Us Mexico Border

Carlos Reygadas admits that when he first heard the concept behind the new movie "Revolución" — a compilation of 10 short films by 10 different Mexican directors — he felt "a little reluctant" to join in. Omnibus movies, he knew, often add up to less than the sum of their parts. And the theme of this particular film came spring-loaded with significance: the legacy of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920. Furthermore, the movie's release would be timed to coincide with this year's heavily hyped centennial celebrations taking place on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Mexican authorities said Friday they have arrested the leader of a Ciudad Juarez street gang who they say ordered the killing of a U.S. consular worker in the border town in March. Federal police said Jesus Ernesto Chavez told them that consular employee Lesley A. Enriquez, 35, was targeted because she was providing visas to rivals. Police said Chavez, 41, also confessed to having taken part in a January shooting attack on a party that killed 15 people, mostly teenagers, and raised an outcry in Mexico over the runaway violence that has made Ciudad Juarez the deadliest city in the nation.

The border barrier dips and curves, zigs and zags, hugging the mountain's contours like a slimmed-down version of the Great Wall of China. Among the costliest stretch of fencing ever built on the U.S.-Mexico border, the 3.6-mile wall of steel completed last fall is meant to block trafficking routes over Otay Mountain, just east of San Diego. People seeking to enter the country illegally have hiked the scrub-covered, tarantula-infested peak for years, trying to get to roads leading to San Diego.

Carlos Reygadas admits that when he first heard the concept behind the new movie "Revolución" — a compilation of 10 short films by 10 different Mexican directors — he felt "a little reluctant" to join in. Omnibus movies, he knew, often add up to less than the sum of their parts. And the theme of this particular film came spring-loaded with significance: the legacy of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920. Furthermore, the movie's release would be timed to coincide with this year's heavily hyped centennial celebrations taking place on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

This," breathed the man in the sweater standing next to me, "may be the most beautiful place on Earth." From anyone else, it would have been a stock, cliched response to the splendor before us: a mountain range bursting from a vast golden meadow, its rhyolite faces soaked crimson in brilliant afternoon sunlight. But this was John C. Sawhill speaking, the president of the Nature Conservancy, proprietor of the largest private system of nature reserves in the world. And this was the biggest, most costly of the 1,300 choice pieces of the planet owned by his organization, the wealthiest environmental group of all. Three years earlier, Nature Conservancy had invested $18 million, more than a tenth of its entire operating capital, right here: the mammoth Gray Ranch in southwestern New Mexico, on the U.S.-Mexico border.

John Carlos Frey wants you to be angry about the U.S.-Mexico border. He wants you to feel such a deep sense of moral outrage that you'll get out of your chair and write a letter to your congressman. That's why he invited me to the border town of El Centro, to stand in Imperial County's pauper's cemetery, a dusty field dotted with about 900 concrete markers the size of bread loaves. Each was stamped with numbers or the name "John Doe." Several hundred marked the final resting place of Mexican and other Latin American migrants who've died walking across the desert or drowned trying to cross the nearby All-American Canal.

Illegal immigrants who have been deported at least once from the United States are far more likely than other immigrants to repeatedly commit crimes, according to a study by the nonprofit Rand Corp. The data indicated that illegal immigrants, overall, were not a greater crime risk, according to the study, which looked at all inmates released from Los Angeles County Jail for a month in 2002. But among those who previously had been deported, reentered the U.S. and were arrested and released from jail, nearly 75% went on to commit another crime within a year.

The three drivers moved through traffic toward the U.S. border crossing, their vans packed with about 70 immigrants who stayed hushed as canine units patrolled outside. Mauricio Cantera, a 59-year-old grandfather who sells churros to crossers, said the vans probably passed inches from his tray of sweets Tuesday afternoon, but he didn't notice anything amiss. Having worked the crossing for decades, he said smuggling runs through the San Ysidro Port of Entry are common. What happened next, however, wasn't.

That the government wanted to put Melvin Kay behind a prison fence is an irony, though one that neither he nor his accusers would find amusing. Mel Kay builds fences. His was the largest fence-building company in Southern California; he rode the nation's housing boom to $150 million in annual sales. His fences are just about everywhere -- gated subdivisions, military bases, prisons. He even built fences at two immigration jails, a Border Patrol station and the U.S.-Mexico border.

President Obama will send up to 1,200 additional National Guard troops — and request $500 million in additional funds — to support law enforcement efforts along the Southwest border, the White House said Tuesday. The move was widely seen as offering the president political cover for his pursuit of immigration reform. The National Guard will target the trafficking of people, money, drugs and weapons, national security advisor James L. Jones and counterterrorism advisor John Brennan said in a letter to Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.

President Obama will send up to 1,200 additional National Guard troops — and request $500 million in additional funds — to support law enforcement efforts along the Southwest border, the White House said Tuesday. The move was widely seen as offering the president political cover for his pursuit of immigration reform. The National Guard will target the trafficking of people, money, drugs and weapons, national security advisor James L. Jones and counterterrorism advisor John Brennan said in a letter to Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.

The U.S.-Mexico border reopened Tuesday to northbound vehicle traffic, but Calexico's historic downtown district remained closed as inspectors checked for structural damage to buildings in the wake of the magnitude 7.2 earthquake just south of here Easter Sunday. The border crossing had been closed to northbound traffic as officials checked for damage to the federal building, but pedestrians continued to cross through the checkpoint from Mexicali as they fled the aftershocks rocking northern Baja California.

Reporting from Mexico City, Mexicali, Mexico, and Pasadena -- Life began returning to a jittery sort of normal Monday on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border, one day after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake rumbled through the area around Mexicali, Mexico. Assessment teams inspected buildings and cleanup crews swept up broken glass in Mexicali and its smaller California neighbor, Calexico, both of which sustained modest damage. The death toll rose to two, and more than 230 people were injured.

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake rocked Mexico's Baja California peninsula Sunday, jolting millions of people from Los Angeles and San Diego to Phoenix and scattering destruction along the U.S.-Mexico border. Emergency services in both the U.S. and Mexico scrambled to assess the extent of casualties and damage, including fallen buildings, buckled roads, cracked water canals, fires and telephone and electrical outages. It appeared that most of the damage was in the twin border cities of Calexico, Calif.

John Carlos Frey wants you to be angry about the U.S.-Mexico border. He wants you to feel such a deep sense of moral outrage that you'll get out of your chair and write a letter to your congressman. That's why he invited me to the border town of El Centro, to stand in Imperial County's pauper's cemetery, a dusty field dotted with about 900 concrete markers the size of bread loaves. Each was stamped with numbers or the name "John Doe." Several hundred marked the final resting place of Mexican and other Latin American migrants who've died walking across the desert or drowned trying to cross the nearby All-American Canal.

The border barrier dips and curves, zigs and zags, hugging the mountain's contours like a slimmed-down version of the Great Wall of China. Among the costliest stretch of fencing ever built on the U.S.-Mexico border, the 3.6-mile wall of steel completed last fall is meant to block trafficking routes over Otay Mountain, just east of San Diego. People seeking to enter the country illegally have hiked the scrub-covered, tarantula-infested peak for years, trying to get to roads leading to San Diego.

Reporting from Mexico City, Mexicali, Mexico, and Pasadena -- Life began returning to a jittery sort of normal Monday on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border, one day after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake rumbled through the area around Mexicali, Mexico. Assessment teams inspected buildings and cleanup crews swept up broken glass in Mexicali and its smaller California neighbor, Calexico, both of which sustained modest damage. The death toll rose to two, and more than 230 people were injured.

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake rocked Mexico's Baja California peninsula Sunday, jolting millions of people from Los Angeles and San Diego to Phoenix and scattering destruction along the U.S.-Mexico border. Emergency services in both the U.S. and Mexico scrambled to assess the extent of casualties and damage, including fallen buildings, buckled roads, cracked water canals, fires and telephone and electrical outages. It appeared that most of the damage was in the twin border cities of Calexico, Calif.

Nallely and Heriberto Salgado boarded the Mexican fishing skiff bobbing off the Baja California coast last week and watched warily in the moonlight as 19 other people squeezed onto the vessel designed to carry no more than a dozen. A smuggler piloting the 25-foot boat promised a short ride before landing on a beach in San Diego. But 12 hours later, the Salgados were still being lashed with sea spray. The thick fog had burned off, leaving a panorama of brilliant blue, with no land in sight.