Juarez Police Officer Denied U.S. Asylum

Jose Alarcon, 27, was a cop in one of the world’s most lawless cities. Wounded in a gun battle with drug gangs in Juarez in 2008, he survived only to see his partner killed in another gunfight. When Alarcon refused bribes from the city’s drug lords, he knew it was a matter of days before they killed him, too. Alarcon, his wife and two young children fled to El Paso to seek asylum in the United States.

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[posted by Sylvia Lopez]

Shedding grim light on Juarez darkness

by Richard Ruelas - Mar. 8, 2011 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic


The stark, unrelenting violence in Juarez, the Mexican city across the border from El Paso, could be captured only in a documentary, says Charlie Minn, director of the current "8 Murders a Day." It is the kind of horror story that does not fit in the world of make-believe.

Posted by: Diana Rosendo

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Border chief: Agency has to understand cartels

The U.S. Border Patrol must understand the capabilities and vulnerabilities of violent smuggling cartels to have any hope of dismantling them, the agency's chief said Wednesday.

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posted by Flor Parra

Napolitano touts safety of US border communities

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Monday that U.S. communities on the border with Mexico are safer than most Americans believe, but also warned Mexican drug cartels they'll be "met by an overwhelming response" should they move north.

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posted by Flor Parra

Clinton Voices U.S. Support of Mexico in Trip

GUANAJUATO, Mexico — More than a month after the disclosure of cables in which American diplomats questioned progress in Mexico’s drug war, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton came here on Monday to deliver a message of solidarity with President Felipe Calderón and to rebut public doubts about persistent violence.

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Posted by Perla Parra

Mexican President Condemns New Immigration Law

(Posted by Uriel Rivera)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/27/arizona-immigration-law

The Mexican president, Felipe Calderón, has condemned Arizona's new immigration law and warned that relations with the border state will suffer as a result.

The law, which gives the police the right to stop anyone they suspect is an illegal immigrant, "opens the door to intolerance, hate, discrimination and abuse in law enforcement", Calderón said last night. Trade and political ties with Arizona would be "seriously affected", he warned.

"Nobody can sit around with their arms crossed in the face of decisions that so clearly affect our countrymen," Calderón said in a speech at the Institute for Mexicans Abroad.

His comments came as the furore over the law escalated, with calls growing in the US for a boycott of hotels, convention centres and other economic targets in Arizona.

Opponents of the legislation say it will lead to victimisation of anyone who looks or sounds Latino. Supporters say the legislation is needed because the state can no longer cope with an estimated 450,000 illegal immigrants.

Mexican Officials Criticizes U.S. Hate Crimes

Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico (AHN) - A Mexican government official is complaining publicly about what he says is an alarming increase in hate crimes against Hispanic people in the United States.

Daniel Hernandez Joseph, director of Mexico's Protection for Mexicans Abroad program, says some American authorities are fostering practices that he was quoted as saying were "denigrating and unacceptable" toward Hispanics.

He mentioned FBI statistics that show a more than 40 percent increase in hate crimes against Hispanics in less than a decade.

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Posted by Cynthia Sanchez