- IMMIGRATION-HUNGER STRIKE
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — An attorney for three Indian nationals seeking asylum in the U.S. says they have been forced to receive IV drips at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas as they approach their third week of a hunger strike.A court official says the U.S. Department of Justice filed orders with federal judges last week that relate to non-consensual hydration or feeding for four men.
Linda Corchado, who represents three of the four men named in the court orders, says the men have been locked up for months and they are trying to appeal or reopen asylum claims that were denied. She says as of Sunday, they had gone 20 days without food.
Lawyers and activists who spoke with the men fear that force-feeding may be next.
Corchado says the fourth man is also Indian and is represented by another attorney. It's unclear if that man was also forced to accept an IV.
- ROSWELL-HOMICIDE CASE
ROSWELL, N.M. (AP) — Police in Roswell say they're investigating the death of a woman as a homicide.They say officers were called to the scene around 11 p.m. Friday and 40-year-old Jennifer Morro was found dead at the scene.
Police didn't immediately release any details on the woman's death or how long the body had been at the location where it was found.
They are asking that anyone with any information in the case to call Roswell police or the Chavez County Crime Stoppers hotline.
- AREA 51-FACEBOOK EVENT
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The phone hasn't stopped ringing at a 10-room motel in the remote Nevada desert since a Facebook post invited people to "storm" the mysterious nearby Area 51 site in September.Connie West at the Little A'le'Inn tells the Las Vegas Sun it's a little scary to think how many people could descend on her town of just 54 residents.
More than 1 million people have responded to the internet post calling for people to run into the remote test area long the focus of UFO conspiracy theories.
The U.S. Air Force is warning people not to try.
Lincoln County Sheriff Kerry Lee doesn't expect many people to actually show up, but says even several hundred could create problems.
He says someone might get hurt, and that's nothing to joke about.
- MIGRANT SHELTER-VOLUNTEERS
DEMING, N.M. (AP) — Volunteers are using translation apps and helping raise money for a migrant shelter near the U.S.-Mexico border in a small New Mexico city.The Deming Headlight reports volunteers are aiding in running the Deming National Guard Armory which has been set up as a temporary migrant shelter amid a humanitarian crisis along the border.
Volunteers are stuffing travel bags for migrants, helping arrange travel arrangements to sponsors in the U.S. and working to provide services for asylum seekers.
Deming migrant operation Ray Trejo says 10,000 asylum seekers from Brazil and all parts of Central America have been processed through Deming in recent months.
- BORDER ACTIVIST TRIAL-SEALED DOCUMENTS
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Federal authorities for months suspected a humanitarian group of harboring immigrants, eventually resulting in felony charges against a volunteer who says he was simply being a good Samaritan.The revelation comes in unsealed court documents sought by The Intercept and other news media organizations, including The Associated Press.
They deal with the arrest of Scott Warren, of Ajo, Arizona, who was tried on conspiracy, harboring and transporting immigrant charges in June. The jury couldn't agree on a verdict, and a new trial has been scheduled for November.
The documents show that the Border Patrol began investigating the group in April 2017 after getting a tip that it was harboring immigrants at its camp in Ajo.
But the government says Warren was harboring two men at the No More Deaths facility.
- WATER RULING-NEW MEXICO
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A judge has rejected a company's proposal to pump billions of gallons of water annually from an aquifer in west-central New Mexico to the middle Rio Grande Valley.The Albuquerque Journal reports that state District Judge Matthew Reynolds on Thursday approved motions for summary judgment dismissing Augustin Plains Ranch LLC's's application for a permit to provide cities and businesses with water from the remnants of a lake under the San Augustin Plains.
Augustin Plains Ranch project manager Michel Jichlinksi called Reynolds' ruling unfair and didn't know whether it would be appealed or if another application for a permit will be filed with the State Engineer's Office.
The proposal to pump from the San Agustin Plains has been criticized by environmental groups, ranchers, farmers and others in Catron and Socorro counties.
- NEW MEXICO WITNESS KILLED
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Las Vegas police are investigating the shooting death in the northern New Mexico city of a man who testified against prison gang members last year.The Albuquerque Journal reports that police made no immediate arrests in the killing Monday night of 48-year-old Leroy "Smurf" Lucero in front of his home.
Police investigator Caleb Marquez said police hadn't determined a motive but there was no reason to believe anybody else was in danger.
Lucero was a former member of Syndicato de Nuevo Mexico and a key witness for the government in the trial of seven defendants in May 2018.
Lucero testified about various crimes, including a directive that led to the 2001 killings of two inmates at the Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility, a state prison in Las Cruces.
- CHILE IN SPACE
ESPAÑOLA, N.M. (AP) — It'll be one giant leap for chile-kind.A hybrid version of a New Mexico chile plant has been selected to be grown in space.
The Albuquerque Journal reports the Española, New Mexico-chile is tentatively scheduled to be launched to the International Space Station for testing in March 2020.
A NASA group testing how to produce food beyond the Earth's atmosphere and the chile plant was created with input from Jacob Torres — an Española native and NASA researcher.
Torres says understanding how to grow plants to supplement the astronaut's diet would be essential to any future mission to going to Mars.
The "Española Improved" chile plant is a cross between a northern New Mexico seed and the popular Sandia seed from the Hatch Valley. It will be the first fruiting plant that the U.S. will grow aboard the Space Station.