Arizona Attorney General Thomas C. Horne testified on May 11th to the U.S. House Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations & Management House Committee on Homeland Security and had little nice to say about the Obama administration’s approach to the border:
Testimony of Arizona Attorney General Thomas C. Horne
U.S. House Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations & Management
House Committee on Homeland Security
Hearing: “On the Border and in the Line of Fire: U.S. Law Enforcement, Homeland Security and Drug Cartel Violence”
May 11, 2011
INTRODUCTION
I have sued the Obama administration for negligence on the border with Mexico. The Obama administration had previously sued Arizona to prevent Arizona from helping to fight illegal immigration through Arizona Senate Bill 1070. I filed a counterclaim asking for a court declaration that, among other things, the administration has failed to achieve and maintain operational control for the Arizona-Mexican border, as required by the Congress in the Secure Fence Act of 2006 and the Appropriations Act of 2008. Some may question whether it is possible to do so. I argue that it is for the following reasons:
The Arizona border is divided into the Yuma Sector and the Tucson Sector. In 2006, the Bush administration put substantial resources into the Yuma Sector, which had been one of the difficult sectors. As a result, apprehensions decreased 96 percent from 134,000 in 2005 to 7,200 last year. Substantial operational control was obtained in the Yuma Sector. But in the Tucson Sector, since 2009, well over 400,000 people have crossed illegally into the United States in this sector. That is the equivalent of an invasion, from various countries, of 20 divisions.
BACKGROUND OF THE CRIMINAL ENTERPRISES
The criminal element increased from 8 percent in 2005 to 17 percent. Criminal enterprises based in Mexico are bringing a degree of brutality to crime in the United States that we have never experienced before. They are bringing techniques they have used in Mexico, where attacks on police headquarters, assassinations of high governmental anti-organized crime law enforcement officials, murders of journalists, mass jail breaks, and ultimatums stating that a criminal enterprise will unleash terrorists acts unless the government gives its members amnesty for their crimes, all signify assertion of power unchecked by the rule of law. The Drug Enforcement Administration has confirmed Mexican drug organization presence in 230 U.S. cities and towns. They are expanding from drug smuggling to all kinds of criminal activity.
The United States and Mexico’s mutual economic future faces catastrophe because Mexican drug cartels, fueled by the American appetite for drugs, are becoming entrenched as criminal enterprises that affect Mexican commerce from petroleum to groceries, and whose method of intimidation is ruthless violence. Mexico is the United States’ second largest trading partner and the two countries must work together to be sure their commerce is not destroyed by the criminal enterprises.
In October, the Phoenix area experienced its first beheading, where someone walked into a Chandler apartment and found a head in one part of the room and the body in another. Two months ago, in Casa Grande, midway between Phoenix and Tucson, 15 cartel members had a fire fight with bandits in an attempt to steal their drugs. Just a few weeks ago, one of my Special Agents in the Attorney General’s Office was shot by a suspected cartel operative in the Phoenix area. In the United States, it is widely understood that marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamine come largely from or through Mexico. It is also common knowledge that Mexican drug organizations are engaging in atrocities, murders, and wide-spread corruption.
In Pinal County, as an example, the number of pounds of marijuana seized has more than doubled in the last two years from 20,000 pounds to 45,000 pounds.
The extent to which these criminal enterprises have expanded beyond smuggling to other kinds of crimes is not as widely known.
While familial drug smuggling organizations have thrived near the border for generations, their present successor Mexican criminal enterprises now present a new and different threat to North American well-being. Although they are sometimes called drug cartels, they are not primarily cooperative price-setting entities and they are not just about drugs—they are primarily opportunistic, generally—and sometimes fiercely—competitive multi-crime criminal enterprises. This discussion uses the term ―criminal enterprises—(―CEs–) because this term is used in federal and state racketeering statutes.
There are many sources of the CEs’ increased power. A few of them include:
1) Immigration into the U.S. brought Mexican criminals to U.S. cities in large numbers in the 1990s. DEA has confirmed Mexican drug organization presence in 230 U.S. cities and towns. Larger Mexican criminal populations allow Mexican drug organizations to rely on extended affinity to vertically integrate their distribution networks. Simultaneous law enforcement pressure on rival groups, such as the Colombians and their air smuggling methods, further permitted Mexican CEs to vertically integrate the drug distribution chain.
2) The Mexican CEs have incorporated influences from the ―Zetas,‖ former members of an elite military unit originally recruited by a drug organization as mercenaries in inter-enterprise warfare. The Zetas brought with them greater eagerness to diversify into criminal opportunities other than drug smuggling. The Zetas also brought a culture of ruthlessness and intimidation, with huge economic power implications.
3) Expendable mercenaries are more available to the CEs. Maquiladoras, and other opportunities such as preparing to illegally cross the border into the U.S., brought many
unemployed young men to northern Mexico. The sharp decline of the economies of the U.S. and Mexico in 2008 swelled this available pool of mercenaries. With many young strangers available as gunmen, CE leaders are not as constrained about violent confrontations with rival gangs or with government authorities as they had been. When the casualties will be replaceable strangers, aggression and brutality become more acceptable.
4) The availability of high-powered weapons has armed the gunmen as never before. While the exact amounts and percentages of U.S.-sourced weapons that are being used by the CEs are the subject of some debate, it is beyond dispute that the CE gunmen have no shortage of weaponry and that U.S. sources account for some portion of these arms. Any weapons in this context are too many.
5) In the United States, it is widely understood that marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamine come largely from or through Mexico. It is also common knowledge that Mexican drug organizations are engaging in atrocities, murders, and wide-spread corruption. Nevertheless, it does not appear to be widely understood that continued consumption of Mexico-sourced drugs is the direct root cause of the erosion of the free democracy in Mexico and ultimately of the economy of North America. Our young people are acutely aware of the indirect consequences of their consumer decisions. Yet they continue to buy Mexico-sourced drugs as if there were no consequences for these decisions. This can only be explained by a lack of knowledge of the linkage between these particular consumer choices and the long term effects of those choices.
In Mexico, popular support for the representative government’s desperate efforts to control the growing power of the CEs appears to be flagging as the death toll and violence mounts. The misunderstanding that these are simply drug or human smuggling organizations persists despite the general knowledge that the CEs are also engaged in many non-drug, non-human smuggling criminal activities. As in the U.S., it appears that the populace in Mexico is not aware that the uncontrolled rise in the power of the CEs foreshadows the potential failure of the Mexican economy.
THE DANGER TO COMMERCE PRESENTED BY CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE DIVERSIFICATION
The CEs are increasingly engaging in diversified organized criminal activity, such as diverting petroleum products, agricultural crop theft, hijacking truck and train cargo, extorting major businesses, import/export fraud, intellectual property theft, and targeted intelligence-driven kidnappings of business and societal leaders. They are uniquely situated for attacks on trade because most of them grew out of smuggling organizations, so they can exploit their deep roots on the key trade routes between the U.S. and Mexico. Apart from the direct injury to the immediate victims, these diversified criminal activities are strategically significant in two ways. Most obviously, they are sources of income and therefore sources of power to the CEs. Most important, these crimes allow the CEs to infiltrate, burden, and ultimately destroy trade-related activity and investment.
The diversified CEs are fundamentally different from their predecessor smuggling-based organizations. The former passive bribery-for-amnesty stance of the smuggling organizations is now largely a thing of the past. The CEs are shifting to an aggressive stance, actively asserting primacy over the elected representative government in their respective geographic areas. Attacks on police headquarters, assassinations of high governmental anti-organized crime law enforcement officials, murders of journalists, mass jail breaks, and ultimatums stating that a CE will unleash terrorist acts unless the government gives its members amnesty for their crimes, all signify assertion of power unchecked by the rule of law.
Taking advantage of non-smuggling criminal opportunities requires immunity of a fundamentally different kind than that accorded to smuggling organizations in the past. Past impunity was for smuggling, which is regarded as mostly victimless from the Mexican point of view. Present crimes are far from victimless. So immunity cannot be bought, and therefore must be coerced. Diversification necessarily requires and encourages intimidation. Because the crimes are not victimless, law enforcement and the populace at large must be discouraged from taking action by means other than mere bribery. In this context, open and notorious cruelty and inhuman atrocities serve an economic purpose. They terrorize the general public with two complementary messages: 1) the CE will show horrible cruelty to any who stand against them (such as by having the wife who thought she was bringing ransom money to rescue her husband forced to watch as his head is cut off); and 2) the representative government is powerless to do anything effective about it. This is one explanation for the apparent escalation in the level of atrocity. Murders escalated to beheadings and mutilation. Beheadings became commonplace, so killers are now skinning the victim and ripping the heart from the chest, leaving the corpse so grotesque that responders can barely stand to look at the remains. The diversification of the criminal activity and the decline of representative government authority are complementary—one escalates as the other declines. As organized criminal activity succeeds—success defined as being accomplished at a profit without countervailing consequences for the perpetrators—it is repeated and expanded. The diversification means that all economic activity in the particular area is increasingly at risk of victimization.
The societal impact of the CEs’ campaign of terror is well encapsulated in the presence of .50 caliber machine guns mounted in CE SUVs patrolling the streets of Mexican border cities. This weapon, in the hands of a CE, is a brazen assassination about to happen.
The mere existence of such CE war wagons speaks volumes. Most significant for strategic purposes, such weapons signify the vulnerability of legitimate business because no business can stand against extortion and victimization when the perpetrators are this cruel, have this kind of firepower, and have the impunity to display it. The war wagon is a rolling advertisement that business must capitulate—or else—and that investment in Mexico includes the associated risks.
SEARCHING FOR ALTERNATIVES TO ECONOMIC CRISIS
Internal Limiters within CEs
If the Mexican CEs could be relied upon to recognize the economic consequences of their depredations and desist before it is too late, then the potential strangulation of commerce would not be an inevitable consequence of the growth and evolution of diversified CEs.
Organized crime leaders operate in a treacherous high-risk environment in their daily lives. They stay in charge by inspiring, fostering, and demanding the loyalty of an immediate inner circle. Keeping a loyal inner circle involves several strategies, the most important of which is making financial opportunities available to the most loyal. If the dominant figure turns away apparent economic opportunities for his CE, and therefore for his inner circle, he invites that inner circle to look to another contender for leadership. There is always another contender waiting in the wings for a shot at the top spots. When traditional U.S. Mafia dons balked at trafficking in narcotics, they were replaced by leaders who would condone it because the profits were high. Whenever criminal opportunities are identified and prove successful, leaders must exploit them or risk being replaced (which often involves their death).
This analysis applies to the potential for strangulation of U.S./Mexico commerce. The CEs continue to exploit and expand their ability to engage in criminal opportunities because there is no internal limiter. The CEs may not intend to strangle commerce. Indeed, they may have no thought that this could happen and no desire for this result. But a pack of wolves may decimate a deer population without a thought about what that may mean to future wolves years hence. They act like wolves because that is their nature. CEs act like CEs because that is their nature. They will continue to escalate their parasitic criminal conduct without regard to whether their crimes will ultimately kill the host. They will continue unless and until they are stopped. So the diversification of the Mexican CEs’ criminal conduct will continue as long as the economic opportunities are there and will take whatever advantage of those opportunities that they can get away with.
Governmental Retreat
If the capitulation of the Mexican government would end the bloodshed, perhaps the threat to commerce would abate. Some observers of the present violence have written that President Calderon’s decision to call in the military was the initial cause of the present violence. This is worth mentioning only because if that was the cause, then reversal of the decision could be seen as a possible way to end the violence. However, the rise of the newly aggressive and power-acquiring CEs was not caused by Calderon’s administration, and in any event, to the extent that increased law enforcement has some violent repercussions, the Mexican government cannot reverse that course of action.
The Zetas arrived on the scene in the late 1990s, bringing their military tactics and new ruthlessness and opportunism. For example, drug violence in Nuevo Laredo increased dramatically in 2004 and over 100 people died in Nuevo Laredo alone in January-August 2005. This was long before Calderon’s inauguration.
The frequent references to the number of murders in Mexico since the start of the Calderon administration in late 2006 create the unfounded and unfair impression that the violence began with his administration. This is not true. They also create the incorrect impression that his policies are a cause of the violence. Since the violence began before his administration, this is patently false.
The CEs’ tactics are rooted in the CEs’ diversification and their need to avoid prosecution for crimes beyond drug and human smuggling. The violent tactics have the effect of undermining representative government by instilling lack of confidence and fear in the Mexican people. These outrages to civil life include murders of reporters, murders of mayors and a gubernatorial candidate, postings of murder threats and actual videos of murders (including beheadings) on the Internet, ads for criminal gang recruitment in the newspapers, murders of and death threats to clergy, ―taxation‖ (extortion) of city residents, car bombings, and horrific mutilations. While torture has always been a part of criminals’ intelligence gathering, torture for the purpose of getting information is different than wanton mutilation of the already-dead bodies and the public desecration of their remains, such as by hanging mutilated bodies in public, skinning corpses, or delivering severed heads with messages. These are not responses to law enforcement. If they were responses to law enforcement, they would be done in the U.S. by the representatives of these same CEs in U.S. cities in response to even more effective law enforcement. They are not done in the U.S. for the simple reasons that the CEs are not presently contending for control of cities or areas of the U.S., as they are in Mexico, and they do not believe they could avoid prosecution for such crimes in the U.S., as they do in Mexico. Erroneous attribution of the violence to the law enforcement efforts to control the CEs and the resulting erroneous understanding of the reasons for the CEs’ tactics leads to the erroneous idea that law enforcement accommodation would end the escalation of CEs’ criminal power.
In any event, in the present circumstances, it is not really possible for the Mexican government to back down. Mexican smugglers have operated with relative amnesty, but that was in the context of the crimes of drug and human smuggling. The crimes have changed. They now include diversion of petroleum (owned by the government and therefore by the people), hijacking cargo, kidnapping business people, extorting insurance companies, extorting whole cities, and atrocious murders, including of clergy, journalists, and political leaders. No government can look the other way in connection with such conduct, no matter what bribe is offered, so there is no ―back down‖ solution.
Nor would the CEs accept a return to the former order, even if could be offered. The scenario suggested by some is that with a new president and new administration, the CEs could return to the prior order, agree to limit criminal activities to drug and human smuggling, perhaps consolidate to a more manageable smaller set of CEs with agreed territories, and pay bribes for peace with the government. This scenario rests on three unsupported foundations.
First, as explained above, once the CE has enjoyed the criminal benefits of operating with impunity in a governmentally challenged area by exploiting new criminal opportunities, and parceled out those additional income streams to the inner circle, its nature does not permit unforced retreat. A leader who proposed to his inner circle that the group henceforth limit itself to drug and human smuggling and abandon the other criminal opportunities would not remain the leader for long. The evolution of the drug smuggling organizations into diversified organized criminal enterprises was an evolution, not a simple temporary switch of one set of tactics for another.
Second, there is no reason that the present CEs would accept the limited role suggested by this scenario. Mexican law enforcement and military efforts have so far proven inadequate to slow the diversified criminal conduct. They have had some success at lopping off top participants and at making some activities more difficult, particularly drug activities, and a great many gunmen have been eliminated by the authorities or by each other, but there is no evidence that the CEs’ combined net income has declined. Because there is no existing credible threat of appropriate consequences, the hypothetical government suggestion of peace terms would offer nothing to the CEs that the CEs don’t already have.
Third, this scenario supposes tight control throughout the ranks of the CEs, such that an order from top CE leadership to forego income from non-drug, non-human smuggling activities would be effective. The CEs have recruited many young guns, and many of those recruits are now forever changed by having adopted the macho high-risk, high-spending values of their peers. They are unlikely to accept any such order. Faced with their own gunmen’s desire to continue to engage in profitable crimes, a cartel leader who had given such an order would have no incentive to spend the lives and resources necessary to enforce the order, even if the leader had the power to do so.
Legalization of Drugs
Some argue that the legalization of drugs may be a panacea by which the violence could be stopped and the strength of Mexico’s representative government restored, deflecting the threat to the economy. This is simply not possible. The fulcrum is economics, not politics. Please consider the economics of, say, a hypothetical ―National Cocaine Corp.‖ (―NCC‖), a new business formed to sell hypothetically recently legalized cocaine in the U.S. As the first order of business, NCC must undertake the expense of getting an FDA permit after showing the purity of the product and the conditions of its manufacture in a clean plant under closely monitored conditions, under the watchful eyes of various doctors, chemists, and quality control experts. Next, NCC must pay for insurance against the inevitable lawsuits a la the massive suits against Big Tobacco. Next, NCC must set its prices based on its payment of enormous taxes, like alcohol and tobacco, but undoubtedly much higher. But the Mexican CEs won’t have any of these expenses. In addition, legalization will no doubt deem some young people; say those under 21, too young to use the drugs legally, again like alcohol and tobacco. This market would not be available to NCC, but the CEs would keep selling to this market. Bottom line: there is no legal product that can match the price of smuggled drugs. So the Mexican CEs would stay in business and would continue smuggling the same products, but for a larger market because the products are approved by the government as ―legal
Sealing the Border
Taking this suggestion at even its most perfect vision, sealing the border cannot resolve the threat to commerce. Assuming for the sake of this discussion that the U.S. could somehow erect a perfect, miraculous wall through which no illegal drugs, aliens, guns, or money could flow, this would not stop the CEs in Mexico from operating. They would continue to develop diversified criminal activities, in addition to selling more drugs in Mexico. They would complete the escalation of their dominance over the representative government, strangling U.S./Mexico trade from the south side of the perfect wall. They would still cause economic collapse. The collapsed Mexican representative government would then have little control of the growth of the CEs. The CEs would turn their attention to penetrating the U.S. with diversified criminal activities, using the collapsed northern Mexican areas as staging grounds. After economic ruin, Mexico would become a staging area for CE diversified criminal attacks on the U.S.
Abandonment of Mexico
It is also tempting to some to suggest that the U.S. hide behind Mexico’s sovereignty to continue our role. But this is not an option. Certainly sovereignty is an issue that the U.S. must deal with in true partnership against our common enemy, but abandonment of our neighbor and trading partner is not a proper way to recognize and honor its sovereignty. Nor would it be effective to avert economic catastrophe.
The Hard Reality
In addition to the massive invasion of illegal aliens, and the extremely serious problem of criminal enterprises invading through the Tucson Sector and the rest of the border and spreading throughout the United States, there is the problem of terrorism from the Middle East. A terrorist seeking to enter the United States to do mass destruction could get to Mexico and blend in among the 400,000 people crossing illegally every year through the Tucson Sector.
The Obama administration could do in the Tucson Sector what the Bush administration did in the Yuma Sector, but it has chosen not to do so.
In the beginning of World War II, the French discovered that a chain is no stronger than its weakest link, when German troops poured through an unguarded section of the Maginot Line, and the whole Maginot Line proved to be useless. All of the work the United States has done to control illegal immigration in California, Texas and New Mexico, and in the Yuma Sector, are useless, if it simply increases the number of illegal aliens pouring through the Tucson Sector.
The best plan that I know of to achieve control over the Tucson Sector is the 18 point plan prepared by the Arizona Cattle Growers Association. It includes additional technology and infrastructure, an additional 3,000 Border Patrol Field Agents in Arizona, and forward operating bases immediately adjacent to the U.S. border with Mexico, approximately one every 12 miles. Some of the Arizona Cattle Growers Association provisions are included in the McCain Kyl Bill currently before Congress.
Most immediately, the National Guard should be increased, not removed, as currently planned by the administration. There are 500 there now, and there were 6,000 there in 2006 when the Bush Administration obtained control over the Yuma Sector. Removing the Guard from its role on the border is the exact wrong thing to do. It will leave a gaping hole in law enforcement efforts, put more innocent lives at risk, and it sends a message –whether intentionally or not – that the administration is not serious about border security.
The sober truth is that the U.S. faces a substantial and immediate risk that the Mexican criminal enterprises will drive the U.S.’s neighbor and second largest trading partner into economic ruin in the next few years. There is no easy ―back down‖ solution, no ―legalize drugs‖ solution, and no ―seal the border‖ solution. Mexican CEs pose a serious threat to U.S./Mexico commerce, which in turn poses a serious threat to the economic health of Mexico and therefore of North America.
It is going to be a very difficult and costly road. It will require careful assessment of the options, none of which are easy or attractive, in an atmosphere unclouded by simplistic rhetoric relating to such things as hoping that organized criminals will give up lucrative criminal lines of business to get impunity from prosecution that they already have, hoping that they will show selfless patriotism, legalizing drugs, or sealing the border. It is time to put these impossible, ineffective, or irrelevant agendas aside and consider what must be done for the survival of North America’s economic health. There is no easy way around it.
CONCLUSION
Mr. Chairman and Members, there are people in the U.S. and Mexico living in fear. They are victims of our nation’s appetite for drugs; victims of the Mexican cartels’ thirst for power fueled by innocent blood; and they are victims of negligence by the federal government at the border. This must end. I am doing my best in the courts, but sometimes courts decline to enter into what they view as political issues that need to be dealt with by Congress. I ask you to please deal with this issue that is so crucial to our country.
Subcommittee Hearing: “On the Border and in the Line of Fire: U.S. Law Enforcement, Homeland Security and Drug Cartel Violence”
On Wednesday, May 11, 2011, the Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Management will hold a hearing entitled “On the Border and in the Line of Fire: U.S. Law Enforcement, Homeland Security and Drug Cartel Violence.” The Subcommittee will meet at 10:00 a.m. in 311 Cannon House Office Building.
Chairman Michael McCaul (TX) on the hearing:
“This administration is not giving the American people a complete picture of security on our border with Mexico. It is not ‘better now than it has ever been’ and the data on spillover crimes and violence is deceiving and underreported. Our state and local law enforcement on the front lines need help. Their firsthand accounts tell the real story of how we are outmanned, overpowered, and in danger of losing control of our own communities to narco-terrorists.”
Witnesses
Panel 1
The Honorable Grayling Williams, Director, Office of Counter Narcotics Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security
[full text of testimony]
Ms. Amy Pope, Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, Department of Justice
[full text of testimony]
Panel 2
Col. Steven McCraw, Director, Texas Department of Public Safety
[full text of testimony]
The Honorable Thomas Horne, Attorney General, State of Arizona
[full text of testimony]
Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzales, Jr., Sheriff, Zapata County, Texas
[full text of testimony]
Chief Victor Rodriguez, McAllen Police Department, State of Texas
[full text of testimony]
___________________________________
See Mexico…a partly failed state
______________________________________
MORE articles and commentaries about the border
The following are articles and commentaries on border issues and SB 1070 that have appeared in the View From Baja Arizona since May, 2010.
Most recent….
Napolitano promises to change the way “border security” is measured
Cochise County Sheriff Tells Congress That Border Patrol Agents Ordered to Reduce Arrests
California Gulch..one of those places along the border wide open to drug smugglers
If the border is so secure why are there dead bodies all over the place?
Republicans Introduce Bill to Secure Border on Federal Lands, Protect Environment
Apprehensions of illegal aliens at the border are way down…why?
GAO confirms federal environmental laws and federal land managers hinder securing our border
Senators Kyl and McCain propose new border security plan
DHS testifies at same hearing as border rancher…compare the view of the border situation
Rancher tells Congress the way it really is down at the border
What does “securing the border” really mean?
Illegal entry and drug smuggling in perspective…what if all this was going on in your front yard?
Probationary Presence…another Immigration Law Reform Proposal
Arizona Republic trashes claim by Pinal Sheriff Babeu that Pinal is the number 1 pass-through county for drug and human trafficking in America
Drug cartels have made Nogales the tunnel capital of the Southwestern border
GOP drafts legislative assault on illegal immigration
Arizona would go broke if all the illegal immigrants left the state
230,000 displaced in Mexico by drug war
Janet Napolitano: Border security better than ever
Birthright citizenship debate…is the solution worse than the problem?
Immigration enforcement efforts damaging to community, police group says
10 million more illegal aliens coming to America?
Border officials say security is improving…and the tooth fairy is real
US Census Report on Arizona…Hispanic population increases dramatically
Utah avoids mistakes Arizona made on immigration laws
Cops don’t want to be junior Border Patrol agents (except in Maricopa County)
CBS News reports on ATF scandal…was Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry murdered by a gun being tracked by ATF?
Inside ATF…an ugly picture …how many dead bodies are out there as a result of Project Gunrunner?
Senator Grassley struggles to get to the bottom of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s death and the role of ATF
FBI: Friendly fire ruled out in Tucson border agent’s slaying …so which gun fired the bullet that killed Brian Terry?
Grassley blasts Department of Justice on coverup of guns used in Agent Terry’s murder
Dept. of Justice denies gun claim about Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s death
Is there a cover-up on Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder?
Senator Grassley letters accusing BATFE of letting guns be sold that may have been used in the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry
Was Border Patrol agent Brian Terry killed by a gun bought in Phoenix?
DHS chief Napolitano living in a fantasy land about border security
Guns and Mexico … be very afraid my friends
More on the coverup of the truth about the guns that killed Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry
Secure the border at the border
Border safe and secure, CBP commissioner Bersin proclaims
Dept. of Justice denies gun claim about Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s death
Think things are bad for illegal aliens in Arizona…don’t go to Escondido, California if you are an illegal alien and have any kind of criminal record (including a traffic ticket)
Is there a cover-up on Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder?
Arizona ranchers question Napolitano’s claims the border is safer
Napolitano touts Homeland Security’s border efforts
Guns from Arizona going to Mexican drug cartels according to Mayors Against Illegal Guns
Senator Grassley letters accusing BATFE of letting guns be sold that may have been used in the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry
Was Border Patrol agent Brian Terry killed by a gun bought in Phoenix?
11.2 million illegal immigrants in US according to Pew Research Center
Arizona legislators determined to keep Arizona as the center of anti-immigrant efforts
Arizona’s harsh immigration law cancer not spreading across nation
Murdered Border Patrol Agent’s mom still in the dark about what really happened
Birthright citizenship bill unveiled by Arizona lawmakers — 2011′s version of SB 1070
McCain willing to seek immigration overhaul bill when the border is secure
Mexican cartel violence prompts calls for bigger National Guard deployment along the border
Mexico headed to collapse?
Celebrating the New Year in the borderlands with automatic weapon gunfire
An NPR report: Nogales, Sonora — Once A Mexican Tourist Town, Now No Man’s Land
Mexican drug cartels killing their border cities
More rumors and few facts regarding the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry
Texas border ranchers face same unsolved problems as Arizona’s border ranchers
Does America hold children responsible for the crimes of their parents?
Feds making a big mistake in secrecy over death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry
Battling the border bandits
Green Valley News Reports Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot in the back
Border Patrol agent death a wake up call to many
Nogales International report on BORTAC and Peck Canyon
Dream Act dead because a majority isn’t a majority in the US Senate
Napolitano confirms bandit gang killed border agent
Borderlands a war zone
Some ideas about how to really secure the border
Tucson Sector U.S. Border Patrol Agent Killed in Line of Duty
The Border is NOT Secure !!!
Mexico a powder keg about to explode
Militia shows up in Sasabe
A 14 point proposal for immigration law reform –”probationary presence” instead of amnesty
Humanitarian crisis on our border must be addressed
Special law enforcement task force needed to prosecute crimes against illegal immigrants
Drug cartels fight over control of northern Sonora
Are the Mexican drug cartels taking over Mexico? Is there any doubt?
Border wildlife refuge turns into battleground over humanitarian aid to illegal immigrants
Broken immigration law fuels illegal entry
What to do about drug cartel “spotters” on the US side of the border?
Napolitano says border is largely controlled
Border Patrol agents in shootout near Nogales — what’s wrong with this story?
Why isn’t the border secure?
Sealing the border is unrealistic says border boss
Marijuana fuels Mexican drug cartel profits
Do people deliberately come to the US to have babies who will be citizens?
Illegal immigration trashes wildlife refuge
Tohono O’odham Reservation deadly place for migrants
Are there fewer drug tunnels in Nogales?
Immigration law reform—overstaying a visa should be a crime
12 million illegal immigrants…a resource that should not be wasted
Some difficult issues in the “amnesty” debate
Border tours offer opportunity to see border realities
Sovereignty and a secure border
The difficulty of securing the border
A Cochise County rancher’s view of the border
Is the effort to secure the border deliberately designed to fail?
Alice in Wonderland and border security
Out in the desert on immigrant trails
Are there some areas near the border that are too dangerous for the Border Patrol?
Mexican drug cartels are not listed as official terrorist organizations
Rumors on the border? What about the truth? Mexican drug cartels are seeking to control the Mexican side of our border
Is the Border Patrol avoiding some areas of the border because “it is too dangerous”?
Posse Comitatus and the Mexican border
Legalize drugs to bankrupt the cartels…Pfizer versus the Aztecas…the ultimate “smack down”.
_____________________
Major posts…..
We need immigration law reform — Opinion
What does “no amnesty” really mean?
Secure the border or immigration law reform first?
Life on the border — the residents of Nogales, Rio Rico and Tubac
Life on the border — the ranchers
Life on the border — Entering the US illegally
More horses needed to secure the border – Commentary
More on the cartel attack on a border ranch
Border ranch attacked by drug cartel
Ranchers report smuggler scouts on the border area hilltops
Send in the US Cavalry
Has the federal government abandoned land to the Mexican drug cartels?
Abolish the Border Patrol and replace it with a new Border Security Agency
The lost border
The lost border part 2
Is racism on the rise in Arizona?
Has Arizona become the “cracker state”?
Klan types ride again … only on electron beams
Guide to Border Patrol Checkpoints
Are there human rights for people who cross the border illegally?
Who will stand up against the racism in Arizona?
Poll results show politicians the way on border issues…if they’ll listen
Background on why SB 1070 even exists
More blame to share on illegal immigration
Who is at fault for illegal immigration?
How would you deport 11 million illegal aliens?
Securing the border and immigration law reform
What is your definition of a “secure border”?
__________________________________
More….
“Attrition through enforcement”…SB 1070 attempts to make Arizona the “bouncer” of illegal aliens
59 dead in the desert in July due to killer coyotes
Why Americans Think (Wrongly) That Illegal Immigrants Hurt the Economy
Law enforcement discretion and SB 1070
Commentary on the judge’s decision to stop parts of SB 1070 from going into effect
Do politicians have the will to work together to stop illegal immigration and drug smuggling?
Should SB 1070 have been enjoined?
Was SB 1070 worth it? Commentary
SB 1070 enjoined by federal judge July 27, 2010
Read full text of SB 1010
Arpaio takes 50 caliber machine gun out into desert hunting cartel smugglers
Is it safe to visit Southern Arizona ?
Arizona Republic Poll: Most Arizonans would let immigrants stay in U.S
Would you allow illegal immigrants to remain in the United States if…
Feds’ suit raises stakes for Arizona’s immigration law
Feds sue Arizona on SB 1070
US sues Arizona over SB 1070 — Justice Department Press Release
Full text of Complaint filed against Arizona on SB 1070 by US
US Brief in support of injunction against SB 1070
Statement of Santa Cruz County Sheriff in support of suit against SB 1070
Statement of Tucson Police Chief in support of suit against SB 1070
What if a state said “welcome” to immigrants?
The immigration debate — it never ends
Recipe for making an American
What’s wrong with SB 1070
Pinal County Sheriff: Mexican drug cartels now control parts of Arizona
SB 1070 does nothing to stop drug cartel gunmen
Can you qualify to be a US citizen?
_______________________
Citizen bloggers are not paid for doing their blogs.
If you like the View From Baja Arizona you can make a contribution to support this blog.
It is a secure Pay Pal transaction.
Thank you !!! DONATE BY CLICKING HERE
