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Keyword: guatemala

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  • Truck Loaded With Illegal Immigrants Leads Police On High-Speed Chase[some from middle east in TX]

    04/10/2008 8:47:04 AM PDT · by SwinneySwitch · 21 replies · 115+ views
    KRIS TV ^ | April 10, 2008 | Erin Cargile
    BANQUETE-Authorities near Banquete searched for illegal immigrants who jumped out a truck following a high speed chase Wednesday evening. Officers rounded up more than two dozen illegals in two separate locations. Some of the immigrants come from as far away as the middle east. Fifteen of them were caught in the Mathis area and nine more were later captured just south of Banquete. San Patricio County Sheriff, Leroy Moody, told KRIS 6 News that he believes there are more out here hiding out in a thick brushy line of trees, and if it were not for strong winds, a DPS...
  • Three dead, several injured in I-10 rollover near Benson[AZ illegal aliens]

    04/07/2008 3:23:44 PM PDT · by SwinneySwitch · 49 replies · 445+ views
    ARIZONA DAILY STAR ^ | 04.07.2008 | Dale Quinn
    Three people were killed early Monday when a van loaded with illegal entrants tried to evade the Border Patrol and rolled on Interstate 10 west of Benson, an official said. Early indications point to many of the passengers being Guatemalan. Oscar Padilla, the Guatemalan consular general in Phoenix, is en route to Tucson to meet with the victims and identify their nationalities. Four of the injured entrants are from Mexico, said Alejandro Ramos Cardoso, a spokesman for the Mexican Consulate in Tucson. The four men are in stable condition in Tucson hospitals, he said. Two are from Sinaloa, one from...
  • Immigration Officials Identify Driver in Minnesota school-bus Crash That Killed 4 Kids (AP Video)

    02/26/2008 3:16:01 AM PST · by VU4G10 · 49 replies · 517+ views
    AP ^ | February 25, 08 | AP
    MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Immigration agents say they've learned the true identity of a van driver charged in a Minnesota bus crash that killed four children. Twenty-4-year-old Olga Marina Franco of Guatemala is accused of running a stop sign and hitting the school bus. Investigators say she gave them a fake name after last week's crash and told them she was from Mexico. Franco is charged with four counts of criminal vehicular homicide and lesser crimes. Authorities say she claims she stopped at the sign and the bus hit her. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers say they believe Franco is an...
  • Geology Pictures of the Week, Jan. 28 - Feb. 2, 2008: Waterfalls and Rockfalls

    01/29/2008 8:16:55 AM PST · by cogitator · 9 replies · 690+ views
    See below
    First one is from Kaphoto.ca, which has a LOT of pictures of Canada (mostly eastern Canada). This is Tews Falls in the Spencer Gorge near Hamilton: The second is a view of a rockfall from a dome eruption of Santiaguito volcano, from Photovolcanica's Santiaguito/Santa Maria Volcano page. This page has a lot of other great views and a short animation of a "ring fissure" eruption.
  • Mexico to track migrations with electronic chip

    12/28/2007 7:56:43 PM PST · by SwinneySwitch · 18 replies · 501+ views
    KGBT 4 ^ | December 28, 2007
    MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico is going high tech to better track the movements of Central Americans who regularly cross the southern border to work or visit. Starting in March, the National Immigration Institute will distribute cards containing electronic chips. Those items will record every arrival and departure of so-called temporary workers and visitors, mostly from Guatemala. The cards will replace a non-electronic pass formerly given to area residents. Officials say the purpose is to guarantee security for workers and visitors. Statistics from the institute show that more than 182,000 undocumented migrants were detained in Mexico in 2006. Most were...
  • [Central America:] Extreme makeover gangster style

    12/17/2007 8:00:24 AM PST · by SwinneySwitch · 10 replies · 235+ views
    Valley Morning Star/AP ^ | December 16, 2007 | JUAN CARLOS LLORCA
    To duck radar, gangs ditch tattoos, go for college look CHIMALTENANGO, Guatemala — Tattoos, baggy pants and tank tops are out. Smart blazers and university recruits are in. It’s an extreme makeover for Central America’s gangs. Facing harsh crackdowns by government security forces and citizen vigilante groups, they are trying to lower their profile. The Mara 18 and Mara Salvatrucha gangs are known throughout Central America and the United States for their brazen tactics, including beheading their enemies and covering entire buildings and even their bodies with gang symbols. Now, according to anti-gang operatives, these traditionally uneducated and aimless youth...
  • Cuban gets 100 months in immigrant smuggling case[3 illegals died]

    12/15/2007 8:36:58 PM PST · by SwinneySwitch · 9 replies · 153+ views
    San Antonio Express-News ^ | 12/14/2007 | Graeme Zielinski
    A man charged in an immigrant smuggling run gone horribly wrong — in which a high-speed chase that began in Frio County ended with a deadly wreck in San Antonio — was sentenced Friday to 100 months in federal prison. Prosecutors had recommended a sentence of as little as 70 months in a plea deal for Wilberto Calderon-Yero, 29, a Cuban national. But U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez opted for a stiffer penalty to account for the three men, presumably undocumented immigrants, who died in the July 9 wreck and now are buried in the same pauper's grave. Yero pleaded...
  • Defendant in child-rape trial smashes computer monitor in court (Yep, an illegal)

    12/06/2007 5:57:09 AM PST · by Cagey · 56 replies · 66+ views
    Orlando Sentinel ^ | 12-6-2007 | Rene Stutzman
    SANFORD - Antonio Rosales, accused of raping a child, had sat silently through his trial, and it was nearing its conclusion Wednesday when he suddenly lashed out. As a prosecutor gave her closing argument about 10 feet away, Rosales grabbed a computer keyboard, smashed it against its monitor, then toppled the 200-pound table on which it sat. Two Seminole County deputies grabbed him, pinned his arms behind his back and quickly wrestled him to the ground, but he continued to struggle. I need a deputy," Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson yelled down a hallway. Other officers rushed in, and Rosales...
  • Six immigrants held following SUV crash[and Laredo home invasion]

    12/04/2007 3:06:53 PM PST · by SwinneySwitch · 14 replies · 77+ views
    Laredo Morning Times ^ | 12/1/2007 | SPECIAL
    Border Patrol agents assigned to the Laredo North station, working with officers from the Laredo Police Department, apprehended six illegal immigrants on Friday afternoon. Agents patrolling near Father McNaboe Park, located off of Mines Road, observed several suspicious people come out from a landing area on the river, get into a black Lincoln SUV and speed off along Rancho Viejo Drive. Border Patrol agents in another vehicle saw the SUV pull into a driveway. They pulled in behind the SUV to conduct an immigration inspection. Upon seeing the Border Patrol vehicle, the driver of the SUV sped away, striking another...
  • Mexican Police Discover 164 Illegal Immigrants in Truck

    11/12/2007 3:45:27 PM PST · by SwinneySwitch · 28 replies · 1,454+ views
    VOA News ^ | November 12, 2007
    Authorities in Mexico say they have taken into custody 164 illegal Central American immigrants who were inside a truck that was supposed to be carrying aid to victims of recent flooding in the southern state of Tabasco. The National Migration Institute says 159 Guatemalans and five Hondurans were hiding in the truck when it was stopped for a routine search. The driver was arrested. Many Central American migrants pass through southern Mexico en route to the United States to seek work. Some information for this report was provided by AFP.
  • O’Hare Airport Security Breach - Over 100 Fake Security Badges, 23 Arrested

    11/08/2007 5:58:06 PM PST · by LurkedLongEnough · 23 replies · 588+ views
    The National Terror Alert Response Center ^ | November 8, 2007 | "national"
    Federal and local law enforcement agents raided several warehouses Wednesday at O’Hare International Airport and arrested 24 workers who were allegedly in the country illegally and using phony security badges for jobs on the tarmac, cargo areas and other restricted zones. Also arrested Wednesday in a probe federal authorities said “identified national security vulnerabilities” were two company managers at Ideal Staffing Solutions Inc., a temporary employment agency in Bensenville. The firm allegedly hired the workers and provided them with deactivated airport security badges that allowed them to work at O’Hare, immigration officials said. Ideal Staffing managers also knowingly allowed workers...
  • Observers: Impact of Guatemalan adoption reform remains to be seen

    10/29/2007 4:43:57 PM PDT · by NYer · 12 replies · 72+ views
    CNS ^ | October 29, 2007 | Ezra Fieser
    GUATEMALA CITY (CNS) -- In a quiet neighborhood, rows of cribs line the walls of an orphanage. Each crib is marked with a child's name, a birth date and the name of a family: "Angela Belen Chez, Oct. 13. Curran Family." "Eduardo Javier, Sept. 17. Cowden Family." The cribs are separated by months of birth: September babies in one room, October births in the next. Nearby, women who recently gave birth recover in one house, and expectant women prepare in another. For years, this predominantly Catholic Central American country has been known as an epicenter of international adoptions. The proximity...
  • More on the Schism Within the Guatemalan Catholic Church

    10/26/2007 6:51:32 AM PDT · by rrstar96 · 8 replies · 105+ views
    Prensa Libre (Spanish-language article) ^ | October 26, 2007 | Gema Palencia
    (English-language translation) "We Did Not Found Another Church" Brazilian Church Supports Eduardo Aguirre By: Gema Palencia Community Journalism Ten bishops of the so-called Brazilian Church insisted that their movement is not outside the Catholic Church and yesterday expressed their support for excommunicated priest Eduardo Aguirre, who they will ordain a bishop. The prelates, who were once in accord with the Vatican, insisted that they have not come to Guatemala to found a new church, but that they are re-establishing the church of the first Christians in which the communities were autonomous. But the Catholic Church in Guatemala considers that this...
  • New arson arrest made in California as authorities investigate fires

    10/25/2007 5:37:24 PM PDT · by TLI · 85 replies · 89+ views
    China View ^ | 2007-10-26 | Yan Liang
    LOS ANGELES, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Another man was arrested on suspicion of arson in California as authorities were investigating into some of the wildfires that have been devastating large areas in the state for five days, officials said Thursday. Los Angeles police said they have taken Catalino Pineda, 41, into custody Wednesday after local residents reported that he light a fire and walked away from a hillside in a suburb area. The arrest was made a day after law enforcement officers shot dead an arson suspect and detained another in San Bernardino, about 100 kilometers east of Los Angeles....
  • Update on the Schism in Guatemala: Catholic Church Leaders Censure Dissident Priest

    10/24/2007 7:19:47 AM PDT · by rrstar96 · 2 replies · 254+ views
    Prensa Libre (Spanish-language article) ^ | October 24, 2007 | Gema Palencia
    (English-language translation) Representatives of the Catholic Church in Guatemala rejected the upcoming episcopal ordination of excommunicated priest Eduardo Aguirre by a religious denomination that is separated from the Vatican. The bishops criticized the dissident priest's illicit use of Catholic rites. The concern and anger over this schism could be felt among the Catholic hierarchs who convened a press conference to express their position. They condemned Eduardo Aguirre's ordination to bishop next Saturday in San Juan Comalapa, Chimaltenango, by members of the Brazilian Church not recognized by Rome. Apostolic Nuncio Bruno Musaró, Guatemalan Bishops Conference President Álvaro Ramazzini, Metropolitan Archbishop Rodolfo...
  • Division in the Guatemalan Catholic Church: Excommunicated Priest to be Ordained a Bishop

    10/22/2007 8:58:46 AM PDT · by rrstar96 · 6 replies · 659+ views
    Prensa Libre (Spanish-language article) ^ | October 22, 2007 | Gema Palencia & César Pérez
    (English-language translation) The Catholic Church hierarchy in Guatemala is concerned: excommunicated priest Eduardo Aguirre will be ordained a bishop on Saturday in San Juan Comalapa, Chimaltenango, by represenatives of the Brazilian Church (non-Roman Catholic). Guatemalan Bishops' Conference (CEG) President Álvaro Ramazzini described the event as a "very big" division. "Being appointed bishop will give [Aguirre] more power. It concerns us that he will now ordain other priests before other people, which may create confusion since the faithful might believe that [the priests] are Catholic. There will be a very big division within the Church," warned Ramazzini, who explained that Aguirre...
  • Official: 24 drown off Mexico coast[suspected illegals]

    10/20/2007 10:12:37 AM PDT · by SwinneySwitch · 14 replies · 121+ views
    Houston Chronicle/AP ^ | Oct. 20, 2007 | MARK STEVENSON
    MEXICO CITY — The bodies of two dozen people washed ashore Friday in southern Mexico, a state official said, after a boat believed to be carrying Central American migrants capsized in the Pacific Ocean. Oaxaca's state government later released a statement saying three people were confirmed dead and 20 others missing following the shipwreck. It said there was one survivor and authorities were searching for bodies near the towns of San Francisco Ixhuatan and San Francisco del Mar, about 200 miles from the Guatemalan border. It wasn't immediately possible to reconcile the different statements, but an official said that flooding...
  • Vigilantes target gangs as Guatemala tires of crime[Mara Salvatrucha]

    09/19/2007 3:18:35 PM PDT · by SwinneySwitch · 13 replies · 374+ views
    Reuters ^ | Sep 19, 2007 | Mica Rosenberg
    VILLA NUEVA, Guatemala - Slum dwellers armed with shotguns have taken to Guatemala's streets to hand vigilante justice to youth gangs as voters sick of crime increasingly back a hardline ex-general's run for president. Roving bands of masked men communicating over walkie-talkies and armed with sticks, machetes and shotguns patrol the poor Villa Nueva slum on the edge of Guatemala City at night looking for members of infamous "Mara" gangs. The well-organized patrols, whose secretive members are suspicious of outsiders, killed at least one gang member, David Castillo alias "The Siren", earlier this month. "It's another war," said resident Sheni...
  • Guatemala electing new president today.

    09/09/2007 7:50:55 AM PDT · by Ghayyour · 1 replies · 155+ views
    BBC ^ | September 09, 2007
    Guatemalans are voting in presidential and parliamentary elections after one of the bloodiest campaigns in the country's history. More than 50 candidates, activists and their relatives have been murdered in the run-up to the elections. The two main presidential contenders are Alvaro Colom, a centre-left businessman, and a former general, Otto Perez Molina. They have vowed to fight crime and reduce poverty. Mr Colom, who is running for the presidency for the third time in a row, has promised to overhaul the security forces and the judicial system, which many criticise for being slow, corrupt and inefficient. Mr Perez Molina...
  • Mexico's two border strategy

    09/08/2007 6:35:19 PM PDT · by SwinneySwitch · 9 replies · 421+ views
    Jane's ^ | September 07, 2007
    Like their US counterparts, the Mexican authorities have been cracking down on illegal immigration in recent weeks. In mid-August, a joint operation comprising federal and state police officials, as well as military personnel, was launched in the southern state of Tabasco, bordering Guatemala. The aim of the operation was to locate and repatriate illegal immigrants, many of whom travel from other Central American countries and pass through Tabasco on their way to their final destination: Mexico's northern border with the US. The operation was partially successful; 350 illegal immigrants were deported and a further 144 were detained by the police....
  • Guatemala Bishops Reject "Post-Abortion Care" Plan as Doorway to Abortion

    08/24/2007 12:10:08 AM PDT · by monomaniac · 144+ views
    LifeSiteNews.com ^ | LifeSiteNews.com | Elizabeth O'Brien
    Guatemala Bishops Reject "Post-Abortion Care" Plan as Doorway to Abortion Ministry initiative would train medical personnel to use suction machines on women in "post-abortion situation" By Elizabeth O'Brien GUATEMALA CITY, August 23, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Yesterday the Bishops Conference of Guatemala rejected a "post-abortion care" initiative by the Ministry of Health, pointing out that it would provide a direct opening towards abortion and other abuses of women, CatholicNewsAgency reports. In a document criticizing the World Health Organization's anti-life policies, the bishops also warned against the Ministry's "care" campaign, saying, "Our Constitution protects human life from the moment of conception." They...
  • Mexico deports thousands of Central American migrants stranded after US rail line closes

    08/15/2007 4:22:57 PM PDT · by SwinneySwitch · 25 replies · 1,129+ views
    IHT.com/AP ^ | August 14, 2007
    MEXICO CITY: The closure of an American-run railroad in Mexico stranded thousands of U.S.-bound Central American migrants near the Guatemala border and many of them were deported Wednesday by immigration authorities. Some camped along rail lines waiting for trains that will never come. Others tried to walk hundreds of kilometers (miles) to the next working rail line and some turned themselves in to Mexican authorities. The government sent hundreds of federal police and soldiers Tuesday to clear out the migrants, who for decades have hopped freight cars on the Chiapas-Mayab railway. The company has run freight trains on two sets...
  • Texas murder suspect arrested by BP agents [illegal Arizona entrant]

    08/07/2007 4:24:31 PM PDT · by SwinneySwitch · 6 replies · 342+ views
    Arizona Daily Star ^ | August 07, 2007
    Patrol agents arrested a man wanted for murder out of Texas and found a body of an illegal border crosser his past weekend in the Altar Valley southwest of Tucson. On Saturday, agents working on all terrain vehicles apprehended a group of nine illegal entrants about 10 miles north of the border on Arizona 286, about 55 miles southwest of Tucson, said Sean King, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. They took the group to a processing center in Tucson, where they took the fingerprints of each of them and ran it through their automated system. They discovered that one of...
  • Deadly Guatemala Electoral Campaign [39 dead with 40 days to go]

    08/01/2007 3:34:14 PM PDT · by SwinneySwitch · 2 replies · 235+ views
    Prensa Latina ^ | July 31, 2007
    Guatemala, While there are still 40 days to the Guatemalan general elections, the electoral campaign is considered one of the most violent since institutionality was re-established in 1985. According to "Mirador Electoral" civil organization, 39 people have died so far, surpassing the number of fatal victims in the 2003 elections, when 23 political figures were killed. The latest case was reported Monday in Palencia municipality, where a son of Daniel Mijangos, who is running for the post of mayor for the PP (Patriotic Party), was shot dead. UNE (The National Unity of Hope) has been the most affected group so...
  • Mexican man pleads guilty to smuggling [Cuban coyote faces murder/smuggling charges in South Texas]

    07/25/2007 4:12:36 PM PDT · by SwinneySwitch · 9 replies · 434+ views
    A Mexican national who was part of a police chase and deadly rollover accident this month that killed three immigrants among the 20 passengers in a cramped Ford Excursion pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to smuggling charges. In the plea, accepted by U.S. Magistrate Judge Pamela A. Mathy, Javier Ramirez-Garcia acknowledged that he and another guide led 17 other immigrants through the brush and over the Mexican border — at the cost of $2,500 per head. Ramirez later was a passenger with the immigrants in the Excursion, allegedly driven by Wilberto Calderon-Yero, which led police on a 100-mile chase....
  • Three killed in high-speed chase[Guatemalan illegals in Texas]

    07/09/2007 9:22:42 AM PDT · by SwinneySwitch · 30 replies · 1,468+ views
    KENS 5 ^ | 07/09/2007 | Marvin Hurst
    Three men were killed during a high-speed police chase Monday morning that started in Natalia. Authorities believe the occupants in the fleeing vehicle were undocumented immigrants from Guatemala. The driver of the fleeing Ford Excursion will be charged with three counts of capital murder. The chase ended in San Antonio when a tire on the sports utility vehicle blew out at Loop 1604 at Interstate 10 East, around 12:30 a.m. Monday. The chase began when a Natalia police officer looking for speeders spotted the SUV zooming by. San Antonio police assisted in the chase once the vehicle entered the city....
  • Mexican Store proprietor charged with visa misuse (& helping illegal aliens in Bangor, Maine)

    06/29/2007 7:01:48 PM PDT · by Libloather · 15 replies · 986+ views
    Bangor Daily News ^ | 6/29/07 | Judy Harrison
    Mexican Store proprietor charged with visa misuseBy Judy Harrison Friday, June 29, 2007 - Bangor Daily News BANGOR — A businesswoman considered to be a stalwart of the Hispanic community in Washington County was arrested Thursday by federal agents and charged with fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents. Doris Amanda Ayala Escalante, 39, is scheduled to appear today in U.S. District Court. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is expected to ask that she be held without bail until her case is resolved. Escalante and her husband, Juan Manuel Centeno Perez, 46, opened the Mexican Store on U.S. Route...
  • Evangelicals make inroads in Guatemala

    06/22/2007 9:38:50 AM PDT · by Alex Murphy · 11 replies · 406+ views
    Miami Herald ^ | Jun. 22, 2007 | JILL REPLOGLE
    MIXCO, Guatemala -- Cars were backed up for miles on a recent Sunday morning, but no vehicle pileup was holding up the traffic. It was the inaugural sermon of Central America's biggest church, Mega Frater. The new worship center of the Fraternidad Cristiana, a Neo-Pentecostal church based in the Guatemalan capital, includes an auditorium that seats 12,500, a seven-story parking tower topped with a helipad and a day-care center for 3,000 kids. ''I've never seen anything like it,'' remarked Sofía Mendoza, a 19-year-old who left her home in Santa Ana, in neighboring El Salvador, at the crack of dawn to...
  • Smuggling truck crashes[12 illegals injured, 4 missing in Texas]

    06/15/2007 10:58:10 AM PDT · by SwinneySwitch · 21 replies · 776+ views
    San Antonio Express-News ^ | 06/14/2007 | Roger Croteau
    NEW BRAUNFELS — A pickup packed with undocumented immigrants crashed on Interstate 10 during a police chase Thursday afternoon, sending several people to area hospitals, officials said. The chase started when a Department of Public Safety trooper saw a Ford F-150 extended-cab truck cut in front of an 18-wheeler, both of which were heading east between Seguin and Luling, about 1:30 p.m. The trooper tried to pull the pickup's driver over, but he fled at speeds that topped 90 mph, said DPS Sgt. Jeff Lyde. Three Guadalupe County Sheriff's Department vehicles joined the chase, which lasted about 10 minutes and...
  • Guatemala Hit by 6.8 Magnitude Earthquake Off Pacific Coast

    06/13/2007 1:03:00 PM PDT · by HAL9000 · 16 replies · 2,117+ views
    USGS.gov ^ | June 13, 2007
  • Living off immigrant money sent home from U.S., young Guatemalans don't want to work

    05/30/2007 9:48:16 PM PDT · by NormsRevenge · 31 replies · 1,054+ views
    AP on North County Times ^ | 5/29/07 | Juan Carlos Llorca - ap
    SALCAJA, Guatemala -- Working and going to school have become optional in this highland Guatemalan town, thanks to a flood of U.S. dollars sent home by migrants living in the United States. The family-run mills that produce brightly colored, hand-woven traditional fabrics have fallen quiet as their potential work force -- mostly young men -- hang out at the town's pool halls or video game salons, living off remittances and waiting to make their own journeys north. "Kids have easy money, and the only thing they know how to do is spend it on video games," complained Salcaja Mayor Miguel...
  • Guatemala awaits the "Antichrist"

    04/23/2007 11:48:40 AM PDT · by bedolido · 7 replies · 283+ views
    seattletimes.nwsource.com ^ | 4-21-2007 | JUAN CARLOS LLORCA
    GUATEMALA CITY — He calls himself the Antichrist, wears the number 666 tattooed on his arm and claims a following of 2 million people. And Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda is coming to Guatemala whether it wants him or not.
  • Arrest migrants, smugglers in NL (Mexico)

    04/01/2007 5:13:27 PM PDT · by SwinneySwitch · 9 replies · 344+ views
    NUEVO LAREDO Authorities said Friday they had arrested 10 people smugglers and 42 Central American migrants headed to the United States. Victor Jimenez, a commander with Mexicos Federal Agency of Investigation, or AFI, said the group was caught Thursday walking on a dirt road to avoid an immigration checkpoint about 16 miles south of Nuevo Laredo. "All the undocumented migrants were from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras," Jimenez said. "The guides were all Mexican." The alleged smugglers were turned over to federal prosecutors and the Central American migrants were sent to a detention center in Mexico City pending their deportation,...
  • [Texas:] ICE: Valley in middle of ?smuggling season?

    03/28/2007 4:33:39 PM PDT · by SwinneySwitch · 3 replies · 230+ views
    The Monitor ^ | March 28, 2007 | Sara Perkins
    A total of 124 undocumented immigrants have been discovered in two stash houses in the Upper Rio Grande Valley in the last week, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Tuesday night, authorities found 24 Mexicans and 30 people from Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Colombia in San Carlos. Their discovery comes in the middle of what ICE spokeswoman Nina Pruneda called ?smuggling season.? During the first five or six months of the year, ICE and U.S. Border Patrol see an increase in the number of people illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border; many returned to their home countries for the...
  • Former JP says he didn?t know illegal immigrants were staying at his ranch[80 in Texas trailers]

    03/27/2007 10:59:53 AM PDT · by SwinneySwitch · 15 replies · 827+ views
    The Monitor ^ | March 26, 2007 | Michael Barnett
    EDINBURG ? Former Justice of the Peace Reynaldo Salazar said no one was more surprised than he when 80 illegal immigrants were found crammed into two trailers on his north Edinburg ranch this weekend. ?I was freaking out,? said Salazar, a justice of the peace from 1999 to 2000. ?I said, ?How can that many people be in one place??? Edinburg and McAllen police descended on the ranch on Saturday following a tip that they would find stolen trucks there. They discovered five stolen Ford pickup trucks and, after some further investigation, 80 illegal immigrants ? many of them women....
  • Hurt cop nabs bad guy: Stabbed in head, he shoots, chases down suspect (perp is illegal alien)

    03/15/2007 6:48:14 AM PDT · by Stoat · 65 replies · 2,191+ views
    The New York Daily News ^ | March 14, 2007 | MELISSA GRACE and ALISON GENDAR
    Hurt cop nabs bad guy  Stabbed in head, he shoots, chases down the suspect until help arrives  BY MELISSA GRACE and ALISON GENDAR DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERSThursday, March 15th 2007, 4:00 AM Officer Anthony Cairone carries injured fellow Officer Angel Cruz into Jamaica Hospital after Cruz was stabbed in the head with a hunting knife during a struggle with suspect on subway platform. Even after he was hacked in the head with a hunting knife, a Brooklyn cop still managed to chase his attacker across a subway platform - shooting him twice before collapsing nearby, police said yesterday. NYPD...
  • Tense immigration talk dampens Bush's visit

    03/12/2007 6:29:17 PM PDT · by ruination · 9 replies · 420+ views
    AP via CNN ^ | March 12, 2007 | AP
    GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala -- President Bush's message of goodwill in Latin America ran into a wall in Guatemala on Monday, as his defense of U.S. immigration law met with disapproval from his hosts. Bush's meetings in Guatemala City with President Oscar Berger, a conservative leader who has become a strong U.S. ally, were dominated by trade and the difficult issue of immigration policy. Bush pleased Guatemalans by promising to push hard, and quickly, for changes that would include a temporary-worker program for illegal workers in the United States. He said he thinks it is possible to wrest legislation out of...
  • Bush backs anti-poverty fight in Guatemala

    03/12/2007 3:02:50 PM PDT · by knighthawk · 5 replies · 270+ views
    Swissinfo ^ | March 12 2007 | Matt Spetalnick/Reuters
    CHIRIJUYU, Guatemala (Reuters) - President George W. Bush helped Guatemalan small farmers load crates of lettuce onto a lorry on Monday to demonstrate the benefits of free trade in Latin America, where Washington's power is being questioned by leftist leaders. Wearing a multicoloured traditional jacket, Bush lent a hand at the Labradores Mayas Packing Station cooperative begun by an indigenous farmer in the town of Chirijuyu. "Free trade is important ... it's a gateway. It creates jobs in America and it creates jobs here," he told the farmers, who export vegetables to Wal-Mart stores in Central America. Guatemala, led by...
  • Bush tour makes stop in Guatemala

    03/12/2007 8:14:58 AM PDT · by Jedi Master Pikachu · 3 replies · 341+ views
    BBC ^ | Monday, March 12, 2007
    Mr Bush will speak about social justice and equality President George W Bush is in Guatemala for a one-day visit, after a stop in Colombia where he pledged his personal support to its fight against drugs. He will discuss security, trade and immigration with Guatemala's president. This is the fourth stop in Mr Bush's tour of Latin America, which has seen protests at every stage. Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, has used a parallel tour of the region to speak out against what he calls the interference of the "American empire". Mr Chavez started his tour last week in Argentina,...
  • Detained immigrants questioned in Valley (Massachusetts want them released)

    03/11/2007 9:06:03 AM PDT · by devane617 · 19 replies · 625+ views
    Valley Morning Star ^ | 03/11/2007 | Lynn Brezosky
    Two groups of Massachusetts social workers flew to detention centers in Texas on Saturday to interview factory workers who may have been separated from their families during a federal immigration raid last week. The federal government's roundup of 361 workers at Michael Bianco Inc., a factory in New Bedford, Mass., drew criticism because children were left behind at schools and day-care centers after parents were detained. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick called it a "humanitarian crisis." The goal of Saturday's visits in Texas was to interview detainees to see if a case could be made to have them returned to their...
  • An L.A. 'most-wanted' gang suspect caught in Guatemala

    02/28/2007 11:32:36 PM PST · by BurbankKarl · 4 replies · 428+ views
    LA Times ^ | 2.28.07 | Richard Winton and Patrick McGreevy, Times Staff Writers
    An alleged 18th Street gang member named three weeks ago as one of the Los Angeles Police Department's 10 most wanted gang members has been captured in Guatemala and deported back to Texas, officials said today. Angel Zevallos, an alleged 18th Street Westside member who goes by the name "Spanky," was captured last week and deported by Guatemalan authorities, said Chief Inspector John Clark of the U.S. Marshals Service in Los Angeles. Zevallos will appear before a judge in Texas and then face extradition back to California to face an attempted murder charge, Clark said. Police Chief William J. Bratton...
  • 4 jailed Guatemalan police officers die in riot[shot by Mara Salvatrucha gang members]

    02/26/2007 5:39:04 PM PST · by SwinneySwitch · 3 replies · 457+ views
    Houston Chronicle ^ | Feb. 26, 2007
    CUILAPA, GUATEMALA — Four imprisoned Guatemalan policemen were killed in their cells Sunday, days after being arrested in connection with the deaths of three Salvadoran politicians, police said. Rioting inmates also took the warden and other prison officials hostage. National police spokesman Maria Jose Fernandez said she didn't know who had shot the prisoners. "It's confirmed, they killed the four of them," Fernandez said. Officers outside the jail in Cuilapa, 40 miles east of Guatemala City, showed reporters cell phone photos of the bullet-ridden bodies. Police said members of the violent Mara Salvatrucha gang rioted in the prison, capturing five...
  • Third body found in Guatemala sinkhole (WOW! pictures)

    02/26/2007 11:39:52 AM PST · by lizol · 135 replies · 10,135+ views
    Chicago Sun-Times ^ | February 25, 2007
    Third body found in Guatemala sinkhole February 25, 2007 GUATEMALA CITY -- Emergency crews Saturday found a third body in a 330-foot-deep sinkhole that had swallowed a dozen homes and forced the evacuation of nearly 1,000 people in a crowded Guatemala City neighborhood. The body of Domingo Soyos, 53, was carried out of the enormous fissure and identified by family members, medical crews said. Soyos was the father of teenagers Irma and David Soyos, whose bodies were found floating in a river of sewage soon after the sinkhole opened Friday. Residents said there were other people unaccounted for, but emergency...
  • Tip leads to arrest of 46 illegal immigrants in north Houston house[plus 9 human smugglers]

    02/15/2007 2:06:17 PM PST · by SwinneySwitch · 19 replies · 720+ views
    Houston Chronicle ^ | Feb. 15, 2007 | ANNE MARIE KILDAY
    An anonymous tip led to the arrests of 55 people — at least 46 of them illegal immigrants — by Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities Wednesday at a north Houston house in "extremely deplorable" conditions. ICE spokeswoman Luisa Deason said that of the 46 illegal immigrants, 10 were women and eight were juveniles, between the ages of 8 and 17. All were being kept behind locked doors. Firearms also were recovered at the house, Deason said. The nine others taken into ICE custody "are people whom we have reason to believe may be involved in (human) smuggling," Deason said. The...
  • Rigoberta Menchu running for president of Guatemala

    02/12/2007 7:29:07 PM PST · by Kitten Festival · 40 replies · 1,266+ views
    Agencia EFE ^ | 12 Feb 2007 | Staff
    Guatemala City, Feb 12 (EFE).- Indian leader and Nobel peace laureate Rigoberta Menchu announced Monday the creation of an indigenous political party and her decision to run for the Guatemalan presidency in September's election. "In the political history of Guatemala, we the indigenous people have exercised our right to elect, but not to be elected, and the time has now come to do so," Menchu said during a press conference at her home in the Guatemalan capital. Indians represent 42 percent of Guatemala's population of 13 million, with mestizos constituting the next-biggest segment. Menchu said she still has not decided...
  • Mexican Mafia smuggler gets five years [Laredo, Texas]

    02/01/2007 12:33:05 PM PST · by SwinneySwitch · 6 replies · 533+ views
    A member of a Mexican Mafia street gang was sentenced Wednesday to a five-year prison term for human smuggling. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Jorge Espinoza, 41, on July 28. His arrest cames after he tried to smuggle a dozen illegal aliens hidden in the back of a tractor-trailer. Customs and Border Protection inspectors discovered the people when Espinoza tried to pass through the checkpoint near Interstate 35 in Laredo hidden in the back of a refrigerated tractor-trailer during the secondary inspection process. “ICE continues to turn up the pressure on violent criminals in order to dismantle their organizations...
  • Maya Nobel winner Menchu eyes Guatemala presidency [Lying Fraud Artist Still At It]

    01/31/2007 9:25:48 PM PST · by Enchante · 12 replies · 379+ views
    Reuters via Yahoo News ^ | Wed Jan 31, 2007 | Mica Rosenberg
    GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemala's Maya Indian Nobel laureate Rigoberta Menchu said on Wednesday she may run for president this year in a bid to become the second indigenous head of state in Latin America.
  • Costa Mesa's illegal-immigration crackdown highlights the fears of many

    01/30/2007 8:09:29 AM PST · by LNewman · 17 replies · 705+ views
    LA Times ^ | Jennifer Delson
    In a city that has clashed loudly and publicly over immigration laws, the arrest of Marcelino Tzir Tzul underscored the worst fears in Costa Mesa's Latino community. The 37-year-old illegal immigrant from Guatemala was picked up for riding his bicycle on the wrong side of the street, brought before a federal agent ... to await his likely deportation. ... "This is exactly what we feared," said Amin David, who heads Los Amigos of Orange County, a Latino advocacy group. ... Although Tzir's crime was minor, many of those swept up in Costa Mesa in December were arrested on serious charges....
  • ACLU Sues Over Trooper Enforcing Law

    12/02/2006 8:43:45 PM PST · by Jay777 · 29 replies · 1,617+ views
    Stop The ACLU ^ | 2-Dec-06 | John Stephenson
    Another typical race card, pro-illegal immigration over-reaction by the ACLU. The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the State Police seeking the release of a videotape that shows a traffic stop involving illegal immigrants. The videotape shows the first five minutes of a 70-minute stop on Interstate 95 in July by a trooper who pulled over a van with 14 Guatemalan immigrants after the driver failed to use a turn signal. Trooper Thomas Chabot detained the 14 people and brought them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters in Providence, where they now face deportation. An internal investigation reported that Chabot...
  • United Nations compromise shows limits to US power

    11/07/2006 2:45:11 AM PST · by bd476 · 4 replies · 484+ views
    Christian Science Monitor ^ | November 3, 2006 | Howard LaFranchi
    With the preferred US plan out, Panama emerges as the choice for a Security Council seat. A compromise reached between Venezuela and Guatemala over a United Nations Security Council seat they both wanted means that Panama will take the coveted two-year post instead. But the outcome of what was more broadly billed as a battle pitting Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez against the United States means that neither the superpower nor its Latin nemesis got… what it wanted. … the primary US objective was to keep Mr. Chávez off the Security Council… Chávez… sought the seat to needle the US…...