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In one case, an innocent man died in gang’s 3 tries to kill target It was not the first time a rival tried to kill Mexican drug cartel-connected gangster Santiago “Chago” Salinas, but it would be the last. When 28-year-old Salinas was shot in the head at point-blank range three years ago at the Baymont Inn & Suites hotel on the Gulf Freeway, it was the latest round in a deadly feud that has played out here and in Mexico. Just a few weeks before, Salinas' brother-in-law who also had lived in Houston, was found dead, charred in a barrel...

Organizers of a vigil against the mistreatment of federal detainees called for the closure of the nation's largest immigration detention center known as “Tent City” in Raymondville. The vigil was held by some one hundred people from across Texas Friday evening. The privately-operated prison in Willacy County houses some 3,000 immigrants. Some of them have turned to Action 4 News to sound off on allegations of horrendous conditions, sexual assaults, rotten food and poor medical care inside the facility. Vigil organizers, some from as far away as Austin and Laredo, said the inhumane treatment of detainees must be stopped. “We...

<p>AP – This image provided by NOAA shows Hurricane Rick taken at 2 a.m. EDT Saturday Oct. 17, 2009.</p> <p>MEXICO CITY – Hurricane Rick quickly strengthened into an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm off Mexico's Pacific coast on Saturday and forecasters said it could strike the Baja California Peninsula in about five days.</p>

PHOENIX — An Arizona sheriff known for cracking down on people who are in the country illegally launched a crime and immigration sweep in northwestern metro Phoenix on Friday, a half day after officials in Washington limited his powers to make federal immigration arrests. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose sweeps have led to allegations of racial profiling, said the rebuff from Washington won't stop him. He said he can still arrest immigrants under a state smuggling law and a federal law that gives all local police agencies more limited power to detain suspected illegal immigrants.

Twelve bodies were discovered in the western Mexican state of Guerrero today. Ten were beheaded and mutilated in the latest drug war killings. The bodies of two men were found in the trunk of a car just a few hundred feet from one of the most famous attractions in Acapulco. In another part of the state, drug hit men killed, beheaded and mutilated the bodies of ten rivals and left the bodies in plastic bags in a delivery truck. One of the messages said, "The familia doesn't kill innocent people." More than 14-thousand people have died in drug-related violence since...

So will it spill further into Texas? Absolutely, says the drug smuggler. "It will in the future. It will escalate, escalate and continue to escalate," he said. What does he think about us reporting from Juarez? "You might as well write your last will and testament," he said. "There is no guarantee you're coming back."

Tultitlan, Mexico - Gathered below an overpass on Independence Avenue, dressed in the multiple layers typical of homeless travelers, the migrants watched for the next northbound freight train through Tultitlan. Many of them, mostly young men and boys, prepared to hop aboard, hobo-style, on an ever-more-precarious trip that might get them as far as the United States. The treatment of immigrants has become a divisive and embarrassing issue for Mexico. A country that has historically sent millions of its own people to the U.S. and elsewhere in search of work, Mexico has proved itself less than hospitable to Central Americans...

Colorado Democrats plan to take another run at a bill that would provide reduced tuition to the children of illegal immigrants by creating a new class of tuition that would not require state subsidies. Sen. Paula Sandoval, D-Denver, said the measure, billed as the "Workforce Development and Unsubsidized Tuition Act," is a compromise that would avoid the pitfalls of the four or five previous failed attempts at passing legislation by creating a new, third tuition rate. Miklosi said the act would create educational opportunities for 200 to 500 children of illegal immigrants the first year and thousands more over the...

"Deadliest city in the world" JUAREZ, Mexico -- The drug violence in Juarez, Mexico, just across the Texas border, is growing worse. So far this month, nearly 100 people have been killed. The city now holds the infamous title of "deadliest city in the world." Eyewitness News Anchor Art Rascon traveled to Juarez and he has a closer look at the violence in the region. The world sees Juarez as repeated scenes of bloodshed where drug cartels rule. On any given night, as we drive the back streets of Juarez, they are eerily empty. The main streets are filled with...

MEXICO CITY — The United States should reinstate a Clinton-era ban on assault weapons to prevent such guns from reaching Mexican drug cartels, former officials from both countries said in a report released Tuesday. The group, which includes two former U.S. ambassadors to Mexico, also said the U.S. should do more to stop the smuggling of firearms and ammunition into Mexico by stepping up investigations of gun dealers and more strictly regulating gun shows. The Binational Task Force on the United States-Mexico Border listed the assault weapons ban as a step the U.S. should take immediately to improve security in...

A new survey by Zogby International finds that people in Mexico think that granting legal status to illegal immigrants in the United States would encourage more illegal immigration to the United States. As the top immigrant-sending country for both legal and illegal immigrants, views on immigration in Mexico can provide insight into the likely impact of an amnesty, as well as other questions related to immigration. Among the findings: * A clear majority of people in Mexico, 56 percent, thought giving legal status to illegal immigrants in the United States would make it more likely that people they know would...

Mexican indicted in deadly crash CONROE – A Montgomery County Grand Jury indicted an illegal alien on manslaughter charges last Thursday in the July 26 death of a Conroe woman in a midday, head-on collision on FM 3083 at Willis Waukegan Rd. (east side) and Texaco Rd. (west side). Carlos Solis Gomez, 24, of Conroe was driving a Ford 150 pickup southbound when investigators say he passed in a curve (a no passing zone) and collided head-on with a northbound Toyota Corolla driven by Dorothy Ann Gardner of Conroe. After a lengthy extrication by the Grangerland Fire Department, medics transported...

TUCSON, Ariz. — U.S. Border Patrol agents said Monday that several groups of illegal immigrants from China have been arrested in southern Arizona in recent days. The arrests included two Chinese found among a large group of migrants who entered the county from Mexico on Friday. Three more Chinese were found on Saturday, a group that included four Chinese was captured on Sunday and four more were arrested early Monday. Border Patrol agent Colleen Agle says the arrests are part of a trend that has seen increasing numbers of Chinese migrants trying to sneak into the U.S. from Mexico.

EL PASO -- Cities across the nation are gearing up for a rally in support of immigration reform and a Borderland organization plans to join nationwide efforts. Officials with the Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR) will be in Washington D.C. next week to educate officials about what they feel are necessary immigration policies. "If [reform] doesn't happen between now and March, it's probably not going to happen until 2011," said Zelene Pineda, with BNHR. "Since next year is an election year, we need to put pressure on D.C. now." It's been several months since president Barack Obama really pushed...

Millions of dollars in federal money is now headed to the organization known as the Teaching and Mentoring Communities. TMC, formerly known as the Texas Migrant Council, has received more than 10 million in federal funds for their Migrant Seasonal Head Start, and Early Head Start Programs. Additionally, the funding will be used to purchase modular buildings, repair existing facilities, and provide additional staff development training. All the money will benefit Webb, Zapata, and Starr counties.

Whirlpool Corp.'s division in Mexico has announced it will build a $55 million plant in the northern city of Apodaca, employing 1,100 people. That number may sound familiar. The appliance maker announced in August it was shutting down its Evansville manufacturing line in mid-2010 and moving it to Mexico. Evansville's line employs 1,100 people. Jill Saletta, director of external relations for Whirlpool, confirmed in a statement Friday that the jobs being created in Apodaca are those from the Evansville plant. "As announced in August, the production of refrigerators currently made at Evansville, and the 1,110 jobs associated with that production,...

Recent reports that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security may cut back on the number of Border Patrol agents along the southern border have made U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, John McCain and John Kyl of Arizona and several others very nervous. Nervous enough to write DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano a letter, asking for reassurance that no such cuts are being planned. “ we would like you to confirm that the current strength of 17,415 agents will be maintained or increased in fiscal year 2010,” the letter reads. Hopefully the reports of border agent cutbacks...

TIJUANA, Mexico — The mutilated body of a state official who authorities said was suspected of giving fake driver's licenses to drug gang members was found hanging from a bridge Friday in the Mexican border city of Tijuana. Relatives identified the man as Rogelio Sanchez, a Baja California state official in charge of driver's licenses, said Prisma Perez, a spokeswoman for the state Attorney General's Office. Sanchez, 44, was kidnapped Wednesday as he left his home in Tijuana. "The investigation indicates he had been giving licenses to organized crime," Perez said. His body was found hanging from the Morelio bridge...

Border fence funds pulled at request of lawmakers WASHINGTON — A provision to build an additional 300 miles of pedestrian fence along the U.S.-Mexico border has been stripped out of a $42.8 billion spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security. The provision by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., was removed at the behest of House members from Texas, Arizona and California who called the fencing a waste of taxpayer money and an ineffective way to secure the border. “We need to invest and secure our border and our land ports without being tied down to an amendment that is out...

Unidentified assailants kidnapped and killed the top official of the border town of Palomas, across from New Mexico, on Thursday. Town Mayor Estanislao Garcia Santelis had long complained about the drug traffickers and migrant smugglers active around Palomas. Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office in northern Chihuahua state, said Garcia Santelis' bullet-riddled body was found near a burned-out pickup truck and bore signs of torture. Palomas made headlines in 2008 when its police chief sought asylum in the U.S. after his deputies abandoned him and he received death threats. The Mexican army subsequently took over law enforcement in...

Prosecutors say a gun battle between gangs fighting for control of an area near Mexico's border with Guatemala has left seven people dead. Two women are hospitalized with injuries suffered in the attack in a rural part of Chiapas state. The women apparently belonged to one of the gangs. Chiapas' Attorney General's Office said Tuesday that gunmen dressed in black attacked rivals in an area where the Zetas drug gang is active.

In the Long Run, the GOP Must Be Inclusive. BY MICHAEL GERSON Mel Martinez's recent resignation from the U.S. Senate was for personal and family reasons. But the departure of the Republican Party's most visible Hispanic leader crackles with political symbolism. Martinez does not consider himself disillusioned, but he is "frustrated." "There are lots of Hispanics to the right of you and me on immigration," he told me, "but they think, 'Republicans just don't like us.' " Martinez makes clear that a number of his Senate colleagues were "conservative, but not inflammatory." Other elected Republicans, however, made "pretty divisive use...

Four suspected kidnappers who allegedly posed as drug cartel members when demanding ransoms have been killed in a prison fight in northern Mexico. The four had been ordered to stand trial last week, and one of them said he feared for his life. Authorities say the four had posed as members of a notorious cartel hit squad, the Zetas.

Three accused human smugglers faced a judge after they allegedly used Jet Skis to smuggle at least 11 illegal immigrants at Boca Chica Beach. U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested Anthony Rodriguez, Andy Rodriguez and Beatriz Manzano-Luna on immigrant smuggling charges over the weekend. A criminal complaint reveals that U.S. Coast Guard officials first spotted two Jet Skis being used to smuggle immigrants across the Rio Grande on Friday. The alleged smugglers allegedly ferried the immigrants to a nearby bay where three cars were waiting. Court records show that Manzano-Luna was arrested loading a Jet Ski onto an SUV trailer but...

HIDALGO — Autoworkers from Michigan shouted for an end to free trade Monday afternoon on the Mexican-American border, where relaxed trade restrictions have fostered rampant economic growth. As the 18 or so members of the Local 174 of the United Auto Workers union from Romulus, Mich. waved signs at drivers approaching the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge, maquiladora workers in Mexico gathered on a street corner to protest what they say is an unfair dismissal of workers. At one point during the concurrent protests, two American autoworkers crossed the bridge to meet and support the maquiladora workers, in a gesture of conciliation...

At least five people have been shot to death in the Mexican northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, according to state prosecutors. Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state prosecutors' office, said Monday that the victims ranged in age from 25 to 30 in the attack at Gabino's bar. Prosecutors have not established a motive for the killings, the Associated Press reported. Ciudad Juarez has been named the country's deadliest city, with more than 1,700 killings so far this year linked to drug-related violence. Also on Monday, gunmen killed two state police officers in the city of Iguala in...

Several families were trapped inside a fast food restaurant during a weekend shootout between Mexican soldiers and alleged criminals. The 40-minute standoff happened near a Carl's Jr. restaurant along the highway to Monterrey. Families ducked for cover as bullets penetrated the restaurant's glass and hit parts of the playground. A white SUV from the suspects was seized at the scene. Action 4 News has posted RAW VIDEO taken during and after the shootout. Victor Castillo will have full report during Action 4 News at 6 p.m.

Landscape business owner Robert Lane Camp pleaded guilty this morning to harboring an illegal immigrant who murdered a Houston police officer. “It was very difficult to just see his face,” said Houston police Sgt. Joslyn Johnson, the widow of Officer Rodney Johnson. “I felt somewhat vindicated and somewhat disappointed as well.” Camp, 48, pleaded guilty to employing and harboring Leonardo Quintero, the Mexican national convicted of shooting Johnson four times in the head after a traffic stop in 2006. Quintero is now serving a life sentence for Johnson’s killing. Camp faces up to five years in federal prison and a...

EL PASO, Texas — U.S. businesses are reporting threats by extortionists claiming to be members of drug cartels, a sign criminal tactics common in Mexico are showing up north of the border. Last week alone, at least two El Paso businesses reported to police calls they had received from a man identifying himself as a "Zetas commander" working for the "Gulf cartel." One man, in a "bullying voice," called an El Paso businessman and demanded "$50,000 immediately, or the next time we'll see you, it will be at the funeral of a loved one," the businessman said. The businessman spoke...

The fast-talking and well-dressed Texas customs broker has arrived at the Treasury Department twice in recent years with luggage stuffed with crusty, grimy greenbacks. The money was ruined, he said, and worth about $6.4 million. The broker wanted to exchange the soiled bills, unearthed in Mexico, for a U.S. government check. But the transactions raised alarms for authorities... Felhaber first came onto authorities' radar in August 2005, when he, his uncle and a female relative appeared at the Federal Reserve Bank in El Paso. They had $120,000 in water-damaged and ruined cash, just a small portion of millions of dollars...

RIO GRANDE VALLEY - Federal agents are disrupting cross-border gun smuggling, and they're focusing on the Valley. After a four month intense effort to stop gun smuggling, ATF agents are pinpointing the smugglers and tips are leading them to our border. 100 agents with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms sifted through leads and after a four month special operation, they identified gun smugglers working for the gulf cartel. Armando Salas, Assistant Special Agent in Charge says, "Our goal is to try and disrupt the firearm and trafficking infrastructure both on the Mexican side and on the U.S. side."...

MEXICO CITY — An eccentric street vendor known for his Rambo-style headband took charge of Mexico City's most populous borough Thursday — at least for a few hours. Rafael Acosta strode into Mexico City's legislature with his arms raised triumphantly and was sworn into office. Immediately after the ceremony, he requested a leave of absence — part of an elaborate political scheme that has captivated Mexico. The concept is this: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leader of Mexico's left, wants to hold onto Iztapalapa, a poor but populous borough of 1.8 million people that is the equivalent of a swing...

WESLACO - New recommendations to keep our borders safe and commerce moving are heading to the Homeland Security Secretary. The list of 19 recommendations comes from the Home Security Advisory Council. The recommendations includes hiring more customs officers, checking traffic heading south at the U.S. - Mexico border, improving communication with Mexican law enforcement, and improving infrastructure at some ports of entry. Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino is head of the task force's border security sub-group. He spoke about some of their goals in a phone conference where the recommendations were presented. Sheriff Trevino wants to "Continue to work closely...

At approximately 2 a.m. on Sept. 25, a small improvised explosive device (IED) consisting of three or four butane canisters was used to attack a Banamex bank branch in the Milpa Alta delegation of Mexico City. The device damaged an ATM and shattered the bank's front windows. It was not an isolated event. The bombing was the seventh recorded IED attack in the Federal District - and the fifth such attack against a local bank branch - since the beginning of September. The attack was claimed in a communique posted to a Spanish-language anarchist Web site by a group calling...

GUERRERO VIEJO, Mexico — As soon as he stepped onto the mud shore below the church ruins, Eric Ellman could visualize the party. The racers would storm across the Rio Grande, landing their kayaks and canoes to the cheers of fans lining the streets of this 200-year-old, half-sunken and abandoned town now exposed by a drought-lowered lake. After an awards ceremony in front of the church’s cleaned-up facade, camps would be set up. A band would play. Where cows now stood, couples would dance under a star-studded sky. The Rio Grande again would be a uniting element, not just a...

After nearly six years in the making, Matamoros’ first wastewater treatment plant was inaugurated Tuesday. The treatment facility, which will clean contaminated water and pump it into the Rio Grande, is the result of a $33 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) donated through the North American Development Bank (NADB), a $10 million loan from the NADB, and $33 million more in funding from the government of Mexico. Though the $76 million facility has been in operation for nearly a year, the inauguration ceremony had been put off several times. The lineup of speakers at the ceremony...

Chaos in Honduras has not created such safety risks as to force the movement of a scheduled World Cup qualifying match against the United States, FIFA officials said here Tuesday. Hours after Honduran officials protested any notion of moving their October 10 home qualifier against the US squad, FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke said the crisis would not force relocation of the crucial match. FIFA does reserve the right to revisit the issue should conditions change. The issue became a concern after Mexican side Toluca announced Monday it would not travel to Honduras for a CONCACAF Champions League match, citing...

Nuevo Laredo authorities arrest a group of alleged kidnappers that posed as members of the Zetas. The group had already kidnapped three people and was arrested by state police and Mexican soldiers. All seven including three women were involved in the kidnappings. According to police they would research their victims and their families and ask them for ransom money. When authorities made the arrests they were able to rescue their latest victim. Authorities also confiscated two weapons and six vehicles used in the kidnappings.

When Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderon, ordered 2,500 troops and federal agents into border city Ciudad Juarez 17 months ago to tamp down drug violence, the monthly murder rate ran at an average of 66. In retrospect, those were the days of peace and calm.Ciudad Juarez has become the most active front in simultaneous and increasingly bloody wars. One is between drug cartels fighting each other for access to the U.S. market. Another is between drug traffickers and Mexican authorities charged with imposing law and order. They have been singularly unsuccessful.Despite a vastly increased military presence (now about 7,000, plus 2,500...

NEAR ALTON — A drunken dispute over a small debt led to a Mexican national's fatal shooting Saturday, authorities said. Two Mexican nationals have been arrested in connection to the crime. The duo was charged with murder at an arraignment Monday afternoon. Deputies responded to a call of a man's body that lay in a ditch about 4 p.m. Saturday near the intersection of 10 Mile Line and Texan roads, according to a Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office statement. Authorities identified the body as David Bello Crisolis, an illegal immigrant from Veracruz, Ver., Mexico. His age is unknown. Deputies said Crisolis...

Two B.C. men living in Mexico have been gunned down poolside in the resort town of Puerto Vallarta. Gordon Douglas Kendall and Jeffrey Ronald Ivans were executed at dawn Sunday, according to news reports, outside the condo where they were staying in the seaside city. Graphic photos of the two lying in pools of blood beside a vehicle and a gun were displayed in the online publication Noticias Puerto Vallarta. Ivans, who had a drug conviction in Kamloops in 2002, is wearing a blood-streaked "Hockey Hall of Fame" T-shirt. Kendall is shirtless and wearing a pair of khaki shorts. Friends...

Gov. Rick Perry’s latest plan to stomp out illegal activity along the border has all the hallmarks of an old Western movie: The state’s elite team of cowboy-hat wearing law enforcers — the Texas Rangers. A growing threat from cross-border bandits. And, in a modern twist, a few Texas National Guard troops thrown in for good measure. The only problem, local leaders say, is that it ignores ongoing efforts to clamp down on border crime and fundamentally mischaracterizes life as it is now for the region’s residents. “What does (Perry) think we’ve been doing down here for the past couple...

The next wave of swine flu has arrived, and Mexicans are bracing for an outbreak that may be even larger than the one here last spring that became a pandemic.

Officer had shot man who was combative KINGSVILLE — A Kleberg County grand jury cleared a border patrol agent on Thursday in the July shooting of a suspected undocumented immigrant. Authorities have said border patrol agent Rafael Cortez shot a 34-year-old man on July 1 after he tried to grab Cortez’s baton during a struggle inside a convenience store. Cortez had followed the man into the Kingsville store after several suspected undocumented immigrants fled from a vehicle. Cortez tried to apprehend the man who became combative and grabbed Cortez’s baton. That’s when authorities say Cortez drew his gun and fired,...

Even though the Border Patrol now reports that almost 1,300 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border is not under effective control, and the Department of Justice says that vast stretches of the border are “easily breached,” and the Government Accountability Office has revealed that three persons “linked to terrorism” and 530 aliens from “special interest countries” were intercepted at Border Patrol checkpoints last year, the administration is nonetheless now planning to decrease the number of Border Patrol agents deployed on the U.S.-Mexico border.

HIDALGO COUNTY, TEXAS -- The Hidalgo County Sheriff's Department busted a ring of men posing as fake cops Thursday. Deputies are still looking for more suspects. They arrested Eduardo Varela and Rafael Saenz. The men are accused of storming into a home north of Mercedes earlier this month and posing as FBI agents. The suspects allegedly took a 2003 BMV. Investigators said Varela and Saenz implicated five other men. "Ricardo Guzman known as 'El Borrado' may be a former Mexican police officer who also had a district job to recruit illegal immigrants to participate in these home invasions," explained Sheriff...

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Authorities say they have found three human heads along a highway in northern Mexico, and the search continues for the bodies. A spokesman for the Chihuahua state Attorney General's Office says the heads were placed in three coolers beside a roadside monument known as “The Seven Little Heads” Thursday morning. With it was a banner saying, “For those who keep stealing.” Police found the heads after receiving a call around 7 a.m.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - Suspected drug hitmen burst into a Mexican radio station and shot dead a journalist in front of his colleagues in the latest brazen attack on the media, authorities and a Mexican newspaper said on Thursday. Gunmen shot Norberto Miranda, 44, several times in the rural town of Nuevo Casas Grandes in Chihuahua state near the U.S. border on Wednesday night. "His body was found full of bullets in the radio's offices," said a spokesman for the Chihuahua attorney general's office, Vladimir Tuexi, who declined to give more details. The newspaper El Diario said Miranda, who was...

The sun is beating down as Elizabeth Padilla is laid to rest in the Garden of Eternity cemetery. She lies under a pane of glass. Her pretty face has been made up one last time. "Open your eyes, my darling," her mother cries. "There is something I wanted to tell you." "Princess," her sister wails. "I'll never forget the way you danced and sang." "Why you?" her mother screams. "You were so good." Elizabeth Padilla was 29 and had been a policewoman for eight months when she died. She was killed one Wednesday just before 1:30pm while on her way...

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN and ALICIA A. CALDWELL, Associated Press Writers Christopher Sherman And Alicia A. Caldwell, Associated Press Writers – Thu Sep 24, 3:37 pm ET McALLEN, Texas – Rancher Mike Landry recently came upon a group of unarmed men dressed in camouflage burglarizing his guest house and stealing a truck from his 11,000 acres in Terrell County, rugged country bordering the Rio Grande in West Texas. A couple of shots over their heads from his hunting rifle kept nine of them, all Mexican citizens, in place until Border Patrol agents arrived. "It has really gotten to be pretty spooky,"...