Border News

Six French journalists were deported earlier this month after being searched, handcuffed and detained for 26 hours at the Los Angeles Airport. Immigration officials said they lacked visas, which are required for certain French professionals traveling on business.

"If you are a reporter and come to the US as a journalist you need an "I" visa," Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Francisco Arcaute said. "These gentlemen did not have proper documentation. Consequently, they were held and put on a flight back to Europe."

The reporters arrived on May 10 and 11 and were sent to cover the Electronic Entertainment Expo, a videogame trade show. French group Reporters Without Borders sent an irate letter to the US ambassador to France, demanding an investigation of the journalists' "arbitrary if not discriminatory" treatment by US immigration officials.

Responding to a question during a daily press briefing, Department of State spokesman Richard Boucher said the journalists did not have the appropriate visa status when they entered.

"The information on that is readily available through our Embassy and the websites. But ultimately the determination on entry is made by the Department of Homeland Security, formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service," Boucher said.

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The New York Daily News published an article this week about Farouk Abdel-Muhti, whom the newspaper says may be one of the last illegal immigrants detained in anti-terrorism sweeps that has not been deported, released, charged with a crime or classified as a material witness. Supporters say Abdel-Muhti has been held because of his outspoken views against Israel, but officials say he is a con man who has thwarted the immigration authorities efforts to deport him by claiming numerous aliases and birthplaces. Since entering the US in 1963, Abdel-Muhti has lied to judges, immigration agents and law enforcement about his name, date of birth, country of birth, marital status, number of children and criminal record, according to records obtained by the Daily News. In a statement to supporters, Abdel-Muhti called on the Bush administration to end the detention of "thousands in prison with no reason other than immigration matters."

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Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert C. Bonner plans to announce new measures designed to make the Tucson sector’s border with Mexico safer. On Tuesday, Bonner will join with Mexican Under Secretary of Population, Migration and Religious Affairs, Dr. Javier Moctezuma, to reveal plans to increase surveillance of high risk areas along the border and steps the two governments will take to prevent border-related accidents and combat smuggling operations.