Stats

These are courtesy of UCSIS and CBP

USCIS

Refugee and Asylum Statistics 2007

http://www.dhs.gov/ximgtn/statistics/publications/YrBk07RA.shtm

CIS stats page

http://www.dhs.gov/ximgtn/statistics/publications/index.shtm

CBP

Apprehensions 2007

http://www.dhs.gov/ximgtn/statistics/publications/YrBk07En.shtm

M3 Report 10/28/08

Organized crime infiltrating SIEDO (Mexico’s principal federal agency in the war against organized drug traffic)

Courtesy: National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers/ http:www.nafbpo.org

[Leading the Mexican news today was the public revelation of corruption in SIEDO, the principal federal agency in Mexico's war against organized drug traffic.]

El Universal (Mexico City) 10/28/08

Narcotraffic has been embedded in the structure of Mexico’s principal anti-drug agency for 11 years, according to the US government.  Since 1997, one of principal officials in the anti-drug war, Miguel Colorado González, has been in the service of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel, according to a diplomatic note delivered by the US to Mexico.  The communication refers to the official, known as “El Viejito del Cielo” [the little old man from heaven], as using his position for aiding the illegal activities of the cartel by supplying information regarding police and military operations and the names of those involved, according to the official document.

Mexican Senator Ricardo Monreal considered that the Senate should demand an in-depth investigation regarding the infiltration of organized crime into SIEDO.  He said the situation had been reported several years ago and is only the “tip of the iceberg.”  He called for the Senate, as well as the Department of Justice, to conduct investigations.  ”It seems important to me, worth emphasizing, the acknowledgement of what everyone has known, but that the government has not admitted: the drug cartels have infiltrated police agencies even to the federal level,” he said.

The newspaper’s editorial also addressed the situation in much the same line, but added, “If we are to believe the versions that run far and wide along the border with the United States, the cartels have begun also to infiltrate some of the US organizations presumably charged with vigilance, like the Border Patrol or ICE.  Some of the arms used by the hired killers were stolen from US National Guard armories and most have been acquired more or less by legal means in the country to the north.”

KQED Forum discussion on presidential campaign and immigration

KQED FORUM with Michael Krasny: Presidential candidates and immigration

Host: Michael Krasny

Guests:

• Irene Bloemraad, assistant professor of sociology at UC Berkeley and author of “Becoming a Citizen: Incorporating Immigrants and Refugees in the United States and Canada”
• Marc Rosenblum, associate professor of political science at the University of New Orleans
• Tyche Hendricks, staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle

Narco-Mexico, update

Old news, but here’s an update on SoS Rice’s Puerto Vallarta visit last week, courtesy of Reuters

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico (Reuters) – The United States and Mexico will launch a new effort next month to battle Mexican cartels that are smuggling drugs into the United States, their two foreign ministers announced on Thursday.

Funding for the new program has not yet been released. But Rice said the money would be sent as soon as letters of agreement governing the funds were finished.

“We all want the disbursements to begin and we expect that to happen, really, quite soon,” she said at a press conference.

The Merida Initiative, as it is called, will pay for inspection equipment like scanners, helicopters and surveillance aircraft as well as canine units to support interdiction. It will also finance training and technical advice to support law enforcement operations in Mexico.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who has sent some 36,000 troops across Mexico to try to restore law and order, has called on Washington to release the equipment quickly.

Bush, who leaves office early next year, proposed the initiative as a three-year program totaling $1.4 billion. He has asked Congress to approve another $500 million for the fiscal year that ends next September

Frontline/World update

This update on the Villarreal brothers went up last Friday, Oct. 24, on the Frontline/World web site. There’s also parts of the video in which Raul Villarreal plays a smuggler.

Chertoff and the “State of Immigration”

This is from a longish speech and Q&A session with reporters that Homeland Security Department Secretary Michael Chertoff held yesterday, Oct. 23, in Washington D.C.

I’ve snipped the text in a lot of areas for the sake of brevity. Most of what I snipped dealt with no-match letters, court cases and other specific topics that didn’t deal directly with border security and enforcement.

To read the entire speech, click here.

I won’t comment much at this point, but he gives DHS a lot of credit for the considerable reduction in illegal immigrants entering the country, although he says that enforcement is one indicator of success. He later alludes to the economy, which, as many have pointed out, may be the larger force driving the dip in illegal immigration. Though, stepped-up enforcement, i.e. raids, by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, may play some role.

Interestingly, as the Houston Chronicle points out here, Chertoff calls for a temporary guest-worker program.

Chertoff:

I think what will be evident, if you have an objective evaluation of the facts, is that we have achieved a tremendous amount over many fronts in turning the tide on illegal immigration. We developed a comprehensive multi-year strategy for dealing with the issue of illegal migration, we have implemented that strategy, and today we are seeing positive results of our actions. In fact, we are seeing the kinds of results that the country hasn’t seen for many years.

As I always do, I have to emphasize that to get the problems of illegal migration under control in a sustainable long-term way, it has to be part of comprehensive immigration reform so we take the economic pressure that drives migration illegally into this country, and we take some of that off the table, which makes it much easier for our enforcement agencies to do their job.

We have to work with the law, as it currently exists. Of course we have to assure the American public that we will enforce the law that is on the books. As a consequence, using existing laws and using existing tools as they may be, we have put our country on a path moving in the right direction, with respect to illegal migration. We have reversed the trend of increasing illegal immigration into our country, which I think is something that would not have been thought possible just a few years ago.

M3 Report 10/23/08

Life on the border…

Courtesy: National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers/ http:www.nafbpo.org

The M3 report translates a nice bit of writing about life on the border from La Prensa, in Mexico City. Read it after the jump. But, with news of the arrest of Jesus Zambada Garcia, the brother one of Mexico’s most notorious narco kingpin suspects, Ismael Zambada, comes some hefty weaponry/jewelry, as posted by the M3 report. The little vignette and the usual carnage round-up after the jump.

Check out that bullet-blasting bling:

Jesus Zambada Garcia and some friends?

“Securing the Border”: Latest statistics from CBP

Here are the latest stats from US Customs and Border Protection, a bureau of the Department of Homeland Security. According to CBP claims, the Border Patrol is on track to meets its 2008 target of 18,000 agents by year’s end.

Some federal officials have voiced their concern about the Border Patrol’s ability to vet properly the crush of applicants and new hires. They fear that things will get worse before they get better, in terms of corruption and misconduct among border agents.

Courtesy of CBP

• DHS has completed more than 216 miles of pedestrian fence and 154 miles of vehicle fence on the southwest border, for a total of approximately 370 miles.
• The Border Patrol now has more than 17,600 agents and by the end of this year we will have more than 18,300 agents. This doubles the size of the Border Patrol over the Fiscal Year (FY) 2001 level.
• We are using technology along the border in connection with tactical infrastructure, where Border Patrol deems necessary. Some technology currently used includes: unattended ground sensors, truck-mounted mobile surveillance systems, remote video surveillance systems, unmanned aerial systems, and fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft to detect, classify, track and respond to illegal border crossings.
• DHS saw a more than 17 percent reduction in apprehensions of illegal aliens at the southern border in FY 2008. This is an indication that there are fewer attempts to cross the border illegally.

The whole press release is after the jump.

Pew Hispanic Center: Latinos Account for Half of U.S. Pop. Growth

According to a new report out today by the Pew Hispanic Center, Latinos account for more than 50 percent of the U.S. population growth since 2000. The report states,

In a reversal of past trends, Latino population growth in the new century has been more a product of the natural increase (births minus deaths) of the existing population than it has been of new international migration. As of mid-2007, Hispanics accounted for 15.1% of the total U.S. population.

The report’s authors used U.S. Census Bureau data from 2007 and 2000 to conduct its analysis. I’ve written in the past on the change needed in California’s education system (change is an understatement — state education overall needs a major overhaul, not just on this issue) to address and adapt to this demographic shift (read: population growth) and its importance to the state’s economy and future.

M3 Report 10/22/08

Mexico: Deaths linked to organized crime top 4000 for 2008

Courtesy: National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers/ http:www.nafbpo.org

El Universal (Mexico City) 10/22/08

A confrontation between hired killers yesterday afternoon in Juarez resulted in three deaths. Nothing particularly newsworthy there. But the significant issue is that now Mexico’s toll of deaths linked to organized crime has reached four thousand so far this year, a historic record.