BORDER NEWS Six men were convicted and one acquitted on charges of human smuggling. The men were indicted last year after two women who had been smuggled, but were unable to pay the fee, were raped and beaten. Then man face up to life in prison when sentenced later this year.
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Crewmembers discovered a number of stowaways hiding in a container on a Japanese cargo ship bound for California. The ship was diverted to an Alaskan port. It is unusual for stowaways to contact the crew of a ship, and is usually an indication that they are running out of food and water.
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Joao Herbert, a 22-year-old who was born in Brazil and adopted by a US couple while still a child, has dropped his fight against the INS’s efforts to deport him. Herbert was placed in deportation proceedings after being convicted of selling marijuana to an undercover officer. Although he received only probation, the INS nonetheless sought his deportation. The decision to drop the appeals came after the governor of Ohio denied Herbert’s request for a pardon. Ironically, Herbert had applied for US citizenship in February 1996, but the application was still pending when arrested in August 1998.
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Fifteen Haitians were rescued from the ocean off the coast of Florida north of Miami last weekend. While they claimed to have made the eight-day journey from Haiti, officials said it was more likely they were smuggled in from the Bahamas. According to initial Border Patrol reports, the smuggler stopped some distance from shore and forced the people off the boat. The migrants said there had been a sixteenth passenger who did not reach the shore. After two days without discovering a body, officials called off the search.
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A permanent resident who conned a Catholic high school into believing he was the nephew of famous director Steven Spielberg is now facing deportation. Jonathan Taylor Spielberg, 27, who legally changed his name from Anoushirvan D. Fakhran, enrolled in a Virginia high school in 1998, telling school officials he was 14, and that Steven Spielberg was his uncle. After the scam was discovered last January, Spielberg pled guilty to forgery and received two years of probation. The INS recently took him into custody pending his deportation.
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Human rights activists in Mexico and the US marked the international Day of the Migrant on September 4 with marches along the US-Mexico border. They demanded that the governments of both counties do more to prevent deaths among border crossers. They also called upon the US government to adopt immigration policies that do not result in so many deaths.
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Twelve undocumented immigrants were taken into custody in Montana recently, after a long and unusual pursuit. Two highway patrol officers stopped a van carry the people, but had no way of transporting them. A border Patrol agent told them to let the immigrants go and to make preparations to apprehend them farther down the highway. The immigrants were let go, but caught again after two officers spotted them at a grocery store. Eight were apprehended, but four managed to get back in their vehicle and flee. Shortly thereafter, another officer spotted the van and arrested the four remaining immigrants.
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Five months ago a Catholic foundation with a ranch on the Texas-Mexico border began refusing to let Border Patrol agents on to the land, claiming that they were violating the human rights of migrants. Now, with the intense summer heat, the Kenedy Memorial Foundation is negotiating with the Border Patrol to allow them to resume patrolling the ranch. The land is well known among migrants, because it avoids an area Border Patrol checkpoint. However, it is also deadly – about 60 people have died on the ranch in the past four years.
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The Border Patrol in Laredo, Texas, is using military helicopters to patrol the border at night. Military and Border Patrol personnel have been quick to point out that the military is only providing the equipment, and is not actively participating in Border Patrol activities. While the military is ostensibly limited to work on drug enforcement, there is no way for them to know the immigration status of a person until they have been apprehended, which results in inevitable military involvement in immigration enforcement. Many are concerned by this because of the killing three years ago of a US citizen teenager tending his family’s herds by a Marine on the lookout for drug smugglers. < Back | Next > Disclaimer: This newsletter is provided as a public service and not intended to establish an attorney client relationship. Any reliance on information contained herein is taken at your own risk. | 
