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IMMIGRATION
Attempts to dupe agents More using fake documents to gain entry By JULIÁN AGUILAR TEXAS TRIBUNE
EL PASO — Hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants gamble their fate with human smugglers or deadly rides atop freight trains to enter Texas. Tens of thousands of others instead try a more brazen approach: handing fake documents to federal agents at ports of entry. The number of people turned away or detained at Texas ports — what the Department of Homeland Security calls “inad-
missibles” — increased by about 25 percent during the government’s 2014 fiscal year, according to statistics. Most were denied entry after presenting false or stolen documents. Customs and Border Protection agents working the Laredo field office, which includes the ports from Del Rio to Brownsville, found about 39,000 wouldbe crossers inadmissible, up from about 31,800 during the 2013 fiscal year. The El Paso field office, which extends from the Big Bend area to El Paso and through New Mexico, re-
ported about 10,170 inadmissibles, up from the previous year’s 7,855. Illegal crossers caught between the ports of entry have a slight chance at staying in the country by claiming asylum. But those caught presenting false documents, or trying to use someone else’s, at a port might never be able to gain legal access to the country, even through marriage or sponsorship, said Dan Kowalski, an immigration attorney and editor
Photo by Spencer Selvidge | Texas Tribune
This photo shows traffic at International Bridge 1, for passenger vehicles and pedestrians, in Laredo.
See IMMIGRATION PAGE 11A
WAR ON CRIME
SWEETWATER, TEXAS
Tamaulipas authorities arrest 15
WAITING FOR BUST Falling oil prices harm dependent economy By EMILY SCHMALL ASSOCIATED PRESS
Suspects accused of being associated with criminal groups By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
Tamaulipas authorities announced Wednesday statewide results of weeklong enforcement actions, which included three significant arrests in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Mexican authorities made the announcement the same day Laredo Mayor Pete Saenz had a private meeting with Nuevo Laredo Mayor Carlos Canturosas. The two discussed “issues of importance to both cities," states a City of Laredo news release. Mexican federal authorities and Tamaulipas state authorities executed the enforcement actions from Dec. 29 to Jan. 3. Fifteen people accused of being associated with criminal groups operating throughout Tamaulipas were arrested. That included the Jan. 1 arrest of a leader of halcones in Nuevo Laredo. Halcones are lookouts conducting counter-surveillance for the criminal groups. State police officers as-
signed to Fuerza Tamaulipas personnel arrested the leader and identified him as José Luis Pérez Alejo. In addition, police said they seized a vehicle reported stolen and 14,000 pesos, or about $1,037, from Pérez. A second incident was reported in Nuevo Laredo on Jan. 2. That day, federal police officers arrested Jesús Enrique Campos Medina, José de Jesús García Rueda, Armando Herrera González, José Luis Madera Saucedo and José Catarino Rangel Benítez for allegedly conducting counter-surveillance on authorities for a criminal group. Federal police also saw action Jan. 3, when they arrested Juan Carlos García Ortega in Central Nuevo Laredo. García was allegedly driving a vehicle loaded with 22 pounds of marijuana valued at $17,600. A significant arrest occurred Jan. 1 in Ciudad Victoria. There, Mexican
SWEETWATER — Just two years ago, this Texas town known mostly for its annual rattlesnake roundup seemed to be on the brink of a transformation. Expecting a huge influx of oil workers, local leaders spent tens of millions of dollars to improve the courthouse, build a new lawenforcement center and upgrade the hospital. Hotels, truck stops and housing subdivisions were to follow, all catering to truck drivers and roughnecks. Sweetwater envisioned becoming a major player in the hydraulic-fracturing boom, thanks to its location atop the Cline Shale, once estimated to be the nation’s largest underground petroleum formation. But those ambitions are fading fast as the plummeting price of oil causes investors to pull back, cutting off the projects that were sup-
Photo by LM Otero | AP
In this Dec. 23, photo, a worker caries oil well piping in Sweetwater. At the heart of the Cline, a shale formation once thought to hold more oil than Saudi Arabia, Sweetwater is bracing for layoffs and budget cuts. posed to pay for a bright new future. Now the town of 11,000 awaits layoffs and budget cuts and defers its dreams. “Here we are trying to figure out: Is this a six-month problem or is it all over?” said Greg Wortham, head of the Cline Shale Alli-
ance, a private group founded to prepare the region for the oil workers. Industry observers say what’s happening in the Cline — a 10county area on the eastern edge of
See BUST PAGE 11A
Photo by LM Otero | AP
See ARREST PAGE 11A
U.S. GOVERNMENT
As a top Senate leader, John Cornyn has to deliver By MARIA RECIO MCCLATCHY
Photo by Jacquelyn Martin | AP
Vice President Joe Biden administers the Senate oath to Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, accompanied by his wife Sandy Cornyn, during a ceremonial re-enactment swearing-in ceremony, Tuesday in the Old Senate Chamber of Capitol Hill in Washington.
WASHINGTON — Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, just started his third six-year term in office and it is shaping up as the best yet for the 62-year-old lawmaker, certainly better than what he says are the last eight "miserable" years in the minority. As the Senate majority whip, Cornyn is now the very visible second in command to Sen. Ma-
jority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. The Texan is the point man in securing votes while the Senate Republicans push an activist agenda, starting with an upcoming vote on the Keystone XL pipeline. "We have new management in the U.S. Senate," he told Texas reporters Wednesday. "I’m really excited about the prospects of changing the way the Senate operates." And while the tall, soft-spo-
ken former Texas Supreme Court judge and state attorney general rarely shows a lot of emotion, he said with a measure of enthusiasm, "It’s going to be a great adventure." Cornyn spent the last two years as Senate minority whip, a job with a nice office off the floor but little personal satisfaction. He complained often in Senate speeches about how ob-
See CORNYN PAGE 11A