BORDER NEWS

Two of the 23 young Cuban nationals who defected while at the Catholic World Youth Day in Canada have entered the US.  They were initially detained, and applied for asylum.  According to an attorney who was present at their initial interview, they have very strong cases.

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Last week, sheriff’s deputies in Pima County, Arizona, discovered three children, ages four to eight, hidden in the trunk of a car during a routine traffic stop.  Their older siblings were also hiding in the car, in a back seat compartment.  The driver of the car, a US citizen, has been charged with immigrant smuggling.  Officials believe the children were being taken to meet their mother, who was already in the US.  They are in the custody of the Mexican Consulate in Tucson, where their mother will pick them up and return with them to Mexico.

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Two Border Patrol agents were recently charged with beating an undocumented immigrant who was being held at the San Diego County jail.  The agents pled not guilty, and were released on bond.  If convicted, they could face up to ten years in prison and fines of up to $250,000.  The immigrant will be allowed to remain in the US until the case is concluded.  According to the US attorney’s office, it is the first such case in the past three years. 

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The INS recently announced that it had released all 25 survivors of a smuggling trip in which two others died.  The immigrants were found in a tractor-trailer in Dallas last month.  The two truck drivers are facing federal immigrant smuggling charges and state murder charges.  The surviving immigrants were paroled in to the US and will be allowed to remain until the conclusion of the criminal case. 

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According to a Border Patrol spokesperson, in response to recent criticism that little has been done to improve security on the US-Canada border, 170 new agents will be stationed there over the next month or two.  In an effort to improve security, only agents with experience will be sent to the northern border, while new hires will be stationed on the Mexican border.

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A state court judge in Arizona recently dismissed a lawsuit filed by six residents of Pima County who claimed that the country and the humanitarian group Humane Borders violated state law by erecting water stations for undocumented immigrants.  The group received $25,000 from the county, money the plaintiffs claimed was used to encourage people to break laws.  The judge found that the county did not break any laws, and that there was no evidence that the water stations encouraged undocumented immigration.

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