Free Republic

DOUGLAS, Ariz. - They were barely old enough to cross a street by themselves, much less a border. But there they were, alone on a hot August evening at a United States immigration checkpoint, surrounded by law enforcement officers wearing badges and guns. Eight-year-old José Cruz Velázquez held the hand of his brother Sergio, who was 6. The Mexican boys had been seized from a smuggler hired by their parents living without legal papers in Pennsylvania. They were two of a growing number of children traveling without families who have been snared in the net that American and Mexican agents...

Seventeen undocumented immigrants believed to be heading to the Midwest were found Thursday in Alamogordo, most of them hiding in a locked railroad container car where the heat inside exceeded 100 degrees, officials said. The illegal crossing was the fourth this week and second in this region involving large numbers of people discovered by authorities. In one smuggling attempt Wednesday, 19 immigrants died in a tractor-trailer in Victoria, Texas, where on Friday officials discovered another rig with undocumented immigrants. Paul Beeson, assistant chief patrol agent for the U.S. Border Patrol in El Paso, said the four cases don't appear to...