Endless wave of illegal immigrants floods Rio Grande valley

Read at Fox News >>

Mexico Commits "Act of War" Against USA: Children a tools for secret agenda

Mary Greeley

Border crisis: Obama likely to delay deportations, experts agree

foxnews

By Joseph Weber

One of President Obama’s first moves toward trying to “fix” the U.S. immigration system without Congress will almost certainly be to expand on his 2012 executive order postponing deportation for potentially millions of young illegal immigrants, say experts on both sides of the debate.

Obama will likely sidestep Congress on immigration reform by expanding on his so-called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals memorandum, which essentially allows young illegal immigrants to remain in the United States if they were brought into the country illegally by their parents and have not been convicted of a major crime, Federation for American Immigration Reform spokesman Ira Mehlman predicted.

“I expect him to continue to ignore U.S. immigration law,” Mehlman said. “This can all be traced back to the DACA program … under the guise of not splitting up families.”

Although many Republicans believe President Obama is overreaching on the issue by advancing his immigration agenda without the support of Congress, there is broad support among Latinos, labor groups and other Democrat constituencies for him to act unilaterally. 

The idea of extending delayed deportation to parents of young illegal immigrants also appears popular among Hispanic voters and will likely be recommended to the president by pro-immigration-reform groups with whom he has reportedly met in recent weeks.

A poll of registered Hispanic voters for the Center for American Progress Action Fund found strong support for renewing DACA as well as delaying deportation for the parents of young illegals protected under the program, people married to U.S. citizens and those living illegally in the United States for more than 10 years.

The respondents were “super excited” about such actions if they included the option of a work permit for illegals, said Gary Sugura of Latino Decisions, the opinion research group that conducted the poll. He also pointed out that Democratic candidates running in 2014 and beyond would benefit significantly from such changes.

The respondents were less supportive of so-called prosecutorial discretion, which essentially gives immigration officials say over which cases to pursue and prosecute.

As a sign of just how important the work permit issue is to pro-immigration advocates, particularly big business and organized labor, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Janet Murguia, head of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy group, on Tuesday called on Obama to provide work permits to everyone who would have been eligible for citizenship under the bipartisan immigration bill passed last year by the Senate.

Obama has already taken the first step in directing Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Attorney General Eric Holder to shift resources from the U.S. interior to the Mexico border. And he has asked both for recommendations by the end of summer on the types of executive actions he could take.

“And I intend to adopt those recommendations without further delay,” Obama said in his Rose Garden remarks Monday.

In addition, the Center for American Progress, the liberal-leaning think tank influential in shaping Obama administration policy, released a 42-page study, which Marshall Fitz, the group’s director of immigration policy, calls “a roadmap for executive action on immigration.”

The study claims Obama has authority to use enforcement reforms and affirmative relief to implement his immigration agenda in spite of opposition in the House.

Reform involves prioritizing how and whether enforcement is conducted when someone comes into contact with the authorities. And the relief focuses on identifying illegal immigrants considered low priority for deportation, then creating a procedure for them to seek temporary protection from being removed from the country, according to the report.

Sugura and Center for American Progress officials acknowledge that Obama cannot stop all deportations, that any executive action is temporary and only Capitol Hill legislation can provide a permanent solution, which they say should include a path to legal status and eventual citizenship for the roughly 11.7 million illegal immigrants living in the country. 

Obama argues he has been compelled to act in large part because of the recent surge in unaccompanied Central American children showing up by the thousands at the U.S.-Mexico border and the GOP-controlled House’s unwillingness to vote on the issue until at least after the November elections.

"American cannot wait forever ... ," Obama said Monday. "That is why, today, I am beginning a new effort to fix as much of our immigration system as I can on my own, without Congress."

House Speaker John Boehner and other members of the House Republican Caucus argue the recent border problem is the result of executive actions that have enticed people to try to enter the U.S. illegally. And they plan to sue Obama over his use of such actions, serving notice that more moves by the president on immigration would only stiffen their opposition.

"If the president insists on enacting amnesty by executive order, he will undoubtedly face a lawsuit and will find himself, once again, on the wrong side of the Constitution and the law," said Texas GOP Rep. Lamar Smith.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

One of President Obama’s first moves toward trying to “fix” the U.S. immigration system without Congress will almost certainly be to expand on his 2012 executive order postponing deportation for potentially millions of young illegal immigrants, say experts on both sides of the debate.

Obama will likely sidestep Congress on immigration reform by expanding on his so-called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals memorandum, which essentially allows young illegal immigrants to remain in the United States if they were brought into the country illegally by their parents and have not been convicted of a major crime, Federation for American Immigration Reform spokesman Ira Mehlman predicted.

“I expect him to continue to ignore U.S. immigration law,” Mehlman said. “This can all be traced back to the DACA program … under the guise of not splitting up families.”

Although many Republicans believe President Obama is overreaching on the issue by advancing his immigration agenda without the support of Congress, there is broad support among Latinos, labor groups and other Democrat constituencies for him to act unilaterally. 

The idea of extending delayed deportation to parents of young illegal immigrants also appears popular among Hispanic voters and will likely be recommended to the president by pro-immigration-reform groups with whom he has reportedly met in recent weeks.

A poll of registered Hispanic voters for the Center for American Progress Action Fund found strong support for renewing DACA as well as delaying deportation for the parents of young illegals protected under the program, people married to U.S. citizens and those living illegally in the United States for more than 10 years.

The respondents were “super excited” about such actions if they included the option of a work permit for illegals, said Gary Sugura of Latino Decisions, the opinion research group that conducted the poll. He also pointed out that Democratic candidates running in 2014 and beyond would benefit significantly from such changes.

The respondents were less supportive of so-called prosecutorial discretion, which essentially gives immigration officials say over which cases to pursue and prosecute.

As a sign of just how important the work permit issue is to pro-immigration advocates, particularly big business and organized labor, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Janet Murguia, head of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy group, on Tuesday called on Obama to provide work permits to everyone who would have been eligible for citizenship under the bipartisan immigration bill passed last year by the Senate.

Obama has already taken the first step in directing Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Attorney General Eric Holder to shift resources from the U.S. interior to the Mexico border. And he has asked both for recommendations by the end of summer on the types of executive actions he could take.

“And I intend to adopt those recommendations without further delay,” Obama said in his Rose Garden remarks Monday.

In addition, the Center for American Progress, the liberal-leaning think tank influential in shaping Obama administration policy, released a 42-page study, which Marshall Fitz, the group’s director of immigration policy, calls “a roadmap for executive action on immigration.”

The study claims Obama has authority to use enforcement reforms and affirmative relief to implement his immigration agenda in spite of opposition in the House.

Reform involves prioritizing how and whether enforcement is conducted when someone comes into contact with the authorities. And the relief focuses on identifying illegal immigrants considered low priority for deportation, then creating a procedure for them to seek temporary protection from being removed from the country, according to the report.

Sugura and Center for American Progress officials acknowledge that Obama cannot stop all deportations, that any executive action is temporary and only Capitol Hill legislation can provide a permanent solution, which they say should include a path to legal status and eventual citizenship for the roughly 11.7 million illegal immigrants living in the country. 

Obama argues he has been compelled to act in large part because of the recent surge in unaccompanied Central American children showing up by the thousands at the U.S.-Mexico border and the GOP-controlled House’s unwillingness to vote on the issue until at least after the November elections.

"American cannot wait forever ... ," Obama said Monday. "That is why, today, I am beginning a new effort to fix as much of our immigration system as I can on my own, without Congress."

House Speaker John Boehner and other members of the House Republican Caucus argue the recent border problem is the result of executive actions that have enticed people to try to enter the U.S. illegally. And they plan to sue Obama over his use of such actions, serving notice that more moves by the president on immigration would only stiffen their opposition.

"If the president insists on enacting amnesty by executive order, he will undoubtedly face a lawsuit and will find himself, once again, on the wrong side of the Constitution and the law," said Texas GOP Rep. Lamar Smith.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

'Mexican American Studies' and Radical Required Reading

breitbart

By Merrill Hope 

The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) wrapped up their decision to maintain Mexican American studies on an elective status and not to elevate it into mandated coursework on April 11 despite a strong push from activists, who also worked overtime in creating a false perception that Texas was living in the Stone Age by not offering ethnic study classes at all.  Breitbart Texas reported on the situation; however, a lot of other headlines rallied behind this erroneous narrative.

Mexican American and other ethnic studies were already on the books. Texas Education Agency (TEA) spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe told Breitbart Texas that "the contributions of Hispanics are already included in existing social studies classes."

Ratcliffe also cited 4^th and 7^th grade Texas history classes where students are taught about Hector Garcia, Mexican American civil rights leader, and the contributions of Tejanos as far back as the 1500's.

It is not only elementary or middle school either where Mexican American heritage and culture is folded into the Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills (TEKS) aligned content standards. In Houston ISD, teacher Alejandro Torrealba brings AP Spanish Literature and Culture to life for high schoolers.  

He told Breitbart Texas "AP Spanish literature introduces students to the formal studies of a representative body of text from Spain, Latin American and U.S. Spanish literature. Our program includes masterpieces of Mexican American literatura: such as: Tomas Rivera, ‘Y no se lo trago la tierra..’ Sabine Ulibarri:  ‘El Caballo amigo’."

Ratcliffe also added, "Districts have long been able to teach a customized social studies class, such as Mexican American Studies, Civil War history, Medieval History, etc.,  by using the ‘Special Topics in Social Studies’ general curriculum standards, section 113.47." 

SBOE member and former teacher Tom Maynard (10th District) supported the TEA spokeswoman's comments. He told Breitbart Texas that Mexican American studies is an already welcome offering in Texas public education that can be taken in addition to the TEKS but do not replace Texas content curriculum. In fact, no elective ethnic course replaces TEKS required classes.

He said, "People need to understand that an elective does not supplant a student from taking American history, however. A student has to take Texas history too."

Certainly, students are required to study subjects in accordance with the TEKS. However, it seems that the real heart of the matter in the recent Mexican American Studies (MAS) debate may be more about future textbooks, online and instructional materials that would be used to teach a course. 

In fact, at the final vote, the SBOE agreed to a consider publisher requests for elective ethnic studies instructional materials. On the one hand, this was nothing new for Texas primary and secondary education. The SBOE broadened their language to allow book publishers to submit material for an even wider variety of heritage groups, such as German Americans or Czech Americans, or others, to add to those already included (i.e., Mexican American, Asian Americans, African American and Native Americans).

To ensure adherence to the TEKS, the SBOE and its review panel, the governing body that determines whether a publisher's offerings are TEKS acceptable, would rely on a variety of ways textbooks find their way into Texas classrooms, according to Ratcliffe. This includes going through a state adoption process or through a school district. According to Ratcliffe, the process is stringent and, although no system is 100 percent, Ratcliffe wanted to assure parents that safeguards tend to screen out undesirable or inappropriate content. 

Any book a district uses for an elective, not just MAS ethnic studies, is required to cover only at least 50 percent of the TEKS.  Although 50 percent does not filter out all unaligned content, the TEA spokeswoman said that combined with other monitoring safeguards, the likelihood of inappropriate, erroneous or biased materials would be significantly reduced.

It may need to. Houston-based author/activist Tony Diaz, who orchestrated the PR game to push the existing elective into a mandated TEA course, may have been pushing for something more like California's Assembly Bill (AB) 1750, which sits in the legislature right now and if passed, would mandate standardized ethnic studies courses grades 7-12.

Diaz is known as "El Librotraficante," which means "book trafficker," he told the Huffington Post. His recent underground Phoenix book drive was to raise copies of Occupied America, the bible of Chicano studies written by the father of Chicano studies, Rodolfo Acuňa, a professor at California State University Northridge (CSUN) in the Los Angeles suburbs.

In an April blog post, Diaz boasted that in 2012, the Librotraficante caravan smuggled banned books to Tucson. Back in 2010, Arizona not only shut down the core MAS program offered in the Tucson Unified School District, it outlawed it through House Bill 2281. Lawmakers shut the classes down because of the divisive nature of the curriculum. 

The Arizona legislation stated that the "legislature finds and declares that public school pupils should be taught to treat and value each other as individuals and not be taught to resent or hate other races or classes of people." 

The high school teacher responsible for that course was Curtis Acosta, who, according to the Diaz blog, was in Texas recently. Diaz wrote "Now, one of founders of the brilliant and BANNED Mexican American Studies Program comes to Houston."

In 2013, Acosta resigned from the Tucson Unified School District, creating Chicana/o Literature, Art, and Social Studies (CLASS), a high school dual credit course offered through a partnership with Prescott College in Tucson.  He also launched the Acosta Latino Learning Partnership, a consulting firm that incorporates what the website dubbed his brand of "socially and community relevant" MAS and CLASS curriculum to "meet and exceed the Common Core...", the federal educational mandate.

Arizona's law was crafted in response to Acosta's curriculum. Today, all Arizona school districts and charters, which are public schools, cannot include any courses or classes that promote the overthrow of the United States government."

What was going on in Tucson?

According to the suburban Los Angeles community weekly, the San Fernando Valley Sun, "one of the confiscated books used in Tucson Unified's MAS class was "one of the cornerstones of Chicano Studies -- Acuña's book.

"Occupied America," was strongly condemned for its separatist values. It also included a racist speech attributed to University of Texas  professor José Angel Gutiérrez, who said: “We have got to eliminate the gringo, and what I mean by that is if the worst comes to the worst, we have got to kill him...” (pg. 323). 

Additionally, Gutiérrez's resume names him as a founding member and past president of La Raza Unida ("The Race United") Party, which Breitbart News reported in 2012, had another co-founder in San Antonio mayor Julian Castro's mother. She helped create the "radical, anti-white, socialist Chicano party that called for creating a separate country - Aztlan - in the Southwest United States." 

A 2011 Examiner article also cited Acuňa's book for the same radical recommendation that Mexico retake seven Southwestern U.S. states to become a Chicano nation. La Raza is an extremist group that promotes this notion, according to recent Breitbart News reports.

In essence, the MAS saga may not have just been a flickering moment in front of the SBOE over a class. It may well prove to be a complex battleground of border state activists determined to dictate classroom text/online required reading lists and supplemental materials that are used in Texas public and charter school classrooms for all TEA Mexican American elective studies.

Found! Mexican officials snag stolen truck hauling dangerous radioactive material

Read on worldnews >>

Truck carrying ’extremely dangerous’ radioactive material stolen in Mexico

CNSNS via AFP - Getty Images

Photo released by Mexican authorities shows the radiotherapy device, containing radioactive material, being loaded for transport before it was stolen.

By Pete Williams and Alexander Smith, NBC News

A truck carrying "extremely dangerous" radioactive material has been stolen in Mexico, authorities said Wednesday.

The vehicle was transporting radiotherapy equipment containing the radioactive isotope cobalt-60 from a hospital to a waste storage center, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.

"At the time the truck was stolen, the source was properly shielded," the IAEA said in a statement. "However, the source could be extremely dangerous to a person if removed from the shielding, or if it was damaged."

The vehicle was a 2.5-ton Volkswagen truck with an integrated crane, Mexico's National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards (CNSNS) said. The truck was stolen on Monday at a gas station in Tepojaco, near Mexico City.

Mexico's federal, state, and local authorities are now involved in a widespread and coordinated hunt for the vehicle across several states, the CNSNS said.

U.S. officials say it's not at all clear why it was stolen.

“It could be,” one federal official said, “that whoever stole the truck had no idea what was inside and was more interesting in getting a truck.” 

A Homeland Security official says the U.S. Border Patrol has been notified of the stolen truck. Border crossing points are also equipped with devices that can detect the kind of radiation the stolen material would emit.

One law enforcement official says the radioactive material the truck was carrying is a thumb-sized amount of cobalt-60, used in medical treatments.

“It would be extremely dangerous to anyone who tried to grind it up for use in a dirty bomb,” the official said.

More at worldnews >>

Homeland Security Grants Tentative Asylum to Illegals Who Crossed Border in Pro-Amnesty Protest

breitbart

By Matthew Boyle 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) made an unusual move by granting temporary asylum to several Mexican immigrants, including a handful of those who are illegally in the United States, after they crossed the border in a pro-amnesty protest in late July.

“The Homeland Security Department tentatively approved asylum requests for seven Mexican immigrants, including some who were living in the United States illegally but left and attempted to re-enter as part of a protest against U.S. deportation policies,” the Associated Press’ Alicia Caldwell reported on Tuesday. “The preliminary approval is highly unusual because it is rare for the U.S. government to grant asylum to Mexican citizens.”

Caldwell noted that the “immigrants were trying to call attention to hundreds of thousands who have been deported during President Barack Obama's administration. They had cited a credible fear of persecution should they return to Mexico.”

They were, according to a late July piece from the Huffington Post, part of a protest the pro-amnesty National Immigrant Youth Alliance (NIYA) organized. “In an audacious move even from a group known for pushing boundaries, the National Immigrant Youth Alliance organized the crossing at the Arizona border town of Nogales as a protest against President Barack Obama’s record-setting pace of deportations,” the Huffington Post’s Roque Planas wrote on July 23.

NIYA organizer Lizbeth Mateo wrote in her own Huffington Post piece that she helped organize the effort because she dislikes America’s current immigration laws. “On Monday, I walked into a port of entry in Nogales, Mexico with seven other Dreamers and asked the Obama administration to use its discretion to allow us to return to the United States,” Mateo wrote on July 22. “As you read this, I may be in a detention center. Five of us were forced to leave because we were deported, or because current law encouraged us to self-deport. Three of us left recently help them fight for the right to come home.”

According to the Associated Press in late July, the activists’ lawyer Margo Cowan said the immigrants had requested humanitarian parole after being detained during their protest and would seek asylum if that were denied.

In a Facebook posting at the time of the incident, pro-amnesty Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) called for the Obama administration to bend the rules to let the liberal activists back into the country. "I have heard about the DREAMers who attempted to return home to the United States today after deportation, including my constituent Lulu Martinez from Chicago," Gutierrez wrote in that post. "I hope the Obama administration will do the right thing and let them back in."  

“An immigration judge will have the final say whether they can remain permanently in the United States, but such a ruling could take years,” Caldwell wrote. “Meanwhile, the seven immigrants are likely to be released from detention in Arizona and could be eligible for a work permit in the future.”

Mexico and Canada declared part of US homeland by Senate maps

As an aide holds up a poster, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) speaks during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee July 31, 2013 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC (AFP Photo / Alex Wong)

Sen. Dianne Feinstein referred to the US, Canada and Mexico as “the Homeland” at an NSA Senate briefing on Wednesday, presenting a map that united the three nations as one.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting held to acquire details on the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance programs, Sen. Feinstein (D-Calif.) made a geographic mistake in which she united three large countries into one. The error went by without comment during the briefing, but generated a significant response upon closer examination of the map.

Keep reading on RT USA >>

Obama Blames U.S. For Gun Smuggling In Mexico; No Mention Of Fast and Furious

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

US President Barack Obama delivers a speech during his meeting with Mexican young people at the Antrophology Museum in Mexico City on May 3, 2013.

breitbart

By Mary Chastain 

President Barack Obama told the Mexican people today that the United States is partly to blame for Mexico’s drug violence because of illegal drugs and gun smuggling. However, he did not mention the gun smuggling undertaken by his own administration under the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Operation Fast and Furious.

Speaking to Mexican university students, Obama pointed a finger at his own country, as Reuters reported:

Drug-fueled violence in Mexico is not entirely the fault of the Mexican people, he said. Instead, the United States shares the blame because much of the violence is centered around the Americans' demand for illegal drugs and the fact that guns are smuggled into Mexico from the United States.
"In this relationship there is no senior partner or junior partner. We are two equal partners, two sovereign nations that must work together in mutual interest and mutual respect," Obama said.

Obama also vowed to jail gun smugglers--though did not mention any members of his own administration:

We recognize that most of the guns used to commit violence here in Mexico come from the United States...we’ll keep increasing the pressure on the gun traffickers who bring illegal guns into Mexico, and we’ll keep putting these criminals where they belong--behind bars.

Far from pursuing the smugglers in Operation Fast and Furious, President Obama asserted executive privilege over documents related to the operation last year in an attempt to bar congressional investigations.

Fast and Furious was a gun-walking operation out of the Phoenix ATF office. Agents allowed guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels and did nothing to trace or intercept the weapons. It started in the fall of 2009 and only ended in December 2010 when Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered in Arizona; the guns at the scene were traced to Fast and Furious. 

Over 300 deaths in Mexico are linked to Fast and Furious guns and hundreds are still missing. No one within the DOJ has been held accountable and no one has revealed who came up with Fast and Furious or who approved it.

Evidence shows Fast and Furious was used as a way to promote tighter gun control laws. There is also plenty of evidence that shows knowledge of the operation went into the upper echelons of the DOJ and other departments. 

Breitbart News’s Joel Pollak reported in July 2011 that Representative Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley requested communications between the White House, State Department, and DOJ pertaining to Fast and Furious.

In March 2009, about six months before Fast and Furious launched, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Mexico almost the exact same thing Obama said today:

“Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,” Mrs. Clinton said, using unusually blunt language. “Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians.”

The following month Obama repeated Clinton’s sentiments:

"This war is being waged with guns purchased not here, but in the United States. More than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States, many from gun shops that line our shared border."

Obama forgets evidence proves the majority of guns in Mexico do not come from America. Only 17% have been traced back to America.

If Obama wants to stop gun smuggling to Mexico, he needs to start in his own administration.

Obama Blames US For Drug, Gun Violence In Mexico

breitbart

Reuters: Obama tried out a little Spanish on his audience, saying “Es un placer estar entre amigos” (It is a pleasure to be among friends) and struck a deferential tone in speaking about the United States’ southern neighbor.

Drug-fueled violence in Mexico is not entirely the fault of the Mexican people, he said. Instead, the United States shares the blame because much of the violence is centered around the Americans’ demand for illegal drugs and the fact that guns are smuggled into Mexico from the United States.

“In this relationship there is no senior partner or junior partner. We are two equal partners, two sovereign nations that must work together in mutual interest and mutual respect,” Obama said.

Obama’s goal on a three-day trip to Mexico and Costa Rica is to emphasize the need for stronger commercial ties and broaden relations beyond the security partnerships that have dominated the past. 

The effects of NAFTA on the Mexican economy

MercatusCenter

Immigration Discussion Remiss to Ignore Cartel Violence

breitbart

By Brandon Darby 

One of the top motivations for Mexican citizens coming to the United States is that there are more economic opportunities north of the border. After guest-workers were limited in the 1960’s, illegal entry into the United States increased substantially. 

The Bracero program, an agricultural guest-worker effort that spanned 22 years, initiated as an effort to replace agricultural workers as US citizens went off to fight in World War II. Unions and other left-of-center interests shut down the Bracero program in 1964. This was accomplished under the guise of exposing the harsh working conditions the legal guest-workers endured. 

The consequence was an increase in union power, but many of the former legal workers from Mexico simply returned, now illegally, with even fewer protections than they had previously enjoyed. Thus our modern immigration problem was born.

Decades passed with Democrats and Republicans debating the dilemma between “helping neighbors who just want more opportunities” and “protecting the rule of law.” Even former President Ronald Reagan gave in and granted amnesty to the foreign workers the Democrats and unions had forced into illegality. No significant changes in enforcement were made, and the nation now faces the same arguments for amnesty as Reagan faced in the 1980s. 

Another significant concern in relation to illegal immigration began to become visible around 2006: Mexican drug cartels. Since that time, thousands have been killed as cartels battle each other, along with any public official or private citizen who attempted to interfere with their operation or territorial control. Entire police forces have either been disbanded for helping the cartels or have fled for the lives of themselves and their families after refusing to be corrupted. 

Some of the cartels, most notably the Los Zetas, have crossed the line from being a criminal enterprise into being an armed insurgency, having more power and control in many regions than the Mexican government.

In one instance, the Los Zetas forcibly entered the town of Ciudad Mier and caused thousands to flee for their lives. Many of the town's 8,000 civilians were driven away from their homes and communities. Many of them found their way across the border and into Texas. They could arguably be catalogued as war refugees or asylees. 

The Mexican government’s refusal to admit a state of civil war exists in their own territory complicates any effort to properly aid these victims and properly classify them. The US government, as of yet, has not made an honest assessment of the incompetent neighboring government. Instead, these victims simply become classified as illegal aliens. 

There has been an increase in Mexican citizens requesting political asylum in the United States, according to Fox News Latino. Though the numbers are currently relatively small in comparison with such requests from citizens fleeing nations like China, they are growing. The Miami Herald reports that three times the number of Mexican citizens won political asylum in the US in 2012 than from six years earlier, reaching a 2012 total of 130. The Herald also references a 2012 US Department of Justice report revealing 9,206 Mexican citizens applied for political asylum in the US.

US citizens and media interest in the shared US/Mexico border will likely increase knowledge of the conditions Mexican citizens are enduring that has killed so many innocents. US media outlets and citizen journalists have begun identifying and giving voice to the few courageous Mexican counterparts left alive who are still willing to tell the world what is occurring there. Many of these Mexican truth-tellers have to hide their identities, lest they add to the numbers of the 70 journalists and media workers who have died in Mexico since 1992.  

As US activists’ understanding of the region increases, both on the right and left, pressure on the Mexican and US governments to properly classify the conflict and its victims will likely have a significant impact on the immigration discussion, as well as the numbers of Mexican citizens winning asylum in the US. A national discussion on the true circumstances facing the peoples of northern Mexico, on how classification failures of the Mexican government contribute to the crisis of Mexican citizens, and the inevitable security threats to US citizens across a river from an armed insurgency, not "gangs," would likely steer discussion on immigration reform in a more effective direction with more accurate talking points.

What is a maquiladora?

MercatusCenter

Mexican drug cartels reportedly dispatching agents deep inside US

Fox News

CHICAGO –  Mexican drug cartels whose operatives once rarely ventured beyond the U.S. border are dispatching some of their most trusted agents to live and work deep inside the United States -- an emboldened presence that experts believe is meant to tighten their grip on the world's most lucrative narcotics market and maximize profits.

If left unchecked, authorities say, the cartels' move into the American interior could render the syndicates harder than ever to dislodge and pave the way for them to expand into other criminal enterprises such as prostitution, kidnapping-and-extortion rackets and money laundering.

Cartel activity in the U.S. is certainly not new. Starting in the 1990s, the ruthless syndicates became the nation's No. 1 supplier of illegal drugs, using unaffiliated middlemen to smuggle cocaine, marijuana and heroin beyond the border or even to grow pot here.

But a wide-ranging Associated Press review of federal court cases and government drug-enforcement data, plus interviews with many top law enforcement officials, indicate the groups have begun deploying agents from their inner circles to the U.S. Cartel operatives are suspected of running drug-distribution networks in at least nine non-border states, often in middle-class suburbs in the Midwest, South and Northeast.

"It's probably the most serious threat the United States has faced from organized crime," said Jack Riley, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Chicago office.

The cartel threat looms so large that one of Mexico's most notorious drug kingpins -- a man who has never set foot in Chicago -- was recently named the city's Public Enemy No. 1, the same notorious label once assigned to Al Capone.

The Chicago Crime Commission, a non-government agency that tracks crime trends in the region, said it considers Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman even more menacing than Capone because Guzman leads the deadly Sinaloa cartel, which supplies most of the narcotics sold in Chicago and in many cities across the U.S.

Years ago, Mexico faced the same problem -- of then-nascent cartels expanding their power -- "and didn't nip the problem in the bud," said Jack Killorin, head of an anti-trafficking program in Atlanta for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. "And see where they are now."

Riley sounds a similar alarm: "People think, `The border's 1,700 miles away. This isn't our problem.' Well, it is. These days, we operate as if Chicago is on the border."

Border states from Texas to California have long grappled with a cartel presence. But cases involving cartel members have now emerged in the suburbs of Chicago and Atlanta, as well as Columbus, Ohio, Louisville, Ky., and rural North Carolina. Suspects have also surfaced in Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.

Mexican drug cartels "are taking over our neighborhoods," Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane warned a legislative committee in February. State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan disputed her claim, saying cartels are primarily drug suppliers, not the ones trafficking drugs on the ground.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/01/mexican-drug-cartels-reportedly-dispatching-agents-deep-inside-us/#ixzz2PDi329mB

US-Mexico: A reversal of fortune

MercatusCenter

Mexico Wants A List Of U.S. Gun Owners Near The Border

theblaze

www.maggiesnotebook.com

Mexican lawmakers will ask the U.S. Senate to create a registry of all commercialized firearms in border states, which includes California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Mexico says it will make it easier to trace guns used in violent attacks. Watch a local news report with reaction from gun owners who live near the border HERE >>

Number of Cubans Entering the US Through Mexico Up 400 Percent

ABC News/ By ESTEBAN ROMAN

The number of Cubans finding their way into the United States through Mexico is exploding, according to Mexican immigration records. So far this year, about 2,300 Cubans have been detained in Mexico on their way to the U.S. The number is expected to reach 3,500 by December. This is a 400 percent jump when compared to last year, when migratory stations tallied only 762 Cubans.

Cubans who reach American soil receive a different migratory status than other foreign citizens. However, getting into the United States is hard. Instead of risking their lives by going directly from Cuba to Florida on improvised boats, more Cubans are now traveling to countries that don't ask them for a visa, like Ecuador. From there, they can safely reach the U.S.-Mexico border.  More >>

OBAMA PRAISES FELLOW COMMUNIST CESAR CHAVEZ

From The Freedom Post

Obama invokes executive privilege over DOJ documents

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Read >>