illegal immigration

Just across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas, stands a dormitory-style shelter filled with people recently deported from the U.S. and other migrants waiting to cross the border.

The long rows of bunk beds offer immigrants a place to rest on their long journey. But the shelter is no safe haven in a town controlled by the Gulf cartel. Armed men once showed up and took away 15 men, who were probably put to work as gunmen, lookouts or human mules hauling bales of marijuana into the United States.

As Congress takes up immigration reform, lawmakers may have to confront the reality of this place and others like it, where people say the current system of immigration enforcement and deportation produces a constant flow of people north and south that provides the cartel with a vulnerable labor pool and steady source of revenue.

"This vicious circle favors organized crime because the migrant is going to pay" for safe passage, said the Rev. Francisco Gallardo, who oversees immigrant-assistance efforts for the Matamoros Catholic diocese.

If Congress sends more resources to the border, the government will also need to account for shifting patterns in immigrant arrests.

The cartel controls who crosses the border and profits from each immigrant by taxing human smugglers. At the shelter, the cartel threat was so alarming that shelter administrators began encouraging immigrants to go into the streets during the day, thinking they would be harder to round up than at the shelter.

There have been record numbers of deportations in recent years and tens of thousands landed in Tamaulipas already this year, the state that borders Texas from Matamoros to Nuevo Laredo. Arizona is often singled out as the busiest border crossing for immigrants entering the U.S., but more and more migrants are being caught in the southernmost tip of Texas, in the Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley sector.

Apprehension statistics are imperfect measures because they only capture a fraction of the real flow, but the arrest numbers are definitely shifting.

Arrests in the Tucson, Ariz., sector dropped 3 percent last year, while Rio Grande Valley arrests rose 65 percent. In March alone, the Border Patrol made more than 16,000 immigrant arrests in the Rio Grande Valley sector, a 67 percent increase from the same month last year, according to the agency.

Immigrant deaths are also up. The sector reported last month that about 70 bodies were found in the first six months of the fiscal year, more than twice as many as the previous year.

The makeup of the immigrants apprehended here is changing, too, driven by people flowing out of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. The Border Patrol made 94,532 arrests of non-Mexican immigrants along the Southwest border last year, more than double the year before. And nearly half of those came in the Rio Grande Valley sector.

The Border Patrol is responding by redirecting personnel, including sending most new graduates from its academy to the Rio Grande Valley, according to senior Border Patrol officials.

When immigrants from Central America and Mexico arrive in Matamoros ahead of their trip to America, they are met by smugglers who have to pay the cartel tax for every person they take across the border.

Attempts to cross alone are met with violence. Some immigrants are kidnapped and their families extorted by the organization.

Reported murders in Tamaulipas, the state that borders Texas from Matamoros to Nuevo Laredo, increased more than 250 percent in the past four years, according to the Mexican government. Official statistics are generally thought to undercount the real toll. Soldiers recently killed six gunmen in a clash in Matamoros.

And yet, even with the high-degree of danger for immigrants crossing this part of the border, they keep coming.

Central American migrants continue to use the route up the Gulf Coast side of Mexico and through Tamaulipas because it's the shortest to the U.S., said Rodolfo Casillas Ramirez, a professor at Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales in Mexico City. The smugglers choose the route, and even if immigrants have heard about the violence in Tamaulipas, "they trust that the premium they've paid includes the right of passage," he said.

They continue to leave their home countries for economic reasons. Although the U.S. economy has provided fewer jobs for immigrants during the Great Recession and a long, slow recovery, opportunities south of the border have been even more limited, Casillas said.

That's why the Rev. Alejandro Solalinde, a Roman Catholic priest who founded a shelter for immigrants in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, said the answer is in regional development, not increased border security.

"This situation has grown because ultimately the migrants are merchandise and organized crime profits in volume," he said during a recent visit to Matamoros.

Rep. Filemon Vela, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee whose district includes Brownsville, said the immigration-reform debate has so far left out discussion of the security and economic development in Mexico.

"The incentive for people to cross over illegally from Mexico will never subside until these individuals feel safe and until they are able to feed themselves and their families," Vela said.

At the 150-bed shelter, more than half of the immigrants have just been deported from the U.S., Gallardo said. The others are immigrants preparing to cross. He said shelter workers constantly chase out infiltrators who are paid by smugglers to recruit inside.

At Solalinde's shelter in southern Mexico, threats from organized crime forced them to bring in four state police officers and four federal ones, who have lived at his shelter for the past year as protection. Solalinde now travels with bodyguards after having fled Mexico for a couple of months last year following threats.

One immigrant at the Matamoros shelter was a 48-year-old man who would only give his name as "Gordo" because he feared for his safety. He said he had arrived two days earlier after traveling from Copan, Honduras. Gordo said he had lived in Los Angeles for 10 years but had been in Honduras for the past four. He was trying to make it back to California, where he has a 15-year-old daughter.

Asked about his prospects for successfully crossing the river, he said: "It's difficult, not so much for the Border Patrol" but for the cartels.
___

Associated Press Writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report. Read more about Cartel towns pose challenge for immigration reform

After the Oregon Supreme Court threw out their aggravated murder convictions, two men pleaded guilty Friday afternoon to first-degree manslaughter in the 2005 death of Jessie Mary Valero, fatally stabbed in her Hillsboro apartment.

Jorge Reyes-Sanchez, 29, and Leonardo Cruz-Casarez, 38, were convicted of aggravated murder, murder, first-degree robbery and first-degree burglary in 2007.

On appeal, the state Court of Appeals and Supreme Court said the trial judge should have allowed hearsay evidence that a woman had confessed to the murder on several occasions.

The men returned to Washington County for new trials in 2011 and have remained in the county jail since then.

In their Friday pleas, the men agreed to serve the 10-year Measure 11 sentence for first-degree manslaughter. With credit for time served, their release date will likely be set for 2015.

***

In March 2005, Jessie Mary Valero, 48, had just started a new job at Little Caesar's.

When she didn't show up to work March 16, 2005, her coworker stopped by to check on her. No one answered the door. The next day, Valero's victim's adult son, Ray Valero, walked into his mother's apartment and found her body on the living room floor beneath a pile of sheets and blankets. She had been stabbed 29 times with a screwdriver.

Prosecutors said jewelry was strewn about the apartment, and Valero’s gold pendant of the Virgin Mary was missing. They argued Valero was killed during a burglary, in which the defendants planned to steal jewelry to exchange for methamphetamine.

Three men were charged in Jessie Valero's death: Leonardo Cruz-Casarez, Jorge Reyes-Sanchez and Jose Luis Lugardo-Madero. The first two were found guilty of aggravated murder. The third testified against the other two and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter.

Cruz-Casarez and Reyes-Sanchez, both eligible for the death penalty, were sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole. Lugardo-Madero was sentenced to 15 years.

***
At trial, defense attorney Ray Bassel, who represented Cruz-Casarez, said an independent investigation turned up another potential suspect in the case.

He offered testimony from four witnesses, who told the court a woman had admitted to each of them that she stabbed a woman. Details in their testimony matched those in Valero's death.

But Circuit Judge Mark Gardner, now retired, wouldn't allow the testimony, saying it didn't meet the standards of an Oregon Evidence Code exception that allows hearsay evidence at trial.

Brought up outside the presence of the jury, jurors never heard about the evidence.

Cruz-Casarez and Reyes-Sanchez appealed their convictions, arguing the excluded testimony should have been allowed.

On appeal, the Oregon Court of Appeals reversed the guilty findings and the Oregon Supreme Court upheld that ruling.

***

In Washington County Circuit Court Friday, Ray Valero and about a dozen family members watched the court hearing in frustration.

The victim's daughter, Anita Valero, wore a white T-shirt with words printed in black:

"We need justice
10 years???"

She and other family members pleaded with the judge not to accept the plea deal.

"Your honor, that was my mom," Anita said through tears, "that was brutally murdered three days before my birthday.

"I don't understand the court systems, I don't understand why it's ending this way," she said. "I don't think that it's justice at all, I honestly don't. I'm leaving it up to my God to finish whatever."

Jessie Valero's son, David, addressed the court by phone.

"I feel like right now, the justice system in Oregon isn't doing anything," he said. "I need you to reconsider this, judge.

"My mom basically died for a high," he said. "She did everything right in her life. Please reconsider this, judge."

After Judge Kohl accepted the plea deals, Ray Valero and another family member left the courtroom uttering profanities.

***

The victim's family and defense attorneys agreed on at least one point: Both wanted all the evidence presented at trial in 2007.

The appellate court rulings said jurors should have heard testimony that a person not charged in the death had confessed to the crime.

Defense attorney Greg Scholl, who represented Reyes-Sanchez, indicated in his statements Friday that the prosecution's efforts to win trials had led to this case's reversal.

"There a strategy of what attorneys do in trial work," he said, and the strategy plays out in objections.

In this case, a defense lawyer offered evidence of a confession, but prosecutors objected, Scholl said.

"When an attorney objects, it case send them down a path that takes 10 years to recover from," he said, referring to the appellate process.

"Sometimes (prosecutors) get what they want at their peril," he said.

Bassel, representing Cruz-Casarez, told the court there was a still a possibility that his client was innocent.

After the hearing Friday, the victim's family members said prosecutors should have let the excluded defense witnesses testify in 2007.

"Then we wouldn't be here," Anita Valero said.

***

The crime scene turned up no forensic evidence, Deputy District Attorney Dan Hesson told Circuit Judge Thomas Kohl on Friday.

The state's case relied heavily on several key witnesses, including Lugardo-Madero, who has since changed his story.

Hesson said some witnesses could not be found, others have recanted their testimony and some told authorities they no longer remember the events.

Though the district attorney's office accepted the defendants' pleas, prosecutors' theory for how the homicide occurred has not changed, Hesson said.

"We're forced to swallow a bitter pill," Hesson said. "We do so reluctantly. We're not saying she wasn't murdered; she was murdered.

"She was murdered," he said, "and the acceptance of this plea does not change that fact."

The judge acknowledged that the state's evidence, weakened or lost over time, led to this resolution.

Kohl said he'd read all of the letters sent to him by the victim's family.

"Most of you had asked that I not accept this plea," he told them. "That wouldn't help."

But he suggested he wasn't pleased with the outcome.

"This is unfortunate, the way this case is going to be resolved," he said.

ICE HOLD - CAZARES-MENDEZ, JOSE GUADALUPE (aka Leonardo Cruz-Casarez)
ICE HOLD - REYES-SANCHEZ, JORGE Read more about Aggravated murder convictions reversed, men plead to manslaughter in stabbing death of Jessie Mary Valero

The Senate "Gang of Eight" immigration bill, S. 744, now wending its way through the Judiciary Committee, has been sold as a "pathway to citizenship" for the estimated 11 million illegal aliens. It does a lot more damage than that, and the public needs to understand what's in it.

Just a few years ago, key members of the "Gang of Eight" would have seemed content to enact the so-called Dream Act — a more modest amnesty for about 500,000 to 700,000 aliens brought here as young people. This has been replaced with a massive proposal that tries to rewrite virtually every aspect of U.S. immigration law, and not for the better.

Why the big reach now? Because the bill's major sponsors figure the stars have aligned and that it is time to go for broke. Under prodding from President Obama and the supervision of Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, S. 744 is not just a big amnesty — it goes way beyond that in ways the mainstream media haven't reported. Mr. Schumer has assembled a wish list for every special-interest group that profits from immigration either financially or politically. In doing so, the public and national security interests are in very real danger of irreparable damage.

If you care about effective and enforceable immigration policies, you need to pay attention. The bill has the potential to change everything that makes America a great place to be. Overcrowding, congestion, unemployment and even larger deficits will be the new norm.

Mr. Schumer has presided over the crafting of a stealthy legislative monster that would render any limits on immigration meaningless. Through its 867 pages, the bill explodes overall immigration — more than 50 million people will gain permanent residence or temporary work status in just the next 10 years — while rendering asylum, refugee and immigration laws virtually unenforceable. On top of the expected administrative anarchy, the huge increases in overall immigration could set off the biggest unmanaged population increase in modern history.

Mr. Schumer is not to be underestimated. A 30-year veteran of immigration law and policy, he knows how to design a program to maximize the inflow while derailing integrity. He gave us the fraud-ridden agricultural amnesty in 1986, viewed by most experts as having been riddled with fraud.

Mr. Schumer has built on this experience by authoring a bill designed to promote fragmentation, dysfunction and delay. Instead of actual border security, S. 744 promises us a plan to secure the border, with no consequence for failing to implement it. It hands lawyers carte blanche to tie our legal system in knots litigating denied amnesty claims, even on behalf of criminals and people who have already been deported. The bill would dramatically expand the admission of both skilled and low-skilled labor, while widening the grounds for gaining asylum beyond what is justified by law and common sense.

This bill is a political power grab by those who would sell off residency in the United States to the highest bidder — using a public asset for personal and party gain. Mr. Schumer and the rest of the "Gang of Eight" think they can get away with it because the American people — who still care about borders and the collective good — do not have powerful Washington lobbyists looking out for their interests.

The drafters know the details of the bill would be extremely unpopular if they were widely known, which is why it is being rushed through the Senate before anyone can even fully digest it. After just a handful of stacked hearings, S. 744 is now being rushed through markup in an effort to get it to the floor by June.

The American people need to know more about what is in this bill, and the media have the obligation to explain the scope and probable effects of this bill. Amazingly, even in the wake of the Boston bombings, concerns about the national security implications of the bill have not only not been explored, but dismissed as obstructionist.

S. 744 is much more than a big amnesty program. It shreds our immigration-control system and enshrines every fear that Americans have regarding our loss of border and administrative management. Passing bills first and reading them later is a prescription for disaster. We can only have an honest discussion about our national immigration future if we all have an honest opportunity to read and study the bill.

Dan Stein is president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Read more about No need for speed on immigration bill

On Tuesday, May 21st, state and local groups around the country will hold a series of press conferences to highlight their opposition to S. 744, the Senate’s comprehensive amnesty bill. The goal is to call attention to the bill’s many failings and to promote an immigration-enforcement approach to reform.

An Arizona-based coalition called Remember 1986 took the lead in coordinating the press conferences. The coalition’s press conference web site page contains a list of planned events. In many instances, participants will be delivering to Senators NumbersUSA petitions that have been signed by a state's citizens.

The events will especially spotlight three key factors about the Gang of Eight immigration bill:

• It won't stop the next amnesty: Its format of amnesty first and enforcement later is the same as the 1986 amnesty in which "later" never came and enforcement promises were all broken.
• It is an attack on the 20 million Americans who can't find a full-time job: The bill doubles legal immigration to meet the desires of a gang of corporate lobbyists to continue to hold down wages. All-told, the bill offers 33 million lifetime work permits to 11 million illegal aliens and 22 million new immigrants in the first decade alone.
• It adds a massive unfunded mandate to government spending and debt: The Heritage Foundation studied the costs of the bill only for the 11 million illegal aliens who would get the amnesty. It projected $9.4 trillion in government services over their lifetime, but only $3.1 trillion in taxes, leaving a net cost of $6.3 trillion.

  Read more about National Press Day Opposing Comprehensive Amnesty Bill

A judge on Thursday refused to halt Gov. Jan Brewer's order that denies driver's licenses for young immigrants in Arizona who have gotten work permits and avoided deportation under an Obama administration policy.

U.S. District Judge David Campbell denied a request from immigrant rights advocates for a preliminary injunction and threw out one of their arguments, but their lawsuit remains alive as they pursue arguments that the young immigrants are suffering from unequal treatment.

Arizona's refusal to view those in President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program as legal residents has become the most visible challenge to his announcement in June that some young immigrants would be protected from deportation. The Department of Homeland Security has said immigrants with work permits issued under the policy are lawfully present in the U.S.

Campbell rejected the argument by immigrant rights advocates who said Brewer's policy was unconstitutional because it's trumped by federal law.

"This portion of the ruling is not only a victory for the state of Arizona _ it is a victory for states' rights, the rule of law and the bedrock principles that guide our nation's legislative process and the division of power between the federal government and states," Brewer said in a statement.

But the judge said the immigrant rights advocates are likely to succeed in arguing that the state lets some immigrants with work permits get driver's licenses but won't let immigrants protected under Obama's program have the same benefit.

Cecillia Wang, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the groups representing the immigrants, said those who challenged Brewer's policy will examine their options in court for protecting the young immigrants.

"It's keeping people out on a limb," Wang said of the ruling.

Last summer, the Obama administration took administrative steps to shield thousands of immigrants from deportation. Applicants for the deferment program must have come to the U.S. before they turned 16, be younger than 30, have been in the country for at least five continuous years, be in school or have graduated from high school or GED program, or have served in the military. They also were allowed to apply for a two-year renewable work permit.

Arizona's policy allows anyone with lawful immigration status to get a driver's license, and more than 500 immigrants with work permits have obtained Arizona driver's licenses in recent years. But Arizona officials have said they don't want to extend driver's licenses to those in the new program because they don't believe the youths will be able to stay in the country legally.

Brewer's lawyers argued that Obama's policy isn't federal law and the state has the authority to distinguish between immigrants with work permits who are on the path toward permanent residency and those benefiting from Obama's policy. The state's lawyers argued Arizona isn't violating its own policy by refusing to grant licenses to the immigrants in the program, because the youths haven't been granted legal protections by Congress.

Immigrant rights advocates filed their lawsuit in November on behalf of five young-adult immigrants who were brought to the U.S. from Mexico as children. They were granted deferred-deportation protections under the Obama administration's policy but were denied driver's licenses in Arizona.

The lawsuit said Brewer's policy makes it difficult or impossible for such young immigrants to do essential things in their everyday life, such as going to school, going to the grocery store, and finding and holding down a job.

A similar lawsuit was filed in Michigan after officials there initially decided to deny young immigrants licenses, but the case was dropped when the state changed its policy last month. At least 38 states have agreed to give driver's licenses to immigrants benefiting from the Obama policy, but Nebraska and Ohio officials have also balked.

Brewer has clashed with the Obama administration in the past over illegal immigration, most notably in the challenge that the federal government filed in a bid to invalidate Arizona's 2010 immigration law. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law's most contentious section, but threw out other sections. Read more about Judge lets Ariz. immigrant license policy stand

A Federal judge on Thursday refused to halt Gov. Jan Brewer’s order that denies driver’s licenses for illegal aliens in Arizona who have gotten work permits and avoided deportation under Barack Obama’s “DACA” virtual amnesty.

The decision by U.S. District Judge David Campbell rejects the argument by immigrant rights advocates who said Brewer’s policy was unconstitutional because it’s trumped by federal law – an enormous victory for Arizona and defeat for Obama, which should immediately rally other states to deny licenses as well.

Arizona’s refusal to view those in President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals amnesty program as legal residents has become the most visible challenge to his announcement in June that some young immigrants would be protected from deportation. The Department of Homeland Security has said illegal aliens with work permits issued under the policy are lawfully present in the U.S.

Brewer’s lawyers argued that Obama’s policy isn’t federal law and the state has the authority to distinguish between illegals with work permits who are on the path toward permanent residency and those benefiting from Obama’s policy. The state’s lawyers argued Arizona isn’t violating its own policy by refusing to grant licenses to the immigrants in the program, because the youths haven’t been granted legal protections by Congress.

This is the same argument being made by ICE agent leader Chris Crane, who is suing Obama and DHS to halt this unlawful decree.

Obama, in July 2012, said people younger than 30 brought to the U.S. before they turned 16 could apply for “deferred action”. They will be granted work permits and Social Security numbers. As SWA detailed at the time, Obama’s amnesty order is ripe for abuse, as it has almost no safeguards against fraud.

Currently, Arizona, Iowa, and Nebraska prohibit driver’s licenses to DACA recipients, while California, Texas and Florida grant the licenses. Michigan initially denied licenses – until the DHS memo was released, whereupon they reversed course and will now grant them. North Carolina is currently waffling over whether or not to do so.

Each state must decide the issue for itself, according to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, which said, “At the end of the day, it’s a state-issued document, and the state has the authority to determine who is eligible for that document.”

We salute Gov. Brewer for standing tall for the rule of law – and directly against Obama – on this critical issue, where others have sadly floundered. We call on citizens to contact their governors to deny all illegal aliens drivers licenses, and cite this critical Federal judicial ruling to back it up.

Gov. Brewer issued a statement regarding the court’s order tonight…

Earlier tonight, a federal court UPHELD my Executive Order and Arizona’s law denying driver’s licenses to illegal aliens who President Obama has allowed to remain in our country under his outrageous deferred action program. The court ruled that Obama’s program DOES NOT preempt Arizona’s ability to determine who can re…ceive a driver’s license. This is a great victory for state’s rights and the rule of law! As Governor, I have taken an oath to uphold the laws of Arizona and I will continue to vigorously defend the citizens of Arizona and the duly-enacted laws of our State.

WTG Governor! Read more about Victory: federal Judge Upholds Arizona Governor Brewer's Order Denying Licenses to Illegal Aliens

A team of smoke jumpers fighting fires in the Applegate unknowingly dropped into a 1,500-plant marijuana garden this week, sheriff's officials said.

The locally-based smoke jumpers parachuted into the garden as they were searching for lightning-sparked fires, Jackson County sheriff's spokeswoman Andrea Carlson said.

The firefighters contacted law enforcement, who pulled the plants from the site on Tuesday, Carlson said.

"They had no idea they were dropping into a marijuana garden," Carlson said.

The sheriff's department said it is unusual to find a large marijuana garden this early in the year.

People usually stumble into the gardens in the late summer or early fall.

Most of the plants were small and growing inside plastic pots.

"They were in starter kits, so to speak," Carlson said.

The grow site was littered with hills of garbage, much of it harmful chemicals that can pollute soil and streams in the area, officials said.

At least two people were believed to be camping at the garden, keeping armed watch over the plants as they grew over the summer, Carlson said.

"These plants were going to be harvested in late summer or early fall," Carlson said.

The amount of garbage was disturbing, though not surprising considering what deputies have seen piled up at previous gardens found in the forest, she said.

"If you consider at least two people were eating two meals a day and then throwing the food containers away, and that it takes a lot of chemicals and fertilizers to start these grows, that's a lot of trash," Carlson said. "It's very bad for the environment of our forests."

The sheriff's department is putting together a group of volunteers who will hike into the garden to haul out the trash in the coming weeks, Carlson said.

"We won't just let it sit out there," Carlson said.

There were 1,509 plants at the site, along with hundreds of additional holes dug for future planting. Authorities also found two long guns and other evidence that suggested the garden was part of a Mexican cartel operation, Carlson said. She declined to elaborate, citing the ongoing investigation.

Those recreating on federal lands should be aware of the dangers of coming across possible grow sites, officials say. Telltale signs are PVC piping or black poly-pipe, bags of fertilizer, large quantities of trash and camp sites. Those who come across such sites should leave immediately the way they came in, police say. If possible, take note of the location on a GPS and make a waypoint but do not linger or investigate further. Upon returning home, call the local sheriff's department and provide accurate road descriptions and drainage or creek names.

"Anything that doesn't add up to the way the woods should look should give you a clue that you're in a marijuana grow," Carlson said. "Just head back the way you came and immediately call law enforcement."

Most of the marijuana plants at the grow site were small and inside plastic pots, said sheriff’s officials. Read more about Smoke jumpers plant landing in pot 'starter kits'

Police arrested more than 30 people and searched two dozen locations in predawn raids Wednesday in Klamath County, dismantling a "large and violent" drug organization linked to Mexican drug cartels.

Law enforcement officials said it was the largest one-day roundup of drug-dealing suspects in recent Oregon history.

The investigation, "Operation Trojan Horse," was initiated after the bodies of two suspected drug traffickers from California were found shot and buried last October on a ranch outside Bonanza, a tiny community 25 miles east of Klamath Falls.

Wednesday's raids, led by Special Weapons and Tactics teams and involving 300 officers from local, state and federal agencies, hit homes and businesses in Klamath Falls, Chiloquin, Malin and Bonanza to break up a large methamphetamine trafficking organization. The group also trafficked in guns, authorities said. The investigation was orchestrated by the state Criminal Justice Division, a unit of Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum's office.

Police, who also searched 22 cars and trucks, seized 4 pounds of methamphetamine and 25 guns. Several children were turned over to state social service workers.

"Agents have developed evidence of connections between the meth ring located in Klamath County and Mexican drug cartels. The cartels have successfully made inroads into Oregon, particularly into some rural parts of the state," according to a statement from the state Justice Department.

Authorities wouldn't elaborate, and they wouldn't comment on the link between Wednesday's arrests and the October homicides. The Klamath County Sheriff's Office had identified the victims as Everardo Mendez-Ceja, 32, of Richmond, Calif., and Ricardo Jauregui, 38, of Oakley, Calif. No one has been arrested in that case.

Officials late Wednesday morning were still preparing a list of those arrested in the drug case.

Klamath County Sheriff Frank Skrah had to open a mothballed pod at the county jail to hold those arrested. Skrah said he had no estimate of the cost for the extra staffing and other operating costs.

The carefully coordinated raids launched at 3 a.m., when police expected most suspects to be asleep. Tactical units from Oregon State Police, several sheriff's departments and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms struck each location while heavily armed and in some instances using specialized SWAT vehicles.

At one location in downtown Klamath Falls, SWAT officers used explosives to blow the front door off a home. They quickly subdued at least two suspects as other officers moved in to begin searching for drugs and other evidence. At another location, police battered in the front door of a mobile home on an unlit dirt road near the Klamath Falls Airport. A woman arrested inside directed police to a small amount of methamphetamine and cash.

Suspects were ferried to the Klamath Falls Police Department, where they were plunked into plastic chairs arranged in a square on the agency's indoor basketball court.

The suspects, men and women, sat speechless, their handcuffed hands in front of them. Explorers, volunteer youth workers, were tasked with keeping an eye on them. The disheveled suspects hung their heads and looked at second-story interior windows but didn't say a word to one another.

The man police identified as the suspected ringleader sat up straight, glaring. The suspects were awaiting questioning before heading to jail and arraignments in Klamath County Circuit Court later in the day.

Local police said budget cuts in recent years eliminated their local drug team. Drug traffickers took advantage of that void, officials said.

"We have drug dealers in this community operating with impunity," said Jim Hunter, Klamath Falls Police Department chief.

Skrah agreed.

"These folks think this is like Andy in Mayberry," said Skrah, referring to the long-running television series featuring actor Andy Griffith as a small-town sheriff.

"Meth is rampant in the county here. Really, it's an epidemic in rural Oregon," said Rob Patridge, Klamath County district attorney.

Patridge said the drug sweep signaled that law enforcement is watching and acting.

"The message is we're not going to stand idly by and let drug dealers take over Klamath County," Patridge said.

Patridge said drug traffickers were to blame for violent crimes, thefts, burglaries and prostitution in the county of 66,000.

Local law enforcement officials said the major investigation couldn't have been accomplished with diminished local resources.

"We don't have the manpower to do the job," said Skrah.

Criminal Justice Division officials were joined in the investigation by the Klamath County Police Department, Klamath County Sheriff's Office, Oregon State Police, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Other agencies participating included the Medford Police Department, the Jackson County Sheriff's Office, Central Oregon Drug Enforcement team from Bend, Medford Area Drug and Gang Enforcement and the Rogue Area Drug Enforcement team from Grant Pass.

  Read more about Klamath County drug raids dismantle 'violent' group linked to Mexican cartels

A national biometric database of virtually every adult in the United States would be created under the comprehensive immigration reform legislation currently being debated in the Senate.

Such a database, introduced on page 178 of the 844-page bill, has privacy groups fearing that it is the first step toward a national identification system, Wired.com reports.

The reform bill would create a “photo tool” — a huge federal database — that would be administered by the Department of Homeland Security, Wired reports.

It would contain the names, ages, Social Security numbers and photographs of everyone in the nation with a driver’s license or other state-issued photo ID.

Employers would be required to check the database for every new hire to verify that they match their photo, Wired reports.

The database seeks to curb the employment of undocumented immigrants, but privacy advocates fear widespread abuse on many levels.

“It starts to change the relationship between the citizen and state. You do have to get permission to do things,” Chris Calabrese, a congressional lobbyist with the American Civil Liberties Union, told Wired. “More fundamentally, it could be the start of keeping a record of all things.”

The legislation currently allows the database to be used solely for employment purposes — though such limitations haven’t lasted long historically, privacy advocates say.

They cite the Social Security card, created in 1936 to track individual government retirement benefits.

Now, the number is necessary virtually any major purchase, including health insurance.

“The Social Security number itself, it’s pretty ubiquitous in your life,” Calabrese said.

David Bier, an analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the libertarian think tank, agreed.

“The most worrying aspect is that this creates a principle of permission basically to do certain activities — and it can be used to restrict activities,” Bier told Wired. “It’s like a national ID system without the card.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee has not yet examined this part of the immigration bill, formally known as the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act.

Debate is scheduled to continue on Thursday. Read more about Immigration Reform Bill Includes National Biometric Database