At Last Mexico’s Midterm Elections seem less Insipid

Mexidata.info, 6/29/2009
On Sunday, July 5, Mexico will hold midterm elections for its 500-member Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the federal bicameral Congress. Usually ho-hum affairs, excepting one supposes among candidates, political parties, those who govern and the media, this year’s campaigns and the forthcoming elections have a number of sidebar stories that [...]

Obama Dives into Immigration Reform, But Lines are Already Being Drawn

New American Media, 6/29/2009
Thursday’s meeting and the White House’s creation of a working group on immigration reform –to be headed by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano– were lauded by immigrant rights groups such as America’s Voice, which called Thursday “a turning point” and declared: “Game On”
The renewed commitment from the Oval Office might allay advocates’ [...]

Guard to seek volunteers for border

em>The Associated Press, 6/29/2009
The Obama administration is developing plans to seek up to 1,500 National Guard volunteers to step up the military’s counter-drug efforts along the Mexican border, senior administration officials said Monday.
The plan is a stopgap measure being worked out between the Defense Department and the Homeland Security Department, and comes despite Pentagon concerns [...]

Study charts swine flu’s spread through air travel

em>The Associated Press, 6/29/2009
In a startling measure of just how widely a new disease can spread, researchers accurately plotted swine flu’s course around the world by tracking air travel from Mexico.
The research was based on an analysis of flight data from March and April last year, which showed more than 2 million people flew from [...]

Mexico detains 93 police in corruption probe

The Associated Press, 6/28/2009
Mexican prosecutors announced Sunday they have put 93 police officers and investigators under house arrest on suspicion of aiding the Zetas, a feared gang of hit men tied to the Gulf drug cartel.
Corruption scandals have long plagued Mexican law enforcement, but the detentions represented one of the biggest single roundups of suspected [...]

Editorial: Studies Show More Ports of Entry Needed

Stephanie Caviness, El Paso Times, 6/28/2009
The Foreign Trade Association has pursued increased efficiency in the federal cross-border inspection process since 1985 and assisted in bringing the first FAST Lane and Dedicated Commuter Lane programs on the U.S./Mexico border.
Nevertheless, in recent years, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has advised and directed that more ports [...]

Letter To the Editor: Guns, Drugs and Mexico

Rep. Eliot L. Engel, 6/28/2009
To the Editor:
“Death and American Guns in Mexico” (editorial, June 25) points to the unacceptably high number of guns trafficked from the United States into Mexico. But it does not describe another disturbing statistic revealed in the Government Accountability Office’s report, which I commissioned: Of the 87 percent of [...]

Commentary: Immigration Reform Urgently Needed

Rep. Jared Polis, 6/25/2009
Twelve-year-old Josh Garcia courageously took the stage. Fighting back tears, he told how he came home from school one day to find that his father had been taken into an immigration detention facility.
His father, an entrepreneur who had created dozens of jobs, was “exactly the kind of person we want in this [...]

At Mexico’s Lone Gun Shop, Army Oversees Sales

Jason Beaubien, 6/24/2009
According to the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, there are roughly 54,000 licensed gun dealers in the U.S. In Mexico there is only one.
Mexico’s lone gun shop is on a sprawling military compound in the capital that serves as the headquarters of the Mexican army. It’s sort of as if [...]

Obama Set for First Step on Immigration Reform

Ginger Thompson and David M. Herszenhorn, 6/24/2009
President Obama is expected to meet with Congressional leaders of both parties on Thursday to begin laying the political groundwork for sweeping immigration legislation, even though its passage this year is considered very unlikely.
With lawmakers already immersed in health care, financial regulation and energy policy, and with the Senate [...]