"Mexico finds smuggling tunnel near US border" by ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON | Associated Press, December 29, 2012
MEXICO CITY — Mexican authorities have discovered a sophisticated smuggling tunnel equipped with electricity and ventilation not far from the Nogales port of entry into Arizona, US and Mexican officials said Friday.
The Mexican Army said the tunnel was found Thursday after authorities received an anonymous call in the border city of Nogales in the state of Sonora, south of Arizona. US law enforcement officials confirmed the Mexican military found the football-field-long tunnel with elaborate electricity and ventilation systems.
US Border Patrol spokesman Victor Brabble said the tunnel did not cross into the United States. The army said the anonymous caller was reporting gunmen standing outside a two-story house in a hilly neighborhood near the international bridge where motorists travel between Mexico and the United States.
Inside the house, soldiers discovered a fake wall inside a storage closet under a staircase that led to a dark room with buckets and clothes. After lifting a drain cover in that room, soldiers found another staircase at the entrance of the tunnel that went 16 feet underground and measured a yard in diameter. Lightbulbs lit the underground passage and pipes stretched across the 120-yard tunnel that Mexican army officials believe was built to smuggle drugs.
It was unclear whether officials made any arrests, but the house where the tunnel was found was seized by the local government.
--more--"
Look at what else the Globe dug up:
"US returns over 4,000 archeological relics to Mexico" Associated Press, October 27, 2012
EL PASO, Texas — The items returned Thursday mostly date from before European explorers landed in North America and include items from hunter-gatherers in pre-Columbian northern Mexico, such as stones used to grind corn, statues, figurines, and copper hatchets, said Pedro Sanchez, president of the National Archaeological Council of Mexico....
Homeland Security special agent Dennis Ulrich said authorities executing a search warrant in Fort Stockton found the largest portion of the cache. Further investigation revealed that the two men behind the smuggling were also involved in drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States, he said.
--more--"
"Border Patrol halts immigrants’ free return flights to Mexico" by Elliot Spagat | Associated Press, September 11, 2012
Look at what else the Globe dug up:
"US returns over 4,000 archeological relics to Mexico" Associated Press, October 27, 2012
EL PASO, Texas — The items returned Thursday mostly date from before European explorers landed in North America and include items from hunter-gatherers in pre-Columbian northern Mexico, such as stones used to grind corn, statues, figurines, and copper hatchets, said Pedro Sanchez, president of the National Archaeological Council of Mexico....
Homeland Security special agent Dennis Ulrich said authorities executing a search warrant in Fort Stockton found the largest portion of the cache. Further investigation revealed that the two men behind the smuggling were also involved in drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States, he said.
--more--"
"Border Patrol halts immigrants’ free return flights to Mexico" by Elliot Spagat | Associated Press, September 11, 2012
TUCSON — The US government has halted flights home for Mexicans caught entering the country illegally in the deadly heat of Arizona’s deserts, a money-saving move that ends a seven-year experiment that cost taxpayers nearly $100 million.
I'm glad my government that impo$es au$terity at home had $100 million dollars of taxpayer money to conduct a failed experiment.
More than 125,000 passengers were flown deep into Mexico for free since 2004 in an effort that initially met with skepticism from Mexican government officials and migrants, but was gradually embraced as a way to help people get back on their feet and save lives.
I'm glad my government that impo$es au$terity at home had $100 million dollars of taxpayer money to conduct a failed experiment.
More than 125,000 passengers were flown deep into Mexico for free since 2004 in an effort that initially met with skepticism from Mexican government officials and migrants, but was gradually embraced as a way to help people get back on their feet and save lives.
The Border Patrol hailed it as a way to discourage people from trying their luck again, and it appears to have kept many away — at least for a short time.
But with Border Patrol arrests at 40-year lows and fresh evidence suggesting more people may be heading south of the border than north, officials struggled to fill the planes and found the costs increasingly difficult to justify....
That doesn't mean they are not still coming.
Related: Mexico's Migrant Train
Notice how Honduras is practically unmentioned in my agenda-pu$hing paper since the U.S.-supported coup?
‘‘Everything comes down to dollars and cents,’’ said George Allen, assistant chief of the Border Patrol’s Tucson sector. ‘‘We’re running into a more budget-conscious society, especially with the government.’’
That doesn't mean they are not still coming.
Related: Mexico's Migrant Train
Notice how Honduras is practically unmentioned in my agenda-pu$hing paper since the U.S.-supported coup?
‘‘Everything comes down to dollars and cents,’’ said George Allen, assistant chief of the Border Patrol’s Tucson sector. ‘‘We’re running into a more budget-conscious society, especially with the government.’’
*********************************
In an effort to keep the flights going, American authorities proposed mixing in Mexicans who commit crimes while living in the United States.
Why were they not be included in the first place?
The Mexican government balked at seating hardened criminals next to families, elderly, and the frail who recently crossed the border in search of work....
Oh.
Why were they not be included in the first place?
The Mexican government balked at seating hardened criminals next to families, elderly, and the frail who recently crossed the border in search of work....
Oh.
The pilot program was partly a response to complaints from Mexican border cities that too many deportees were being dumped on their streets and contributing to crime and unemployment....
Who do they think they are, the state of Nevada.
Who do they think they are, the state of Nevada.
The flights became a key piece of Border Patrol enforcement in Arizona as the agency moved to end its decades-old, revolving-door policy of taking migrants to the nearest crossing to try again hours later.
The agency’s new strategy, introduced in Tucson last year and later extended to the entire border, relies on tougher punishments that were rolled out in recent years.
I thought Obama and the Democrats were the illegal immigrants' friend.
I thought Obama and the Democrats were the illegal immigrants' friend.
--more--"
"Court says US has wrongly denied citizenship for decades; Government cited Mexico law that doesn’t exist" by Christopher Sherman | Associated Press, September 25, 2013
BROWNSVILLE, Texas — For more than two decades, Sigifredo Saldana Iracheta, 49, insisted he was a US citizen, repeatedly explaining to immigration officials that he was born to an American father and a Mexican mother in a city just south of the Texas border.
He can't constitutionally run for president then, even though that provision is now ignored.
The federal government rejected his claims, deporting him at least four times and at one point detaining him for nearly two years as he sought permission to join his wife and three children in South Texas.
Related: Detained to Death
The Illegal Immigrant Imprisonment Industry
Wasn't exactly in the brochure selling freedom and opportunity, was it?
In rejecting Saldana’s bid for citizenship, the government sought to apply an old law that cited Article 314 of the Mexican Constitution, which supposedly dealt with legitimizing out-of-wedlock births. But there was a problem: The Mexican Constitution has no such article.
You mean the U.S. government.... (gasp).... lied?
The error appears to have originated in 1978, and it has been repeated since, frustrating an untold number of people who are entitled to US citizenship but could not get it....
For the laborer and sometime carpenter, the Sept. 11 decision ended a grueling and costly ordeal. After serving a prison sentence for a 1989 drug conviction in Texas, he told authorities he was a US citizen, but was deported in 1992. Between 2002 and 2007, he applied four times for a certificate of citizenship. Each time he was deported, he was separated from his family.
While I feel bad for him and his, I also feel mad about another agenda-pu$hing article.
“I have always lived with a fear in my house that whichever night, they’ll arrive and arrest me,” said Saldana, who was born in 1964 in the border city of Matamoros, across the Rio Grande from Brownsville.
Days after the ruling, Saldana still seethed with frustration for the rejections, for every time his family had to scrape together money to hire another lawyer. He rued time missed with his children, the low wages he endured as a worker without papers, and the responsibilities that fell on his wife, Laura.
Welcome to AmeriKa.
Oh, right, he's already a citizen.
Saldana argued that he automatically became a US citizen at birth because his father was an American.
But because his parents were not married, US authorities claimed he should have been “legitimated” by age 21 in a process they claimed was governed by Mexican law, specifically the phantom Article 314.
A 2008 letter from US Citizenship and Immigration Services cited the article and said the only way for Saldana to gain legal legitimacy would have been for his parents to marry.
The marriage never happened, but it did not have to.
Saldana’s birth certificate, registered with the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, includes his parents’ names. The appellate court said that was enough.
Last month in Houston, Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod was incredulous.
“So all along, that’s been in this case, and you all have been citing this over and over again to people for years now, and you can’t even look it up in Mexican law,” Walker Elrod said to US attorney Aimee Carmichael. “It doesn’t even exist.”
Sounds a little like Al-CIA-Duh, doesn't it?
The court said the government “relied on provisions of the Mexican Constitution that either never existed or do not say what DHS claims they say.”
Like that is a surprise anymore?
That last part refers to the government’s use of a provision of the Mexican Constitution, Article 130, to deny Saldana’s claim in 2004. That article exists, but says nothing like what the government claims.
They are trying to rewrite the Second Amendment up north!
Matthew Hoppock, a Kansas City lawyer who specializes in appeals related to immigration issues, said such mistakes are rare but are more common when foreign law interpretations are used. “Most of the people here talking about it don’t really know what the Mexican Constitution says,” he said.
Most Americans don't know what the Constitution says, and even less care it seems.
Since when does AmeriKa care about what foreigners think of the law anyway? They break the international kind all the time.
He added: “These people are citizens by their birth, and for 35 years the government has been telling them you are not citizens because of this law that doesn’t exist.”
********************
It is unclear just how many cases have been affected by the error. The court’s opinion cited four in addition to the original one in 1978, and there are surely others. Immigration cases are not open to the public....
Oh, it is a HANDFUL? And yet it gets all this ink?
--more--"
Also see: Sunday Globe Specials: Initiating Immigration Reform
It's because of the waves of illegal immigrants.
Time to send 'em down the river:
"US, Mexico reach deal on Colorado River sharing; Agreement called most important since 1944 treaty" by Elliot Spagat | Associated Press, November 21, 2012
"Court says US has wrongly denied citizenship for decades; Government cited Mexico law that doesn’t exist" by Christopher Sherman | Associated Press, September 25, 2013
BROWNSVILLE, Texas — For more than two decades, Sigifredo Saldana Iracheta, 49, insisted he was a US citizen, repeatedly explaining to immigration officials that he was born to an American father and a Mexican mother in a city just south of the Texas border.
He can't constitutionally run for president then, even though that provision is now ignored.
The federal government rejected his claims, deporting him at least four times and at one point detaining him for nearly two years as he sought permission to join his wife and three children in South Texas.
Related: Detained to Death
The Illegal Immigrant Imprisonment Industry
Wasn't exactly in the brochure selling freedom and opportunity, was it?
In rejecting Saldana’s bid for citizenship, the government sought to apply an old law that cited Article 314 of the Mexican Constitution, which supposedly dealt with legitimizing out-of-wedlock births. But there was a problem: The Mexican Constitution has no such article.
You mean the U.S. government.... (gasp).... lied?
The error appears to have originated in 1978, and it has been repeated since, frustrating an untold number of people who are entitled to US citizenship but could not get it....
For the laborer and sometime carpenter, the Sept. 11 decision ended a grueling and costly ordeal. After serving a prison sentence for a 1989 drug conviction in Texas, he told authorities he was a US citizen, but was deported in 1992. Between 2002 and 2007, he applied four times for a certificate of citizenship. Each time he was deported, he was separated from his family.
While I feel bad for him and his, I also feel mad about another agenda-pu$hing article.
“I have always lived with a fear in my house that whichever night, they’ll arrive and arrest me,” said Saldana, who was born in 1964 in the border city of Matamoros, across the Rio Grande from Brownsville.
Days after the ruling, Saldana still seethed with frustration for the rejections, for every time his family had to scrape together money to hire another lawyer. He rued time missed with his children, the low wages he endured as a worker without papers, and the responsibilities that fell on his wife, Laura.
Welcome to AmeriKa.
Oh, right, he's already a citizen.
Saldana argued that he automatically became a US citizen at birth because his father was an American.
But because his parents were not married, US authorities claimed he should have been “legitimated” by age 21 in a process they claimed was governed by Mexican law, specifically the phantom Article 314.
A 2008 letter from US Citizenship and Immigration Services cited the article and said the only way for Saldana to gain legal legitimacy would have been for his parents to marry.
The marriage never happened, but it did not have to.
Saldana’s birth certificate, registered with the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, includes his parents’ names. The appellate court said that was enough.
Last month in Houston, Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod was incredulous.
“So all along, that’s been in this case, and you all have been citing this over and over again to people for years now, and you can’t even look it up in Mexican law,” Walker Elrod said to US attorney Aimee Carmichael. “It doesn’t even exist.”
Sounds a little like Al-CIA-Duh, doesn't it?
The court said the government “relied on provisions of the Mexican Constitution that either never existed or do not say what DHS claims they say.”
Like that is a surprise anymore?
That last part refers to the government’s use of a provision of the Mexican Constitution, Article 130, to deny Saldana’s claim in 2004. That article exists, but says nothing like what the government claims.
They are trying to rewrite the Second Amendment up north!
Matthew Hoppock, a Kansas City lawyer who specializes in appeals related to immigration issues, said such mistakes are rare but are more common when foreign law interpretations are used. “Most of the people here talking about it don’t really know what the Mexican Constitution says,” he said.
Most Americans don't know what the Constitution says, and even less care it seems.
Since when does AmeriKa care about what foreigners think of the law anyway? They break the international kind all the time.
He added: “These people are citizens by their birth, and for 35 years the government has been telling them you are not citizens because of this law that doesn’t exist.”
********************
It is unclear just how many cases have been affected by the error. The court’s opinion cited four in addition to the original one in 1978, and there are surely others. Immigration cases are not open to the public....
Oh, it is a HANDFUL? And yet it gets all this ink?
--more--"
Also see: Sunday Globe Specials: Initiating Immigration Reform
It's because of the waves of illegal immigrants.
Time to send 'em down the river:
"US, Mexico reach deal on Colorado River sharing; Agreement called most important since 1944 treaty" by Elliot Spagat | Associated Press, November 21, 2012
CORONADO, Calif. — The United States and Mexico agreed Tuesday to rewrite rules on sharing water from the Colorado River, capping a five-year effort to create a united front against future droughts.
They can have as much as they want, I guess, except it went east into the farmlands and wheat fields of Nebraska.
The far-reaching agreement signed near San Diego gives Mexico badly needed storage capacity by granting rights to put some of its river water in Lake Mead, which stretches across Nevada and Arizona.
Mexico will forfeit some of its share of the river during shortages, bringing itself in line with western US states that already have agreed how much they will surrender in years when waters recede.
Water agencies in California, Arizona, and Nevada also will buy water from Mexico, which will use some of the money to upgrade its infrastructure.
I'm getting the feeling that some one is being $ent up a certain river without a paddle, taxpayers.
US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar called the agreement the most important international accord on the Colorado River since a 1944 treaty.
‘‘We have chosen cooperation and consensus over discord,’’ he said.
The agreement, coming in the final days of the administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderon, is a major amendment to the 1944 treaty considered sacred by many south of the border. The treaty grants Mexico 1.5 million acre-feet of river water each year — enough to supply about 3 million homes — making it the lifeblood of Tijuana and other cities in northwest Mexico.
So now Mexicans are going to thirst -- which will drive them guess where.
Mexico will surrender some of its allotment when the water level in Lake Mead drops to 1,075 feet and reap some of the surplus when it rises to 1,145 feet, according to a summary of the agreement prepared by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which will buy some of Mexico’s water.
Aaaaaaah! Yes, the thirst elite in LA cannot do without water. Can't have dry mouths eating dirt there.
The agreement expires in five years and is being billed as a trial run, potentially making it more palatable in Mexico.
Well, this water taste like $***.
‘‘These are big political steps for Mexico to take,’’ said Jeffrey Kightlinger, Metropolitan’s general manager. ‘‘Chances are we won’t have a surplus, and we won’t have a shortage but, if we do, we’ll have the guidelines in place on how we’re going to handle it.’’
*****************************
The negotiations gained a sense of urgency for Mexico in 2010 after a magnitude-7.2 earthquake damaged canals and other infrastructure, forcing it to store water temporarily in Lake Mead....
Related: Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
If they're a-leapin', I'm a-leavin'!
Roberto Salmon, Mexico’s representative to the International Boundary and Water Commission, said the pact was the latest sign of improved cooperation with the United States.
--more--"
Related(?): Mining the Globe For Some Mexican Items
They can have as much as they want, I guess, except it went east into the farmlands and wheat fields of Nebraska.
The far-reaching agreement signed near San Diego gives Mexico badly needed storage capacity by granting rights to put some of its river water in Lake Mead, which stretches across Nevada and Arizona.
Mexico will forfeit some of its share of the river during shortages, bringing itself in line with western US states that already have agreed how much they will surrender in years when waters recede.
Water agencies in California, Arizona, and Nevada also will buy water from Mexico, which will use some of the money to upgrade its infrastructure.
I'm getting the feeling that some one is being $ent up a certain river without a paddle, taxpayers.
US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar called the agreement the most important international accord on the Colorado River since a 1944 treaty.
‘‘We have chosen cooperation and consensus over discord,’’ he said.
The agreement, coming in the final days of the administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderon, is a major amendment to the 1944 treaty considered sacred by many south of the border. The treaty grants Mexico 1.5 million acre-feet of river water each year — enough to supply about 3 million homes — making it the lifeblood of Tijuana and other cities in northwest Mexico.
So now Mexicans are going to thirst -- which will drive them guess where.
Mexico will surrender some of its allotment when the water level in Lake Mead drops to 1,075 feet and reap some of the surplus when it rises to 1,145 feet, according to a summary of the agreement prepared by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which will buy some of Mexico’s water.
Aaaaaaah! Yes, the thirst elite in LA cannot do without water. Can't have dry mouths eating dirt there.
The agreement expires in five years and is being billed as a trial run, potentially making it more palatable in Mexico.
Well, this water taste like $***.
‘‘These are big political steps for Mexico to take,’’ said Jeffrey Kightlinger, Metropolitan’s general manager. ‘‘Chances are we won’t have a surplus, and we won’t have a shortage but, if we do, we’ll have the guidelines in place on how we’re going to handle it.’’
*****************************
The negotiations gained a sense of urgency for Mexico in 2010 after a magnitude-7.2 earthquake damaged canals and other infrastructure, forcing it to store water temporarily in Lake Mead....
Related: Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
If they're a-leapin', I'm a-leavin'!
Roberto Salmon, Mexico’s representative to the International Boundary and Water Commission, said the pact was the latest sign of improved cooperation with the United States.
--more--"
Related(?): Mining the Globe For Some Mexican Items
