BORDER NEWS

A former US Drug Enforcement Administration agent will soon be sentenced for shooting a Mexican migrant in the back in January of 1999. Wilbur Honeycutt was arrested after confessing that he shot the migrant, Avecnego Monje Ortiz, in the back. He faces a sentence between seven years to life. Honeycutt had been transferred to the border region to do drug interdiction work ten months before the shooting. Ortiz was paralyzed from the waist down. His family has filed suit against the DEA for $15 million.

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This past weekend the INS apprehended four separate groups of Cubans in the Florida Keys, totaling 83 people in all. Officials believe the reason for the large number was recent calm weather and seas in the Florida Straits. The Cubans were transferred to Krome Detention Center for processing and most were released. Some, however, were being questioned because authorities believe that they may have been smuggled, and that the smugglers may have been among those who landed. Two of those apprehended told authorities that they paid $6000 to be smuggled to the US.

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A new Border Patrol station recently opened in Deming, New Mexico. It is designed to house as many as 250 agents, which means that the station can experience significant growth before needing to move again – there are currently only 88 agents stationed in Deming.

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INS agents in South Florida this week arrested a man wanted in Turkey on murder charges. The man, Hakki Cemal Aksoy, was arrested for falsifying his name on immigration documents. According to the INS, Aksoy used another man’s name on his application for permanent residence.

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The Consul General of Honduras is questioning the actions of the INS in the recent apprehension of Juan Leon Castillo. Castillo was detained in Guatemala and forcibly placed on a plane to Los Angeles, where he was arrested by INS agents. He was then taken to Houston and indicted on charges of immigrant smuggling. The consul is not concerned about the criminal charges, but about the fact that Castillo claims he was kidnapped. According to the INS, Castillo was expelled by the Guatemalan government and placed on the first available plane to Honduras, which happened to have a stopover in Los Angeles. The agency maintains that it did not become involved until the plane landed in the US.

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A man who claims he witnessed the assassination of a candidate for the Mexican presidency has been deported. Jorge Amaral Munoz sought asylum in the US, claiming that what he witnessed put him at risk in Mexico. News sources in Mexico report that Amaral will go on trial for giving false testimony.

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