California Watch

March 22nd, 2012

Since 1965, when Congress overhauled the nation’s immigration law, the Hispanic population in America has jumped from just under 10 million to more than 50 million in recent years, including about 9.6 million illegal immigrants from Latin America as of 2008, according to the report.

But, according to a new study, the era of mass migration from Mexico appears, for the moment, to be over. Apprehensions of unauthorized border crossers were at the lowest point in decades last year. Legal entries also dropped from 219,000 in 2002 to 139,000 in 2010.

June 14th, 2011

Seventy Percent of Guns Used in Mexican Violence Came From America

theatlantic:

The violence in Mexico is getting out of hand, and American guns are fueling the bloodshed. According to a report released Monday by three U.S. senators, at least 70 percent of the guns recovered by Mexican authorities in 2009 and 2010 can be traced back to the United States. The report, “Halting U.S. Firearms Trafficking to Mexico” by Democratic Senators Diane Feinstein, Chuck Schumer and Sheldon Whitehouse, takes a strong position on Congress’s inaction in quelling the flow of American assault rifles. Mexican President Felipe Calderon has made repeated requests for stricter gun laws to prevent continued bloodshed.

The morgues are overflowing in San Fernando, which along a road locals call “the highway of death.” Many bus companies have cancelled that route between the Tamaulipas state capital Ciudad Victoria and Brownsville, Texas, and few journalists dare venture into the area without military escorts.

Calderon blames the United States, at least for the guns. Though the proportionate amount of weapons coming out of the U.S. has dropped to 70 percent from the 85 percent reported in 2009, it’s tough to argue against the Mexican president Along those lines, the American ban on assault rifles lifted in 2004 contributed to the spike in bloodshed.

Read more at The Atlantic Wire

Reblogged from The Atlantic

June 1st, 2011

Zoom

life:

This is photojournalism of the highest order, on the front lines of a war that recognizes no rules and no boundaries. Like scores of other Mexican towns and cities, Acapulco has endured a massive spike in drug-related violence, and a terrifying shift in the nature of the carnage. Not content with murdering each other (Mexico saw close to 35,000 killings between 2006 and 2010, with 30,000 classified as “execution style” crimes), drug gangs routinely engage in acts of savagery — decapitations, public displays of the mutilated dead — meant to intimidate foes, and terrorize everyone else.

SHOCKING PHOTOS: Inside Mexico’s Drug Wars— photos depict extreme violence, viewer discrection is advised.

Reblogged from LIFE

May 31st, 2011

latimes:

A kindergarten teacher in Mexico led her class in a singalong during a shootout that occurred outside the school. Daniel Hernandez reports:

In the video, the frightened but determined voice of a schoolteacher is heard as she attempts to maintain calm among a group of kindergartners lying on the floor before her, asking them to join her in a singalong as gunfire shatters the air outside.

(Source: Los Angeles Times)

Reblogged from Nick Turse

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California Watch, the largest investigative journalism team operating in the state, was launched in 2009 by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Center for Investigative Reporting. Areas of coverage include education, health and welfare, public safety, the environment and the influence of money on the political and regulatory process.

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