 BORDER NEWS
A 23-year-old North Carolinian has been indicted in Colorado on charges of transporting undocumented immigrants for commercial gain. Eduardo Ramos Modesto was charged after the van he was driving in crashed in Colorado, killing two and injuring the eight other passengers. Authorities were investigating whether Ramos was involved in immigrant smuggling.
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Following a two-day operation in South Florida, the INS arrested 25 criminal aliens last week. Eighteen of those arrested had been convicted of sexual offenses. All were placed in deportation proceedings.
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Four Border Patrol agents in California assisted a woman from Afghanistan who was in labor last weekend. Agents heard the woman, who was accompanied by her husband and two children. The child was not breathing immediately after birth, and one of the agents likely saved its life by giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
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The US government this week announced that it would grant refuge to 24 Vietnamese who have fled to Cambodia if the United Nations determines that they are entitled to refugee status. The 24 people are members of the Montagnard ethnic minority, and they say that they have been persecuted by the government of Vietnam for participating in demonstrations against the government. The UN High Commission for Refugees is in the process of seeking access to the people.
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Responding to increasing number of Colombian nationals seeking asylum in the US, the State Department recently announced that Colombia would be removed from the list of countries whose nationals are allows to transit through the US without a visa. According to the government, about 30 Colombians a day have sought asylum at the Miami international airport this year. The US is not the only country to crack down on Colombia. In March, the European Union announced that visas would be required of all Colombian visitors. Asylum applications from Colombian nationals have increased significantly in recent times, from 427 in fiscal year 1999 to 2,747 in 2000. So far in fiscal year 2001, 1,447 applications have been filed. Advocates say that the US should grant temporary protected status to Colombians in the US in light of the conflict in the country.
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Police in Riverside County, California arrested 32 undocumented immigrants on board a freight train last week. Railway workers found them during a routine stop. Police said that the immigrants were in good health, and that it was not known where they boarded the train.
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A former military officer in Honduras was arrested last week in Florida. Juan Angel Hernandez-Lara was deported in 1990 after he admitted to kidnapping and torturing four political activists. He will be prosecuted for unlawfully reentering the US after being deported. He faces up to ten years and prison, and will likely be deported again.
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Attorney General John Ashcroft last week announced that he was ordering US law enforcement agencies to increase their efforts to combat trafficking in people. Along with increased enforcement efforts, Ashcroft will also be issuing guidelines to federal prosecutors on how to pursue cases under the Trafficking Victims’ Protection Act. The number of prosecutions of incidents of human smuggling has been increasing in recent years, from 27 in 1999 to 75 in 2000.
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An Immigration Judge in San Antonio has ordered the termination of deportation proceedings against Antonio Perez, who was facing deportation on the basis of a felony DUI conviction. Responding to the riling of the Fifth Circuit in Chapa-Garcia v. INS last month, Judge Susan Castro ruled that the Fifth Circuit decision eliminated the authority of the INS to deport people based on felony DUI convictions, at least in the states in the Fifth Circuit – Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. The INS had maintained that a DUI was inherently a crime of violence, but the Fifth Circuit disagreed. The INS maintains that because the Chapa decision dealt with the sentence of imprisonment for unlawfully reentering the US after deportation, it does not impact its ability to deport DUI offenders. Attorneys in Texas say that a growing number of Immigration Judges are following Castro’s lead and terminating deportation proceedings in such cases.
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Twenty-three Chinese immigrants found stowed away in containers aboard a cargo ship this week in the Port of Long Beach are said to be in good physical condition following their weeks long journey across the Pacific. This was the 19th time in the past two years that stowaways have been found in cargo ship containers in west coast ports.
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Border Patrol agents at the border crossing in McAllen, Texas found 39 immigrants in a tractor-trailer, including a three-year-old girl. Officials said that when they were rescued, the immigrants were having difficulty breathing. Three people were arrested on smuggling charges.
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A Border Patrol agent died after being struck by a tractor-trailer just north of Laredo, Texas. The agent, Jason Panides, had just arrested four undocumented immigrants when he stepped into the road in front of the truck. He was the second agent to die in the line of duty this year. The other agent was also killed in a traffic accident. Over the past ten years, 19 Border Patrol agents have been killed on the job.
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The Texas State Senate this week passed a resolution urging Congress to provide 18 new federal judges to handle the increasing number of drug and immigration cases filed in border counties. Because of the high volume, some smaller cases are sent to state authorities for prosecution. The resolution also requested reimbursement from the federal government for costs associated with these prosecutions. Legislation has been introduced in Congress that would increase the number of federal judges in Texas and other border states.
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