 BORDER NEWS
Marisa Patricia Carlson, an Argentine citizen who was adopted by a US couple as an infant, will not be deported. In what an immigration judge called a “rather unprecedented” decision, the INS halted deportation proceedings. Carlson, who was illegally adopted, was convicted of check forgery last year and placed in deportation proceedings. Under the 1996 immigration law, nonviolent felonies such as this became deportable offenses. INS officials agreed to halt the deportation on the condition that Carlson undergoes treatment for a crack cocaine addiction.
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INS and Customs Service officials on the Southwest border have ceased the practice of seizing vehicles used to smuggle undocumented immigrants into the US. The change is the result of a law passed last summer that makes it more difficult to seize property when no criminal charges are filed. The same law makes it easier to challenge government seizures and requires the government to pay the legal costs of successful challengers. Faced with these factors, the INS is now seizing cars only in cases involving repeat offenders and when the immigrants’ lives are endangered. The agency also questions the value of such seizures in combating smuggling. Since the law went into effect, vehicle seizures have dropped from about 1,000 a month to around 60.
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In Ho Yoon was recently sentenced to three years in prison following a plea bargain in which he pled guilty to immigrant smuggling. Yoon was accused to charging up to ,000 to help sneak Koreans from Canada into the US. As part of the plea bargain, Yoon will continue to assist investigators.
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This week members of the Mexican and US governments as well as officials from several border states met during the 29th meeting of the US-Mexico Binational Group on Bridges and Border Crossings. The meetings, which occur twice a year, are designed to provide an opportunity for the two governments to discuss border infrastructure and policy.
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A 17-year-old accused of involvement in an immigrant smuggling ring was sentenced to ten years in prison this week. Obed Estudillo-Martinez pled guilty in January to involvement in the ring, which held a number of immigrants hostage, beating and raping some of them in an effort to extort money from family members. The judge recommended that Estudillo-Martinez serve as much time as possible in a juvenile facility.
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Two members of Congress have asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to revoke the citizenship of Eriberto Mederos, who is accused of torturing political prisoners at a psychiatric hospital in Cuba. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Díaz-Balart, both Florida Republicans, recently sent a letter to Ashcroft outlining the accusations about Mederos. In addition to the revocation of his citizenship, they also asked Ashcroft to consider prosecuting Mederos for human rights violations. Thus far there has been no response from the Justice Department.
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