the Fort Worth Star-Telegram - A revolving door

A revolving door

A suspect in the brutal slayings of young women in Mexico was often jailed in the U.S. - and deported
By Jay Root, as published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- For years, young women have been raped, mutilated, killed and dumped in shallow graves in Ciudad Juarez, the gritty Mexican city across the border from El Paso. For just as long, the perpetrators have gone unpunished, sparking international outrage at an inept Mexican justice system.

Now a possible break in the case raises questions not only about Mexican justice but also about U.S. policies that allowed a leading suspect in some of the killings to get out of American jails and to shuttle between Juarez and U.S. cities along the border.

Law enforcement records in Texas and New Mexico show that the suspect, Jose Francisco Granados de la Paz, was frequently in American jails and was sent back to Mexico repeatedly, only to return to the U.S. and commit more crimes. He was on probation on a Texas felony conviction when at least some of the slayings he is suspected of committing are believed to have occurred.

Granados' story exemplifies the revolving door that is the U.S.-Mexico border. While U.S. law enforcement agencies can deport convicts to Mexico, they have no authority to keep watch on them there. Often, the criminals simply sneak back across the border.

"If he's killing little girls in Mexico, what's he doing here?" said U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee. "The key here is to get the guy off the street, whether it's in our prisons or in Mexico. The problem is they deport these guys and they just come back."

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http://www.house.gov/list/press/tx10_mccaul/morenews/8_25_06_revolving_door_FWST.html