THE BORDER REPORT

This story first appeared on KJZZ’s Fronteras Desk. Visit our website for stories from all across the border.

Immigration judges are letting more illegal migrants stay in the country. Government records show that the Obama Administration is focusing its deportation efforts on those who have been convicted of crimes.

Most people who show up in front of an immigration judge still face deportation, but the Department of Homeland Security, and judges in Arizona, have doubled the number of cases where deportation orders are dropped compared to five years ago.

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THE BORDER REPORT

This is a story I produced for the Fronteras Project that aired this morning on Arizona Public Media.

Please bookmark and visit our web site, FronterasDesk.org, for stories from all along the border region, from San Diego to San Antonio.

I interviewed Linda Thomas, a former program manager working within Dept. of Homeland Security’s Strategic Border Initiative, or SBInet. It’s the first time someone with an insider’s understanding of the project has emerged to discuss their experiences.

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THE BORDER REPORT

The Mexican press is eagerly awaiting news from Wikileaks dissemination of U.S. government dispatches about the drug war. Speaking candidly about his expectations, Javier Moreno, publisher of Spain’s El País newspaper, said 2,285 dispatches about Mexico will be included in the Wikileaks file dump, a number that gives me some hope. From the Wikileaks site, their appear to be 2,836 cables to be published.

But my expectations are not high; El Imparcial in Hermosillo notes this morning that those 2,285 of the messages (e-mails, presumably), originated in Mexico City, 159 out of Monterrey, 78 from Nogales, 32 from Guadalajara, 27 from Tijuana, 19 from Hermosillo, 19 from Ciudad Juárez, 7 from Matamoros, 5 from Nuevo Laredo and three out of Mérida.

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THE BORDER REPORT

No les digo, pues?

Mexico has begun the process to extradite Edgar La Barbie Valdez Villarreal to the U.S. to stand trial. In September, when I first wrote about this, I spent a few days looking over his indictments in U.S. District Court. Based on that, and then an interview with an attorney familiar with his case, it was determined that Barbie Valdez would not stand trial for murder in Mexico but instead face drug-trafficking charges in the U.S. You can see that story, here.

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THE BORDER REPORT

This rumor comes straight out of Culiacán. It seems Ismael El Mayo Zambada knows perfectly well who kidnapped his cousin and two nieces – El Osama and Fernando El Ingeniero Sanchez Arellano. The Mexican Army apparently rescued the ladies already and I’m awaiting confirmation on the chisme. This leads to a few questions. UPDATE: The freshest rumor to come out of Sinaloa is that the kidnap was a $30 million ransom. At what point did someone think kidnapping El Mayo’s family for $10 bills each was a good idea? Vamos a ver.

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