than for all other Americans, despite the theatrics at the hearing on October 8.

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 Arrests made in General's assassination

State authorities in Garcia, Nuevo Leon, arrested 10 people in connection with the murders of the newly appointed Chief of Police, Brigadier General Juan Esparza, and four of his bodyguards [Friday's M3 Report].  The General and his escorts were ambushed and gunned down by a contingent of some 30 hit men from Los Zetas, the armed branch of the Gulf drug cartel.  Among those arrested were municipal and transit police and an active political member of the leftist PRD party.  The politician, Norberto Jaime Trevino, had been an unsuccessful candidate for mayor of the city of Garcia where the murders took place.  Trevino had been involved in illegal activities for which he was personally admonished by the present mayor of Garcia.  Supposedly, the attack orchestrated by Trevino for vengeance, was only meant to frighten the General.

Controversial issue

[An editorial titled "Do we kill criminals?"  Ref: M3 Report 11/3/09]

A great deal of commotion has surrounded the mayor of San Pedro [Nuevo Leon] after announcing, first, that he would "create cleaning crews" against criminals and then revealing that a presumed narco trafficker was executed in DF [Federal District] before the authorities in the capital had confirmed the discovery.  Death squadrons in Mexico?  Serious, but there had already been indications for some time.  The problem that faces us now is that the people don't seem to react, indignant, when an authority promotes this discretional use of brute force.

 There lacks a national survey to confirm this, but the comments of citizens already give us an indication of support.  A horrifying coincidence considering the discussion about the death penalty.  In 2008, 75% of the people approved of it, even knowing that in this country, the corruption and the inefficiency of the judicial system does not permit knowing if all those detained and convicted are in reality guilty.  Already one political party has taken advantage of this issue to win votes and got them.  Would the same tactic benefit the "avengers" like the mayor of San Pedro?  It would be a dreadful precedent.

 The citizens must understand that opposing death squadrons is not hypocrisy.  It is knowing history and human behavior.  A mercenary contracted by governments or business groups to eliminate criminals will sooner or later become part of a band of kidnappers or murderers.  This has already happened with elite Mexican military; from such came Los Zetas.  In Colombia the businessmen created paramilitary groups that the country now cannot get rid of.  The civil population, that cannot pay "civilian guards." are the ones who will always end up in the crossfire.

 Impunity should never be a pretext to justify the irrational use of force.

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 Lapolaka (Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua) 11/6/09

 An afternoon in Cd. Juarez

[Translation of short article titled "Cartels in total war."]

Cd. Juarez - The city became a street disaster this Friday evening because of crime.  A series of gunfights caused police responses, cars in pursuit and continuous congestion of streets.  At [one] intersection, a taxi was blasted by an armed group.  In the interior of the vehicle resting on a center divider were the dead driver and two unidentified passengers.  In [another neighborhood] a motorcyclist was chased and shot with rifles.  The body of the victim remained lifeless under the wheels of a bus.  On [another street in another neighborhood] a Stratus automobile occupied by hit-men collided with a bus causing the bus to turn over.  While the killers ran through the streets with their assault rifles on their shoulders, paramedics attended the 15 injured passengers who were riding on the bus.

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Huge opium gum seizure

The Mexican military near the town of Guadalupe y Calvo, Chihuahua, [near the southern border of the state] made one of the largest seizures of opium gum in history.  The operation netted 203 kilos of gum in nine plastic containers with an estimated value of nearly seven million dollars.  The gum can be converted into morphine, heroin and/or codeine

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 Sunday 11/8/09

 El Universal (Mexico City) 11/7/09

 Tough day for Mexican police: a collection of today's stories

- Agents of the organized crime division of the Mexican federal department of justice (SIEDO) arrested 12 Guerrero state police investigators for apparent connections with narco criminals.  The state agents were summoned to an anti-narcotics office to presumably carry out an operation.  On arrival, they were disarmed and arrested on federal warrants by SIEDO agents assisted by military units.

 - State police in La Union, Guerrero, responding to a report of the discovery of a body, were ambushed by a group of hit men.  The attack wounded five of the officers and killed another.

 - A federal police commander and an agent were gunned down in Mexicali, Baja California, when they arrived at a residence suspected of narco activity.  The attack also wounded another federal agent accompanying them.

 - In another incident, a municipal police captain in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, was assassinated while driving his personal car.

 - The mutilated body of a presumed policeman was discovered in the town of Soledad de Doblado, Veracruz, an area where federal forces killed the leader of a group of Los Zetas last Tuesday.  The body, with clothing that appeared to be a police uniform, had a message on the chest signed by Los Zetas, the armed branch of the Gulf drug cartel.

 - While eight people were murdered in Sinaloa state during the past day, another victim of a shooting that occurred August 29 died in the hospital from the injuries she suffered in an attack that targeted and killed her husband, a municipal police agent.

 - And in Tijuana, Baja California, authorities have learned that organized crime planned to assassinate the Secretary of Public Security because of the actions he has taken against them.  Although he has not received death threats, federal authorities have information that an attack was planned.  This has put the authorities on alert.  The mayor said, in effect, that the top police official is threatened because he is actually doing his job.  Those who are not performing their duties have nothing to fear.

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 El Financiero (Mexico City) 11/7/09

 Mexico and US working together as never before: Napolitano

In an interview with the Spanish daily El Pais, US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said that the US and Mexico have, at this time, the best cooperation in working jointly against narcotraffic.  "We work very closely with President Calderon and his government and there cannot be more agreement in that there is enormous interest by the US in defeating the cartels," she said.  "For us, it is a matter of national security in that these organizations should introduce drugs in hundreds of communities," she emphasized.  Referring to the topic of migration, she said President Barack Obama wants to move ahead with that in 2010.  She anticipates changes will be presented to Congress in the first half of next year.  She said that there is a better system for finding those who have crossed the border illegally and for identifying the businesses that give them employment.  There is a growing public awareness that there must be change.  She also affirmed that there is a majority who see the illegals, in most part, as future US citizens.

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 Frontera (Tijuana, Baja California) 11/7/09

 Intriguing story fragment

A citizen report led Mexican Army troops to discover a tunnel in Tijuana, which in turn, led to the discovery of a storehouse with 125 kilos of marihuana, 23 vehicles and the arrest of six people.  The tunnel was discovered under a house that was under construction in Colonia 70-76 and is 10 meters deep, 1.85 meters high,1.10 meters wide and 1.22 meters long. [sic]  The storehouse was located in Colonia 20 de Noviembre.  [This is essentially all the information in the story.  The problem, aside from the dimensions of the tunnel, is that the two colonias are not near one another and no explanation was given how the tunnel and storehouse are connected.  However there was a good photo.  Attached.]

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 Monday 11/9/09

 Frontera (Tijuana, Baja California) 11/8/09

 Update on yesterday's tunnel story

The number of arrests in the tunnel caper reported yesterday increased from six to eight.  Those arrested are presumed to be the ones constructing the tunnel.  Also, the length of the tunnel was increased from 1.22 to 122 meters.  Other than referring to it as a "narcotunnel," the story left all other questions unanswered.

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 El Universal (Mexico City) 11/8/09

 Violence against news reporters

Eight journalists were assassinated within the past six months in Mexico and 53 between 2000 and 2009, advised the International Press Society (SIP).  The SIP pointed out that attacks against the news media increase in an atmosphere of impunity.  "Mexican journalism faces a constant threat, considering the cases of assassinations and attacks," according to a report presented to the assembly.  There are areas where news reporters suffer difficulties in carrying out their work due to the growth of organized crime and the battle the government has brought against the criminals.  The assembly report also complained that the present legislature "doesn't have the same political will as the former one," criticizing its elimination of a Special Commission for monitoring attacks on journalists and communications media.

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 El Financiero (Mexico City) 11/8/09

 Arms traffic controlled by subsidiaries, not drug cartels: PGR

The large criminal drug trafficking organizations do not control the arms traffic but rather, their distribution networks contact buyers in the US and they bring the arms into Mexico, according to a study by the Mexican Department of Justice (PGR).  The smuggling operation is carried out in a series of small shipments ("ant trails") and not big ones all at once, the PGR analysis indicates.  "Up to now, no criminal organization, foreign or national, has been detected exclusively trafficking in arms," said the report.  The report also pointed out that Los Zetas, the armed branch of the Gulf drug cartel, has obtained most of their armament from Mexico's present federal administration.  The official investigation assures that "in the US, there are no clandestine groups that sell arms, but along the length of the border with Mexico there are more than 12,000 sales establishments."

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National Association Of Former Border Patrol Officers
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Foreign News Report

The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis. You are free to disseminate this information, but we request that you credit NAFBPO as being the provider.