Secreto a Voces My column in The News of Mexico City

NOGALES, SONORA – I followed the old woman in the Ford Explorer for the last half-mile across the port of entry and into Sonora where tall, stonefaced chilangos watched us stoically as first she, then I, rumbled past the redlight/greenlight lottery system that passes for a federal checkpoint into Mexico. I earnestly hoped I’d draw a green. I was carrying three 30-packs of Bud Light, Christmas gift for an old friend (I guess even Sonorans get tired of drinking Tecate) and I hadn’t bothered to check out the liquor tariff laws.

Read the full post

THE BORDER REPORT

Well, as I told you back in October, it appears the top U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement boss in Arizona is set to step down in the next few weeks. If my sources are correct, it means this beleaguered agency, with its ongoing turf wars with the DEA, something like six special-agents-in-charge in Arizona since 2003, senior agents jumping over to Customs and Border Protection, and politically, the toughest job in America right now, is about to get more of the same raw deal.

ICE just can’t seem to keep a boss in place for very long in this state.

Read the full post

THE BORDER REPORT

Read the full post

THE BORDER REPORT My column in The News of Mexico City

“Have you noticed,” said the political analyst as he drained his glass of wine, “how all these candidates have turned on illegal immigrants this year?”

“How’s that different from any other year?” I wondered.

“Are you kidding?” he says. “They are beating these people into the ground. Where’s the talk about guest-worker programs and hard workers? Nah man, it’s getting ugly.”

He laughed nastily. “But who cares? It’s not like they can vote anyway.”

Read the full post

SECRETO A VOCES My column in The News of Mexico City

COCHI FEO, SONORA – The shot-up Chevy Blazer sat up ahead of us on the trail, lurched off to one side of the narrow, sandy path. Its side windows had been blasted out; rifle size bullet holes strafed the doors.

This wouldn’t normally be a concern, the road west from Sasabe, Sonora, is dotted with the rusting hulks of gunned-down cars.

Except that this SUV looked suspiciously like the one that had passed us just five minutes before.

Read the full post