Sheriff Clarence Dupnik

A group of local, state and federal politicians demanded an apology from Sheriff Clarence Dupnik for statements regarding schools checking the citizenship of students.

U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva was among the politicians – all Democrats – to sign a letter criticizing Dupnik’s statements.

“It is wrong to force teachers and school administrators to become immigration officers,” the letter said.

Dupnik, a Democrat, said at a news conference last week that 40 percent of the students in the Sunnyside Unified School District were in the country illegally and that the South, Southwest and West sides had high crime rates linked to illegal immigration.

“These false charges are inflammatory and prejudicial,” the letter stated. “Your comments only further divide our community and debase a large part of the population.

“The Pima County electorate trusted you to protect and serve our community, not to humiliate and instill fear,” the letter said. “Every child is entitled to an education regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation and status.”

Dupnik called last week’s conference to clarify comments he made during a hearing on border violence held by the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last month.

Dupnik, who could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon, stressed last week that his statements were his opinion only. He said he knew they would be “divisive.”

He suggested that a Supreme Court ruling that forbid schools from checking the citizenship of students should be challenged, saying that it would heighten border security if the ruling was overturned.

Adelita Grijalva, a Tucson Unified School District board member, said, “I think the comments he made were simply wrong, inflammatory and egregious.

“We talk about (Maricopa County) Sheriff Joe Arpaio and say that we’re happy we don’t have a sheriff like that,” she said. “If this is the way (Sheriff Dupnik) felt, I wish he would have made those statements a year ago when he was running for re-election, and then we could have decided if that’s the type of person we wanted for sheriff.”

Grijalva said she was eager to hear Dupnik’s response because she thought his statements were “really out of character from (the) whole time he has been sheriff. I’m still unclear what the motive was.”

When he said Sunnyside had about 40 percent illegal immigrants, “how would he even know that? Sunnyside doesn’t know because it doesn’t ask.”

Eva Dong, a Sunnyside Unified School District board member for more than 10 years, said she signed the letter because she was shocked and disappointed with Dupnik’s comments.

She said she didn’t like Dupnik putting Sunnyside into a position of law enforcement against immigrants, which, she added, is against the law.

“And I’d like to know the ‘credible’ source he has that said that 40 percent of Sunnyside students are illegal immigrants,” she said.

“The large majority of our community is not involved in crime. I was in shock when I heard the things he said. That he would lump us into a category of high crime is not right,” she said.

“We’ve worked hard this year to try to remove those images. We have businesses and the university working with us to be successful,” Dong said. “You work at it and work at it and work at it, and bang, someone comes and shoots you down. It’s just very hurtful.”

Dong, who works at the Pima County Juvenile Court Center in the CAPE program, which educates children incarcerated there, also took offense at Dupnik equating illegal immigrants with crime.

Even at the center, “the majority of kids there are not illegal immigrants,” she said. “They are very, very few.”

U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva

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Elected officials who signed the letter to Sheriff Clarence Dupnik

Richard Elías, chairman of the Board of Supervisors

Regina Romero, Tucson Ward 1 Councilwoman

Adelita Grijalva, board member of the Tucson Unified School District

Eva Dong, board member for the Sunnyside Unified School District

State Rep. Daniel Patterson, D-Tucson

State Rep. Matt Heinz, D-Tucson

State Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Tucson

State Sen. Jorge Luis Garcia, D-Tucson

State Rep. Olivia Cajero Bedford, D-Tucson

State Rep. Phil Lopes, D-Tucson

U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz.

By Mary Bustamante, Eric Sagara

WASHINGTON — A unanimous Supreme Court said Monday that undocumented workers who use phony IDs can’t be considered identity thieves without proof they knew they were stealing real people’s Social Security and other numbers.

The court’s decision limits federal authorities’ use of a 2004 law, intended to get tough on identity thieves, against immigrants who are picked up in workplace raids and found to be using false Social Security and alien registration numbers.

Advocates for immigrants had complained that federal authorities used the threat of prosecution on the identity theft charge, which carries a two-year mandatory prison term, to win guilty pleas on lesser charges and acceptance of prompt deportation.

“These prosecutions have been taken off the table,” said Nina Perales, southwest regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

The court, in an opinion by Justice Stephen Breyer, rejected the government’s argument that prosecutors need only show that the identification numbers belong to someone else, regardless of whether the defendant knew it.

Breyer said intent is often easy to prove in what he called classic identity theft. “Where a defendant has used another person’s information to get access to that person’s bank account, the government can prove knowledge with little difficulty,” Breyer said.

But immigrants without proper documentation need identity documents and often buy them from forgers, never knowing if they belong to anyone.

Such was the case with the undocumented worker on the winning side Monday. Ignacio Carlos Flores-Figueroa, a Mexican immigrant employed at a steel plant in East Moline, Ill., traveled to Chicago and bought numbers from someone who trades in counterfeit IDs.

Unlike earlier fictitious numbers Flores-Figueroa used, these numbers belonged to real people.

Flores-Figueroa had worked at the plant under a false name for six years. His decision to use his real name and exchange one set of phony numbers for another aroused his employer’s suspicions.

He was arrested in 2006 and convicted on false document and identity theft charges.

He appealed his conviction as an identity thief, but the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis upheld the conviction. With appeals courts divided on the issue, the Supreme Court stepped into the case.

The Bush administration used the identity theft law hundreds of times last year. Workers accused of immigration violations found themselves facing the more serious identity theft charge as well, without any indication they knew their counterfeit Social Security and other identification numbers belonged to actual people and were not made up.

After last year’s raid on a kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, authorities charged 270 undocumented workers with identity theft. They all accepted plea deals in which they also agreed not to contest deportation.

But illustrating the arbitrary nature of the law — which several justices commented on during arguments in February — an additional 100 workers arrested in the same raid faced less serious charges because their identification numbers were made up.

The Obama administration has shifted the main focus of immigration raids to employers.

The case is Flores-Figueroa v. U.S., 08-108.

Court rules for immigrant in ID theft case

U.S. Border Patrol agents along the southwestern border with Mexico are on alert for illegal immigrants who may have swine flu, but being on the lookout for contagious diseases is really an everyday part of their jobs.

It’s not unusual for agents who capture illegal immigrants to discover someone with a suspicious cough or illness, and migrants have been found with diseases such as tuberculosis.

But the swine flu outbreak first reported in Mexico did heighten awareness for agents in the field.

“First of all we take the situation with H1N1 (swine flu) very seriously. We share the view that people should be aware but not alarmed or in a state of panic,” said Doug Mosier, spokesman for the patrol’s El Paso, Texas, sector. “We have been the first line of defense between the ports of entry since 1924, so being exposed to various communicable diseases historically is something we’ve always been vulnerable to and been a part of.”

The Border Patrol follows a standard procedure in which immigrants who have been arrested and who show obvious symptoms are given a breathing mask to keep others from continued direct exposure. Border Patrol vehicles used to transport illegal immigrants to processing centers are equipped with separate ventilation systems to protect agents, said Lloyd Easterling, a Border Patrol spokesman in Washington.

The Border Patrol on Friday couldn’t immediately provide any reports on how many illegal immigrants with communicable diseases they encounter or other specific diseases they’ve seen.

The flu outbreak has brought a reaction from some federal workers who regularly screen migrants. A labor union representing Customs and Border Protection officers who man border crossings asked this week that its officers be allowed to wear masks and other protective gear while checking travelers who might have been exposed to swine flu.

But the union for Border Patrol agents, who look for those who have crossed illegally, didn’t follow suit. Agents already have such equipment available and use it at their discretion.

“Name the disease, and since we catch people from all over the globe, there is the risk of encountering someone with a communicable disease,” said T.J. Bonner, a Border Patrol agent and president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing agents.

The University of Arizona has identified three students who are studying in Mexico with Tec de Monterrey, a student exchange program at the Tecnológico de Monterrey.

UA spokesman Paul Allvin said classes at the Mexican institution have been cancelled, and the students are coming back to Arizona.

In addition, the university has identified 42 visiting scholars at UA who are from Mexico, and five more are expected to arrive soon, Allvin said. The ones who are on their way will be informed about health precautions before they arrive, he said.

Officials at UA have been meeting daily to discuss what they’ve learned about the swine flu and to determine if actions need to be taken at the university that day.

Allvin said he wouldn’t speculate what UA would do if a confirmed case of the flu was found on campus because the response would be based on a number of factors such as if the infected student lived in a dorm.

“We also have 88 faculty-sponsored projects ongoing in Mexico, but it is impossible to know which of these have faculty on the ground in Mexico right now and how many other employees are down there on unfunded service projects,” Allvin said.

A message from the provost’s office went out to campus leadership this week explaining that the university needs to develop a system to easily indentify which faculty might be out of country at any given time, he said.

CUTLER, Calif. — As migrant workers from Mexico begin their journey north to take summer jobs in fields and construction sites across the U.S., public health officials and others are fanning out to intercept them at food lines and churches in hopes of stemming the spread of deadly swine flu.

Industries such as agriculture and meatpacking rely on an influx of thousands of seasonal workers each year. Officials worry that some of those laborers may be ill and could infect co-workers and others in the U.S.

Mexican consular officials, social service organizations and health authorities are handing out Spanish-language fliers with information on swine-flu symptoms and prevention tips. They are sending out mobile health care crews in buses or vans. And they are urging workers who feel sick to go to the hospital or a free clinic.

The traveling population of poor farmworkers, day laborers and construction workers poses a challenge for authorities, who say it can be difficult for people to wash their hands or go to the hospital if they lack running water or fear deportation.

“People are constantly coming here from Mexico and migrating back and forth,” said Dr. Edward Moreno, director of public health in Fresno County, some 440 miles north of the Mexican border. “That means that people may not have a land line, hot water or Internet access, and no regular doctor.”

Alfredo Mendoza, 24, of the Mexican state of Oaxaca, crossed the border two weeks ago to work with his family pruning California’s vineyards.

“I feel healthy, so I’m just washing my hands a lot and keeping my mouth covered, and not leaving the house other than to work,” he said. “People aren’t too freaked out about the flu here yet. I just feel lucky that I left Mexico before it got really bad down there.”

At a California clinic, Nely Garcia, the 26-year-old wife of a farmworker, filled out forms for her 3-year-old daughter, who had a cough and runny nose. Her mother feared the girl might have the flu, but she turned out to have an eye infection.

Garcia, who was born in Mexico and moved to the U.S. as a child, said she was worried that her family could be exposed to the virus through relatives who recently traveled to the Mexican state of Colima, or through the local school system.

“We have to be really careful because of the children, especially since so many people are making their way back up here. And when we cough we cover our mouths, right?” Garcia instructed her toddler as they waited in Cutler, a farming town of about 4,500 people 40 miles from Fresno.

Down the street, health workers applied hand sanitizer as they passed out Spanish-language brochures about swine flu to 200 people waiting in line to pick up bags of free potatoes, onions and mushrooms.

The global outbreak apparently began in Mexico, where it is suspected of causing nearly 170 deaths and sickening about 2,500 people. The first flu death in the U.S. was confirmed Wednesday: a toddler from Mexico City who was visiting Texas with his family.

In Chicago, the Mexican consulate is sending mobile units to Hispanic neighborhoods to distribute fliers. Community organizations and churches are doing the same.

Pastor Jose Landaverde of Our Lady of Guadalupe Anglican Church in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, which has one of the biggest Mexican communities in the Midwest, said so many people had stopped in to ask about the flu that he planned to address it during Mass.

If seasonal labor trends mirror last year’s, the number of agricultural workers in the U.S. will grow to about 700,000 by June and peak at 828,000 by September, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture figures. It is unclear how many are from Mexico.

A farmworkers union plans to meet Mexican legal guest workers as they arrive in the U.S. with a medical van, where they can get screened for flu symptoms and learn prevention tactics. The workers will later pick vegetables on North Carolina farms.

Pastors and health care workers also are hoping to reach tomato pickers near the Florida town of Immokalee and field hands harvesting asparagus in Michigan.

The Mexican consulate and local health organizations in California are mounting a prevention campaign that will send buses to isolated communities where there is no doctor. Health care workers aboard the buses will talk to people about swine flu and where they can find medical care.

CHICAGO — The timing is not the best. Immigration-rights rallies are set for Friday as health officials try to clamp down on a swine flu epidemic with roots in the same country as many of the expected demonstrators: Mexico.

Public health officials on Thursday had not advised canceling large-scale events unless they were specifically tied to an institution or location with a laboratory-confirmed case of the illness. They urged people to stay home if they are sick.

In Tucson, a rally is planned for 9 a.m. at Southgate Shopping Center, Interstate 10 and South Sixth Avenue, with a march from there to Armory Park, 220 S. Fifth Ave., starting at 10 a.m.

Organizers of the May Day rallies, which have drawn thousands and even hundreds of thousands of people in recent years, said they would look to recommendations from public health officials about whether to cancel or modify the events.

“We’re monitoring the situation to make sure that anything that is going to be conducive to the health and safety of communities is observed,” said Clarissa Martinez, a director for the National Council of La Raza.

Crowds on Friday were expected to be around the same as last year. In Chicago, which has had the nation’s largest marches in the country, about 15,000 participated in 2008. That’s a dramatic drop from 2006, when more than 400,000 took to the streets.

Thousands also were expected at events Friday in Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Seattle and other cities. Health officials urged participants to use common sense.

“The message ought to be clear that if people are sick no matter whether it’s Cinco de Mayo, a school, a church, a synagogue or any place of worship or anywhere else — a movie theater — they should stay home,” Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Terry Mason said Wednesday.

Some schools have closed because of the swine flu outbreak, and U.S. and Mexican officials have been urging migrant workers to take health precautions and get medical care if they feel sick.

The rallies come as illegal immigrants are being blamed on some conservative blogs and talk shows for spreading swine flu in the U.S. The outbreak is believed to have originated in Mexico, where there are 168 suspected deaths from the disease, before spreading to at least 10 other countries, including the U.S.

The only confirmed U.S. swine-flu death was of a Mexican toddler who family was visiting relatives in Texas; many reported cases were among U.S. citizens who vacationed in Mexico.

“For people who like to blame Mexicans, they are going to blame us for everything no matter what,” said Jorge Mujica, a labor union activist and organizer for Chicago’s immigrant rights march. “We are not going to pay attention to that.”

For most rally organizers, swine flu was secondary to promoting immigration reform, including pathways to citizenship for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants — hopes buoyed with Barack Obama in the White House and a Democratic-controlled Congress.

More than 1 million people marched in cities across the country in 2006, when some in Congress were pushing for tougher laws against illegal immigrants. Although turnout at the marches has dropped steeply since then, organizers say their mission remains the same.

“It’s important for us to continue the fight,” said Margarita Klein with Workers United in Chicago, adding that union workers had been preparing for two months for Friday’s event.

Union leaders said they have set aside differences to promote a unified immigration overhaul plan they hope will get through Congress this year.

“I think we’re in a different position now in April 2009 than in April 2007,” said Angela Kelley, vice president for immigration policy at the Center for American Progress. “I think it’s become more diverse and mainstream, sort of at the same time.”

Some say immigration reform will help the economy.

“Immigrants are workers that are central to our economic success, and immigration reform is essential for stabilizing our work force,” said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

Others say having a new president whose father was from another country — Kenya — has also buoyed hopes.

“You can feel it in the streets, people are waiting for some kind of solution,” said Mujica, the organizer in Chicago. “We have been waiting.”

Napolitano

WASHINGTON – Customs agents have stopped and cleared 41 people with flulike symptoms at U.S. borders and are awaiting test results on eight more.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano cited the numbers as she explained why no tightening of the U.S. border was needed.

She said the swine flu virus already has spread into this country and others, and it’s too late for border closures to contain.

At the border, none of the 49 people stopped so far was detained for more than a few hours while health officials checked them. She didn’t say where along the border people were stopped. Because symptoms may arise later, officials are handing out cards explaining the flulike symptoms to arriving travelers.

The U.S. Border Patrol says agents patrolling near Nogales have arrested 22 men after they were spotted carrying bales of marijuana into the U.S. from Mexico.

Border Patrol spokesman Mike Scioli (See-OH’-lee) said Wednesday that the men were spotted by agents who called in a helicopter and additional officers. As the agents closed in, the men dropped their bundles of marijuana and ran away.

Agents captured all 22 of them late Monday and seized 39 bundles of marijuana weighing more than 2,200 pounds. They also found a loaded .45-caliber pistol and 2 loaded magazines for an AK-47 assault rifle.

Scioli says the men were all identified as Mexican nationals who had entered the U.S. illegally.

WASHINGTON – An Obama administration policy to go after employers who knowingly hire and exploit illegal workers is not significantly different from the Bush administration strategy, according to a copy of the guidelines, obtained by The Associated Press.

The new guidelines for immigration agents, which the Homeland Security Department calls a “renewed department-wide focus” will impose fines and criminal charges against employers who break the law.

While the priority is to go after employers, the policy states that agents will continue to arrest illegal workers. The Barack Obama policy, however, stresses that humanitarian guidelines will be followed more broadly than in the previous administration.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said that under her leadership the agency will now be focused on “renewing a priority on employers who are making money off of these illegal immigrants and giving them jobs that should be going to American workers, as opposed to just counting numbers.”

In 2008, Immigration and Customs Enforcement brought criminal charges against 135 employers and 968 workers.

In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this month, Napolitano said using investigative tools such as auditing documents employees fill out when they join a company, having illegal workers go undercover and talking to people who regularly interact with the employers are all ways to build a case against a business that hires illegal workers.

“What I want to do is deter more employers from intentionally and knowingly hiring illegal workers,” Napolitano said.

The rapidly spreading swine flu is prompting calls for the U.S. to close its border with Mexico, where the outbreak originated, but some fear the disease is being exploited for political purposes by immigration foes.

A growing chorus of border-control advocates, including some members of Congress, is calling for the federal government to close U.S.-Mexico border crossings to prevent swine flu from further spreading into the U.S.

Civil rights groups and immigrant advocates, however, say that fanning anti-immigrant sentiment could make immigrants reluctant to seek medical attention.

“The risk of demonizing and stigmatizing a group of people is you risk alienating them and making them afraid to seek health services and that can continue the outbreak,” said Liany Arroyo, director of the Institute for Hispanic Health at the National Council of La Raza, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group.

Mexico has been the epicenter of the swine-flu outbreak. The only flu-related death in the U.S. is a 23-month-old Mexico City boy who died Monday after traveling to Texas.

U.S. Rep. Eric Massa, a Democrat from New York and House Homeland Security Committee member, wants “an immediate and complete closure” of the Mexico border until swine flu is contained.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the Department of Homeland Security should consider all options, “including closing the border if it would prevent further transmission of this deadly virus.”

It was unclear whether McCain was responding to political pressure. Last week, Chris Simcox, founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, announced he will challenge McCain in the 2010 Republican primary.

Since the swine-flu outbreak, Simcox has intensified his call for the immediate deployment of National Guard troops.

President Barack Obama said Wednesday during a televised news conference that health officials see no reason to close the border.

“From their perspective it would be akin to closing the barn door after the horses are out because we already have cases here in the United States,” he said.

Brian Levin, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection, said agents at border crossings are trained to watch for possible contagious diseases. He said they have increased surveillance since the swine-flu alert; inspectors in Arizona have not quarantined or detained a single traveler because of flulike symptoms.

Alfredo Gutierrez, who hosts a Spanish-language talk show, said exploiting fear about the swine flu and its prevalence in Mexico is counterproductive.

“The logic that if you can get rid of Mexicans, (swine flu) will all go away” is simplistic logic that will play well to people’s fears, he said. “People are going to say it’s the Mexicans’ fault. The virus has no nationality.”

Carlos Flores Vizcarra, the consul general of Mexico in Phoenix, said that while a few are trying to link the virus with illegal immigration, most realize that swine flu is a public health issue, not an immigration one.

Contributing: Arizona Republic reporters Dennis Wagner and Dan Nowicki

By Daniel Gonzalez, Yvonne Wingett

Dupnik

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said his idea has merit, but he will not press Arizona to challenge a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that makes it illegal for schools to check students’ citizenship.

Still, Dupnik said, checking citizenship when students enroll would remove a flaw in the nation’s border security and could deter immigrants from crossing the border illegally.

Such a move would eliminate some of the area’s social woes, he said, adding that the South, Southwest and West sides of Tucson have prominent social problems that can be attributed to illegal immigration.

Dupnik, citing unnamed sources, pointed specifically to the Sunnyside Unified School District, where he said as many as 40 percent of the students are illegal immigrants.

Sunnyside district spokeswoman Monique Soria said that “the district, by law, does not ask for legal status, and we do not have data on that.

“We would be breaking the law if we did ask,” she said.

Failing schools, high dropout rates and gang affiliation seem to be high in those areas, Dupnik said.

“Sunnyside is, I think, the area where the problem is most acute,” he said.

Dupnik stressed that he is not encouraging school districts to break the law.

Dupnik’s opinion arose when he attended a hearing on border violence held by the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, he said.

“I just brought up an issue that was not being dealt with that I felt should be dealt with,” Dupnik said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

“It’s a subject that nobody wants to talk about,” he said. “I merely aired an idea. I’m not on a platform. I don’t have a plan. I don’t have a strategy.”

Dupnik said he will not conduct immigration sweeps at area schools.

“I find that thought repulsive and repugnant,” he said.

Nor will the Sheriff’s Department stage similar sweeps anywhere in the community, he said.

“We will never do that as long as I am sheriff here.”

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration on Tuesday staunchly defended its “passive surveillance” policy on the emerging swine flu threat, saying that its measured, cautious border monitoring makes sense.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano declared that more draconian enforcement steps are not yet necessary, even as she acknowledged that officials “anticipate confirmed cases in more states.” She reiterated President Barack Obama’s stance that people are justifiably concerned but need not be alarmed by it.

Some 50 swine flu infections have been identified so far in the United States, but no deaths. In contrast, there have been over 150 deaths in neighboring Mexico, and Asian countries deployed thermal sensors at airports to screen passengers from North America for signs of fever.

Napolitano assured network interviewers of a “very broad multi-agency federal response” and said that she and a number of Cabinet members had met into the night Monday to discuss strategy. She also said the administration wouldn’t wait for a World Health Organization declaration of a pandemic to deliver a pandemic-like response.

Noting that the international health body has elevated its pandemic alert status to Level 4 of a 6-step process, Napolitano said: “We’re prepared as if there were a pandemic. We’re not waiting.”

Obama on Monday responded to the first domestic emergency of his presidency by urging calm — and then dispatching officials to the cameras to again back up that message. He said the flu outbreak was “not a cause for alarm,” even as the government began urgent steps to respond to the small but rising number of cases. The calming words belied an intense reaction across departments and agencies.

Richard Besser, the acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said his agency was aggressively investigating, looking for evidence of the disease spreading and probing for ways to control and prevent it.

The government also issued an advisory warning travelers to cancel any nonessential visits to Mexico — and gently took issue with a European Union health official who said the same thing about travel to parts of the U.S.

At the White House, a swine flu update, delivered by White House homeland security adviser John Brennan, was added to the president’s daily intelligence briefing. And on Capitol Hill, several panels scheduled emergency hearings for this week.

On Tuesday, Napolitano said that federal efforts to get antiviral medications to the states “is under way and is working.”

The Food and Drug Administration, for instance, issued emergency guidance late Monday that allows certain antiviral drugs to be used in a broader range of the population in case mass dosing is needed to deal with a widespread swine flu outbreak.

The agency originally approved the use of the antiviral drug Tamiflu for the prevention and treatment of influenza in adults and children age 1 and older. Another antiviral drug, Relenza, was originally approved to treat people 7 and older and to help prevent flu in those 5 and older.

Napolitano was asked point-blank in one interview if the monitoring that the U.S. is now conducting at entry points in the country is sufficient. “We think that what we’re doing now at the land ports and the airports makes sense,” she replied.

Asked whether tougher steps were under consideration, she said: “That’s something that can be considered, but you have to look at what the costs are. We literally have thousands of trucks and commerce that cross that border … That would be a very, very heavy cost for what epidemiologists tells us would be marginal” in terms of containing the virus.

The White House also aimed to sidestep a potentially problematic diplomatic headache. Press secretary Robert Gibbs declined to discuss whether Obama officials have any concern about when Mexico notified the U.S. of the outbreak — particularly significant given the president’s trip to Mexico on April 16 and 17.

The White House said Monday that its medical unit asked if Mexican health officials and U.S. Embassy medical staff had any concerns about infectious disease and were told they did not. But a White House statement said, “We have no reason to believe they withheld any information they had at the time.”

The first case of swine flu was reported in Mexico three days before Obama’s arrival. Gibbs said the White House was not told, but he stressed that the president’s doctors have no concern about his health.

Health workers wear surgical masks as a precaution against infection at the airport in Mexico City on Sunday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Confirming 40 cases of swine flu in the U.S., the Obama administration said Monday it was responding aggressively as if the outbreak would spread into a full pandemic. Officials urged Americans against most travel to Mexico as the virus that began there spread to the United States and beyond.

President Barack Obama urged calm, saying there was reason for concern but not yet “a cause for alarm.”

Yet just in case, administration officials said that they were already waging a vigorous campaign of prevention, unsure of the outbreak’s severity or where it would show up next.

U.S. customs officials began checking people entering U.S. territory. Millions of doses of flu-fighting medications from a federal stockpile were on their way to states, with priority given to the five already affected and to border states. Federal agencies were conferring with state and international governments.

“We want to make sure that we have equipment where it needs to be, people where they need to be and, most important, information shared at all levels,” Janet Napolitano, head of the Homeland Security Department, told reporters.

Her briefing came shortly before the World Health Organization raised the severity of its pandemic alert level to four from three on a six-point scale. Level four means there is sustained human-to-human spread in at least one country. Level six is a full-fledged pandemic, an epidemic that has spread to a wide geographic area.

“We are proceeding as if we are preparatory to a full pandemic,” Napolitano said.

She said travel warnings for trips to Mexico would remain in place as long as swine flu is detected.

Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that so far the disease in the United States seemed less severe than the outbreak in Mexico, where more than 1,600 cases had been reported and where the suspected death toll had climbed to 149. No deaths had been reported in the U.S, and only one hospitalization.

“I wouldn’t be overly reassured by that,” Besser told reporters at CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta. He raised the possibility of more severe cases — and deaths — in the United States.

A European Union official warned against travel to parts of the U.S. as well as Mexico, but Besser said that seemed unwarranted.

State Department spokesman Robert A. Wood said the EU commissioner’s remarks were his “personal opinion,” not an official position, and thus the department had no comment. “We don’t want people to panic at this point,” Wood said.

Still Besser said of the situation, “We are taking it seriously and acting aggressively. … Until the outbreak has progressed, you really don’t know what it’s going to do.”

The U.S. stepped up checks of people entering the country by air, land and sea and issued a new U.S. travel advisory suggesting “nonessential travel to Mexico be avoided.”

The confirmed cases announced on Monday were double the 20 earlier reported by the CDC. Besser said this was due to further testing — not further spreading of the virus — in New York at a school in Queens, bringing the New York total to 28.

Besser said other cases have been reported in Ohio, Kansas, Texas and California. He said that, of the 40 cases, only one person has been hospitalized and all have recovered.

Countries across the globe increased their vigilance amid increasing worries about a worldwide pandemic. Obama told a gathering of scientists that his administration’s Department of Health and Human Services had declared a public health emergency “as a precautionary tool to ensure that we have the resources we need at our disposal to respond quickly and effectively.”

“This is obviously a cause for concern and requires a heightened state of alert, but it’s not a cause for alarm,” Obama said. He said he was getting regular updates.

The Senate has yet to confirm a secretary of human services, a surgeon general or a director of CDC. The absence of those officials left Besser and Napolitano to brief reporters on the swine flu outbreak.

The quickening pace of developments in the United States in response to the spreading new flu strain was accompanied by a host of varying responses around the world.

Mexico, at the center of the outbreak, suspended schools nationwide. China, Taiwan and Russia considered quarantines, and several Asian countries scrutinized visitors arriving at their airports.

U.S. customs officials began checking people entering U.S. territory. Officers at airports, seaports and border crossings were watching for signs of illness, said Customs and Border Protection spokesman Lloyd Easterling.

While “the borders are open,” Easterling said officials were “taking a second look at folks who may be displaying a symptom of illness.”

If a traveler reports not feeling well, the person will be questioned about symptoms and, if necessary, referred to a CDC official for additional screening, Easterling said. The customs officials were wearing personal protective gear, such as gloves and masks, he said.

The CDC can send someone to the hospital if they suspect a case, but no one is being refused entry. Also, the CDC is readying “yellow cards” with disease information for travelers, in case they later experience symptoms.The border monitoring resembles that done during the SARS epidemic earlier in the decade.

Multiple airlines, including American, United, Continental, US Airways, Mexicana and Air Canada, said they were waiving usual penalties for changing reservations for anyone traveling to, from, or through Mexico, but had not canceled flights.

Napolitano urged Americans to take “common sense” precautions.

“Common sense means washing hands, staying home from work or school if you feel sick, covering your mouth if you cough or sneeze. These are straightforward and simple measures, but they can materially improve our chances of avoiding a full-fledged pandemic,” she said.

Administration officials said about 11 million doses of flu-fighting medications from a federal stockpile have been sent to states in case they are needed — roughly one quarter of the doses in the stockpile.

While there presently is no vaccine available to prevent the specific strain now being seen, there are antiflu drugs that do work once someone is sick. If a new vaccine eventually is ordered, the CDC already has taken a key preliminary step — creating what’s called seed stock of the virus that manufacturers would use.

A private school in South Carolina was closed Monday because of fears that young people who recently returned from Mexico might have been infected. Officials of Newberry Academy in Newberry, S.C., said some seniors on the trip had flu-like symptoms when they returned.

State Department of Health and Environmental Control spokesman Jim Beasley said test results on the students could come back as early as Monday afternoon. To date, there have been no confirmed swine flu cases in the state.

Stock markets fell overseas and in the United States out of concern that the outbreak could derail economic recovery. Airline and other travel-related stocks suffered the sharpest losses.

The New York City school where 28 cases have now been confirmed was closed Monday and Tuesday.

Also, 14 schools in Texas, including a high school where two cases were confirmed, will be closed for at least the next week. Some schools in California and Ohio also were closing after students were found or suspected to have the flu.

In Mexico, the outbreak’s center, soldiers handed out 6 million face masks to help stop the spread of the virus that is suspected in up to 103 deaths. Most other countries are reporting only mild cases so far, with most of the sick already recovering.

Spain reported its first confirmed swine flu case on Monday and said another 17 people were suspected of having the disease. Also, three New Zealanders recently returned from Mexico are suspected of having it.

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the New York City Department of Health

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• If you have flu symptoms, stay home to avoid spreading the disease. Do not return to work or school until two days after your symptoms are gone.

• Cover your nose and mouth when you cough or sneeze, and wash your hands frequently.

• Go to the hospital if you have severe symptoms, but if symptoms are mild stay home.

• No need for the general public to wear masks.

• Cook pork to at least 160 degrees.

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HOW NOT TO GET SICK

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AT A GLANCE

MEXICO CITY – A strong earthquake struck central Mexico on Monday, swaying tall buildings in the capital and sending office workers into the streets.

The quake rattled nerves in a city already tense from a swine flu outbreak suspected of killing as many as 149 people nationwide.

“I’m scared,” said Sarai Luna Pajas, a 22-year-old social services worker standing outside her office building moments after it hit. “We Mexicans are not used to living with so much fear, but all that is happening — the economic crisis, the illnesses and now this — it feels like the Apocalypse.”

Co-worker Harold Gutierrez, 21, said the country was taking comfort from its religious faith, but he too was gripped by the sensation that the world might be coming to an end.

“If it is, it is God’s plan,” Gutierrez said, speaking over a green mask he wore to ward off swine flu.

Televisa television network quoted Mexico City officials saying there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The quake had a magnitude of 5.6 and was centered near Chilpancingo, about 130 miles (210 kilometers) southwest of Mexico City or 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the resort of Acapulco, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

USGS earthquake analyst Don Blakeman said the quake was felt strongly in Mexico City because the epicenter was relatively shallow and the ground under the capital — which is built on a former lake bed — tends to intensify shock waves.

“Distant quakes are often felt” strongly in the city, he said.

The USGS revised the quake’s magnitude down from its preliminary estimate of 6.0, and said its depth was 30 miles (50 kilometers).

Tourists also streamed out of hotels in Acapulco and congregated on sidewalks and medians for several minutes. Local Civil Protection officer Silvia Rodriguez said there were no injuries.

ATLANTA – The acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the federal government is readying a travel advisory instructing Americans to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico.

Dr. Richard Besser made that disclosure during a news conference in Atlanta, saying the advisory was being released “out of an abundance of caution.”

Besser also reported there have been 40 confirmed cases of swine flu in the United States, including 20 in New York City. He said individuals can help to keep the disease from spreading by taking everyday precautions such as frequent handwashing, covering up coughs and sneezes and staying away from work or school if not feeling well.