Brackettville, Texas

Violence Raises Tensions, Stakes Along U.S.-Mexico Border

"There's a climate of violence that's being created by the presence of armed agents, infrared sensors, helicopters with night-vision scopes and guns - a real sense from the U.S. government that there's actually a war being waged," says Sasha Khokha of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. "It's very easy, then, to imagine immigrants as the enemy." Some 8,270 Border Patrol agents stand guard over the 2,000-mile border between the United States and Mexico. That's a 122 percent increase from six years ago, when the government announced a plan to block traditional crossing routes.

Brownsville

Agents, immigrants [illegal aliens] locked in conflict on nation's edge

Peering into the darkness along the Rio Grande, the Border Patrol agents aren't sure what hides behind the hulking shapes of shore. Smugglers lurk unseen. Children throw rocks and bottles. Bullets splash in the murky water. "We're easily outgunned,'' agent Banuelos says. "And we hear a lot of stuff out here.'' At a time when illegal immigrants [aliens] face greater risks trying to get into the country, the federal employees charged with keeping them out are also encountering more danger.

Charleston, West Virginia

State refuses to hire firms employing illegal immigrants [aliens]

"Taxpayer dollars should not be used to conduct business with companies that operate outside the law to gain a competitive advantage," the governor of West Virginia said. Gov. Underwood directed the state Division of Labor to prepare a list of companies that had employed illegal immigrants [aliens], and to share that information with the state purchasing division.

Previews of Coming Attractions?

4 dead as Mexicans fight over city hall

At least four people were killed and 50 wounded Friday when rival members of Mexico's troubled ruling party clashed in a pitched battle over control of a city near the capital, officials said. Mexico state Attorney General Gerardo Sanchez told a news conference that three people had been beaten to death and one shot and killed in the rioting in Chimalhuacan, a city of about 1.5 million people 20 miles northeast of Mexico City.

Fox Eyeballs Henhouse

Smart Like a Fox

Mexico's new leader has an idea bound to upset American listeners on his trip north this week: Do away with the barbed-wire border and create a trade zone on both sides where workers can roam freely to find jobs. The plan, of course, is dead on arrival in a country wary of illegal immigrants from the south. President-elect Vicente Fox knows this as well.

Van Nuys, Calif.

2nd Costco murder-robbery suspect seized

L.A. police on Friday announced the arrest of a Van Nuys man as the second suspect in Sunday's shootout at a Costco store that left one person dead and three injured. Ignacio Chavez was taken into custody without resistance Wednesday at his home in the 7000 block of Hazeltine Avenue, Police Chief Bernard Parks said. The suspect arrested earlier is a Tijuana resident.

Los Angeles

Gobernador Davis signs law honoring Latino labor leader [Marxist agitator]

Facing hundreds of farmworker advocates waving their bright red union flags and cheering wildly when he shouted popular slogans in Spanish, Gov. Gray Davis on Friday signed legislation to make California the first state in the nation to honor labor leader Cesar Chavez with a holiday. ALSO SEE: LATINOS HAIL NEW HOLIDAY

Fox Eyeballs Henhouse

Think about it: Open border

Mexico's next president wants to gradually open the border with the United States. But a U.S. official disagrees. What should be done about the flood of people who annually try to cross the border? To make the [open border] plan more palatable in the United States, Vicente Fox said Mexico could make concessions, such as working to reduce illegal immigration - something his nation has long insisted is a U.S. problem.