Border Patrol seizes 940 pounds of pot
July 4, 2008
YUMA, Ariz. (AP) -- The U.S. Border Patrol says they've seized 940 pounds of marijuana after an agent monitoring a camera near Yuma spotted men emerging from a drainage pipe.
The agent called in a helicopter and other agents, who tracked footprints from the Colorado River to the pipe. They found 26 bundles of pot inside the pipe late Wednesday.
The smugglers apparently escaped back to Mexico.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Escaped Honduran juvenile crack dealer turns up in San Francisco
(07-03) 18:22 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- One of the eight Honduran juvenile crack dealers who fled from a San Bernardino County group home after being put there by San Francisco officials to shield them from deportation has been arrested back in the city, authorities said Thursday.
"He is in our custody," said William Siffermann, head of juvenile probation in San Francisco. "He was apprehended in San Francisco - there is no surprise there."
He said the youth had been arrested on suspicion of committing a crime, but said he did not know whether the offense was drug-related. The youth's name was not released because he is under 18.
Siffermann said he was working with San Francisco and Oakland police to "accelerate our efforts to return the remaining seven (missing Hondurans) into custody."
The arrest was the latest twist in a case that prompted a nationwide furor over San Francisco's policy of protecting immigrant juveniles caught dealing drugs, first by flying them to their native countries and then by putting them in group homes elsewhere in the state.
Last month, San Francisco juvenile probation officials, unable to continue flying juvenile Honduran illegal immigrants home after federal officials objected, decided to place eight of the offenders in the group homes in Yucaipa (San Bernardino County).
All eight promptly disappeared. San Bernardino County sheriff's officials said the youths had walked away from unlocked homes run by a nonprofit, Silverlake Youth Services, which was billing San Francisco $7,000 a month to house each juvenile.
San Francisco stopped sending youths to group homes, and this week, Mayor Gavin Newsom said the city would shift course and turn over illegal immigrant juveniles found guilty of felonies to federal officials for possible deportation.
Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency, said federal authorities held a "productive" meeting Thursday with San Francisco officials to discuss how the city will hand over offenders.
E-mail Jaxon Van Derbeken at jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com
"He is in our custody," said William Siffermann, head of juvenile probation in San Francisco. "He was apprehended in San Francisco - there is no surprise there."
He said the youth had been arrested on suspicion of committing a crime, but said he did not know whether the offense was drug-related. The youth's name was not released because he is under 18.
Siffermann said he was working with San Francisco and Oakland police to "accelerate our efforts to return the remaining seven (missing Hondurans) into custody."
The arrest was the latest twist in a case that prompted a nationwide furor over San Francisco's policy of protecting immigrant juveniles caught dealing drugs, first by flying them to their native countries and then by putting them in group homes elsewhere in the state.
Last month, San Francisco juvenile probation officials, unable to continue flying juvenile Honduran illegal immigrants home after federal officials objected, decided to place eight of the offenders in the group homes in Yucaipa (San Bernardino County).
All eight promptly disappeared. San Bernardino County sheriff's officials said the youths had walked away from unlocked homes run by a nonprofit, Silverlake Youth Services, which was billing San Francisco $7,000 a month to house each juvenile.
San Francisco stopped sending youths to group homes, and this week, Mayor Gavin Newsom said the city would shift course and turn over illegal immigrant juveniles found guilty of felonies to federal officials for possible deportation.
Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency, said federal authorities held a "productive" meeting Thursday with San Francisco officials to discuss how the city will hand over offenders.
E-mail Jaxon Van Derbeken at jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com
Mexico, Gangs, And NATO
FROM Immigration Daily
http://www.ilw.com/immigdaily/digest/2008,0707.shtm
Various news reports indicate sharply increased violence by drug trafficking gangs in Mexico, including a number of recent assassinations of senior law enforcement officers in Mexico. Some of this violence is spilling over the border into the US. The most egregious incident happened on June 22nd, when a Mexican hit-squad dressed up in Phoenix Police Department uniforms to kill a Jamican smuggler in Phoenix, Arizona. Such incidents will not long remain little known. The reaction will be that the US will get dragged into Mexican law enforcement, whether it likes it or not. Over the coming months and years, unless some fundamental factor in the economics driving Mexican drug lords changes, the US will get increasingly involved with Mexican authorities to, at a minimum, keep the violence away from the US, and more likely, US drug agencies will get directly involved with Mexico's drug cartels in Mexico. Welcome to the interconnected world.
While relatively unknown to the immigration community, the hereinabove does not come as news to those involved in US drug enforcement and border enforcement. Such interconnections go two-way, however, something that few have given much thought to. One of the unexpected twists involved in an eventual legalization program will be that a huge chunk of the Mexican population will acquire a personal connection to the US. Take that together with the increased US law enforcement involvement in Mexican drug wars, and America's historical attitude to its allies, and what have you got? What will most likely happen is that Mexico will increasingly find itself in a situation akin to Canada vis-a-vis its relations with the US. Mexico's defense and foreign policies will get less and less driven by traditional Mexican processess, and increasingly will be responsive to US concerns and priorities. We will not be the least surprised if Mexico joins NATO within 5 years of the enactment of legalization in the US. Again, welcome to the interconnected world.
We welcome readers to share their opinion and ideas with us by writing to editor@ilw.com
http://www.ilw.com/immigdaily/digest/2008,0707.shtm
Various news reports indicate sharply increased violence by drug trafficking gangs in Mexico, including a number of recent assassinations of senior law enforcement officers in Mexico. Some of this violence is spilling over the border into the US. The most egregious incident happened on June 22nd, when a Mexican hit-squad dressed up in Phoenix Police Department uniforms to kill a Jamican smuggler in Phoenix, Arizona. Such incidents will not long remain little known. The reaction will be that the US will get dragged into Mexican law enforcement, whether it likes it or not. Over the coming months and years, unless some fundamental factor in the economics driving Mexican drug lords changes, the US will get increasingly involved with Mexican authorities to, at a minimum, keep the violence away from the US, and more likely, US drug agencies will get directly involved with Mexico's drug cartels in Mexico. Welcome to the interconnected world.
While relatively unknown to the immigration community, the hereinabove does not come as news to those involved in US drug enforcement and border enforcement. Such interconnections go two-way, however, something that few have given much thought to. One of the unexpected twists involved in an eventual legalization program will be that a huge chunk of the Mexican population will acquire a personal connection to the US. Take that together with the increased US law enforcement involvement in Mexican drug wars, and America's historical attitude to its allies, and what have you got? What will most likely happen is that Mexico will increasingly find itself in a situation akin to Canada vis-a-vis its relations with the US. Mexico's defense and foreign policies will get less and less driven by traditional Mexican processess, and increasingly will be responsive to US concerns and priorities. We will not be the least surprised if Mexico joins NATO within 5 years of the enactment of legalization in the US. Again, welcome to the interconnected world.
We welcome readers to share their opinion and ideas with us by writing to editor@ilw.com
Monday, June 30, 2008
Is NAFTA road through here about trade - or treachery?
By Gabriela Rico
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.29.2008
It is a steel and concrete corridor that will run right through the Old Pueblo, connecting Mexico City to Edmonton, Alberta.
Its purpose is to facilitate trade among the three countries and minimize traffic and congestion for residents.
Or is it evidence of a move afoot to intertwine the three North American countries and blur the lines of sovereignty?
That's a matter of opinion.
The Canamex Corridor, as defined by Congress in the 1995 National Highway Systems Designation Act, is a joint effort involving Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Utah and Montana.
The transportation portion calls for the development of a continuous four-lane roadway from Mexico through the U.S. into Canada.
There are two other trade corridors: One runs from the southern Mexico city of Manzanillo, Colima, through Laredo, Texas, to Canada's Prairie-to-Ports Gateway & Inland Port, anchored by Saskatoon, Moose Jaw and Regina in Saskatchewan. The other corridor veers east from Laredo through Kansas City up to Winnipeg, Manitoba.
As officials in all three countries grapple with the logistics of creating such thoroughfares, there is growing concern that the so-called "superhighways" are a visible step toward the blending of economies, cultures and resources.
The source of the fears
Much of that concern is rooted in the founding of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, known as the SPP, in March 2005.
The trinational partnership, headed by the three nations' leaders, is described as an "effort to increase security and enhance prosperity among the United States, Canada and Mexico through greater cooperation and information sharing."
But references in SPP documents to a "North American region" and the "citizens of North America" send a chill through some.
"Like the old story of the frog in the pot, . . . the temperature is being raised 1 degree at a time, and soon we'll be cooked if we don't stop it," said Howard Phillips, chairman of the Coalition to Block the North American Union. "Economic integration precedes political integration."
Phillips believes the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, which removed tariffs on trade between the three countries, was the formal first step to what he now sees ahead.
A borderless region, a North American passport and a new shared currency will emerge from a union plan, along with the highways that connect the countries, he said.
"The general public is oblivious to this," said Phillips, who also is chairman of The Conservative Caucus in Virginia.
He recognizes that some dismiss the coalition's belief as paranoid, but he points to statements made by SPP members as proof of the desire to merge.
In a joint statement released by the White House after the August 2007 SPP meeting, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Mexican President Felipe Calderón and President Bush repeatedly referred to a united "North America" and called for more collaboration among the three countries.
Phillips said that if citizens took the time to read about the trio's activities, which are outlined on the group's Web site, SPP.gov, they would need no further proof.
"Not some big conspiracy"
As the head of the multistate coalition overseeing Canamex, Marisa Walker fields repeated queries from the public about the "real reason" behind the corridor.
"No one is going to ruin our sovereignty," she said with a stifled sigh. "This is not about some big conspiracy."
The Canamex corridor does not involve new U.S. highways but rather upgrades, expansions and improvements to existing ones, Walker said.
The expansion of Interstate 10 and the Hoover Dam Bypass Project — which connects Arizona and Nevada along the federally designated North American Free Trade Agreement route, U.S. 93 — also will benefit citizens' travels, she said.
These corridors will not be off-limits to the public, and inspections at the northern and southern U.S. borders still will be in place — there is no plan that reduces security, said Walker, a former director of Mexico programs at the University of Arizona.
"It's the exact opposite," she said.
Both Canada and Mexico are implementing security standards for goods entering the United States that would expedite the cross-border inspection, not avoid it, Walker said.
Some ridicule the angst over the purported three-country merger.
"Anybody who believes it is about a great North American Union is in the league of people who believe that Elvis is still alive," Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer said during an interview on Fox News after the SPP meeting last summer.
Still, the commotion has prompted the SPP to add a "Myths vs. Facts" portion to its Web site, and it addresses the accusation that the three countries are constructing the highways as part of their master plan.
"Rather than evidence of a secret plan to create a NAFTA superhighway that would undermine our national sovereignty, the FHWA's (Federal Highway Administration) efforts are a routine part of cooperation with all the state transportation departments to improve the nation's highways," the statement says.
It has already started
It might be a question of semantics. Some call it a trade corridor; others call it a NAFTA superhighway.
The truth is, construction and regulation adjustments to ease congestion along the routes connecting the three countries are under way.
At the Arizona-Mexico Commission meeting in Phoenix earlier this month, panel members were briefed by officials from the United States, Mexico and Canada about the progress of the Canamex corridor.
Shirley-Ann George, vice president of international policy for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said Canadian and U.S. officials are working closely to streamline paperwork and permits for goods entering both countries.
Proposals include operating the U.S. ports 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and filing transit paperwork electronically instead of having the truck driver present multiple pieces of paper to multiple agencies.
On the southern end of the route, Mexico is planning to place security along the federal corridor just south of the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales to monitor commercial trucks headed north, said Armando Ceceña, undersecretary of the economy for Sonora.
This fall, a military checkpoint for commercial trucks will be relocated to help reduce the miles-long waiting line on the highway at the current checkpoint. U.S. customs officials are assisting their Mexican counterparts to help secure cargo before it reaches the border.
That cooperation and partnership are what stirs fear and worry.
Kevin O'Shea, deputy director for the The National Law Center for Inter-American Free Trade in Tucson, said that any time people face change, there is bound to be fear.
"I don't like to just blame the people who fear the situation," O'Shea said. "They are owed information and an explanation."
Proponents of trade must better communicate why international relationships are necessary, he said.
For example, when a U.S. company opens an operation in China, all supplies come from Asia, but if that company operates in Canada or Mexico, then U.S. companies benefit by supplying raw materials and transportation, O'Shea said.
As for security concerns, he said that citizens should be more fearful if the U.S. had an adversarial neighbor.
"There's a real national-security interest in developing more solid relations with Canada and Mexico," O'Shea said.
He said commerce and technology don't adhere to borders, and citizens should educate themselves and embrace the movement.
"Trade and globalization are a given," he said. "The whole notion that globalization is something that can be reversed or avoided is not reality. The train has left the station."
● Contact reporter Gabriela Rico at 573-4232 or grico@azstarnet.com.
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.29.2008
It is a steel and concrete corridor that will run right through the Old Pueblo, connecting Mexico City to Edmonton, Alberta.
Its purpose is to facilitate trade among the three countries and minimize traffic and congestion for residents.
Or is it evidence of a move afoot to intertwine the three North American countries and blur the lines of sovereignty?
That's a matter of opinion.
The Canamex Corridor, as defined by Congress in the 1995 National Highway Systems Designation Act, is a joint effort involving Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Utah and Montana.
The transportation portion calls for the development of a continuous four-lane roadway from Mexico through the U.S. into Canada.
There are two other trade corridors: One runs from the southern Mexico city of Manzanillo, Colima, through Laredo, Texas, to Canada's Prairie-to-Ports Gateway & Inland Port, anchored by Saskatoon, Moose Jaw and Regina in Saskatchewan. The other corridor veers east from Laredo through Kansas City up to Winnipeg, Manitoba.
As officials in all three countries grapple with the logistics of creating such thoroughfares, there is growing concern that the so-called "superhighways" are a visible step toward the blending of economies, cultures and resources.
The source of the fears
Much of that concern is rooted in the founding of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, known as the SPP, in March 2005.
The trinational partnership, headed by the three nations' leaders, is described as an "effort to increase security and enhance prosperity among the United States, Canada and Mexico through greater cooperation and information sharing."
But references in SPP documents to a "North American region" and the "citizens of North America" send a chill through some.
"Like the old story of the frog in the pot, . . . the temperature is being raised 1 degree at a time, and soon we'll be cooked if we don't stop it," said Howard Phillips, chairman of the Coalition to Block the North American Union. "Economic integration precedes political integration."
Phillips believes the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, which removed tariffs on trade between the three countries, was the formal first step to what he now sees ahead.
A borderless region, a North American passport and a new shared currency will emerge from a union plan, along with the highways that connect the countries, he said.
"The general public is oblivious to this," said Phillips, who also is chairman of The Conservative Caucus in Virginia.
He recognizes that some dismiss the coalition's belief as paranoid, but he points to statements made by SPP members as proof of the desire to merge.
In a joint statement released by the White House after the August 2007 SPP meeting, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Mexican President Felipe Calderón and President Bush repeatedly referred to a united "North America" and called for more collaboration among the three countries.
Phillips said that if citizens took the time to read about the trio's activities, which are outlined on the group's Web site, SPP.gov, they would need no further proof.
"Not some big conspiracy"
As the head of the multistate coalition overseeing Canamex, Marisa Walker fields repeated queries from the public about the "real reason" behind the corridor.
"No one is going to ruin our sovereignty," she said with a stifled sigh. "This is not about some big conspiracy."
The Canamex corridor does not involve new U.S. highways but rather upgrades, expansions and improvements to existing ones, Walker said.
The expansion of Interstate 10 and the Hoover Dam Bypass Project — which connects Arizona and Nevada along the federally designated North American Free Trade Agreement route, U.S. 93 — also will benefit citizens' travels, she said.
These corridors will not be off-limits to the public, and inspections at the northern and southern U.S. borders still will be in place — there is no plan that reduces security, said Walker, a former director of Mexico programs at the University of Arizona.
"It's the exact opposite," she said.
Both Canada and Mexico are implementing security standards for goods entering the United States that would expedite the cross-border inspection, not avoid it, Walker said.
Some ridicule the angst over the purported three-country merger.
"Anybody who believes it is about a great North American Union is in the league of people who believe that Elvis is still alive," Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer said during an interview on Fox News after the SPP meeting last summer.
Still, the commotion has prompted the SPP to add a "Myths vs. Facts" portion to its Web site, and it addresses the accusation that the three countries are constructing the highways as part of their master plan.
"Rather than evidence of a secret plan to create a NAFTA superhighway that would undermine our national sovereignty, the FHWA's (Federal Highway Administration) efforts are a routine part of cooperation with all the state transportation departments to improve the nation's highways," the statement says.
It has already started
It might be a question of semantics. Some call it a trade corridor; others call it a NAFTA superhighway.
The truth is, construction and regulation adjustments to ease congestion along the routes connecting the three countries are under way.
At the Arizona-Mexico Commission meeting in Phoenix earlier this month, panel members were briefed by officials from the United States, Mexico and Canada about the progress of the Canamex corridor.
Shirley-Ann George, vice president of international policy for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said Canadian and U.S. officials are working closely to streamline paperwork and permits for goods entering both countries.
Proposals include operating the U.S. ports 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and filing transit paperwork electronically instead of having the truck driver present multiple pieces of paper to multiple agencies.
On the southern end of the route, Mexico is planning to place security along the federal corridor just south of the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales to monitor commercial trucks headed north, said Armando Ceceña, undersecretary of the economy for Sonora.
This fall, a military checkpoint for commercial trucks will be relocated to help reduce the miles-long waiting line on the highway at the current checkpoint. U.S. customs officials are assisting their Mexican counterparts to help secure cargo before it reaches the border.
That cooperation and partnership are what stirs fear and worry.
Kevin O'Shea, deputy director for the The National Law Center for Inter-American Free Trade in Tucson, said that any time people face change, there is bound to be fear.
"I don't like to just blame the people who fear the situation," O'Shea said. "They are owed information and an explanation."
Proponents of trade must better communicate why international relationships are necessary, he said.
For example, when a U.S. company opens an operation in China, all supplies come from Asia, but if that company operates in Canada or Mexico, then U.S. companies benefit by supplying raw materials and transportation, O'Shea said.
As for security concerns, he said that citizens should be more fearful if the U.S. had an adversarial neighbor.
"There's a real national-security interest in developing more solid relations with Canada and Mexico," O'Shea said.
He said commerce and technology don't adhere to borders, and citizens should educate themselves and embrace the movement.
"Trade and globalization are a given," he said. "The whole notion that globalization is something that can be reversed or avoided is not reality. The train has left the station."
● Contact reporter Gabriela Rico at 573-4232 or grico@azstarnet.com.
The state Supreme Court upheld the death sentence today for Ramon Salcido
(06-30) 12:37 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- The state Supreme Court upheld the death sentence today for Ramon Salcido, who murdered his wife, two daughters, three other relatives and his supervisor at a Sonoma County winery during a three-hour rampage in 1989.
The justices unanimously rejected defense challenges to Salcido's arrest and transfer from his native Mexico to the United States, his seven murder convictions and his death sentence. Salcido can appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, and has another case pending before the state's high court raising separate issues.
Salcido, now 47, used a gun and knife to murder his wife, Angela Richards Salcido, 24; their daughters, 4-year-old Sofia and 22-month-old Teresa; his mother-in-law, Marion Richards, 47; her daughters, 12-year-old Ruth and 8-year-old Maria; and Tracey Toovey, 35, his supervisor at Grand Cru Winery in Glen Ellen.
He was also convicted of attempting to murder his 2-year-old daughter, Carmina, who survived a slashed throat, and another winery worker, Kenneth Butti, who was shot in the shoulder.
His trial was transferred to San Mateo County because of extensive news coverage in Sonoma County.
Salcido had been arrested for welfare fraud in 1988 but had no record of violent crimes. His trial lawyer said he had been drunk and high on cocaine when he committed the killings, and had been burdened by debt and the possibility he was going to lose his job.
He also offered psychiatric testimony that Salcido had a paranoid personality and had been suffering suffered a psychotic episode at the time of the killings.
Salcido admitted the killings and told officers he had quarreled with his wife after learning he was not the biological father of one of their children, and shot her when she said she would call the police, the high court said. He told police he had also intended to kill himself. He left notes telling his children he loved them and "we will see each other in God's other world," and saying he had been "pushed into doing it."
Salcido fled to his hometown of Los Mochis, Mexico, after the killings in April 1989. He was arrested five days later and returned to California.
In his appeal, Salcido's lawyer contended his client, who was a Mexican citizen, had been transferred to the United States in violation of a treaty that allows the Mexican government to block the extradition of one of its citizens unless U.S. authorities promise not to impose the death penalty, which does not exist in Mexico.
Salcido's lawyer contended agents from Sonoma County and the federal government had induced Mexican officials to transfer Salcido by identifying him as a U.S. citizen.
But the court said law enforcement officials from both countries had believed Salcido was a U.S. citizen based on his own statements and on Salcido's residence in California, where he had a Social Security card and a driver's license.
Even if detectives had misled Mexico into sending Salcido to California, the court said, a defendant has no legal standing to challenge an extradition or transfer that violates the treaty. Such a challenge can be invoked only by the Mexican government, the court said. The justices cited a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing U.S. authorities to prosecute a man after arranging his forcible abduction from Mexico.
"It has not been demonstrated that Mexican officials released (Salcido) to American agents as a result of any misrepresentation," Chief Justice Ronald George said in today's ruling. Also, he said, "it is not our task to redress an asserted violation of an international agreement by a nation party."
The case is People vs. Salcido, S018814.
The ruling is available at www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinons/documents/S018814.PDF.
The justices unanimously rejected defense challenges to Salcido's arrest and transfer from his native Mexico to the United States, his seven murder convictions and his death sentence. Salcido can appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, and has another case pending before the state's high court raising separate issues.
Salcido, now 47, used a gun and knife to murder his wife, Angela Richards Salcido, 24; their daughters, 4-year-old Sofia and 22-month-old Teresa; his mother-in-law, Marion Richards, 47; her daughters, 12-year-old Ruth and 8-year-old Maria; and Tracey Toovey, 35, his supervisor at Grand Cru Winery in Glen Ellen.
He was also convicted of attempting to murder his 2-year-old daughter, Carmina, who survived a slashed throat, and another winery worker, Kenneth Butti, who was shot in the shoulder.
His trial was transferred to San Mateo County because of extensive news coverage in Sonoma County.
Salcido had been arrested for welfare fraud in 1988 but had no record of violent crimes. His trial lawyer said he had been drunk and high on cocaine when he committed the killings, and had been burdened by debt and the possibility he was going to lose his job.
He also offered psychiatric testimony that Salcido had a paranoid personality and had been suffering suffered a psychotic episode at the time of the killings.
Salcido admitted the killings and told officers he had quarreled with his wife after learning he was not the biological father of one of their children, and shot her when she said she would call the police, the high court said. He told police he had also intended to kill himself. He left notes telling his children he loved them and "we will see each other in God's other world," and saying he had been "pushed into doing it."
Salcido fled to his hometown of Los Mochis, Mexico, after the killings in April 1989. He was arrested five days later and returned to California.
In his appeal, Salcido's lawyer contended his client, who was a Mexican citizen, had been transferred to the United States in violation of a treaty that allows the Mexican government to block the extradition of one of its citizens unless U.S. authorities promise not to impose the death penalty, which does not exist in Mexico.
Salcido's lawyer contended agents from Sonoma County and the federal government had induced Mexican officials to transfer Salcido by identifying him as a U.S. citizen.
But the court said law enforcement officials from both countries had believed Salcido was a U.S. citizen based on his own statements and on Salcido's residence in California, where he had a Social Security card and a driver's license.
Even if detectives had misled Mexico into sending Salcido to California, the court said, a defendant has no legal standing to challenge an extradition or transfer that violates the treaty. Such a challenge can be invoked only by the Mexican government, the court said. The justices cited a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing U.S. authorities to prosecute a man after arranging his forcible abduction from Mexico.
"It has not been demonstrated that Mexican officials released (Salcido) to American agents as a result of any misrepresentation," Chief Justice Ronald George said in today's ruling. Also, he said, "it is not our task to redress an asserted violation of an international agreement by a nation party."
The case is People vs. Salcido, S018814.
The ruling is available at www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinons/documents/S018814.PDF.
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