Apprehensions of undocumented immigrants have plummeted from their all time highs in 2000. Founding member of the Zeta cartel has been captured in Mexico.  Senator Robert Menendez held a round table with Hispanic journalists on issues such as immigration and the DREAM Act.

Border Busts Take A Big Dip With an unprecedented amount of resources being allocated for the southwest border, less people are attempting to cross from Mexico into the United States. “American border apprehensions – a key indicator of illegal immigration – have plummeted to one-fifth of what they were at its peak in 2000, a new report released by the Customs and Border Patrol agency indicates. The year-end report found 340,252 apprehensions were made by CBP in the 2011 fiscal year, down 53 percent since 2008, and drastically lower than the 1.68 million apprehended a decade ago.”

Zeta Drug Leader El Lucky Apprehended In Veracruz, Mexico a founding member of the Zeta cartel was arrested: ” Hernandez Lechuga, alias El Lucky, was allegedly a founding member of the cartel and ran its activities in Veracruz, Puebla and Oaxaca states.Security forces had placed a 15m peso (£700,000: $1m) bounty on his head. At least 40,000 people are thought to have died in drugs-related violence in Mexico in the past five years.

Democrats on offense on Immigration Senator Robert Menendez expressed the frustration of not being able to get any traction on immigration legislation in the Senate: ““It isn’t a question of Democrats pursuing initiatives that are doomed to fail,” Menendez responded. “We need a bipartisan approach in a Senate in which the Republicans have used the filibuster, i.e. 60 votes for just about everything … We cannot move forward on immigration, including the DREAM Act, unless we have Republican support.”
Menendez said that he would rather be criticized for introducing immigration reform, a top legislative priority for Latino voters and activists, then not dealing with the issue at all.
“I always find it interesting: if we make an effort, it is categorized as ‘destined to fail’ and if we don’t make an effort, we are criticized for not making an effort on comprehensive immigration reform,” said Menendez. “And so it seems to me that if I have to be criticized, I prefer to be criticized for making an effort.”