Last week a federal jury in El Paso, Texas, convicted a former Border Patrol agent Noe Aleman, Jr., of conspiracy to defraud the United States and two substantive counts of alien smuggling.  As a result, Aleman faces up to 15 years in federal prison and a maximum $750,000 fine. 

According to a press release, from January 5, 2004, to June 15, 2004, in order to circumvent age limits of U.S. immigration and legal adoption policies he attempted to adopt three teenage girls from Mexico.  Testimony during trial revealed that Aleman provided false testimony to the adoption court in order to obtain crossing orders for the teenagers.  The crossing orders prohibited the girls from staying in the United States past March 12, 2004.  Jurors found the Aleman knowingly violated the orders, keeping the girls in the United States after that date.  Jurors also found that he repeatedly provided false information to the United States and the adoption court regarding their ages, whereabouts and parentage.  Sentencing for Aleman is scheduled for 9:00 am on July 26, 2005. 

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The president of the largest union representing Border Patrol has resigned, citing the organization’s failing bureaucracy, according to The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.  Joseph Dassaro announced his resignation on April 18, 2005.  Dassaro has been president of the National Border Patrol Council’s Local 1613 since 2000, and has been a Border Patrol agent for 13 years.  Chris Bauder, a border agent, will take over as president of Local 1613, which represents nearly 2,500 agents in the San Diego, California sector.  Dassaro will continue to advocate for Border Patrol agents and has agreed to join Friends of the Border Patol, a civilian organization, as a consultant. 

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U.S. authorities arrested nearly 150 Brazilians who got into Texas unlawfully from Mexico last week.  The U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection said the arrests brought the number of Brazilians caught crossing the border illegally from Mexico to 15,428 since the start of the fiscal year on October 1, up from 8,629 in the whole of fiscal year 2004.  According to Reuters, U.S. and Mexican government sources attributed the rise to the abolition of visas required by Brazilians entering Mexico in recent years and a catch-and-release policy by law enforcement agencies in the United States. 

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An organization called Friends of the Border Patrol announced last week that it is forming volunteer brigades to patrol the border near San Diego.  Representatives from the group told The Sacramento Bee that the patrols would initially be limited to the stretch of border from San Diego to the Imperial Valley.  Eventually, they could extend to the Arizona border.  U.S. Border Patrol officials say that it could be dangerous for civilians to attempt to stop undocumented immigrants and are cautioning that such activity could interfere with official government patrols.