Freed migrants accuse Mexican immigration agents

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110510/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_migrants_rescued;_ylt=AphWWaeYP.g7rn4jWZqVNHBvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTMwZTkzaG90BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwNTEwL2x0X21leGljb19taWdyYW50c19yZXNjdWVkBHBvcwMxNQRzZWMDeW5fYXJ0aWNsZV9zdW1tYXJ5X2xpc3QEc2xrA2ZyZWVkbWlncmFudA--

By ALEXANDRA OLSON, Associated Press – 45 mins ago

MEXICO CITY – A group of Central American migrants recently rescued from kidnappers in northern Mexico has accused immigration agents of pulling them from a bus and handing them over to criminal gangs, public defenders said Monday.

The federal government said at least six agents from the National Institute for Migration had been arrested in the case.

The Central Americans were among 120 migrants from various countries who were freed by Mexicans soldiers in several raids over the past month in the northern state of Tamaulipas.

The migrants picked out the immigration officials from photographs shown to them by federal investigators, said Alejandro Roldan Velasquez, the director of the Federal Institute of Public Defenders, which is representing the migrants.

"These people identified some agents as accomplices of the crime," Roldan told The Associated Press. "They were shown photographs of immigration agents and they identified them."

The public defenders institute has been advising all 120 migrants under a new anti-kidnapping law that took effect in February, requiring that all kidnapping victims be provided with free legal assistance.

The migrants — 81 Mexicans, 33 Central Americans and six Chinese nationals presumably trying to reach the United States — were being held hostage at different houses in northern Tamaulipas, which borders Texas.

In a statement last month, the federal government announced the arrest of six immigration agents in Tamaulipas for "federal crimes." Alejandro Poire, the government spokesman for security issues, confirmed at a news conference Monday that those agents were arrested in the case of the kidnapped migrants, although he provided no details on their alleged role.

"We must emphasize that there will be zero tolerance of anyone who calls themselves a civil servant and breaks the law or participates in these crimes," Poire said.

The Mexican Attorney General's office said in a statement that the six detained agents are suspected of kidnapping at least four migrants.

Federal security forces last month also discovered 40 clandestine graves in Tamaulipas containing 183 bodies. Investigators suspect many of the victims were pulled from buses by the Zetas drug gang, which has been kidnapping both Mexicans and foreign migrants to demand extortion money or forcibly recruit them.

Several Tamaulipas municipal police officers have been arrested for allegedly playing a role in the mass killings. Poire said investigators would determine if any immigration agents were also involved.

Roldan would not say how many agents were identified by the migrants. He also declined to say how many migrants accused agents of involvement, saying he could not provide more details about an investigation that is still in progress.

Officials from the National Institute for Migration and the Attorney General's Office declined to comment, saying they were preparing a joint statement.

The public defenders institute said in its statement that the migrants who identified the immigration officers were all Central Americans. They are being held at secret locations under custody of the Attorney General's Office because it was too risky to send them to migrant detention centers after they identified the immigration agents, the statement said.

Roldan said at least four of the rescued migrants had been repatriated to Central America at their own request. Others are seeking humanitarian visas that would allow them to stay in Mexico.

Mexican police and immigration agents have long been known to be involved in shaking down and kidnapping Central American migrants traveling along dangerous routes through Mexico to the United States.

The plight of migrants, however, has taken horrific proportions as Mexico's drug war rages.

In August 2010, 72 Central American migrants were found massacred at a ranch in the Tamaulipas town of San Fernando, allegedly because they refused to work for the Zetas drug gang that controls much of the state.

The mass pits unearthed last month were also near San Fernando, but it's unclear how many of the victims were migrants. Authorities have so far identified only five of the bodies, one of whom was a Guatemalan national.

The Interior Department has said the National Institute for Migration launched an aggressive effort to root out corrupt agents in September. At least 168 of the institute's 5,000 employees have been suspended or fired for violating the rights of migrants, according to the department.

In January, officials told AP that the government planned a shake-up of the agency that would include the dismissal of several top directors and the reform of practices that have led to mistakes and corruption. No such shake-up has occurred.

[peejay 327]

All these deaths, kidnappings, and assaults are squarely on the head of Obama and company. His repeated illegal alien cheerleading and refusal to enforce the law and the border encourages illegal immigration.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

No surprise that Mexican immigration agents are hand-in-glove with criminal gangs.

[Zero Sum 305]

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_exclusive/obama-tackles-immigration-reform-to-woo-hispanics-for-2012

Obama tackles immigration reform to woo Hispanics for 2012

By National Journal – 2 hrs 24 mins ago

By Aamer Madhani

National Journal

President Obama will travel to the U.S.-Mexico border on Tuesday to lay out a blueprint for comprehensive immigration reform and attempt to restart the debate on an issue he spoke passionately about as a candidate but has made little headway on during his presidency.

In a speech in El Paso, Texas, Obama will make the case that his administration has made significant progress on border security over the last two years, answering comprehensive reform opponents' preliminary objections to tackling reform legislatively.

The Obama administration has doubled the number of patrol agents along the border and deported nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants last year — facts that the president will argue underscore that the conditions are right for a serious debate on overhauling the nation's immigration policy, administration officials said. The president will also argue that current immigration laws are keeping innovative thinkers and skilled workers from contributing to the U.S. economy.

To be sure, passing any legislation in a divided Congress faces long odds. But by simply putting the issue on the front burner, Obama's effort could help energize a constituency that will be key to the president's reelection efforts.

"There's a political consequence and what he says will go a long way in promoting enthusiasm among Hispanic voters," Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-Tex., chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, told National Journal.

As a candidate, Obama spoke passionately about immigration reform, intoning a moral imperative to bring an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States "out of the shadows."

(For the Hispanic vote, immigration reform might be the wrong track)

Addressing the issue now could have a direct impact on the president's survival at the polls in 2012. Obama won 67 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2008, but he has been hammered by CHC members for giving immigration reform short shrift after promising on the campaign trail that he would make passing immigration reform a central part of his agenda during the first year of his presidency. CHC members have also criticized the administration for setting a new record in 2010 with 392,000 deportations.

Obama did back the Dream Act, legislation that would offer some young illegal immigrants a path to legal residency by going to college or serving the U.S. military, but an attempt to pass the legislation was blocked in Senate during the lame-duck session.

Last week, members of the CHC pressed Obama to use administrative powers to prevent deportation of illegal immigrants that would have been protected under the Dream Act, but Obama seemed hesitant to act unilaterally and told lawmakers that immigration needed to be fixed through legislation.

Hispanic groups are reminding the president that they played a large part in helping him win in 2008, and could play the difference in many battleground states in his reelection effort.

Hispanic groups are reminding the president that they played a large part in helping him win in 2008, and could play the difference in many battleground states in his reelection effort.

Obama won in 2008 despite notching just 43 percent of the white vote. With the economy foundering he could find it difficult to reach even that modest vote tally in 2012. But thanks to minority population growth in key states he won in 2008—including Florida, Nevada, and Virginia—he could still pull out victory with an even smaller segment of white voters, according to a National Journal analysis.

More than any group, Hispanics are driving the country's minority growth. One in six Americans, or about 50.5 million, is Hispanic, according to the 2010 census. That's up from one in eight, or 35.3 million, in 2000.

In his speech, Obama will try to reframe immigration reform as an economic and law-and-order issue. Administration officials said that they would also draw members of the faith-based community and business leaders into the conversation, an effort that they hope could help draw Republicans into the discussion. The White House is in the process of arranging 30 community conversations to raise the issue's profile.

"This a broken system that cannot be fixed unless Congress acts, so we do not accept the argument that since there are some in Congress that are unwilling to act that we ought to wash our hands of trying to get this done," a senior administration official said. "The president is leaning in and asking others to lean in with him."

[Saddle Bronc 124]

The topic of the article deals with Mexican misgovernment shenanigans--not illegal immigration to US. Edited May 10, 2011 by Saddle Bronc

[Zero Sum 305]

The topic of the article deals with Mexican misgovernment shenanigans--not illegal immigration to US.

Snooze.