Free Republic

United States immigration and State Department officials fear that their newly developed, high-tech visas are being sold on the Mexican black market. The US government hoped the newly designed visas would help in curtailing rampant illegal immigration at the Mexican border, but investigators believe many of them are being bought or rented by Mexicans seeking illegal entry into the US. Well over 11,000 of these Laser Visas, issued to Mexicans for legitimate travel into the United States were reported stolen or “lost” in just two border cities in 2005. Government officials claim this is a 15 percent jump from 2004...

Mauricio Pineda used the wrong word. When he handed his six-month tourist visa to the inspector at the Paso del Norte Bridge, he said he "lived" in El Paso. He should have said he "stayed" in El Paso. One wrong word is all it took to confiscate his visa and ban him from setting foot in the United States for five years, making him one of a growing number of people having temporary visas seized at El Paso crossings. Pineda, a Honduran national and a marketing director in the Mexican state of Queretaro, moved to East El Paso with his...