BUSH ADMINiSTRATION PLAYS HIDE AND GO SEEK WITH 400,000 CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIENS; IF DEPORTED, MOST WILL RETURN ACROSS POROUS BORDER WITH MEXICO

157,000 plus illegals were deported during the last fiscal year from the United States. Three years after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the Bush adminstration is finally tracking down down illegals who pose a threat to national security.

Over half those deported had criminal convictions or outstanding warrants for their arrest. The Bush administration has tasked agents to aggressively track down illegal aliens who have disobeyed orders to leave the country.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has deployed 80 agents assigned to "fugitive operations teams" in 16 cities to find 400,000 plus fugitive immigrants hiding within the United States, 80,000 of whom were ordered to leave the country after criminal convictions or with outstanding criminal warrants for their arrest.

The $50 million program is part of a Bush administration initiative that began in 2003 and will be expanded by another 30 teams in all 23 field offices, including two teams each in Los Angeles and New York

Homeland Security now realizes that going after fugitive illegal aliens who refused to report to immigration after recieving notices they would be deported, might be a good idea towards protecting U.S. citizens.

A majority of illegal aliens with criminal convictions were deported to Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Brazil; all are countries with suspected terrorist cells working within their borders.

BIASED AZ AG CONTINUES TO SEEK LOOPHOLES IN PROP 200

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, who took a biased position against Proposition 200, released an opinion (biased) last Friday stating the initiative will apply to some taxpayer supported state welfare programs.

Health services spokesman Michael Murphy says taxpayers will still fund treatment of illegal aliens with communicable diseases. “It appears that we will be able to protect the citizens of Arizona,” said Murphy. It’s not clear whether Murphy is confusing illegal with citizens or if he means protecting citizens by stopping the spread of diseases like AIDS, tuberculosis or bacterial meningitis to citizens.

Stopping illegal immigration at the border seems the best way to stop the spread of such diseases, along with deporting any illegal alien who carries such diseases. The U.N. can get involved in demanding that Mexican President Vincente Fox’s administration provide medical care for the citizens of Mexico.

Countries of origin of the arrested illegal aliens who need treatment should be billed for services by employees of the state. It is public employees’ job to protect the programs paid for by legal citizens.

THE ILLEGAL-ALIEN CRIME WAVE

The following article is lengthy and we will continue it in next week’s issue of the Tumbleweed. We think you will find it shocking to say the least. Senators Kyl, McCain and Congressman Kolbe do not want you to know the brutal truth. We do.

Editor.

"But if I see a deportee from the Mara Salvatrucha [Salvadoran prison] gang crossing the street, I know I can't touch him," laments a Los Angeles gang officer. Only if the deported felon has given the officer some other reason to stop him, such as an observed narcotics sale, can the cop accost him-but not for the immigration felony.

Though such a policy puts the community at risk, the department's top brass brush off such concerns. No big deal if you see deported gangbangers back on the streets, they say. Just put them under surveillance for "real" crimes and arrest them for those. But surveillance is very manpower-intensive. Where there is an immediate ground for getting a violent felon off the street and for questioning him further, it is absurd to demand that the woefully understaffed LAPD ignore it.

The stated reasons for sanctuary policies are that they encourage illegal-alien crime victims and witnesses to cooperate with cops without fear of deportation, and that they encourage illegals to take advantage of city services like health care and education (to whose maintenance few illegals have contributed a single tax dollar, of course). There has never been any empirical verification that sanctuary laws actually accomplish these goals-and no one has ever suggested not enforcing drug laws, say, for fear of intimidating drug-using crime victims. But in any case, this official rationale could be honored by limiting police use of immigration laws to some subset of immigration violators: deported felons, say, or repeat criminal offenders whose immigration status police already know.

The real reason cities prohibit their cops and other employees from immigration reporting and enforcement is, like nearly everything else in immigration policy, the numbers. The immigrant population has grown so large that public officials are terrified of alienating it, even at the expense of ignoring the law and tolerating violence. In 1996, a breathtaking Los Angeles Times exposé on the 18th Street Gang, which included descriptions of innocent bystanders being murdered by laughing cholos (gang members), revealed the rate of illegal-alien membership in the gang. In response to the public outcry, the Los Angeles City Council ordered the police to reexamine Special Order 40. You would have thought it had suggested reconsidering Roe v. Wade. A police commander warned the council: "This is going to open a significant, heated debate." City Councilwoman Laura Chick put on a brave front: "We mustn't be afraid," she declared firmly.

But of course immigrant pandering trumped public safety. Law-abiding residents of gang-infested neighborhoods may live in terror of the tattooed gangbangers dealing drugs, spraying graffiti, and shooting up rivals outside their homes, but such anxiety can never equal a politician's fear of offending Hispanics. At the start of the reexamination process, LAPD deputy chief John White had argued that allowing the department to work closely with the INS would give cops another tool for getting gang members off the streets. Trying to build a homicide case, say, against an illegal gang member is often futile, he explained, since witnesses fear deadly retaliation if they cooperate with the police. Enforcing an immigration violation would allow the cops to lock up the murderer right now, without putting a witness's life at risk.

But six months later, Deputy Chief White had changed his tune: "Any broadening of the policy gets us into the immigration business," he asserted. "It's a federal law-enforcement issue, not a local law-enforcement issue." Interim police chief Bayan Lewis told the L.A. Police Commission: "It is not the time. It is not the day to look at Special Order 40."

Nor will it ever be, as long as immigration numbers continue to grow. After their brief moment of truth in 1996, Los Angeles politicians have only grown more adamant in defense of Special Order 40. After learning that cops in the scandal-plagued Rampart Division had cooperated with the INS to try to uproot murderous gang members from the community, local politicians threw a fit, criticizing district commanders for even allowing INS agents into their station houses. In turn, the LAPD strictly disciplined the offending officers. By now, big-city police chiefs are unfortunately just as determined to defend sanctuary policies as the politicians who appoint them; not so the rank and file, however, who see daily the benefit that an immigration tool would bring.

Immigration politics have similarly harmed New York. Former mayor Rudolph Giuliani sued all the way up to the Supreme Court to defend the city's sanctuary policy against a 1996 federal law decreeing that cities could not prohibit their employees from cooperating with the INS. Oh yeah? said Giuliani; just watch me. The INS, he claimed, with what turned out to be grotesque irony, only aims to "terrorize people." Though he lost in court, he remained defiant to the end. On September 5, 2001, his handpicked charter-revision committee ruled that New York could still require that its employees keep immigration information confidential to preserve trust between immigrants and government. Six days later, several visa-overstayers participated in the most devastating attack on the city and the country in history.

New York conveniently forgot the 1996 federal ban on sanctuary laws until a gang of five Mexicans-four of them illegal-abducted and brutally raped a 42-year-old mother of two near some railroad tracks in Queens. The NYPD had already arrested three of the illegal aliens numerous times for such crimes as assault, attempted robbery, criminal trespass, illegal gun possession, and drug offenses. The department had never notified the INS.

Citizen outrage forced Mayor Michael Bloomberg to revisit the city's sanctuary decree yet again. In May 2003, Bloomberg tweaked the policy minimally to allow city staffers to inquire into immigration status only if it is relevant to the awarding of a government benefit. Though Bloomberg's new rule said nothing about reporting immigration violations to federal officials, advocates immediately claimed that it did allow such reporting, and the ethnic lobbies went ballistic. "What we're seeing is the erosion of people's rights," thundered Angelo Falcon of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. After three months of intense agitation by immigrant groups, Bloomberg replaced this innocuous "don't ask" policy with a "don't tell" rule even broader than Gotham's original sanctuary policy. The new rule prohibits city employees from giving other government officials information not just about immigration status but about tax payments, sexual orientation, welfare status, and other matters.

But even were immigrant-saturated cities to discard their sanctuary policies and start enforcing immigration violations where public safety demands it, the resource-starved immigration authorities couldn't handle the overwhelming additional workload.

BE ON THE LOOKOUT!

ALERT ISSUED FOR STOLEN CROP-DUSTER

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has issued an advisory that a Piper PA 25 Pawnee crop-dusting aircraft was stolen from Ejido Queretaro, near Mexicali, Mexico, on Nov. 1.

“Although there is currently no indication that this has any connection to terrorist activity,” the TSA said, “the theft is cause for concern. Past information indicates that members of al-Qaida may have planned—or may still be planning—to disperse biological or chemical agents from crop-dusting aircraft.”
 

The stolen aircraft is registered in Mexico and bears the tail number XBCYP. If you see the aircraft, the TSA says you should immediately contact the TSA General Aviation Hotline at (866) 427-3287, or contact your nearest office of the FBI.

AL-QAEDA TO SMUGGLE NUKES INTO U.S. VIA MEXICO? OR, ARE THEY ALREADY HERE?

Border patrol agents working in Cochise County confirm the threat is real. Sources close to the Tumbleweed reported that two weeks ago agents in the area were told to go to a high alert status.

“Something serious is going on again; this is the third time this year we have been warned that OTM’s [other than Mexicans] from terrorist countries are coming across. You know we have caught some of them, but I’m afraid many more are getting through. Man, we are seeing more illegals than I ever imagined out here--we can’t even catch half of them,” stated an agent who will remain anonymous to protect his job, his family and and his life from retribution for speaking to the media.

The Hunter UAVs are working almost 24-hours a day in an unprecedented effort to stop illegal border crossers.

A new report from TIME magazine (11/22/04) reveals the very real and frightening possibility of al-Qaeda attacking the United States with nuclear weapons! The article cites one key al-Qaeda operative, "Sharif al-Masri, an Egyptian who was captured in late August near Pakistan's border with Iran and Afghanistan, [who] has told his interrogators....that al-Qaeda has considered plans to 'smuggle nuclear materials to Mexico, then operatives would carry material into the U.S.'" The article also states that "U.S. and Mexican intelligence conferred about reports from several al-Qaeda detainees indicating the potential use of Mexico as a staging area 'to acquire end-stage chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear material." TIME magazine has bucked the "cover-up trend" in the establishment media and has set a fine example in investigative reporting with its previous expose "Who Left the Door Open?" in its September 22nd issue. We are grateful for TIME's continued vigilance in reporting the truth about the increasing terrorist threat coming from our southern border.

Sadly, many other outlets in the liberal media establishment routinely ignore the terrorist threat coming in from Mexico. However, you can help change all that by joining our ongoing media fax blast campaign to force the major media to cover critical immigration & terrorist-related threats before another 9/11 takes place on American soil!

TO JOIN OUR FAX BLAST CAMPAIGN, CLICK LINK BELOW:

https://www.ccsecure.net/citizenslobby/faxblast.php

A 9/11 FAMILY MEMBER CONFRONTS SEN. MCCAIN [R-AZ] ON IMMIGRATION CONTROL

By Joe Guzzardi

I first met Bruce DeCell in December 2002. Peter Brimelow and I had gathered in New York with stunned 9/11 family members. DeCell is a retired New York police officer whose son-in-law, Mark Petrocelli, was killed at the World Trade Center.

Incredulous at the extent of immigration abuses, the group would soon form 9/11 Families for a Secure America.

DeCell has more reason than most to rejoice that at the stunning victory of Proposition 200the heroic attempt by grass-roots Arizona effort to stop illegal aliens from picking taxpayers’ pockets, voting in elections etc.

In one of life’s curious twists, DeCell had a chance October 20th encounter on a New York-bound Metroliner with one of Prop 200’s most vocal and powerful foes, Arizona Senator John McCain.

As DeCell recounted the incident to me, he had been in Washington DC to attend the House-Senate Conference Committee meeting to support the immigration provisions recommended by the 9/11 Commission and written into H.R. 10.

On his way home DeCell, to his great surprise, found himself sitting across from McCain, one of the driving forces behind S.2845 the Senate bill that attempted to strip most of the immigration safety measures from H. R. 10. (The stronger version eventually prevailed another significant victory for immigration reform).

Eventually, DeCell introduced himself to McCain as a 9/11 FSA member. Sensing early where their conversation was headed, McCain cut DeCell off by insisting that H.R. 10 would never pass because it contained provisions not in the 9/11 Commission’s report.

“McCain’s eyes glazed over as soon as I mentioned H.R. 10,” recalled DeCell.

But DeCell was not put off. He challenged McCain to compare the Commission’s report, which he had with him with H.R. 10. McCain refused.

Again, DeCell pressed McCain. DeCell pointed out that that S.2845 does not address the need for tighter border security.

McCain insisted “three or four times,” according to DeCell that the Senate version would provide ample security.

As for illegal aliens, McCain was adamant that they come only to work at jobs Americans will not take.

For emphasis, Mc Cain added that in his opinion OTM’s (Other Than Mexicans) crossing into America from Mexico present no security threat.

Growing increasingly frustrated, DeCell told McCain that S. 2845 failed adequately to address the threat of driver’s licenses given to illegal aliens. The 9/11 Commission had emphasized the ease with which terrorists obtained driver’s licenses prior to the attacks.

McCain advised DeCell that he had written the driver’s license language in the Senate bill. Then, he abruptly ended their conversation.

When the train pulled into the station McCain rose from his seat and turned to DeCell.

“Goodbye. It was nice meeting you,” he said.

Replied De Cell: “Shame on you, Senator.”

“I was furious,” DeCell told me, “How can we survive with leaders like McCain?”

Just a few days later, McCain shifted his focus from gutting H.R. 10 to going on the warpath against Prop 200.

On October 24th, the Arizona Republic published McCain’s Op-ed titled “Prop 200 Less than Worthless to Arizona,” continuing his assault on the truth about illegal immigration.

Shamelessly describing himself as the “leader” in the “search for solutions” to illegal immigration, McCain complained that Prop 200 would be a costly nuisance to enforce. McCain’s answer to illegal immigration crisis is naturally amnesty!

Just prior to Election Day, DeCell traveled to Arizona to make radio and television appearances in support of Prop 200.

When the final votes were tallied, I asked DeCell if he felt any special sense of vindication that he had contributed to the victory of Prop 200 and had in the process also prevailed over McCain, the Wall Street Journal, the Chamber of Commerce, Hispanic advocacy groups and the Arizona Republic.

Said DeCell, “The Arizona voters have sent a clear message that they are disgusted with illegal aliens ruining the state.” But he went on, “I can’t believe that people vote for McCain. Illegal aliens have made a shambles out of Arizona.”
 

(McCain was re-elected with 77 percent of the vote over his Democratic opponent, Stuart Starkey, an eighth grade mathematics teacher.)

Continuing, DeCell said, “As I traveled around, I met with ranchers who reported that over the last few years they had caught 9,000 aliens and seized two to three tons of drugs. In Phoenix, all the money transfer stations have bulletproof booths. Aliens can get their photos for matricula consular cards right next to the Mexican consulate office. In ten minutes, we saw about 20 people go into the consulate with their pictures in hand.”
 

Finally, DeCell said that as far as McCain and other Congressional open borders enthusiasts, he considers them all “creeps.”

Looking back on his train ride with McCain, De Cell minced no words. “I don’t care if they are rude to me or not. When I get the chance to confront them, I’m not going to pull any punches.”
 

The Prop 200 victory is the biggest triumph grassroots Americans have enjoyed since California’s Proposition 187. Immigration reform is coming to America even if John McCain won’t get on the train.

Joe Guzzardi, an instructor in English at the Lodi Adult School, has been writing a weekly newspaper column since 1988. This column is exclusive to VDARE.COM.

CHILLING COSTS OF ILLEGAL ALIEN MIGRATION

By Frosty Wooldridge

November 9, 2004

NewsWithViews.com

In 2003, according to the Arizona Department of Motor Vehicles, 57,600 cars were stolen in Phoenix. It is now the car-jacking capital of the world. Most were SUV's and pickup trucks. At a conservative average of $15,000.00 per vehicle, owner losses exceeded $864 million. Insurance companies in the state suffered incredible claims from policyholders. Worse, how would you like to walk out of your home or business to see your car gone? Imagine the hassle, violation of your hard work and disrespect for your well-being.

Where did those vehicles go? Who stole them? Take a guess. Arizona is the temporary home of 500,000 illegal aliens. They cost Arizona taxpayers over $1 billion annually in services for schools, medical care, welfare anchor babies, loss of tax base and prisons. Illegals use those vehicles for smuggling more people and drugs from around the world into our country. When the vehicles are recovered, they are smashed-up wrecks in the desert. If not found, they have new owners south of the border as thieves drive the cars through the desert and into Mexico as easily as you drive your kids to soccer practice. THAT's how porous our borders are!

The chilling costs of illegal migration reach like an octopus into every aspect of our lives. Illegal aliens displaced American workers at a cost in excess of $133 billion dollars last year according to Harvard Professor George Borjas. College and high school kids cannot find a summer job in yard care, landscape, fast food or service jobs. Why? Illegal aliens work them at a third the wage and often, under the table. Not only do your kids not have jobs; you're paying taxes for illegal aliens who are not paying taxes.

Annually, 75 percent of drugs arrive from Mexico at a net cost of $120 billion hard currency that leaves our country for good. In addition, our tax dollars pay $80 billion for the War on Drugs each year. It is a war that hasn't been won in the past 30 years and drugs are as available today to your teenager as they were in 1970.

When an alien criminal gets caught for rape, murder or drug distribution, you pay $1.6 billion annually in prison costs to house, feed and clothe those filling 30 percent of our federal and state prisons-not to mention TV, movies, weight rooms and other entertainment-they enjoy while being incarcerated.

Is your blood boiling at this point? How about illegal alien anchor babies? Over 300,000 women annually arrive pregnant and drop them on U.S. soil. You pay food, housing, medical and schooling for them to age 18 PLUS their mother. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, average annual cost per child K-12 is $7,161.00 and exceeds $109 billion annually per cycle of anchor babies. That's your money given out to 300,000 moms and their kids annually and all they did was get pregnant and birth that child on U.S. soil.

If you haven't had a heart attack by now, you'll need Tums after this figure. The average head of household illegal alien costs you $2,700.00 in welfare money over and above any taxes he or she pays in their meager paying jobs. With 15 to 20 million illegal aliens in the USA, that figures exceeds $20 billion of your tax dollars. (Source: Center for Immigration Studies, August 2004)

How about the $56 billion in pure cash illegal migrants sent to their home countries last year and every year? That's after their kids enjoyed free education, free lunches and free medical care paid for by you. Mexico receives $15 billion annually from its worker drones. No wonder Vicente Fox sent us 9.2 million illegal alien Mexicans so far. The lifetime net fiscal drain-taxes paid minus services used-for an adult immigrant is $55,200.00 according to Carrying Capacity Network. Who makes that money up? You do! Your work! Your taxes!

With a minimum of 15 million illegal aliens in our country, these figures are the tip of the iceberg. Average bilingual education is $1,200.00 per illegal alien student. Get this! We educate 1.1 million illegal alien children each year. Do the math! Ready for another anvil dropped on your toe fact? You paid $27 billion to provide forms, ballots, interpreters and brochures for languages other than English in 2003.

An estimated one-third to one-half illegal aliens works off the books. It costs $200 million to provide for emergency health care for illegal aliens in the Border States annually. California with over three million illegals paid $79 million, BUT four of their major LA hospitals bankrupted and shut their doors in 2004. Texas with 1.5 million illegal aliens paid $74 million in hospital care. Who is Texas? You, the taxpayer, that's who! Because you, in your state, pay commensurate medical care according to your illegal alien population. Georgia ran a $63 million deficit for 64,000 unpaid doctor visits to their Grady Health Care system in 2002. In the same year, Georgia taxpayers paid $27 million for 11,188 anchor baby hospital births. Georgia taxpayers paid a whopping $242 million for educating illegal alien kids in 2003. What is it in your state?

What are the consequences? One in two adult African-Americans in New York is unemployed. African-American children's poverty grew by 50 percent since 1999. Why? Their dads can't find work. It costs you, the taxpayer, $68 billion a year JUST to pay for the resettlement of legal immigrants.

Fellow Americans, we are $7.384 trillion in debt as of November 1, 2004. This year's budget deficit exceeds $413 billion. Our trade deficit stands at $400 billion. Our consumer debt exceeds $2 trillion and our average credit card carries an $8,000.00 balance. Our U.S. government borrows $1.6 billion daily from foreign banks, just to stay afloat. Have you ever heard of the Titanic? We are taking on heavy immigration numbers while we're being financially bled to death. Are we in trouble or what?

Who brings this fiscal nightmare into America? Take a guess. The majority of your Congress! President George W. Bush himself! Tom Ridge, who won't guard our borders from this invasion, but gets his orders from Bush! Illegals are arriving at over 4,000 per night according to Time Magazine, September 12, 2004, "Who Left the Door Open?" I quote, "That total of illegal aliens flooding into the United States this year will total three million-enough to fill 22,000 737 Boeing airliners, or 60 flights every day for a year." Don't you think with that many illegals crossing nightly that anyone with a brain would send troops to our border to protect from an invasion? Since we just re-elected the same Congress and president, you can expect more of the same.

You can count on your corporations devouring cheap labor as they send you to the unemployment lines. Additionally, they pay PAC groups to keep senators and congressmen in their back pocket. How do I know? Only 22 companies in 2003 were taken to court for hiring illegal aliens. None went to jail. However, it's a $10,000.00 fine per illegal alien hired and up to five years in prison. You would think that would deter corporations. Not when they've bought off enforcement!

Who else figures in this grand scheme? Your governors and mayors who provide sanctuary laws for illegal aliens! Mayor Bloomberg of New York City. Governor Baldacci of Maine! Governor Bill Owens of Colorado! Mayor Hickenlooper of Denver! Mayor of Los Angeles! Mayor of San Francisco! Mayor of Chicago! Mayor of Miami! How do I know? All those cities and dozens more give sanctuary to illegal aliens with Special Order 40. Illegals remain in our country with exemption from arrest-yet, they are federal criminals!

Can you blame millions of desperate people for coming illegally to America? Hardly! Do you think they will stop coming since the world adds 80 million annually of poor, hopeless people from war torn, ravaged and impoverished Third World countries?

Not a chance! This is the land of free milk and honey. As long as our leaders allow the invasion and not enough Americans speak up, you can expect 12 million more illegal aliens in the next four years. Who pays for this invasion of your country? You do!

As a final note, if you're as sick of this nation-destroying dilemma as I am, go to my web site. I'll send you an action letter with 17 effective points to change our nation's suicidal course. Whatever your talent, you will become a part of this movement to save our country from this disaster being brought to us by our leaders. You may send that action email out to your friends and they can send it to their friends. As Americans we must link arms, hearts and minds to take action to preserve our country and force our leaders to stop this illegal immigration madness. It's called a 'consciousness shift' and it's going to take every one of us. That means everything you do, COUNTS!

© 2004 Frosty Wooldridge - All Rights Reserved. Used by permission

HIV ON THE RISE AMONG MIGRANTS

As many as 1% of workers here from Mexico are infected, studies show. Scientists fear the rate could grow exponentially.

By Sharon Bernstein

Los Angeles Times, November 2, 2004

http: //www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-aids2nov02.story

HIV infections are rising at a significant rate among migrant Mexican workers after decades of being a minor problem along the border, according to two new studies by the University of California's AIDS research program.

As many as 1% of migrant workers-about 20,000 people-are infected with HIV, according to the results of a study of 600 migrant workers in Fresno and San Diego counties. That's more than three times the rate of HIV in the general U.S and Mexican populations, according to UC researchers who sponsored the fieldwork.

The AIDS program's second study, published Monday in the Journal of AIDS, showed that the rate of HIV infection among women giving birth at Tijuana General Hospital was four times higher than that in the general population of either country.

"Previous data was suggesting that the epidemic was remaining stable in Mexico, and that it was a fairly minimal problem among migrants," said Dr. George Lemp, head of the Universitywide AIDS Research Program, who worked on both studies.

The new data, however, show that "HIV infection is potentially on the threshold of rapid increase in this population…if behavior change doesn't occur and there is no intervention, then we would expect some exponential growth in the number of people infected."

Lemp said researchers have known for years that migrants were engaging in high-risk sexual behavior while in the U.S.

But earlier studies had shown little evidence of infection to go along with that risk.

Researchers say that male migrant workers, separated from spouses and adrift from the cultural mores of their native Mexico, typically contract the virus in the U.S.-usually through sexual contact with other men.

Another source, Lemp said, is the widespread use of shared needles to inject antibiotics and vitamins. In Mexico, where injecting antibiotics is common, clean needles are available over the counter, but migrants here must share needles because syringes cannot be easily purchased.

Unaware of how the disease is spread or that they can pass it to their wives and girlfriends, these men return to Mexico, where a third of those with HIV and AIDS live in the states that export the most workers to the United States.

"We've known it's just a matter of time before we started seeing these kinds of numbers coming from Mexico," said Terry Cunningham, chief of the Office of AIDS Coordination for San Diego County. "It's alarming."

If public health officials don't devote considerable resources to tracking the infections and educating the Mexican public about AIDS and HIV, Mexico could rapidly become the next India or China - countries where the epidemic is raging out of control, Lemp said.

The rising HIV infections among migrant workers echo the skyrocketing infection rates among Latinos overall. According to the study in the Journal of AIDS, Latinos in 2000 accounted for 34.2% of AIDS cases diagnosed in California, where they make up 30.8% of the population.

Just last summer, Latinos became the largest group of people in Los Angeles County diagnosed with AIDS. They now account for 40% of the county's AIDS cases, compared with 39% for whites and 21% for African Americans, according to Gunther Freehill, spokesman for the Los Angeles County AIDS office.

It is particularly difficult to find and treat rural workers who have HIV and AIDS, said Lemp and others. Outreach workers must go to the fields, win the trust of people whose lives are essentially hidden from the mainstream, and persuade them to talk about something as sensitive as sex.

Once patients are identified and brought to local clinics for treatment, ongoing care is nearly impossible. The patients, typically uninsured, move every few weeks, following the crops.

In urban areas like Los Angeles County, migrant workers tend to work in construction and other trades rather than on farms.

Public health officials have used mobile testing vans to reach these migrant workers at day labor sites. "But it's really hard to get a handle on the situation," Freehill said. "It's hard to go back to them time after time."

Editor's Note: The University of California's AIDS research program is online at: http://uarp.ucop.edu/

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