Posted on 02/02/2005 8:04:35 AM PST by txdoda
February 2, 2005
TIJUANA – An American man and two Iraqis arrested at the Tijuana airport last week have been charged with immigration violations, according to Mexican authorities.
A Mexican federal judge will determine whether to dismiss the charges or proceed with a trial. The men are being held at a state prison in Tijuana.
The three flew to Tijuana from Mexico City Jan. 26 on an Aeromexico flight, but they were stopped by Mexican immigration authorities who inspected their documents, according to Mexican authorities.
The Iraqis – later identified as Steven Yohanan Kurkis and Kaml Meti Bashar – showed passports from Greece under the names of Nikolaos Skarvelis and Nabil Megalli, according to a news release from the Mexican Attorney General's Office.
The American, Samer Toma Oraha, showed an expired U.S. passport with his name on it, according to the release.
An initial investigation determined that the Iraqi citizens traveled from Greece to Spain and then to Mexico, according to Mexican authorities. Oraha, identified as their contact in Mexico City, was going to take them to the United States for about $10,000 each, according to Mexican authorities.
The Baja California border is a popular crossing point for Iraqi Chaldeans, who typically seek asylum in the United States. It was unclear whether the detained men were Chaldeans. Mexican authorities have been targeting smuggling rings that bring Middle Easterners through the border.
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Better yet......the US GOVERNMENT !!
Yes, you always have faith in the Gallup polls, while claiming all others are *flawed*.
Guess you think the FR 'members' poll was 'hacked' also, since it doesn't seem to reflect your views/options that you continually post.
Nobody knows!!
Exactly and this is being discussed more and more,that we have lost track of the multitudes of illegals. On CNN last night, 50% of the school children in a Missouri town were illegals that had no English skills. You should have seen the kids, i n their native clothing...looked like a miniature UN Meeting! We have no idea who is here or what they want.
Wake up America!
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Current polls (3)are still open on FR on this subject.
I find the results of this one interesting. 7.5 % say immigration is not a problem or favor open borders.
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/poll?poll=10;results=1
Illegal immigration is the problem. 33.8% 1,008
Seal and militarize borders. 33.1% 986
Borders should be closed. 15.7% 467
Immigration should be reduced. 10.1% 300
Borders should be open. 4.1% 121
Immigration is not a big issue. 3.4% 101
100.2% 2,983
__________
3 immigration polls at: http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/poll
These are most likely Iraqi CHRISTIANS (Chaldeans)who are fleeing from the persecution they have endured since the war. They have been targeted for helping the coalition, their churches bombed, their schools bombed. The women have had acid thrown on them for not wearing Muslim headdress, their stores have been bombed. I have read that since the war 400,000 have fled Iraq because of this. Check it out, it seems a huge disgrace to me that we have not tried to better protect this minority which should be dear to our hearts. Some of these CHRISTIANS still speak Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke (Passion of the Christ) and they are the only ones in the world who do. We should be giving them asylum, not forcing them to sneak over the border. Send the Arabs back and incorporate the Christians who could benefit our society and work as translators in our intelligence efforts.
Why aren't they seeking asylum instead of coming in illegally? The US has given asylum to many of those you speak of. I would hope they are not turning away those that deserve it, but that is just one more ineffective part of our entire immigration "non policy".
Did you *read* the article ?? If these two wanted asylum why not just fly to the USA or even Canada claim it ??
These two stopped in Greece apparently, obtained phony documents, & made plans to meet a smuggler in Mexico City to pay him 10K each, to smuggle them into the USA.
But hey, I guess there's still a *few* of you in the USA that are OK with these sort of *travel arrangements*, & the actions of this *so-called* American citizen SMUGGLER.
Yep, hopefully DHS will put down their crayons, & maybe 're-check' Mexico's *thorough* investigation of these three.
Mexico just resents the foreign competition.
Why aren't they applying through regular channels? It is widely known that Chaldean Christians are persecuted, so I would think it wouldn't be difficult for them to get in the country legally. I'd be suspicious of someone using this argument for trying to get in illegally.
Our government makes it difficult to prove that none is persecuted. Unless you are a specific target, the US has been known to deny refugee status to such people.
Sure they do......if their mexicans sneak in here to work, chances are the BILLIONS sent back to mexico will keep increasing.
Vicente can also use these as 'trophies' as his part of our WOT.
Notice how they say they have been 'targeting' smugglers of 'middle easterners' ???. I don't recall any other arrests being made of such smugglers.
We should feel safe now, mexico caught the only one....../sarcasm
Me too.......nevermind that I'm *always* suspicious of anything mexico & their gov't says or does.
Well, there's always Canada.
Finding US immigration laws just too difficult, & then sneaking in, is no excuse.
Well of course. They are a sovereign nation. Besides, you can't have any of those nasty Guatemalans coming in an taking jobs from hard working Mexicans.
That's true. Maybe that is where they should go.
Finding US immigration laws just too difficult, & then sneaking in, is no excuse.
Agreed. However the argument, presented by others, that it would be ludicrous for a legitimate refugee to attempt to come to the USA illegally because our refugee laws are very lax is without merit. Our refugee laws are tough, as they probably should be.
They just do the jobs the Mexicans don't want to do /sarcasm
Or the other translation --- we're supposed to suddenly be convinced that the Mexican government can provide us all the security we need --- nothing at all to worry about --- the Mexicans will catch the rare Iraqi or Arab terrorist coming through while pushing millions of their citizens over to our side. Mexico can't begin to solve the murders of over 400 women in one town, or do a single thing to slow down the drug cartels --- but man oh man --- they're sure good at protecting our border.
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