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while the INS sorted out his case. In all, he was held him for almost 10 months, with no charges filed and no evidence of any involvement in terrorism. Shortly after our story came out, the INS sent Khufash to Jordan. According to Khufash’s lawyer, Karen Pennington of Dallas, the INS insisted that the action was not officially a deportation, since Khufash long ago agreed to leave the country. But he never agreed to go to Jordan, and it’s anybody’s guess whether he will be able to get back to his family in the West Bank. Pennington, who only came to Khufash’s case in recent months, said she doesn’t buy the INS’s explanation for the long delay in getting Khufash’s case resolvedthat the agency was carefully “negotiating” his safe return to Israel. “That’s bullshit. They never tried to do a damn thing until I tried to get him out of jail;’ she said. CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY PRIORITIES SEEKING EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR The Center for Public Policy Priorities advocacy group working on behalf of low-income Texans, is seeking a new executive director. Complete job description at: http://www.cppp.org/EDprofile.html Email or fax resume by July 31 to John Hildreth [email protected] 512-476-7722. Pecos trial, continued from page 9 night vision goggles,” he testified. After three days of testimony, the jury deliberated little more than three hours before returning with a verdict of not guilty t’s doubtful the soldiers on the JTF-6 mission knew the shameful history Iof the U.S. Army and the Porvenir crossingthe reason why no settlement on the Texas side exists. Back in 1918, after attacks on three neighboring ranches by marauders thought to be associated with Pancho Villa, a company of Texas Rangers, a troop of the U.S. Eighth Calvary, and four ranchers rode to the small settlement of Porvenir, Texas, hoping to find some of the assailants. After a search failed to uncover anything but one gun owned by an Anglo, the Eighth Calvary withdrew to the outskirts of town.The Rangers and ranchers then rounded up fifteen men of Mexican ancestry, mainly poor farmers, and murdered them, orphaning 42 children. In some accounts they also burned houses. After the massacre, the survivors abandoned the village, fleeing across the border. “The idea may be good to try and use what the military can do jointly with laW enforcement, but as a practical matter it just doesn’t work out real well,” said Hurley after the Thomas trial. In the end, the jury believed Sol Thomas more than Border Patrol agent Lonny Hillin.They believed the rancher even more than the U.S. army, whose technological prowess, so useful in war, faltered under the scrutiny of a courtroom.The difficulty in bringing the soldiers to testify in Pecos also underscores one of the main problems of their participation in civilian criminal cases. “I’m sure that if the military becomes [more] involved in law enforcement they are going to be subpoenaed to a lot of trials, and they will have to go to pre-trial hearings and that will conflict with their duties,” opines Hurley. Distrust of a heavy-handed federal presence runs deep in West Texas. It goes back at least to the massacre at Porvenir and continues to the recent closing of the Lajitas crossing.The specter of the Hernandez killing also hovered over the courtroom, although obliquely. During the trial, Blankinship made a point to a reporter of contrasting these soldiers with the ones at Redford. Hurley noted to the jury that Thomas had asked the Border Patrol whether the military would be armed and authorized to use deadly force. He characterized Thomas’ concern as “prophetic.” It doesn’t take a fortune teller, though, to see that if troops are stationed on the border as the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus wants, trouble for both the Army and border communities will likely follow. Title IX, continued from page 11 bucks” program that allows expectant mothers to earn points by, say, attending a prenatal exam.They can then exchange the awards for diapers or baby wipes. But as many districts discover, these efforts have brought accusations that schools are condoning teen pregnancycomplaints that have led some districts to drop their PEP grants or simply avoid applying for them. “When we first started offering child care in 1984, we had folks say we were actually encouraging teen pregnancy,” Jackson says. “But now we’re fortunate that our community came to realize the link between teen pregnancy, poverty, and dropping out, so they are behind our programs to keep these kids in school.” However services are implemented, Contreras says she would welcome anything that would make it easier for her to finish the nearly three years of coursework that stands between her and a diploma. But a victory could also send a strong warning to other schools, and help break the link between teen pregnancy and the drop-out rates that impoverish so many Texas communities. Rachel Proctor is a graduate student in the joint program in Middle Eastern Studies and Radio-TV-Film at UT-Austin. 7/19/02 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 15