Meanwhile, down on the physical border (not the imaginary one of MSM’s collective imagination), illegals [...]]]> According to the elite liberal media like the New York Times, the illegal immigration invasion is over, so we can all forget about it and concern ourselves with the Superbowl, the Oscars and getting around to an amnesty for mucho millions.

Meanwhile, down on the physical border (not the imaginary one of MSM’s collective imagination), illegals keep coming, as shown by the mountains of trash which accumulate. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality estimates border crossers dump 2,000 tons of trash each year. Local volunteers showed up recently to load up piles of trash for the dump.

The government has its own website for the problem, Azbordertrash.gov, as if picking up the garbage of millions of foreign invaders were the most natural thing in the world. Another indication of Washington’s acceptance of border anarchy is the EPA awarding $103K last summer to the Tohono O’odham tribe to help remove aliens’ rubbish.

Migrant trash piles up at remote U.S.-Mexico border areas, Reuters, January 29, 2012

Picking her way into the desert brush, Raquel Martinez gathered scores of plastic water bottles tossed in an Arizona desert valley near the Mexico border, often by migrants making a risky trek into the United States across increasingly remote terrain.

“We need more bags … there’s so much trash,” said Martinez, one of scores of volunteers helping clean up the dry bed of the Santa Cruz River about 10 miles north of the Mexico border on Saturday.

Trash tossed by thousands of illegal immigrants as they chase the American Dream has been a persistent problem for years in the rugged Arizona borderlands that lie on a main migration and smuggling route from Mexico.

The problem was compounded as immigrants and drug traffickers responded to ramped up vigilance on the U.S.-Mexico border by taking increasingly remote routes, leaving more waste behind in out-of-the way and hard-to-clean areas, authorities say.

“Migants used to follow the washes or follow the roads or utility poles,” said Robin Hoover, founder of the Tucson-based non-profit Humane Borders.

“Now they’re having to move farther and farther from the middle of the valleys,” he added. “They end making more camp sites and cutting more trails when they do that, and, unfortunately … leave more trash.”

Those making the punishing march carry food, water and often a change of clothes on the trek through remote desert areas that can take several days.

Most is tossed before they pile into vehicles at pickup sites like the one getting attention on the outskirts of Rio Rico, from where they head on to the U.S. interior. [. . .]

Interestingly, a Mexico-friendly publication sniffed out this article and included a sympathetic add-on from the invaders’ perspective. Those backpacks are so heavy, they complain, or bandits make them leave a mess. According to the aliens, the mountain of trash is not their fault.

Volunteers pick up after locals, migrants, Nogales International, Jan 31, 2012

[. . .] As for the migrants, deportees at a shelter in Nogales, Sonora acknowledged that some illegal border-crossers willingly discard their trash in the Arizona desert, but insisted that in many cases, others are to blame.

For example, Ubence Flores, a migrant from Comayagua, Honduras, said that “polleros,” or migrant guides, make the crossers get rid of their belongings when they arrive at a scheduled pickup point. The pollero puts everything in black plastic bags, like those found by the river on Saturday, and then throws them in a truck to be taken to a dumping site, such as in the trees along the Santa Cruz River.

Bandits also force migrants to leave their belongings in the desert, said Henry Alberto Osorio, another Honduran migrant. In this common tactic, he said, bandits threaten migrants, who flee as fast as they can. Then the bandits pick through the abandoned backpacks for valuables.

But other times, the difficulty of crossing desert terrain for days on end proves too much for migrants.

“It gets so heavy, sometimes you say ‘I can’t carry this anymore,’ and leave it,” Flores said.

Rick Santorum: Left uses college for “indoctrination”, CBS, January 25, 2012

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said Wednesday that “the left” uses universities to indoctrinate young people [...]]]> Former Senator Rick Santorum observed the other day that universities are indoctrination factories of liberalism. That’s hardly news, but discussing the obvious is becoming more necessary in these conflicted times.

Rick Santorum: Left uses college for “indoctrination”, CBS, January 25, 2012

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said Wednesday that “the left” uses universities to indoctrinate young people for the purpose of “holding and maintaining power.”

After saying “we’ve lost, unfortunately, our entertainment industry,” Santorum told a Naples, Florida, audience that “we’ve lost our higher education, that was the first to go a long time ago.”

“It’s no wonder President Obama wants every kid to go to college,” said the former Pennsylvania senator. “The indoctrination that occurs in American universities is one of the keys to the left holding and maintaining power in America. And it is indoctrination. If it was the other way around, the ACLU would be out there making sure that there wasn’t one penny of government dollars going to colleges and universities, right?”

But it’s worse than that. These days, the brainwashing starts in grade school because the increasing dropout rate among the diverse means that many will not make it to college and a major in ethnic or chicano studies. One example is the nationwide pattern of little kids who were made to sing worshipful songs about Obama after his election.

More recently, some Virginia third-graders supposedly penned a complex political ditty in praise of the Occupy activities, with lyrics like “I’m part of the 99″ and “They’re the one percent.” It seemed far too advanced for nine-year-olds to have produced, and an adult later fessed up that he wrote the song.

When I attended the 9th Circuit Court in November 2010 to observe the legal proceedings concerning Arizona’s enforcement law, there were lots of non-hispanic kids waving signs in favor of open borders and other raza issues. I talked to a blond boy and he told me it was a class project of their Berkeley middle school to attend, and not just as observers. Below is one of my photos from the event.

The years-long struggle in Arizona against the anti-American raza studies program in Tucson High School continues to bubble along. The legislature passed a law against the teaching of racist and seditious subjects in public schools which took effect at the beginning of 2011. A local court later determined that the law was proper.

Unsurprisingly, the indoctrinated kiddies hate having their daily dose of Mexican supremacism removed and continue to squawk wherever there’s a forum with the help of raza-promoting adults.

Gingrich criticized Mitt Romney’s strategy of promoting self-deportation by removing the magnet of American jobs — something that has worked very well where it has [...]]]> Hispandering Newt was on full display during his Wednesday interview with hard-core invasion booster Jorge Ramos on Spanish-language Univision TV. (Ramos gleefully forecast a majority-hispanic United States a few years back.)

Gingrich criticized Mitt Romney’s strategy of promoting self-deportation by removing the magnet of American jobs — something that has worked very well where it has been tried, e.g. Self-Deportation Working in Alabama. The Grand Canyon State also reported success with workplace enforcement; see Escape from Arizona! where the voluntary relocation process of an illegal family was followed with sympathetic reporting.

Newt is still stuck on his fable of long-time illegals being a credit to their communities, though he is unclear on how years of job theft and lawbreaking are a benefit to America, which is supposedly a “nation of laws.” He argued in a November debate that “If you’ve been here 25 years and you got three kids and two grandkids, you’ve been paying taxes and obeying the law, you belong to a local church, I don’t think we’re going to separate you from your family, uproot you forcefully and kick you out.”

The straw man of massive alien round-ups is a favorite hispander ploy of Gingrich. He used to pretend that he had never heard of DIY deportation, but now that Romney has put the strategy on the table in public, Newt can no longer feign ignorance.

In fact, anyone who has been here for 25 years is a successful manipulator of the system who doesn’t need a big amnesty from Washington. And that person most likely has a fake ID and stolen Social Security number (felony!), which is not “obeying the law” in the eyes of most citizens.

On Univision, Newt got personal on that point and talked about an imaginary hispanic granny: “For Romney to believe that somebody’s grandmother is going to be so cut off that she is going to self-deport, I mean this is an Obama-level fantasy.”

Gingrich: Romney self-deportation plan a fantasy, Associated Press, January 25, 2012

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Wednesday ridiculed rival Mitt Romney’s call for self-deportation of illegal immigrants as an “Obama-level fantasy” that would be inhumane to long-established families living in America.

The former House speaker ripped that part of Romney’s immigration policy during a forum Wednesday with the Spanish-language network Univision. The interviewer also asked sharp questions about Gingrich’s marital history.

Gingrich laughed at the idea of self-deportation and said it wouldn’t work.

During a debate earlier this week, Romney said he favors self-deportation over policies that would require the federal government to round up millions of illegal immigrants and send them back to their home countries. Advocates of Romney’s approach argue that illegal immigration can be curbed by denying public benefits to them, forcing them to leave the United States on their own.

“You have to live in a world of Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island accounts and automatically $20 million income for no work to have some fantasy this far from reality,” Gingrich said, alluding to details in Romney’s income tax returns made public on Tuesday. “For Romney to believe that somebody’s grandmother is going to be so cut off that she is going to self-deport, I mean this is an Obama-level fantasy.”

But Gingrich’s campaign has spoken of the self-deportation policy he ridiculed Wednesday.

Romney’s campaign directed reporters to past comments by Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond, who said that only a small percent of illegal immigrants would likely be allowed to stay in the U.S. under Gingrich’s plan. Hammond went on to say that the vast majority of them would likely “self-deport.”

At the forum, Gingrich spoke instead about border control and establishing a guest-worker program to better manage the influx of immigrants. Gingrich said he favors a path to citizenship for illegal immigrant children who serve in the military but not for simply completing college. [. . .]

Why should any political leader consider it acceptable for illegal aliens to be occupying college slots that should go to American citizen students? Nobody in the press will ask that question, unfortunately for us Americans.

Police in particular have a job experience that informs them about [...]]]> Our governance would certainly be improved if more police officers would run for public office — along with teachers, carpenters, doctors, scientists and soldiers. Around 45 percent of the members of Congress are lawyers, and a greater variety of backgrounds would serve the nation well.

Police in particular have a job experience that informs them about public safety issues as nothing else can. Congress needs more of that sensibility at a time when normal law enforcement is under attack as never before by the anti-sovereignty forces like La Raza.

Anyway, Sheriff Paul Babeu of Pinal County Arizona is running for Congress and he visited with Neil Cavuto on Monday to discuss Obama’s terrible treatment of the border state. The Sheriff also emphasized that an amnesty for illegal aliens is not the way to go; as an officer, he swore to uphold the law, not excuse law breaking.

Now the General Accounting Office (GAO) has issued a report which vindicates McCain’s remarks. The study is available online: Federal Agencies Could Better [...]]]> Last June, Senator McCain was surprised at criticism he received from his pals in La Raza for observing the cause of some Arizona wildfires. See Senator McCain Notes Illegal Alien Arsonists for more.

Now the General Accounting Office (GAO) has issued a report which vindicates McCain’s remarks. The study is available online: Federal Agencies Could Better Utilize Law Enforcement Resources in Support of Wildland Fire Management Activities.

The Summary begins: “Wildland fires can result from both natural and human causes. Human-caused wildland fires are of particular concern in Arizona–especially within 100 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border because this is a primary area of entry for illegal border crossers and GAO has previously reported that illegal border crossers have been suspected of igniting wildland fires.”

Of course, anyone who follows border crime knows that illegals and drug smugglers often set fires intentionally for various reasons, from distracting police to setting signal fires when the invaders get lost and want to be rescued.

Disastrous wildland fires, which destroy homes and can kill, are yet another reason why the border needs serious attention such as a military presence, which would be easy given the recent withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan. Wouldn’t it be great for American soldiers to be protecting America for a change!?

Report Links Wildfires to Illegal Immigrants: MyFoxPHOENIX.com

Report Links Wildfires to Illegal Immigrants, Associated Press, November 22, 2011

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) – A study by Congress’ investigative arm shows investigators have linked 30 fires that erupted in a five-year period in Arizona’s border region to people who crossed into the United States illegally — a finding Sen. John McCain says backs up earlier statements he made about illegal immigrants and wildfires.

McCain said this year that fires are sometimes caused by illegal border crossers, but did not specify to which fires he was referring as blazes scorched the southern and eastern parts of the state. The statements quickly drew criticism from activists who jumped on him for “scapegoating.”

McCain and fellow Republicans framed the debate over his statements as a distraction.

“I hope this report is a lesson to the activists and public officials that would prefer to engage in partisan character attacks rather than focus the discussion on the vital need to secure our southern border,” McCain said Tuesday.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office report was released by McCain’s office Tuesday, and came at the request of the senator and fellow Republican Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Jon Kyl of Arizona, in July 2010.

It makes no mention of whether anyone was prosecuted for starting the fires and offers no hard evidence that immigrants were responsible.

The GAO gathered information for the study, which included fires within 100 miles of Arizona’s border with Mexico, from the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, and interviewed federal, state and tribal officials along the state’s 370-mile border.

Nearly 2,500 wildfires occurred in the Arizona border region from 2006 to 2010, but the GAO studied only those that were human-caused, burned more than an acre and those for which investigative reports were available. Of the 422 wildfires that topped one acre, federal fire investigators probed 77, or 18 percent.

The GAO report doesn’t cover wildfires in 2011 because investigative reports were not yet complete when the GAO was conducting its study.

The GAO found that 30 of the probed wildfires were linked to illegal border crossers primarily in southeastern Arizona based on what was written in investigative reports. Fifteen were thought to be a signal for help, provide warmth or cook food. An investigative report on the 2009 Bear fire backed up that suspicion by noting the discovery of discarded bottles and food wrappers with Spanish language labels near a campfire. It also noted that the area is frequented by illegal border crossers and is adjacent to a heavily used smuggling trail, the GAO report said.

Reports on the other 15 wildfires don’t give a reason for the start of the fire, but the GAO said a couple of them mention that the areas of ignition are known for drug smuggling.

The GAO also looked at fire incident reports for 1,123 wildfires in the area over a five-year period and found that 57 of them include firefighters’ suspicions that illegal border crossers were to blame for ignition. Those reports are not formal investigations into the fire’s origin.

The GAO said federal officials should come up with a strategy on which fires to investigate and use that to guide fire prevention activities and resources. Without a plan that includes selecting and prioritizing wildfire investigations, the frequency in which the blazes are caused by illegal border crossers remains unknown, the report said.

Federal officials cited a lack of available trained investigators to look into human-caused wildfires, according to the GAO report. Both the Forest Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said providing security for firefighters or their equipment often ranks higher on the priority list.

U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell agreed with the report’s observations and recommendations. He said an interagency group is working on standardized policy for wildfire investigations.

Arizona recorded its largest wildfire in state history this year with the 835-square-mile Wallow Fire that destroyed 32 homes, four rental cabins and forced nearly 10,000 people to evacuate. Two cousins have been charged with starting the blaze.

The smaller Horseshoe Two fire atop the Chiricahua mountains burned 348 square miles and destroyed nine homes. That fire investigation report indicates that drug smugglers continued to use the area while the blaze was under suppression, according to the GAO. Another wildfire burning at the time, the 47-square-mile Monument fire destroyed 57 homes.

The GAO also looked at how fire suppression has been impacted by the presence of illegal border crossers. The Forest Service issued a report in 2006 saying the border region could be dangerous for firefighters because of potential encounters with drug smugglers, high-speed pursuits, biological hazards, and illegal border crossers seeking food, water or rescue. The GAO said federal officials it interviewed did not identify any specific threats or assaults.

But the federal officials said firefighting efforts sometimes are hampered over concerns about border crossers in the area.

Even [...]]]> Invasive Mexicans, the type that believes the American southwest belongs to them, have been expanding their propaganda efforts in the last few years. Chicano studies in the universities have been popular, with dozens of universities offering degrees in the subject. Naturally those graduates then become the leadership cadre for leading the raza assault against America.

Even top universities, like Stanford, offer degrees in chicano studies. Stanford further provides a chicano residence hall, Casa Zapata, so the young revolutionaries can communicate in comfort about their oppression. The dorm includes a mural in which Che replaces Jesus in a raza-themed diverse Last Supper (below).

Anyway, not every young chicano can get an expensive degree in ethnic marxism charged to the taxpayers as happens in state universities, so the indoctrination activists have moved into the high schools. This scenario has played out very publicly in Arizona, which had a particularly virulent form of Mexican studies — so much so that in 2010 state voters approved an initiative to end seditious ethnic programs. (See Raza Racists Angered at Arizona’s Ethnic Studies Prohibitions.)

Below, Tucson High raza students wore their Che-inspired revolutionary berets to protest the cut of their anti-American class.

A recent report from Tucson shows the raza bunch are as revolting as ever.

Arizona educators clash over Mexican American studies, Los Angeles Times, November 20, 2011

A new Arizona law aims to ban ethnic studies classes deemed to be divisive, and the state’s schools superintendent says Tucson’s program is in violation. Teachers and students are fighting back.

Reporting from Tucson — Arizona’s public schools chief had heard unsettling reports about what was being taught in the Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican American studies program and decided to see for himself.

As he sat in on a Chicano literature class, Supt. John Huppenthal noticed an image of Che Guevera hanging on a wall and listened to a lecturer cast Benjamin Franklin as a racist.

And though teacher Curtis Acosta did not directly portray Mexican Americans as an oppressed minority, he discussed educational theorist Paulo Freire and his “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” which the Tucson High Magnet School students used as a textbook. To Huppenthal, the message was clear and disturbing.

“These kids got it,” he said. “They understood the framework that was being laid out — that Hispanics are the oppressed and Caucasians are the oppressors. That’s very troubling.”

A state law adopted this year aims to outlaw divisive ethnic studies, and Huppenthal will soon decide whether the Tucson district’s program violates the law and should be eliminated. In a state known for cultural clashes, the debate over the future of Mexican American studies in Tucson is particularly charged, prompting raucous protests and a host of accusations — of brainwashing, of sloppy academics, of racism.

Program proponents say the classes push Latino students to excel and teach a long-neglected slice of America’s cultural heritage — Chicano perspectives on literature, history and social justice.

Its critics — led by Huppenthal, a veteran state senator elected superintendent of public instruction last year — say that framing historical events in racial terms “to create a sense of solidarity” promotes groupthink and victimhood. “It has a very toxic effect, and we think it’s just not tolerable in an educational setting,” Huppenthal said.

For many Latinos, the controversy is not only about the program. It’s about identity — and the feeling that Arizona is trying to rein in the burgeoning social and political influence of Latinos in the state. Last year the state passed the controversial illegal immigration law SB 1070, which includes a provision that requires police to determine the immigration status of people they lawfully stop and whom they suspect to be in the country illegally. That portion of the law has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge.

For nearly a decade, teachers could be removed from the classroom if their English was too heavily accented — a practice Huppenthal ended this year after federal authorities launched a civil rights investigation.

“The academic success of our students is a threat, a danger to the status quo,” said Lorenzo Lopez, a Mexican American studies teacher at Cholla High Magnet School in Tucson. “There is empirical data that shows the academic success — the matriculation onto higher education, higher standardized test scores, higher graduation rates. Those successes are why we’re being singled out.”

Huppenthal deemed the Tucson program in violation of the law in June. The school district appealed the ruling, and testimony before an administrative law judge overseeing the appeal concluded last month. The judge will make a recommendation on the legality of the program, but Huppenthal still has the final say, which means the chief impact of the recommendation may be in setting the stage for later legal action.

In a separate case, 11 teachers and two students from the school district have sued, contending that the law is unconstitutional. Last week they asked for an injunction to halt the law’s implementation.

The push against Mexican American studies in Tucson can be traced to 2006, when activist Dolores Huerta told students at Tucson High Magnet School that “Republicans hate Latinos.” Tom Horne, then the state’s schools superintendent, sought to counter the message by sending his deputy, Margaret Garcia Dugan, a Latina Republican, to address the students.

When she began speaking, some students stood, turned their backs and lifted clenched fists in the air. Some covered their mouths with tape. Some walked out.
Horne responded with an open letter to the citizens of Tucson: “I believe the students did not learn this rudeness at home, but from their Raza teachers.”

Horne, who is now attorney general, helped craft the law targeting the program. It does not ban all forms of ethnically based courses in Arizona public schools. The law was designed, in effect, to target what critics say are hallmarks of Mexican American studies classes offered to junior and high school students in the Tucson district.

Among other things, the law bans classes primarily designed for a particular ethnic group or that “promote resentment toward a race or class of people.” Defenders of the courses say they do no such thing.

Not long after Huppenthal took office in January, he commissioned a $110,000 audit of the program. To the surprise and relief of the program’s defenders, the audit concluded that the program complied with the law and that “students are taught to be accepting of multiple ethnicities of people.”

Huppenthal rejected the audit. “When you’re being watched, you don’t do the things that are inappropriate,” he said.

This summer, Huppenthal drew fire after suggesting similarities between the program and the Hitler Youth. Huppenthal said the remarks were made on “an academic basis” and misunderstood.

He no longer draws the comparison, he said, because it is too inflammatory. But in an interview, he said, “The thing that Hitler did was he used perceptions of historical injustice, he cast them in racial terms, and then he also referred to the Sudetenland as a stolen land — that’s the parallel.”

Lopez, the Cholla High teacher, counters that the material is designed to reach underperforming and marginalized students. “It’s not un-American to expose narratives that aren’t necessarily covered in traditional history texts,” he said.

Supporters like to note that since the program’s inception, 89% of its students have graduated high school — and that some non-Latinos enroll in the classes.

The passions surrounding the program were on display last month when Huppenthal traveled to Tucson to attend the screening of a documentary on a Phoenix school. He agreed to participate in a panel to discuss the movie, but Mexican American studies came up.

“Stop demonizing the teachers, demonizing the courses that teach kids to aspire to higher things, to do good in their lives,” said Salomon R. Baldenegro, a former assistant dean at the University of Arizona.

Many in the crowd stood and offered applause, which slowly evolved into a rhythmic united clap.

Huppenthal replied that curriculum must reach a standard that all Arizonans can be proud of. “I’d ask those people who have challenged me, have they really met that standard over the last couple years?”

As he left the theater, Huppenthal continued talking with program supporters, teachers and parents as they followed him to the parking lot. “If the court finds nothing wrong, are you still going to ban ethnic studies?” one asked him.

“You’re telling lies!” a woman shouted.

Lopez stepped up with his daughter at his side. “I’m one of the teachers that you have vilified. My daughter, she hopes to take these classes,” he told Huppenthal. “Your action will deny her the opportunity to learn of her culture, of her past within the school system.”

“We certainly hope not,” Huppenthal said. Then he walked off, got in the passenger side of a car and rode away.

“Illegal immigrants carried the drugs over the border in [...]]]> Illegal aliens toting backpacks filled with drugs over a porous border are a basic component of cartels’ operations that make billions of dollars annually. ICE made a big bust on Thursday, and reports from phone taps revealed how an open border serves the Sinaloa cartel very well.

“Illegal immigrants carried the drugs over the border in backpacks, stuffed them into cars that were hidden in the desert via GPS coordinates, and then offloaded that so they could go on the freeway,” remarks the reporter William La Jeunesse in the video below.

We also see Arizona’s Attorney General Tom Horne observing that the border is NOT “safer than it has ever been” (according to DHS’s Janet Napolitano who defended the administration’s performance as recently as last week), but is instead “the most dangerous it’s ever been.”

More details about the bust:

Authorities Arrest at Least 70 Suspected Drug Smugglers in Major Bust in Arizona, Fox News, October 31, 2011

Authorities have reportedly seized thousands of pounds of narcotics and arrested 70 suspected drug smugglers in what they’re calling one of the biggest narcotics trafficking rings ever dismantled in Arizona.

An official close to the investigation told Reuters that the suspects arrested in Arizona have ties to a violent drug cartel based in the Mexican state of Sinaloa.

“This is one of the more substantial drug-smuggling operations going on right now. This is a billion-dollar drug trade organization linked to the cartel,” the official told Reuters.

The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement made the bust Thursday in the Phoenix area and areas south, including Casa Grande and Maricopa, after a 17-month investigation by local, state and federal officials.

Reuters reports that authorities confiscated drugs, money, weapons, ammunition and bullet-proof vests. The drugs were reportedly being smuggled from Mexico into Arizona by car, plane, on foot and through tunnels.

Pinal County Sheriff’s spokesman Elias Johnson said Friday that the bust is the biggest ever for his agency.

“It’s huge,” he said. “It’ll be an eye-opener for sure when we roll everything out.”

Drug experts told Reuters that the Mexican cartel involved is believed to be responsible for 65 percent of all drugs illegally smuggled into the U.S.

The federal Drug Enforcement Agency, Arizona Attorney General’s Office and the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office plan a press conference to provide more details on Monday morning in Phoenix.

Rep. Rob Bishop, a friend of both the parks and national security, wants to allow Border Patrol agents to act on public [...]]]> America’s public lands on or near the southern border have been given over to illegal aliens and Mexican organized crime because of invader-friendly environmental rules let the bad guys control large areas in Arizona.

Rep. Rob Bishop, a friend of both the parks and national security, wants to allow Border Patrol agents to act on public lands the same way they do on private. Sadly, open-borders Democrats like Edward Markey (career voting grade F and mentioned in the clip below) object to the common-sense bill in the name of environmentalism, despite the fact that hoards of illegal aliens do the most damage to the border lands with their tons of trash which is devastating to the environment.

Texas border sheriffs participated in a press conference for the roll-out of a new report, Texas Border Security: A Strategic Military Assessment, written by Barry McCaffrey and Robert Scales who [...]]]> Serious national security experts say that the southern border is dangerously insecure, and Washington is in denial about the danger, ignoring Mexican narco-terrorism at America’s peril.

Texas border sheriffs participated in a press conference for the roll-out of a new report, Texas Border Security: A Strategic Military Assessment, written by Barry McCaffrey and Robert Scales who were also present.

The report warns that Mexico’s crime syndicates have escalated their aims and now want to control territory within the United States (as they already have succeeded in doing in southern Arizona) to make narco-business easier: “In effect, the cartels seek to create a “sanitary zone” inside the Texas border — one county deep — that will provide sanctuary from Mexican law enforcement and, at the same time, enable the cartels to transform Texas’ border counties into narcotics transshipment points for continued transport and distribution into the continental United States.”

Below, an illustration from the new report.

Texas Border Security Report, KFDM-TV, Beaumont TX, September 26, 2011

AUSTIN — From Texas Department of Agriculture – In an effort to protect U.S. citizens from spillover cartel violence while continuing to emphasize the critical need for enhanced Texas/Mexico border security, Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples today released “Texas Border Security: A Strategic Military Assessment.” The independent study, co-authored by retired General Barry McCaffrey and retired Major-General Robert Scales, was unveiled as part of the Protect Your Texas Border Summit at the Capitol.

Click here to read the entire Texas Border Security Report.

“Washington keeps telling us our border is more secure than ever, but this detailed military assessment, by two of America’s top generals, offers proof to the contrary,” Commissioner Staples said. “It’s time to shed the cloak of denial and protect our citizens and national security. Would Washington stand by and allow terrorists from Canada to make daily incursions into New York? The answer is a resounding, ‘No.’ We expect and demand that same level of protection in Texas. It’s time for Washington to uphold its constitutional duty to protect Americans on their home soil.”

Commissioned jointly by the Texas Department of Agriculture and the Texas Department of Public Safety, the report offers a military perspective on how to best incorporate strategic, operational and tactical measures to secure the increasingly hostile border regions along the Rio Grande River. It also provides sobering evidence of why Texas landowners and officials have called for increased federal support to defend our southern border.

“During the past two years, the southwestern United States has become increasingly threatened by the spread of Latin American and Mexican cartel organized crime,” said Gen. Barry McCaffrey (Ret.). “I congratulate Commissioner Staples for his vision in creating awareness of the inadequate attention paid to violence stemming from the drug cartels in Mexico and Latin America.”

“The violence and ongoing threat to our security reflect a change in the strategic intent of the cartels to move their operations into the United States,” said Maj. Gen. Robert Scales (Ret.). “American cities and rural areas now have Latin American drug, gun and human smuggling cartels operating inside our borders.”

Among the generals’ findings were:

• Living and conducting business in a Texas border county is tantamount to living in a warzone in which civil authorities, law enforcement agencies, as well as citizens, are under attack around the clock.

• Criminality spawned in Mexico is spilling over into the United States. Texas is the tactical close combat zone and frontline in this conflict. Texans have been assaulted by cross-border gangs and narco-terrorist activities.

• Federal authorities are reluctant to admit to the increasing cross-border campaign by narco-terrorists.

• One reason for this disparity between reported and actual cartel activity in Texas is that the 17,000 local and state law enforcement agencies that provide data to the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) are not required to categorize these crimes as “drug related.”

• Reform at that operational level is dependent on bringing more “boots on the ground” to the fight for border security.

• Texas is the frontline in this escalating war and the potential consequences of success or failure will affect our entire nation.

To review the report in its entirety click here or go to TexasAgriculture.gov and click on popular links.

The 82nd Texas Legislature, via House Bill 4, directed the Texas Department of Agriculture to fund an assessment of the impact of illegal activity along the Texas/Mexico border on rural landowners and the agriculture industry. Commissioner Staples immediately partnered with the Texas Department of Public Safety to commission Generals McCaffrey and Scales for this important study.

About the Generals

General Barry McCaffrey is the former Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under President Bill Clinton and former Commander of all U.S. troops in Central and South America. Retired Major-General Robert Scales is the former Commandant of the United States Army War College.

First, it is suspicious that this news was released on a Friday in late August, which makes it look like the Obama administration hopes it will pass unnoticed.

The White House spin is that the extreme violation of sovereignty [...]]]> This item is definitely for the “What could possibly go wrong?” file. The idea is crazy and dangerous.

First, it is suspicious that this news was released on a Friday in late August, which makes it look like the Obama administration hopes it will pass unnoticed.

The White House spin is that the extreme violation of sovereignty is justified because it will help out America’s friends the Mexicans (which they most certainly are NOT). Mexicans despise America and only want to rip us off.

Plus, who counts to make sure all the Mexicans leave when the operation is over?

And who keeps the violent cartel criminals out of the United States? They already enter at will and control large areas of southern Arizona to run their drug shipments. Will Obama send additional Border Patrol agents to protect Mexican police when he has not acted similarly to defend Americans?

Below, Mexican police are the men wearing masks in this drug lord arrest photo. Mexico is so lawless that being a cop is indeed dangerous — but that’s not America’s problem.

Mexican police (or criminals dressed like police) have already made hundreds of incursions into this country. They shouldn’t be made to feel even more relaxed about American sovereignty than the average Mexican already does. Training foreign policemen to violate our border as a normal procedure does not send the message that Americans still value the perimeter that denotes our nation.

U.S. Widens Role in Mexican Fight, New York Times, August 25, 2011

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has expanded its role in Mexico’s fight against organized crime by allowing the Mexican police to stage cross-border drug raids from inside the United States, according to senior administration and military officials.

Mexican commandos have discreetly traveled to the United States, assembled at designated areas and dispatched helicopter missions back across the border aimed at suspected drug traffickers. The Drug Enforcement Administration provides logistical support on the American side of the border, officials said, arranging staging areas and sharing intelligence that helps guide Mexico’s decisions about targets and tactics.

Officials said these so-called boomerang operations were intended to evade the surveillance — and corrupting influences — of the criminal organizations that closely monitor the movements of security forces inside Mexico. And they said the efforts were meant to provide settings with tight security for American and Mexican law enforcement officers to collaborate in their pursuit of criminals who operate on both sides of the border.

Although the operations remain rare, they are part of a broadening American campaign aimed at blunting the power of Mexican cartels that have built criminal networks spanning the world and have started a wave of violence in Mexico that has left more than 35,000 people dead.

Many aspects of the campaign remain secret, because of legal and political sensitivities. But in recent months, details have begun to emerge, revealing efforts that would have been unthinkable five years ago. Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderón, who was elected in 2006, has broken with his country’s historic suspicion of the United States and has enlisted Washington’s help in defeating the cartels, a central priority for his government.

American Predator and Global Hawk drones now fly deep over Mexico to capture video of drug production facilities and smuggling routes. Manned American aircraft fly over Mexican targets to eavesdrop on cellphone communications. And the D.E.A. has set up an intelligence outpost — staffed by Central Intelligence Agency operatives and retired American military personnel — on a Mexican military base.

“There has always been a willingness and desire on the part of the United States to play more of a role in Mexico’s efforts,” said Eric L. Olson, an expert on Mexico at the Woodrow Wilson Center. “But there have been some groundbreaking developments on the Mexican side where we’re seeing officials who are willing to take some risks, even political risks, by working closely with the United States to carry out very sensitive missions.”

Still, the cooperation remains a source of political tensions, especially in Mexico where the political classes have been leery of the United States dating from the Mexican-American War of 1846. Recent disclosures about the expanding United States’ role in the country’s main national security efforts have set off a storm of angry assertions that Mr. Calderón has put his own political interests ahead of Mexican sovereignty. Mr. Calderón’s political party faces an election next year that is viewed in part as a referendum on his decision to roll out this campaign against drug traffickers.

Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns walked into that storm during a visit to Mexico this month and strongly defended the partnership the two governments had developed.

“I’ll simply repeat that there are clear limits to our role,” Mr. Burns said. “Our role is not to conduct operations. It is not to engage in law enforcement activities. That is the role of the Mexican authorities. And that’s the way it should be.”

Officials said Mexico and the United States began discussing the possibility of cross-border missions two years ago, when Mexico’s crime wave hit the important industrial corridor between Monterrey and Nuevo Laredo. To avoid being detected, the Mexican police traveled to the United States in plain clothes on commercial flights, two military officials said. Later the officers were transported back to Mexico on Mexican aircraft, which dropped the agents at or near their targets.

“The cartels don’t expect Mexican police coming from the U.S.,” said one senior military official. None of the officials interviewed about the boomerang operations would speak publicly about them, and refused to provide details about where they were conducted or what criminal organizations had been singled out.

They said that the operations had been carried out only a couple of times in the last 18 months, and that they had not resulted in any significant arrests.

The officials insisted that the Pentagon is not involved in the cross-border operations, and that no Americans take part in drug raids on Mexican territory.

“These are not joint operations,” said one senior administration official. “They are self-contained Mexican operations where staging areas were provided by the United States.”

Former American law enforcement officials who were once posted in Mexico described the boomerang operations as a new take on an old strategy that was briefly used in the late 1990s, when the D.E.A. helped Mexico crack down on the Tijuana Cartel.

To avoid the risks of the cartel being tipped off to police movements by lookouts or police officials themselves, the former officers said, the D.E.A. arranged for specially vetted Mexican police to stage operations out of Camp Pendleton in San Diego. The Mexican officers were not given the names of the targets of their operations until they were securely sequestered on the base. And they were not given the logistical details of the mission until shortly before it was under way.

“They were a kind of rapid-reaction force,” said one former senior D.E.A. official. “It was an effective strategy at the time.”

Another former D.E.A. official said that the older operations resulted in the arrests of a handful of midlevel cartel leaders. But, he said, it was ended in 2000 when cartel leaders struck back by kidnapping, torturing and killing a counternarcotics official in the Mexican attorney general’s office, along with two fellow drug agents.

In recent months, Mexico agreed to post a team of D.E.A. agents, C.I.A. operatives and retired American military officials on a Mexican military base to help conduct intelligence operations, bolstering the work of a similar “fusion cell” already in Mexico City.

Meanwhile the Pentagon is steadily overhauling the parts of the military responsible for the drug fight, paying particular attention to some lessons of nearly a decade of counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. At Northern Command — the military’s Colorado Springs headquarters responsible for North American operations — several top officers with years of experience in fighting Al Qaeda and affiliated groups are poring over intelligence about Mexican drug networks.

One officer said, “The military is trying to take what it did in Afghanistan and do the same in Mexico.”

That’s exactly what some Mexicans are afraid of, said a Mexican political scientist, Denise Dresser, who is an expert on that country’s relations with the United States.

“I’m not necessarily opposed to greater American involvement,” Ms. Dresser said. “But if that’s the way the Mexican government wants to go, it needs to come clean about it. Just look at what we learned from Iraq. Secrecy led to malfeasance. It led to corrupt contracting. It led to torture. It led to instability. And who knows when those problems will be resolved.”