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Show T'TT' DAILY A10 ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION Manuel THE late-nig- drug-trafficki- Content does matter 55 of our readers hold a management position at their place of employment. Where else would you advertise? www.heraldextra.com i i gr i I II If 111 NM - UN TED STATES V have peace of mind at . Texas Rf SINALOA home." Graciela Dominguez Sinaloa state legislator O gunned down by assassins who were once known for their precision but have now taken to wildly spraying bullets. The effect of the carnage has been widespread terror and a society afraid to demand justice. "They have us in a panic," Luciana Arredondo a prosecutor in Guamuchil, said of the cartels in an interview. "They have us terrorized." Here in Sinaloa a haven where more than 580 people have been killed since January the danger to innocents has reached crisis proportions, Graciela Dominguez, a state legislator, said in an interview at her office in the state capiArre-dond- v Mazatlan i Pacific I g c MEXICO i Ocean "v 500 Mexico City MILES o, GENE of Mexican organized crime. The Sinaloa cartel is Mexico's drug-trafficki- tal, Culiacan. "You don't have peace of mind walking the streets you don't have peace of mind at home," she said. Three days before the massacre in this town, cartel assassins killed 11 people in three daylight shootouts in Culiacan. Among the victims were two college professors who had the misfortune to be waiting in a car repair shop when the shooting started. Cartel members also are blamed for holding hostage dozens of customers in a Mazatlan shopping center and firing bazookas into a Culiacan neighborhood, though no civilians were killed. In a country where drug trafficking touches nearly every village and mountain range, Sinaloa state is generally considered the ground zero TCuliacan ' largest, authorities say, and has been rapidly expanding by crushing rivals or making alliances with other trafficking organizations in a loosely configured conglomeration known as the Federatioa Sinaloa is the starting point for much of the drugs that pass through Mexico to the United States. The long, narrow state stretches over 450 miles of coastline laced with tiny inlets and bays, affording drug traffickers countless clandestine drop points for shipments of cocaine, heroin and marijuana. Once on shore, traffickers can quickly squirrel away their cargoes in rugged nearby mountains where villagers tend to be more loyal to the cartels than to law enforcement. The current uptick in violence in Sinaloa is most likely the result of "a historic rupture" in the alliance between Mexico's most feared drug lord, Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman, and a pair of brothers who had served as hit men for his Sinaloa cartel, according to a top federal police official THORPWashington Post who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment. One of the brothers, Arturo Beltran Leyva, was arrested in January, and his loyalists mistakenly believing Guzman helped arrange the arrest are now seeking revenge against the drug lord, the federal official said. "The streets where they once lived together now don't seem big enough for both of them," the official said. But Sinaloans law-abidi- have also begun to accept some of the blame for the violence. Drug cartels have openly used this mountainous state as a center of operations. The richest cartel leaders have flaunted their wealth by buying fancy cars and living in swanky mansions in the region. "The problem is that for the years we let this grow society is as much responsible as the government," said Dominguez, the state legislator. "This is a lesson for society: If all this hadn't been accepted, we wouldn't be reaching these levels of violence." p :' jf y M I m I rCz- don't have peace of mind walking the streets you don't "You y r, i POST The three teenagers started their big weekend singing "Happy Birthday" to the parish priest. The next day, they prayed for hours with their church youth group, then went on to a quinceanera, Mexico's celarchetypal ebration. As the party wound down, they talked their parents into letting them go for a cruise down the main drag in Guamuchil, a ritual in this Saturday-nigh- t sleepy market town, friends and family say. During that cruise, investigators believe the teens inadvertently blocked drug cartel assassins in hot pursuit of their enemies. Once police arrived in the wee hours of July 13, the assassins were gone but the three teens and a girl who was riding with them lay dead in their cars. Four others and three another teen-age- r adults were dead in nearby cars. There were 539 bullet casings on the ground. a masThe killings here sacre of eight people who were not suspected of ties punctuated a vicious turn in Mexico's drug war, a savage conflict between rival cartels and the federal government that has taken more than 7,000 lives in the past 2 12 years. In the past, cartels have killed their rivals, as well as police and public officials. Occasionally even family members have been slain. Yet in recent weeks, an increasing number of innocent bystanders have been gunned down by suspected drug cartel hit men here in Sinaloa, a cartel stronghold on Mexico's Pacific coast, as well as in the brutally contested drug corridors along the U.S. border. In most instances, investigators believe, the victims were merely at the wrong place at the wrong time, -- i Roig-Franz- ia WASHINGTON GUAMUCHIL, Mexico undeniably true is, illegals MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS respond to changing incentives, and some significant share have left the country," FORT WORTH, Texas he said. "It seems to contradict More than a million illegal immigrants have fled the coun- the argument that illegals are permanently attached to the try, mostly because increased United States and their lives immigration enforcement has discouraged them from trying here and there's no way to to put down roots in the U.S., change that." His report predicts that if according to a study released Wednesday by the Center for this trend is sustained the illeImmigration Studies. gal immigrant population could The Washington, D.C. based be cut in half in five years. groups lamgroup that has been pushing for stronger immigration law basted the study and said that enforcement for years. only a slowing economy, not The study concludes that the enforcement, would encourillegal immigrant population in age illegal immigrants to go the U.S. dropped 1.3 million, or home. 11 percent, from "I think their methodology August 2007 is flawed, and I think they're to May 2008. That leaves 11.2 million illegal immigrants in overlooking, 'It's the economy, " the country, according to the stupid,' said Angela Kelley, of the Immigration director study. SteThe study's Policy Center, a ven Camarota, said he believes policy and research organizamost of the drop is from illegal tion in Washington. She said the study's mention immigrants fleeing enforceof the unemployment rate igment rather than losing their nores the drop in construction jobs because the drop in their numbers started before the and restaurant jobs that hit illegal workers hard. unemployment rate began to rise. The drop in the number of Kelley also pointed to a illegal immigrants is already University of California at San Diego study that found that ilgreater than that seen in the last recession, he said. legal immigrants fear crossing the harsh desert climate more "It does seem that enforcement is working. What seems than they fear enforcement. Patrick McGee - Thursday, July 31. 2008 Mexico's drug cartels begin targeting bystanders Study: Enforcement drove 1.3 million illegals from U.S. "v HERALD SDSciacuiar prizes! 7 ' i f ! 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