JUZGA EU A 30 MIL MIGRANTES / SILVIA GARDUÑO / REFORMA
Un promedio de 168 extranjeros al día, en su gran mayoría mexicanos, son sometidos a proceso judicial en Estados Unidos por delitos relacionados con la migración, siendo la falta más común la de "entrada de ilegales en tiempo o lugar inapropiado", indican informes de la Universidad de Syracuse, en el estado de Nueva York. Durante los primeros seis meses del año fiscal 2008, 30 mil 338 migrantes han sido procesados en alguna corte federal de EU y 28 mil 365 han sido condenados, lo que significa un incremento de 53.8 y 68.1 por ciento, respectivamente, respecto a 2007. (…)"Les dan el máximo a quienes los han deportado formalmente antes, pero no es que hayan cometido algún delito, sino que realmente regresan a estar con sus familias. Los arrestan y como ya tienen una deportación formal en su récord, los acusan de ofensa mayor", reprochó en entrevista Isabel García [Consejera del IME 2003 – 2005], abogada de la Coalición de Derechos Humanos de Tucson, Arizona Comúnmente, los migrantes cumplen sentencias en cárceles de los condados que van de los 15 a los 180 días, pero existe la posibilidad de pagar hasta con 20 años de prisión por el reingreso ilegal a EU.
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RECHAZAN QUE LEGISLADORES REPRESENTEN A MIGRANTES GUANAJUATENSES EN E.U. / CORREO DE GUANAJUATO
Armando Morales [2006 – 2008], consejero consultivo de los mexicanos en el exterior por el estado de Oregón, se manifestó en contra de que haya diputados y senadores representantes de los guanajuatenses en el exterior porque el pueblo ya no puede soportar una carga más, mejor propone que por cada envío de dinero se descuente un dólar que sea destinado para la educación que mucha falta hace al pueblo guanajuatense. El pasado 30 de mayo los diputados de la Comisión de Atención al Migrante, recibieron a dirigentes de guanajuatenses que trabajan en Estados Unidos, adheridos a las Casas Guanajuato, quienes les propusieron trabajar la figura del representante popular en el extranjero, que consideran muy importante para tener alguien que exponga sus necesidades.
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PREVÉN RETENER REMESAS / REFORMA
El gobierno de Arizona se prepara para decomisar a partir de este lunes las remesas que los mexicanos envían a Sonora, con el argumento de que ese dinero financia el tráfico de indocumentados. Una corte estatal autorizó esta semana a la administración de la gobernadora Janet Napolitano a decomisar el dinero que se envíe a través de la empresa de giros electrónicos Western Union, con destino a Sonora. La autorización es resultado de un litigio que inició hace dos años, cuando la medida estuvo a punto de entrar en vigor mediante una orden de cateo concedida a investigadores de Arizona para revisar las transferencias a través de Western Union.
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OBAMA RECAUDARÁ RECURSOS EN MÉXICO / GUADALUPE GALVÁN / EL UNIVERSAL
México ha cobrado vida en la campaña presidencial estadounidense. Primero fue el virtual candidato republicano, John McCain, que el jueves concluyó su visita al país con la promesa de seguir luchando por una reforma migratoria integral. Ahora es el turno de su rival demócrata, Barack Obama. De acuerdo con la prensa estadounidense, u media hermana Maya Soetoro-Ng, planea realizar al menos dos importantes eventos de recaudación de fondos en la ciudad de México el próximo 22 de julio. Los eventos, organizado por la organización Democrats Abroad, que cuenta con comités en distintos puntos del planeta, incluyendo México, para atender a los millones de estadounidenses que viven fuera de su país, será privado y sólo ciudadanos de Estados Unidos podrán contribuir a la campaña del candidato Barack Obama.
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EXHIBE EU AL 'BANDIDO' PANCHO VILLA / JOSÉ DÍAZ BRICEÑO / REFORMA
Lejos de los monumentos y parques que celebran sus acciones heroicas en México, el revolucionario Pancho Villa comparte espacio en Estados Unidos con los bandidos del Viejo Oeste en el Museo Nacional del Crimen y Castigo. "Pancho Villa fue un General mexicano revolucionario de la División del Norte y un caudillo real del Estado norteño mexicano de Chihuahua", se lee en una placa.Su espacio incluye una fotografía, un póster de la época revolucionaria, una supuesta máscara mortuoria, así como una carabina máuser subastada hace un año en Texas por 7 mil dólares, la cual, se presume, le perteneció.
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MCCAIN, OBAMA Y LA INMIGRACIÓN / DAVID ESPO / LA OPINIÓN
Ambos aspirantes presidenciales tienen en sus manos un tema delicado que les representaría votos de parte de la comunidad hispana de EU. Cuando se trata de asuntos de inmigración, Barack Obama y John McCain en general están de acuerdo, pero no quieren decirlo. En lugar de ello, los rivales en la contienda por llegar a la Casa Blanca se acusan mutuamente de haberse echado para atrás en los momentos más críticos, durante y después del debate del año pasado en el Senado en torno a una iniciativa de ley que habría facilitado a millones de inmigrantes indocumentados obtener la ciudadanía del país. McCain "fue un paladín de una reforma integral, y lo admiré por ello", dijo el demócrata Obama la semana pasada ante la Asociación Nacional de Funcionarios Latinos Elegidos y Nombrados (NALEO).
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SOUTH AMERICANS ANGRY AS EU GETS TOUGH ON ILLEGALS / ARIZONA DAILY STAR
LIMA, Peru for years, South Americans have flocked to European embassies for visas that would let them migrate and escape their poverty. But a few days ago, scores of Peruvians mobbed the European Union's office in Lima for another reason: to protest an EU plan to crack down on illegal immigrants. The European Union's directive — the provisions of which include lengthy detention — has aroused anger among leaders and ordinary citizens in South America. (…)The outcry from South America echoes complaints from Mexico that the U.S. government treats Mexicans unfairly. But just as U.S. citizens have grown more vocal over the surge of illegal immigration from Mexico, West European officials have raised red flags over newcomers flooding in from Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. (…)Spain, the landing point for most Latin American immigrants because of a common heritage and language, has been more accommodating. In 2005, the Spaniards angered some European neighbors by approving amnesty for about 700,000 illegal immigrants.
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EMPLOYERS FIGHT TOUGH MEASURES ON IMMIGRATION / JULIA PRESTON / THE NEW YORK TIMES
Under pressure from the toughest crackdown on illegal immigration in two decades, employers across the country are fighting back in state legislatures, the federal courts and city halls. Business groups have resisted measures that would revoke the licenses of employers of illegal immigrants. They are proposing alternatives that would revise federal rules for verifying the identity documents of new hires and would expand programs to bring legal immigrant laborers. Though the pushback is coming from both Democrats and Republicans, in many places it is reopening the rift over immigration that troubled the Republican Party last year. Businesses, generally Republican stalwarts, are standing up to others within the party who accuse them of undercutting border enforcement and jeopardizing American jobs by hiring illegal immigrants as cheap labor.
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AMID EMPLOYER OBJECTIONS, POLICING IMMIGRATION TARGETS THE WORKPLACE / JUAN CASTILLO / THE AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMAN
Crackdowns refuel debate about enforcement strategies and reliance on foreign-born labor. If millions of illegal immigrants work in the United States, then there are vast numbers of illegal employers, too. With that observation, immigrant advocates call attention to the obvious: The undocumented workers who harvest and cook food, build homes, mow lawns, bus tables and make hotel beds would not be here if somebody wasn't hiring them to perform these and many other unglamorous jobs. Department of Homeland Security officials concede that the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who enter the country every year are seeking work. An estimated 5 percent of the U.S. work force — 9 percent in Texas — is unauthorized,according to the Center for Immigration Studies, a research organization that advocates reduced immigration.
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BUSINESS SUFFERING IN POSTVILLE FOLLOWING RAID / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Most of the business owners in Postville have reported diminishing sales since federal agents arrested hundreds of workers in an Immigration raid on the Agriprocessors meat-processing plant in May. Though they expressed confidence they can survive as long as Agriprocessors stays open, those who cater to the town's Hispanic population report a grimmer outlook. With no end in sight to shrinking sales, some expect to close in the coming weeks.
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ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS' LAST STOP / JAMES PINKERTON / HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Rare tour gives a glimpse of the ever-increasing activity at facilityTucked away in a landscaped corporate park in north Houston, a sprawling complex is barely noticeable to the public. But it's a well-known stop, a sort of symbolic exit door out of America, for about 1,500 illegal immigrants who come through this busy detention facility every month. In Houston, the familiar image of immigration enforcement in recent months has been high-profile workplace raids such as the one at Shipley DoNuts. But what the public rarely sees is the back end of this enforcement process: detention and removal.
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RANCHERS FEELING ALONE / JOHN MACCORMACK / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
When an underground pump began failing late last month, threatening to leave cattle on the 82,000-acre South Pope Ranch high and dry in summer heat, Debbie O'Neill found herself in a familiar tight spot. Not until Red Wagner, a neighboring rancher, came over a couple of days later and helped her replace the defective pump was water restored for the livestock and O'Neill's latest ranch crisis resolved. “It's tough. I'm doing every job. I'm doing Mike's jobs and I'm doing the hands' jobs. But I can't do it all. When I get into a big problem with the wells, I get Red to come over,” she said.
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INFIERNO DE LAS QUE CRUZAN ENGAÑADAS / LA OPINIÓN
Un salvadoreño propietario de bares en Houston controlaba a mujeres y menores de edad de Centroamérica para obligarlas a prostituirse y las amenazaba con la muerte de sus familiares si desobedecían, según indicó un diario. Una serie de documentos y entrevistas obtenidas recientemente por el diario Houston Chronicle muestran el primer recuento detallado sobre la forma en que las autoridades desarticularon en el 2005 una red de tráfico sexual con sede en Houston, una de las más grandes del país en este rubro. Las agencias policiales implicadas en la operación —incluyendo al FBI— esperaban encontrar a un poco más de 50 mujeres. Finalmente rescataron a casi 120 víctimas. Los traficantes se aprovechaban de mujeres y menores de edad de Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua y Guatemala, llevándolas ilegalmente a Houston con falsas promesas de trabajo legal, para posteriormente obligarlas a trabajar como prostitutas en cantinas y hacerles pagar el precio de su traslado clandestino y los costos de su manutención, según registros de la corte y entrevistas realizadas por los investigadores.
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IN US, WOMEN KICK ASIDE A TABOO / MOLLY HENNESSY-FISKE / BOSTON GLOBE
Celestina "Celes" Lopez strode out from under the shade of a battered palm tree, entered the makeshift soccer field of dirt and gravel, and called to teammates in Spanish."Don't be afraid of the big ones," said the 40-year-old mother of two, her shoulders thrust back and head as high as she could manage on a 5-foot frame. Hersisters, Francisca, 34, and Elda, 30, walked with her. "Be like the men - aggressive," Elda called out. During the week, the sisters spend their days like scores of other illegal immigrant women in Los Angeles: Wedged behind Singer sewing machines, they feed pants and shirts under the needle until their shoulders grow stiff. But on the weekends they play a game that was off-limits to them in Guatemala. It is on the soccer ields that the Lopez sisters feel like American women. Growing up at the foot of the Sierra Madre in northwest Guatemala, the Lopezes didn't need to be told that soccer was forbidden. Women did not wear shorts. They did not play games that required machismo.
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IMMIGRANT ARRESTS SEVER PARENTS, CHILDREN ARE U.S. CITIZENS; THEIR PARENTS ARE NOT / DANIEL GONZÁLEZ / THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC
Brothers Ismael, Luis and Edwin Valeriano are U.S. citizens, but their lives have been upended by the arrest of their father as part of an escalating crackdown on illegal immigrants. In March, the boys' 38-year-old father, Ismael Valeriano, a single parent from Mexico City, was detained for being in the country illegally after Phoenix police arrested him on a misdemeanor DUI warrant .His three children, all 16 and younger, learned about their father's arrest while they were still at school. For more than a week they were left home alone to fend for themselves. To get money for food, they sold some of their puppies. To get to school, they rummaged through their east Phoenix apartment for bus fare. Neighbors, friends and relatives finally stepped in to buy groceries, pay the rent and care for the children. "I was shocked. I freaked out. I didn't know what to do," said Edwin, 16, the oldest of the three children. Luis is 15. Ismael Jr. is 12. The Valeriano brothers are among thousands of U.S.-citizen children being separated from their immigrant parents because of th increased removal of people who are in the country illegally. Immigration officials do not keep track of family data for immigrants who are detained or removed, but officials say the number of children affected is undoubtedly rising.
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ARPAIO SWEEP IN MESA TARGETS LIQUOR STORES 8 HELD ON SUSPICION OF SELLING ALCOHOL TO UNDERAGE BUYERS / LINDSEY COLLOM / THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC
More than a week after an operation to target illegal immigrants, Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies on Saturday once again zeroed in on Mesa. This time, the target was store clerks who sold liquor to underage buyers. Deputies booked eight people into the Fourth Avenue Jail on suspicion of selling alcohol to minors. Two other clerks were cited for failing to ask for identification. Of the eight arrested, one clerk was also suspected of being in the country illegally. The six-hour operation Saturday focused on 31 convenience stores across Mesa. During the sting, deputies also made seven traffic-related arrests, two of which involved illegal immigrants, Sheriff Joe Arpaio said. The Sheriff's Office previously has conducted similar operations countywide. Arpaio said Mesa was targeted after his office "received intelligence" about illegal liquor sales in the city. He also said his office "picked Mesa because of the proximity to lakes and rivers," which are popular destinations over the July Fourth weekend.
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MEXICO PROVING A POPULAR FIRST STOP FOR CUBANS SEEKING ENTRANCE TO U.S. / DUDLEY ALTHAUS / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS NEWS
Most of the millions of visitors to this nation's Caribbean coast can't wait to plunge into the turquoise waters, but a growing number come with exactly the opposite intention. The thousands of Cubans arriving here illegally on makeshift rafts or sleek speedboats scramble for dry land as quickly as possible, most of them bound for the Texas border and asylum in the United States. “They prefer to get on a raft and to risk their lives than to live lesser lives in Cuba,” said Julio, 29, a Cuban trumpeter who arrived illegally six years ago and now plays the restaurants in Playa del Carmen, the sun-and-fun mecca south of Cancún. “People don't want it to stop.”
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INSPECTORS STUDY FARMS IN MEXICO, U.S., BUT SEEM NO CLOSER TO SOURCE OF SALMONELLA OUTBREAK / OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ / THE SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE
Inspectors are collecting soil, water and produce samples, reviewing export logs and combing packing plants in three major tomato-growing states in Mexico. But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration appears no closer to finding the source of a mysterious salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 900 people nationwide. It's not even 100 percent sure that tomatoes are the cause. A team of three FDA inspectors has gone through five farms in the western states of Jalisco and Sinaloa in the past two weeks, looking at all aspects of tomato production: the greenhouses where they are grown, the packing plants where they are shut into boxes, the shipping methods for the trip north to the U.S. They also plan to visit the northern state of Coahuila to finish up their study.
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INAUGURAN EN CHICAGO EXPOSICIÓN SOBRE MIGRANTES / SOPHIA TAREEN / EL NUEVO HERALD
Un limpiador de ventanas disfrazado de Hombre Araña escala un edificio. Una nana vestida como Gatúbela cuida niños. Un repartidor de pizzas con el traje de Superman anda en bicicleta. Las fotografías llenas de humor de la artista mexicana Dulce Pinzón muestran a trabajadores inmigrantes reales en sus labores diarias. Pero las imágenes también los presentan como superhéroes que trabajan largas horas para que sus familias tengan una vida mejor. Es una idea vinculada inseparablemente a la experiencia de los inmigrantes en Estados Unidos y que resuena a lo largo de una nueva exhibición en el Museo Nacional de Arte Mexicano en Chicago.
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PREFIERE NY TIMES UNA REFORMA MIGRATORIA A CERRAR LA FRONTERA / EL DIARIO DE JUAREZ (CHIHUAHUA)
Este sábado el diario The New York Times indica en su editorial que Estados Unidos solamente obtendrá victorias falsas o simbólicas con el cierre de la frontera con México, hasta que reforme de manera integral sus leyes de migración. 'Estamos pagando un enorme precio por una barda inefectiva y algunas victorias simbólicas en la frontera", señaló el rotativo. El artículo editorial cita una investigación encabezada por Wayne Cornelius, director del Centro de Estudios Comparativos de Migración de la Universidad de California en San Diego (UCSD), según la cual cerca de la mitad de los indocumentados que tratan de cruzar la frontera lo consiguen.
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VAN 117 INDOCUMENTADOS MEXICANOS MUERTOS EN 2008 / EL DIARIO DE JUAREZ (CHIHUAHUA)
En lo que va del año, 117 indocumentados mexicanos han muerto en su intento por cruzar hacia Estados Unidos, reveló la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores. En el 2001 la Cancillería empezó a contabilizar los decesos de connacionales que buscan llegar a EU; desde esa fecha y hasta el 9 de junio pasado van 2 mil 956 mexicanos fallecidos. La principal causa de las muertes ha sido la deshidratación, con mil 62 casos, le siguen el ahogamiento con 583 y los accidentes vehiculares con 247 decesos.
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ANALIZA CONAGO ATENCIÓN A MIGRANTES / REFORMA
La Comisión de Asunto Migratorios de la Conferencia Nacional de Gobernadores (Conago) se reunió en Guanajuato para discutir propuestas en materia educativa.El gobernador del estado y presidente de la comisión, Juan Manuel Oliva Ramírez, indicó que entre las propuestas está la apertura de centros de educación virtual en Texas, Chicago y California, a través de las Casas Guanajuato.
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MCCAIN LANZA CAMPAÑA PARA ATRAER A HISPANOS / J. JAIME HERNÁNDEZ / EL UNIVERSAL
Nada más poner fin a su gira por Colombia y México, el candidato republicano, John McCain, no ha desperdiciado el tiempo para amortizar su condición de experto y veterano en las lides del pueblo hispano en la campaña que ha lanzado en distintos estados para ampliar su base de apoyo entre el electorado latino. “John McCain se ha ganado el respeto de los latinos, mientras el otro candidato (Barack Obama, apenas) acaba de descubrir la importancia del voto hispano”, es el mensaje que su campaña ha comenzado a difundir en estados como Colorado, Nevada y Nuevo México.
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IMMIGRATION ISSUE TAKES BACK SEAT IN PRESIDENTIAL RACE / HERNáN ROZEMBERG / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
What's the top issue you'd like to hear candidates discuss in the presidential campaign? If it's the economy, join the club — countless polls indicate it's the leading concern. National security, particularly in light of the ongoing war in Iraq, as well as health care, also tend to get the most attention. So what happened to immigration? Despite a drumbeat of national headlines since 2005 and its key role in the 2006 congressional races, immigration has been relegated to second-tier status during this year's presidential primaries. And experts don't see the trend changing much in the final contest between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama.
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NEVER FORGET: WE ARE ALL JUST PILGRIMS / JIM MCINGVALE / HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Come early July, our thoughts tend to gravitate toward liberty and its deeper meaning. This year, the recent federal raids involving illegal immigrants have many of us probing the deeper meaning of the rights of the individual in our society even for those who are not full citizens. Perhaps the greatest moral force of the 20th century, Pope John Paul II, said something we all need to think about when considering the recent wave of federal actions regarding illegal immigration. John Paul said, "Nothing surpasses the greatness or dignity of the human person."
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NEW CITIZEN POLISHES IMMIGRATION'S IMAGE / JENNIFER KAY / HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Architect designs offices to project warmth, patriotismLady Liberty's welcome was sorely missing from the drab immigration office where Argentine architect Rodolfo Acevedo started his U.S. citizenship application in the early 1990s. But there were huddled masses, or at least crowds fighting for parking, standing in line, wasting hours in overcrowded waiting rooms, yearning for a little attention from federal employees.
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LOS NUEVOS CIUDADANOS / RUMBO
El presidente George W. Bush invocó ayer el recuerdo de Thomas Jefferson al dar la bienvenida a nuevos ciudadanos estadounidenses en una ceremonia efectuada en Monticello, señalando que “me siento orgulloso de considerarlos mis compatriotas”. En su última ceremonia del Día de la Independencia como presidente, Bush dijo a una audiencia en el hogar del autor de la Declaración de la Independencia que se sentía orgulloso de estar presente para la naturalización de nuevos ciudadanos. Se pudieron oír algunos gritos de protesta durante el discurso de Bush, y el presidente respondió que “creía en la libertad de expresión en Estados Unidos”. Las últimas seis ceremonias del 4 de Julio se han caracterizado por la violencia en Afganistán y en Irak.
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MEXICAN CONSULATE TO OPEN TEMPORARY MADISON OFFICE / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Officials from the Chicago-based office of the Mexican Consulate will set up their temporary office in Madison for five days next week. More than 1,000 people have signed up for appointments when the field office opens from Wednesday to Sunday. One service it provides lets Mexican nationals get what's called a consular identification card, which is often helpful to open bank accounts or rent apartments in this country.
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FALSE VICTORY AT THE BORDER / THE NEW YORK TIMES
How secure is the border? The opinion of government optimists is that it is way secure. So secure you wouldn’t believe it — and not as secure as it will be. That is the least the country should expect after all it has given up to lock the border down. Billions of dollars since the 1980s in fencing, razor wire, electronic sensors and vehicle barriers. A major deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops in 2006, to bolster the Border Patrol. The trashing of the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and a host of environmental and land-management laws. (When Congress ordered the homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, to build 670 miles of border fence by the end of this year, it decreed that no law or judge, no wild creature or endangered homeowner, should stop him. Last month, the Supreme Court declined to intervene in one of the many legal disputes the fence has provoked.)
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FAMILIAS MEXICANAS OPTAN POR REGRESAR ANTE TEMOR Y MALA ECONOMÍA / OCTAVIO RIVERA LÓPEZ / AL DÍA
Dos horas le alcanzaron a José Luis Sánchez y a su familia para acomodar en dos camionetas Van las pertenencias más valiosas que acumularon en los últimos 10 años de sus vidas al norte del Río Grande. Cuando su esposa, sus hijos y todas las maletas estaban en su sitio, Sánchez cerró por última vez la puerta de su diminuto apartamento en Mesquite.
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INMIGRANTE MEXICANO SE HACE OÍR EN MEDIO DE CONTROVERSIA / NICK MIROFF / EL NUEVO HERALD
En el pintoresco vecindario de Manassas con antiguas casas de ladrillos rojos, un enorme cartel recibe a los turistas y viajeros suburbanos, no precisamente instalado por la Cámara de Comercio local. "El CPW y Manassas, capital nacional de la intolerancia", declara, en letras rojas y azules pintadas a mano. El letrero, de 12 metros (40 pies) de largo y 3,50 metros (12 pies) de ancho, se alza en la propiedad de Gaudencio Fernández, de 47 años, un contratista que inmigró a Estados Unidos desde México en 1979. Es una gráfica condena al Condado Prince William y la ciudad de Manassas, que equipara los esfuerzos por reprimir a los inmigrantes indocumentados en su jurisdicción con la esclavitud y el Ku Klux Klan. "Exigimos igualdad y justicia para todos", concluye el cartel. "No seremos los esclavos del siglo XXI". Desde que apareció en el otoño, el cartel -apodado "El muro de la libertad" por los partidarios de Fernández por su dirección, en el 9500 de la calle Liberty- se ha convertido en un símbolo político y un punto de encuentro para quienes lo consideran un acto de desafío.
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IMMIGRATION CHARGES FOR MEATPACKING MANAGERS / THE WASHINGTON POST
Two supervisors at an Iowa meatpacking plant that was raided by immigration agents in May were arrested and charged with encouraging people to live in the United States illegally. Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza, 35, and Martin De La Rosa-Loera, 43, were also charged Thursday with aiding and abetting the possession and use of fraudulent identification. Guerrero-Espinoza was charged with aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft. Federal immigration officials raided Agriprocessors, the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant, on May 12. Nearly 400 workers were detained and dozens of fraudulent permanent-resident alien cards were seized from the plant's human resources department, court records said. Critics have asked federal officials why no top executives at the plant had been arrested, even though more than a third of the plant's employees faced immigration charges.
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MANY ARRESTED IN POSTVILLE RAID STILL JAILED / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Both critics and supporters of the Immigration raid in Postville are surprised that 304 immigrants are serving jail time instead of being deported immediately. Federal Immigration officials raided Agriprocessors, the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant, on May 12. Most of those arrested were sentenced to spend five months in jail before being sent home. Some interviewed in jail said they hope to be sent home sooner than that. Lawyers on both sides said that's unlikely to happen. Jesus Reyes spoke last month at the Linn County Jail, where he was held until flooding forced the transfer of prisoners from the Cedar Rapids facility. Reyes, a native of Guatemala, pleaded guilty to using a false Social Security number to get work at the Agriprocessors packing plant.

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CUBANS USING MEXICO AS SPRINGBOARD TO U.S. / DUDLEY ALTHAUS / HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Less-guarded routes help reach 'dry-foot' asylum at Texas borderMost of the millions of visitors to Mexico's Caribbean coast can't wait to plunge into the turquoise waters, but a growing number come with exactly the opposite intention. The thousands of Cubans illegally sailing here on makeshift rafts or sleek speedboats scramble for dry land as quickly as possible, most of them bound for the Texas border and asylum in the United States. At least 11,500 Cubans entered the U.S. overland from Mexico last year, nearly double the 6,100 in 2004. All but a few hundred of the Cubans claiming "dry foot" asylum on the border last year crossed from Brownsville to Laredo, an average of 30 people a day.
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SPANISH GREETING CARDS TACKLE SENSITIVE SUBJECTS / JEANNETTE RIVERA-LYLES / ORLANDO SENTINEL
Here's a message you won't find on a Hallmark card: "It's not easy to be away from your land and your loved ones and live through the anxiety of the immigration process." The phrase, in Spanish, is followed inside by a Bible-inspired message aimed at providing comfort to Hispanic immigrants. From their Central Florida home-based offices, writer Omayra Ortiz and graphic artist Josué Torres create Spanish-language greeting cards that push the envelope. Ortiz's powerful messages of hope, coupled with Torres' imaginative designs, are the heart and soul of Alegría Collection, a company based in Puerto Rico.
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ESPERA LOS 36 MIL PESOS PROMETIDOS / EL CORREO DE GUANAJUATO
José Pérez Rocha, ex emigrante de 77 años de edad quien trabajó por algunos años en los campos de cultivo de los Estados Unidos de Norte América no logró reunir dinero, sin embargo ahora espera a que la Secretaría de Gobernación de entregue 36 mil pesos por el tiempo que estuvo laboran en aquel país. Debido a que la mayor parte de su vida el hombre originario de la comunidad de Refugio de Silva perteneciente a esta ciudad de Silao señaló que en la primera vez que emigró a los Estados Unidos (Texas) fue en el año de 1966 debido a la necesidad que tenía y las pocas opciones de trabajo que había en este municipio.
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SOLICITAN INFORME DE PROGRAMA PAISANO / IMAGEN (ZACATECAS)
La Comisión Permanente pidió a la Secretaría de Gobernación (Segob) información sobre los mecanismos y procedimientos que estableció para evitar abusos en los operativos del Programa Paisano de este verano. También solicitó a la Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público (SHCP) que, en el marco de dicho programa, aumente el monto de la franquicia de 300 a 500 dólares por persona del 30 de junio al 31 de agosto de 2008, y del 20 de noviembre de este año al 8 de enero de 2009. El órgano legislativo instó, además, a la cancillería a promover estrategias para facilitar el retorno de los migrantes y a divulgar información sobre el Programa Paisano y las medidas para garantizar su seguridad.
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