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WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal agents trying to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border say they're hampered by laws that keep them from driving vehicles on huge swaths of land because it falls under U.S. environmental protection, leaving it to wildlife — and illegal immigrants and smugglers who can walk through the territory undisturbed. A growing number of lawmakers are saying such restrictions have turned wilderness areas into highways for criminals. In recent weeks, three congressional panels, including two in the GOP-controlled House and one in the Democratic-controlled Senate, have moved to give the Border Patrol unfettered access to all federally managed lands...

[embedded LINKS at source] Have you heard? “The government is subsidizing illegal immigration! The Texas DREAM Act grants amnesty! Illegal immigrants are going to college for FREE!” Hold your horses, folks. These statements, which are hurled at Gov. Rick Perry from both sides of the political spectrum, are simply not true. In-state tuition for illegal immigrants is a hard policy to argue because it rests on such a thin line between supporting education and rewarding law-breaking. Admittedly, the governor didn’t argue the case well when he said opponents of this policy “don’t have a heart.” (He’s since recanted that statement.)...

GALVESTON - Francisco Martinez wasn't happy about the free trip back to Mexico offered to him by a social worker at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Martinez, 37, of Bacliff, broke his back Aug. 17 after falling off a ladder while working on the roof of a bait shop where he was employed. UTMB doctors saved his life, but he is paralyzed from the chest down, can barely move his hands and needs special care.

A bill that would allow U.S. Border Patrol officials to flout environmental laws along the southern and northern U.S. borders may soon be heading to the House, according to news reports. Designed by House Republicans to beef up national security, the bill would grant Border Patrol officials authority to disregard 36 environmental laws on federal land along the Canadian and Mexican borders, according to news reports. Those laws include the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and 33 other federal laws in a variety of protected land, according to the reports.The plan would leave...

SAN ANTONIO - The first Mexican long-haul truck bound for the U.S. interior crossed at the international bridge at Laredo, Texas, Friday, carrying electronic equipment destined for suburban Dallas and fulfilling a controversial provision of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. Business leaders on both sides of the Rio Grande praised the move while sign-waving Teamsters Union members in Laredo jeered. NAFTA called for Mexican trucks to be allowed to travel beyond a six- to 25-mile wide "commercial zone" in the United States by December 1995. However, concerns about the safety of Mexican trucks, the opposition of the Teamsters...

PHOENIX (AP) — A federal judge Friday dismissed Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's lawsuit that accused the Obama administration of failing to enforce immigration laws or maintain control of her state's border with Mexico. The dismissal by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton comes in a counter-lawsuit filed by Brewer as part of the Justice Department's challenge to Arizona's controversial immigration enforcement law. The Republican governor was seeking a court order that would require the federal government to take extra steps, such as more border fencing, to protect Arizona until the border is controlled. Bolton said Brewer's claim that Washington has failed...

SAN DIEGO (CBS) — Union and trucking industry leaders joined a pair of Southland lawmakers on Wednesday to warn Americans about a potential economic fallout if Mexican trucks are allowed to travel unchecked across the border. Reps. Bob Filner (D-San Diego), and Duncan D. Hunter (R-El Cajon) joined James Hoffa of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Todd Spencer, the owner-operator of the Independent Drivers Association, to voice their concerns over the bilateral pilot project that is set to roll into the U.S. interior within days. The bipartisan group argues that allowing Mexican trucking companies to travel into the U.S....

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Republican presidential hopefuls ratcheted up their tough talk against illegal immigration in a debate on Tuesday in Nevada, a state where they might need Latino voters to win the White House. Fierce opposition to illegal immigration and tough border control is one of the party's hot-button policy issues. But some of the talk on the issue -- and the focus on sealing the border with Mexico -- does not go down well with Latino voters.

Rock fest as Arabs waiting at border crossing find out the released will be crossing at a different point. http://www.reuters.com/video/2011/10/18/clashes-at-west-bank-prisoner-border-cro?videoId=223641934

PHOENIX - After first apologizing for suggesting an electric fence along the border, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain told reporters here Monday that he still thinks it's a good idea for controlling illegal immigration. "I'm not walking away from that," he said. Cain has spent the last several days explaining a controversial comment about building an electrified fence along the U.S. - Mexico border that he said could kill people trying to enter the country illegally. On Sunday, he said his comments were "a joke." But talking to reporters here after a meeting here with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio,...

A 22-year-old Canadian with a homemade smoke bomb in his car closed the Canada- U.S. border for two hours Sunday, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Monday in a release. An Ontario man was stopped when he tried to cross the Canada-U.S. border with a smoke bomb in his car.An Ontario man was stopped when he tried to cross the Canada-U.S. border with a smoke bomb in his car. (CBC)Trevor Hickerson, 22, of Trenton, Ont., was returning home from the Bay of Fundy area, through Maine when he was stopped by the border agency. He was charged with the...

Reports said that Hamas had beefed up its forces along the Gaza border fence Monday night. Terrorists belonging to the Izzadin al-Qasam brigades had taken up positions near the border fence as a precaution against an Israeli attack before the release of terrorists in exchange for Gilad Shalit. Reports said that IDF planes and drones have been hovering in the skies over Gaza for several days, and that Hamas fears an Israeli “trick”to rescue Shalit without releasing terrorists.

Perry's opponents have unfairly painted the governor as relaxed on border security, and all too willing to give illegal immigrants a free ride. Presidential politics can be harsh sometimes, and some candidates are all too quick to foster erroneous lies about other candidates in the hope to plant seeds of doubt about how serious Perry is about border security. The ide Perry is soft on border security is just wrong. Ramshaw reports In 2005, Perry announced a $10 million state program to boost border patrols and upgrade radio systems along the border, installed hundreds of video cameras, and requested 1,000...

Aerial surveillance missions such as this one are part of Gov. Rick Perry's multifaceted law enforcement effort, which has operated along Texas' portion of the 2,000-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border for five years. Unique to Texas, and put in place because of what Perry said was inadequate enforcement by the federal government, the operation is designed to marshal the forces of dozens of state, federal and local entities in a cooperative "boots-on-the ground" offensive in border counties. The Republican governor has repeatedly cited the law enforcement effort as a display piece in his presidential campaign, while warning that drug violence from Mexico...

Herman Cain: Electrify the Border Fence Doug Powers October 15, 2011 It’s now a “9999” plan: 9 percent personal income tax, 9 percent national sales tax, 9 percent business tax, and a 9 amp jolt if you try to illegally cross into the US.New York Times: Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said Saturday that part of his immigration policy would be to build an electrified fence on the country’s border with Mexico that could kill people trying to enter the country illegally.The remarks, which came at two campaign rallies in Tennessee as part of a barnstorming bus tour across the...

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said Saturday that part of his immigration policy would be to build an electrified fence on the country’s border with Mexico that could kill people trying to enter the country illegally... Mr. Cain added that he also would consider using military troops “with real guns and real bullets” on the border to stop illegal immigration. The remarks were among the most pointed yet by Mr. Cain about illegal immigration, and they come as he is enjoying a surge in national political polls on the back of his victory in a recent Florida straw poll.. It...

“We cannot have national security until we have border security,” Perry said.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) says he is “leaning towards” calling for the White House to appoint a special counsel to investigate Attorney General Eric Holder in the Fast and Furious gun-running operation, but wants to hold a meeting of the entire Arizona delegation first. McCain told Fox News’ Greta van Susteren that if he were to call for a special counsel, he would do it along with a unified Arizona congressional delegation. “We are leaning towards it, but I want to talk with the whole delegation and act as a unified delegation. We all represent the state of Arizona where...

Oct 6 (Reuters) - Mexican trucks will start crossing the U.S. border again in a couple of weeks, reducing transportation costs between the two neighbors by some 15 percent, Mexico's Economy Minister Bruno Ferrari said. The resolution of the long-standing cross-border trucking dispute should give an additional boost to Mexican manufacturers, who have been fighting to increase their market share in the United States. "If you take into consideration that Mexico's manufacturing costs are at least 25 percent lower than in the U.S., this is going to be a very strong competitive advantage," Ferrari told Reuters in an interview late...

This poem was read during the Wells Middle School broadcast, to all students, on 8/17/11. HEY YOU LATINO! Hey You Latino! Yes you who they call Spanish, Hispanic, Mexican. You, the one that they yell at to go home. Tell them who you really are. Hey you Latino! Tell them you are of the air, land, water, and fire. These rivers flow from your mother earth. The warmth of your face, from father sun. Hey you Latino! Tell them to pronounce your name correctly. No it is not Letisha it is Leticia. No it is not Alexander it is Alejandro....