BORDER NEWS
Lucia Garofalo, the Canadian citizen who was arrested while crossing the border with an Algerian national last December, has been convicted of minor immigration offenses and sentenced to time served. Despite prosecutors initial allegations, neither Garofalo nor her passenger were tied to any terrorist plot. ********* According to reports from FBI agents, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed a migrant last weekend. The incident occurred near Brownsville, Texas. According to the FBI, the Border Patrol agent struggled with the migrant, and the migrant was able to get the agent’s baton away. The agent then fired twice, hitting the migrant once in the chest. The migrant died of his injuries at an area hospital. ********<ぐ颵ᇏ芻ꨀ봀噓۷?譗Ѿ譟廎沔> ぐ颵ᇏ芻ꨀ봀噓۷?譗Ѿ譟廎沔> Sixteen Cuban immigrants gave themselves up to authorities near Miami. While they claimed to have taken a boat to Miami from Cuba, officials do not believe the story. They say that the Cubans’ appearance showed that they had not recently been on the open water. Authorities believe that they have been in Florida for some time, and then made the staged surrender. After processing, they were released. *********<ぐ颵ᇏ芻ꨀ봀噓۷?譗Ѿ譟廎沔> ぐ颵ᇏ芻ꨀ봀噓۷?譗Ѿ譟廎沔> Twenty Haitian immigrants arrived on shore in Jupiter Island, one of Florida’s wealthiest communities, this week. According to officials who saw them, they were well dressed and some of the women were wearing jewelry. The Border Patrol believes that the group came from the Bahamas, where the boat they were in was registered. ********* The Mexican government will send members of the Federal Preventative Police, the national police force, to patrol the Mexican side of the border with Arizona. The government hopes the police will help ease the flow of migrants in the area, and thereby avoid more encounters with angry US ranchers. More members will also be added to Grupo Beta, which patrols the Mexican side of the border. ********* An INS raid in West Virginia resulted in the arrest of 28 people working without proper authorization. The workers were hired by two contractors to remove asbestos from the West Virginia University Coliseum. The university says it asked for an obtained documentation from the contractors that all the workers on the project had INS employment authorization. *********<ぐ颵ᇏ芻ꨀ봀噓۷?譗Ѿ譟廎沔> ぐ颵ᇏ芻ꨀ봀噓۷?譗Ѿ譟廎沔> Two workplace raids in Charleston, South Carolina, resulted in the arrests of 27 men officials say were working without INS employment authorization. The men were working on construction crews, one at a local hotel and the other at the US Department of Agriculture facility. *********<ぐ颵ᇏ芻ꨀ봀噓۷?譗Ѿ譟廎沔> ぐ颵ᇏ芻ꨀ봀噓۷?譗Ѿ譟廎沔> Officials in El Paso, Texas, discovered 41 migrants in the back of an abandoned truck. While there was no food or water in the truck, the migrants appeared to be in good condition. While most of those in the truck were from Mexico, there also were eight Chinese nationals. ********* Even as the INS responds to concerns from lawmakers about the border situation at Douglas, Arizona, lawmakers are worried that a buildup of agents on the border there will increase pressure at other points of the Arizona border. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) discussed the possibility at a recent meeting with Attorney General Janet Reno. He said Reno was receptive to his concerns, and suggested a weekly monitoring program of the border around Yuma, Arizona so that agents could respond quickly to any increased border traffic there. ********<ぐ颵ᇏ芻ꨀ봀噓۷?譗Ѿ譟廎沔> ぐ颵ᇏ芻ꨀ봀噓۷?譗Ѿ譟廎沔> Although it is only late spring, the heat along the southern US border is already becoming a threat, both to migrants who cross through the area and to Border Patrol agents whose job it is to stop the migrants. Early this week a suspected migrant was found dead just north of the border in California. Two other migrants were rescued in the area, and a Border Patrol agent working the area had to be rushed to the hospital for heat exhaustion. 
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