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Bishop bill for Homeland Security in border parks causing contention

Last updated Thursday, April 19, 2012 - 9:46am

LOS ANGELES -- House Republicans are backing legislation in Congress to give the Department of Homeland Security control of more than 50 national parks and forests within 100 miles of the U.S. borders.

The legislation involves a sweep of land along the frontier with Canada and Mexico, but exempts state land, private property and federal holdings used for mining, livestock grazing and timber harvesting. The new authority would carve through 54 national parks, including Joshua Tree, Saguaro, Acadia and Glacier.

Border Patrol, Congress, Homeland Security, House, National Parks, Politics, Rep. Rob Bishop, Republicans, Utah, National Read more Comments

Steven C. Guibord, Naples, Utah, police chief. (Facebook)

Former police chief accused of using alias for Web insults

Contributed The Associated Press

Last updated Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - 6:09pm

VERNAL -- A former eastern Utah police chief faces a criminal defamation charge after prosecutors say he posted offensive comments about other law enforcement officers online using another chief's name.

Crime, Border Patrol, Defamation, False identity, Utah, Websites Read more Comments

Environmental law waiver faces northern skeptics

Matt Gouras The Associated Press

Last updated Sunday, November 13, 2011 - 10:29am

HELENA, Mont. -- A one-size-fits-all proposal to give border agents control over environmental laws is facing critics who argue it doesn't make sense in places like Montana's Glacier National Park.

Border Patrol, National Parks, Rep. Rob Bishop, Wilderness, Immigration, National Read more Comments

Farmers face shortage of seasonal workers

Melissa Powell The Seattle Times

Last updated Friday, August 5, 2011 - 1:46pm

SEATTLE -- Some Washington farmers are worried their work force is dwindling.

Most of the farmers rely on seasonal workers, and more than half of those workers in Washington are illegal immigrants. Some farmers say their once-loyal workers are staying in Mexico because of the dangers of crossing the border with the stronger enforcement of border laws.

Business, Agriculture, Border Patrol, Farming, Immigrants, Immigration law, Migrant workers Read more Comments

At the Air Marine Operations Center (AMOC) at March Air Base in Riverside, California, operations chief Tony Crowder looks at a yellow line on the screen that traces the route of an aircraft that crossed from Mexico into California. AMOC will report suspicious flight paths to the U.S. Border Patrol and area law enforcement as it's a known corridor for airborn Mexican drug smugglers. (Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

Ultralight aircraft now ferrying drugs across U.S.-Mexico border

Los Angeles Times, Richard Marosi

Last updated Thursday, May 19, 2011 - 10:37am

SAN DIEGO -- They fly low and slow over the border, their wings painted black and motors humming faintly under moonlit skies. The pilots, some armed in the open cockpits, steer the horizontal control bar with one hand and pull a latch with the other, releasing 250-pound payloads that land with a thud, leaving only craters as evidence of another successful smuggling run.

Mexican organized crime groups, increasingly stymied by stepped-up enforcement on land, have dug tunnels and captained boats to get drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. Now they are taking to the skies, using ultralight aircraft that resemble motorized hang gliders to drop marijuana bundles in agricultural fields and desert scrub across the Southwest border.

Crime, Aircraft, Border Patrol, Drug smuggling, National Read more Comments

Customs and Border Patrol agent Kenneth Quillin speaks to the media Thursday, May 12, 2011, in Gila Bend, Ariz., hours after a train and Border Patrol vehicle collided in the early morning hours. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Border Patrol agents killed in truck/train crash

The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, May 12, 2011 - 2:38pm

GILA BEND, Ariz. -- Two Border Patrol agents rushing to help capture some suspected illegal immigrants were killed Thursday when their SUV entered a marked railroad crossing and was struck by a freight train.

The crash happened in a rural farming area near Interstate 8 and the town of Gila Bend, about 85 miles southwest of Phoenix.

Border Patrol, Fatal, Trains, Accident, National Read more Comments

Mexican indicted in Arizona border agent's killing

The Associated Press

Last updated Friday, May 6, 2011 - 3:54pm

PHOENIX -- A federal grand jury has indicted a man on eight charges, including second-degree murder, in a shootout that left a Border Patrol agent dead near the Arizona-Mexico border and heightened fears in the state about cross-border violence.

The indictment for Manuel Osorio-Arellanes of El Fuerte, Mexico, was unsealed Friday at his arraignment in Tucson. It also included charges of assault on a federal officer, carrying a firearm to carry out a crime and re-entering the U.S. after being deported.

An attorney for Osorio-Arellanes entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf. His trial is set

Crime, Murder, Border Clash, Border Patrol, National Read more Comments

U.S. probes allegations of harassment of Muslims at U.S.-Canada border

Detroit Free Press, Niraj Warikoo

Last updated Friday, May 6, 2011 - 3:56pm

DETROIT -- The Department of Homeland Security has launched an investigation into whether Muslims are harassed, body searched, and detained by federal agents at the Detroit-Windsor border because of their appearance or religious background.

In a letter sent this week to a local Muslim group, the department's Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties said it has received information "concerning repeated handcuffing, brandishing of weapons, prolonged detentions, invasive and humiliating body searches at the border, and inappropriate questioning that pertains to religion and religious practices by" federal agents at the border with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Border Patrol, Muslims, Immigration, National Read more Comments

Border agent killed man climbing wall

The Associated Press

Last updated Monday, March 28, 2011 - 6:00pm

PHOENIX -- A Mexican man was climbing a ladder when a Border Patrol agent fatally shot him three times, a sheriff's spokeswoman told The Associated Press on Monday.

Cochise County sheriff's investigators have no indication that Carlos La Madrid, 19, assaulted or tried to assault the agent when he was shot March 21, said agency spokeswoman Carol Capas.

La Madrid had fled police in the Arizona border city of Douglas in a truck and drove to the border with Mexico. He was climbing a ladder and trying to cross the border, and another man atop the wall began throwing rocks at the pursuing agent, Capas said.

Border Fence, Border Patrol, Illegal aliens, Shooting, National Read more Comments

Arizona border town frustrated over response to violence

Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times

Last updated Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 11:17am

NOGALES, Ariz. -- It was shortly after 11 p.m. one night in December when an elite unit of the U.S. Border Patrol, making its way through the inky darkness of Peck Canyon, ran into a pack of heavily armed men.

A gunfight broke out, and when it was over, Agent Brian Terry, a three-year veteran of the force, was dead. Four Mexicans were taken into custody, one of them shot in the abdomen and back. By daybreak, a massive sweep was under way in search of a fifth suspect who had disappeared into the night.

The agent's death happened in the wake of a wave of robberies, rapes and assaults -- most unreported, police say, because they are directed at illegal migrants and drug runners.

Yet more than a month after Terry's death, prosecutors still have filed no homicide charges against the unidentified men in custody, nor have they caught the fifth suspect, who may have been the triggerman.

After the massive law enforcement response to the Jan. 8 shootings of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others, there is frustration here that Terry's death has not taken the same priority.

Arizona, Border Patrol, Drug violence, Illegal aliens, National Read more Comments

Border Patrol agent charged with harboring illegal immigrants

Los Angeles Times, Richard Marosi

Last updated Friday, January 14, 2011 - 10:45am

SAN DIEGO -- U.S. Border Patrol Agent Marcos Gerardo Manzano Jr. zipped around the hills along the San Diego-Tijuana border pursuing illegal immigrants every day. But his hunt didn't extend, authorities allege, to the illegal immigrant living in his own home -- his father.

Manzano's father, Marcos Gerardo Manzano Sr., was known as a Mr. Fix-it in his working-class San Diego neighborhood, who did painting and landscaping jobs for a few bucks. But authorities say Manzano Sr., 46, is a twice-deported illegal immigrant with a criminal record who may have been dealing drugs.

Three days after teams of heavily armed federal agents raided the home, the elder Manzano remains a fugitive. His son was charged with harboring illegal immigrants and lying to federal agents. Authorities and neighbors are trying to sort out if his alleged actions were an understandable though still illegal act of mercy, or part of a larger criminal enterprise.

Crime, Border Patrol, Illegal aliens, Immigration, National Read more Comments