Is the Federal Government Abandoning Border Security Altogether?

[Pooky 3,784]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXs8gRI70oo

The incompetence and negligence from the Federal government is on full display here. Is it any wonder border states are trying to pick up the pieces the best they can?

What is worse, is that the Federal government is trying to stop local law enforcement filling the void they leave.

[Dream'nJordan 9]

Amazing! We pay for our loved ones to get here but if they were in Mexico they could just walk across a river, climb a fence, or walk around a fence to get into the U.S.! Aint that some #######!

[peejay 327]

This is what happens when a left wing liberal gets elected to the presidency and has his head up the arses of LaRaza, MALDEF, etc. He believes in open borders and has hobbled any effort at enforcing our long standing immigration / work authorization laws while advocating the rewarding en mass of just about every illegal alien with amnesty already here or that will get here in the future through his willful inaction. This is how corrupt political machines rig the political process. If you can't get the native population to support your agendas...import future voters that are dependent on your party. Obama and his cronies are the epitome of party hacks. He knows the American people are souring on him and the Democrats quickly and he hopes to prime the pump for the future while he can.

And his is doing this with the worst unemployment in decades. He is favoring illegal foreign workers over American citizens by protecting illegal aliens from law enforcement while aiding and abetting them.

Edited June 20, 2010 by peejay

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

I watched this last night. Now this is an excellent piece. It gives a good lead in explaining the situation, gives the numbers of murders in what area, it's peoplized with several interviews. The anchor seems knowledgable educating the audience on low intensity boarder wars. Lots of great footage with fast editing and choice sound bytes that move the story along.

The only thing that is missing in this piece is the Nightline anchor interviewing a representative of the federal government and asking them what happened to the building of the fence and if there are plans to continue that and what their take is on the boarder issues.

[Pooky 3,784]

I watched this last night. Now this is an excellent piece. It gives a good lead in explaining the situation, gives the numbers of murders in what area, it's peoplized with several interviews. The anchor seems knowledgable educating the audience on low intensity boarder wars. Lots of great footage with fast editing and choice sound bytes that move the story along.

The only thing that is missing in this piece is the Nightline anchor interviewing a representative of the federal government and asking them what happened to the building of the fence and if there are plans to continue that and what their take is on the boarder issues.

I suspect that this may be because the appropriate Federal spokesperson declined an interview with a polite, "No comment."

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Elections have consequences . . .

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Elections have consequences . . .

unfortunately, the last 10 years have shown us they don't...

[ScottThuy 140]

Erections have consequences...

[engineer21 51]

Erections have consequences...

says the person whose avatar is quagmire

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

I suspect that this may be because the appropriate Federal spokesperson declined an interview with a polite, "No comment."

If that were the case then the Nightline news anchor would include the blurb with a narration something like this, "We attempted to contact the federal authority in charge of building the fence and they declined to comment at this time." Or it would air the actual response whether it be the video clip of the actual person in charge or a still picture of them and some graphics for words describing who is in the picture and a sound byte of their voice saying, "We have no comment at this time".

Since Nightline didn't provide that I suspect they didn't pursue it & wanted to wrap their package up neatly the way it was for airtime. A follow up story with the federal authorities on the issue may make for another package in another episode.

Edited June 20, 2010 by Cleocatra

[Pooky 3,784]

If that were the case then the Nightline news anchor would include the blurb with a narration something like this, "We attempted to contact the federal authority in charge of building the fence and they declined to comment at this time." Or it would air the actual response whether it be the video clip of the actual person in charge or a still picture of them and some graphics for words describing who is in the picture and a sound byte of their voice saying, "We have no comment at this time".

Since Nightline didn't provide that I suspect they didn't pursue it & wanted to wrap their package up neatly the way it was for airtime. A follow up story with the federal authorities on the issue may make for another package in another episode.

It would be interesting to see, but I doubt we will. In the current atmosphere, I think the "No comment" will be coming Nightline's way if they ask.

[TBoneTX 45,286]

I've actually stopped at the Fort Hancock CBP station, and in December I called that post as part of making vacation & book-research arrangements. This crossing is one of the few that I have not made along the Texas/Mexico border. When I stopped there (in late 2007), I talked briefly with a CBP agent, who said that the small Mexican villages on the other side were not within walking distance (my interest at that time) if I parked at the port; he said that there was not much of interest to see; and he implied that the area was not particularly safe (without actually coming out & saying so).

During my phone-calling to most of the Tex/Mex CBP ports in December, I asked "On a 1-to-10 scale, how safe would a visit be to [Mexican town] during daylight hours? Is there anything unusual going on?" Most of the other responses I got were "It's about a 7" or the standard (& very true) wisdom "If you stay on the main tourist streets during daylight hours and remain alert to your surroundings, you should be OK." At Fort Hancock, the agent said, "It's completely lawless. The larger Mexican cities have degrees of Mexican police protection, which keeps the trouble minimized. In El Porvenir and the other villages, they're too small to warrant police presence, so the Malos [bad guys] pretty much have their way. The people of Fort Hancock are genuinely afraid that the violence might spill over to this side. And, even if you go across for a brief day-trip before noon or something, and you don't encounter any Malos, the teenagers or young people could give you trouble -- they see someone with nice things or a nice car, and they want it. I don't recommend that you try to visit the other side at all."

It was this report, and the lukewarm answers that I got from other CBP agents along the border of Chihuahua state, that caused Mrs. T-B. & me to visit the Rio Grande Valley-area Mexican border cities (from Brownsville/Matamoros through Del Rio/Ciudad Acuna) instead -- and we had a safe and very grand time.

Here is an article that I found two months ago. I believe that the information in THIS story is not hyperbole. However, in my opinion, much (most) of the other media garbage that we've been fed over the last 2 to 5 years IS overblown and overgeneralized, and the people who are suffering the most are the honest Mexican merchants & professionals in the border cities who are losing their livelihoods largely (not totally) because too many Americans are swallowing hysteria when reality often differs.

---

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125737965&sc=emaf

Cited 2010 Apr 12

April 9, 2010

Along the border, fears are growing that the escalating drug violence in Mexico will spill into the United States.

Last month, a well-known rancher was murdered in southeastern Arizona. Authorities suspect an illegal immigrant did it.

The murder prompted governors in New Mexico and Texas to send forces to the border. This week, the Mexican government sent dozens of police and soldiers to the Juarez Valley to restore order.

For many on both sides of the border, the fear is very real.

'Arm Yourselves'

Last week, residents held a town-hall meeting in Fort Hancock, Texas - a sleepy agricultural town on the border, about an hour southeast of El Paso, that looks like the bleak set of No Country for Old Men.

A couple hundred people crowded into the grade-school gym to hear a chilling message from Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West.

"You farmers, I'm telling you right now, arm yourselves," he said. "As they say the old story is, it's better to be tried by 12 than carried by six. Damn it, I don't want to see six people carrying you." - Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West

His warning was prompted by the killing of the Arizona rancher, and the spiraling violence a couple of miles away in Mexico in a region known as the Valley of Juarez. The notorious smuggling territory is being fought over by the Sinaloa and the Juarez cartels.

"One of the men that works for me had five people killed in front of his house over there [in Mexico] this past weekend," says Curtis Carr, who is a farmer and county commissioner. "And he's moving his family over here this week. It's serious over there. Whether or not it's gonna spill over here, I don't know."

Nobody knows.

'They Poked His Eyes Out'

The sheriff warned citizens to be alert and report strange vehicles on their streets. But at the same time, he said, don't succumb to fear.

"We haven't had anybody kidnapped here yet, but it could come," he said. "We haven't had anybody killed here, but that could come."

The violence in the Juarez Valley directly affects this little Texas town.

A couple of weeks ago, gunmen in the Juarez Valley killed the Mexican relative of a Fort Hancock high school student. When the student's family in Fort Hancock heard about it, they crossed the border at 10 a.m. to see the body, and took the student with them.

"By 10:30, they had stabbed the relatives that went with him, which included his grandparents, with an ice pick," says school superintendent Jose Franco. "My understanding is that the gentleman is like 90 years old, and they poked his eyes out with an ice pick. I believe those people are still in intensive care here in a hospital in the U.S."

Franco says the boy has isolated himself from other students so they won't ask him about the gruesome attack that he witnessed.

Tactics To Drive Out Rivals: Arson, Murder

The Valley of Juarez has a long history of human and drug trafficking. There's lots of open farmland for illicit activity. It's close to the city of Juarez, a major smuggling point. It's right across from Texas, with Interstate 10 only a few miles to the north.

And the river, the Rio Grande, is no deterrent.

Veteran Border Patrol agent Joe Romero stands on a levee overlooking the international river - which this time of year is but a trickle.

"You can literally walk across the river - and some times of the year not even get wet," he says. "And with the ease with which you can literally cross the border here from one side to the other, this made it very lucrative and appealing to anybody trying to smuggle in whatever contraband they had."

In recent years, the Department of Homeland Security has put up 44 miles of tall fencing across from the Juarez Valley, and doubled the number of Border Patrol agents. As a result, marijuana seizures in this area have fallen 97 percent in the past four years.

But none of this has dampened the drug mafias' vicious competition to dominate the Juarez Valley.

Farmers In Esperanza Flee To Juarez

Esperanza is one of several farm towns in the Juarez Valley terrorized by the narco-war. Last week, traffickers are believed to have torched two houses there and killed the occupant of one. A large bloodstain on the back door of one house marks the spot where the owner was executed.

More than 50 people were killed in the Juarez Valley in March.

Arson and murder are the tactics being used to drive out rival traffickers, as well as the general population.

Along a highway, eight members of the Villareal family stand, their bags packed, waiting for the bus. They say they're all afraid because of the killings. There's no security, no work anymore, and farmers have abandoned their fields.

You know it's bad when people are fleeing for safety to Juarez - the most murderous city in the hemisphere.

Edited June 20, 2010 by TBoneTX

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

These kind of topics almost always come down to what individuals choose to believe - if you want to see government laziness (of this specific administration, as opposed to previous ones) that's exactly what you're going to see.

Seems to me that rural America has always been largely ignored by politicians in Washinton.

When the country is in massive debt, as it is, what kind of expectations do people have that this problem is going to be addressed any time soon?

Edited June 20, 2010 by Its a MADHOUSE

[Pooky 3,784]

These kind of topics almost always come down to what individuals choose to believe - if you want to see government laziness (of this specific administration, as opposed to previous ones) that's exactly what you're going to see.

Seems to me that rural America has always been largely ignored by politicians in Washinton.

When the country is in massive debt, as it is, what kind of expectations do people have that this problem is going to be addressed any time soon?

This country is in massive debt, true. But it doesn't seem to be a problem to Washington, who seem anxious to add to this debt. Regardless of that, the citizens of this country have every right to expect their government to fulfill its responsibility protect its citizens from what amounts to a foreign criminal invasion.

Can you imagine the legal chaos that will inevitably ensue when one of those private citizens who have been told to arm themselves actually shoots a foreign national? With the ACLU the pro-illegal lobby so vocal, there will be allegations of racism, brutality and every other epithet under the sun, even if the person who cops the bullet turns out to be a drug dealer. Private citizens should never be put in that kind of situation by the abject failure of their own government to fulfill their obligations.

Maybe it is time to put the National Guard on the border ... with guns.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The government has its responsibilities absolutely. I just don't understand why the situation described in the op is the fault of the current administration, when it seems that this has been ongoing for many years.