Border News

Agents arrested fifteen immigrants accused or convicted of sex crimes against children in Charlotte this week as part of Operation Predator. The operation was created in order to protect children from sex crimes and other related threats, such as child pornography. The fifteen arrested men are currently in prison, awaiting deportation.

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Rochenel Charles and Gabriel Joseph have been detained in prison since October 2002, when they and over 200 Haitians arrived in the U.S. by boat. Four months ago, the two were granted political asylum: one had left Haiti after the killings of his brother and sister and the other fled after his home was attacked by government supporters. Their lawyer has petitioned for their release on humanitarian grounds. Charles suffers from severe chest and stomach pain and Joseph suffers from depression and post-traumatic stress. Of the approximately 200 Haitians, 93 have been deported and 32 remain detained in prison.

Since the Department of State learned that Haiti was a staging point for Pakistanis and Palestinians hoping to illegally enter the U.S., in order to protect national security from a potential terrorist threat, the Bush administration has had a policy of detaining Haitian asylum seekers until they are deported or granted asylum. Officials say the policy discourages Haitians from migrating illegally to the U.S., as a mass migration would require the Coast Guard to focus on illegal migrants instead of protecting U.S. borders.

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In April 2003, Eliseo Saucedo Vasquez plead guilty to transporting illegal immigrants for profit resulting in the death of one of them, Epifanio Jose Maria Magdaleno. Saucedo was sentenced on July 25 to three years and one month in federal prison. On May 17, 2002, Saucedo took thirteen immigrants on a daylong walk across South Texas to avoid the Border Patrol in weather that reached 94º. He then drove the immigrants to Houston, leaving Magdaleno and his nephew near a hospital. Magdaleno died of hypothermia soon after entering the hospital. Saucedo’s attorney argued that Saucedo should not be held accountable for the death because he tried to get the victim to a hospital. The judge disagreed, but chose a sentence in the middle of the possible range because Saucedo did try to help the victim.

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Felipe de Jesus Machado Rehes of Juarez, Mexico, suspected of shooting his wife, her cousin, and her friend, bonded out of jail in Chihuahua and disappeared. Authorities believe he may have fled to the U.S. along with two accomplices, Favio Valente Espinoza Vega and Juan Carlos Valdez Garcia.

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On July 16, 12 Cubans attempted to reach the U.S. in a 1951 Chevrolet truck, which had been converted for seagoing use. The migrants attempted to cross the shark-invested waters in the truck by adding a buoyant pontoon of 55-gallon drums and a propeller to the drive shaft. Intercepted 40 miles from Key West, the twelve were returned to Cuba, according to U.S. policy, which returns migrants caught at sea to Cuba, while those who make it to land are permitted to stay in the U.S.

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In 1997, Jose Alvarado pleaded guilty to fondling a 10-year old boy in Montgomery County and was deported to his native El Salvador. While this should have barred him from reentering the U.S., on July 24, Alvarado was again indicted by a Montgomery jury for raping a 5-year old boy. Immigration officials would not comment on how or when Alvarado reentered the U.S.

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Four Georgian citizens, three of whom were in the U.S., were arrested for forging travel documents and illegally sending people from Georgia to the United States. The four will be tried in Georgia and the several dozen people who were sent from Georgia to the U.S. may be deported.

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Some 150 Somali Bantu refugees will be settled in Sioux Falls during the next two years. Sioux Falls School District officials have been studying Somali Bantu culture in preparation for the new arrivals. The refugees will join a large population of refugees already living in the area. A total of 12,000 Somali Bantus are expected to be relocated to fifty U.S. cities by the end of 2004. Somali Bantu families have been living in refugee camps along the Somali-Kenya border for the past decade.