National Border Patrol Council

As a result of an arbitrator’s ruling that the Agency violated the law by implementing the Voluntary Reassignment Program without bargaining with the Union, the Agency has decided to temporarily suspend it pending the outcome of negotiations, which are scheduled to commence on June 10, 2008.

The Agency does not appear to be suspending the program out of spite, but rather to conform with the law, which requires full payment of all relocation costs for moves that are “in the interest of the Government” unless there is a lawfully-implemented “test program” pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 5739. Although the Agency could elect to pay full relocation costs for all transfers, doing so would greatly reduce the total number of transfers, as there is a limited amount of money available for that purpose.

The Union is committed to reaching an agreement to reinstate a test program that is fair and equitable, and is optimistic that the Agency shares that goal. more »

63 Bay Area Restaurant Workers Nabbed In ICE Raid
CBS 5 CrimeWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / BCN) ― U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Friday arrested 63 employees of a Bay Area Mexican restaurant chain for being in the country illegally.

Employees at 11 Taqueria El Balazo locations were taken into custody to be photographed, fingerprinted and processed, according to immigration agency officials.

One of those arrested was from Guatemala and the remaining were from Mexico, said officials.

Ten men and one woman were released Friday on humanitarian grounds pending future immigration proceedings.

Many of those remaining in custody were expected to be released under supervision while they wait for an immigration hearing. Others, including those with prior criminal convictions or deportations, were to be transferred to detention facilities.

Family members of those arrested can call (415) 844-5381 for information in the status of their relatives.

The screening of the movie Border at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles was a success, scoring a sellout the day before the screening. Hundreds of supporters filled the auditorium to view the movie and hear a discussion on immigration issues facing the United States. A total of more than $10,000 was raised to assist the Ramos & Compean families and for the continued legal assistance of Agents Ramos & Compean. Special thanks go to Director Chris Burgard, who generously absorbed all of the costs of the screening and donated all of the proceeds to Agents Ramos & Compean and their families.

Glenn Beck has once again donated the proceeds from the sale of t-shirts on his web site to the Border Patrol Agent Legal Defense & Relief Fund to help the families of Agents Ignacio Ramos & Jose Compean. Glenn Beck has donated in excess of $22,000.00 to the fund in the past six months. We are humbled by his efforts on behalf of Joe & Nacho. Shirts can be purchased through his website.

The Border Patrol Agents Legal Defense and Relief Fund (not to be confused with the NBPC Legal Defense Fund or Peace Officers Research Association of California (PORAC) Legal Defense Fund) is designed to assist any Border Patrol employees who find themselves in financial distress as a result of an unwarranted criminal, civil and/or administrative action brought against them as result of any act or omission within the scope of their employment.

The fund may be used to assist such employees with attorney fees, living expenses, and general financial needs. Because the coverage of the “Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean Relief Fund” was limited to those two agents, it did not qualify as a tax-exempt organization, and therefore donations to that fund were not tax-deductible. Tax exempt status (501 (c)(3)) status has been granted to the fund effective 11/16/06.

Applications to be a beneficiary of the fund are available by emailing us at contactnbpc@nbpc.net.

All donations that are designated for Agents Ramos and Compean will be used to fund their legal defense and assist their families in their hour of need.

Donations to the fund can be made by PayPal or by check payable to “BPA Legal Defense & Relief Fund.”

Checks can be mailed to the following address:

BPA Legal Defense Fund
P.O. Box 47208
Tampa, FL 33647

(Note to members: In case you didn’t know it, what you deal with everyday is “clutter”)

El Paso border chief urges immigration reform

By ALICIA A. CALDWELL
Associated Press Writer
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EL PASO, Texas (AP) — The key to curbing illegal immigration rests in the hands of Congress, the chief of the U.S. Border Patrol’s El Paso Sector said Tuesday.

Chief Patrol Agent Victor M. Manjarrez Jr., in an interview with The Associated Press, said without comprehensive immigration reform border agents continue to split their attention between “economic migrants,” criminals, and potentially terrorists.

“Most of these people are economic migrants but we have to deal with them between the ports of entry because we have not, in terms of a legislative fix, determined what we do with these people,” Manjarrez said. “I think it’s pretty obvious that the country has a need for economic migrants. To what degree, I don’t know. That’s for the country to decide and for the politicians to decide.”

In the El Paso Sector, an area that encompasses 268 miles of border stretching west from Hudspeth County in far West Texas to the Arizona state line, agents arrested about 75,000 border crossers in fiscal year 2007. Manjarrez estimates that at least 87 percent of those were just looking for work.

Immigration reform stalled in 2006 amid a flurry proposed bills that included everything from criminal sanctions for illegal immigrants to guest worker programs to paths to citizenship for the millions of illegal immigrants already living in the United States.

Approved were efforts to build a fence at the Mexican border and hire thousands of new agents to patrol vast stretches of open desert separating the U.S. from Mexico and the thick woods and lakes that divide the U.S. and Canada.

And with the Border Patrol’s new focus on terrorists and weapons of mass destruction - the agency changed its official focus with the creation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security - Manjarrez said agents need help.

“When you look at the series of events that have happened over the last five, six years … our mission changed,” Manjarrez said. “Our primary mission changed from our traditional focus. Our primary mission now is terrorists and weapons of mass destruction. That’s what we should be focused on. We can’t focus on that as much as we would like because of all the other issues that we deal with.”

The chief said agents “have encountered situations which lead us to believe there is a terrorism nexus.” He declined to provide specific details.

Manjarrez, a veteran agent who has served in various sectors including Tucson, Ariz. and the Washington D.C. headquarters, said based on intelligence received “by the DHS family” and hunches based on experience, he believes the threat of a terrorist or weapon of mass destruction being smuggled across the border exists.

And by reducing “the clutter” of immigration issues his agents respond to every day, agents could focus their attention more closely on looking for would-be terrorists, criminals, and weapons.

“If there is anything that can reduce that flow, and those stresses” it would help, Manjarrez said.

A benefit screening of the movie BORDER will be held May 6 in Los Angeles. CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

Seventeen killed in Mexico drug battle near U.S.
Sat Apr 26, 2008 11:56pm EDT

By Lizbeth Diaz

TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - Seventeen Mexican drug gang members were killed near the U.S. border on Saturday, their bodies scattered along a road after one of the deadliest shootouts in Mexico’s three-year narco-war.

Rival factions of the Arellano Felix drug cartel in Tijuana on the Mexico-California border battled each other with rifles and machine guns in the early hours of the morning, police said.

Fourteen bodies were lying in pools of blood on a road near assembly-for-export maquiladora plants on the city’s eastern limits. The corpses were surrounded by hundreds of bullet casings and many of their faces were destroyed.

The 15th body was found nearby. Two more men died in hospital on Saturday evening, police said.

Six men were wounded and another six were arrested, but some gang members are thought to have escaped.

Two of the dead were believed to be senior hitmen for the Arellano Felix cartel and were identified by large gold rings on their fingers. The rings carried the icon of Saint Death, a ghoulish figure that gangsters believe protects them, police said.

“Today shows we are facing a terrible war never seen before on the (U.S.-Mexico) border,” Baja California Attorney General Rommel Moreno told a news conference.

Some 190 people have been killed in Tijuana so far this year. In 2007, there were more than 2,500 drug killings across Mexico and there have been more than 900 this year.

Police cordoned off the surrounding roads, forcing workers at a nearby maquiladora to walk through the crime scene to get to work.

“Another shootout,” said a woman who gave her name only as Lisa. “There are just too many. We are so afraid.”

TROOP REINFORCEMENT

Heavily armed federal police patrolled across Tijuana after the gunfight. Soldiers and police guarded the city’s main hospital where the wounded were being treated to prevent any attempt by drug gangs to pull them out.

Baja California state police chief Daniel de la Rosa said fresh troops from Mexico City were arriving in Tijuana, which borders San Diego, California.

President Felipe Calderon has sent thousands of troops to Tijuana and Baja California state since taking office in December 2006. Some 25,000 soldiers and federal police are deployed to fight cartels in drug hot spots across Mexico.

The army in Tijuana said it was on high alert for reprisals against soldiers and federal police after the shootout and the ensuing arrests.

“The risk of attacks against our agents after an event like this is extremely high,” said Lt. Col Julian Leyzaola, Tijuana’s police chief.

The Arellano Felix gang was long the dominant trafficking organization in Tijuana, smuggling drugs into California. Recently the group has been under attack from a rival gang from the Pacific state of Sinaloa, led by Mexico’s most wanted man, Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman.

(Writing by Robin Emmott; Editing by John O’Callaghan)

Sat Apr 26, 2008 5:35pm EDT

By Lizbeth Diaz

TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - Fifteen Mexican drug gang members were killed near the U.S. border on Saturday, their bodies scattered along a road after one of the deadliest shootouts in Mexico’s three-year-long narco-war.

Rival factions of the local Arellano Felix drug cartel in Tijuana on the Mexico-California border battled each other with rifles and machine guns in the early hours of the morning, police said.

Fourteen bodies were lying in pools of blood on a road near assembly-for-export maquiladora plants on the city’s eastern limits. The corpses were surrounded by hundreds of bullet casings, and many of their faces were destroyed. more »

As a result of the favorable decision regarding the Voluntary Relocation Program, the NBPC and the Agency will be negotiating changes to the VRP. Negotiations have been scheduled for June 10-12.