The current security management environment is different from those in pre-9/11 era and does not allow any government actions that can seriously undermine the nation's homeland security regardless of any other issues that press a political or administrative action. This includes the immigration backlog.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff indicated in a recent meeting with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and other organizations that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will make significant changes to the existing name-check process.
The goal of these changes is to clear the backlog of immigration cases that are pending due to name-check delays. In addition to clearing the backlog, the changed procedures should permit further expedited processing of such cases, to prevent future name-check delay backlogs. Secretary Chertoff, however, warned that some checks would still be delayed by investigations, but this number should be significantly reduced.
The USCIS' criteria will expedite cases stalled due to FBI name-check delays including:
military deployment;
age-out cases not covered under the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA);
applications affected by sunset provisions such as green card lottery;
significant and compelling reasons, such as a critical medical condition; and
loss of social security benefits or other subsistence at the discretion of the USCIS district director.
A large number of applicants and petitioners, however, continue to benefit from filing writ of mandamus against the government in U.S. federal courts. This still appears to be a valuable mechanism to compel the government to expedite adjudication of delayed cases.
It remains to be seen whether the changes in procedures will be sufficient for the FBI to succeed in expediting the name-check process and clearing the backlog. Even if the backlog of cases is cleared, however, there will still be cases delayed due to ongoing investigations. Individuals affected by these types of delays may still benefit from requesting expedited treatment of their cases through administrative and legal procedures.
Originally posted by peterl: The current security management environment is different from those in pre-9/11 era and does not allow any government actions that can seriously undermine the nation's homeland security regardless of any other issues that press a political or administrative action. This includes the immigration backlog.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff indicated in a recent meeting with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and other organizations that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will make significant changes to the existing name-check process.
The goal of these changes is to clear the backlog of immigration cases that are pending due to name-check delays. In addition to clearing the backlog, the changed procedures should permit further expedited processing of such cases, to prevent future name-check delay backlogs. Secretary Chertoff, however, warned that some checks would still be delayed by investigations, but this number should be significantly reduced.
The USCIS' criteria will expedite cases stalled due to FBI name-check delays including:
military deployment;
age-out cases not covered under the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA);
applications affected by sunset provisions such as green card lottery;
significant and compelling reasons, such as a critical medical condition; and
loss of social security benefits or other subsistence at the discretion of the USCIS district director.
A large number of applicants and petitioners, however, continue to benefit from filing writ of mandamus against the government in U.S. federal courts. This still appears to be a valuable mechanism to compel the government to expedite adjudication of delayed cases.
It remains to be seen whether the changes in procedures will be sufficient for the FBI to succeed in expediting the name-check process and clearing the backlog. Even if the backlog of cases is cleared, however, there will still be cases delayed due to ongoing investigations. Individuals affected by these types of delays may still benefit from requesting expedited treatment of their cases through administrative and legal procedures.
Great article Peter! Unfortunately, par for the course, DHS is late to the party and as a result we are a nation under seige and their actions are too little too late.
Fact: Illegal Aliens Fuel Healthcare Crisis In U.S. Posted by Bernard Tuesday January 22, 2008 at 9:04 am
Richard Wolf, writing for U.S.A. Today ( http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-99589.html ), points to the fast-escalating health care costs in the United States owing to illegal aliens mining the system and arrives at this observation:
Quote: One thing is clear: Undocumented immigrants are driving up the number of people without health insurance. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that 59% of the nation’s illegal immigrants are uninsured, compared with 25% of legal immigrants and 14% of U.S. citizens. Illegal immigrants represent about 15% of the nation’s 47 million uninsured people — and about 30% of the increase since 1980.
Does it follow then that Democratic candidates vying for their party’s presidential nomination, in trumpeting their respective proposals for federally-sponsored, universal healthcare plans, are speaking largely to the welfare of people they intend to get on their party’s voter rosters via amnesty and a path to citizenship at a future date?
I think so.
One statement made by Richard Wolf that I’m not so sure squares with what we do know about the costs associated with the taxpayer-subsidized healthcare largess enjoyed by border-jumpers and visa over-stayers in this country is this:
Quote: Data on health care costs for illegal immigrants are sketchy because hospitals and community health centers don’t ask about patients’ legal status.
Frank Laughter at Common Sense Junction, for example, published this excerpt from a news story on the impact of medical care for illegals at just one large hospital in Dallas, TX, ( http://www.commonsensejunction.com/archives/3036 ) from which I take the following:
Quote: A recent patient survey indicated that 70 percent of the women who gave birth at Parkland in the first three months of 2006 were illegal immigrants. That’s 11,200 anchor babies born every year just in Dallas.
According to the article, the hospital spent $70.7 million delivering 15,938 babies in 2004 but managed to end up with almost $8 million dollars in surplus funding. Medicaid kicked in $34.5 million, Dallas County taxpayers kicked in $31.3 million and the feds tossed in another $9.5 million.
Understand, Dear Readers, that the $75.3 million expended at Parkland came out of the pockets of American taxpayers and not just those in Dallas County!
Think that may be just an anomaly because Texas is a border state? Think again. Let’s take a look at a major East Coast city — Philadelphia. Here’s a post at Immigration Watchdog ( http://www.immigrationwatchdog.com/?p=4197 ), quoting from a story published at Philly.com, from which I quote:
Quote: Four city health systems provide care at no cost at Philadelphia health clinics. Undocumented women make up 60% to 65% of the nearly 3,000 prenatal patients treated at the city health clinics annually, Kate Maus, director of Maternal, Child and Family Health at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, said, adding that eight years ago “all of [the patients] were insured.” Jack Ludmir — chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Pennsylvania Hospital — also noted that the percentage of women in Philadelphia who did not provide a Social Security number after giving birth rose from 4.8% in 2003 to about 7% to 8% this year.
Quote: But take a hypothetical “Gloria,” a twenty-year old Los Angeles resident who is seven months pregnant? Like Diaz, Gloria is uninsured, unemployed and illegally in the U.S.
Medi-Cal will cover Gloria’s prenatal care and child delivery costs.
If Gloria doesn’t speak English, the hospital must, by law, provide her with a Spanish-speaking translator.
Gloria’s newborn child will also get car seats and diapers under her Medi-Cal coverage.
In the event of post-partum complications, California will absorb all of the costs.
U.S. taxpayers have spent hundred of millions on patients like Diaz and Gloria. As a consequence, the states are facing a crisis of unparalleled magnitude. As Los Angeles Times columnist Ronald Brownstein wrote in his December 30 column “Health-Care Storm Brewing in California Threatens to Swamp U.S.” ( http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?Category=14&ID=79568&r=1 ), “the impending Medicaid disaster is not a problem the states can handle alone; their budget shortfalls are too big.”
Quote: Cristobal Silverio emigrated illegally from Mexico to Stockton, Calif., in 1997 to work as a fruit picker.
He brought with him his wife, Felipa, and three children, 19, 12 and 8 – all illegals. When Felipa gave birth to her fourth child, daughter Flor, the family had what is referred to as an “anchor baby” – an American citizen by birth who provided the entire Silverio clan a ticket to remain in the U.S. permanently.
But Flor was born premature, spent three months in the neonatal incubator and cost the San Joaquin Hospital more than $300,000. Meanwhile, oldest daughter Lourdes married an illegal alien gave birth to a daughter, too. Her name is Esmeralda. And Felipa had yet another child, Cristian.
The two Silverio anchor babies generate $1,000 per month in public welfare funding for the family. Flor gets $600 a month for asthma. Healthy Cristian gets $400. While the Silverios earned $18,000 last year picking fruit, they picked up another $12,000 for their two “anchor babies.”
While President Bush says the U.S. needs more “cheap labor” from south of the border to do jobs Americans aren’t willing to do, the case of the Silverios shows there are indeed uncalculated costs involved in the importation of such labor – public support and uninsured medical costs.
Quote: As the federal government unveiled an economic package designed to pump prime the U.S. economy, the cost of providing economic relief to millions of Americans includes dealing with expensive health care. Like other issues concerning illegal migration, the inclusion of illegal migrants in health care benefits is the subject of hot debates across the nation.
Quote: Democrats’ stump speeches talk of covering all Americans but so far have avoided the politically explosive issue of whether to treat the 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S.
According to the article, the hospital spent $70.7 million delivering 15,938 babies in 2004 but managed to end up with almost $8 million dollars in surplus funding.
Quote: Four city health systems provide care at no cost at Philadelphia health clinics. [QUOTE]
I wonder why it doesn't crank you up that it costs over $4300 to have a baby legal or illegal?
Afterall childbirth is a natural process that happens all over the planet without cost to a great percentage of women on the planet. Why does it cost $4300 in America?
??? Couldn't Mid-wives deliver these children for a couple hundred dollars per child? I thought so. The real reason that more border state US Citizens are being born to undocumented mothers in County Facilities is the problems with registering the births. If the families didn't get accused of fraud so often they would have home births.
I can see a very easy fix for this. How unfortunate anyone believes the xenophobic rants and other crud found on VDARE and sites like it.
There are other sites than those published by white supremacists. Its sad so much attention is being focused on MOUSE T.U.R.D.s instead of the Elephant in the room.
Corporate America has pulled down the US Taxpayers panties and taken indecent liberties with our Health Care System.
Uninsured illegal immigrants are no different than Unisured citizens although they have a better record of payment than citizens. Running up imaginary billions of dollars worth of costs than ranting and raving no one is paying the bill???? Go ahead write down $4300 on a piece of paper for a 3 hour stay in a hospital then act suprised when the bill goes unpaid. Looks to me like an exercise in stupidity. If our average per capita income in some states is $24,000 and it costs 17% of that to have a baby there is something really wrong with the picture. Why aren't you screaming about the price gouging?
NO ONE GETS FREE HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA. Patients either pay the bill or they don't. Those who don't pay the bill come with and without Citizenship.
According to the article, the hospital spent $70.7 million delivering 15,938 babies in 2004 but managed to end up with almost $8 million dollars in surplus funding.
Quote: Four city health systems provide care at no cost at Philadelphia health clinics. [QUOTE]
I wonder why it doesn't crank you up that it costs over $4300 to have a baby legal or illegal?
Afterall childbirth is a natural process that happens all over the planet without cost to a great percentage of women on the planet. Why does it cost $4300 in America?
??? Couldn't Mid-wives deliver these children for a couple hundred dollars per child? I thought so. The real reason that more border state US Citizens are being born to undocumented mothers in County Facilities is the problems with registering the births. If the families didn't get accused of fraud so often they would have home births.
I can see a very easy fix for this. How unfortunate anyone believes the xenophobic rants and other crud found on VDARE and sites like it.
There are other sites than those published by white supremacists. Its sad so much attention is being focused on MOUSE T.U.R.D.s instead of the Elephant in the room.
Corporate America has pulled down the US Taxpayers panties and taken indecent liberties with our Health Care System.
Uninsured illegal immigrants are no different than Unisured citizens although they have a better record of payment than citizens. Running up imaginary billions of dollars worth of costs than ranting and raving no one is paying the bill???? Go ahead write down $4300 on a piece of paper for a 3 hour stay in a hospital then act suprised when the bill goes unpaid. Looks to me like an exercise in stupidity. If our average per capita income in some states is $24,000 and it costs 17% of that to have a baby there is something really wrong with the picture. Why aren't you screaming about the price gouging?
NO ONE GETS FREE HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA. Patients either pay the bill or they don't. Those who don't pay the bill come with and without Citizenship.
Do you have a link to support the statiscal BS you are spouting with regards to the numbers vs. the cost of ILLEGAL ALIEN BIRTHS vs. CITIZENS? If so please feel free to post it and then we can debate FACTS v. FICTION.
That being said, it's bad enough that we the taxpayers have to absorb the costs of citizens who cannot afford to provide for themselves or their children but to justify your side of the issue by comparing the plight of American citizens to illegal aliens who have NO RIGHT TO BE HERE cluelessly and carelessly procreating and using their offspring as leverage against deportation and as a source of income at the expense of much needed tax dollars that should be spent on educating, feeding and housing American citizens is totally absurd. You cannot compare apples to oranges . . . .
Tuesday, 22 January 2008 Greater Threat To America: Illegal Aliens or Osama bin Laden? by John W. Lillpop
Mexican illegal aliens have been foolishly called “heroes,” first by former Mexican President Vicente Fox and echoed by his replacement Felipe Calderon.
However, Mexico's leaders do not regard all illegal aliens in favorable terms.
Indeed, while illegal aliens from Mexico squatting in America are heroes according to Mexico,illegals living in Mexico from nations south of Mexico’s borders are felons.
What is the difference, one wonders?
United States dinero would seem to be the short answer. While Mexico dumps millions of illiterate peasants on the U.S. side of the border, America’s other nemesis, Osama bin Laden, continues his war on America.
But which of these evil doers-Mexico or Osama bin Laden- is a greater threat to America?
Everyone knows that bin Laden orchestrated the 9/11 attacks which killed 3,000 innocent Americans.
But how many innocent Americans have been raped, murdered, or robbed by illegal aliens since 9/11?
The answer: More than 3,000 a year!
Everyone knows that Al-Quadea and Osama bin Laden are an enormous danger to homeland security, and would kill millions of innocent Americans if given the opportunity.
But how many terrorists have made it across the U.S.-Mexico border because of the unmanageable flood of mostly-Mexican invaders coming here, for whatever purpose?
Everyone knows that fighting Osama bin Laden and the war on terror is costing America at least $10 billion dollars a month.
But what about the $100 billion it costs each year to provide 38 million illegal aliens with food, education, medical care and other public services?
Everyone knows Osama bin Laden and Islamic extremists are intent on destroying western civilization and converting the entire world to Islam.
But what about the fact that many illegal aliens come to the United States with the idiotic notion that the American southwest still belongs to Mexico and should be taken back from the United States?
Or that millions refuse to assimilate by learning American language and culture?
There is one factor that makes Mexico decidedly more dangerous than Osama bin Laden:
Mexico is able to rely on George W Bush and the Democrat Party as co-conspirators in the attempted Mexicanization of America.
As far as we know, Osama bin Laden has no such “special” relationship with George W. Bush.
??? Couldn't Mid-wives deliver these children for a couple hundred dollars per child? I thought so. The real reason that more border state US Citizens are being born to undocumented mothers in County Facilities is the problems with registering the births. If the families didn't get accused of fraud so often they would have home births.
Yes. the illegals should be giving birth at Home...in their Home country
quote:
Corporate America has pulled down the US Taxpayers panties and taken indecent liberties with our Health Care System.
The illegal alien has taken advantage of the usa government who has taken liberties with the us taxpayers dollars to fund this socialism.It has to stop.
Do you have a link to support the statiscal BS you are spouting with regards to the numbers vs. the cost of ILLEGAL ALIEN BIRTHS vs. CITIZENS? If so please feel free to post it and then we can debate FACTS v. FICTION.
That being said, ...........using their offspring as leverage against deportation . . .
I used your numbers not mine. Simply dividing the total you quoted by the number of births you quoted. People have children without benefit of Doctors routinely. Only in America can you ratchet up the cost of childbirth to $15,000. The cost of Health Care in America is our single biggest "issue" threatening to bankrupt millions of Americans.
Next biggest issue is the Military Industrial Complex right next to the Prison for Profit industry. If we got those monkeys off our back we would be in good shape.
nd yes I could post links that refute your non-sense but we both know you are not interested in FACTS and you do not visit websites where there is truth, balance or both sides of the story on illegal immigration. That is clear by your rampant posts.
Just look at the looney post about Osama you just posted
"United States dinero would seem to be the short answer. While Mexico dumps millions of illiterate peasants on the U.S. side of the border, America’s other nemesis, Osama bin Laden, continues his war on America."
Mexico as a government is not "dumping' people here. People are migrating here of their own accord for economic reasons.
And then the article goes on to infer that terrorists are coming across the Mexican border.
Having a "debate" requires presence of mind and a logical approach to the FACTS. This insane article trying to ratchet up the fear factor suggesting Terrorists going over the Mexican Border ignoring that 9/11 terrorists entered via the Canadian Border or on Tourist VISA's, If you were my doctor although I broke my right arm you would be putting a cast on my left foot.
If you are worrying about the cost of the "war on terror" end the War on Drugs. Wars are expensive. Funding for Terrorists is largely funded by drug money. Legalize drugs, or at least decriminalize them and cut the source of funding for terrorism. That will get another monkey off our back all the "soldiers" on the taxpayer dole in the drug war. Decriminalizing drugs also keeps non-violent drug offenders out of jail We have almost a million drug users in jail. So taxpayers pay $35-$110 a day to keep some doper in jail. Why should I pay for that as a taxpayer?
Beverly, that is what is wrong with histeria as a political philosophy, FACTS do not matter.
The FACT is prior to the drastic reduction in work VISA's for Mexicans they left family at home, worked here for awhile and went back home. Of course the Mexican economy collapsing did not help either.
Making the Mexican economy worse by cutting off one of the only income streams into the country remittances doesn't improve the situation on the border.
I guess I have to use the analogy of what kind of neighborhood is your "good neighborhood" if you are in the gated McMansion and across the street is a mud hut?
mexico is our next door neighbor. Mexican citizens are Human beings with rights to survive. That is the right of all human beings.
thomas Jefferson who helped write our constitution and hammered out the concept of "rights" ....
"and possessed a right which nature has given to all men, of departing from the country in which chance, not choice, has placed them, of going in quest of new habitations, .....
People have a right to migrate its a Biblical Concept as well. What strikes me is so many so called Christians and others who hold themselves out to be on the moral highground would deny basic liberty freedom and the right to self sustenance to other humans. How do you arrive at the premise only American citizens are worthy of health care and a decent life?
Our country is founded on Christian moral and ethical principals. The concept of constraining someone to a life of deprevation so you can be more comfortable is pretty hypocritical.
People have a right to migrate its a Biblical Concept as well. What strikes me is so many so called Christians and others who hold themselves out to be on the moral highground would deny basic liberty freedom and the right to self sustenance to other humans. How do you arrive at the premise only American citizens are worthy of health care and a decent life?
Our country is founded on Christian moral and ethical principals. The concept of constraining someone to a life of deprevation so you can be more comfortable is pretty hypocritical.
Are you saying that you feel immigration laws should be done away with and not necessary ?
Additionally, are you saying that whoever wants to come to america or anywhere else should be allowed and gain whatever benefits that are available to who has decided to take up residence.
Is this your stand? Because this is what it sounds like to me.
People have a right to migrate its a Biblical Concept as well. What strikes me is so many so called Christians and others who hold themselves out to be on the moral highground would deny basic liberty freedom and the right to self sustenance to other humans. How do you arrive at the premise only American citizens are worthy of health care and a decent life?
Our country is founded on Christian moral and ethical principals. The concept of constraining someone to a life of deprevation so you can be more comfortable is pretty hypocritical.
Are you saying that you feel immigration laws should be done away with and not necessary ?
Additionally, are you saying that whoever wants to come to america or anywhere else should be allowed and gain whatever benefits that are available to who has decided to take up residence.
Is this your stand? Because this is what it sounds like to me.
OBL's . . . All they have to justify their criminal activity/illegal invasion is their trademark mantras: "No Human Is Illegal" or desperate name calling "racist, xenophobe". Unfortunately for them their murderous, criminal, ignorant, perpetually breeding, poverty stricken masses have served as the platform for justification as to why immigration laws should be strictly enforced and mass deportation and a 20 foot wall are totally necessary to protect America.
LaRaza and Lulac are the dumbed down lite version of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton aka "the Pimps". The MCLU formerly known as the ACLU are getting a cut of the blackmail money which is why they no longer represent Americans and really should consider a corporate name change.
LaRaza's and Lulac founders took classes at the Rainbow Push School of blackmail, pimping and racism in order to qualify as an "Hispanic Civil Rights" organization in order to blackmail the US government for 10's of millions of our tax dollars. It's all a sham and it worked for a while and then they planned those illegal alien, mexican flag waiving marches and their stooopid, arrogant demands to legalize a bunch of foreign criminals that were meant to intimidate white America, backfired.
I hope they didn't use any of their blackmail money to pay for those classes because if they did Al and Jesse don't do refunds and the sleeping giant known as America has awakened.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Beverly,
Last Updated: 23/01/2008 14:51 US candidates urged to back illegal Irish
Candidates for the US Presidency were today urged to pledge their support to a campaign to grant around 50,000 illegal Irish immigrants citizenship.
Letters have been sent to all Democratic and Republican candidates for the White House by Sinn Fein Assembly member Cathal Boylan urging them to resolve the plight of the undocumented Irish.
"Despite having made a positive contribution to US society, these thousands of Irish emigres find themselves classed as felons," the Newry and Armagh MLA argued.
"I have urged all of the candidates in this presidential election year, to raise the case for these hard working, law abiding Irish people to be brought into the fold of US life in a complete way, allowing them to be given an amnesty which would enable them to travel freely between their homeland and the USA without fear or penalty."
The issue of immigration has proven a hot topic on the campaign trail in the Democratic and Republican Party's White House races.
Arizona Senator John McCain, who has got off to a strong start in the hunt for the Republican nomination, has received the backing of some Irish Americans for drafting a Bill with Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy which would have created a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
Other Republican rivals have been more hawkish on the issue, with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and ex New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani attacking each other on their immigration records during debates.
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has advocated the building of a 700-mile border fence to keep out illegal immigrants.
On the Democratic side, the front-runner New York Senator Hillary Clinton and her rivals Illinois Senator Barack Obama and former North Carolina Senator John Edwards have pretty similar views - arguing for tighter border controls, cracking down on those who illegally employ and exploit immigrant labour and reforming the system to ensure immigrants do not have to choose between their families and a new life in the US.
* In light of the fact that our economy is crashing at the speed of sound you would think the moronic idiots of these countries would realize that WE CANNOT SAVE THE WORLD and they need to TAKE CARE OF THEIR OWN PEOPLE.
Juan Carlos Reyna had been driving a Jeep Liberty through Cancun's wealthiest neighborhood on a sweltering December afternoon when he was surrounded by three cars. A masked man bearing a Kalashnikov rifle leaned out of the car in front of him and shot Reyna in the head. Against all odds, the Cuban-American survived and was airlifted from Mexico's Caribbean resort to a U.S. hospital, where he is fighting for his life.
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Others have been less fortunate. Since June, at least four Cuban-Americans, including Reyna's brother Maximiliano, have been shot dead on Cancun's glitzy boulevards in gangland-style hits. Mexican officials allege that these killings, and those of at least five Mexicans, stem from what they say is a turf war over lucrative human smuggling routes of Cubans via Mexico to the United States.
The blood being spilled in broad daylight in Mexico's most popular international tourist spot has raised the pressure on a police force already struggling against heavily armed drug cartels.
Senior Mexican officials blame the violence on Washington's "Wet Feet, Dry Feet" policy, in which Cubans caught at sea trying to enter the U.S. are turned back but those apprehended on U.S. soil after entering the country illegally are allowed to apply for asylum.
"This has to do with U.S. policy toward Cubans, that those who make it to [U.S.] territory by their own means can get automatic refugee status," Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said in a recent news conference. "People of Cuban origin who are citizens of the United States are involved, financing these people-smuggling operations, obviously with the complicity of Mexicans," he said.
Since the "Wet Feet, Dry Feet" policy was introduced in a 1995 revision to the U.S. Cuban Adjustment Act, smuggling networks taking Cubans from the communist-controlled island to Mexico's Caribbean coast have mushroomed.
Crossing the 130-mile stretch of sea in speedboats that can out-run Mexican navy vessels, the Cubans are kept in Cancun safe houses until relatives in the United States have paid the smugglers in full, according to Mexican investigations. The migrants then cross the U.S.-Mexico border by land or plane.
Mexico certainly appears to have become the most popular route for Cubans seeking to reach the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 11,487 Cubans entered the U.S. over the Mexican border in the fiscal year 2007. Over the same period, 4,825 Cubans successfully crossed the Florida Straits, while 2,861 were caught by the Coast Guard and turned back.
A Mexican official not authorized to speak on the record explained that gangs running the lucrative Cuban smuggling route into the U.S. charge between $10,000 to $12,000 per head, compared to the $2,000 Mexicans pay "coyotes" to take them over the desert into the U.S. And it is the high profits have driven the killings, officials say, with rival groups allying with Mexican gangsters to fight over the spoils of the trade.
"We will have no cease-fire in the battle against organized crime," said Gov. Felix Gonza*** of Quintana Roo state, in announcing an increase in Cancun's police after the December shooting. "The security of residents and tourists is the priority of this government."
The Cuban government is also pressing Mexico to curb the smugglers. Cuba nabbed three Mexican fishermen heading to pick up migrants in 2006 and sentenced them to 10 years in prison. Throughout 2007, Mexican police rounded up growing numbers of undocumented Cuban migrants, sticking them in overcrowded detention centers near the Caribbean coast before they were deported to Havana or released.
In December, three Cubans protested poor conditions in one center by going on a hunger strike until they were hospitalized for dehydration. Many Mexicans, however, identify with the Cubans' desire to find a better life by sneaking over borders. A group of lawmakers, led by Rep. Fernel Galvez of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, is lobbying for easing the treatment of Cubans and other Latin Ameri
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