Saturday, July 10, 2010

The Real Border Issue: Arrest Drug Lords Not Landscapers!

Most people who advocate sealing of the Mexican border have never been to a border town. In border towns, hundreds if not thousands of people cross the footpaths and streets back and forth, to and from Mexico. People shop and do business daily. This is called commerce and border-living. Families, cousins, brothers, sisters, mothers, daughters, fathers, sons, live on both sides. When one visits a border town, there isn't much security leaving the U.S. There is much more security coming back in. Border Patrol man the booths along the border entries and patrol the border fences and barriers, both on foot and via vehicles. They also have electronic and video surveillance along well travelled points of entry and paths. Additionally, about 10 miles in from the border, there are Border Patrol booths set up to check the IDs of everyone travelling back into the U.S. from border towns.

Anyone who lives along the border will tell you. People who live along the border, people of all colors and ethnicities, have very good relationships with residents on both sides of the border. However, about 10 years ago, with the increase of drug use in America, a new group of travellers migrated both ways across the border. These are the drug cartels. Anyone who lives along the border will tell you, there is a huge difference between those that come here to work and those that carry drugs across the border. The drug carriers carry or sneak in by vehicle, bales of marijuana, meth, marjuana laced with meth and cocaine. They also carry prescription pills including vicodin and percocet/oxycontin. Many of these drug carriers are American citizens, like the Bowen family, and also take guns/weapons and ammunition back into Mexico to provide to the cartels. You see, Americans help finance both sides of the Mexican drug war by purchasing illegal drugs and smuggling weapons.

The residents on both sides of the border want the cartels to stop. They want America to stop using drugs. They want the cartels to stop delivering drugs. Most of all, they want the violence to end.

You would think anyone familiar with the situation on the border would understand what is happening. Reports from both sides of the border indicate the majority of the violence is in Mexico and has not crossed over to the U.S. side of the border. Violent Crime is down in the U.S., particularly in border states. However, extremists and sb1070 supporters want you to believe otherwise. They want you to believe border violence has increased. They exploited the murder of rancher Robert Krentz and want you to believe all "illeegals" are responsible for his death when in fact the police don't know who committed the crime and believe it was someone from the U.S. since the tracks went from North to South.

The zealots also exploited the so-called shooting of Deputy Puroll. Tapes have recently surfaced regarding his explanation of the shooting. The tape totally conflicts with early reports of the shooting provided by his spokesperson Tammy Villar. Yet, this shooting also is blamed on all "illeegals." Their lies are set up to instill fear and terror into border residents. They believe in the political adage, "If you tell a lie often enough, it becomes the truth."

The facts are: we have a drug problem in the U.S. We are the number one abuser of drugs in the world. Drug cartels from China, Columbia, Brazil, the Middle East, Russia, Venezuela, etc. are falling all over themselves to be our drug provider. We have a Drug problem in the U.S., not an "illegal immigration" problem. Border Security is a big factor in that we need to STOP the flow of drugs from coming into our country and we need to stop the flow of weapons, money and cash back to the Cartels both here and in Mexico.


The facts are: sb1070 has NOTHING to do with stopping drugs or even securing the border. The primary intent of sb1070 is to Mass Deport all the "illeegals" in Arizona and their citizen children too. It also criminalizes citizen friends and families of the 11M here. It also encourages citizens to become amateur Border Patrol by encouraging them to call the police every time they see who they suspect is an "illeegal" (aka brown person).

The worst part of sb1070 is it deters police resources from going after the real danger, the drug cartels. Instead, if sb1070 is enacted, Law Enforcement will be doomed to spend their time, as arpaio and his masked goons do, in terrorizing latino neighborhoods with suppression sweeps. No time to hunt down the felonious drug lords on both sides of the border. Jails will be filled with landscapers and restaurant workers. No room for violent drug dealers.

Why don't people understand the truth? We have a DRUG problem, not a migrant worker problem. We need our Border Patrol Agents and Law Enforcement focused on targetting felonious criminals, especially drug cartels and drug dealers, not conduct round-ups in well established latino neighborhoods rounding up agjob workers and cooks.

Remove the xenophobia and restrictionist attitude from the work that needs to be done. Allow the 11M to come out of the shadows, pay a fine and begin steps to apply for legal status. Let's bring some sense back to the immigration discussion. We need the Federal Government to pass CIR.

The Obama Administration has made a good start. On a visit to Mexico in March by several senior Obama administration officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano; they met with key Mexico officals and expanded on and improved programs already under way as part of the Mérida Initiative that was started by the Bush administration including cooperation among American and Mexican intelligence agencies and American support for training Mexican police officers, judges, prosecutors and public defenders.

Under the new strategy, American and Mexican agencies will work together to refocus border enforcement efforts creating systems that allow goods and people to be screened before they reach the crossing points. The plan also provides support for Mexican programs intended to strengthen communities where socioeconomic hardships force many young people into crime. The most striking difference between the old strategy and the new one is the shift away from military assistance. More than half of the $1.3 billion spent under Merida was used to buy aircraft, inspection equipment and information technology for the Mexican military and police. Next year's foreign aid budget provides for civilian police training vs equipment. Military-to-military cooperation was expected to continue. This revised strategy will first go into effect in Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez, the largest cities on Mexico's border with the United States. Ciudad Juárez, a city of 1.7 million, has become a symbol of the Mexican government's failed attempts to rein in the drug gangs. Finally the Administration is focusing on the right issues. Stop the drug cartels. Nip them in the bud. Partner with Mexico to stop the cartels at inception. On the American side, do the same. Infiltrate, Arrest and stop them!

15 comments:

Dave Bennion said...

Nice post, Dee. Everyone can agree that the cartels are bad actors and we'd all be better off if they weren't around. But I think the best way to neuter the cartels is to legalize and regulate drugs.

Americans will never stop using drugs. We should have learned this by now from the failed 40-year old War on Drugs. Prohibition didn't work for alcohol, why do we still believe it will work for pot and other drugs?

The War on Drugs doesn't differentiate between pot and heroin. Pot is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco, which are both legal. Prescription drugs, drug of choice for white middle and upper class people who can get them, aren't part of the war. Sentencing disparities between different forms of cocaine (crack used by blacks, powder used by whites) are a well-known example of the racialization of the drug war.

We would do Mexico and ourselves a big favor, and lend momentum to a sane resolution of immigration policy, if we legalized pot and regulated harder drugs in some more nuanced way than we do now. Prohibition will never work! We will still be losing the War on Drugs in 40 years if we don't change course. I think the generations coming up understand this even if today's policymakers don't.

Dee said...

Dave,
When I read about the Bowen family (link within article) about this American family/Cargel's distribution chain of illegal drugs across the country, it struck me. They distributed marijuana laced with crack -- "chronic" and meth from Mexico. Marijuana today is not the marijuana we grew up with and Americans can't get their fill. Yet the commenters in local AZ newspapers all sided with the drugsters and didn't know why their prison penalty was so high.

Even on Hardball with Chris Matthews, Matthews - a straight laced looking guy, talked about how Americans, his friends, would never give up Cocaine.

You are right. Americans are not going to give up their drugs. They are strongly addicted to their drugs of choice.

Yet the zealots refuse to connect the dots. The reason for violence in Mexico and on the border is due to the Drug Cartels and Drug Habits of Americans themselves.

No one here in America who abuses drugs wants to give up their drugs. The most that will be legalized is pot. I doubt meth, crack, cocaine or herione will ever be legalized.

The Cartels will not go away until the Drug habits (the need) goes away which will never happen.

We surely do not talk about this enough. We have allowed the opposition to argue the violence is due to so called "illeegals". We need to call them on it each time they say this. The violence is due to their very own drug habits. Until we stop doing drugs or until these same drugs are legalized, the violence will never stop. Greed is too big a motivator.

The only thing we PROs can do is keep bringing this issue to the forefront.

ultima said...

The flaw in this logic is that there is no easy way to sort out the drug lords, smugglers, and cartel gangs at the border from the run-of-the mill illegal alien. Therefore the only answer is to stop all illegals and if any of them has a rap sheet, take the appropriate action. If they don't have a rap sheet, put 'em to work on border infrastructure for six months at minimum wage before sending them back.

Maybe legalizing the drugs is at least part of the answer. I remember in Utah all of the liquor sales were from state sanctioned stores. What if we made cocaine, mary jane, and other drugs so cheap the drug lords would lose most of their income. Let's import it directly from growers in AFghanistan with no middlemen to drive up the cost.

Hand in hand with this would have to be drug rehab and education programs to try to wean the users off the stuff by showing them what it can do to them and making it easy to get into a rehab program and job training.

A tough problem, but ignoring the illegals is not the answer. Rep. Gutierrez who says he wants to work with the GOP to fashion a true bipartisan reform bill but hasn't moved an inch off his position that the 12-20 million must be granted amnesty. Even though we have quadrupled the border patrol staffing, Gutierrez says we should do whatever is necessary to secure the border. Bu then later he backs off from that implying that he meant that only insofar as the drug trade and other criminal activity is concerned. But no one agrees with that position. When others talk about secure borders, they mean it without qualification and that can't be done without vigorous internal enforcement. Of course, that would result in the apprehension of many of the very people Gutierrez wants to give amnesty to.

Apparently for every 80 new agents added at the border, only 20 have been added to ICE. It is now time to shift that ratio to the other direction so that workplace audits and other apprehensions can be acceclerated until the number coming across the border is reduced to 10,000 or less per year.

I like the idea someone had of reducing foreign aid to Mexico and or taxing remittances by
$100,000 for every illegal who is apprehended at the border or internally. I think the Mexican government would soon see the light and begin to cooperate with us in securing our mutual border.

Wecould even up the ante by adding more to the pot for everyone the Mexican government induces to return to Mexico with their minor children.

ultima said...

Maybe the answer is to legalize drugs but sell them only through state controlled stores at a very cheap price, at least low enough to take the drug lords out of business by cutting off their income. We could even buy the raw materials directly from the farmers in Afghanistan, cutting out all the middlemen and warlords, and helping to solve the problem of poverty there.
Of course, we would have to insist that those who wished to purchase those drugs participate in educational and rehab programs.
I don’t believe it is possible to stop the drug trafficking without stopping all or most of the illegal aliens. How can you tell a trafficker from a run-of–the mill illegal? They will not self-identify.
Rep.Gutierrez says he is willing to put whatever resources are necessary on the border to secure it. He still doesn’t understand that a necessary part of border security is internal enforcement. He wants to sit down with the GOP and hammer out a reform bill but he has not moved an inch off his position that all of the 12-20 million illegals must be granted amnesty. Obama said that would be just the ticket to encourage more to some. They want a compromise, bipartisan bill but sit there camped on the non-started amnesty provision. They have to move a significant distance toward the middle before any bill will pass.

Defensores de Democracia said...

Bastard Teachers in the Classroom : Attacking little children because of being Mexican American


This is an ugly development and with the Tsunami of Hate produced by Arizona Racist Laws this is becoming ugly.

Probably for centuries "colored" students have been humiliated and singled out to pick on them. Blacks have always reported this.

They receive undeserved bad grades and are the object of Hate and Derision by these bastards posing as teachers.

But the fact that many sadistic teachers have always existed is no excuse for continuing with these ugly customs and practices.

In my site RACIALITY.COM you find some of the last reported cases.

Raciality.com

Vicente Duque

ultima said...

Dee wrote, "The facts are: sb1070 has NOTHING to do with stopping drugs or even securing the border. The primary intent of sb1070 is to Mass Deport all the "illeegals" in Arizona and their citizen children too. It also criminalizes citizen friends and families of the 11M here."

SB1070 has everything to do with securing the border. It is impossible to secure he borders without vigorous internal enforcement. Since the feds have not stepped up to this challenge, AZ has taken the initiative. We know what we are currently doing isn't working. We also know that the lack of internal enforcement is the primary reason so many illegals are willing to brave the heat of the AZ desert. They know if they can sneak by the BP check points, there is little chance they will ever be apprehended and repatriated. AZ is trying to change that by challenging those stopped for other infractions to produce documents to prove they are in the U.S. legally. It's working. NBC reported last Thursday that the Phoenix Mexican consulate had a long line of people seeking to leave AZ. Now if other states had the AZ law on their books, things would really be looking up.

There is little chance that anything short of that will secure our borders. The number of illegals will continue to grow until the Dems grant amnesty and start counting all over again.

What Dee refuses to admit that stepped up deportations helps to secure the border by conveying the message, "If you come here illegally, we will catch you and you will be deported--so don't waste your time and money on border violations--and don't waste ours. Pack up and go home!"

Those who aid and abet the illegals should also be tagged and sanctioned. Without that support network, the illegals will have an even greater incentive to return to their homelands at their own expense.

Kudos to AZ!

ultima said...

I have to agree with El Duque on this one. Children should never be abused mentally or physically by their teachers. This is just another reflection of the frustrations Americans feel regarding illegal aliens.

ultima said...

A legal brief has been filed by the Michigan Attorney General on behalf of nine states in support of the Arizona law. Other states are considering a similar law. One already exists in Missouri; Utah may be next. see details here

Anon1 said...

So it is always Latinos that are the victims and whitey always gets off scot free? Are you going to follow this case also and make sure that justice is served for this white American, dee?

Thieves could go free while victim faces jail time
Julie HaydenInvestigative Reporter
4:49 AM MDT, July 7, 2010

WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. - Admitted thieves are going free, while an elderly Wheat Ridge man is facing the possibility of spending the rest of his life behind bars, all, he says, for trying to defend his property and his life.

82-year-old Robert Wallace said in February that he looked out his window and saw two men hooking his flatbed trailer up to their pickup. He yelled at them to stop, but they sped away, stealing his trailer. He told police he fired two shots at the pickup.

Minutes later, police say 32-year-old Damacio Torres dropped 28-year-old Alvaro Cardona off at a hospital emergency room with a gunshot wound to the face.

Torres did not stay to talk with police, but they caught up with him later. According to court documents, he admitted he and Cardona stole the trailer.

Wallace did not want to talk on camera, but when we asked him if the two men threatened him he said, "They almost ran me over."

The Jefferson County DA's office said that neither Torres nor Cardona have been charged with anything at this point, even though Torres confessed to the crime. However, the homeowner, Wallace is facing twelve felony counts, including four counts of attempted first degree murder. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Sources say Torres and Cardona are believed to be in the country illegally and both have an arrest record. Cardona's record includes public fighting and numerous traffic offenses like driving without a license or insurance. Torres's record includes agricultural trespassing as well as a 2005 arrest for aggravated motor vehicle theft for which he was given a plea bargain to a lesser crime. Sources say Torres is also under investigation for being part of a major auto theft ring.

Wallace is out on bond and due back in court in September to enter his plea.

Neighbors say the thieves should be the ones facing charges and Wallace should be given an award for protecting the neighborhood.

Feel free to send comments to the DA here:

http://www.co.jefferson.co.us/da/da_T99_R94.htm

Anon1 said...

So it is always Latinos that are the victims and whitey always gets off scot free? Are you going to follow this case also and make sure that justice is served for this white American, dee?

Thieves could go free while victim faces jail time
Julie HaydenInvestigative Reporter
4:49 AM MDT, July 7, 2010

WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. - Admitted thieves are going free, while an elderly Wheat Ridge man is facing the possibility of spending the rest of his life behind bars, all, he says, for trying to defend his property and his life.

82-year-old Robert Wallace said in February that he looked out his window and saw two men hooking his flatbed trailer up to their pickup. He yelled at them to stop, but they sped away, stealing his trailer. He told police he fired two shots at the pickup.

Minutes later, police say 32-year-old Damacio Torres dropped 28-year-old Alvaro Cardona off at a hospital emergency room with a gunshot wound to the face.

Torres did not stay to talk with police, but they caught up with him later. According to court documents, he admitted he and Cardona stole the trailer.

Wallace did not want to talk on camera, but when we asked him if the two men threatened him he said, "They almost ran me over."

The Jefferson County DA's office said that neither Torres nor Cardona have been charged with anything at this point, even though Torres confessed to the crime. However, the homeowner, Wallace is facing twelve felony counts, including four counts of attempted first degree murder. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Sources say Torres and Cardona are believed to be in the country illegally and both have an arrest record. Cardona's record includes public fighting and numerous traffic offenses like driving without a license or insurance. Torres's record includes agricultural trespassing as well as a 2005 arrest for aggravated motor vehicle theft for which he was given a plea bargain to a lesser crime. Sources say Torres is also under investigation for being part of a major auto theft ring.

Wallace is out on bond and due back in court in September to enter his plea.

Neighbors say the thieves should be the ones facing charges and Wallace should be given an award for protecting the neighborhood.

Feel free to send comments to the DA here:

http://www.co.jefferson.co.us/da/da_T99_R94.htm

Anon1 said...

So it is always Latinos that are the victims and whitey always gets off scot free? Are you going to follow this case also and make sure that justice is served for this white American, dee?

Thieves could go free while victim faces jail time
Julie HaydenInvestigative Reporter
4:49 AM MDT, July 7, 2010

WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. - Admitted thieves are going free, while an elderly Wheat Ridge man is facing the possibility of spending the rest of his life behind bars, all, he says, for trying to defend his property and his life.

82-year-old Robert Wallace said in February that he looked out his window and saw two men hooking his flatbed trailer up to their pickup. He yelled at them to stop, but they sped away, stealing his trailer. He told police he fired two shots at the pickup.

Minutes later, police say 32-year-old Damacio Torres dropped 28-year-old Alvaro Cardona off at a hospital emergency room with a gunshot wound to the face.

Torres did not stay to talk with police, but they caught up with him later. According to court documents, he admitted he and Cardona stole the trailer.

Wallace did not want to talk on camera, but when we asked him if the two men threatened him he said, "They almost ran me over."

The Jefferson County DA's office said that neither Torres nor Cardona have been charged with anything at this point, even though Torres confessed to the crime. However, the homeowner, Wallace is facing twelve felony counts, including four counts of attempted first degree murder. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Anon1 said...

Continued:

Sources say Torres and Cardona are believed to be in the country illegally and both have an arrest record. Cardona's record includes public fighting and numerous traffic offenses like driving without a license or insurance. Torres's record includes agricultural trespassing as well as a 2005 arrest for aggravated motor vehicle theft for which he was given a plea bargain to a lesser crime. Sources say Torres is also under investigation for being part of a major auto theft ring.

Wallace is out on bond and due back in court in September to enter his plea.

Neighbors say the thieves should be the ones facing charges and Wallace should be given an award for protecting the neighborhood.

Feel free to send comments to the DA here:

http://www.co.jefferson.co.us/da/da_T99_R94.htm

Dave Bennion said...

Ultima asks how we can tell random border crossers from drug dealers.

Can he tell drug smugglers coming in at airports from any random traveler? Why not do cavity searches of any traveler entering from abroad, including U.S. citizens? If you really want to stop the drugzz, you'll do whatever it takes ... people who've done nothing wrong have nothing to fear. I think ultima must be one of those small-government conservatives, the ones who build Berlin Walls and station thousands of troops inside U.S. territory.

I have a feeling ultima really wants to ask how we can tell drug dealers from basketball players from rappers ... "they all look the same." lock 'em all up ...

i'm sorry Dee i probably shouldn't visit these threads because i find it hard to be civil in the face of straight racism, i know from my own Mormon friends/family your levelheaded approach is better but i can't seem to help myself ...

ultima said...

The Torres/Cardona affair is surely a travesty of the first order. Looks like Colorado need another new law like its "make my day law" to enable otherwise helpless people to defend their property from theft using lethal force.

ultima said...

Here is an answer to Dave Bennion's claims of racism

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