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From the Los Angeles Times

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Border battle over illegal immigration shifts to beaches

U.S. and Mexican authorities try to stem a rising tide of illegal immigration by boat.

(Video on site)

by Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times

March 24, 2011

Reporting from Ensenada

The immigrants heard the engine slow as the pilot steered through breakers. Twelve hours earlier, they had shoved off from a beach near Ensenada. Now, they were bobbing off Red Beach at Camp Pendleton. Out in the darkness, California beckoned.

"Jump out!" barked the pilot.

The 17 immigrants climbed over the side of the rickety boat, stumbling and splashing their way through the surf where U.S. Marines usually charge ashore in armored vehicles during amphibious assault exercises.

"I couldn't run because I had been sitting in the boat for so long," said Maribel Ruiz. "But the pilot kept yelling, 'Run! Run! Run!' It was terrible."

Photos: Mexican navy on patrol for smugglers

Ruiz, a 40-year-old mother of two, ended up face down on the sand as U.S. Border Patrol agents lighted the beach with high-powered beams and corralled her and the other Mexican illegal immigrants. The pilot turned the boat around and sped off toward Mexico.

Similar scenes are playing out with increasing frequency along the Southern California coast as smugglers launch more immigrant and drug-filled vessels than ever before toward the state — about one every three days on average. Vessels still land at San Diego-area beaches but are also traveling as far north as Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. Drug smugglers venturing even farther have been caught on Catalina Island and Santa Rosa Island, off the Santa Barbara coast.

Last year, 867 illegal immigrants and smugglers were arrested at sea or along the California coast, more than double the number in 2009. Border authorities have had to redeploy agents from the land border to the coast, where they scan the ocean with night-vision goggles and give chase across dunes instead of fields.

"I used to think that the [border] was the fence....All of a sudden this has become the front line in our efforts," said U.S. Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Steve McPartland at the San Clemente station, speaking to boaters and residents at Dana Point Harbor.

Immigrants have stumbled ashore in the shadow of the San Onofre nuclear power plant. In Del Mar, two smugglers ran their marijuana-laden boat onto a dog beach across from multimillion-dollar homes. At least eight immigrants ran up the bluffs to East Coast Highway after their boat beached at Crystal Cove near Newport Beach. Sixteen people aboard a broken-down boat were rescued about 70 miles offshore in October after being spotted by the amphibious assault ship Boxer.

Smugglers piloting overcrowded boats have led U.S. authorities on high-speed pursuits, and in at least one case U.S. agents shot out an engine to stop a fleeing pilot who had just dropped off a load of immigrants.

Smuggling surge

The surge in smuggling at sea started in 2007, in reaction to U.S. authorities' increasingly successful efforts at blocking traditional land routes. Smugglers at sea continually play cat-and-mouse games with Border Patrol agents, just as they do on land.

After U.S. authorities increased boat patrols, smuggling boat pilots adopted stealth-like maneuvers, traveling with their running lights off and going slow to limit the size of their wakes. When U.S. agents posted on high points along the coast began disrupting routes into San Diego beaches, smuggling groups posted lookouts to watch the agents and direct boat pilots to unmonitored areas.

Driving it all are enormous profits. Smugglers charge immigrants as much as $6,000, a boatload of 20 can bring more than $100,000. Immigrants are shuttled from Tijuana-area motels to launching sites along the coast.

Mexican Navy boat commanders, who patrol in Interceptor boats that can reach speeds of 40 knots, have stopped several vessels, including one last month with 15 people aboard.

On a recent patrol, a commander motored past the northernmost of the barren and windswept Coronado Islands, a smuggling staging ground just off Tijuana. Last year, the commander said he encountered 13 immigrants at the bottom of a rocky cliff. The smugglers said they would return, but instead abandoned them with only one jug of water.

Mexican authorities have been credited with cooperating with their U.S. counterparts, but their powers are limited. This month Mexican navy boats forced a smuggler on a personal watercraft to land near Rosarito Beach. Police arrested the man, but like other suspected human smugglers fleeing across the border, he was released because he had not committed a crime in Mexico.

U.S. and Mexican officials suspect that the smugglers' increasingly sophisticated and deadly tactics are a sign that Mexico's most powerful organized crime group, the Sinaloa drug cartel, may be involved in the maritime trade. The boat pilots are usually fishing boat operators recruited from Sinaloa, who are paid $2,000 to $10,000 per trip.

Last month two Sinaloans received five-year prison sentences in San Diego County federal court in connection with an incident last year in which their boat capsized at Torrey Pines State Beach. An 18-year-old Guatemalan woman and a Mexican man who tried to save her drowned.

One of the operators, Fernando Figueroa, 51, a shrimp boat captain who said he earns $140 monthly in Mexico, apologized to the judge. "The poverty that one lives with corners you into a situation that you wouldn't normally do," he said.

Adding forces

In response to the smuggling surge, U.S. authorities have expanded their anti-smuggling force, the Maritime Unified Command, to Orange County. The boats and helicopters from the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection can hardly cover the vast ocean, however.

Authorities are seeking harsher penalties for the pilots and this month announced that illegal immigrants caught repeatedly in maritime incidents will also be prosecuted and jailed under an initiative called Safe Waters. Typically, illegal immigrants without serious criminal convictions who are caught at the border are returned to Mexico without jail time.

Erika Solorio, a 28-year-old woman from Michoacan with dreams of working in Santa Ana, said smugglers switched to a sea journey only after failing six times to get her across the land border in San Diego. Along with Ruiz, the mother of two, and 15 other immigrants, she boarded the boat at a beach near Ensenada on Feb. 7.

For the next 12 hours, the open bow panga tossed between swells. When she wasn't vomiting, she prayed. The operators wore heavy coats with hoods; she had only a light jacket under the life vest. "It was so cold, and we couldn't see anything," Solorio said.

The moment they hit Camp Pendleton, Border Patrol agents flashed on their lights. "The pilot said you have to run as fast as you can," Solorio said. But there was nowhere to hide. With a disabled child at home who needs surgery, Solorio said giving up was not an option.

Two weeks later, Border Patrol agents saw another panga approaching the coast near Camp Pendleton. When the agents pulled up, they followed footprints to a brushy area off the beach. There they found 11 wet and sand-coated immigrants. One of them was Solorio, who is one of the first two immigrants being prosecuted under the Safe Waters initiative.

"We're doing this for their own good," said Mike Carney, acting special agent in charge for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego. "We want there to be a strong deterrent from taking the maritime route."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-adv-sea-smuggling-20110325,0,559991.story

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Mexico news companies agree to drug war coverage guidelines

The 10-point accord, covering more than 700 outlets across Mexico, calls on news-gathering organizations to find ways to protect their journalists and to avoid glorifying crime bosses.

by Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times

March 25, 2011

Reporting from Mexico City

Many of Mexico's top media companies agreed Thursday on first-ever guidelines for covering a drug war that has drastically increased risks for journalists.

The 10-point accord, covering more than 700 outlets across the country, calls on news-gathering organizations to find ways to protect their journalists and avoid glorifying crime bosses.

The guidelines also urge news organizations to unite against threats to journalists, such as by jointly publishing stories. Under the agreement, the companies should draw up standards for showing violent images, such as decapitated bodies, and provide more context when reporting on drug violence.

Mexico's drug war, launched by President Felipe Calderon in late 2006, has put Mexican news organizations in a tough spot: They have been attacked or threatened by drug gangs and also accused by the government and others of sensationalizing carnage that has killed more than 35,000 people.

"The media have a responsibility to act with professionalism and question ourselves about the potential implications of how news is handled," the six-page agreement says.

But written guidelines may do little practical good in zones such as the northern state of Tamaulipas, where drug gangs have already in effect muzzled news organizations, leaving residents in the dark about the violence raging around them. Many people in these places rely on social networks, such as Twitter, to trade information on street shootouts and other incidents.

More than 30 journalists have been killed or have disappeared in Mexico since Calderon began the crackdown, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Several outlets declined to sign, including the daily newspapers Reforma and La Jornada, and Proceso, a muckraking weekly magazine.

Jenaro Villamil, a writer at Proceso, said in a radio interview that the agreement opened the door to censorship and marked an effort by media giants to control public opinion amid growing alarm over the country's drug violence.

Supporters, including the biggest television networks, Televisa and TV Azteca, and many radio and newspaper companies, denied that the pact amounted to a form of self-censorship.

Calderon applauded the agreement, calling it an expression of "social responsibility" by news companies in Mexico.

Critics have accused the news media of stoking broad fear through daily coverage of the drug war that often includes gruesome images that would never be published by mainstream outlets in the United States.

Many Mexicans fear that the sustained exposure is making their society numb to the savage violence, even though it reflects the grim reality that exists in many places.

The agreement says news organizations should not serve crime groups' "terror strategies" by portraying traffickers as heroes or publishing their propaganda, such as the so-called narco-banners that are often posted by cartels and frequently shown on television or in newspaper photographs. The guidelines also call on media not to treat suspects as guilty before trial.

Many reporters in Mexico refuse to add their names to stories to avoid reprisals. Journalists in violence-torn Colombia sought to shield themselves from cartel reprisals by jointly publishing articles, an idea borrowed by the Mexican accord.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-tv-20110325,0,575082,print.story

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U.S. border towns safe, Homeland Security chief says

Janet Napolitano insists security along the border with Mexico 'is better now than it has ever been.'

Associated Press

March 24, 2011

El Paso, Texas

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Thursday that security on the southern U.S. border "is better now than it ever has been" and that violence from neighboring Mexico hasn't spilled over in a serious way.

Napolitano spoke at the Bridge of the Americas border crossing after a meeting with the mayors of the border towns of El Paso, Nogales, Ariz., and Yuma, Ariz. Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade Francisco Sanchez and Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin also were present.

Napolitano said the Department of Homeland Security will deploy 250 more border agents and expects to have 300 more under the agency's next budget if it is approved. She said Homeland Security is investing "millions of dollars in the side of commerce and trade" to improve infrastructure and technology along the border.

She added, however, that there is a need to correct wrong impressions about the border region. Napolitano said border towns are safe for travel, trade and commerce. She said the total value of imports crossing the Southwest border was up 22% in fiscal year 2010.

"There is a perception that the border is worse now than it ever has been. That is wrong. The border is better now than it ever has been," she said.

The perception that the violence in Mexico has spilled over to bordering U.S. cities is "wrong again," Napolitano said. Violent crime rates have remained flat or decreased in border communities in the Southwest, she said. However, she recognized that "there is much to do with [their] colleagues in Mexico in respect to the drug cartels" that are largely responsible for the unprecedented wave of violence in that country.

El Paso Mayor John Cook said his city has been ranked the safest city in the country of its size, despite being across the border from Ciudad Juarez, which is at the center of Mexico's drug cartel violence.

"The lie about border cities being dangerous has been told so many times that people are starting to believe it, but we as border communities have to speak out," Cook sad.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-border-security-20110325,0,2552682,print.story

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Hispanic population tops 50 million in U.S.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports the Hispanic population has surpassed 50 million and accounted for more than half of the 27.3-million population increase in the last decade.

by Stephen Ceasar, Los Angeles Times

March 24, 2011

The Hispanic population in the United States grew by 43% in the last decade, surpassing 50 million and accounting for about 1 out of 6 Americans, the Census Bureau reported Thursday.

Analysts seized on data showing that the growth was propelled by a surge in births in the U.S., rather than immigration, pointing to a growing generational shift in which Hispanics continue to gain political clout and, by 2050, could make up a third of the U.S. population.

"In the adult population, many immigrants helped the increase, but the child population is increasingly more Hispanic," said D'Vera Cohn, a senior writer at the Pew Research Center.

In 2010, Hispanics made up 23% of people under the age 18, compared with 17% in 2000. In California, 51% of children are Hispanic, up from 44% in 2000.

Overall, Hispanics accounted for more than half of the 27.3 million U.S. population increase since 2000.

About 75% of Hispanics live in the nine states that have long-standing Hispanic populations — Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York and Texas.

That figure is down from 81% in 2000, indicating the population has begun dispersing to other parts of the country, particularly in the Southeast, Cohn said.

New Mexico has the largest percentage of Hispanic residents (46.3%), followed by Texas and California (37.6%).

The Hispanic population more than doubled in Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, South Carolina and North Carolina.

"This is a sign that the Hispanic population is spreading out more widely than in the past," Cohn said. "You now see Hispanic communities in many places that hadn't had them a decade or two ago."

The population growth among Hispanics also kept the population steady in states that would have shown a decline or no growth, including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Louisiana.

The non-Hispanic population grew at a slower pace in the last decade, at about 5%. Within that population, those who reported their race as only white grew by 1%.

While the population of those who reported only as white grew in number in that time, from 196.6 million to 196.8 million, its proportion of the total U.S. population declined to 64% from 69%.

As in the 2000 census, individuals were asked to identify their ethnic or racial background. As guidance, the Census Bureau said the term Hispanic refers to people who trace the origin of their parents or ancestors to Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Spanish-speaking Central and South America countries and other Spanish cultures.

A 2008 Census Bureau projection estimated that ethnic and racial minorities will become the majority in the United States by 2050 and that about 1 in 3 U.S. residents will be Hispanic by then.

"Our country is becoming racially and ethnically more diverse over time, as is clear in the growth rates of minority populations," said Robert Groves, director of the Census Bureau.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-census-hispanic-20110325,0,3281525,print.story

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L.A. County leads U.S. in hunger study

More than 1.7 million Los Angeles County residents struggled with hunger in 2009, more than in any other county in America, according to new research published by Feeding America, the country's largest network of food banks.

The study, called Map the Meal Gap, uses statistics collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Census Bureau and other agencies to profile food insecurity across America.

“It's hard to imagine in a nation that grows much of the world's food that people cannot always afford to feed themselves or their kids,” said Vicki Escarra, Feeding America's president and chief executive.

“But the fact is that domestic hunger is a serious problem.”

The study found that there are people in every county who at times can't provide enough food for an active and healthy life for every household member -- the USDA measure for food insecurity. Rates ranged from 5% in Steel County, S.D. to 38% in Wilcox County, Ala.

At nearly 17%, the rate in Los Angeles was about the same as the national average. But in nearby Imperial County, it climbed to more than 31%.

“Hunger is closer than one might think,” Escarra said at a news conference Thursday in Washington, D.C., to announce the findings.

Matthew Sharp, a senior advocate with California Food Policy Advocates, attributed the high number of food insecure Angelenos to “the extraordinary cost of living and low wages.” Unemployment remains high in California and those returning to the workforce often find that they can't get the hours or salaries they need.

The study found that many of those at risk of hunger don't qualify for federal nutrition benefits, including about a third of the more than 6 million food insecure Californians in 2009, the most recent year for which data is available.

More than half of these Californians did not meet the income requirements for food stamps -- known locally as CalFresh -- and an estimated 33% did not qualify for other programs such as free or reduced-price school meals. Eligibility for these programs is linked to the federal poverty level, which advocates of low-income families have long argued is a poor measure of what it takes to make ends meet.

To qualify for food stamps, for example, households cannot earn more than 130% of the poverty level. That was $28,655 a year for a family of four in 2009, the most recent year for which food insecurity data is available. The maximum threshold for most other nutrition programs is 185% of the poverty level, then $40,793 a year for a family of four.

Previous studies only provided state-level food insecurity estimates, which researchers said were too broad to help local organizations address the need in their communities.

In counties like Imperial, Kern and Tulare, the study found that more than 60% of those at risk of hunger could be eligible for food stamps. Such areas might benefit from more outreach about federal nutrition programs, the study said.

While the food stamp rolls have been increasing in California, participation in the program has been among the lowest in the nation. Just half of the eligible Californians received the benefit in 2008, the most recent year for which federal estimates are available.

In counties with a higher proportion of food insecure people who are not eligible for government assistance, the burden to help often falls on family members and local charities.

The number of people fed by the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank increased from about 674,000 in 2006 to more than 1 million last year, said the group's president and chief executive, Michael Flood.

Although the food bank has been able to increase the volume of food it provides to food pantries, soup kitchens and other programs, supply has not kept pace with demand. Some have had to turn people away empty-handed, Flood said.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/03/more-la-county-residents-struggle-with-hunger-than-any-other-county-in-country-according-to-study.html#more

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Accused serial killer put on accelerated track toward trial

The case against accused serial killer Lonnie David Franklin Jr. was put on an accelerated track toward trial Thursday, when he was arraigned on a grand jury indictment charging him with killing 10 women.

Franklin, 58, was arrested in July, and prosecutors filed charges accusing him of killing the 10 women over two decades, beginning in the 1980s.

Typically, the next step in the legal proceedings would have been for prosecutors to present evidence against Franklin at a preliminary hearing to convince a judge that there was sufficient reason to order Franklin to stand trial. Eight months after the arrest, however, the date for a preliminary hearing still had not been set. Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley opted to take a different route, turning instead to a grand jury.

After hearing six days of testimony by 40 witnesses, the jurors found that there was sufficient evidence against Franklin, who will now proceed directly to a criminal trial. A trial date was not set.

Franklin allegedly killed seven women between 1985 and 1988 and three between 2002 and 2007 -- all in South Los Angeles.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/03/accused-serial-killer-put-on-accelerated-track-toward-trial.html

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San Gabriel shuts down makeshift maternity ward catering to 'birthing tourism'

From the outside, they were typical Southern Californian townhouses with bright white walls and Spanish tile roofs.

But inside, a new kind of international business thrived -– maternity wards for wealthy expectant mothers from across the Pacific.

For a fee, Chinese women received room and board and a chance to deliver their babies in the United States and become mothers to instant U.S. citizens.

Southern California has become a hub for this growing phenomenon, known as birthing tourism.

One such business was busted earlier this month when code enforcement officials from the city of San Gabriel responded to a complaint about noise and an unusual number of pregnant women in a quiet Palm Avenue neighborhood.

When officials went to the location, they found about 10 mothers and seven newborns living in three townhouses that had been illegally converted into maternity wards.

"The people were sitting and eating at a table, all the babies were in bassinets with a nurse attending to them," said Jennifer Davis, community development director for the city of San Gabriel.

"They had moved walls around without proper permits; they did interior work that can sometimes create unsafe environments afterward," Davis said. "And it's a business in a residential neighborhood. They are not permitted to operate there."

The Chinese mothers have since left the U.S. or moved into hotels, officials said.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/03/san-gabriel-shuts-down-makeshift-maternity-ward-catering-to-birthing-tourism.html

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Second thoughts of a 'hanging judge'

A death sentence in California rarely leads to an execution. Let's stop the charade.

by Donald A. McCartin

March 25, 2011

In 1978, the first time Jerry Brown was governor of California, he appointed me to a judgeship in the Superior Court of Orange County. It was a gutsy move on his part, a liberal Democrat naming a right-wing Republican to the bench. I served there until 1993, after which I sat on assignment on death cases throughout California.

During that time, I presided over 10 murder cases in which I sentenced the convicted men to die. As a result, I became known as "the hanging judge of Orange County," an appellation that, I will confess, I accepted with some pride.

The 10 were deemed guilty of horrifying crimes by their peers, and in the jurors' view as well as mine they deserved to die at the hands of the state. However, as of today, not one of them has been executed (though one died in prison of natural causes).

I am deeply angered by the fact that our system of laws has become so complex and convoluted that it makes mockery of decisions I once believed promised resolution for the family members of victims.

That said, I have followed the development of legal thinking and understand why our nation's Supreme Court, in holding that "death is different," has required that special care be taken to safeguard the rights of those sentenced to death. Such wisdom protects our society from returning to the barbarism of the past. And though I find it discomfiting and to a significant degree embarrassing that appellate courts have found fault with some of my statements, acts or decisions, I can live with the fact that their findings arise out of an attempt to ensure that the process has been scrupulously fair before such a sentence is carried out.

I can live with it and, apparently, so can the men I condemned. The first one, Rodney James Alcala, whom I sentenced to die more than 30 years ago for kidnapping and killing 12-year-old Robin Samsoe, was, just last year, again sentenced to death for killing Samsoe and four other young women who, it has subsequently been determined, were his victims around the same time.

I need not go into the permutations of Alcala's legal journey. Behind bars since 1979, he has not harmed, nor can he harm, any other young women. But harm has been done, and that's what infuriates me. Robin Samsoe's mother has been revictimized time and time again as the state of California spent millions upon millions of dollars in unsuccessful attempts to finally resolve the case against her daughter's murderer.

Had I known then what I know now, I would have given Alcala and the others the alternative sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Had I done that, Robin's mother, Marianne, would have been spared the pain of 30 appeals and writs and retrial. She could have dealt then and there with the fact that her daughter's killer would be shut away, never again to see a day of freedom, and gone on to put her life together. And the people of California would have not have had to pay many millions of tax dollars in this meaningless and ultimately fruitless pursuit of death.

It makes me angry to have been made a player in a system so inefficient, so ineffective, so expensive and so emotionally costly.

I watch today as Gov. Brown wrestles with the massive debt that is suffocating our state and hear him say he doesn't want to "play games." But I cringe when I learn that not playing games amounts to cuts to kindergarten, cuts to universities, cuts to people with special needs — and I hear no mention of the simple cut that would save hundreds of millions of dollars, countless man-hours, unimaginable court time and years of emotional torture for victim's family members waiting for that magical sense of "closure" they've been falsely promised with death sentences that will never be carried out.

There is actually, I've come to realize, no such thing as "closure" when a loved one is taken. What family members must find is reconciliation with the reality of their loss, and that can begin the minute the perpetrator is sent to a prison he will never leave. But to ask them to endure the years of being dragged through the courts in pursuit of the ultimate punishment is a cruel lie.

It's time to stop playing the killing game. Let's use the hundreds of millions of dollars we'll save to protect some of those essential services now threatened with death. Let's stop asking people like me to lie to those victim's family members.

The governor doesn't have the power to end the death penalty by himself, but he can point the way. He could have a huge financial impact on California by following the lead of Illinois and commuting the sentences of the more than 700 men and women on California's death row to life without parole.

Donald A. McCartin is a retired Superior Court judge.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mccartin-death-penalty-20110325,0,4609310,print.story

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From the New York Times

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Delayed Miranda Warning Ordered for Terror Suspects

WASHINGTON — The Federal Bureau of Investigation has instructed agents to interrogate suspected “operational terrorists” about immediate threats to public safety without advising them of their Miranda rights to remain silent and to have an attorney present.

A three-page F.B.I. memorandum, dated Oct. 21, 2010, also encouraged agents to use a broad interpretation of public safety-related questions. It said that the “magnitude and complexity” of the terrorist threat justified “a significantly more extensive public safety interrogation without Miranda warnings than would be permissible in an ordinary criminal case.”

“Depending on the facts, such interrogation might include, for example, questions about possible impending or coordinated terrorist attacks; the location, nature and threat posed by weapons that might post an imminent danger to the public; and the identities, locations, and activities or intentions of accomplices who may be plotting additional imminent attacks,” the memo said.

In the Miranda case, the Supreme Court ruled that if prosecutors want to use statements made by the defendant while in custody against him, police must have warned him of his rights before those statements were made. The court later created an exception for answers to questions about immediate threats to public safety.

The practice of reading Miranda warnings to terrorism suspects arrested in the United States has led to political disputes. In particular, Republicans, seeking to portray the Obama administration as soft on terrorism, criticized the reading of a Miranda warning to the main suspect in the failed bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Dec. 25, 2009.

Obama administration officials said the warnings had not prevented interrogators from gaining intelligence from such suspects, and the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, testified in July 2010 that agents were already using a broad interpretation of the public safety exception to the Miranda rule in terrorism cases.

Still, in May 2010 Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. floated the idea of seeking legislation that would ask courts to interpret the public safety exception to allow lengthier questioning of terrorism suspects before the warning. The administration never produced such a proposal. But the October memorandum shows that the Justice Department decided on its own to encourage agents to take a broad interpretation.

The existence of the memorandum was reported by The New York Times in December, but the Justice Department refused to make it public. On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal published an article containing excerpts from the document, and The Times later obtained access to a full copy.

Matthew Miller, a Justice Department spokesman, said that the memo could not alter a constitutional right. He portrayed it as clarifying existing flexibility in the rule — especially when investigators are willing to risk sacrificing the ability to use a suspect's statements in trial.

In most cases, the memorandum said, after public safety questions have been exhausted, interrogators should advise the terrorism suspect of his rights. But in certain “exceptional cases,” agents may continue to ask questions without a Miranda warning “to collect valuable and timely intelligence not related to any immediate threat.”

However, it said, such extended questioning must be approved by supervisors who would weigh “the disadvantages.” A footnote listed precedents ruling that prosecutors could not use self-incriminating statements made by a defendant before a warning.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/us/25miranda.html?_r=1&ref=us&pagewanted=print

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From the Department of Homeland Security

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Readout of Secretary Napolitano's Visit to El Paso

March 24, 2011

Washington, D.C. — Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano today traveled to El Paso, Texas, to visit the Bridge of the Americas at the El Paso Port of Entry, meet with El Paso business leaders and border mayors, and highlight how the Department of Homeland Security's unprecedented efforts to strengthen border security have facilitated trade and travel along the Southwest border.

"The Obama administration is committed to fostering a secure and prosperous border region," said Secretary Napolitano. "I'm proud to join with local leaders on the ground to get the message out that the border is open for business."

During the visit and meeting with local business leaders, Secretary Napolitano was joined by Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Francisco Sanchez, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Alan Bersin and El Paso Mayor John Cook, as well as Mayor Arturo Garino of Nogales and Mayor Al Kreiger of Yuma, Ariz., who reiterated their shared commitment to strengthening security and economic growth in the border region. The business leaders discussed their ideas on ways to further facilitate commerce along the Southwest border and underscored the importance of combating misperceptions about the safety and security of border communities in order to grow the region's economy.

The Obama administration has made great strides in ensuring that legal trade and travel flows across the border as quickly as possible—working with local leaders to update infrastructure and reduce wait times at our Southwest border ports of entry while increasing security. More than 1,700 private-sector partners in Mexico are enrolled in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) trusted-shipper program, and CBP is deploying 250 new officers to ports along the border as a result of the FY 2010 Border Security Supplemental.

These unprecedented investments have yielded real results, with import values for CBP's El Paso Field Office increasing 40 percent from fiscal year 2009 to fiscal year 2010, as well as a 22 percent increase in the total value of imports crossing the Southwest border into the United States during that same period.

For more information, visit www.dhs.gov

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1300998268402.shtm

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From the Department of Justice

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Attorney General Launches Law Enforcement Officer Safety Initiative

WASHINGTON – In the wake of an increase in law enforcement officer fatalities, Attorney General Eric Holder launched a law enforcement officer safety initiative today, directing every U.S. Attorney to meet with federal, state and local law enforcement officials in their districts to ensure the department's resources are made available to help stem officer deaths. In addition, Attorney General Holder convened a meeting of law enforcement officers in Washington, D.C., to solicit input for further action to improve officer safety.

“Our law enforcement officers put themselves in harm's way every day to ensure the safety and security of the American people in cities and communities across the country, and we need to do everything we can to protect them,” Attorney General Holder said.

After a two-year decline in law enforcement fatalities, 2010 was one of the deadliest years on record for law enforcement in nearly two decades. Since the beginning of this year, 27 law enforcement officers around the country were killed either by firearms or felonious assaults, including Deputy U.S. Marshal Derek Hotsinpiller in West Virginia, Deputy U.S. Marshal John Perry in Missouri and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico. This is an increase of more than 13 % in fatalities over 2010, when 20 officers were killed by firearms or felonious assault at this same point in time.

In his memo to U.S. Attorneys, Attorney General Holder laid out several steps for them to take immediately:

Ask local prosecutors to identify the “worst of the worst” – offenders with criminal histories who cycle in and out of local jails and state prisons – and discuss whether any of these repeat offenders may be prosecuted under federal law for offenses that make the offender eligible for a stiffer sentence.

Ensure that our state and local law enforcement partners are fully informed about the resources that the department makes available to help protect officers. The department has developed a number of programs to help our state and local law enforcement partners protect their officers, including:

• VALOR – Preventing V iolence A gainst L aw Enforcement and Ensuring O fficer R esilience and Survivability – the Bureau of Justice Assistance's national training initiative to improve the safety of our officers. As part of the VALOR Initiative, a new officer safety website has been established on the secure servers of the Regional Information Sharing Systems (RISS). This site has been designed to serve as a secure “one stop shop” for law enforcement to access all types of officer safety-related information, including awareness materials, videos, information on armed and dangerous subjects, information on concealment methods and a training calendar.
• RISSafe Officer Safety Event Deconfliction System, which the Bureau of Justice Assistance established to share information on planned law enforcement events – such as raids, controlled buy operations, surveillance and warrant service actions – to identify and alert affected agencies and officers of potential conflicts on a 24/7 basis.
• Bulletproof Vest Partnership (BVP), which provides reimbursement for law enforcement agencies that purchased vests that meet program criteria. Since 1999, more than 13,000 jurisdictions have participated in the BVP Program, with $277 million in federal funds committed to support the purchase of an estimated 800,000 vests. This year alone vests purchased using BVP funds have saved the lives of six law enforcement officers.
• A new Bureau of Justice Assistance law enforcement officer safety “toolkit,” which will be developed in the next 60 days, that can be used by federal, state and local law enforcement leaders to learn more about the resources that have been made available to promote officer safety, including training, deconfliction services, funding and other information resources.

Ensure that all federal task forces are making effective use of deconfliction systems . In addition to the case deconfliction that federal task forces use, the Attorney General directed all federally-supported task forces to utilize event deconfliction services provided by the department through RISS.

The attorney general's memo is available at: www.justice.gov/ag/AG_Officer_Initiative_3-22-11.pdf

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/March/11-ag-358.html

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Sex Trafficking Ring Leader Sentenced to 40 Years in Prison Amador Cortes-Meza Smuggled Victims from Mexico; Forced Them into Prostitution

WASHINGTON – Amador Cortes-Meza, 36, of Tlaxcala, Mexico, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Richard W. Story to serve 40 years in federal prison followed by five years of supervised release on charges of sex trafficking of minors; sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; transporting minors for the purpose of prostitution; smuggling aliens into the United States for purposes of prostitution; and conspiracy to do the same, announced the Department of Justice.

Cortes-Meza was also ordered to pay restitution to the victims in the amount of $292,000. The sentencing follows Cortes-Meza's conviction on these charges on Nov. 21, 2010 after a trial.

“The victims suffered sexual abuse, physical assaults, threats of harm to their families, and daily degradation all because of this defendant's greed and callous disregard for them as individuals. The court's sentence clearly reflects the seriousness of these awful sex trafficking crimes,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “We are committed to prosecuting sex traffickers and vindicating victims' rights, as they were vindicated today.”

U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia Sally Quillian Yates said, “No one wants to believe that there are people who will enslave other human beings and require them to commit innumerable commercial sex acts. Yet this intolerable crime is happening right in our own neighborhoods in metropolitan Atlanta. This defendant tricked young girls and juveniles into leaving their families in Mexico, beat them, and forced them into more than 20 acts of prostitution a night here in Atlanta. These survivors courageously testified against the defendant and played a significant role in bringing him to justice. This defendant earned every day of his 40 year sentence.”

“Few crimes are more heinous than the sex trafficking of human beings," said Brock Nicholson, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations (ICE HSI) in Atlanta. “ICE HSI will vigorously pursue and prosecute any members of a criminal organization engaged in this dangerous, dehumanizing and illegal business.”

According to the charges and other information presented in court, Cortes-Meza was the ring leader of an organization that brought 10 victims, including four juveniles, to the United States and forced them into prostitution. Nine of the victims testified at trial that the defendant, his brother, Juan Cortes-Meza, and a nephew, Francisco Cortes-Meza, would trick and deceive young women in Mexico into coming to the United States. Amador and his family members would pretend to be romantically interested in the young girls, many of whom were from rural areas and some of whom did not have much education. The defendant and his co-conspirators would promise the victims they would have a life together and then tell them they needed to travel to the United States to make money working in restaurants or cleaning homes. Victims testified at trial that Amador Cortes-Meza was physically abusive both in Mexico and the United States if they disagreed with his plans or told him no.

The defendant also obtained false identification for the victims and made arrangements to smuggle the victims and himself into the United States.

Victims identified homes in the Norcross, Ga., area where they were housed by the defendant and his co-conspirators. The co-conspirators took turns monitoring the victims, and various drivers transported the victims to residences of clients where the victims were required to engage in commercial sex. The victims testified that when they refused to engage in prostitution, the defendant or his co-defendants would beat them and threaten them and their families with physical harm. The co-conspirators and the drivers split the proceeds of the prostitution.

Five co-defendants previously pleaded guilty to various human trafficking crimes. Francisco Cortes-Meza was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Juan Cortes-Meza was sentenced to 16 years and eight months in prison. Raul Cortes-Meza, the defendant's nephew, received 10 years in prison.

This case was investigated by special ICE HSI special agents assigned to the Atlanta special agent in charge office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Coppedge and Deputy Chief Karima Maloney of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division Criminal Section prosecuted the case.

Human trafficking prosecutions such as this one are a top priority in the Justice Department. In order to bring defendants to justice, victims of crime may be eligible for immigration status in the United States to assist in the prosecution. The Department of Homeland Security Tip Line to report trafficking crimes is 1-866-347-2423 .

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/March/11-crt-373.html

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From ICE

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139 convicted criminal aliens and fugitives arrested in ICE enforcement surge

MANASSAS, Va. - Following an enforcement surge by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), Virginia State Police, and U.S. Marshals Service along with 10 local law enforcement agencies, ICE arrested 130 foreign nationals with criminal records and eight fugitives in the Northern Virginia area.

During a three-day operation that concluded Tuesday, ICE ERO officers located and arrested 130 criminal aliens with prior convictions for a variety of crimes, including rape, assault, burglary and narcotics possession and eight fugitives and three re-entry cases.

"We are a nation with a proud history of immigration. If you come here lawfully, work hard, and play by the rules, the United States welcomes you with open arms," said ICE Director John Morton. "For those who come here unlawfully and commit crimes at the expense of their neighbors and their communities, we will not rest until we find you and send you home."

"Once again through our working relationship with ICE, Virginia has had the opportunity to continue to safeguard its communities from convicted criminals," said Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell. "Despite the legal permanent resident status of some of these individuals, their crimes clearly violated the conditions allowing them to legitimately remain in this country. Removing them from our neighborhoods prevents them from victimizing our Virginia residents and businesses again. I applaud the fine work of our local, state, and federal law enforcement."

"Our Deputy U.S. Marshals, as well as the state and local partners that comprise our task force, were honored to partner with ICE for these critical operations," said John Hackman, U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Virginia. "We were successful in apprehending a number of individuals that were not only in this country illegally, but also had extensive criminal histories and continued to engage in unlawful conduct."

"Our office has had a longstanding working relationship with ICE that has been a great help to our citizens. This on-going effort underscores the importance of the partnership between ICE and local law enforcement in achieving our core mission, which is to enhance public safety, by removing criminal aliens from our communities," said Loudoun County Sheriff O. Simpson.

During this operation, there were 163 total arrests of which 130 were criminal aliens, eight were fugitives, three had already been deported and came back illegally and 22 were non criminals who were issued a notice to appear in immigration court. Of the 163 arrested, 134 were men and 29 were women. They represent more than 32 different nations, including countries in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa.

Some of those arrested during this operation include:

• A 21-year-old Mexican national and legal permanent resident of the United States was arrested in Harrisonburg, Virginia without incident on March 20. His criminal history includes convictions for third degree sexual offense for which he was sentenced to five years in prison. He was taken into ICE custody pending a hearing before an immigration judge.
• A 39-year-old Ecuadorian national and legal permanent resident of the United States was arrested in Arlington, Virginia without incident on March 20. His previous criminal convictions include three counts of contributing to delinquency of minor, assault and battery against a family or household member, grand larceny and receiving stolen property, and statutory rape of a child between 13 and 15 years of age. He was taken into ICE custody pending a hearing before an immigration judge.
• A 49-year-old El Salvadoran national and legal permanent resident of the United States was arrested in Woodbridge, Virginia without incident on March 20. His criminal history includes convictions for hit and run, DWI, abuse and neglect of children. He was taken into ICE custody pending a hearing before an immigration judge.
• A 39-year-old British national and legal permanent resident of the United States was arrested in Madison, Virginia without incident on March 21. His criminal history includes a conviction for aggravated sexual battery of a child. He was taken into ICE custody pending a hearing before an immigration judge.

Because of their serious criminal histories and prior immigration arrest records, five of those arrested during the enforcement surges will face further federal prosecution for reentering the country illegally after a formal deportation.

Arrests were made in the following counties:

Alexandria: 13; Arlington: 11; Augusta: one; Fairfax: 60; Fauquier: 2; Frederick: 11; Harrisonburg: one; Loudoun: 20; Madison: one; Prince William: 37; Shenandoah: three; Warren: one; Washington: two and in the city of Herndon there were two arrests.
The foreign nationals detained during these operations who are not being criminally prosecuted will be processed administratively for removal from the United States. Those who have outstanding orders of deportation, or who returned to the United States illegally after being deported, are subject to immediate removal from the country and may be criminally prosecuted. The remaining aliens are in ICE custody awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge, or pending travel arrangements for removal in the near future.

These special enforcement actions were spearheaded by ICE's Fugitive Operations Program, which is responsible for locating, arresting and removing at large criminal aliens and immigration fugitives - aliens who have ignored final orders of deportation issued by the nation's immigration courts. ICE's Fugitive Operations Teams (FOTs) give top priority to cases involving aliens who pose a threat to national security and public safety, including members of transnational street gangs and child sex offenders.

The officers who conducted this week's special operation received substantial assistance from ICE's Fugitive Operations Support Center (FOSC) located in Williston, Vermont. The FOSC conducted exhaustive database checks on the targeted cases to help ensure the viability of the leads and accuracy of the criminal histories. The FOSC was established in 2006 to improve the integrity of the data available on at large criminal aliens and immigration fugitives nationwide. Since its inception, the FOSC has forwarded more than 550,000 case leads to ICE enforcement personnel in the field.

ICE's Fugitive Operations Program is just one facet of the Department of Homeland Security's broader strategy to heighten the federal government's effectiveness at identifying and removing dangerous criminal aliens from the United States. Other initiatives that figure prominently in this effort are the Criminal Alien Program, Secure Communities and the agency's partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies under 287(g).

Agencies participating in this operation include ICE ERO's Fugitive Operation Teams from Atlanta, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Fairfax and Richmond, Va., as well as ICE's Homeland Security Investigations, Fairfax County Police Department, Herndon Police Department, Loudoun County Sheriff's Office, Manassas City Police Department, Manassas Park Police Department, Prince William County Police Department, Prince William County Sherriff's Office, Madison County Sheriff's Office, Shenandoah County Sheriff's Office, U.S. Diplomatic Security Service, U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force, U.S. Secret Service, Virginia Department of Corrections and Virginia State Police.

Largely as a result of these initiatives, for two years in a row, ICE has removed more aliens than were removed in fiscal year 2008. In fiscal year 2010, half of those removed-more than 195,000-were convicted criminals. The fiscal year 2010 statistics represent increases of more than 23,000 removals overall and 81,000 criminal removals compared to fiscal year 2008-a more than 70 percent increase in removal of criminal aliens from the previous administration.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1103/110323manassas.htm

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From the FBI

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Kingsford, Michigan Man Arrested on Charges in Connection with Explosive Components Found at Federal Building in Detroit

A 42-year old man from Kingsford, Michigan, located in the Upper Peninsula, was arrested this morning on charges relating to explosive components found at the McNamara Federal Building in Detroit on February 26, 2011, announced United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade. McQuade was joined in the announcement by Andrew G. Arena, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Arrested was Gary John Mikulich. Mikulich will be making an appearance in federal court in Marquette tomorrow morning. Mikulich is an engineering graduate of Michigan Tech University who has long complained of the FBI generally, and FBI Detroit in particular. Specifically, Mikulich frequently complains to local law enforcement officers about the FBI's "card system." This "card system" is responsible, according to Mikulich's complaints to local law enforcement officers, for the murder of Mikulich's father and thousands of other people.

Mikulich and his vehicle match the description of an individual who purchased a Husky brand tool bag and a GE timer used in the commission of the crime alleged in the complaint. Mikulich made the purchase of these items from the Home Depot store in Iron Mountain, Michigan, on February 14, 2011. Moreover, Mikulich's white Oldsmobile was spotted in Livingston County–450 miles from his home and just 50 miles from Detroit–in the early morning hours of February 25, 2011.

Also, search warrants were executed this morning at Mukulich's residence and his vehicle. The complaint charges one count of 18 U.S.C. section 844(f), maliciously attempting to damage or destroy, by means of an explosive, any building, vehicle, or other personal or real property in whole or in part owned or possessed by, or leased to, the United States, or any department or agency thereof. A conviction of this offense carries a penalty of 5-20 years in prison or a $250,000 fine, or both. Any sentence would ultimately be imposed under the United States Sentence Guidelines according to the nature of the offense and the criminal background, if any, of the defendant.

A complaint is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.

http://detroit.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel11/de032411.htm

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