illegal immigration

The tens of thousands unaccompanied immigrant children who have been caught this year at the border are being bused and flown to facilities across the country where they will be housed and cared for in make-shift camps until they are released to family. As a result, many officials in northern states are taking a sudden interest in this crisis and are demanding to know what is being done to deter future waves of children from coming to America illegally.

Last week six sheriffs from across the country were given the opportunity to take a ride on two of the Texas Highway Patrol speed and gun boats that have been patrolling the Rio Grande south of Mission since this crisis began.

Susan Tully, as the Federation for American Immigration Reform’s (FAIR’s) National Field director, helped organize the tour. Tully said FAIR is a nonprofit public policy organization out of Washington, D.C., that has been in place 35 years. Supporters of FAIR believe immigration policies should benefit America and Americans first and foremost, she said.

“What we’re doing down here in the Rio Grande Valley is all about public education of our law enforcement officials so that they can see exactly what is going on along the border,” Tully said. “The true story is not being told by most of the media so we felt it was important for these sheriffs to see the situation down here first-hand.”

She said sheriffs were strategically picked from across the country so they can in turn go back and share what they learned with their colleagues.

While public education was one of the objectives of the northern sheriffs’ visit to the Valley last week, Tully said FAIR’s ultimate goal is to change the nation’s current immigration laws.

“One of the reasons we came down here was to talk to the people who are having to deal with this crisis on a daily basis,” said Tully. “Without fai,l they all agree that the first thing we need to do is to change the 2008 law that requires them to treat minors from other countries differently than they do those from Mexico. That we need to change that legislation because between that and the (Obama) administration granting DACA (deferred action for childhood arrivals) telling children and young people that if they show up here we’re going to legalize them somehow is a perfect storm for what’s going on down here.”

The six sheriffs that toured the Rio Grande on the Texas Highway Department boats last week were Lewis Evangelidis (Worchester County, Massachusetts), Charles Jenkins (Fredericks County, Maryland), Sam Page (Rockingham County, North Carolina), Tony Childress (Livingston County, Illinois), Ken Matlack (Morrow County, Oregon) and Thomas Hodgson (Bristol County, Massachusetts).

As the six sheriffs stood on the boat dock at Anzalduas Park shortly after their ride-along with state troopers, Hodgson said the group met with Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra as well as Border Patrol personnel.

“Seeing as how a number of us are having to deal with individuals who are being sent from here to our home states, we need to know what kind of problems they’re dealing with along the border because with the movement of these individuals all over the country we’re all becoming border states,” Hodgson said.

“We’re going to be mobilizing sheriffs across this country to demand that Congress, as well as the president, act to secure these borders once and for all. We’ve been asking for it for decades and while a lot of people are referring to this as a humanitarian crisis, those of us who have our boots on the ground and have been working to get our federal government to secure our border over these years see it as a leadership crisis. Therein lays our problem.”

According to Customs and Border Protection reports, CBP has apprehended 57,525 unaccompanied alien children along the Southwest Border between October 2013 and June 2014 -- a 106 percent increase over the same period a year ago. During the same period CBP also apprehended 55,420 family units crossing the border illegally -- a 493 percent increase over last year.

In the Rio Grande Sector there have been 42,164 unaccompanied alien children and 42,358 family unit apprehensions since last October. These represent increases of 189 percent and over 500 percent, respectively.

Other than Mexican apprehensions reported from October through June were 154,606 for the Rio Grande Sector and 202,951 for the Southwest Border. Read more about Northern sheriffs get close-up look at border crisis

SALEM, Ore. -- It's exactly 1,050 miles from the Northeast Center St. overpass along Interstate 5 in Salem to the Mexican border.

About two-dozen people lined the overpass with American flags and signs on Saturday afternoon for Salem's slice of the big national movement this weekend against illegal immigration.

"We have compassion for the people coming here. But it's important they know they can't stay," said Cynthia Kendoll, president of Oregonians for Immigration Reform, the group that helped organize Salem's event. "They need to return to their home countries."

Most of the protesters trying to get drivers to pay attention were white and American-born, except for a man named Ryan Trasad.

Trasad is an immigrant himself who came to the United States 40 years ago from the Fiji Islands, closer to New Zealand than America.

"I don't think anybody I've talked to is against immigrants," said Trasad. "We're a land of immigrants. We know that."

Trasad probably did not talk much with a woman named Laura Cole, who was at the same protest on the overpass with her husband and 4-year-old son.

"I want to keep Oregon the way it is, the people that make up this town" said Cole.

When asked what she meant by that, Cole answered she wants to "keep Mexicans in Mexico. Keep European-Americans here, where we are, in our homeland... I think it's OK for us to be proud that this is our territory."

Officially, the protest was only supposed to be objecting to illegal immigration, not all kinds of immigration.

It only took a few minutes for word to spread among the protesters about Cole's comments during our recorded television interview.

Cynthia Kendoll, the group's organizer, approached our crew to distance herself from Cole's opinions.

"I heard through multiple other people that a woman made a remark that the United States should remain white, and other people should go back to their home countries," said Kendoll. "The message of our organization is if you want to come to the United States, there are legal channels to do so."

Kendoll knows fringe messages of intolerance can seep in awfully easily.

For example, after drivers passed below the official protest on I-5, they approached another group of people with an even larger sign on the next overpass.

The large banner said, "Diversity is code-word for white genocide," which represents a group opposing all forms of diversity.

"A small element of it does shade what we're trying to do," said Kendoll. "We are a nation of people who have immigrated here to build our country." Read more about 'Keep Mexicans in Mexico' comment stirs up controversy at rally

Oregonians for Immigration Reform is participating in a nationwide protest against the border immigration surge in five different locations July 18 and 19.

Jim Ludwick of Oregonians for Immigration Reform wrote in a press release that the objective is to alert citizens of the dangers of uncontrolled illegal immigration occurring at the Mexican-American border.

The protest will be held in Salem at 11 a.m. until 4 p.m., July 19 on the overpass at Interstate 5 and Center Street NE.

Protests will also be held at the following places and times:

Portland, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m., July 18 at the Mexican Consulate, 1305 SW 12th Ave

Eugene, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m., July 19 at the I-5 overpass at Harlow Road

Albany, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., July 19 at the overpass at 5 FWY and Santiam Highway

Bend, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m., July 18 at the Empire Boulevard and Highway 97 overpass

  Read more about Oregonians for Immigration Reform to protest this weekend

LUBBOCK, Texas—An illegal immigrant who was released by U.S. authorities with a Notice to Appear has been arrested for the alleged murder of a woman and kidnapping of children on U.S. soil. The alleged crimes occurred after the man was released.

The man, Pedro Alberto Monterroso-Navas, entered the U.S. illegally with children and turned himself in to U.S. Border Patrol agents. He was processed and released, as are all illegal immigrants who come as unaccompanied minors or incomplete family units from Central America. The alien is from Honduras.

The arrest was first reported by the Associated Press (AP), but Breitbart Texas has exclusively confirmed that the man was part of the Obama Administration’s catch and release policy for family groups from Central America.

A U.S. Border Patrol source who spoke with Breitbart Texas on the condition of anonymity provided Breitbart Texas with the alien registration number for the man, and the event number for the man’s apprehension. He was processed in the McAllen station of the U.S. Border Patrol. The alien’s registration number is 202027386. The event number for his apprehension is MCS14061487. The “MCS” designates the McAllen station, the “1406” designates that the man was apprehended in June of 2014. A separate Border Patrol source confirmed that the man was apprehended on June 26, 2014 with two children he claimed were his own. He told U.S. authorities he had family in Metairie, Louisiana.

The AP identified the illegal alien as a “suburban New Orleans man” who faces a second-degree murder charge after his girlfriend was found bludgeoned to death in a bathtub in Louisiana. The man was arrested in a Katy, Texas trailer park with three children. It is unclear if they are his or if they are the same children he used to get U.S. authorities to release him with a Notice to Appear.

The AP did not inform their readers that the man was an illegal alien.

Follow Breitbart Texas Managing Director Brandon Darby on Twitter: @brandondarby.

A typo regarding dates has been corrected in this article. Read more about Released Alien from Border Crisis Arrested for Alleged Murder, Kidnapping in Texas

Earlier this week, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Guatemalan president Otto Perez Molina held a joint press conference to formally announce a new program that will allow Guatemalan citizens to legally travel through Mexico in their effort to enter the United States illegally. Guatemala is one of three sending countries accounting for most of the illegal aliens coming across the U.S.-Mexico border during the ongoing surge. The agreement grants Guatemalans 72 hours of legal status while they make their journey to the U.S.

The "Southern Border Program to Improve Passage" will increase the number of border checkpoints along the Mexico-Guatemala border, provide medical care, and offer Guatemalans a Regional Visitor's Card. The card grants Guatemalans enough time to make the trek to Mexico's northern border.

The program will also offer protection and financial assistance for unaccompanied minors who attempt to make the journey.

For more information, see the Examiner and El Universal.

  Read more about Mexico & Guatemala announce agreement to make illegal passage to U.S. easier

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — United Nations officials are pushing for many of the Central Americans fleeing to the U.S. to be treated as refugees displaced by armed conflict, a designation meant to increase pressure on the United States and Mexico to accept tens of thousands of people currently ineligible for asylum.

Officials with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees say they hope to see a regional agreement on that status Thursday when migration and interior department representatives from the U.S., Mexico, and Central America meet in Nicaragua. The group will discuss updating a 30-year-old declaration regarding the obligations nations have to aid refugees.

While such a resolution would lack any legal weight in the United States,...

  Read more about UN pushes for Central American migrants to be called refugees, increasing pressure on US

MEXICALI, Mexico — A U.S. effort to discourage immigrants' repeated attempts to enter the country illegally by dropping them back in Mexico hundreds of miles away from where they were caught has been sharply scaled back after producing relatively modest gains.

U.S. authorities insist the Alien Transfer Exit Program has contributed to overall achievements in border security and say the cutbacks reflected a need to shift resources to deal with Central Americans pouring into Texas....

  Read more about US border enforcement effort sputters as many migrants cross again, funding diminishes