Limits to Growth » drug smuggling

GAO Report: Illegal Aliens Cause Some Border Fires

Brenda Walker — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:33:54 +0000

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.

Illegal Aliens Claim Hostility from Milford Americans

Brenda Walker — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:10:43 +0000

In Milford, Massachusetts, the site of a terrible crime of an illegal alien against a citizen, the lawbreaking foreigners are attempting to portray themselves as the victims, despite substantial evidence to the contrary.

The moral midgets who support illegal alien criminals, from la Raza to the Catholic church, know that the crime issue is poison for them. It’s bad enough when illegals come by the millions and steal American jobs, but citizens are disgusted by the violent criminals who enter through the same open borders, with their cartels controlling territory in southern Arizona and their habitual drunk drivers mowing down innocents on the roadways.

In the face of a criminal surge, the political accomplices burp out twisted excuses, saying that the foreigners don’t commit crimes because they need to keep their heads down out of concern about their status.

However, actual measurements of behavior paint a different picture. The 2011 GAO study titled CRIMINAL ALIEN STATISTICS reported, “In fiscal year 2005, the criminal alien population in federal prisons was around 27 percent of the total inmate population, and from fiscal years 2006 through 2010 remained consistently around 25 percent.” The percentage of illegal aliens in the general population isn’t near that number — yet.

In the case at hand, one of the most horrific illegal alien crimes of the last year was the death of young motorcyclist Matthew Denice (pictured) in Milford, Massachusetts. The townspeople were infuriated that one of their own neighbors could be cruelly dragged a quarter mile to death under a truck driven by a drunk Ecuadoran who refused to stop.

The latest from Milford is an attempt on the part of the illegals and their usual cheerleader gaggle (ACLU, churches, professional ethnic mouthpieces) to ju-jitsu themselves into being seen as the victims (rather than the lawbreakers) by claiming that the Americans are MEAN to foreign colonists. Despite their job theft, crime, extensive use of social services and general mooching, the illegal aliens still expect to be welcomed like they were legal immigrants — go figure!

They are further upset that Americans want to expand enforcement and punishment to make them self-deport. The illegals characterize proposed legislation as part of a “hate” agenda when the bill is simply an expansion of basic law enforcement. Their tribe-based attitude of entitlement shows the foreigners to be unclear on the concept that American society is based on law — another reason they should leave.

Speakers at rally denounce Milford as anti-immigrant, Milford Daily News, November 8, 2011

Religious leaders and advocates for immigrant rights yesterday condemned what they say is harassment of Milford immigrants following the August death of a Milford man who police say was killed by an illegal immigrant driving drunk.

“People in Milford are afraid to go to the hospital. They are afraid to call 911,” said Filipe C. Teixeira, a bishop with the Catholic Church of the Americas diocese in Brockton. “We have created a state of fear.”

Teixeira was among eight speakers at a Boston rally organized by the Massachusetts Immigrants and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. The speakers took aim at what they say is growing hostility toward immigrants – from name-calling on the streets of Milford to legislation proposed by Rep. John Fernandes, D-Milford, that would place greater restraints on illegal immigrants registering cars, applying for in-state college tuition, living in public housing and looking for jobs.

“This bill was filed and explicitly tied to the recent drunk driving accident in Milford,” said Shannon Erwin, state policy director for the immigration coalition. “However, it has 24 broad-ranging amendments, most of which have nothing to do with crime but would make immigrants’ lives more difficult.”

On Aug. 20, Matthew Denice, 23, was struck while riding his motorcycle in Milford and dragged nearly a quarter-mile by a pickup truck driven by Nicolas Guaman, a 34-year-old illegal immigrant from Ecuador, authorities have said. Police say Guaman was drunk at the time of the accident, and he has been indicted on several charges, including second-degree murder.

Yesterday’s event was sponsored by the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and Amnesty International.

Diego Low, director of the MetroWest Immigrant Work Center, said Milford has long been home to anti-immigration sentiment.

“Milford has been a place of tension for the Ecuadorian community for a number of years,” Low said. “The politics of Milford are anti-immigration.”

Milford Selectman Brian Murray, who said immigrants have not been targeted in Milford, said it is dangerous for MIRA to give unverified claims of harassment as fact.

“I have no personal knowledge of any tension with any ethnic group in Milford. My office is right on Main Street, and I have not seen any problems,” Murray said in an interview yesterday.

Organizers of the Boston event offered seven anecdotes of harassment in Milford, including allegations of immigrants being verbally harassed and physically assaulted by young people. Organizers used aliases to protect who they said are immigrants frightened of sharing their identities.

Other incidents are hard to validate because many immigrants are scared of coming forward for fear of being deported, organizers said.

Speakers also condemned Secure Communities, a federal program that allows for better sharing of information between law enforcement agencies about illegal immigrants who have been charged with crimes.

“The violence we condone and create by Secure Communities is not the answer,” said the Rev. Wendy von Zirpolo, Minister of Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead. “Hate-based legislation creates violence.”

Fernandes said his bill, called “An Act to Enhance Community Safety,” was aimed at solving problems such as people working without documentation or driving without licenses.

“I don’t think it’s about anti-immigration,” Fernandes said in a phone interview. “It’s not about anti-anything. It’s about raising the awareness relative to the problems in our community.”

The bill was referred to the Joint Committee of the Judiciary on Monday. Fernandes said he is hopeful the bill will go to hearing before the Legislature adjourns for the year on Nov. 16.

Fernandes praised the Milford Police Department’s efforts to reach out to the immigrant community and questioned the legitimacy of any anecdotal claims of harassment.

“That is one of the most outrageous allegations to make casually if they can’t report it to police,” Fernandes said.

Press Conference Spotlights Crime Victims of Illegal Aliens

Brenda Walker — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 23:47:11 +0000

On Thursday, several friends of immigration enforcement, including Congressmen Steve King and Walter Jones along with representatives from the FIRE Coalition and Immigration Tea Party, held a press conference near the capitol to draw attention to the crime victims of illegal aliens.

One proposal is to establish a National Day of Remembrance for those victims to occur on November 6, the anniversary of the IRCA amnesty (25 years coming up).

A related issue is legislation requiring comprehensive statistics on illegal alien crime from federal and local governments, something that has been sorely lacking (HR 3168, the Illegal Alien Crime Reporting Act of 2011).

Rep. Steve King has done some great work, including requesting a GAO report on illegal alien crime, which should be required reading for anyone concerned with the issue: CRIMINAL ALIEN STATISTICS, March 2011.

Congressman King’s statement at the presser was both informative and heartfelt about the victims. He emphasized the point that illegal alien crime is preventable crime.

The point is that open borders are a welcome mat to the criminals of the world who see the United States as a full refrigerator of felony opportunity. Sanctuary cities provide protection to foreign criminals that domestic thugs would love to have.

In addition there are cultural issues, particularly around drunk driving, which is considered to be desirably macho behavior among hispanics. Even NPR admits that “Latinos are responsible for a disproportionate number of DWI arrests and alcohol-related car accidents.” The deaths resulting from drunk driving illegal aliens continues to accumulate, but DHS and many local law enforcement agencies continue to treat the crime casually.

Here is the statement on Congressman King’s website:

King’s Resolution Supports November 6th as a National Day of Remembrance for the victims of crimes committed by illegal aliens

Washington D.C.- Washington D.C.- Congressman King (R-IA) joined the FIRE Coalition and the Tea Party Immigration Coalition this morning to recognize the victims who have lost their lives because of the criminal acts of illegal aliens. Since 1955, there have been 25,065 homicide arrests of criminal aliens in the United States, and King’s resolution aims to honor and mourn these preventable deaths.

“These are real human stories, there’s real pain and real agony going on on a daily basis in the United States of America, and we treat it as if it’s just some kind of tolerable interruption of our lives. It’s not. It’s an interruption of innocent lives that takes place because we have an administration that refuses to enforce immigration law.”

Mexicans Turn to Sorcerers to Cope with Cartel Stress

Brenda Walker — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 02:10:28 +0000

To say Mexico is culturally backward is to understate a Grand Canyon of diversity that is nevertheless easy to overlook. The denizens of our southern neighbor may have TV sets and dress like cowboys, but underneath a somewhat familiar exterior lies a pre-Columbian outlook among many, particularly in the countryside. Superstition correlates with lower levels of education, so the local shaman may be popular psychology practitioner.

The New York Times, ever the promoter of extreme diversity, reported recently that it has become “fashionable” among Mexicans to turn to witchcraft for their anxiety about worsening cartel violence. (What’s wrong with using Mexico’s fine tequila as a mental health aid? — in moderation of course.)

Below, a Mexican woman receives a sorcery procedure involving an egg to relieve her fear of cartels.

Another expression of Mexican diversity has been the near-worship of crime figure and narco saint Jesus Malverde. Actual criminals and wanna-bes leave votive candles at Malverde shrines, praying for the successful outcome of their drug-smuggling endeavors.

The popularity of Malverde shows the mixed feelings Mexicans have had about crime generally. There has been an admiration for successful criminals, expressed in narcocorridos and elsewhere. That cultural propensity has led to a permissive attitude about crime, which has come back to bite them.

And in some communities, like Culiacan, illegal drug smuggling brought prosperity to the local economy.

Anyway, this story is about celebrating diverse approaches to stress reduction.

Driven to Cast Charms Against Drug Lords’ Darker Forces, New York Times, November 1, 2011

CATEMACO, Mexico — In the dimly lighted back room of a modest house in this tourist city now largely devoid of tourists, Luis Tomás Marthen Torres, a warlock with 50 years of experience, closes his eyes and chants as he briskly rubs a stark white egg over the arms, chest and neck of a worried customer.

The ritual is old and common here in Mexico’s dominant hub for masters of the occult — where wizardry is passed from generation to generation — but like so many things in Mexico, the requests for help have changed.

“People ask us for assistance because they’re scared of threats, of extortion. They’re full of negative energy,” says Mr. Marthen Torres.

Visitors to this middle-class town of around 67,000 people, which attributes its mysticism to the region’s ancient Olmec roots, had for decades sought wizards to cast love spells and cure physical ailments. But in the midst of the violence that has beset the state of Veracruz, new and creative forms of witchery for protection against extortion and for help finding kidnapped kin have become the leading demands from clients, local practitioners say.

Fear in Veracruz has intensified because the state is one of the newest battlefields for Mexico’s most powerful drug cartels. Jorge Chabat, an expert on security and drug trafficking at CIDE, a Mexico City research institution, said a cartel known as the Zetas and the Sinaloa cartel were squaring off in this coastal state, with the latter taking advantage of recent blows the federal government has dealt the former.

The growing drug trafficking presence here has brought with it a business that has boomed across the country in recent months: extortion. Even witches and warlocks are not being spared.

“They always say, ‘This is the leader of the Zetas speaking,’ ” Mr. Marthen Torres’s son and fellow warlock, John Joseph, said about the calls he receives from self-described organized crime members demanding money.

Some of Catemaco’s wizards have grown increasingly afraid, while others — perhaps seeking an edge in the contest for customers — claim to sense the vibes of the person on the other end of the line. When they feel a negative aura, they say, they simply do not pick up the phone. In fact, Mr. Marthen Torres said he was certain he would not become another casualty of this war because the date of his death had already been revealed to him. (It’s not for at least a decade, he said.)

Of course, less prescient people may not feel quite so equipped to confront this wave of violence.

“I’m constantly aware that my children could be picked up at any moment. It’s my biggest concern,” Julisa del Carmen said after being cleansed by a sorcerer. “You’re constantly hearing about kids being kidnapped.”

She visits both Mr. Marthen Torres and his son for a cleanse whenever she has crime-related panic attacks, she said.

Not surprisingly, the growing demand for protection has led to a new set of mystical services. For only $180, you can find a missing relative, said Alondra Martínez, 35, a witch who often makes the trip to a nearby hill to perform a ritual for the safe return of kidnapped women. She said she had received five requests just last month.

“This wasn’t a frequent thing before. Now it’s becoming fashionable,” Ms. Martínez said.

A desperate couple visited her recently, but she said she wouldn’t help the frightened parents until they had paid the full fee. “I told them they had eight days to find their daughter.”

Not only civilians are seeking help. Policemen and cartel thugs are also turning to Catemaco’s shamans for protection. Policemen are fearful of being killed in an ambush or risking harm to their families in a retaliatory act; drug traffickers worry about “being caught by the federal police or losing their territory,” explained a sorcerer in a nearby town who would go only by the name El Gato Negro, adding that he often performs animal sacrifices in a cave. Sometimes, shamans here say, the authorities and criminals cross paths in the witches’ waiting rooms, but neither side readily identifies the other.

Over all, though, business is down. Some hotel owners say occupancy has fallen as much as 80 percent in three years, which means fewer clients for wizards. Still, some new customers are turning out to be quite lucrative. One sorcerer, José Alberto Vera Cisneros, said a person claiming to be a drug trafficker imprisoned in Manzanillo, the city containing Mexico’s busiest port, had recently called and asked for a ritual to get him released. When he was let out shortly afterward, the occultist said, the man gave him a car.

While cartel figures may hand out expensive gifts, Mr. Marthen Torres is providing what he calls “social services” — free cleanses to those who have been extorted to the point of destitution.

To combat escalating crime, the state and federal governments have begun Operation Safe Veracruz. Federal forces have been deployed across the state, local and state police corruption is being cleaned up, and heavily armed checkpoints have been set up. More than 250 people have been detained since the plan was put in place early last month, but violence persists. On Oct. 20, eight bodies were dumped in the town of Paso de Ovejas, 100 miles northwest of Catemaco.

And as long as the crime continues, Catemaco’s shamans expect to remain in high demand for protective spells and clairvoyance by cops, robbers and victims alike. Mr. Marthen Torres said the bodies of bludgeoned victims were still warm when he arrived at crime scenes across the country to find out how the killings had taken place. “I can see the last image the victim saw on his eyes,” he said.

Some would surely find this hard to believe. “Crime isn’t resolved with magic,” President Felipe Calderón said during a speech in 2009 (though he almost certainly meant it in a figurative, not literal, way). Similarly, Ernesto Cordero, an aspiring candidate for the 2012 presidential election and a member of Mr. Calderón’s political party, recently pointed out that there were no magical remedies for “getting out of the problem we got ourselves in.”

Catemaco’s wizards and sorceresses beg to differ.

Major ICE Drug Bust Spotlights Illegal Aliens with Backpacks

Brenda Walker — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:27:49 +0000

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’s Legislation Seeks to Free Border Patrol on Public Lands

Brenda Walker — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 20:23:39 +0000

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.

Mexican Trucks Are Poised to Invade American Highways

Brenda Walker — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:57:09 +0000

The North American Free trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed into law by President Clinton in late 1993. It was sold by globalists of both parties as a job generator for Americans, but instead whole industries moved to Mexico for the cheaper labor, and a US trade surplus became a trade deficit to Mexico’s benefit (e.g. $44 billion in 2010).

NAFTA trucking is the last remaining segment of the deal to be implemented, and it has been fought for years by diverse groups of Americans, from the Teamster Union to politicians of both parties.

Below, friends of American sovereignty Ray Herrera and Robin Hvidston protested Mexican trucking in 2007.

The project is particularly unconscionable in light of the worsening border violence and smuggling of both drugs and job thieves. A 2009 report from CBS noted that the “trusted trucker” arrangement with little or no inspection was a big help to criminals: Drug Smugglers Aided By U.S. Truck Program.

Furthermore, the scheme is unpopular. A 2009 Rasmussen poll found that 66 percent of Americans don’t want dangerous Mexican trucks on the nation’s highways.

Democratic Congressman Peter DeFazio (a long-time NAFTA critic) has spoken up against the escalation, fearing the pilot program is actually a precursor to the whole enchilada, as he expressed in a letter to the relevant transportation authorities, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

DeFazio Questions FMCSA On Cross-Border Trucking, September 16, 2011

“This further reinforces my longstanding concern that the Administration is not launching a pilot program, but rather starting the full liberalization of cross-border trucking that will have significant impacts on safety, security, and American jobs. Proceeding with the processing of Mexican carriers’ applications on a separate track from meeting any requirements the agency believes apply to the pilot program confirms that FMCSA intends for this pilot program to casually terminate and morph into an open border. This flies in the face of the limitation enacted by Congress.”

For details on the safety aspect, see my 2007 blog Early Warning: Victims of Mexican Trucks Remembered.

On Wednesday, concerned parties assembled in San Diego to condemn Mexican trucks on American highways as a threat to jobs, road safety, sovereignty and national security:

1st Mexican truck to enter US interior within days, Associated Press, October 19, 2011

The first Mexican carrier is set to roll into the U.S. interior within days, but the Teamsters union and two California congressmen haven’t given up on stopping the cross-border trucking program that had been stalled for years by safety concerns and political wrangling.

U.S. Reps. Duncan Hunter and Bob Filner joined Teamsters President James Hoffa at the border Wednesday to take a bipartisan stand against the pilot project that will allow approved Mexican trucks to come deep into the United States. The first one will enter Texas on Friday.

Hunter is a San Diego-area Republican, while Filner is a Democrat whose district includes California’s border with Mexico. They were surrounded at a news conference by more than 75 union members from at least five states.

Allowing Mexican trucking companies to deliver goods rather than transfer them to U.S. haulers at the border will put American jobs and highway safety at risk, they said.

“We’re literally taking good jobs here in America and passing them over the line to Mexico,” Hunter told the crowd, many holding signs reading “NAFTA kills” and “Stop the war on workers.”

Washington on Friday approved the first Mexican trucking company, Transportes Olympic, nearly two decades after the hotly contested provision of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement set off lawsuits and a costly trade dispute between the neighboring countries.

Transportes Olympic’s long-haul truck will cross the border Friday at Laredo, Texas, and head about 450 miles north to Garland, Texas, to deliver industrial equipment, said Guillermo Perez, the transport manager at the firm in the industrial Monterrey suburb of Apodaca, about two hours south of Laredo.

He dismissed claims that Mexican trucking companies and their drivers do not meet U.S. safety standards. He said his company has a strict, random drug testing policy for its 61 drivers and it has bought more than a dozen trucks in the past two years.
U.S. inspectors will check the trucks Thursday and will also have a database on truckers who have been approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Perez said.

“It’s a really controlled program. There’s no way to avoid the law,” he said. “We are really prepared for this. It’s not weird for me that some (U.S. trucking) companies are willing to shut it down because now they have to compete with us.”

Perez declined to reveal how much his drivers earn.

The company was approved under the pilot program in 2009 before President Barack Obama’s administration cancelled it. Mexico retaliated by placing tariffs on 99 agricultural products worth more than $2 billion annually.

Mexico cut the tariffs in half this summer after Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon approved an inspection and monitoring program for the companies that had been approved in 2009. The Mexican government has vowed to lift the rest once the truck heads out of the border zone Friday.

“We’re really excited,” Perez said. “Now we can provide door-to-door service, so it’s about a 15 percent savings for companies.”

Opponents say the fight isn’t over.

Hunter has co-authored a bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., that would stop the pilot program in three years and require Congress to vote on the issue again.

“We hope we can stop this before we have a disaster,” Filner said.

Criminal activity has been a problem for years even within the U.S. government’s strictest trusted carrier programs. Drug trafficking organizations have smuggled tons of drugs inside trucks driven by approved truckers coming from inspected and certified facilities inside Mexico.

Todd Spencer, the executive vice president of the Independent Drivers Association, which represents small independent trucking businesses, said 100,000 trucking jobs will be lost. Proponents say it will spur economic growth as companies save millions by sending the goods door-to-door.

“We certainly hope that it cannot be stopped,” said James Clark, director of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Mexico Business Center. “The U.S. has been in violation of the NAFTA agreement ever since the beginning of the trucking issue. Mexican trucks have every right to come into the U.S. under NAFTA as long as the trucks are fully inspected to U.S. standards and the drivers speak English.”

Supporters say especially strict safeguards have been implemented: Electronic devices will track the routes drivers take, how long they drive and how long they rest. Participating drivers must undergo national security and criminal background checks, and inspectors will administer oral English-proficiency exams.

Three U.S. trucking companies have been given the green light under the program to drive into Mexico, according to the Mexican government. But Hoffa said American truckers don’t want to drive into Mexico because of the country’s violent crime problem.

About 70 percent of goods from the $4 billion trade between the two nations are transported by land, according to the Mexican government.

Mexico Meltdown: State Abandoned to Cartel

Brenda Walker — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 18:25:31 +0000

Here’s another marker of the worsening failed-state syndrome next door: Mexico City admits that government authority has disappeared from the Gulf state of Veracruz, leaving it to the ultra-violent Zeta crime syndicate.

As the graphic indicates, Veracruz is not a small piece of land. At more than 30,000 square miles, it accounts for 3.7 percent of Mexico’s territory. Its coastline of just over 428 miles makes it desirable real estate, for both commerce and crime.

Presidente Calderon is nearing the end of his term, and his war against the drug cartels has not been successful. The cartels have been demonstrating their growing power in various ways; one example was the Zetas dumping 35 bodies on a city freeway during rush hour last month in downtown Boca del Rio, Veracruz.

Presidente Calderon tries to spin the chaos as being the responsibility of previous government officials (perhaps taking a clue from his amigo in Washington). But Calderon has been in charge for five years, and he owns the issue of combating drug cartels. He suggests the lawlessness is a local problem, although he has not been shy about sending the army into other areas to push cartels back.

In Mexico today, surrender is an option.

With that fact in mind, Washington should take the necessary steps to keep invasive Mexicans OUT.

Mexican president: State was left to drug cartel, Associated Press, October 14, 2011

Mexican President Felipe Calderon said Friday that the violence-plagued Gulf coast state of Veracruz had been left in the hands of the brutal Zetas drug cartel.

Calderon has complained in the past that previous governments allowed Mexico’s cartel problems to grow and didn’t do enough to stop them. But he hasn’t previously suggested a state was largely turned over to traffickers.

In comments to a meeting of crime victims’ groups in Mexico City, Calderon did not say specifically who he thought was responsible.

“I believe Veracruz was left in the hands of the Zetas, I don’t know if it was involuntary, probably, I hope so,” said Calderon, who added that “if we hadn’t taken on organized crime, they would have taken over the country, I assure you.”

There have been persistent accusations against former Veracruz Gov. Fidel Herrera Beltran, who left office in December 2010. While his term was relatively calm in terms of violence, adversaries accuse him of allowing the Zetas to operate freely in the state, which is lucrative route for migrant and drug traffickers.

Herrera Beltran has denied those accusations, claiming they are politically motivated.

Since mid-2011, Veracruz has been hit by dozens of murders and shootouts, including a grenade attack on a boulevard that killed one Mexican tourist. The state has been the scene of bloody turf battles between the Zetas and gunmen apparently linked to the Sinaloa cartel, and in recent weeks there have been two mass killings in which 67 bodies were found.

In recent weeks, Miguel Angel Yunes — who made an unsuccessful run for governor in 2010 elections, which he lost to the candidate from Herrera Beltran’s Institutional Revolutionary Party — told local media that the former governor had “handed over the police and police command to these criminal groups, and everyone in Veracruz knows it.”

In late July, masked gunmen claiming to be from a group allied with the Sinaloa cartel posted a video on the internet, in which they accused the former governor of protecting their rivals, the Zetas, and called Herrera Beltran “Zeta Number One.”

In an interview with MVS radio earlier this month, Herrera Beltran “energetically rejected” the allegations, and accused Yunes of being behind the anonymous video, and attributed the accusations to “perversity, hatred, rancor.”

Herrera Beltran did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.

In Sinaloa state, marines killed five alleged drug traffickers in a clash in the Pacific coast city of Mazatlan, the navy said in a Friday statement.

A suspect who was detained after a gunbattle with police led authorities to a safehouse where the gunmen had hunkered down Thursday, it said.

More than 35,000 people have been killed in drug war-related violence around Mexico since President Felipe Calderon launched his offensive in late 2006, according to government figures. Some groups say more than 40,000 have died.

Also Friday, police found the bodies of three men who had been tortured and shot to death in the city of Apatzingan in Michoacan state.

Two of the men were placed on chairs and the other on the ground of a traffic circle at the city’s entrance. Police also found a threatening message signed by the cult-like Knights Templar drug cartel, Michoacan prosecutors said in a statement.

In the resort city of Acapulco, seven men were killed in three separate attacks Friday, police said.
A father and son and two other men were shot to death inside an auto repair shop, the Guerrero state Public Safety Department said in a statement.

Two other men were killed in a residential area and another one was found inside a hotel, but the cause of death it those cases has not been determined, the department said.

New Report Warns of National Security Threat from Narco-Mex

Brenda Walker — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:04:32 +0000

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.

Rick Perry’s Achilles Heel Is Immigration Enforcement

Brenda Walker — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 20:53:55 +0000

Byron York is one of the more insightful scribblers in the beltway orbit, and he recently commented on Rick Perry’s terrible record on immigration enforcement (below).

Note to Tea Party patriots: Perry looks good when he is shooting up targets at the range, but he is way too friendly with Mexican interests. He is all sombrero and no cattle when it comes to the border.

In addition, Perry supports the worst kind of diversity, signing a bill that put Texas in the position of policing Islamic dietary laws (see Republicans: Just Say NO to Islamic Sharia Law). Whatever happened to the separation of church, er mosque and state?

Governor Perry angered many Texans with his disrespect for national sovereignty when he supported the highly unpopular Trans Texas Corridor, a land-grab/transportation scheme that would have advanced the North American Union by building a mega-road linking Mexico and the American heartland.

Below, in 2003 Texas Gov. Rick Perry, knowing how much Mexicans appreciate American firearms, displayed a revolver kept in a saddle in his office to then-Presidente Vicente Fox.

York: Will immigration cripple Rick Perry’s bid?, Washington Examiner, Sept 9, 2011

Commentary on the Rick Perry-Mitt Romney showdown at the GOP debate has focused on Perry’s “Ponzi scheme” critique of Social Security. It’s an important issue, and Perry will have to rethink the way he talks about Social Security in coming days. But not enough attention has been paid to Perry’s performance on an issue that could be his undoing in the GOP race: immigration.

The bottom line of Wednesday’s debate is that Perry, governor of a border state for more than a decade, didn’t have much to say about immigration. When asked how he would secure the U.S.-Mexican border, his answer was “boots on the ground” — Border Patrol agents — and more unmanned drone aircraft. That was about all Perry had to say, beyond criticizing President Obama. “For the president of the United States to go to El Paso, Texas, and say that the border is safer than it’s ever been, either he has some of the poorest intel of a president in the history of this country, or he was an abject liar to the American people,” Perry said. “It is not safe on that border.”

But what to do about it? Romney was more prepared for the question. First, he called for a fence along the border. Then, he called for more U.S. agents to secure the fence. And then he called for measures to turn off what he called the “magnet” drawing illegal immigrants to the United States. “Sanctuary cities, giving tuition breaks to the kids of illegal aliens, employers that knowingly hire people who are here illegally — those things also have to be stopped,” Romney said.

Romney seemed clearly ready for a confrontation with Perry over immigration, but the debate moved on, and the moment passed. But there will be a reckoning, and probably soon, because on a number of key immigration issues, Perry’s positions will alienate a significant part of the Republican primary electorate. Romney or some other candidate is sure to take advantage of that.

Start with the border fence. Perry opposes it. “Building a wall on the entire border is a preposterous idea,” he said recently in New Hampshire. “The only thing a wall would possibly accomplish is to help the ladder business.” Perry says he supports some forms of “strategic fencing in certain urban areas,” but that’s all.

Then there are measures to stop employers from hiring illegals. Perry opposes E-verify, which is a program requiring employers to check the legal status of new hires. It has been very effective in stopping the hiring of illegals, but Perry does not support requiring private businesses to use it, and he doesn’t want state agencies in Texas to use it, either. “E-verify would not make a hill of beans’ difference in what’s happening today,” Perry said in a 2010 debate.

Then there is taxpayer-subsidized, in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. Perry signed the Texas Dream Act in 2001 making it the law in Texas. “We must say to every Texas child learning in a Texas classroom, ‘We don’t care where you came from, but where you are going,’” Perry said at the time. “The message is simple: Educacion es el futuro, y si se puede.” Perry still supports the measure.

Finally there is the question of guest workers. “I support a guest worker program that takes undocumented workers off the black market and legitimizes their economic contributions without providing them citizenship status,” Perry said in 2006. “A guest worker program that provides foreign workers with an ID removes the incentive for millions of people to illegally enter our country.” To critics, that’s just amnesty with a different label.

Perry does oppose sanctuary cities, but on the other hand he has been critical of the new Arizona immigration law, which has widespread support in the Republican base.

Immigration was a red-hot issue among Republican voters in 2007 and 2008. It almost killed the candidacy of Sen. John McCain, who had to retreat from his advocacy of comprehensive immigration reform and take up an enforcement-first position. Now, it could be that, given the breadth and depth of today’s economic worries, immigration is a less important issue among Republicans. But reports from the campaign trail suggest it comes up a lot in the candidates’ question-and-answer sessions, and voters mostly want to hear tough positions that are the opposite of Perry’s.

A challenge on immigration is in the offing for Perry. How he handles it could determine the success or failure of his candidacy.

Byron York, The Examiner’s chief political correspondent, can be contacted at byork@washingtonexaminer.com. His column appears on Tuesday and Friday, and his stories and blogposts appear on ExaminerPolitics.com.