Between Nov. 14 and Nov. 17, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) "Fugitive Operations Units" arrested 70 immigrants in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Manhattan. Of the total, 27 had been ordered removed by an immigration judge and 43 were simply present in the US without immigration status. ICE described those arrested as including "criminal and non-criminal aliens," but declined to say how many of them had been accused or convicted of crimes. The arrested immigrants are from Albania, Algeria, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mexico, Panama, Pakistan, Poland, Sierra Leone, Trinidad, Uzbekistan and Yugoslavia. All were transported to detention facilities in New Jersey and placed in removal proceedings. ICE announced the arrests on Nov. 17 as part of a national initiative dubbed "Operation Return to Sender." (ICE news release, Nov. 17)

From Reuters, Nov. 23:

BOGOTA - Colombia's right-wing militia leaders on Thursday called for the establishment of a truth commission that would allow them to reveal who collaborated in their illegal war against left-wing rebels.

Is it civil war yet? You tell us. Commentators have weaseled out of calling it that by making an arbitrary litmus test the fracturing of the "unity government"—even if that government has little real power and violence on the ground is approching Bosnia '95 levels. Now, it seems, even that litmus test is about to fail. From Lebanon's Daily Star, Nov. 25:

We have noted a growing number of cases in which immigrants are targeted for deportation by the Islamophobic policies of the US immigration authorities, only to face oppression by Islamist thugs who rule in the countries they fled. The Homeland Security Department's Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) has even been attempting to affect deportations to Somalia—even as the CIA is busily trying to overthrow the Islamic Courts Union which has usurped power there. Now, they have just succeeded, in a case which fortunately made page 2 of New York Times Metro Section Nov. 22—albeit after the fact, and too late to help the unfortunate Mohamad Rasheed Jama...

A civil jury ruled Nov. 22 that rancher and vigilante Roger Barnett must pay $98,000 in damages to a Mexican-American family that he illegally held and threatened at gunpoint. The family were legal residents hunting on lands near his ranch, but Barnett apparently assumed they were "illegals" coming across the border (Douglas Dispatch, Nov. 24)

Zapatista Subcommander Marcos, continuing his "Other Campaign" tour of northern Mexico, arrived once again on the US border Nov. 22 when he stopped in Nuevo Laredo, Tamualipas, a border town which has been torn by narco-fueled violence in recent months. Marcos drew attention to the ongiong social crisis on the border which has been overshadowed by media reports of spectacular violence, meeting with shanty-dwellers who work in the maquiladoras but are squatting lands near the town garbage dump, with no legal title to their homes or access to running water or other services. (La Jornada, Nov. 23 via Chiapas95)

Supporters of the Zapatista Naitonal Liberation Army (EZLN) blocked roads at 18 points in Chiapas Nov. 21 in support of the struggle in Oaxaca and to press demands for the resignation of the embattled state's Gov. Ulises Ruiz. The Chiapas state government secretary Roger Grajales Gonzalez said the blockades involved hundreds of indigenous Zapatista supporters, and were carried out in a peaceful manner.

Traditional indigenous authorities from several communities in Oaxaca's northern mountains met at Guelatao de Juarez Nov. 21 to formally inaugurate the Assembly of Zapotec, Mixe and Chinanteco Pueblos of the Sierra de Juarez, to support the popular struggle in the conflicted Mexican state. Announcing its affiliation with APPO, leaders said the organization would "seize" government offices throughout the region, and would continue the occupation of the federally-owned radio station based in Guelatao de Juarez, XEGLO, "La Voz de la Sierra," which was taken over by protesters several days earlier.