ICE recently implemented a new policy for nationals from Specifically Designated Countries ("SDC").  These SDCs are designated by the ICE as countries that promote, produce, or protect terrorist groups or individuals.  Any alien from an SDC who is detained or apprehended by the ICE must be cleared by the Custody Review Unit ("CRU") before they may be released.  It is estimated that the CRU checks may take up to three weeks in some cases. 

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Officials in the San Diego area discovered a cross-border tunnel between Mexicali and Calexico in the Imperial Valley.  Border Patrol officials believe that these cross-border tunnels are used for drug and people smuggling.  It is believed that most of these tunnels were in existence before smugglers discovered them.  The tunnel led to an auto repair shop in Mexicali.  The owner told authorities that the tunnel was used to smuggle drugs and people. 

This is the tenth tunnel discovered in California and Arizona since border control efforts were heightened after September 11.

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Operation Trans Guard, the Border Patrol's new operation to combat illegal immigration, began last week.  More than 1,500 suspected illegal immigrants were caught in two airports and along Interstate 10.  Agents seized 500 smugglers and $750,000 worth of cash and assets.  Since November 7, the operation has yielded and stopped 150 vehicles used for smuggling illegal aliens and $478,000 worth of narcotics.

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Although funding for a U.S. Border Patrol program has been approved for another year and signed into law, U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla will ask the White House to kill the program.  Under this program, illegal immigrants who are caught in Arizona are shipped to Texas and then deported.

Border Patrol officials launched the program in September in order to reduce the number of immigrant deaths in the southern Arizona desert and declared it a success after more than 6,000 undocumented Mexican immigrants were taken to the Texan cities El Paso, Del Rio, Laredo and McAllen.  Only one immigrant died trying to cross the Arizona border after the program was initiated compared to 10 last year.

Texas officials oppose the program, however, saying it only transfers Arizona’s illegal immigration troubles to Texas, which is a waste of tax money.  Mexican and local border officials also oppose the program and are seeking an end to it.

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Five people from Three Points, Arizona, have been charged with harboring two illegal immigrants and torturing one.  A federal grand jury in Tucson issued a five-count indictment against Hector Soria and four others after deputies found 21-year old Roselin Rodriguez Bravo, from Mexico’s Chiapas state, in a lot with several mobile homes.  Bravo told police that he had been held against his will in one of the mobile homes and was ordered to reveal the phone number of the family in Florida that he was traveling to visit.

Agents also described how 19-year-old Soria tortured Bravo who was treated at University Medical Center and was released.  Another unidentified and uninjured illegal immigrant was found with Bravo.

Soria and his four accomplices were charged with conspiring to harbor illegal immigrants for profit, harboring an illegal immigrant for profit and harboring an illegal immigrant for profit in which the illegal immigrant suffered serious bodily injury.  Soria and one of the accomplices, Barry Van Brocklin, were also charged with conspiracy to take someone hostage.

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The 28-year-old woman associated with the deaths of 19 immigrants on a May 14 smuggling incident could face life in prison.  Fatima Holloway was assisting over 70 immigrants enter the US near Victoria in a tractor-trailer when the hot, crowded conditions became fatal.

Jeffrey Hudson, an agent with US immigration and Customs Enforcement testified earlier this year that Holloway is closer to a victim than a criminal in this case, as she became frightened when the immigrants began beating on the walls of the truck.  It must be proven by prosecutors that a smuggler deliberately caused the deaths.

In the case of her fellow suspect Tyrone Williams and the four others charged, Attorney General John Ashcroft must decide by December 1 whether to seek the death penalty.

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A subtle but significant change in the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program could make Mexicans holding border crossing cards, or laser visas, exempt from being fingerprinted and going through identification checks every time they enter and exit the United States. 

Currently, Mexican nationalists who hold laser visas must go through the US-VISIT program and are only allowed to stay in the U.S. for a maximum of 72 hours.  Because the proposed change would not record entry of Mexican laser visa holders, they would also be exempt from the 72-hour rule.  The reason for reevaluation is multifaceted, with reasons including the amount of commerce Mexican travelers add to the U.S. economy as well as the differing allowances between Canadian and Mexican travelers.

About six million laser visas were issued in the past six years.

Supporters of this change in the US-VISIT program do not agree that Mexican nationalists should be viewed as potential terrorists or be put through the same travel requirements, since both countries are partners and members of NAFTA treaty.   Canadians are currently allowed to stay in the U.S. for up to six months at a time.