BORDER NEWS

Human rights groups have begun a campaign to collect information on abuses from immigrants in the southwest US.  Most of the abuses suffered by immigrants in the US go unreported because immigrants do not know their rights.  Also, if they do not have legal status, they are often hesitant to report crimes against them to the police for fear of being deported.  The organizations plan to provide the information they gather to authorities.  The campaign will also work to educate immigrants about their rights and ways they can have those rights enforced.

*********

Five years after his deportation, the INS realized that it could not legally deport Alberto Caballero because he is a US citizen.  Caballero became a citizen automatically because both of his parents were naturalized before his 18^th birthday, but he did not know this, and did not raise the issue in his deportation hearing.  The INS says it does all it can to determine that a person is not a citizen before they are deported, but that it rests ultimately with the person to make all necessary defenses to deportation.  The fact of Caballero’s citizenship came to light after he was detained by the INS after trying to sneak into the US at Miami last month.  He was released from the Krome Detention Center after supplying proof of his US citizenship.  He will go to work for his father and he is waiting to be reunited with his three children.

*********

Pedro Astacio, a star pitcher with Major League Baseball’s Colorado Rockies, has managed to avoid possible deportation, at least for now.  Astacio initially pled guilty to domestic abuses charges, and then, realizing that such a conviction could render him deportable, changed his plea to not guilty.  A compromise with officials allowed him to plead guilty to a misdemeanor for which he cannot be deported.  However, the INS says that if it can succeed in getting the next Attorney General to create a rule saying that the INS is not bound by court decisions to allow people to plead guilty to reduced charges to avoid deportation, it will attempt to deport Astacio to the Dominican Republic.

*********

A Cuban man was recently found guilty of immigrant smuggling after a trial in Miami.  Roberto Nieves was arrested last July after dropping off a group of 33 people in the Florida Keys.  Officials say that he was promised ,000 to bring the group to Florida in a private boat.  He faces a mandatory minimum of five years in prison, and a fine of up to 0,000.

*********

Border Patrol agents are warning of the growing danger posed by a separatist group with plans to set up armed patrols on the Texas-Mexico border.  The group, which calls itself the Republic of Texas, refuses to recognize Texas as a state in the US.  It first came to prominence in 1997 when members took two hostages and demanded independence for Texas.  According to a spokesperson for the group, members will take migrants they capture back to Mexico themselves, rather than turn them over to the Border Patrol.  INS officials have condemned the plan, saying that the people do not have training and could endanger not only migrants, but also area residents.

*********

Last weekend more than 600 immigration activists from the US and Mexico met in Tucson to discuss border policy last weekend.  Their conclusions were that the border needs to be demilitarized, immigration laws need to be reformed, and meaningful economic opportunity needs to expand.

*********

The FBI is investigating a recent incident in which a Border Patrol agent and an INS inspector shot at a car fleeing an inspection station, wounding one man.  The incident occurred in Douglas, Arizona.  According to a spokesperson for the FBI, the officers believed the car was being driven at them and fired in fear of their lives.  The Justice Department Office of the Inspector General is also investigating.

*********

The INS, at the request of the Secretary of State, has terminated deportation proceedings against six Irish nationals and promised to refrain from initiating proceedings against three others.  All nine of the people served prison sentences in England for activities while in the Irish Republican Army, and later left the United Kingdom.  In a statement on the decision, President Clinton said “While in no way approving or condoning their past criminal acts, I believe that removing the threat of deportation for these individuals will contribute to the peace process in Northern Ireland.”