Juan Fernando Licea-Cedillo, a Mexican citizen living in South Texas, pled guilty in US District Court to charges of transporting and harboring illegal immigrants.  He is one of four men charged with loading and locking illegal immigrants into an empty grain hopper in June 2002.  The smugglers followed the hopper until an immigration checkpoint in Sarita, 100 miles north of the Mexico border.  The hopper then traveled across several states before it was found in Denison, Iowa in October 2002.  The badly decomposed bodies of 11 illegal immigrants were found in the car. 

The three other smugglers were charged with assisting Licea-Cedillo, and they also pled guilty last week.  Licea-Cedillo faces a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole, and the other three men face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

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Juan Manuel Umares-Rivas, a native of Mexico, was arraigned on Friday, March 5, 2004 on charges relating to the 1998 slaying of US Border Patrol Agent Alexander Kirpnick.  He was arrested by Mexican authorities in Mexico and returned to the United States to face criminal charges last week.

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A 42-year old Boston public school teacher faces deportation to the Ivory Coast in Africa after missing a crucial political asylum hearing before an immigration judge in 2001.  According to his lawyers, he misread the handwritten date.  Obatin Attouoman was arrested on a warrant of deportation in November 2003. 

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Tyson Foods Inc. removed 28 workers following an internal audit from their Dakota City, Nebraska meatpacking plant on March 1, 2004 pending proof that they have authorization to work in the US.  The company has already fired several workers who did not have valid employment documentation.  Many other workers have voluntarily resigned. 

The Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think-tank advocating more restrictive immigration policies, told the media that there are at least 9 million illegal aliens in the United States, and a large majority of Nebraska’s meatpacking workers are illegal immigrants. 

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A group of smugglers has recently begun trying to enter the US illegally through Andrade, California, which is only a few miles away from Interstate 8.  The smugglers are using vehicles to improve their chances of success. 

Joe Brigman, spokesman for the Yuma Sector of the Border Patrol, told the media that these smugglers travel very fast and pile excessively large and dangerous amounts of immigrants into the vehicles.  This practice is not only dangerous to the immigrants, but it is also dangerous for Americans traveling on Interstate 8.  As a result, Border Patrol agents have stepped up efforts to stop the vehicles before they pass into Andrade.

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According to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, up to 70 percent of border agents in the Customs and Border Protection bureau will soon gain access to two key FBI fingerprint databases, IDENT and IAFIS.  The DHS, however, faces several challenges before this integration can occur, including obtaining the funding for the necessary technology.