It's an indication of how grim things are elsewhere that Canada -- by meeting only the minimum standards for legislation and enforcement -- is once again ranked among the best countries in the world in the U.S. state department's 2009 human trafficking report.

Once again, Canada was singled out as a source, destination and transit country for people being trafficked into prostitution and forced labor, in the report released earlier this week.

Aboriginal women and girls are the most frequent targets here, while it's mostly Asians and Eastern Europeans who either end up in Canada or passing through en route to other countries.

The majority of victims are women, who wind up in massage parlors and brothels. Forced labor is acknowledged as a problem here, with the highest incidence reported in Alberta and Ontario, in agriculture, sweat shops and processing plants, and as domestic servants.

It's a mug's game trying to put numbers on the extent of the illegal trade. The only Royal Canadian Mounted Police estimate, made a few years ago, is that there are 600 to 800 people trafficked into Canada each year. Victims' and immigrants' services agencies say that figure is far too low...

The U.S. report notes that Canada is "also a significant source country for child sex tourists, who travel abroad to engage in sex acts with children." As of late February, there were 32 cases before Canadian courts involving 40 alleged traffickers and 46 victims. Not one of those is in British Columbia even though the U.S. report has, in the past years, fingered Vancouver as a port of major concern.

It's also in spite of the British Columbia government's claim to be "leading the way nationally in responding to human trafficking situations."

Canada does have adequate anti-trafficking laws. What it lacks is a national strategy for investigating traffickers and identifying victims, even though Parliament unanimously approved one three years ago.

Victim support services are a provincial patchwork, which also makes it difficult to both identify victims and to help them once they are found...

Ixtepec, Mexico - As the Mexican government condemns a new immigration law in Arizona as cruel and xenophobic, illegal migrants passing through Mexico are routinely robbed, raped and kidnapped by criminal gangs that often work alongside corrupt police, according to human rights advocates.

Immigration experts and Catholic priests who shelter the travelers say that Mexico's strict laws to protect the rights of illegal migrants are often ignored and that undocumented migrants from Central America face a brutal passage through the country. They are stoned by angry villagers, who fear that the Central Americans will bring crime or disease, and are fleeced by hustlers. Mexican police and authorities often demand bribes.

Mexico detained and deported more than 64,000 illegal migrants last year, according to the National Migration Institute. A few years ago, Mexico detained 200,000 undocumented migrants. The lower numbers are the result of tougher enforcement on the U.S. border, the global economic slowdown and, say some experts, the robbery and assaults migrants face in Mexico.

The National Commission on Human Rights, a government agency, estimates that 20,000 migrants are kidnapped each year in Mexico.

While held for ransom, increasingly at the hands of Mexico's powerful drug cartels, many migrants are tortured - threatened with execution, beaten with bats and submerged in buckets of water or excrement.

"They put a plastic bag over your head and you can't breathe. They tell you if you don't give them the phone numbers" of family members the kidnappers can call to demand payment for a migrant's release, "they say the next time we'll just let you die," said Jose Alirio Luna Moreno, a broad-shouldered young man from El Salvador, interviewed at a shelter in the southern state of Oaxaca.

Luna said he was held for three days this month in Veracruz by the Zeta drug trafficking organization, which demanded $1,000 to set him free. He said he was abducted by men in police uniforms and taken to a safe house with 26 others.

'Epidemic' in kidnappings

Of the 64,000 migrants detained and expelled by Mexico last year, the Mexican government granted only 20 humanitarian visas, which would have allowed them to stay in Mexico while they testified and pressed charges against their assailants.

"We have a government in Mexico that emphatically criticizes the new immigration law - which is perfectly valid, to criticize a law with widespread consequences - but at the same time doesn't have the desire to address the same problem within its own borders," said Alberto Herrera, executive director of Amnesty International in Mexico.

"The violations in human rights that migrants from Central America face in Mexico are far worse than Mexicans receive in the United States," said Jorge Bustamante of the University of Notre Dame and the College of the Border in Tijuana, who has reported on immigration in Mexico for the United Nations.

U.N. officials describe the kidnapping of illegal migrants in Mexico as "epidemic" in scope...

Amnesty International says that as many as six in 10 women experience sexual violence during the journey...

At a meeting Wednesday, Interior Minister Fernando Gomez Mont, the U.S. ambassador and the governors of the southern Mexican states pledged to work harder to protect migrants.

Like 'merchandise'

The small city of Ixtepec in the humid hills of Oaxaca is a crossroads for illegal migrants moving north on trains. At the edge of town, along the tracks at a shelter for migrants run by the Catholic church, 100 migrants slept on cardboard in the shade, waiting for an afternoon meal, before they move on.

Sergio Alejandro Barillas Perez, a Guatemalan at the shelter, said he was kidnapped in the gulf state of Veracruz this month and held for three days by men who said they worked for the Zetas.

He said his kidnappers demanded $10,000 for him and his girlfriend. "They told me if you don't give us the phone numbers, we'll kill your girlfriend," said Barillas, whose face was still bruised. "We were all in a house, a normal house. When they beat us, they would put a rag in our mouths and they turned on the music, loud, like they're having a party."

He said the kidnappers knocked out his girlfriend's teeth and dragged her away. He and others escaped. He said he does not know what happened to his girlfriend.

"These migrants aren't people -- they are merchandise to the mafias, who traffic drugs, weapons, sex and migrants," said Alejandro Solalinde, the Catholic priest who runs the Brothers of the Road shelter in Ixtepec. "They suck everything out of them."

The priest said that federal authorities do not protect the migrants and that local officials also look the other way, or take their cut from the robbers and traffickers.

Solalinde has battled local authorities who want to shut down his shelter, which feeds as many as 66,000 passing migrants in a year. More than 100 were at the shelter last week.

The priest said many Mexicans are distrustful of the outsiders. In 2008, townspeople became enraged when a Nicaraguan man who was living in Ixtepec was accused of raping a young girl. As police and the mayor were outside the gates at the shelter, Solalinde said, 100 angry protesters got inside.

"They had stones and sticks and gasoline," the priest said. "They wanted to burn us down."

Ciudad de México.- El tráfico de personas en México, que registra entre 16 y 20 mil niñas y niños, cifra actualizada hasta el 2005, no podrá combatirse mientras no se apruebe la Ley General contra la Trata de Personas, que se encuentra en comisiones de la Cámara de Diputados y que obliga a los tres órdenes de gobierno a combatir el delito, aseguró la panista Rosi Orozco.

La presidenta de la Comisión Especial de Lucha contra la Trata de Personas de la Cámara de Diputados dijo que sólo cuatro estados de la república: Tlaxcala, Chiapas, Distrito Federal y Tabasco tienen leyes en la materia.

Congressional anti-trafficking leader Rosi Oroszco urges the passage of new federal bill held-up in committee

Mexico City - Human trafficking in Mexico, which includes 16,000 to 20,000 girls and boys, according to statistics developed in 2005, cannot be effectively fought until Congress approves the new General Law Against Trafficking in Persons, according to congressional deputy Rosi Orozco.

Orozco, who is president of the Special Commission to Fight Human Trafficking in the Chamber of Deputies, added that only four of Mexico's [31] federated entities, Tlaxcala, Chiapas and Tabasco states, as well as the Federal District [Mexico City], currently have anti-trafficking laws.

Santo Domingo - El director de Migración, Sigfrido Pared Pérez, también se pronunció en contra del informe del Departamento de Estado de los Estados Unidos que degrada a República Dominicana a la categoría tres en el combate a la trata de personas.

Pared Pérez calificó el informe de injusto y explicó que uno de los puntos a mejorar que señala el documento, el de la explotación de dominicanas en el exterior, no es responsabilidad de República Dominicana, sino del país de destino.

"Esas dominicanas que son explotadas en el exterior algunas son engañadas, eso tiene que ver con las autoridades del país de destino, no de origen", indicó.

En cuanto al punto del informe que se refiere a la parte fronteriza, el director de Migración, señaló que todos los países del mundo tienen un nivel de trata de personas.

"Ahora bien, decir que República Dominicana no está haciendo esfuerzos para tratar de desarticular eso es una cosa que escapa al juicio valedero", agregó.

Al ser entrevistado a su salida del programa Diario Libre AM, el funcionario destacó que en el país hay una ley (Ley 173-03) sobre Trata de Personas y en adición a esa ley un decreto (575-07) que creó una comisión para la aplicación de esa ley.

"Hay dos factores importantes a tomar en cuenta para un informe, y ese informe de este año fue peor que el de 2003, 2004 y 2005", indicó.

Washington, DC - Unos 12 millones 300 mil personas fueron víctimas de la trata de personas en el mundo entre 2009 y 2010, según un informe anual sobre la materia, publicado hoy por el Departamento de Estado estadunidense, que mantuvo a Cuba en su lista negra de países donde se trafican personas y colocó bajo "observación" a Venezuela, Nicaragua, Guatemala y Panamá.

Éste es el décimo año consecutivo que el Departamento de Estado publica el informe, el cual por primera vez incluyó a Estados Unidos, del que dijo tiene políticas "a la altura de nuestros ideales".

Washington utiliza tres categorías para evaluar la acción de 177 países en esta materia. La primera comprende a aquellos que cumplen totalmente con el Acta de Protección de las Víctimas de Tráfico Humano e incluye a Estados Unidos, varios países europeos y Colombia, la única nación latinoamericana en este grupo.

En el segundo nivel se ubican los estados que no cumplen con los estándares mínimos del acta, pero hacen "esfuerzos significativos" para alcanzarlos. Aquí se encuentran México y la mayoría de los países de la región, incluido Argentina en este año, que se reincorporó después de haber permanecido un tiempo en una llamada "lista de observación".

La tercera categoría abarca a los que no tomaron medidas adecuadas para detener el tráfico humano ni adoptaron "medidas significativas" para cambiar la tendencia. En este peldaño la República Dominicana se puso al lado de Cuba, de cuyo gobierno el reporte indica que por primera vez compartió información.

Con referencia a México, el reporte señaló que este país es fuente, tránsito y destino de hombres, mujeres y niños sujetos a la trata, especialmente en lo relacionado con la prostitución y el trabajo forzado. Los extranjeros más afectados son de Guatemala, Honduras y El Salvador.

Buenos Aires - Legisladores del oficialismo y la oposición de Argentina se comprometieron hoy a impulsar una nueva legislación contra la trata de personas, a la que definieron como "una forma de esclavitud".

Oscar Aguad, presidente del bloque opositor UCR, resaltó que "la trata de personas es una forma de esclavitud, igual que la droga. Y si hay droga y si hay trata es porque hay complicidad de la Policía fundamentalmente". Los legisladores coincidieron, durante una conferencia de prensa, que "tenemos que darle a la Justicia y a los jueces las herramientas para que puedan combatir estos delitos".

Legislative initiative against human trafficking advances

Buenos Aires - Legislators from Argentina's ruling and opposition parties today committed themselves to push for new legislation to control human trafficking, which they defined as a form of modern-day slavery.

Oscar Aguad, president of the UCR opposition block, emphasized that human trafficking is a form of slavery, equal to drug addition. Congressman Aguad: "If drugs and human trafficking exist, that condition is made possible because of police complicity." During a press conference on the subject, the legislators agreed that "we must give prosecutors and judges the tools that they need to allow them to combat these crimes."

Legislator María Luisa Storani, one of the authors of the bill, noted that: "This is a plague that will require the collaboration of legislators and civil society to fight, given that the majority of victims are women, children and the poor."

El gobierno federal refrenda su irrestricto compromiso de consolidar políticas públicas transversales para prevenir y sancionar la trata de personas, así como dar atención integral a las víctimas de este delito, afirmó el titular de la Segob, Fernando Gómez Mont.

En un comunicado, la Secretaría de Gobernación (Segob) informó que lo anterior se patentó al realizarse la segunda sesión ordinaria de la Comisión Intersecretarial para Prevenir y Sancionar la Trata de Personas, presidida por el funcionario federal.

Puntualizó que en cumplimiento de la Ley para Prevenir y Sancionar la Trata de Personas, en la sesión se presentaron informes de los trabajos de la Subcomisión Consultiva, órgano encargado de la elaboración del Programa Nacional para Prevenir y Sancionar la Trata de Personas.

Además se dieron a conocer las actividades del lanzamiento, el pasado 14 de abril, de la Campaña Corazón Azul y todas las demás acciones encaminadas a informar a la población sobre el delito de trata de personas, como foros académicos, diálogos con la comunidad, la próxima carrera deportiva y conciertos...

Informó que como representantes de las organizaciones de la sociedad civil con actividades preponderantes en la prevención o asistencia a las víctimas de trata, se seleccionó a la Fundación Camino a Casa, A.C. También a la Coalición Regional contra el Tráfico de Mujeres y Niñas en América Latina y El Caribe, A.C., y a la Alianza por la Seguridad en Internet, A.C. ,,,

New York - Sex trafficking victims may soon be able to have prostitution convictions against them vacated, thanks to new legislation approved in Albany.

Young women are often lured to the New York area with promises of jobs and then find themselves coerced into prostitution. Many of these young women get arrested and charged with a crime even though they were forced to do the work against their will.

Sienna Baskin, a staff attorney for the Sex Workers Program at the Urban Justice Center, says treating trafficking victims like criminals simply pushes them back into the hands of their abusers.

"They end up with a conviction on their record and they go right back into the hands of their trafficker, so we have clients who were arrested up to ten times before escaping their trafficking situation, usually on their own," Baskin says.

Baskin adds that those convictions can make it harder for women to get jobs or legal residency. The landmark legislation--New York's law is the first in the country--will allow trafficking survivors to start their lives over with a clean slate. As it stands, women who've been abused for years are then forced to disclose their criminal convictions to potential employers.

"Even after [the victims] escape from trafficking, that criminal record blocks them from decent jobs and a chance to rebuild their lives," says Democratic Assemblyman Richard Gottfried of Manhattan, the author of the bill. "This bill will give them a desperately needed second chance they deserve.”

The New York State Senate passed the bill on Tuesday and the Assembly passed the same bill in May. The governor still has to sign the bill into law, but advocates believe he will. The governor's office says he will review the bill when it is delivered to him by the legislature.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released a State Department report earlier this week that acknowledged for the first time the modern "slave trade" is going on in this country.

A man and woman were arrested Wednesday in connection with the kidnapping and sexual assault of a 5-year-old girl in San Jose on Tuesday, police said.

The child was playing on the front lawn of her home in the 600 block of Balfour Drive on Tuesday afternoon when a man grabbed her and took her to a house nearby, where he sexually assaulted her, according to police.

Dominguez later let the child go and fled before officers arrived.

Investigators identified San Jose resident Phillip Michael Dominguez, 34, as the suspect and issued a warrant for his arrest. He was taken into custody on Wednesday morning.

Dominguez's girlfriend, 29-year-old San Jose resident Racquel Martinez, was also arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting in the kidnapping and sexual assault. Both were booked into Santa Clara County jail.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Detectives Martin or Ichige, or Sgt. Robb of the Police Department's child exploitation detail, at (408) 277-4102. Those wishing to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at (408) 947-STOP.

Two employees of the British Bankers Club in Menlo Park were arrested Tuesday for allegedly groping two women at the restaurant, police said Wednesday.

The suspects, 26-year-old Moises Rojas and 29-year-old Juan Gustavo Robles-Alejo, allegedly groped the women while they were inebriated and unable to stop the advances, according to police.

The alleged incident was caught on surveillance video, and Rojas and Robles-Alejo were taken into custody Tuesday and booked into San Mateo County jail, police said.

Anyone who may have experienced similar incidents or who has information on this incident is asked to call Detective Ed Soares at (650) 799-9459.

Orlando - Police say a man who attempted to rape a woman at the Fountains of Millenia apartments may be a resident, or a regular visitor. Detectives released surveillance video of the attack which happened at one o'clock in the afternoon on June 13.

In the video, the surveillance camera captured the attacker walking away from the pool restroom and across the pool deck. After the suspect changes, he reappears in the surveillance video where he's seen lounging in the pool. Ten minutes later, the victim, a 34-year-old female enters the side of the screen and walks towards the restroom. The suspect takes notice, and thirty seconds later, he gets out to go show the victim how to get into the restroom through an open vent. Police say she went into the bathroom stall.

But when the victim came out, she saw the attacker right in front of her. A struggle began, and she told police he was trying to sexually attack her, so she fought back.

Fortunately, she scared off her would-be rapist, and the last shot of him is as he's running with his stuff towards the pool exit.

The suspect is described as a Hispanic male in his early 20s, thin to muscular build, with short hair and possibly a thin beard. He has tattoos on this chest, shoulder, and calf. he also had a beach towel designed like the flag of the Dominican republic.

North Coast law enforcement agencies are on the lookout for a man on the "Most Wanted" list.

Elias Arriaga Ramirez is wanted for the rape of an 11-year-old girl that occurred in Astoria in 2009. Arriaga Ramirez is a 25-year-old Hispanic man who is about 5-foot, 8-inches tall and weighs about 145 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes.

There is an outstanding felony warrant for Arriaga Ramirez with a bail of $250,000.

If you have any information about the whereabouts of Elias Arriaga Ramirez, contact Detective Andrew Randall of the Astoria Police Department at (503) 325-4411, ext. 24 or dial 9-1-1.

The North Coast's "Most Wanted" is brought to readers by The Daily Astorian with cooperation from all the region's law enforcement agencies.

Avondale - Avondale police are looking for a woman possible kidnapped by her abusive husband.

According to a witness, the victim, Italia Figueroa, and the witness were driving to court to obtain an order of protection for Italia when they were forced to stop in the roadway.

The witness said the suspect, Leonardo Rodriguez, drove his car and blocked them from continuing and then took Figueroa against her will.

Figueroa was forced by Rodriguez into his 2002 silver Honda Civic that was last seen driving northbound on Fairway Drive towards Van Buren Street.

The 2002 silver Honda Civic four door has Arizona license plate HPG-060.

Figueroa has told the witness she had been the victim of domestic violence as recent as two days ago, sustaining numerous bruises on her arms after Rodriguez assaulted her.

Update: Just before 9 p.m. Friday evening [June 18, 2010] Rodriguez showed up at the Avondale Police Department.

Figueroa, his wife, was with him when they showed up to the police station. She was unharmed.

They were cooperating with police interviews.

No word of if any charges will be filed.

June 15, 2010 - Buffalo Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico at the Greyhound bus station in Rochester, New York. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for child molestation and had previously been removed from the United States.

June 15, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Douglas, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for attempted unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor in the state of California, and had previously been removed from the United States.

June 15, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Honduras near Sierra Vista, Arizona. Record checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for indecent liberties with a child and had previously been removed from the United States.

June 13, 2010 - Laredo Sector - Border Patrol agents seized a tractor-trailer and arrested a USC and 47 illegal aliens at the traffic checkpoint near Laredo, Texas. The USC subject presented himself for inspection, and a Border Patrol canine alerted to the trailer. A search by agents revealed the 47 illegal aliens inside the locked trailer. Record checks revealed that the USC was a registered sex offender and had an extensive criminal history.

June 13, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Coolidge, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for rape of a child in the state of Washington, and had previously been removed from the United States.

June 11, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Guatemala near Tucson, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for lewd or lascivious battery upon a minor in the state of Florida and had previously been removed from the United States.

The Kansas City Star did a great job in its award-winning series on human trafficking published in December of 2009.

I have been an anti-trafficking activist since the late 1990s, focusing on the Latin American, and Latin U.S. immigrant aspects of the issue. I developed a web site: Libertad Latina, which today contains 1,300 factual news articles, papers, abstracts and essays about the emergency of human trafficking.

I applaud the Star for having focused on the Latin American aspects of the issue.

I agree with this article's author in viewing at-least part of the public apathy in regard to human trafficking issues as being associated with anti-immigrant bias.

At the same time, many parties 'conflate' voluntary migrant smuggling with forced human trafficking. Federal authorities at-times report progress in the fight against cross-border (Mexican - U.S.) human trafficking, when they are really including arrests related to human smuggling operations.

As the Star series pointed out, many migrants who are smuggled voluntarily are later kidnapped, raped, tortured and sometimes murdered by 'coyotes' (smugglers), who decide to extort victim's families for an exaggerated smuggling fee. [These cases often start as voluntary smuggling, and end-up as human trafficking.]

According to veteran Mexican women's rights lawyer Teresa Ulloa, who is now the head of the Latin American and Caribbean branch of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW-LAC), 17% of the gross national product across Latin American nations in derived from prostitution. Ulloa identifies 500,000 victims of human trafficking as existing in Mexico (compared to perhaps 200,000 cumulative victims in the U.S.). Child sex tourism from U.S. perpetrators are among the outrageous crimes that are rampant in Mexico's border regions and resort towns. An estimated 3,000 to 4,000 indigenous girl children have been kidnapped by the Japanese Yakuza mafias, and have been sold in Japan as 'geisha' prostitutes. Neither Mexico nor Japan have lifted a finger to save those children.

Although labor trafficking exists, sexist and racist machismo in Mexico and Latin America's other nations create special conditions where criminal men who act with impunity can literally get away with kidnapping, rape, murder and [sexual]slavery with impunity. The U.S. public has very, very little visibility into these realities. U.S. federal anti-trafficking efforts, and the work of most NGOs have not provided the Latin American crisis, and especially its severely impacted indigenous people's component, a place at the table of decision making and public discourse on this emergency.

My efforts with LibertadLatina have focused on filling the gap in mainstream news coverage in regard to human trafficking's Latin American crisis. For the past 9+ years I have documented as much of the crisis as possible, so that the general public, legislators, law enforcement and criminal justice folks and advocates have access to the truth. Much of that truth, in regard to Latin America's crisis exists as Spanish language reporting by passionate and dedicated reporters and activists. Many of them, especially in Mexico, risk being jailed or killed by corrupt officials and mafias for speaking these truths. I translate as many critical stories as possible, and believe that the effort has had a positive impact on the crisis. In recent months, Mexico has been forced by global public outrage to finally begin to take action to address its huge human trafficking crisis.

So yes, the mainstream press needs to address human trafficking in more detail. The Kansas City Star has made a good start at setting an example for others in professional journalism.

Mexico is a large source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced prostitution and forced labor. Government and NGO statistics suggest that the magnitude of forced labor surpasses that of forced prostitution in Mexico. Groups considered most vulnerable to human trafficking in Mexico include women, children, indigenous persons, and undocumented migrants. Mexican women, girls, and boys are subjected to sexual servitude within the United States and Mexico, lured by false job offers from poor rural regions to urban, border, and tourist areas…

The vast majority of foreign victims in forced labor and sexual servitude in Mexico are from Central America, particularly Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador; many transit Mexico en route to the United States and, to a lesser extent, Canada and Western Europe…

The Government of Mexico does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Mexican authorities increased anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts and achieved the first convictions under the 2007 anti-trafficking law, in addition to opening a government-funded shelter dedicated to sex trafficking victims. The Secretariat of Government assumed more active leadership of the interagency trafficking commission and the Mexican Congress created its own trafficking commission. Given the magnitude of the trafficking problem, however, the number of human trafficking investigations and convictions remained low. While Mexican officials recognize human trafficking as a serious problem, NGOs and government representatives report that some local officials tolerate and are sometimes complicit in trafficking, impeding implementation of anti-trafficking statues…

NGOs, members of the government, and other observers continued to report that corruption among public officials, especially local law enforcement and judicial and immigration officials, was a significant concern. Some officials reportedly accepted or extorted bribes or sexual services, falsified identity documents, discouraged trafficking victims from reporting their crimes, or tolerated child prostitution and other human trafficking activity in commercial sex sites…

NGOs noted that many public officials in Mexico, including state and local officials, did not adequately distinguish between alien smuggling and human trafficking offenses and that many judges and police officers are not familiar with anti-trafficking laws. In order to address this problem, both government and outside sources provided some law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and social workers with anti-trafficking training.

…According to NGOs, victim services were lacking in some parts of the country and remained inadequate in light of the significant number of trafficking victims… Foreign victims who declined to assist law enforcement personnel… were repatriated to their home countries and were not eligible for victim aid or services in Mexico. Although authorities encouraged victims to assist in trafficking investigations and prosecutions, many victims in Mexico were afraid to identify themselves or push for legal remedies due to their fears of retribution from trafficking offenders. Furthermore, victims had little incentive to participate due to a culture of impunity, reflected by official complicity, the limited number of trafficking prosecutions and convictions, and the fact that no trafficking victim has been awarded compensation for damages. The law establishes legal protections for trafficking victims, though in practice, according to NGOs, witnesses were not offered sufficient protection…

Phoenix - Arizona's border with Mexico is the busiest crossing for illegal immigrants, and a number of them are criminals, according to the Border Patrol.

Last year, the Tucson sector of the Border Patrol caught 240,000 people trying to sneak into the United States illegally.

"Right about now, we're apprehending between 400 and 600 people a day," said Colleen Agle with the Border Patrol. She said this is the slow time of year; the number of illegal crossers peaks at around 1,000 a day in cooler weather.

Several criminals are among the illegal immigrants, Agle said.

"Rapists, child molesters, a lot of violent gang members."

She said it's tough to determine just what percentage of illegal immigrants have criminal backgrounds, but agents encounter them on a daily basis.

In the past few days, agents at Douglas have arrested an illegal immigrant who had been convicted of rape and another who had been convicted of having sex with a child under 3 years old. A child molester was arrested at a Nogales border crossing and an illegal who had been convicted of manslaughter was arrested in Casa Grande.

"We definitely see these types of individuals on a weekly basis," said Agle, "and I'd say pretty close to every day, we're apprehending somebody (criminal) -- whether it's a child molester or some sort of sex offender or violent gang member. Those are definitely people who are trying to get into the United States."

Brownsville — The office of the city attorney is reviewing The Brownsville Herald’s request to release an incident report regarding an alleged sexual assault of a child at the Brownwsville and Matamoros International Bridge.

The report contains information on the investigation into the alleged sexual assault of a 7-year-old boy in a bathroom connected to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office at the port of entry.

The boy and his mother — both residents of Matamoros — had accompanied his grandmother to the facility, where she was interviewed in connection with a criminal investigation regarding then Hidalgo County Commissioner Sylvia Handy.

The Herald on Thursday requested the report from the Brownsville Police Department after the child’s mother filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government, several federal agencies and BPD.

The mother claims federal and local law enforcement agencies mishandled evidence and released a suspect without charging him in connection with the assault, the lawsuit states. The mother is accusing authorities of covering up the crime.

The mother seeks unspecified actual and exemplary damages, the lawsuit states.

City Attorney Mark E. Sossi said Tuesday that he would have a resolution soon to The Herald’s request for public information. The Police Department appears to be the lead agency conducting the inquiry.

CBP spokesman Eddie Perez said Tuesday, “We are not at liberty to discuss any case that is in pending litigation.”

The woman filed the lawsuit May 28 in U.S. District Court...

According to the lawsuit, the boy, his mother, two sisters and grandmother were present at a CBP office because the FBI was to interview the grandmother in connection with a criminal investigation regarding then Hidalgo County Commissioner Sylvia Handy. Handy, who represented Hidalgo County Precinct 1, subsequently pleaded guilty to tax evasion and conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens and then resigned from her elected office.

“The FBI knew that (the grandmother) would necessarily have to bring her family and agreed to safeguard all of them while in the United States for government purposes,” the lawsuit states. “The sole purpose of their visit was to be interviewed at the CBP Office regarding an ongoing FBI investigation.”

On the family’s arrival at the CBP office, the FBI began to interview the boy’s grandmother while the remaining family members waited nearby, the lawsuit states. The boy then went to use the restroom.

The mother alleges that when she went to look for her son, there was a man inside wearing glasses and a striped shirt who raced past her out of the restroom and out the CBP office.

The child was found unconscious on the floor in the restroom, the lawsuit states.

The illegal immigrant who confessed to raping and killing an Alabama homecoming queen in a West Knoxville hotel room made a vow Thursday to expose his accomplice.

"That is a promise I make to the family (to) give them some peace," Valentino Vasquez Miranda said via an interpreter in Knox County Criminal Court.

Miranda admitted at a hearing Thursday that he used a master key to get inside a sleeping Jennifer Lee Hampton's hotel room at the Days Inn on Lovell Road and then raped and strangled her in September 2008.

As part of a plea deal approved by Judge Bob McGee, Miranda was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after a mandatory 51-year prison term.

Hampton, 21, was in Knoxville to help train workers at a new Mama Blue's restaurant set to open here. Miranda and girlfriend Rosa Hernandez were living and working at the Days Inn as housekeepers.

Assistant District Attorney Kevin Allen told McGee that the attack on Hampton was a violent one, with guests in an adjoining room reporting a crash against her wall severe enough to shake items in their room. Hampton fought for her life, he said, evidenced by bits of Miranda's flesh under her fingernails.

"The cause of death was strangulation," he said...

At a hearing earlier this year, Allen signaled that his office might seek the death penalty in the case. But the Mexican consulate, acting on behalf of Miranda and his family, later questioned whether Miranda was 17 at the time of the slaying rather than the age of 20 as suggested by fake Social Security documents. Birth certificates are not issued in Mexico, so there is no way to verify a Mexican citizen's age. Under Tennessee and federal law, juveniles cannot be put to death.

To avoid a battle over the issue, Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols declined to authorize what's known as a "death notice" to be filed against Miranda.

Spared death and a lifetime behind bars, Miranda still tarried several hours Thursday before inking his plea deal.

Hampton's mother, Cynthia Senn, said she was told Miranda did not want to face her daughter's loved ones. He relented shortly before a 1:30 p.m. deadline.

Attorney Eddie Daniel already won a civil settlement on behalf of the Hampton family from the Days Inn. The terms have been kept under wraps.

State police have identified a second suspect in the 2008 carjacking, beating and rape of a 22-year-old woman in Berks County.

State police at Reading issued an arrest warrant Wednesday night for Louis Alberto Berrios-Rodriguez, 22, formerly of Reading. He has not been captured, and is believed to be living in Puerto Rico.

Police in Puerto Rico and Reading are actively looking for him and anyone with information is asked to call state police at 610-378-4011, or Crime Alert Berks County at 877-373-9913. Callers are eligible for a reward of up to $10,000.

On Wednesday, state police said Raymond Cosme-Gomez, 21, formerly of Reading, was captured in Puerto Rico for the brutal Alsace Township rape on Oct. 18, 2008. He is awaiting extradition.

Police said an intensive investigation, which included the use of DNA evidence, led them to Cosme-Gomez.

Police said Cosme-Gomez and Berrios-Rodriguez were two of the three men who were in an Alsace bar with the victim. The three men followed the woman out of the bar and carjacked her in a parking lot across from the bar, police said.

The men robbed the victim of her money and drove her to a remote area about a quarter-mile away, where she was assaulted and raped, police said.

The attackers left the victim there, taking her car and her cell phone.

About an hour later, police found her car burning in Reading.

Phoenix- A Phoenix woman claims she was sexually assaulted in her home this week by a man dressed in a Sparkletts water uniform.

Luis Samudio with the Phoenix Police Department said the woman told authorities she heard a knock on her door in the area of 51st Avenue and Cactus Road around 6 p.m. Tuesday.

The woman reportedly looked through the peep hole and saw a man wearing what appeared to be a Sparkletts uniform.

Samudio said the woman told authorities she opened the door and the suspect forced entry into the home.

The man allegedly sexually assaulted her and struck her several times in the head with a black semi-automatic pistol.

The suspect is described as a Hispanic male between 25 and 30 years old, 5 feet 8 inches tall, 190 pounds, and was wearing a Sparkletts water polo, a matching baseball cap, leather gloves, and tan shorts. Police also said he had a ‘chinstrap’ goatee.

Samudio said this appears to be an isolated incident. Police say the crime in under investigation.