California Mexico Border

Reporting from Mexicali, Mexico -- Luis Montes slipped across the Rio Grande and had started crawling through a field when a U.S. Border Patrol agent nabbed him. It was a Saturday and the 32-year-old illegal immigrant figured that by Sunday he would be deported back to Mexico, where he would promptly try again to cross into Texas. Instead, Montes was put on a plane, flown halfway across the country and bused to the California-Mexico border. At 2 a.m. Tuesday, U.S. border authorities took off his handcuffs and escorted him to a gate leading to the desert city of Mexicali.

Reporting from Mexicali, Mexico -- Luis Montes slipped across the Rio Grande and had started crawling through a field when a U.S. Border Patrol agent nabbed him. It was a Saturday and the 32-year-old illegal immigrant figured that by Sunday he would be deported back to Mexico, where he would promptly try again to cross into Texas. Instead, Montes was put on a plane, flown halfway across the country and bused to the California-Mexico border. At 2 a.m. Tuesday, U.S. border authorities took off his handcuffs and escorted him to a gate leading to the desert city of Mexicali.

U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. on Wednesday announced $8.7 million in grants of federal Recovery Act funds to law enforcement agencies to help fight drug trafficking along the California-Mexico border. An additional $30 million in such grants for California and other states will be announced soon, he said. Holder, visiting Los Angeles, said the grants would help promote cooperation among federal, state and local law enforcement agencies as they fight Mexican drug cartels. The money will go to expand anti-drug task forces in San Diego County and purchase a system that will allow agencies to share information in Northern California.

The bedraggled immigrants were picking their way through the boulders and scrub when a group of heavily armed men descended on them just short of the California-Mexico border. They corralled them in a cave and pointed their guns on the 10 men and one woman. These lawless badlands in the hills east of Tijuana have long teemed with bandits and rapists, but these criminals demanded only phone numbers. They started calling the immigrants' loved ones in Pomona, San Diego and Bakersfield: Send us money or we'll shoot, they said.

The bedraggled immigrants were picking their way through the boulders and scrub when a group of heavily armed men descended on them just short of the California-Mexico border. They corralled them in a cave and pointed their guns on the 10 men and one woman. These lawless badlands in the hills east of Tijuana have long teemed with bandits and rapists, but these criminals demanded only phone numbers. They started calling the immigrants' loved ones in Pomona, San Diego and Bakersfield: Send us money or we'll shoot, they said.

Your (June 23) story on Congressman Duncan Hunter's mailings to constituents didn't mention that he was 66th in Congress in use of the franking privilege until the last paragraph. The impression given by the headline was different. Why is it wrong for a congressman to use mailings to advise his constituents that he will hold a series of town hall meetings throughout the district? Aren't they entitled to know? Your paper is not read by everyone in the district, and you never print the town hall schedule anyway.

Fueled by passion and politics, writer-director-producer-star John Carlos Frey gives "The Gatekeeper" an urgency and sense of purpose not entirely unlike Tom Laughlin's man-alone landmark "Billy Jack." Frey's film concerns a U.S. Border Patrol guard at the California-Mexico border who, fueled by self-loathing regarding his own Mexican American heritage, becomes involved with a militia-like anti-immigration organization.

The nation's busiest border crossing was closed and declared a crime scene Tuesday after at least two U.S. agents attempted to stop smugglers from speeding through the San Ysidro Port of Entry by firing their weapons at three vans loaded with suspected illegal immigrants. Port Director Oscar Preciado said it was the first time officials had shuttered the 24-lane border crossing to vehicular traffic since President Kennedy's assassination in 1963. Three people in the vans suffered injuries and a person in a nearby car also was wounded in the unusually brazen smuggling attempt, U.S. authorities said.

Arrests of illegal immigrants along the California-Mexico border declined 25% this year as a weak economy and bolstered enforcement efforts appear to be discouraging treks north, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said Tuesday. The downward trend is evident across the Southwest border as apprehensions fell to levels not seen since the early 1970s. The U.S. Border Patrol arrested 556,000 people last year, 152,200 of them in California, according to statistics released for the federal fiscal year ending Sept.

How frustrating for President Bush to watch fellow Republicans squander gains with Latino voters through mistakes and missed opportunities. And how maddening that some of those Republicans live in Texas. While the exact figure is still disputed, Bush got somewhere between one-third and one-half of the Latino vote in his 1998 reelection as Texas governor. He made those inroads by giving Latinos the respect of aggressively courting their support. Back then, it was the national GOP that couldn't comprehend the Latino-based offensive at the state level.

Arrests of illegal immigrants along the California-Mexico border declined 25% this year as a weak economy and bolstered enforcement efforts appear to be discouraging treks north, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said Tuesday. The downward trend is evident across the Southwest border as apprehensions fell to levels not seen since the early 1970s. The U.S. Border Patrol arrested 556,000 people last year, 152,200 of them in California, according to statistics released for the federal fiscal year ending Sept.

The nation's busiest border crossing was closed and declared a crime scene Tuesday after at least two U.S. agents attempted to stop smugglers from speeding through the San Ysidro Port of Entry by firing their weapons at three vans loaded with suspected illegal immigrants. Port Director Oscar Preciado said it was the first time officials had shuttered the 24-lane border crossing to vehicular traffic since President Kennedy's assassination in 1963. Three people in the vans suffered injuries and a person in a nearby car also was wounded in the unusually brazen smuggling attempt, U.S. authorities said.

U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. on Wednesday announced $8.7 million in grants of federal Recovery Act funds to law enforcement agencies to help fight drug trafficking along the California-Mexico border. An additional $30 million in such grants for California and other states will be announced soon, he said. Holder, visiting Los Angeles, said the grants would help promote cooperation among federal, state and local law enforcement agencies as they fight Mexican drug cartels. The money will go to expand anti-drug task forces in San Diego County and purchase a system that will allow agencies to share information in Northern California.

Fueled by passion and politics, writer-director-producer-star John Carlos Frey gives "The Gatekeeper" an urgency and sense of purpose not entirely unlike Tom Laughlin's man-alone landmark "Billy Jack." Frey's film concerns a U.S. Border Patrol guard at the California-Mexico border who, fueled by self-loathing regarding his own Mexican American heritage, becomes involved with a militia-like anti-immigration organization.

How frustrating for President Bush to watch fellow Republicans squander gains with Latino voters through mistakes and missed opportunities. And how maddening that some of those Republicans live in Texas. While the exact figure is still disputed, Bush got somewhere between one-third and one-half of the Latino vote in his 1998 reelection as Texas governor. He made those inroads by giving Latinos the respect of aggressively courting their support. Back then, it was the national GOP that couldn't comprehend the Latino-based offensive at the state level.

Your (June 23) story on Congressman Duncan Hunter's mailings to constituents didn't mention that he was 66th in Congress in use of the franking privilege until the last paragraph. The impression given by the headline was different. Why is it wrong for a congressman to use mailings to advise his constituents that he will hold a series of town hall meetings throughout the district? Aren't they entitled to know? Your paper is not read by everyone in the district, and you never print the town hall schedule anyway.

It's a law enforcement truism. Any time you get two cops together over a cigarette you're going to hear complaints about the honchos who run things downtown. But the exchange on a recent afternoon carried more than the standard bitterness when a plug of a Fresno cop asked senior U.S. Border Patrol Agent John Crockford how many illegal immigrant lawbreakers he takes off the streets every month. Crockford, a white-haired man of 48, guessed it was between 70 and 80. "What do we do when you're gone?"

Six earthquakes measuring from 3.0 to 4.1 on the Richter scale shook the desert near El Centro and the California-Mexico border, but no damage or injuries were reported, authorities said.