Trump: ‘There’ll be no approvals from me’ on House immigration moves without border wall, tougher security

05/24/2018 Politico

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he will veto any immigration legislation that emerges from Congress that does not include funding for a border wall and improved border security measures, a warning shot at moderate House Republicans pushing GOP leadership for a vote on immigration proposals.

“Unless it includes a wall, and I mean a wall, a real wall, and unless it includes very strong border security, there’ll be no approvals from me. Because I have to either approve it or not,” the president said in a Fox News interview that was taped Wednesday and aired Thursday morning. “There are bills going through. I’m watching one or two of them. We’ll see what happens, but I can tell you there is a mood right now for border security.”

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Business 13 workers wounded in shooting in Mexican border city

05/23/2018 The Washington Post

A bus full of assembly plant workers was hit by gunfire in the northern Mexico border city of Reynosa on Wednesday, and 13 people were wounded, two of them seriously.

The driver told authorities that the bus was in motion when it apparently entered the crossfire between two rival gang factions before 7 a.m.

Tamaulipas state security spokesman Luis Alberto Rodriguez said the bus shooting could be related to other shooting incidents in which three alleged gunmen died in the city on the border with Texas.

Reynosa’s violence has been attributed to factions of the Gulf cartel fighting for control of lucrative smuggling routes.

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Authorities arrest dozens in probe of Mexican Mafia control in L.A. County jails

05/23/2018 The San Diego Union-Tribune

Federal authorities on Wednesday capped a sweeping investigation into the Mexican Mafia with criminal counts against dozens of the organization’s members and foot soldiers, saying the charges were a bid to disrupt the gang’s control inside Los Angeles County jails.

Hundreds of local police and federal agents carried out coordinated raids in the Los Angeles area Wednesday morning, taking into custody 32 people who are charged in two federal indictments, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. About three dozen others who are charged in the cases are currently serving time in state prison or county jails, while more remain fugitives. In all, 83 people were named in the two cases.

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Border Patrol agent fatally shoots female migrant, official says

05/23/2018 LA Times

A Border Patrol agent shot and killed a female migrant while patrolling the border town of Rio Bravo, Texas, late Wednesday afternoon, officials said.

The agent was responding to reports of activity in the town nearly 12 miles south of Laredo when he encountered a group of migrants who he said beat him with two-by-fours, according to a statement released by the Border Patrol

During the melee that ensued, the agent fired and shot a female migrant in the head, the Border Patrol said. The agent gave the wounded woman CPR, and paramedics responded, but she later died, the statement said. The incident is now under review by the Texas Rangers and the FBI.

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Mexico Court Ruling to Shine Light on Executive Wrongdoings

05/23/2018 The New York Times

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Supreme Court has struck a blow to those who would like to bury news about alleged wrongdoing by executives and others punished for breaking securities laws, a step toward more transparency in the corporate world.

For years, accused violators of securities and banking laws in Mexico could hide behind lengthy appeals, during which regulators were barred from commenting on charges and investors were left in the dark about crimes such as insider trading.

But in a little noticed decision in February, the Supreme Court backed new powers given to the banking and securities regulator CNBV in 2014 to name violators.

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Protesters Shut Down Commercial Bridge Linking Mexico, Texas

05/21/2018 New York Times

CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico — At least 200 demonstrators blocked a major commercial bridge between Mexico and Texas on Monday to protest the disappearance of dozens of people in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, snarling traffic in both directions into the night.

The protest began around 9:30 a.m. at the bridge, which is used exclusively by cargo trucks traveling between Tamaulipas state and Laredo, Texas, and was still going late Monday.

Thousands of trucks make the crossing each day, and long lines of tractor-trailers backed up along the highway.

Demonstrators were protesting what they consider a weak response by authorities to 43 complaints filed with prosecutors over disappearances in Nuevo Laredo.

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Gang Gunmen Wound Mexican Official, 7 Others in Guadalajara

05/22/2018 New York Times

MEXICO CITY — Authorities in Mexico’s second biggest city say gunmen for an organized crime gang tried to kill a state official, wounding him, three police officers and four civilians.

Jalisco state Gov. Aristoteles Sandoval said Monday the attack in the center of Guadalajara was aimed at Luis Carlos Najera, the state labor secretary who previously served three decades as a police officer and state prosecutor. He said Najera suffered a hand wound.

Sandoval said police captured six suspects and recovered “a large arsenal” of weapons. He said those detained claimed to belong to an elite group for a crime organization operating in Jalisco.

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