Free Republic

A bank robbery at the IBC at Wal-Mart South Saturday night ended with the suspects shooting a police car, then racing to El Portal where they escaped into the brush along the Rio Grand and swam to the Mexican shore carrying bags of cash.Tow trucks pulled out a dark-colored Toyota Tundra out of the river late Saturday while a Border Patrol helicopter, Webb County Sheriff’s deputies, Texas Rangers, and other law enforcement officials oversaw the scene. When the car was pulled out it was surrounded by law enforcement officers in full protective gear. Police say at least two men with...

Federal officials are scheduled to meet with local authorities today in Laredo to discuss border security. Sen. John Cornyn and Secretary Michael Chertoff of the Department of Homeland Security have planned meetings with Texas border mayors in a follow up to a gathering held last month in Washington, D.C. In the January meeting, held at the office of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, the leaders talked about the federal government’s plans for the border. According Mayor Raul Salinas, Chertoff said he is not in favor of an actual wall along the Texas border but instead supports the use of sensor technology....

PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico — Two police officers here were formally charged Monday in the rape of a 22-year-old San Antonio woman. A judge ordered the pair to remain in prison without bail after upholding the initial charges of rape and abuse of power. The officers, Jonas Santiago Morales, 42, and Oscar Ramirez Vazquez, 20, said they would fight the charges and maintained that the sexual intercourse with the San Antonio resident was consensual. Prosecutors and defense attorneys will submit their evidence to Judge Maria Beatriz Mendoza within 40 days. The officers face between 10 and 21 years in prison, Mendoza...

MONTERREY, MEXICO — At the onset, there's a mad rush to be the first in line to talk to the school recruiters. Within seconds, the candidates, looking more like bankers in their suits than elementary educators, anxiously await their turn. Tables with pencils and stress balls from school districts across Texas flank the walls of the hotel ballroom in Monterrey, and maps show where the districts are located. Location doesn't matter much to the 225 lawyers, doctors, engineers, architects and teachers who have been preparing online and in classrooms throughout Mexico to become bilingual teachers in Texas. Most say they'll...

AUSTIN — They haven’t always stood hand-in-hand, but on Thursday Mexican American lawmakers and the state’s biggest business group promised to work together to defeat what they call anti-immigration bills floating in the Legislature. Congress, not the state Legislature, should handle border security and immigration reform, they said. “We cannot afford to spend valuable time and resources this session on divisive legislation that is intended to criminalize hard working immigrants and which will devastate our Texas economy,” said Rep. Veronica Gonzales, D-McAllen, co-chair of the Immigration Task Force for the Mexican American Legislative Caucus. As a sign of cooperation, Rep....

U.S. Border Patrol agents have been ordered not to arrest illegal aliens along the section of the Arizona border where protesters patrolled last month because an increase in apprehensions there would prove the effectiveness of Minuteman volunteers, The Washington Times has learned.