Posted on 09/02/2010 5:01:15 PM PDT by AuntB
At least 16 migrants, including a woman, were being held for ransom by human smugglers in Tijuana, Mexico, according to a migrant who was freed, authorities said late Wednesday.
"With respect to the man, we are not releasing his name but he is between 20 and 25-years-old. We can tell you that his family paid a ransom for his liberty and it was after that he came to us and told us there were others that were being held in Tijuana," Municipal Police Officer Jose Varela told CNN by phone.
It was unclear how much the family paid, but reports from local journalists said the fee for freedom was $4,500.
Varela could not confirm that to CNN, but said, "that sounded right."
"We don't know who is responsible for the kidnapping, but it's likely tied to drug traffickers," Varela said.
The whereabouts of the other migrants was unclear, but the migrant who was released said they were "bound by both hands and feet," according to the police.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Cancun, again....
Mexican police rescue Cuban migrants Agence France Presse, September 2, 2010 http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-world/mexican-police-rescue-cuban-migrants-20100902-14p4x.html
Mexican police have rescued six Cuban migrants who had been held for ransom for a month near the popular beachside resort of Cancun.
A police patrol stormed a house in Bonfil, on the outskirts of Cancun, on Tuesday after receiving a tip, Quintana Roo state public security chief Enrique Alberto Sanmiguel told AFP.
'When the patrol arrived, they found five men and a woman who explained they were Cubans,' he said on Wednesday, noting that the abductors were seeking between $US8000 ($A8792) and $US10,000 ($A10,990) in ransom from the migrants' US relatives in Miami.
During the ordeal, the Cubans were moved constantly to different sites in order to avoid detection by police.
Cancun is a major transit point for thousands of Cuban boatpeople who leave their communist island illegally and travel through Mexico in a bid to reach the United States and be granted asylum there.
The rescue came a week after Mexican police discovered the bodies of 72 Central and South American migrants on a ranch in northeastern Mexico close to the US border.
The mainstream media would like you to think illegal immigration has ended...don’t believe it!
“Mexico’s National Commission for Human Rights said in a report last year that 9,758 migrants were abducted from September 2008 to February 2009.”
Grief Across Latin America for Migrant Killings
By Randal C. Archibold
The New York Times, September 1, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/02/world/americas/02migrants.html
[snips] Despite all the hardships and perils that stand before them — a raging drug war in Mexico, walls, border agents, National Guard troops, anti-immigrant fervor and a fragile economy if they even make it — they still come.
And they still die, often in the deserts of the Southwest, sometimes at the hands of thieves and kidnappers and now, in a startling twist, apparently at the hands of a drug gang seeking money or possibly recruits...
The toll in this massacre was staggering: 21 Hondurans, 12 Salvadorans, a Brazilian, 5 Guatemalans. Those are just the ones who have been identified.
The rush to ministries in the countries where it is believed the migrants originated suggests that many more than these 72 have met uncertain fates. At least 40 people have called Guatemala’s Foreign Ministry, looking for information on loved ones. Ninety showed up in El Salvador doing the same, and a similar crowd gathered in Honduras, where the relative of one man confirmed dead fainted at a government office upon hearing the news.
Both the United States and Mexico say migration is down, because of the economy and the toughening security at the American border. ******But the true flow is impossible to determine,****** and it continues to be strong enough that Guatemala recently opened a new consulate near the Mexican border, in conjunction with El Salvador, and plans to open two more, including one in the area where the migrants were killed.
A Guatemala government report said that last year 27,222 of its citizens were deported from the United States and 28,800 from Mexico; Honduras estimates more than 500 of its people leave for the north every day.
Obama et al, can’t even get the GAO to agree with them!
GAO: Feds should work with Arizona cops on human smuggling cases
* September 2nd, 2010 3:09 pm ET
In order to improve federal efforts to address alien smuggling, the Assistant Secretary for ICE [John Morton] should determine whether ICE could utilize Arizona’s financial investigative techniques to address alien smuggling, direct Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center (HSTC) or another ICE-designated entity to conduct an assessment of the Arizona Attorney General’s financial investigations strategy to identify investigative techniques for federal use. — GAO Report to Congress (7/22/10)
Last month, hundreds of protesters marched in front of the Arizona state Capitol to display their opposition to that state’s quest to enforce illegal immigration laws following passage of the state’s new immigration law. After holding a prayer vigil at a church, the protesters demonstrated in front of the federal courthouse. According to law enforcement officials, the protesters were bused into Arizona from California and other locations.
These out-of-state demonstrators were allegedly directed by labor unions such as the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), according to police sources. Protesters also engaged in a sit-in at the office of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Those who became violent and disruptive were arrested, and the popular sheriff vowed to go ahead with a crime sweep targeting illegal immigrants.
“My deputies will arrest them and put them in pink underwear,” Arpaio said in a news release. “Count on it.”
Every scientific poll has revealed overwhelming support for Arizona and it’s law, with even some Democrat governors voicing their support for Arizona and its governor.
Meanwhile, a government report advising Congress to work with Arizona law enforcement to investigate financial crimes related to illegal immigration is being ignored by lawmakers and the Obama White House.
The U.S. Congress obtained a report from the Government Accountability Office describing federal efforts to address alien smuggling along the southwest border. In turn, the National Association of Chiefs of Police obtained that report.
Alien smuggling along the southwest border is an increasing threat to the security of the United States and Mexico as well as to the safety of both law enforcement and smuggled aliens. One reason for this increased threat is the involvement of drug trafficking organizations in the lucrative enterprise of alien smuggling.
According to the National Drug Intelligence Center’s 2008 National Drug Threat Assessment, the southwest border region is the principal entry point for smuggled aliens from Mexico, Central America, and South America. Aliens from countries of special interest to the United States such as Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan (known to border security personnel as special-interest aliens) also illegally enter the United States through that region.
According to the NDIC assessment, Mexican drug trafficking organizations have become increasingly involved in alien smuggling. These organizations collect fees from alien smuggling organizations for the use of specific smuggling routes, and available reporting indicates that some Mexican drug trafficking organizations specialize in smuggling special-interest aliens into the United States.
As a result, these organizations now have alien smuggling as an additional source of funding to counter U.S. and Mexican government law enforcement efforts against them. Violence associated with alien smuggling has also increased in recent years, particularly in Arizona.
According to the NDIC assessment, expanding border security initiatives and additional U.S. Border Patrol resources are likely obstructing regularly used smuggling routes and fueling this increase in violence, particularly violence directed at law enforcement officers.
Alien smugglers and guides are more likely than in past years to use violence against U.S. law enforcement officers in order to smuggle groups of aliens across the southwest border, according to the Government Accountability Office.
In July 2009, a border patrol agent was killed while patrolling the border by aliens illegally crossing the border, the first shooting death of an agent in more than 10 years. Conflicts are also emerging among rival alien smuggling organizations. Assaults, kidnappings, and hostage situations attributed to this conflict are increasing, particularly in Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona.
Communities across the country are at risk since among those individuals illegally crossing the border are criminal aliens and gang members who pose public safety concerns for communities throughout the country. Within the Department of Homeland Security, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of Investigations (OI) is responsible for investigating alien smuggling.
GAO analysts discovered the following:
* OI work years devoted to investigating alien smuggling along the southwest border increased from about 190 work years in fiscal year 2005 to about 197 work years in fiscal year 2009, an overall increase of 4 percent, with hundreds of arrests, indictments, and convictions resulting. The overall number of work years decreased from about 190 work years in fiscal year 2005 to 174 in fiscal year 2008, but increased 23 work years from fiscal years 2008 to 2009 primarily due to an increase in one office. The percentage of time OI investigators spend on alien smuggling investigations, versus other investigative areas, such as drugs, has remained steady during this time period at 16-17 percent.
* The value of OI alien smuggling asset seizures has decreased since fiscal year 2005, and two promising opportunities exist that could be applied to target and seize the monetary assets of smuggling organizations. According to OI data, the value of alien smuggling seizures nationwide increased from about $11.2 million in fiscal year 2005 to about $17.4 million in fiscal year 2007, but declined to $12.1 million in fiscal year 2008 and to about $7.6 million in fiscal year 2009.
* OI and CBP have not fully evaluated progress toward achieving alien smuggling-related program objectives. Federal standards for internal control call for agencies to establish performance measures and indicators in order to evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts.
One of the major objectives of OI’s alien smuggling investigations is to seize smugglers’ assets, but OI does not have performance measures for asset seizures related to alien smuggling cases. Tracking the use of asset seizures in alien smuggling investigations as a performance measure could help OI monitor its progress toward its goal of denying smuggling organizations the profit from criminal acts.
Previously, in a May 2010 report, the GAO recommended that ICE develop performance measures for asset seizures related to alien smuggling investigations. ICE concurred with the recommendation and stated that ICE is in the process of assessing all of its performance measures and creating a performance plan.
In order to improve federal efforts to address alien smuggling, the Assistant Secretary for ICE should determine whether ICE could utilize Arizona’s financial investigative techniques to address alien smuggling, direct Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center (HSTC) or another ICE-designated entity to conduct an assessment of the Arizona Attorney General’s financial investigations strategy to identify investigative techniques for federal use.
Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
Just 500 from Honduras alone. That’s only 182,500 per year from there. No big deal. /s
Think of your local town that has about 200,00 people in it. We get one of those chuck full from Honduras each and every year.
And they don’t even gift wrap it.
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