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Saudi Arabia, amid heavy fighting with Shi'ite rebels, has begun erecting another security fence along its border with Yemen. Saudi military sources said the Defense Ministry has overseen a fast-track project to construct a barbed wire fence along most of the 1,600-kilometer border with Yemen. The sources said the project reflected an urgent requirement for a physical barrier to block the flow of thousands of Shi'ite rebels and their supporters from Yemen to the Saudi kingdom. "The infiltration has reached massive proportions," a Saudi source said. "Thousands are crossing into the kingdom."

WASHINGTON — After several years of fighting the U.S.-Mexico border fence, a coalition of Texas elected officials is working with the Obama administration on ways to improve border ports and facilitate trade while fighting drug smuggling. The Texas Border Coalition's involvement with policymaking comes after a bitter tangle with the federal government over construction of the fence that Congress and the White House approved, but border business leaders and human rights groups opposed. “We've got to work together,” said Chad Foster, Eagle Pass mayor and the coalition's chairman. “But that is where the wheels came off the cart — when...

If you listen to the mainstream media, the swine flu pandemic, at least in the United States, is being spread by tourists and college students returning from spring break. Little or no mention is made of the thousands of illegal aliens streaming across our border from Mexico, some undoubtedly bringing with them more than a desire for a better life. Nearly two years ago we warned that one of the consequences of illegal immigration was the reemergence of diseases long thought to be vanquished. Among the infections being spread were a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis and an outbreak of dengue...

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — Members of Congress have stripped a provision requiring 300 more miles of tall fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border from a Department of Homeland Security appropriation bill, saying the funds needed to build the barrier would be better spent on alternative security measures. If the amendment by U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint had remained in the bill, tall fencing to stop illegal immigrants and smugglers on foot would have been installed along 700 miles of border — a plan that many officials and residents along the Southwest border have opposed.

Appropriators dropped a requirement in the 2010 Homeland Security spending bill to rush the construction of a fence at the Mexican border, disappointing conservatives who pushed the project as a way to slow illegal immigration. The conference report for the $42.8 billion appropriations bill left out language in the Senate's version that required the installation of 700 miles of the border fence by the end of next year. The fence requirement was inserted in July as an amendment sponsored by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). It was adopted with the support of most GOP senators and 21 Democrats. But the conference...

This amendment would require all 700 miles of physical pedestrian fencing on the southern border to be completed by December 31st, 2010.

The high court announced Monday it is refusing to consider a challenge to the Homeland Security secretary's ability to expedite border fence construction by waiving it from federal and local laws. The Supreme Court will not jump into the contentious debate over the construction of a 500 mile-long fence on the United States-Mexico border. The high court announced Monday it is refusing to consider a challenge to former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's decision to expedite border fence construction by waiving it from 37 federal and local laws. A collection of environmental groups, the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Indian tribe...

he April 2009 Armed Forces Journal (AFJ) on page 18 reports we are going to spend more than last year’s $36.5 BILLION occupying Afghanistan with 34,000 U.S. troops in 2008, yet Taliban violence is rising. This despite the ill-conceived, planned influx of more U.S. troops (60,000+ total) which is sure to cause the locals to reject us as proof-positive that we are “foreigners intruding on their land” as the rebels label us, and yet not provide anywhere near enough manpower to seal off the long Afghan-Pakistan (AFPAK) border. Our assistance, to date, has been to try to make the Afghans...

EL PASO, Texas -- Unauthorized border crossings by Mexican authorities such as soldiers and police spiked more than threefold in 2008, according to an annual report the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency sought to keep secret...."BorderStat Violence, FY 2008 Year in Review" says that 147 foreign government incursions occurred in 2008, a 359 percent increase from the previous year. Only 216 incursions were tallied in the previous nine years.... "Our agents out there are seeing people dressed up and acting in a military-like fashion," he said. "Whether they're in any kind of official uniform or something they bought...

Daniel Ortega at the Summit had a 50 minutes anti American rant, this, a portion of that speech translated, from the CNN.com webcast. Obama didn't respond to this, being previously made comfortable from sitting in Jeremiah Wright's church for 20 years, probably felt right at home..

Congressmen Duncan Hunter and Brian Bilbray spearhead letter from 36 House Republicans to the President. See the letter here. Congressman Duncan D. Hunter and his North County counterpart, Brian Bilbray, co-signed a letter with 34 house Republicans to President Barack Obama, asking him to expedite completion of the 700 miles of border fence authorized by Congress in 2006. The house Republicans voice serious concerns about escalating drug violence in Mexico and possible spillover to the U S of the bloodshed. There are still 70 miles of fencing and other security infrastructure, including electronic surveillance and additional border patrol staff, that...

Mexico’s attorney general said Tuesday he sees no need for U.S. troops to intervene in his country’s war on drug cartels, nor to gear up for a spillover of violence across the border. U.S. officials view the violence as a potential national security threat, and last month the Bush administration’s homeland security chief, Michael Chertoff, said Washington has drawn up contingency plans for a “surge” of both civilian law enforcement and military assets along the border. On Tuesday, Gov. Rick Perry demanded a tighter security net from Washington, saying he’s asked the Obama administration for more aircraft and “a thousand...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A state legislator proposed legalizing the sale of marijuana in California, saying the plan would generate more than $1 billion annually for the cash-strapped state. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano introduced a bill Monday that would legalize possession and sales of the drug for people aged 21 and older. The legislation would impose regulations and taxation similar to those for alcohol sales. Federal law makes it a crime to possess or sell marijuana, so the measure, if passed, would likely face an immediate legal challenge. Mr. Ammiano, a San Francisco Democrat who is well known in the state as...

Responding to fears of escalating violence in Mexico that could spill over the border into Texas and other states, the U.S. government has stepped up law enforcement. Border Patrol and Drug Enforcement Administration agents were sent to shore up local law enforcement, and to their credit the violence has not spread to those communities and regions. In fact, El Paso — just across the border from Ciudad Juarez, which ranks as one of the most dangerous places in the world — is ranked as one of the safest cities in the United States. Unfortunately, the stepped-up enforcement in border cities...

Eight congressional Democrats are urging President Barack Obama to suspend the construction of a “border fence” separating the United States from Mexico, a move that is sure to reignite the immigration debate months after the economic crisis bumped the issue from the national stage. The construction of a border fence is a contentious issue in Democratic circles — especially among those congressmen who are of Hispanic decent or represent districts with a large Hispanic presence. They now hope Mr. Obama will undo some of the border-protection policies erected by the Bush administration. And the border fence sits at the top...

In the story of the emperor with no clothes, it took someone whose observations are rarely heeded -- a child -- to point out the obvious fact that no one else could acknowledge. In the case of drug policy, it takes people who are usually ignored by Washington policymakers -- Latin Americans -- to perform the same invaluable service. Last week, a commission made up of 17 members, from Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa to Sonia Picado, the Costa Rican who heads the Inter-American Institute on Human Rights, did nothing but admit the truth: The war on drugs is a...

Headline: Grenades that were used in three attacks -- the first two in northern Mexico, the last in Texas -- over the past four months all trace back to the same source, the paramilitary group known as Los Zetas. The attempted bombing in Texas occurred in January in a small town named Pharr, just outside of McAllen and Brownsville, and not all that far from the Mexican border and places like Matamoros and Monterrey. It so happens that another grenade failed to detonate in a January attack in Pharr. Three men, members of two gangs, Tri-City Bombers and the Texas...

BROWNSVILLE - After getting his first glimpse of what the border fence will look like in Cameron County, County Judge Carlos Cascos said it was bad, but not as bad as he feared. "I was expecting a lot worse," Cascos said Saturday. "Everybody has been calling it a border wall. Well, it doesn't look like a wall; it looks like a fence." Bollard fences and picket fences will be used in some areas. A "floating fence" is planned for other areas, according to information supplied to the county last week by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Bollards are like...

In December, then President-elect Barack Obama said he wanted to evaluate border security operations before he considers whether to finish building the fence under his administration. The fence along the U.S.-Mexico border is mostly finished. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Lloyd Easterling says that 601 miles (967 kilometers) of the project had been completed as of a week ago. Easterling says 69 miles (111 kilometers) of the fence still must be built to meet the goal set during the Bush administration. In December, then President-elect Barack Obama said he wanted to evaluate border security operations before he considers whether to...

Federal bureaucrats call it the "border fence." The residents along the Texas-Mexico border say it's a wall echoing the Cold War. And south of the Rio Grande,Governor Humberto Moreira of the Mexican state of Coahuila has dubbed it a "wall of hate."But no matter what the controversial barrier being constructed between Mexico and the U.S. is called,the $1.6 billion,670-mile-long first phase is close to completion as President Barack Obama enters office. And for Obama,who voted for the border-fence bill back in 2006, the barrier may be best described as a big potential headache. Opponents are already appealing to him to...

I like most Mexican people, just as I like most Americans. I don’t have prejudice against them, they are God’s children, just like me. So let’s get that out of the way. What I do hate, is illegal activity. I don’t like it when people ignore our laws, and sneak into our country. Yes, yes, we are a country of immigrants, I get that, I love that, I respect that, and encourage that. But, we are not a country of illegal immigrants. Law and order should be followed in all things. What I hate more than illegal immigration, is when...

On Tuesday afternoon El Paso Mayor John Cook vetoed a resolution unanimously passed by city council that would have asked the U.S. government to begin a serious debate on legalizing narcotics. Earlier in the day city council passed a resolution, rationing that the best way to stop the drug wars in Juarez may be to legalize the drugs here in the United States. It was part of a larger resolution outlining several steps for the United States and Mexico to take in order to cut down on the number of murders between rival drug cartels. Last year more than 1,600...

What part of illegal alien is so difficult to understand? Apparently, there are those who are either too confused, too unwilling or too incapable of understanding the meaning of those simple words. Instead, they'd rather emotionalize any debate on illegal immigration with cries of racism, discrimination and an alleged lack of compassion for our fellow human beings. They choose this course rather than honestly dealing with the established fact we are a nation of laws - laws intended and necessary to preserve civility and order for our common good. I, for one, refuse to be intimidated or influenced by such...

Riverside and San Bernardino counties added more Latino residents between 2000 and 2007 than all but three other U.S. counties, a new analysis of U.S. Census data found. The report, by the nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based Pew Hispanic Center, also found that most Latino population growth is now from new births. In the 1980s and 1990s, it was mostly from immigration. That means no matter what happens to the immigration rate, the Latino population of Riverside and San Bernardino counties will continue to grow steadily, reaching a majority within several years, experts say. Riverside County's Hispanic population surged 60 percent between...

Border fence workers arrested for marijuana smuggling Mission police arrested three construction workers for the controversial border fence after they allegedly smuggled marijuana from Mexico and took a lunch break at a local Burger King (Video)

HIDALGO COUNTY – Hidalgo County expects its 20-mile section of the border fence will be completed next month. Godffrey Garza, the man who oversees the county’s levee project says that their main concern right now is finishing repairs on levees across the county. They are getting ready to ask for more money to finish making the repairs. They reportedly need $120 million to finish. The county was supposed to finish the levee wall by December 21, but that date has been pushed back to January 31, 2009. By comparison, though, Hidalgo County’s progress is far ahead of other Valley communities....

(CNSNews.com) - The $2.7 billion border “fence” authorized by Congress to be built along stretches of the U.S.-Mexico border is just over two-thirds finished--and should be mostly complete by the end of the year. But not everyone is happy with it. Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) said the fence that is being built is “not the one Congress had in mind” when it passed legislation in 2005 authorizing a double fence combined with a patrol road. The law Congress enacted specifically directed that “the Secretary of Homeland Security shall provide for at least 2 layers of reinforced fencing, the installation of...

El Paso County filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court this week in the latest bid to stop construction of hundreds of miles of border fence. The 34-page appeal argues that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff overstepped his legal authority when he waived 37 federal laws that could have slowed or blocked construction of fencing along the border. Congress authorized the fence to help secure the border and slow illegal immigration. In asking the court to review a lawsuit previously dismissed by a federal court judge in El Paso, lawyers for the county also contend that Chertoff violated...

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison filed papers today establishing an exploratory committee to run for Texas governor in 2010.

EL PASO, Texas — Elected officials in El Paso are asking President-elect Barack Obama to scuttle federal plans to build hundreds of miles of fencing along the U.S. border with Mexico. In a three-page letter to Obama dated Wednesday, officials from El Paso argue that the fence, a project approved by Congress in 2006, was ill-conceived and is an irresponsible expense while the country is in the midst of a recession.

Federal agents said the border fence in southern New Mexico is working.After a stretch of the fence was finished in May, border patrol agents said they have noticed a dropping number of immigrants arrested around Santa Teresa, NM--a border town about 10 miles northwest of El Paso.The number of arrests are down by about 70 percent.The government is still finishing the project in other border states. It should be done some time in 2009.

McALLEN, Texas - South Texans whose land is being taken for the U.S.-Mexico border fence are getting another chance to discuss the project with federal officials. Even with construction on some sections of the fence moving forward and more than 230 condemnation cases making their way through federal courts in the Rio Grande Valley, U.S. Customs and Border Protection is offering to talk privately with landowners. David Pagan, the agency's state and local liaison, said in a prepared statement Wednesday that affected landowners can contact the assistant U.S. attorney assigned to their case to request a private meeting or possibly...

SAN DIEGO - The Border Patrol on Tuesday finished installing a razor-sharp, curled wire atop a fence on the Mexican border, saying the tactic has contributed to a sharp drop in attacks on its agents by assailants hurling rocks, bricks and sometimes even exploding bottles of gas. The barbed wire on a violent, five-mile stretch separating San Diego from Tijuana, Mexico, resembles a prison fence, prompting critics to say it's a heavy-handed move and a menacing eyesore. "The effects have been phenomenal," Michael Corley, head of the Border Patrol's Imperial Beach station, said at a news conference after a crew...

The Border Patrol is claiming success along a formerly chaotic five-mile stretch of the border between the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa ports of entry, where fencing was raised and reinforced with razor-studded concertina wire. Yesterday, agents in San Diego celebrated the completion of the wire project, begun in December and mostly finished about two months ago. The Border Patrol said both illegal-crossing arrests and assaults against agents in the area are down by more than 50 percent. However, a growing number of apprehensions and assaults are occurring west of the San Ysidro port of entry, and overall arrests in...

MEXICO CITY Following President-elect Barack Obama’s triumph in the U.S. elections, the Mexican government hopes to enter a new stage in the country’s relations with its northern neighbour. But it will be no easy task, especially considering that Obama has said he is interested in renegotiating NAFTA in order to improve its labour and environmental standards. He also voted for the 2006 Secure Fence Act...although since then he has softened his support for the barrier. As soon as Obama’s victory was confirmed, Mexican President Felipe Calderón invited him to visit the country in the near future....the conservative Calderón also expressed...

Will the presidential administration of Barack Obama derail the border fence set to soon run through Brownsville's backyard? Probably not, according to academics and former policymakers. But South Texas landowners have not given up hope. With the country embroiled in two wars and a devastating financial crisis, Obama - who voted for the fence in 2006 - is unlikely to upend the project, experts said. Construction will likely drag into the early days of Obama's administration. "It's not politically palatable to say you're no longer for a fence," said Veronica Vargas Stidvent, director of the Center for Politics and Governance...

President Bush has extended an invitation to his successor, Barack Obama, to go to the White House and begin discussing the transition from one administration to the other. For his part, Obama already has begun building his transition team, which apparently will include Dr. Juliet V. Garcia, president of the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College.... ... the president should pay attention to the clear message voters gave on Tuesday - that they want something different - and at least consider Obama's ideas and proposals in whatever decisions he makes for the remainder of his term. Bush...

The AWOL Border Fence   By Marion Edwyn Harrison, Esq.FrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, October 29, 2008 Amid the almost wholly pervasive media attention directed towards Election Day and the evolving worldwide economic jolt, recession or depression, however it turns out, the news is quieter about immigration.  If the media were noisier on the subject, the confusion and countervailing forces would be difficult to report.  This commentary has explored, perhaps excessively, aspects of our lawful and daunting unlawful immigration - six times this year alone. All such material is available on the website, . The latest developments are worthy of attention...

<p>WASHINGTON, Oct 23 (Reuters) - The United States will miss its deadline to complete a security fence along the Mexican border this year, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on Thursday.</p> <p>"I don't think we're going to hit the nail on the head and be done by the end of the year," Chertoff told Reuters, adding that about 370 miles (595 km) of the planned 670-mile (1,070-km) fence had been completed.</p>

BORDER FIELD STATE PARK, Calif. -- Each face would be overlaid with the rusted chain links of the U.S.-Mexico border fence, but Jorge Ibarra snapped the photos anyway. There was his cousin, holding up her baby boy for the family to see. There, his aunt, wiping her eyes under the shade of her parasol. And there, his grandmother, her face filled with joy as she touched her daughter's fingertips through the fence with her own. Ibarra, 17, of National City, Calif., shot the family photos on a recent Sunday afternoon here, where the 2,000-mile line separating the United States and...

AUSTIN, Texas– In response to its claim that the Texas-Mexico border wall violates human rights law, the University of Texas Working Group on Human Rights and the Border Wall was granted a general hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the “Commission”). The Commission, comprised of seven independent jurists from across the Americas and the Caribbean, is the body of the inter- governmental Organization of American States (“OAS”) responsible for monitoring and ensuring respect for human rights in the Americas, including in the United States. The public hearing will be held October 22, 2008 in the Commission’s Washington, D.C....

WASHINGTON — Texas congressmen, citing skyrocketing costs to build a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, said Thursday they would push the next presidential administration for more cost-effective measures to control drug smuggling and illegal immigration. U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, made the comments after a Rio Grande flyover to view efforts on the ground by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. “Let's regroup and provide border security in a smart way and not just waste the taxpayers' dollars,” Cuellar said. McCaul called for more state and local funding to bolster law enforcement efforts, saying, “What spills...

Figures released today by the Texas Border Coalition, a group of south Texas officials who oppose the proposed construction of that border fence, indicate that the number of people crossing into Texas illegally has fallen by more than fifty percent in the past four years, 1200 WOAI news reports. The largest drop in illegal border crossings has been in the El Paso and Marfa Border Patrol sectors, where the number of people arrested for illegal entry has fallen by more than 70% since 2005.... Texas officials credit expanded Border Patrol surveillance, backed up by the Texas National Guard and Operation...

New barrier to limit families' socializing: It was like any seaside picnic, with family members sitting on folding chairs, colorful umbrellas and a cooler full of sodas. The only unusual thing was the steel mesh fence running through the middle of it. On a recent Sunday, the Sotomayor family rose early, packed a lunch and drove south to Border Field State Park, where the fence that separates the United States from Mexico meets the ocean.As many Mexican-American families have done for years, they were there to spend the day with relatives unable to legally cross north to hug them and...

WASHINGTON – Congress approved a shift of $400 million from technology accounts to construction of the U.S. border fence despite a Customs and Border Protection admission that it cannot be completed by year's end, officials said Monday. The House Appropriations Subcommittee for Homeland Security agreed to a CBP proposal to transfer funds from other accounts to build the remainder of the 670 miles of border fence. Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster, chairman of the Texas Border Coalition, voiced disappointment over Congress' decision to continue to fund “the border wall.” “It won't work. It is lethal to people and wildlife and...

Mexico City, MX – Mexican lawmakers today proposed a 700 mile border fence to keep Americans from illegally entering the country. Recent economic conditions in the US have sent tens of thousands of Americans over the border seeking employment. Home Depots in Guadalajara and Tijuana reported shiny, pale objects on the periphery of their parking lots - later determined to be illegal Caucasians looking for work. Mary Consuela, a futbol mom from a suburb of Cancun was quick to endorse the fence. “They come to work to support their families in America – I understand that,” said Consuela. “But they...

<p>TIJUANA, Mexico -- There is a moment each evening, as the sun melts into the Pacific, when Colonia Libertad is at peace....but it is only a moment. The floodlights click on, bathing the neighborhood in a blinding light. The helicopters return, clattering past. And the smugglers arrive with their ladders and blow torches and groups of people desperate to escape a fate similar to the one residents of Colonia Libertad long ago accepted.</p>

Completion of fence along U.S.—Mexico border hinges on Congress approving the transfer of $400 million in existing infrastructure and technology funding Washington, D.C. – U.S. Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) today commended the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) proposal to reprogram available border infrastructure and technology funding for the completion of physical fencing on the U.S.-Mexico border. Congressman Hunter also received confirmation from DHS that such action, if approved by Congressional Appropriations Committees, will not impede the fence construction project at “Smugglers Gulch” in San Diego, California. I strongly support the proposal by DHS to take money from virtual fence and...

Gadget recently noticed some new brush growing at the border fence. Closer investigation, however revealed it had been placed there to disguise a recently dug hole under fence. Dan moved the brush away and filled in the hole.

The Bush administration needs an extra $400 million to complete its fence along the country's Southwestern border, and government investigators say that may not be enough to finish construction by the end of this year. To complete the 670-mile fence -- already half-built -- the administration has asked Congress to approve the use of $400 million set aside for other programs, said Jayson Ahern, the deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection. Higher costs of fuel, steel and labor have led to the shortfall, he said. Ahern is scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill today....the Government Accountability Office will tell...