Prospects for Immigration Reform in 2009 (Podcast)

Travis High, Mexico Institute, 1/5/2009
The immigration debate mostly subsided during the 2008 presidential campaign, but immigration reform remains an important issue for different groups, especially for many Latinos who supported Obama. What is the likelihood of a reform in the next administration?
In this 8-minute podcast, Loyola Marymount University researcher David Ayón discusses the role of [...]

California Supreme Court to take on state law granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrants

Los Angeles Times, 1/5/2009
California’s highest court is poised to be the next battleground in the debate over benefits for illegal immigrants as the justices have agreed to hear arguments on the constitutionality of a state law allowing undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.
The decision could affect hundreds of illegal immigrant [...]

PRD asks AMLO for 2009 canididates

El Universal, 1/5/2009
The Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) has given Andrés Manuel López Obrador an opportunity to suggest candidates for the midterms elections that take place this year. The PRD national leadership is now waiting for him to present his nominations. They gave him a January 14 deadline to do so.
Hortensia Aragón, Secretary General [...]

Mexico’s Subcomandante Marcos makes a rare appearance

Los Angeles Times, 1/5/2009
Who was that masked man?
Fifteen years after his uprising shocked Mexico’s status quo, and a year after he more or less dropped out of public view, Subcomandante Marcos had made a comeback appearance.
At least, it seemed to be Marcos. He was, after all, wearing his trademark black ski mask.
Read more…

Mexico’s Pemex pushes ahead with Chicontepec field

Reuters, 1/5/2009
Mexico’s state oil company Pemex has awarded over 2 billion pesos ($148 million) in construction contracts at its Chicontepec project aimed at boosting crude output, the firm said on Monday.
The contracts call for the construction of access roads and site preparation work at 344 well pads, where Pemex plans to drill thousands of horizontal [...]

Pemex spends a “fortune” to promote reform

Reforma, 1/5/2009
Pemex spent 405 million pesos promoting the energy reform proposal to look for deep-water petroleum “treasure,” enough to construct three highly specialized hospitals. According to data revealed by Pemex’s Corporate Management of Social Communication Office, in response to inquiries submitted through the Federal Institute of Access to Public Information (IFAI), the company spent 352,571,837 [...]

Shooting Crime Scenes In Juarez, Mexico

NPR, 1/5/2009
Violence plagues the city, just over the border from El Paso, Texas. We meet with a a newspaper photographer, whose days are spent shooting crime scenes.

Read more…

U.S. anti-kidnap expert’s vanishing spins Mexico mystery

Reuters, 1/5/2009
The abduction of a U.S. anti-kidnap expert in northern Mexico last month remains a mystery with no clues to the man’s whereabouts and no ransom demanded by his captors, police said on Monday.
Gunmen abducted Felix Batista, a Cuban-American credited with negotiating the release of hostages held by Colombian rebels in past years, in the [...]