US Border Patrol Agents Convicted for Fraud

Two former US Border Patrol, the brothers Raul and Fidel Villarreal were sentenced that they took money by allowing illegal immigrants into the U.S and conspiring to launder money. Raul Villarreal started a smuggling group in Mexicans and Brazilians and made Fidel Villarreal and a fellow agent, one of his recruits according to the prosecutor.

Raul Villarreal appeared as a public face of the patrol and also as a high-profile agency spokesman for the US Border patrol agency on television. Armando Garcia, was also found corrupted similar to those faced by the two brothers.

In 2005 and 2006, Garcia led groups of Mexican and Brazilian Immigrants across the border on foot, and then picked by these two brothers in their patrol vehicles and drop into U.S. according to media reports.

In May 2005, federal probe has been started with an informant’s tip to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with installed cameras on poles where migrants were dropped off, undercover recording devices were planted, tracking instruments on Border Patrol vehicles.

The prosecution case was relied on the evidence they got from migrants who entered the country illegally and also Brazilian woman given a statement telling that she has given &12,000 to reach border in a police car.

“They made the border work for them,” prosecutor Timothy Salel told jurors, the San Diego Union-Tribune daily reports.

The two men were tripped off about the probe themselves and fled to Mexico, where they got settled in Tijuana, across border from San Diego in 2006 and they were arrested by Mexican police and extradited to face the trial in 2008.

In November, two brothers will be sentenced and have a maximum of 50 years in prison and they will be charged at least $1.25m according to the Associated Press news agency.

Mexico’s Illegal Immigrant Theme Park: Footage Crossing U.S Border

EcoAlberto theme park in El Alberto, Mexico (El Alberto is actually 800 miles from the U.S. border) a chance to experience a simulated illegal border crossing US Border has been caught on film. Vice documentary makers exposed how thousands of migrants who cross treacherous terrain for better life in US.

It then follows Poncho – who plays the people smuggler or ‘coyote’ – as he guides the tourists in their mad dash, sending the weak first, followed by the women and finally the men.

‘Quick! Women go first,’ he shouts, impatiently. ‘Move quickly. Now men, let’s go. Run! Run! Run! Run!’ He explains on the way that the tourists will experience about 5 per cent of
what a real migrant goes through when they are attempting to cross the Rio Grande to get to the U.S.

‘Where we are going conditions are harsh,’ he said.

‘We will find mud, tunnels, canyons, poisonous plants, snakes and spiders. Just think for a minute about the things migrants have to go through… they have no water and have no food and perhaps are riding now on top of a train or walking through freezing cold desert.’

The men, speaking in English, shout to the supposed illegal aliens: ‘Please surrender people or we’re going to kill you’.

They catch a number, pushing them to the ground, acting rough. But then the rest of the group manage to sneak through a barbed wire fence and make the crossing successfully.

 

Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2153781/Inside-Mexicos-illegal-immigrant-theme-park-Incredible-footage-gives-frightening-taste-potentially-deadly-U-S-border-crossing.html

US Immigration Boost Deportation of Criminal

Nearly 25 percent (150 agents) of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers from desks and backroom jobs agents tasked include to finding and deporting illegal immigrants with criminal records across the country.

Last fiscal year, the government spent $120.9 million deporting 182,655 people by plane. Of those, 17,777 were flown out of Columbus Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, according to ICE. And most of them — 13,806 — were deported to Mexico.

Each of the team has given a goal of arresting 50 suspects per month.  Team are instructed to focus on kicking out the illegal immigrants convicted of felony or more than two misdemeanors, having fraudulent documents and most importantly breaking the law.

An early draft of the plan says ICE is “experiencing a shortfall in criminal removals for the fiscal year,” and called for using 300 Border Patrol agents, dressed in ICE uniforms, to close the gap. The plan was scaled back to 150 ICE officers after objections were raised by union organizers for the Border Patrol.

ICE Director John Morton defended the program Friday as “the best way to use our limited resources” against those who pose the greatest threat to public safety.

“We changed agency policy to focus fugitive operations more on criminal offenders,” Morton said in a telephone interview. “This is part of a permanent restructuring of agency resources to meet the highest priority of removing serious offenders. … We think that is the right call because at the end of the day public safety is our goal.”

80 Illegal immigrant arrested in “Cross-Check” Operations by ICE

Georgia’s governor on Friday signed a tough new state law cracking down on illegal immigrants that is similar to one enacted in Arizona last year, handing new powers to police in the southern US state.

The law authorises police in Georgia to investigate the immigration status of criminal suspects they think may be in the country illegally.

It also makes transporting and harbouring illegal immigrants a crime and requires many private employers to check the immigration status of newly hired workers on a federal database called E-Verify.

ICE have arrested closer to 80 criminal illegal immigrants in Georgia and the Carolinas, under the operation called “Cross-Check” operation for the whole week.

All of them had criminal convictions, including violent offenses such as aggravated assault, family violence and sexual battery of a minor, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE declined to identify them but said most were arrested in the Atlanta area.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials arrested 33 from Georgia, 32 in North Carolina and 15 from South Carolina. Most of these illegal immigrants came from Mexico, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. Last month with the similar kind of “Cross-Check” operations nationwide, almost 3,100 people were arrested from federal immigration authorities in Norcross after being convicted of sexual battery.

Last year, ICE removed almost 396,906 illegal immigrants out which 55% were convicted of felonies or misdemeanors.

The figure includes 44,653 convicted of drug related crimes; 35,927 aliens convicted of driving under the influence; 5,848 convicted of sexual offenses; 1,119 convicted of homicide.