< back
BORDER AND DEPORTATION NEWS
Deportations for fiscal year 1998 were up 50% from 1997. In 1998, 171,154 immigrants were expelled from the U.S. Of these, one-third, or 56,011 were deported because of drug-related convictions.
The INS Border Patrol in Florida captured 1,063 illegal immigrants on the shores of Florida during 1998. About two-thirds of these were from Cuba, and most of the rest were from Haiti. During 1998 the Coast Guard, which patrols the waters off the coast of Florida, picked up 1,025 Cubans and 1,206 Haitians, more than double the numbers of 1997. Three attempts at illegal entry result in the loss of life. The most recent, on December 17, 1998, was one of the worst on record with at least eight dead and six still missing.
Fidel Castro has said he will turn over several U.S. citizens arrested in Cuba for attempting to smuggle people off the island, but only if the U.S. agrees to prosecute them. The move is in part motivated by Cuba's need for prison space. In the same speech Castro also called for a crackdown on crime. He blamed the introduction of market reforms following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union for the increasing levels of crime on the island.
Operation Greenback, a ten-day program in south Texas during which officials checked the immigration status of all travelers from the U.S. to Mexico, uncovered 1,100 undocumented aliens. The operation came just three months after Congress issued a reprieve to the controversial practice of checking the immigration status of all people leaving the U.S. Also seized were 52 stolen vehicles, 0,000 in undeclared cash and 800 rounds of ammunition.
A massive Border Patrol buildup is underway in Nogales, Arizona in an attempt to seal a section of the border from illegal immigrants and drug smuggling. Called Operation Safeguard 99, the plan has added 85 agents and 4 helicopters. The plan is part of the implementation of an attempt to deter people from even trying to cross the border.
A Chinese man was sentenced to eighteen months in prison and ordered to pay 00 in fines after being convicted of bribing immigration officials in an attempt to smuggle up to 1000 Chinese nationals into the U.S. Twelve other Chinese nationals were indicted, most of who have either been deported or are awaiting deportation.
Three Cuban men were released from federal detention on Christmas Eve after spending over two years in federal custody. The men were twice acquitted of charges of hijacking a plane to the U.S. after their plane crashed off the coast of Florida. The week before Christmas they were granted asylum but were not released until two Florida Representatives, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, lobbied for their release.
INS Detainees at a facility in Manhattan say a fellow detainee died after two days of illness during which he did not receive adequate medical care. The death was the first at the facility in 10 years, but comes as the INS is under increasing pressure from human rights organizations and immigrant advocacy groups to improve conditions at detention facilities. Federal officials say he died in the infirmary in the presence of a doctor, but Russell Bergeron, an INS spokesman in Washington, D.C., said only nurses attended him.
U.S. Border Patrol officials in Arizona announced that apprehensions for the last quarter of 1998 were double those for the same period in 1997. This is a result of tightened enforcement of the border in California. Officials also report an increase in the number of illegal immigrants who are also smuggling marijuana. From 1997 to 1998 the amount of marijuana agents seized increased six times, from 964 pounds to 6,270 pounds.
Two men were arrested at the Canadian border for allegedly kidnapping and trying to force a woman into marriage. The men, Wahid Nader and Jamal Nassar Aziz, both from Afghanistan, were stopped at the Canadian border, where agents found the woman inside the trunk of the car. Authorities believe the motive for the kidnapping was to force the woman into an arranged marriage with Nader.
A federal grand jury in Kentucky has indicted two men on charges of smuggling illegal immigrants into the state to obtain Kentucky driver's licenses with false documents. The men face a fine of  million and up to 30 years in prison.
A federal grand jury in Colorado has indicted two men on charges of transporting illegal immigrants. When the van in which they were transporting the immigrants overturned on a Colorado highway, two of the twelve passengers died. Because of the deaths, the men face the death penalty.
A federal judge in Florida set bond at 0,000 for Pedro Julio Guevara-Lopez, one of two men charged with leading an alien smuggling operation. He must raise ,000 to gain release. His suspected accomplice, Francisco Gomez, was denied bond. The two men were arrested after the speedboat Gomez was piloting capsized off the Florida coast. The two are charged with masterminding a smuggling operation in December that resulted in the deaths of 14 people. Both men face sentences of up to life in prison.
Two fishing boats carrying 60 Chinese nationals were intercepted off the coast of Guam. During 1998 over 200 Chinese nationals were caught trying to sneak into Guam, and officials believe as many as 200 more may have arrived undetected. Because Guam is a U.S. territory and follows U.S. immigration laws, many immigrants seek asylum as soon as they land in Guam, but many others obtain false documents there and then travel on to the mainland U.S.
During a raid in Raymondville, Texas, Border Patrol agents uncovered 63 undocumented aliens. The raid was the culmination of a two-year investigation, and resulted in the arrests of five people on charges of harboring undocumented immigrants. A raid of the same area in January 1997 resulted in the discovery of over 300 undocumented immigrants.
A Cuban born legal permanent resident, Jorge De Cardenas, is seeking a retroactive one-day reduction in his 365 day sentence. De Cardenas, a lobbyist, was sentenced to prison for obstructing justice in attempting to cover up an illegal kickback scheme. When De Cardenas finished his sentence in December, he was turned over to the INS under the 1996 law that allows the Service to detain criminal aliens pending deportation. Because the U.S. has no deportation agreement with Cuba, and because Cuba refuses of accept criminals, he is subject to either indefinite detention or deportation to a third country.
Authorities have indicted two men in a widespread document fraud ring based in Brooklyn, New York, and are searching for two other men believed to be involved in the scheme. For between 0 to 0, an immigrant would be provided with fake Social Security cards and other papers that showed the person was eligible to work in the U.S.
Crewmembers of a barge bound for Mobile, Alabama found four stowaways from the Dominican Republic while at sea. The crew notified the U.S. Coast Guard who took the stowaways to the Metro County Jail in Mobile. The Coast Guard said it is rare for Caribbean natives to attempt to enter in Mobile. 
An illegal immigrant from Mexico has pled guilty to charges of smuggling women into the U.S. and forcing them into prostitution. In his plea agreement, in which he pled guilty to conspiring to violate civil rights and using a gun in the commission of a crime, he admitted to being the leader of a group of smugglers that ran prostitution rings in five Florida cities. The women were told that if they tried to escape, harm would come to their families in Mexico, and those who did escape were captured and beaten.