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‘Qué Pasa’ in Immigration: National Guard Arrives at Border; ICE Memo; Tamaulipas

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Several outlets in the Spanish-language press report today on the dispatch of the first wave of National Guard troops to the Arizona-Mexico border. The press also continues to explain what last week’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo does and doesn’t mean for deportations (hint: it’s still not amnesty), and looks at the aftereffects of the massacre of migrants in Tamaulipas, Mexico, and of SB 1070 in Arizona.

National Guard arrives at border. The Obama Administration’s plan ultimately calls for 524 troops to be dispatched to Arizona (not all of whom have been sent yet) and 1,200 National Guardsmen in total along the southwestern border to support Customs and Border Protection efforts.

EFE reports that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said that the additional troops are welcome, but insufficient. Brewer has said:

“Despite the mantra by the Obama administration that the border is ‘as secure as ever,’ in Arizona both Republicans and Democrats recognize they have failed.”

AFP, Reuters, and EFE report that surveillance on the southwest border will be supplemented by an additional Predator drone (unmanned plane), according to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. According to the AFP, Napolitano stated:

“With the deployment of the Predator in Texas, we will now be able to cover the southwest border from the El Centro sector in California all the way to the Gulf of Mexico in Texas.”