ICE doubles security efforts to ensure Juárez violence doesn't spread

ICE doubles security efforts to ensure Juárez violence doesn't spread (6:20 a.m.)

By Adriana M. Chávez / For the Sun-News
Article Launched: 06/12/2008 06:25:28 AM MDT


EL PASO —Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are doubling up on security efforts to ensure violence in Juárez doesn't spill over into El Paso, said one of the top ICE officials in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday.

Julie L. Myers, Assistant Homeland Security Secretary for ICE, was in El Paso Wednesday to speak to local ICE officials about operations and accomplishments nationally and in the El Paso area. During a media roundtable, Myers discussed the ongoing violence in Juárez and other parts of Mexico between warring drug cartels.

"In El Paso as in Laredo, we're seeing active daily violence across the border," Myers said. "We want to make sure we do everything we can to stop it." Myers said one way ICE is trying to curb the violence is through Operation Armas Cruzadas, an effort to identify and disrupt transborder weapons smuggling networks with the help of the the Homeland Security Information Network, a computer-based weapons task force that allows U.S. and Mexican law enforcement agencies to share information and intelligence.

Myers referred questions regarding the hospitalization of Mexican police officers at Thomason Hospital because of the ongoing violence to Roberto G. Medina, special agent-in-charge of ICE in El Paso.

Medina said that a Mexican officer hospitalized in January was a U.S. citizen, and the officers treated at Thomason last weekend were allowed to cross into the U.S. for "humanitarian reasons," although they were not U.S. citizens, Medina said.

Medina said that in January, ICE agents were asked to intervene during Thomason's lockdown "as security for the American people and the public at the facility. We were there in support of the sheriff's office, which had primary jurisdiction."

Medina said that last weekend, ICE agents weren't asked to support El Paso County Sheriff's Office deputies but would do so at the request of Sheriff Jimmy Apodaca.

Among the accomplishments Myers touted was the prosecution of 3,831 illegal immigrants for felony re-entry after deportation from October through May, compared to 1,808 such prosecutions during the 2007 fiscal year.

Myers said there have been 670 re-entry cases accepted for prosecution by the U.S. Attorney's Office in El Paso so far this year. She said the high number can be is attributed to the launch of Operation Repeat Offender in February.

The operation targets criminal illegal immigrants and immigration fugitives for further federal prosecution, and initially involved five ICE Detention and Removal Operations offices in the nation, including El Paso. The operation has since been implemented nationwide.

Myers said another initiative ICE officials is the Web-based E-Verify system that allows employers to check the Social Security numbers of their employees to make sure they are legal residents of the U.S.

Adriana M. Chávez reports for the El Paso Times, a member of the Texas-New Mexico Newspapers Partnership, and may be reached at achavez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6117.

http://www.lcsun-news.com/news/ci_9561933