Mexico Police Name Suspect in Border Agent Death

Sunday, 26 July 2009 07:21

SecurityCornerMexico.com Recommende Reading: SecurityCornerMexico.com Recommended READING: CIA, by Wikipedia, Hidden History of the CIA in Mexico, Win Scott, Jorge Castañeda, ALSO, Rampant Corruption on BOTH Sides of the U. S./Mexico Border: Immigration

Graphic Shows Drug Seizure Statistics in Canada

The Associated Press
Monday, July 27, 2009

Patrol vehicles are seen from the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border, in Tecate, Saturday, July 25, 2009. U.S. Border Patrol agent Robert Wimer Rosas was killed Thursday while responding alone to a suspected border incursion near Campo, a town in rugged, in southeastern San Diego County. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias)

CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- Authorities in Mexico on Sunday named the man suspected of pulling the trigger in the fatal shooting of a U.S. Border Patrol agent working alone in a remote section of San Diego County.

Mexican federal police announced that the main suspect in the killing is 36-year-old Ernesto Parra Valenzuela, one of five men detained since the Thursday shooting of Agent Robert Rosas. More, HERE.

Mexico Police Arrest 4 in Death of US Border Agent

By GILLIAN FLACCUS and MARK STEVENSON

The Associated Press
Sunday, July 26, 2009

CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- Police in Mexico have announced the arrests of four men in connection to the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent as their counterparts in the United States search hospitals for suspects possibly wounded in the first such shooting in more than a decade.

The men detained in Mexico are allegedly part of an immigrant smuggling ring, and 21 people were found with them when police detained them and seized four guns near Tecate, Mexico, said Elias Alvarez Hernandez, coordinator of federal police in Baja California state. More, HERE.

Manhunt begins for suspect in border agent's death

By GILLIAN FLACCUS

The Associated Press
Saturday, July 25, 2009

CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- Federal investigators are combing hospitals along the U.S.-Mexico border for at least two suspects who may have been injured in gunfire that killed a Border Patrol agent in Southern California.

Law enforcement agencies were pursuing "a number of leads" in the United States and in Mexico but no one had been arrested or charged with killing Agent Robert Rosas, the FBI said late Friday. More, HERE.

Border agent killed in unusual violence within US

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Black tape covers the badge of a United States Border Patrol Agent in the wake of the murder of agent Robert Rosas Friday, July 24, 2009, in Chula Vista., Calif. Agent Rosas was shot and killed late Thursday night in a confrontation on the border. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

United States Border Patrol Gloria Chavez, the agent in charge of the Chula Vista, Calif., sector, shows her emotion as she speaks at a news conference regarding the murder of agent Robert Rosas Friday, July 24, 2009, in Chula Vista. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

By GILLIAN FLACCUS, The Associated Press

CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- Federal investigators scrambled Friday to find whoever shot a U.S. Border Patrol agent in the head in an unusually violent attack within the U.S. that has left a baffling trail of evidence. Agent Robert Rosas, a 30-year-old, married father of two young children, was killed shortly after 9 p.m. Thursday while responding alone to a suspected border incursion near Campo, a town in rugged, arid terrain in southeastern San Diego County.

He was shot in the head and multiple times in his body and was dead when backup agents arrived, said Keith Slotter, special agent in charge of the FBI's San Diego bureau. More, HERE.

Most Mexicans in U.S. Stay Put Despite Recession; Number of Immigrants Heading North Declines

By Tara Bahrampour
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Despite the recession, the flow of Mexican immigrants out of the United States and back into Mexico has stayed level, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Hispanic Center.

The report, which used surveys of families in Mexico, Census data and U.S. Border Patrol data, also found a continued decrease in immigration from Mexico since 2006.

Last year, 433,000 people returned to Mexico, compared with 479,000 two years earlier. The number of people coming in decreased more sharply, with 636,000 people arriving last year compared with nearly 1.03 million two years earlier.

"People are essentially staying put at both ends," said Michael Fix, senior vice president of the Migration Policy Institute, after reading the report. "They're basically riding out the storm."

The findings answer questions that have been raised recently about whether immigrants are leaving the United States because of diminished economic prospects, said Jeff Passel, a senior demographer at Pew.

"It's not surprising, and it fits in well with what we've seen in previous economic downturns," he said, adding that even in a good economy, many Mexican immigrants go back and forth across the border.

About 8 in 10 recent immigrants from Mexico are undocumented, so it is impossible to track arrivals and departures precisely. The report said that although the Mexican-born population in the United States, the country's largest immigrant group, grew in the earlier part of the decade, it has stayed steady in recent years at more than 11 million.

Although the report did not analyze causes for the trend, Passel said reasons could include the faltering Mexican economy; tales of drug violence there putting off returnees; and indications that tougher enforcement by U.S. border patrol agents is keeping people in the United States.

"The monetary cost of getting into the United States, and the danger, have increased," he said, noting that those factors might keep people from crossing the border in both directions. "People who have already spent the money and taken the risk . . . might try to stay here and ride it out rather than spend the money to go back to Mexico and try again at a later date."

Although the numbers still show "a lot of dynamic migration" between the two countries, that may change if the recession continues, said Audrey Singer, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. "If we experience more job loss, we'll see fewer people coming," she said.

Although the report focused only on Mexicans, an October Pew report showed the number of illegal immigrants from other Latin American countries in the United States has also decreased.

An E-Solution for Immigration Issues

Immigration Pitfall

Why 'Legalization Only' Won't Fly

By Jorge G. Castaneda and Tamar Jacoby
Tuesday, July 21, 2009

President Obama looks to be gearing up to make good on his campaign promise of comprehensive immigration reform. But unlike in 2006, when Democratic and Republican reformers agreed on what was needed in an overhaul, this year there's a new fault line.

It surfaced last month when Obama called lawmakers to the White House to discuss immigration, and Sen. John McCain led pro-reform Republicans in pushing back against the president. Obama had said little about what he wants in a bill -- in fact, he has been studiously vague. But McCain knew enough about what has (and has not) been said recently by immigration experts close to the White House and those pushing Obama to take up reform that he felt it necessary to launch a preemptive strike.

This year, in contrast to 2006, organized labor and many Latino advocates are thinking about slicing up the reform package and moving forward with a piecemeal approach: a bill that legalizes the unauthorized immigrants already in the United States -- call them the "stock" -- but makes no provision for those who will want to work north of the border in years ahead, the future "flow."

The reasoning is clear: With unemployment edging toward 10 percent, it's hard to argue that the United States needs foreign workers. And organized labor, particularly the AFL-CIO, has seized on the opportunity to graft its larger agenda onto the immigration debate.

But this view is shortsighted. Just as it would have been a mistake in a Republican era to pass an expanded temporary worker program but leave out legalization and a path to citizenship, so, too, would it be a mistake now to legalize immigrants who are here without creating a way for future workers to enter the United States legally.

To understand why, consider U.S. politics. With no pipeline for future workers, McCain will not vote for the bill. Without him, there will be no other Senate Republicans. And without Senate Republicans, there won't be enough Democrats, given the inevitable defections among Blue Dogs, New Democrats and other moderates.

Then there is Mexican politics. This is not discussed much on Capitol Hill, but the United States can't hope to implement an immigration overhaul without help from Mexico -- help administering legalization and dissuading future illegal immigration. And no Mexican government can afford to cooperate with Washington unless the reform includes a significant increase in temporary worker visas. This was true during the administration of President Vicente Fox, and it's even truer today for the beleaguered President Felipe Calderón.

But ultimately, the problem with "legalization only" is bigger than politics in either country. The economic downturn may have cut the traffic from Mexico -- as much as 25 percent, by some estimates. Yet once the economy begins to recover, demographic and economic reality will kick in again on both sides of the border.

When the economy begins recovering, U.S. housing starts will climb, restaurants will fill up again, Americans will take the vacations they've been putting off and more. Revitalized businesses will once again need foreign workers for jobs that increasingly educated Americans do not want.

Meanwhile, in Mexico, for five to 10 more years at least, the working-age population will continue to grow faster than the number of decent-paying jobs, and young workers will continue to want to go where they can make a better living. It's supply and demand -- to the benefit of both countries.

The United States can recognize this reality and harness it -- or pretend it doesn't exist and live with the costs of denial. If these workers cannot enter the United States legally, they will find ways to enter illegally, no matter how much border and work-site enforcement is in place, no matter how dangerous the trip or how high the price. Hoping that people will stop coming is as illusory as thinking that those already in the United States will pack up and go home.

The bottom line is that the only way to stop illegal outflows from Mexico is to legalize them, adapting the law to reality, not the other way around.

Some have suggested a "third way": creating a commission to determine how many workers are needed in the United States. But it's hard to see how that would work. Discredited as markets are today, they're still the best way to match supply with demand. Though markets must be regulated, they don't work very well when they're micromanaged. Will a commission be able to determine how many Mexican workers are needed from month to month -- and then ensure that only that number enters the country? Not very likely.

Comprehensive immigration reform makes sense for the United States and for Mexico for economic and ethical reasons; it's good foreign and domestic policy. What doesn't make sense is a seemingly expedient but ultimately unworkable piecemeal approach. Neither legalization without future flows nor future flows without legalization will solve the problem. Only the two together can get the job done.

Jorge G. Castaneda was foreign secretary of Mexico from 2000 to 2003 in the government of Vicente Fox. He teaches international relations at New York University. Tamar Jacoby is president of Washington-based ImmigrationWorks, a national federation of employers advocating immigration reform.