Latest news with #Bustos
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Yahoo
Reputed 'Old School' Aztecas gang leader 'El Tin' killed in Juárez street ambush
Mexican law enforcement is watching for potential blowback after the reputed leader of the "Old School" faction of the Barrio Azteca gang was gunned down in a car with two of his children in Juárez. Martin Alonso Bustos Rodriguez, alias "El Tin," was killed in a shooting while stopped at a traffic light Saturday afternoon, April 26, on Manuel Gomez Morin Boulevard, according to news reports. During the state police weekly news conference on Monday morning, April 28, Chihuahua state police Chief of Staff Luis Aguirre confirmed Bustos had been identified as the man killed in the street ambush. "It's important to remain attentive and we'll keep working and taking action to prevent any type of spike in violence," Aguirre said, adding that operations with state and municipal police, the Mexican army and National Guard continue. Borderland: 'Rage, frustration': El Paso man accused of killing wife in Juárez 'femicide' after affair Soon after the attack, state police located the shooters' abandoned vehicle and crime-scene investigators have found evidence that could lead to the killers, Aguirre added. An investigation continues. Bustos was driving a gray Kia Forte when he received at least 23 gunshot wounds in a shooting that also killed his 18-year-old daughter and wounded his 12-year-old son, the Norte Digital news website reported. In 2022, Bustos survived after supposedly being targeted in a street shooting that killed his attorney Sully Ponce, a former state prosecutor, who was giving him a ride after obtaining his release from the state attorney general's office, El Heraldo de Chihuahua reported. The Barrio Azteca gang, known as "Los Aztecas" in Mexico, was formed in the Texas prison system nearly 40 years ago. The gang operates with a military-style hierarchy on both sides of the Juárez-El Paso Borderland. Some seven years ago, a split among gang leadership created a division within the gang, with one faction known as "Aztecas Vieja Escuela," or the "Old School" or "Old Guard." Whether the divide still exists is unclear. Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@ and @BorundaDaniel on X. This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Reputed gang leader 'El Tin' killed in street ambush in Juárez, Mexico
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Yahoo
Former police officer, Cristo Rey security coordinator faces 8 more counts of invasion of privacy
Fernando Bustos, 42, a former Greenfield police officer and security coordinator at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, has been charged with eight additional counts of invasion of privacy involving victims under 18, according to an amended criminal complaint. The amended criminal complaint, signed Thursday by Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Hasle, shows that Bustos now has a total of nine charges. Bustos, of Greendale, was initially charged on March 3 after being accused of placing a camera in a locker in the girls locker room at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School. The investigation uncovered hundreds of videos recorded between May 2024 and February 2025. Following his initial appearance on March 5, Bustos was released on a $750 cash bail with conditions prohibiting contact with high schools in Milwaukee County and the use of video surveillance to inappropriately record individuals under 18. He pleaded not guilty on March 13 and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on April 16. Records show Bustos was also a former Greenfield police officer who resigned in 2020 following an investigation for mishandling evidence, which led to his inclusion on the Milwaukee County "Brady List." The Brady List ― which is kept by the District Attorney's Office ― tracks officers who have had a history of dishonestly, bias or past crimes, and is used my prosecutors to fulfill their legal obligations to disclose potentially favorable evidence to people accused of crimes. A recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, TMJ4 News and Wisconsin Watch investigation found the Brady List is inconsistent and incomplete, raising questions about how useful it is in practice. Parents and students have expressed concerns regarding the school's response to the incident, with many noting the school's lack of communication and empathy regarding the situation, most notably following a tense school board meeting on March 5. Videos from that school board meeting have since gone viral on social media. Cristo Rey said the meeting had to be cut short after the school determined that the meeting was no longer constructive. Cristo Rey Jesuit sent emails to the community and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel addressing the situation and ensuring the safety of students was the school's number one priority. 'Cristo Rey Jesuit High School stands in solidarity with our students and families to see that Fernando Bustos is brought to justice," said the school in a Friday email to the Journal Sentinel. "We are committed to making sure that our school and campus are safe and that our community receives the necessary support and resources as we all navigate this difficult time." Cristo Rey Jesuit attorneys are working closely with law enforcement officials so the school staff can focus their energy and efforts on the education and well-being of the students, according to the letter. The school also said it would ensure that communication with these incidents will be handled better in the future. The investigation is ongoing, and authorities urge anyone with additional information to come forward. Contact Adrienne Davis at amdavis@ Follow her on X at @AdriReportss. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Former police officer facing 8 more charges for behavior at Cristo Rey
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Wisconsin hit record migration in '24. Will it last under Trump's immigration policies?
When the Rev. Javier Bustos moved to Milwaukee in 2017, he celebrated just one Spanish-language Mass a week. Today, he says three as pastor of Our Lady Queen of Peace and Blessed Sacrament parishes, on the city's south side. "Our churches are packed," said Bustos, who is also in charge of Hispanic ministry for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. "I have seen immigrants of many, many countries, mostly from Latin America, but also Africa, and even some European immigrants." It's not just Milwaukee. Migration to Wisconsin reached the highest level in two decades last year, largely spurred by people moving to the state from other countries, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates earlier in March. Of the more than 28,000 people who moved to Wisconsin between June 2023 and June 2024, more than 22,000 were international migrants. More than 6,000 were domestic migrants — moving to Wisconsin from other states — and slightly more than 2,000 new residents were the result of natural population change, or the number of births minus deaths. The overall increase is a marked change from Wisconsin's shrinking population during the pandemic. The looming issue is what's ahead. President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration — everything from killing refugee programs to revoking protected status for hundreds of thousands of migrants to ranking countries for a potential new travel ban — would slow if not dramatically reverse any gains in population Wisconsin has seen. The numbers don't exist in a vacuum. Some Wisconsin economists and population experts have argued an influx of immigrants is key to bolstering local economies statewide. Just on Milwaukee's south side, for example, the flow of immigrants has led to new businesses, more traffic to local restaurants and growing school enrollment, Bustos said. "With the current administration, we are facing challenges and fear of the uncertainty," Bustos said. "Restaurants are feeling the fear, churches are feeling the fear, schools are feeling the fear. Those fears may affect the economy." Wisconsin's population growth has been part of a nationwide trend of steadily rising migration since the mid-2010s, excluding the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past few years, in particular, global unrest has driven people to the U.S. The fall of Kabul and Russia's invasion of Ukraine led to a national influx of refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine. Biden-era sponsorship of immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela also allowed more legal immigrants. In Wisconsin, Milwaukee has become a hub for Burmese refugees from Myanmar. Between June 30, 2023, and June 30, 2024, the Census Bureau found international migration accounted for 2.8 million of 3.3 million new residents nationally, up from the previous two years. The Bureau's count attempts to include migrants who are in the U.S. both legally and illegally. Net migration to Wisconsin, which includes both people moving from abroad and from other states, also outpaces most other Midwestern states, according to an analysis of the Census Bureau data by the Wisconsin Policy Forum. Over the past three years, net migration in Wisconsin rose to its highest point since 2004 — a rate second only to South Dakota when compared to 12 other states in the region, said Mark Sommerhauser, communications director for the Policy Forum. "In recent decades, migration to some of the Southern states and Western states has been quite high, while to the Midwestern and Northeastern states it's been a lot lower," Sommerhauser said. "We're doing pretty well by Midwestern standards when it comes to people migrating to our state." Wisconsin in particular also is seeing fewer leave, according to Ananth Seshadri, director of the Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Between 2012 and 2016, Wisconsin lost about 8,000 taxpayers a year to other states, according to data from the Internal Revenue Service. But, between 2017 and 2020, that number neutralized to about 0 — meaning about the same number of taxpayers moved in as moved out. Seshadri said falling tax rates could be one reason why. "We still tax our residents more than most of our neighboring states, but the tax structure in Wisconsin is a little more friendly," he said. Bustos said he's seen what is essentially a combination of international and domestic immigration; families from other countries initially land in another state, such as California or Texas, then settle in Milwaukee for its existing immigrant community. Referring to the city's south side, he said: "If you're an immigrant in that area, you fit in immediately. People who are coming in benefit from immigrants like myself and many others who've been here for 30 or 40 years." Though Dane County continues to lead the state in population growth by wide margins, the latest Census Bureau numbers showed Milwaukee County's population grew for the first time in a decade last year. The county added about 2,880 residents through both migration and new births, bringing its total to just under 925,000 people. Milwaukee County still has lost 15,000 residents since 2020 — the most of any Wisconsin county in that time period, according to Seshadri. However, its international migration numbers were the highest in the state. The county has seen more than 18,000 people move in from other countries in the last five years, compared to about 16,700 in Dane County. Further, the net number of people leaving Milwaukee has decreased steadily in recent years, going from about 17,000 in 2021 to about 6,000 last year. Those numbers indicate "a real improvement," immigrants from other countries will still be critical to continue growing Milwaukee's population and economy, according to John D. Johnson, a research fellow at Marquette Law School's Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education. "If we see a decline in the population from immigration, you'll see fewer kids in schools, less funding for those schools, and prices for all different kinds of things will go up as there's labor shortages," Johnson said. All of this comes as natural population growth continues shrinking, both nationwide and in Wisconsin. For more than a decade after 2004, the last year analyzed by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, natural population change was the main driver of population growth in Wisconsin. But in 2018, migration started exceeding natural population change and, by 2024, migration was a whopping 14 times higher than natural population change. That's because the Baby Boomer population is beginning to die while the country continues to experience a decades-long plummet in birth rates. The first three years of the 2020s each set records for the lowest number of births in Milwaukee, according to Marquette's Milwaukee Area Project. "Fewer babies are being born," Sommerhauser said, "and, at the same time, we have this big cohort of people in their 60s and 70s, the Baby Boomer generation, that are just reaching that stage of life." As a candidate, Trump pledged to crack down on illegal immigration as a means to reduce crime in the U.S. However, his administration's actions have broadly targeted immigrants and refugees, legal and illegal. The effects will be widespread, according to Jennie Murray, president of the National Immigration Forum, a nonprofit advocacy group for immigrants. Immigrants make up about 14% of the U.S. population, but more than 18% of the workforce, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Healthcare, education, technology, hospitality and agriculture — including Wisconsin's dairy industry — all rely on immigrant labor, documented and undocumented. A drastic decline in immigration could have "a really negative impact on the economy," Murray said. "We were already kind of in a pressure cooker just waiting for a recession," Murray said. "We have this all-time low birth rate, we have almost 10 million open jobs available every month, so that means we don't have the workers to fill the roles that we need to remain globally competitive." In addition to filling labor shortages, immigrants can bring skill sets to bolster existing institutions, Seshadri said. "If you go to any major research university, like UW-Madison, immigration is a really important factor in terms of the lifeblood of the place," he said. On Milwaukee's south side, Bustos said he's been proud to see the city welcome immigrants, and he hopes the trend will continue despite new national policies. "These are people who are coming in with real reasons to migrate from situations that are difficult in their country of origin," the Catholic priest said. "They come into the city of Milwaukee, and as soon as they get here, they start looking for jobs and start working for the community." This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin sees record migration as Trump cracks down on immigration
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Yahoo
Cristo Rey hidden camera investigation; students, parents frustrated
The Brief A student walkout ended a Cristo Rey Jesuit High School board meeting on Friday. A former security guard is accused of hiding a camera in the girls' locker room. The school's president spoke to FOX6 News about parents' concerns. MILWAUKEE - A chaotic school board meeting ended in a student walkout at Milwaukee's Cristo Rey Jesuit High School on Friday. The backstory Families are pushing for answers after charges were filed against a former school security guard. Fernando Bustos, 41, is charged with invasion of privacy after prosecutors say he hid a camera in the girls' locker room. SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News What they're saying Parents said their main frustration is the school's communication. They are upset that they only learned what happened this week after Bustos ws charged – nearly two weeks after the school called police and nearly a year after prosecutors said Bustos started recording victims. "It hurts just how they broke our trust," said student Maria Vela. "It makes us sad. It makes us angry. How do they expect us to get over it, or expect us to not say to not say much?" "They only heard our concerns, but never tried to answer our questions," parent Ana Karen Leija said. "We don't want to know the same thing we want clarification." Friday's school board meeting ended in an early dismissal for students. Many were already walking out and getting picked up by their parents just before noon. The other side For several days, FOX6 News asked for interviews. "This is a tremendously difficult time for our community," said Andrew Stith, president of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School. On Friday, the school's president went on camera. He said they were trying to balance informing families with preserving the investigation. "We are doing our best to keep our parents informed in the midst of an active criminal investigation. We are working with police, with all the folks that are involved with this issue, to get out what we know when we know it," he said. "Moving forward, we are committed to student safety and we will be making changes. Stith said no red flags popped up in Bustos' hiring, and the school followed all state and local requirements. "We are very sorry that this happened. Our hearts are broken. I want to express that, and I expressed that this morning," he said. "I feel like we are going to make changes to make sure it doesn't happen again." FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX LOCAL Mobile app for iOS or Android What's next The school promises families regular updates and changes to make sure this does not happen again. Stith said that includes: Providing regular updates Making plans to address families' concerns as soon as possible Making changes that are visible to ensure students and parents feel safe Offering counseling services to the entire school Continuing to operate with the same mission and values that they have in the past 10 years The Source Information in this report is from FOX6 News interviews, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, the Greenfield Police Department and prior coverage.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Yahoo
Milwaukee school security coordinator recorded girls in locker room: complaint
The Brief A former security coordinator is charged with recording underage girls in a high school locker room. Prosecutors say Fernando Bustos had nearly 400 videos. There is currently a warrant out for Bustos' arrest. MILWAUKEE - Prosecutors charged a former security coordinator at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School after they said he put a camera in the girls' locker room. 41-year-old Greendale man, Fernando Bustos (not pictured), is charged with invasion of privacy – surveillance device (victim under age 18). According to the criminal complaint, Bustos was terminated when school officials asked him to turn over his school laptop and iPhone. He refused, demanding to remove personal items from the devices. SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News Investigators say Bustos also said he needed to remove personal property from a staff locker room. Per the criminal complaint, he came out with two backpacks. One had a small black camera that had hundreds of videos, many taken inside the girls' locker room. Prosecutors say the videos were recorded on a motion-activated camera from May 2024 to February 2025. One of the videos allegedly shows Bustos installing the camera in a closed locker with grates. Over a two-day span, investigators found 379 videos that are 10-seconds of high school girls using the locker room. Local perspective Cristo Rey Jesuit senior Lucio Juarez said Bustos was well-liked. "I didn't believe it. He was very loved amongst the students," he said. "Uneasiness that something, someone would do that and it would be so close to us as students and especially the female population." FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX LOCAL Mobile app for iOS or Android What they're saying Cristo Rey Jesuit High School officials provided the following statement to FOX6 News: "As a Catholic, Jesuit high school, our first priority is always the physical, emotional, and spiritual safety and security of our students. Recently, Cristo Rey Jesuit leadership discovered information indicating that a former, terminated employee violated our professional expectations and potentially the law. Upon discovering this, the school immediately shared the information with local law enforcement. We are providing every assistance we can to the Milwaukee Police Department as they further investigate this situation, and we are committed to supporting our community as we process this information and understand the next steps." What's next There is currently a warrant out for Bustos' arrest. If convicted, he faces 3.5 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines. The Source Information in this report is from the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office and Wisconsin Circuit Court.
