Illegal Aliens United States

Sergio Infanzon, an illegal immigrant for a decade, decided last month to roll the dice: He turned himself in to the Border Patrol. It was self-interest that motivated this gambit, however, and immigration authorities in Los Angeles and San Diego were not inclined to play along. Infanzon had to travel four hours to El Centro to find agents willing to collar him.

The 11 Dominican men came to the United States in a locked, stifling cargo container in search of the American dream--and it almost cost them their lives. Some of the stowaways, who had been trapped inside the 40-foot container for a week, were recovering in a hospital Friday, officials said. An employee assigned to check the container seals had heard banging and muffled shouts and alerted authorities.

The vast majority of illegal immigrants who have gone through the first phase of the amnesty program in Southern California in the last three weeks have been recommended for legal status and given temporary work cards, according to federal immigration officials. More than 5,300 immigrants out of about 5,800 interviewed by Thursday in California and neighboring western states, or about 90%, had been tentatively approved by government examiners for legal status.

President Bush vowed Thursday to create a "smart border" with Mexico, saying he wants to speed the flow of people and goods across the frontier but target would-be terrorists and those who smuggle drugs and immigrants into the United States.

It was the largest cocaine seizure ever made along the U.S.-Mexico border--almost four tons, or 7,702 pounds, of the powdery drug found hidden inside a Hidro Gas de Juarez propane tanker Oct. 3, 1990. But the record haul at the Otay port of entry was quickly engulfed in controversy as embarrassed U.S. Customs officials tried to explain how the driver was released before inspectors managed to extract the drugs hours later from a hidden compartment inside the tanker. As was routine, the U.S.

In a blow to California and other states with large immigrant populations, the Senate voted Friday to bar the Census Bureau from counting illegal aliens in the 1990 population count. "I'm stunned," said Santa Ana City Council member Miguel A. Pulido. Pulido and other Santa Ana council members say that the 1980 census substantially under-counted its population at 215,000. The city has been lobbying hard to have its illegal alien population--estimated at 50,000--included in the 1990 count.

Immigrant minors who enter the United States illegally and alone are often forced to languish in detention, subjected to arbitrary punishment and poor conditions, advocates testified Thursday before a state panel convened to evaluate federal immigration policy. These juveniles are often allowed to "slip through the cracks" by the failure of authorities to take responsibility for them, the panel was told during the four-hour legislative hearing conducted by state Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles).

When U.S. Coast Guard officials first boarded the cargo ship East Wood in the middle of the Pacific in early February, they found 524 Chinese hoping to come to America jammed into the hold and on the deck of a filthy, unseaworthy vessel. After several weeks spent in limbo in the Marshall Islands, the would-be emigrants were flown back to China. And the compelling saga of the East Wood came to a close.

A raid by federal agents on a South-Central Los Angeles "drop house" led to the arrests of four principals in a major smuggling operation suspected of transporting hundreds of illegal aliens by air to New York, Chicago and Miami in recent weeks, immigration officials said Wednesday.

Twenty-two stowaways from the Dominican Republic and Cuba were found on board a Panamanian freighter that was delivering cargo to Detroit, federal officials said. The stowaways were all men, ranging in age from 16 to their late 20s, said Carol Jenifer, district director of the Detroit office of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Jenifer said the 593-foot NST Challenge left Panama on Aug. 8, stopping in the Dominican Republic, where the stowaways got on board.

A Mexican man was sentenced Friday to 16 years in prison for smuggling illegal immigrants across the southern Arizona desert, where 14 of them died in the extreme heat. Jesus Lopez-Ramos pleaded guilty in October to 25 smuggling counts--14 for the men who died and 11 for men who survived the trek in temperatures reaching 115 degrees. Lopez-Ramos, 21, expressed remorse before U.S. District Judge Susan R. Bolton imposed the sentence.

The head of one of the nation's largest immigration asylum law firms and his wife pleaded guilty Monday to faking asylum applications to help smugglers bring hundreds of Chinese into America. Robert Porges, 63, said he "personally approved every asylum application" as he admitted to a conspiracy in which the Porges Law Firm lied to help more than 1,000 immigrants stay in the United States.

In the hopes of politicians, it has emerged as one answer to the challenge of international terrorism: keeping tabs on foreigners as they enter and exit the United States. "It's important that we have good information," President Bush said recently, "so we can secure the homeland." Yet an array of obstacles still stands in the way of a comprehensive "entry-exit" system as called for by many members of Congress and endorsed by the White House.

Arrests of undocumented immigrants on the U.S. border from Southern California to the tip of Texas have fallen sharply since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, in some areas dropping more than 50% as officials report remarkably fewer people trying to slip into the United States. Authorities in Washington and along the nearly 2,000-mile-long border say that, while the sputtering U.S.

Federal authorities said Monday they have smashed a human-smuggling operation in which a Los Angeles-based bus company transported tens of thousands of unlawful immigrants from the U.S.-Mexican border to Southern California and other parts of the country. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said 32 people were indicted for their alleged roles in the complex scheme that involved smugglers, bus terminal workers and top officials of the Golden State Transportation Co. in Los Angeles.

In a gesture of goodwill during the U.S. visit of Mexican President Vicente Fox, the Senate voted unanimously late Thursday to renew a program that allows certain undocumented immigrants to apply for legal status without having to return to their home countries. The measure, supported by President Bush and expected to clear the House as soon as next week, would reinstate a program largely designed to prevent immigrant families from having to endure long separations as members wade through the U.

Provoking cries of racism, prompting a wave of resignations and pitting prominent environmentalists against one another, a Sierra Club ballot measure calling for stricter curbs on U.S. immigration has ignited a bitter battle within the country's most prominent environmental organization. Already, at least 1,000 people have quit over the question, which appears on the club's annual organizational ballot, say officials, who anticipate more resignations no matter which side wins.

Despite lingering suspicion of their superpower neighbor, Mexicans tend to view the United States far more favorably than Americans view Mexico, a new poll has found. Still, Mexican perceptions of the United States have deteriorated in the past five years. And in a nation where unemployment and inflation are citizens' overriding concerns, an overwhelming majority of Mexicans views the issue of immigration entirely differently from Americans: They believe that tougher law enforcement on the U.S.

U.S. and Mexican officials have yet to reach a deal on what to do about immigrants who came to the U.S. unlawfully, but members of Congress geared up Wednesday for a heated fight over the issue and skirmished over what solution a wary public might accept.

Mexican President Vicente Fox insisted Wednesday that his nation and the United States must and can reach agreement on immigration reform by the end of this year, throwing a surprising challenge at President Bush on the first day of the Mexican leader's state visit. Invoking the plight of his citizens with fervor, Fox declared during a highly choreographed welcome ceremony at the White House that legalizing the status of illegal Mexican workers can be achieved.