Borderfire Report

The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO)

On Monday the European Union “definitely approved” penal sanctions on employers who hire immigrants without papers, as well as the creation of the “blue card”, a work permit for highly qualified aliens.

The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis. You are free to disseminate this information, but we request that you credit NAFBPO as being the provider.
 
Critica (Hermosillo, Sonora), Cambio de Michoacan (Morelia, Michoacan) and others 5/27/09

Mex. federal police and military personnel carried out a simultaneous operation in the state of Michoacán on Tuesday, May 26, and arrested ten city mayors, a judge and seventeen law enforcement state government officials. An eleventh arrest, that of another city mayor, took place today (Wed.) at dawn. All the detainees are said to have links with or to have provided protection for the “La Familia” criminal group. (Michoacán, on Mexico’s west coast just north of the state of Guerrero, is among the country’s most violent and has been the recent scene of numerous “narcolabs” findings)
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La Prensa Grafica (San Salvador, El Salvador) 5/27/09

(article headline): EU (European Union) will impose penal sanctions on employers who hire undocumented immigrants.
On Monday the European Union “definitely approved” penal sanctions on employers who hire immigrants without papers, as well as the creation of the “blue card”, a work permit for highly qualified aliens. Both measures are included in the Immigration and Asylum Pact, agreed to in December 2008, and whose objective is “to organize legal immigration, fight against the illegal type and build a Europe of asylum.” The array of penal sanctions aims basically to raise awareness of the struggle against clandestine immigration both among employers as well as among individuals. Employers and primary sub-contractors will be liable, in the least aggravated cases, to administrative sanctions such as the return of public assistance funds, a five year exclusion from bidding on public projects, or the closure of the business. In the case of a repeat offense or other aggravating actions, the employers will be penalized with fines or penal sanctions, which each State will determine of its own accord. Nineteen of the 27 member countries of the Union already impose penalties on their employers for these practices and the fines rise to variable amounts. Some 4.5 to 8 million undocumented immigrants work illegally in areas such as construction, the hotel industry or agriculture in the EU. While Europe hardens its policies against illegal immigration, it seeks to attract highly qualified foreign workers by the creation of the “blue card”, similar to the U.S.’s “green card.” This permit will be valid for up to four years, but the immigrant will only be able to use it in the European State which issued it. Both measures, approved during the council of Agriculture ministers of the EU, being held this week in Brussels, must be incorporated into national legislations within a maximum period of two years. The Immigration and Asylum Pact favors selective immigration and facilitates the expulsion of undesirable aliens, which has brought about criticism from Latin America and Africa.
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El Universo (Guayaquil, Ecuador) 5/27/09

(On the issue of the combination of national health care and illegal immigration) In Spain, more than 40 specialists have collaborated in the production of the “Manual for the care of the immigrant”, a guide for primary care physicians in Spain and destined to improve the clinical treatment of immigrant patients. During the presentation ceremony yesterday in Madrid, Dr. Joaquin Moera, a member of the Editorial Committee, said “Our objective is to recognize the different aspects which affect the health of the immigrant, to know how to deal with the different pathologies which they may present due to their prevalence in their countries of origin, and to be able to recognize illnesses we are little used to due to their infrequency in our midst.” Beyond the clinical aspects of treatment of immigrants, the manual deals with the social aspects and includes a source reference to the immigrant according to his place of origin. The communication barriers, ignorance of Spain’s health system and the different health concepts are the main difficulties which exist in caring for these patients, who exceed four million persons in the Iberian country.
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El Colombiano (Medellin, Colombia) 5/27/09

Colombian naval and police personnel seized 1.1 metric tons of cocaine in different events in Colombia. At Jurado, state of Choco, at the extreme northern point of Colombia’s Pacific Ocean coast, a camouflaged launch hidden in a mangrove was found to be loaded with 713 kilos of cocaine, carefully sealed into 36 packages. At the southern end of Colombia’s Pacific Ocean, federal agents dismantled a drug lab with the capacity of producing three tons of cocaine a month; 450 kilos were seized there. In a nearby city, police found seventeen underground caches each with a sack of cocaine.
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El Porvenir (Monterrey, Nuevo Leon) 5/27/09

Short takes from the “Justice” section: Two kidnappers were apprehended and caught with a roster of at least twenty names of policemen who were being bribed to allow the two to function at will * * * Three subjects were arrested with a load of 600 kgs. of weed * * * A shootout ensued when Mex. army personnel broke up a private party being in the Monterrey general area held by some narcos. Among the partygoers were two policemen.
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Excelsior (Mexico City) 5/27/09

This paper’s own “2009 Crime Tally” (“Numeralia del Crimen”) is a graphic showing the number of Mexico’s organized crime related deaths. It has now reached 2,050 for the year. The graphic is available at: http://www.exonline.com.mx/diario/contenido/468598
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