Carols Garcia de Alba will become Mexico’s new consul general on March 8, 2004.  Garcia de Alba plans to significantly upgrade the Dallas consulate to accommodate the increase of immigrants to North Texas.  According to new Mexican statistics, the Dallas area has the nation’s third highest concentration of first and second generation Mexican immigrants. 

Garcia de Alba will be faced with increasing Mexican businesses in the Dallas area and advocating recognition of Mexico’s consular identification card.  He is the sixth consul general in Dallas since 1994, replacing Ezequiel Padilla Couttolenic.

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A new DHS program, the Immigration Security Initiative, proposes stationing American inspectors at foreign airports to screen passengers in an effort to detect terrorists before they board an airplane headed towards the US.  DHS officials are seeking voluntary participation with seven international airports in the United Kingdom, Paris, Japan, Mexico, Amsterdam and Germany.

The DHS proposal is not a new idea.  US Customs inspectors have been stationed in Canadian airports for years and a previous US program posted US Customs officials around the world to assist passengers with questions about what goods they were allowed to bring into the US.

However, post-September 11, Canada denied a request to allow US customs and immigration officials carry firearms while on duty at Pearson International Airport in Toronto.  Canada and other countries are opposed to the plan. 

Many European governments openly disagree with the US requirement to have armed sky marshals on US-bound flights.  European officials are wary of the new DHS initiative.  Some have said that if the inspectors were limited to assisting airport security officials by providing intelligence or access to US data, they would be open to the idea.

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Border patrol officers fear that if passed, President Bush’s guest worker proposal will spawn fake employment papers.  One agent commented that as many immigrants have counterfeit passports and drivers licenses, this will be one more document to falsify.

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Three suspects are waiting to be sentenced for the murder of a US Border Patrol agent in Mexico, while one is still at large.  Three of the suspects beat Jorge Salomon Martinez and then killed him after taking one other suspect’s advise.  All three arrested for the murder have pleaded guilty and could be sentenced by summer.  Each could each face 15 to 50 years in prison.