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BORDER AND DEPORTATION NEWS
Natalia Caudillo, an 88 year old woman who has lived in Texas for almost 80 years, spent one week thinking she would be deported for illegally voting. Eventually the INS decided to terminate proceedings against her "for humanitarian reasons." She registered to vote after someone told her she could vote after living in the U.S. for over 50 years. While it has long been a crime to make a false claim of citizenship, it was not until 1996 that voting or even registering to vote became a deportable offense. Because she voted illegally, she is ineligible for citizenship, which the INS describes as punishment enough at this point in her life.
In late March, a Border Patrol agent was killed when the vehicle he was driving slid off the road into an embankment. Three of the seven passengers, all people the agent had apprehended during attempts at illegal entry, were also killed. The accident occurred in San Diego County, California, in an area known for its treacherous terrain. The area has become increasingly popular with illegal entrants as Operation Gatekeeper has tightened the border in the city of San Diego.
Appealing the order of an immigration judge, the INS is refusing to release Hany Kiareldeen, a Palestinian who the INS maintains was associated with the people responsible for the World Trade Center bombing. The agency also says he has threatened to assassinate Attorney General Janet Reno while in custody. An immigration judge ruled he was not a security risk, stating that there was no evidence creating any suspicion that Kiareldeen was associated with any terrorist group. He is among a group of about two dozen people of Arab descent being detained on the basis of information from unidentified informants. 
As many as 650 detainees at the Mira Loma Detention Center in Los Angeles protested delays in deportation proceedings. The detainees, many of whom have been in custody for months while waiting to be deported, displayed banners made from bed sheets demanding deportation or release on bond. The protest ended after 6 hours, following negotiations between the protesters and the INS. One of the concessions made by the INS was to allow the detainees to speak to the media about the delays in deportation processing. 
Valerie Ann Pena has been sentenced to five years in prison for selling fraudulent immigration documents to at least 82 undocumented immigrants. She would pose as an INS employee and tell her victims that she would legalize their immigration applications for $ 1,000. Officials began investigating Pena after some Mexicans who she had cheated reported the event to the Mexican government. She faced federal charges of impersonating a federal officer and immigration document fraud, and state charges of welfare fraud and perjury. The case is one of the first major cases brought to justice by a multi-agency task force designed to protect immigrants from such fraudulent immigration schemes.
In late March, the U.S. Coast Guard apprehended a group of five Cubans attempting to cross the Florida Straits on a raft made from inner tubes and wooden planks. The incident is unusual because over the past year, all Cubans stopped by the Coast Guard were in high-speed motorboats or similar manufactured boats. While the Coast Guard does not keep track of the types of boats people use in attempted to enter the U.S., Coast Guard members believe this is the first instance of Cubans attempting to raft over in more than one year. After changes in the treatment of Cuban refugees were enacted in 1995, allowing only those who make it to U.S. soil to remain and returning all those caught at sea to Cuba, rafts have by and large been replaced by high-speed boats, and more and more Cubans who attempt the crossing do so with the aid of a smuggler. 
During March, the Tucson Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol made 60,537 arrests, over 10,000 more than were recorded in February. Since October 1, 1998, the beginning of the 1999 fiscal year, the sector has made 228,629 arrests. This is more than the number of arrests made in the sector for all of 1995, and is on track to well outdistance last year’s total of 390,000 arrests. There are two internal reasons for the growth: first, the number of agents patrolling the sector has greatly increased in recent years, now numbering 1,050; second, increased border restrictions at San Diego and El Paso have pushed those attempting to cross illegally toward Arizona.