Border and Enforcement News

According to The Monitor of Texas , DynCorp International, a Virginia-based military security firm, announced plans to potentially train and deploy 1,000 private agents to the U.S.-Mexico border within 13 months, offering a quick surge of law enforcement officers in a critical region for undocumented immigration.  The offer from DynaCorp comes in the middle of a nationwide Border Patrol hiring push that is expected to extend the agency’s ranks by over 6,000 new agents before the end of 2008.  

"We could provide highly qualified people to the Border Patrol quickly," a DynaCorp spokesperson said.  "It’s kind of like a temp service in that there are no obligations for long-time work."  Under DynCorp’s proposal, the company would provide deputized agents, drawn from the ranks of former police officers, who could be used to train new Border Patrol recruits.  

So far, the idea has received an unfavorable response from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, who insist their hiring efforts are on schedule.  "That’s not even something the Border Patrol would consider," said Ramon Rivera, a spokesman for the agency.  "We are on track for hiring and should be meeting our numbers for 2008."  

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Last week, federal prosecutors in Las Vegas filed charges against three managers of a Chinese acrobatic troupe, according to The New York Times.  You Zhi Li, 38, Yang Shen, 21, and Jun Hu, 43, were taken into custody late last month after a woman working as an interpreter for the group contacted the authorities.  

The complaint asserts that the three leaders deprived members of the group, most in their midteens to late 20s, of adequate food and payment, kept them in crowded bedrooms, and refused to let them leave the house.  Troupe members said their passports were held under lock and key and on juvenile member said "he only received two meals a day, which consisted of rice, noodles, and sometimes meat."  Also according to the complaint, on days off some members were forced to go to the home of a friend of Mr. Li’s to do cleaning, lawn work and other tasks not related to performing.  

The case has drawn considerable attention to the Las Vegas area, partly because of concern that the booming city, which relies heavily on immigrant labor in many businesses, may be ripe for human trafficking.  Area law enforcement authorities think the problem has been growing and a multiagency task force, financed by a grant from the Justice Department intended for suspected trafficking hot spots, was formed in February to determine the extent of the problem.

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