Latest Mexico – United States border Stories

Department of Homeland Security Secretary (DHS) Michael Chertoff announced Friday that a new "virtual fence" to help fight illegal border crossings along part of the U.S.-Mexico border is now ready for service.   Chertoff made the report at a briefing about the country's border-control efforts, at which authorities also announced higher fines for employers who hire illegal immigrants.  "What we are doing is using all of the tools at our disposal to get the maximum leverage for our...

By JOHN K. WILEY OROVILLE, Wash. - Astride sturdy mustangs named "Okanogan" and "Spurs," U.S. Border Patrol agents Darrel Williams and Justin Hefker ride quietly along a ridgeline above the Similkameen River valley. The mustangs are among a dozen the Border Patrol's Spokane Sector has bought to patrol a 308-mile-long section of the U.S.-Canadian border from the crest of the Cascade Range in Washington state to the Continental Divide in Montana. "The reason we went...

SAN ANTONIO - Texas has started broadcasting live images of the U.S. border on the Internet in a security program that asks the public to report signs of illegal immigration or drug crimes. A test Web site went live Thursday at texasborderwatch.com with views from eight cameras and ways for viewers to e-mail reports of suspicious activity. Previously, the images had only been available to law enforcement and landowners where the cameras are located. "There is only one way to test it, and...

By Tim Gaynor PHOENIX (Reuters) - Increased security on the U.S.-Mexican border is turning human smuggling into a multi-billion dollar criminal industry and attracting violent gangs with ties to Mexican drug cartels, authorities say. The U.S. government has gradually tightened its grip on the porous Mexican border in response to heightened concerns over homeland security -- most recently ordering 6,000 National Guard troops to the border in May. Police and prosecutors in Arizona, where...

By Tim Gaynor TUCSON, Arizona (Reuters) - Elite U.S. Border Patrol units armed with assault rifles and stun grenades may be set to play a more prominent role as authorities gain greater control over the porous border with Mexico, border police say. Little known outside law enforcement circles, the Bortac tactical teams have been deployed to remote reaches of the border to hunt drug and human traffickers using out-of-the way routes since the 1980s. The Bortac members wear full...

THREE POINTS, Arizona (Reuters) - Illegal immigrants and drug traffickers are using dilapidated bicycles to make a swift, night-time dash over the desert to Arizona from Mexico, border police say. Border Patrol agents in the desert state are finding dozens of the bikes dumped at hamlets such as Three Points, southwest of Tucson, which are used as staging areas by smugglers ferrying marijuana and immigrants on to cities inland. "The illegals use bicycles, either riding them on ranch...

By Tim Gaynor ALI JEGK, Arizona (Reuters) - Members of a traditional Indian nation spanning the Arizona-Mexico border are divided over plans to erect a fence to stop drug and human traffickers driving over the desert from Mexico. The U.S. Border Patrol is to start building a 75-mile (120-km) vehicle barrier across the Tohono O'odham nation lands abutting Mexico's Sonora state as early as next month, as part of a move to gain greater control over the porous border Tribal authorities...

By Tim Gaynor NOGALES, Arizona (Reuters) - The deployment of National Guard troops along the U.S. border with Mexico since June has cut the number of illegal immigrants crossing into the United States by 43 percent, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on Thursday. President George W. Bush ordered 6,000 National Guard troops to the border in May as a stopgap measure to boosting frontier security for two years while more Border Patrol officers are recruited. Speaking at a...

By Tim Gaynor PHOENIX (Reuters) - More than a year after their first stakeouts on the U.S.-Mexico border, Minuteman civilian patrol volunteers are divided and questions are being raised about whether their movement's influence is on the wane. The Minutemen leaped into the media spotlight in April 2005 when its force of housewives, office workers and veterans camped out in lawn chairs in southern Arizona to spot illegal immigrants crossing from Mexico. Sixteen months later, the founders...

PHOENIX, Arizona (Reuters) - A sport utility vehicle packed with nearly two dozen suspected illegal immigrants overturned in southern Arizona on Monday, killing nine people, the U.S. Border Patrol said. Agent Veronica Lozano said the dead were among 22 passengers crammed into a Chevrolet Suburban that flipped over on a desert road near Yuma, Arizona, a few miles (km) north of the Mexican border. "The vehicle was attempting to avoid a Border Patrol checkpoint by driving along a dirt...