Ecuador and illegal immigration - More beheadings in Mexico

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS Visit our website: http://www.nafbpo.org Foreign News Report Friday, 7/2/10

Ecuador, in keeping with its new arrogant and sovereign attitude, has been one of the most fervent critics of the anti-immigration policies of the rich countries, starting from the restrictions in Spain all the way to the criminalization in Arizona. Not only that, but the government, in an attitude matching its official posture, decided to open the borders to all visitors who might want to come to our beautiful land. The logic is that, if we defend the rights of emigrants, we must be willing to accept the aliens who might wish to enter our country, no matter where they come from or what their traits might be.

The problem, as we all already know, is that said posture was very commendable as long as the country was a land of emigrants, but it has become a headache due to the unexpected transformation of our humble Ecuador into a magnet for the destitute and for adventurers from the whole world. Now we find ourselves in the ironic situation of missing hundreds of thousands of fellow countrymen who live outside the country, while we look down on and fear the aliens who have begun to take their place.

It is, no doubt, a very interesting experience, because it’s one thing to defend orally the unalienable rights of immigrants in the First World, but it’s another to do so while they are within our borders. Now we have to face the same thing that is faced by countries which are the recipients of illegal immigrants, and that should make us understand that the rejection of the new arrivals is a universal feeling that cannot be condemned in passing with populist proclamations and condemnations.

Many Ecuadorans who most likely have relatives in Spain or in the United States, for example, would heartily applaud the massive deportation of Cubans, Nigerians or Chinese (although, curiously, no one has complained about the hundreds of gringos who are settling in Cotacahi or Vilcabamba….) The logical thing would be to propose a sensible migratory policy, far removed from proclamations and idealistic principles, and one that takes our contradictory situation into account.

In Ecuador, two notary publics and a judge have been found to be involved in “irregularities in the granting of Ecuadoran citizenship to Cuban nationals.” As a result, 200 cases of naturalization have been annulled; of these, 160 were originally granted on the basis of fraudulent marriages. Most cases involved Cubans but a Chinese was also among them. Passports issued to those persons will also be recalled.

Sandra Salas Garcia, the state of Chihuahua’s Assistant State Attorney General for Internal Affairs, Analysis and Evaluation, was ambushed, shot and killed last night in Ciudad Juarez, along with one of her two security escorts. The vehicle in which she was riding was hit by at least twenty-two rounds of high power ammunition. A second escort was wounded. Other assassinations of personnel of the internal affairs office have also taken place in the past.

In Ciudad Juarez late yesterday evening, pedestrians passing by a park at Morelia and Grosella Sts., in the Edendira neighborhood, found a metal rod nailed to the trunk of a tree. The rod, in turn, held a male human torso off the ground. The head, both arms and both legs had been dumped nearby. “No item of clothing to cover the severed parts was seen, which made for an even more crude image.”

From January 1st to June 25th of this year there have been 5,478 homicides in Mexico, a number 86.9% higher than that reported in 2009, when they reached 2,930. This year, the daily average of deaths linked to organized crime is 31. The total number of executions for 2009 was 6,587.

http://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/ElFinanciero/Portal/cfpages/contentmgr.cfm?docId=271193&docTipo=1&orderby=docid&sortby=ASC

El Salvador’s National Police reported that there were 2,177 assassinations in the country during the first half of this year. The tally for June was 378, which means that 13 Salvadorans lost their lives every 24 hours due to murder. The wave of criminality has obligated the national government to use the country’s armed forces to assist the police since Nov. 2009.

http://www.laprensagrafica.com/el-salvador/judicial/129364-junio-dejo-378-victimas-de-la-violencia-en-el-salvador.html

When a “go-fast” launch left Colombia with around a ton of cocaine aboard and approached San Andres Island, on the Caribbean, it was forced to turn back toward the mainland because of the presence of Colombian surface units in the area. On Tuesday night, the launch was detected by aircrafts from both the U.S. and Colombia. Surface units were then alerted and they seized the drug and arrested three Colombian males. So far this year, Colombian naval forces in the Caribbean have seized 11.5 tons of cocaine and 3.5 tons of marihuana.

The body found last Saturday on the highway between Sonoita, and Puerto Penasco, Sonora (“Rocky Point,” a popular tourist beach near the north end of the Gulf of California), has been identified as that of a Puerto Penasco city policeman who disappeared on May 8th. He’d been shot at least twice.

The U.S. Consulate in Guadalajara, Jalisco, has issued an alert to U.S. citizens who reside or plan to visit in the area. The alert is due to the insecurity in Guadalajara’s metro area, and states that Mexican officials recently commented that “the police are unable to combat organized crime effectively, and the drug cartels’ violence can affect innocent civilians.” As an example, the alert cites a shootout on a local highway on June 24 between police and hired killers. The consulate warns that “the climate of security in the consular district continues to deteriorate.” The consulate’s area covers the states of Jalisco, Aguascalientes, Colima and Nayarit.

http://www.informador.com.mx/jalisco/2010/214538/6/justifica-consulado-emision-de-alerta-por-seguridad-en-jalisco.htm

Tubutama and Saric, are small towns just a few miles south of Nogales, Sonora. There are preliminary reports of armed confrontations around dawn in that area today between rival drug and people smuggling groups. At least 19 persons are confirmed dead and several others wounded. Among those apprehended are two juveniles, one 15, the other 17 years of age.

Saturday 7/3/10

El Financiero(Mexico City) 7/2/10

Election day

[Ed. note: Sunday was election day in 15 Mexican states for some 2,000 offices, including governors, local representatives, mayors and other local officials. There has been much concern regarding the influence of the drug cartels in these elections. Alarcon’s cartoon preceding election day sums it up nicely.]

El Heraldo (Tegucigalpa, Honduras) 7/2/10

Some 500 Hondurans emigrate daily to the US

San Pedro Sula, Honduras – At least 500 Hondurans leave daily for the US to seek “the American dream,” according to the regional human rights commission. The commissioner of the organization said that monthly, about 15,000 leave the country in search of jobs in the US. However, most of them are deported back, he added.

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Some 20,000 Hondurans have left Arizona

Tegucigalpa, Honduras – Some 20,000 Hondurans have left Arizona due to the threat of SB 1070. The Honduran government has sent authorities to the state to lend assistance to their people. The Hondurans are seeking refuge in neighboring states like California and Texas, although they prefer California. This is due to two things. Some Texas counties are seeking to implement laws similar to Arizona’s “which violate the rights of the migrants,” while California is a state that is boycotting some of Arizona’s commercial and economic activities in protest to the law.

http://www.elheraldo.hn/País/Ediciones/2010/07/02/Noticias/Unos-20-000-hondurenos-ya-se-fueron-de-Arizona

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El Universal (Mexico City) 7/2/10

US Consulate attacker arrested

Mexican Federal Police arrested Jesus Ernesto Chavez Castillo, “El Camello,” on charges of orchestrating the March 13 attack on people linked to the US Consulate in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, in which three were killed. Chavez, a gang leader of La Linea, allegedly ordered the murders, including an employee and her husband. Authorities said Chavez ordered members of the La Linea gang, the armed branch of the Juarez cartel, to murder consular employee Lesley A. Enriquez because she presumably issued visas to members of a rival crime organization.

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Calderon calls for unified political party position against crime

Mexican President Felipe Calderon called for his nation’s political parties to draw up a national policy against crime. ”The strengthening of institution and not their systematic demolition requires precisely not only a State policy, but also conduct with a national vision from all political leaders. It is for this reason I have called together citizens, civil organizations, political parties and national authorities to discuss how to perfect and strengthen national policy on security matters and strengthen our institutional framework,” the president said.

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El Sol de Mexico (Mexico City) 7/2/10

Penalties to increase for human smuggling

Mexico City – Mexico will begin to impose greater prison terms and fines for human traffickers. Federal officials announced that human trafficking will now carry penalties of 8 to 16 years in prison and fines of minimum 15,000 days’ salary. Up to now, the penalties were 6 to 12 years and 10,000 days’ salary. The new minimum fine translates to some $64,000. The penalties increase by 50% if it involves trafficking minors. The modifications in the law also now permits the authorities to instigate their own investigations. Previously, it required a citizen report of trafficking. Most of the human trafficking encountered in Mexico are those being transported through the country to enter the US. This not only includes foreigners, but Mexican citizens as well. [Ed. note: The “daily wage” fines are apparently based on Mexico’s minimum daily wage.]

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El Debate (Sinaloa state) 7/2/10

Culiacan gains distinction: number 2

The city of Culiacan, Sinaloa, has moved to second place in the world’s most dangerous cities. Rated by homicides per 100,000 residents, Culiacan is averaging 69, behind only Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, with 191. Chihuahua city comes in third at 63.

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Sunday 7/4/10

El Universal (Mexico City) 7/3/10

Two state police decapitated

The bodies of two Jalisco state police agents were found mutilated and decapitated inside six black plastic bags in Tonala, a suburb of Guadalajara. Also inside one of the bags was a message written on cardboard. Both agents had been abducted the morning before at another location in the city.

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Woman arrested smuggling heroin in stomach

Customs Border Protection agents arrested a woman for smuggling when she was seeking entry into the US at Pharr, Texas. The woman, 24, who claimed to be legally immigrated from the Dominican Republic, arrived at the port of entry in a taxi and identified herself as a resident of the Bronx, New York. When sent into the office for closer inspection, she became very nervous for no discernible reason. She was then sent for a medical exam which ultimately revealed she had swallowed 10 small packets of heroin with a total of 432 grams, valued at close to $80,000.

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El Imparcial (Hermosillo, Sonora) 7/3/10

Insecurity closes restaurants in Ciudad Juarez

In the past year and a half, the restaurant business in Cd. Juarez, Chihuahua, has lost at least 4,000 employees and more than 40% of business due to organized crime. Extortion, kidnapping and theft make it almost impossible to keep in business. More than 80% of the businesses pay protection money to criminal gangs that charge from 500 to 5,000 pesos [about $40 to $400] depending on the size of the business. Accurate figures of business losses to criminals are impossible to achieve since many business owners fear to report them.

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El Universo (Guayaquil, Ecuador) 7/3/10

Semi-submersible boat found

A boat designed for operating almost under the surface was discovered by the Ecuadorian Navy in a remote area near the Colombian border. The semi-submersible, similar to a submarine, was hidden in an inlet near the coast. It was the second such discovery in a month.

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Monday 7/5/10

El Espectador (Bogota, Colombia) 7/4/10

US Ambassador to Colombia rejects Arizona law

The US Ambassador to Colombia, William Brownfield, repudiated the new Arizona law against undocumented immigrants. He said that considering the possibility of rejecting the presence of citizens of other nationalities in his country is illogical since tradition demonstrates otherwise. ”The United States is a country of immigrants,” he declared, during a July 4 celebration.

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-end of report-

Illegal entry not punished

Prosecutors say they lack resources, facilities
James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer
Created: 07/04/2010 10:27:02 PM PDT

It’s illegal to enter the United States without permission. At least technically.

Improper entry by an immigrant is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in prison. A second offense is a felony, punishable by up to two years in prison.

But in practice, it’s treated much less seriously.

“We basically do not prosecute that offense,” said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. “Essentially, if you’re an illegal alien and you come across the border and we find you, we almost never do anything.”

Indeed, in 2008, the most recent year for which information is available, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California - which includes San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties - didn’t prosecute a single person for simple illegal entry.

The lack of prosecutions is just a sign that, as lawmakers have said, U.S. immigration policy is broken and doesn’t satisfy those on either side of the debate.

Illegal immigrants who are found and detained by federal officials are often deported but rarely charged with the crime of entering the country illegally. That usually only happens, Mrozek said, when an illegal immigrant has been convicted of a felony and has returned to the U.S. after being deported.

“It always comes after that person has been convicted of some other offense - drug trafficking, burglary,” Mrozek said. “What we’ve decided to do is focus on the worst of the worst.”

In 2008, the Central District filed charges in 699 felony illegal immigration cases.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office, part of the Department of Justice, isn’t the only federal agency that deals with illegal immigration. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, can detain and deport immigrants, but it does not charge illegal immigrants with a crime.

In many cases, illegal immigrants from Mexico and Canada are allowed to go home without being formally deported.

In a speech Thursday, President Barack Obama acknowledged that illegal entry, even if it isn’t treated as a crime per se, is a violation of U.S. law.

“Ultimately, our nation, like all nations, has the right and obligation to control its borders and set laws for residency and citizenship,” Obama said. “And no matter how decent they are, no matter their reasons, the 11 million (illegal immigrants in the U.S.) who broke these laws should be held accountable.”

The nation’s patchwork of immigration enforcement techniques doesn’t seem to please the president or anyone else.

Rep. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino, who has been a vocal advocate of allowing illegal immigrants in the U.S. an opportunity to become citizens, says illegal immigrants should not be seen as criminals.

“The hard-working men and women who are here to make a better way of life for their families are not criminals,” Baca said. “They are an embodiment of the American dream.”

Emilio Amaya, executive director of the San Bernardino Community Service Center, which provides legal aid to immigrants, said he has concerns about how ICE enforces immigration laws, specifically that the agency will deport people without taking into account the families they are leaving behind.

“I think enforcement should recognize that people come from mixed families,” he said, meaning families in which some members are illegal immigrants while some are citizens or legal residents. “Before expelling people from the country, I think family unification, morally, should play a role.”

But Raymond Herrera - president of anti-illegal-immigration group We the People, California’s Crusader - said it’s not acceptable for illegal immigrants to carry on without being punished.

Federal officials, Herrera said, “took the law and said we’re only going to go after criminals - but they’re all criminals.”

He said those who want to allow illegal immigrants to become citizens and ignore the crime of illegal entry might think illegal immigration is a victimless crime.

“The federal government says there’s no victim, but that illegal alien displaced an American worker,” Herrera said. “I’m a victim, but nobody is looking to prosecute the criminal.”

He said federal officials should find illegal immigrants, charge them and deport them.

But Rep. Gary Miller, R-Brea, said the federal government isn’t even doing enough to remove illegal immigrants who have committed other crimes.

“We can’t even prosecute some of the most egregious,” Miller said. “Let’s prosecute the people who are coming here and committing crimes.”

Mrozek said prosecuting every illegal immigrant in the country - estimates range from 11 million to 30 million - or even the Central District of California would require a lot more resources than his office has.

“If we wanted to, every single prosecutor in our office could do nothing but immigration crimes,” he said. “There’s enough business, so to speak, to keep those people more than occupied.”

But he said the U.S. Attorney’s Office has other priorities: international smuggling, organized crime, tax evasion.

“If we had thousands of prosecutors and the (federal) Bureau of Prisons had infinite beds and we had who knows how many courtrooms, yeah, all these cases could theoretically be dealt with,” Mrozek said. “We have what we have, and we do the best we can to deal with the criminal problems that exist in our district.”

Herrera, though, said a lack of manpower or resources isn’t a good argument for letting thousands of criminals off the hook.

“When they tell you they can’t afford to enforce the law, they’re saying we have a state of anarchy,” he said.

http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_15442032?source=rss_viewed

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