View Full Version : The Reconquista is underway
GratefulCitizen
06-15-2010, 19:38
Borders!?! Borders!?! WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING BORDERS!!!
http://www.examiner.com/x-10317-San-Diego-County-Political-Buzz-Examiner~y2010m6d15-Arizona-warns-residents-with-signs-against-hiking-in-region-near-Mexico-border
The drug cartel violence coupled with increased crime along the Arizona/Mexico border has prompted Arizona officials to place signs along a heavily-traveled and known smuggling route leading from Mexico to the state’s capitol of Phoenix.
Signs went up a couple weeks ago along the southern side of I-8 between Casa Grande and Gila Bend Arizona. The region is about 80 miles north of the Mexican border and it warns American citizens of the dangers of hiking in the area.
Mexican drug cartels appear to control large areas of Southern Arizona, according to the Pinal County Sheriff.
According to Borderland Beat, the Pinal County Sherriff says, "We do not have control of this area."
Pinal County investigators are now saying the area known as the ‘smuggling corridor’ stretches from the Mexico's border to Phoenix.
Borderland suggests the area was once known as a family hiking and off road vehicles area. However the government has posted signs warning visitors and residents of the drug and human smuggling activity.
Recently law enforcement in the southern Arizona region photographed, using night vision cameras, cartel members with military arms delivering drugs to vehicles along Highway 8.
“We are three counties deep. How is it that you see pictures like these, not American with semi and fully automatic rifles? How is that okay?" the Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu asked.
"We are outgunned, we are out manned and we don't have the resources here locally to fight this," the Sheriff said at a news conference.
Just 5 weeks ago Deputy Louie Puroll was ambushed and shot by armed men as he tracked suspected drug smugglers. Sheriff Babeu explained that incident mirrored military tactics and should act as a warning to all Arizonians.
While the federal government fails to secure the border, the Arizona state government is left to post signs warning residents that it is no longer safe to use thousands of acres of BLM land.
The new sign reads; “Danger Public Warning, travel not recommended active human and drug smuggling area, visitors may encounter armed criminals and smuggling vehicles traveling at high rates of speed. Stay away from trash, clothing, backpacks and abandoned vehicles. If you see suspicious activity, do not confront (underlined) move away and call 911. The BLM encourages visitors to use public lands north of Interstate 8.”
A mere hop, skip and jump south to Mexico the murders continue unabated.
Mexico experienced its deadliest day since Felipe Calderon took office and 85 citizens lost their lives in a single day due to an uptick in drug cartel brutality.
The bloody Friday in Mexico was summed up by local news reports as organized crime-related mayhem. “In what constitutes the most violent day since the present federal administration began the frontal struggle against organized crime, 85 people lost their lives in acts related directly to ‘adjustments of affairs’ between rival gangs, confrontations and assassinations with high-caliber firearms,” local newspapers reported.
The previous single day loss of life tally was 58 on November 3, 2008.
This should be a wake-up call for all Americans; secure the borders or live in potential lawlessness.
Pancho Villa II ? It will take the same actions and resolve to get rid of them.
ZonieDiver
06-15-2010, 23:43
Hmmmm! Two illegal aliens were shot at today - according to a Phx area TV station - and one was wounded slightly. Two men in camouflage with 'high-powered' rifles, supposedly. According to the Santa Cruz county sheriff, it is hoped that these are not 'citizens' striking out at illegals.
I will try to find a link.
As I was looking for the story about the two illegals shot by " two camouflaged men " I found this video. I knew the U.S. / Mexico border area was rough but it seems to be getting out of control.
Link: http://video.foxnews.com/v/4236690/rancher-catches-illegals-on-video/?playlist_id=87937
GratefulCitizen
06-16-2010, 12:16
Can't repeal the laws of supply and demand, even for something illegal.
http://townhall.com/columnists/JohnStossel/2010/06/16/end_the_drug_war
I'm confused. When I walk around busy midtown Manhattan, I often smell marijuana. Despite the crowds, some people smoke weed in public. Usually the police leave them alone, and yet other times they act like a military force engaged in urban combat. This February, cops stormed a Columbia, Mo., home, killed the family dog and terrorized a 7-year-old boy -- for what? A tiny quantity of marijuana.
Two years ago, in Prince George's County, Md., cops raided Cheye Calvo's home -- all because a box of marijuana was randomly shipped to his wife as part of a smuggling operation. Only later did the police learn that Calvo was innocent -- and the mayor of that town.
"When this first happened, I assumed it was just a terrible, terrible mistake," Calvo said. "But the more I looked into it, the more I realized (it was) business as usual that brought the police through our front door. This is just what they do. We just don't hear about it. The only reason people heard about my story is that I happened to be a clean-cut white mayor."
Radley Balko of Reason magazine says more than a hundred police SWAT raids are conducted every day. Does the use of illicit drugs really justify the militarization of the police, the violent disregard for our civil liberties and the overpopulation of our prisons? It seems hard to believe.
I understand that people on drugs can do terrible harm -- wreck lives and hurt people. But that's true for alcohol, too. But alcohol prohibition didn't work. It created Al Capone and organized crime. Now drug prohibition funds nasty Mexican gangs and the Taliban. Is it worth it? I don't think so.
Everything can be abused, but that doesn't mean government can stop it, or should try to stop it. Government goes astray when it tries to protect us from ourselves.
Many people fear that if drugs were legal, there would be much more use and abuse. That's possible, but there is little evidence to support that assumption. In the Netherlands, marijuana has been legal for years. Yet the Dutch are actually less likely to smoke than Americans. Thirty-eight percent of American adolescents have smoked pot, while only 20 percent of Dutch teens have. One Dutch official told me that "we've succeeded in making pot boring."
By contrast, what good has the drug war done? It's been 40 years since Richard Nixon declared war on drugs. Since then, government has spent billions and officials keep announcing their "successes." They are always holding press conferences showing off big drug busts. So it's not like authorities aren't trying.
We've locked up 2.3 million people, a higher percentage than any other country. That allows China to criticize America's human-rights record because our prisons are "packed with inmates."
Yet drugs are still everywhere. The war on drugs wrecks far more lives than drugs do!
Need more proof? Fox News runs stories about Mexican cocaine cartels and marijuana gangs that smuggle drugs into Arizona. Few stop to think that legalization would end the violence. There are no Corona beer smugglers. Beer sellers don't smuggle. They simply ship their product. Drug laws cause drug crime.
The drug trade moved to Mexico partly because our government funded narcotics police in Colombia and sprayed the growing fields with herbicides. We announced it was a success! We cut way back on the Colombian drug trade.
But so what? All we did was squeeze the balloon. The drug trade moved across the border to Peru, and now it's moved to Mexico. So the new president of Mexico is squeezing the balloon. Now the trade and the violence are spilling over the border into the United States.
That's what I call progress. It the kind of progress we don't need.
Economist Ludwig von Mises wrote: "(O)nce the principle is admitted that it is the duty of the government to protect the individual against his own foolishness ... (w)hy not prevent him from reading bad books and bad plays ... ? The mischief done by bad ideologies is more pernicious ... than that done by narcotic drugs."
Right on, Ludwig!
It is a lot different from the early '70s and when I was living near Las Cruces. Then, the Border Patrol would just come to the farms and pick up a truck load to take them back. The same ones would be back a couple of months later but they were really not a problem. They were just looking for legitimate work.
Sooner or later, it will come to armed conflict on the border. I don't see anything Calderone does slowing things down.
(fm rdret1) Sooner or later, it will come to armed conflict on the border. I don't see anything Calderone does slowing things down.
Concur.
WARNING A probable dumb question follows: The States each have a National Guard who works for the Governor. Many States have a State Guard; a kind of militia for the militia. It seems at some point in the near term, if Dear Leader continues to refuse to deploy troops (3,000 now is nothjing to what it will be) what's to prevent/prohibit the Governor from deploying the National Guard to clean out the access corridors, aside from getting the Fed to pay for it? Am I uninformed about the constitutional or political dynamics? (Seriously)
IMHO, the drug cartels will not quit and go home on their own. They will have to be stopped by boots on the ground or Specters in the air (preferrably both).
The illegals coming here for work are not the ones we need to worry about. Its the cartels we need to go after. The solution to hiring illegals is to throw the people that hire them in prison for 20 yers of hard labor. If there are no jobs for them here they will not come here. The drug dealers on the other hand need to be delt with.
In SAM's Today I dealt with 2 individuals who did not speak English and were from Mexico..Sams a national retailer hiring illegals, we are pissing in the wind.
But, there could be a solution? Why is it that national firms will hire illegals before they will hire Black American's, who I believe have a historic unemployment rate of 18-20%. You would think Al Sharpton would be all over that racist issue.
mojaveman
06-16-2010, 20:16
The problem with securing the border is going to take on magnificent proportions. Last summer I was near Campo taking care of some business with one of the many contractors that are building the fence along the California/Mexico border. I was probably 100 meters from the construction going on and got a good look at the multibillion dollar project. What really impressed me though was seeing several teams of DHS troops who were wearing their blue fatigues and practicing tactical movement right out in the open.
This is definately a new era we're living in.
We just returned form 10 days near Sierra Vista marking out our future abode.
A rancher friend of ours there told us that there are known migrant camps in the county. When my wife asked why they weren't raided, he said they're on BLM land and they won't allow the BP on it!
Excuse me, but BLM is PUBLIC land! How the hell can one federal agency (land management) tell another (sworn LE) that it cannot patrol it? For the most part, ANYBODY can go on PUBLIC land. :mad:
pissed Pat
p.s.: This is, obviously, hearsay. So if Bordercop, or someone else on the front line, can explain or correct this information I welcome it.
Hundreds of volunteers and this group gets the media focus.
Posted: 11:09 PM
By: Dave Biscobing
PINAL COUNTY, AZ - This weekend, JT Ready and a group of armed men plan to take Arizona's border battle into their own hands.
"This is the Minutemen project on steroids," he said.
Ready is a member of the Nationalist Socialist Movement, and he and his citizen's militia group are tired of waiting.
"We're going to go all night and shut down the drug corridor that comes directly into Phoenix," Ready said. "We have guys that are going to be doing some covert stuff and we have some snipers coming out."
Though some people call what this group is doing extreme, they are far from alone.
As Arizona continues to be at the epicenter of the U.S. immigration debate, state law enforcement agencies and other departments are seeing a growing trend of people asking to help secure the border.
"With calling and writing emails, probably 100 plus a day," said Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu.
Babeu's county is one of the nation's worst for drug trafficking and human smuggling.
And Patrick Bray with the Arizona Cattlemen's Association said his office has been receiving a lot of calls as well from people asking to help ranchers patrol their land.
"It's been a pretty big response," he said. "We tell them 'Thanks, but no thanks.' This is something for the federal government."
But that's why Ready said his group feels the need to act.
He said the federal government is not doing enough, and that now is the time to act.
"Defending our nation is dangerous," Ready said. "We have some brave patriots that are willing to put their lives on the line."
But Babeu said he's worried about what could happen.
"There's more to this than just going out there with a gun," he said. "People are getting killed out there, and we have drug cartels at war with each other."
Article with video.
http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_central_southern_az/florence/citizen%27s-group-taking-border-battle-into-own-hands#viewSingle98888193
Maybe these guys could join up under the leadership of the fellow with the pistol and sword who was gunning for OBL.
incarcerated
07-16-2010, 20:39
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jVyNiw_yjMgQG2C7iCxv5-EJE96w
Utah probes criminal public disclosure of illegal immigrants
(AFP) – 3 hours ago
WASHINGTON — Utah is investigating the criminal naming of hundreds of illegal immigrants to media and authorities, allegedly by rogue state employees seeking their deportation, the state attorney general said Friday.
"We're talking serious crime. The word we need to get out there is that we're taking it seriously," Mark Shurtleff told reporters in a telephone conference....
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-utah-immigration-20100717,0,6093855.story
Two Utah state workers may have helped compile deportation list
Both are put on leave while officials investigate a letter urging expulsion of 1,300 people the writers say are illegal immigrants.
By Steve Padilla, Los Angeles Times
July 17, 2010
Authorities in Utah said Friday that at least two state employees may have been responsible for compiling and distributing a list containing the names and personal information of 1,300 people who, the senders charged, are illegal immigrants and should be deported immediately.
The employees, who were placed on leave, work for the Department of Workforce Services, which maintains a database containing information matching that on the list. More state employees also might be involved, and officials said the investigation into the list continues.
The list, sent to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Salt Lake City in April, was redistributed this week with additional names to Utah lawmakers, news organizations and police chiefs. The senders called themselves Concerned Citizens of the United States and demanded that authorities begin deporting people on the list.
The list included addresses, Social Security numbers and even whether some women were pregnant. "Most likely both federal and state privacy laws may have been violated," Utah Atty. Gen. Mark L. Shurtleff said Friday....
Was the ambush performed by Los Zetas? The guy who founded the criminal organization was a former Mexican Army SF soldier. This might explain the military tactics the sheriff observed. Some left SF because of low pay and joined criminal organizations as well.
TOMAHAWK9521
07-17-2010, 02:29
I think I mentioned this before, but I remember being deployed with full combat loads to the 4-Corners" area of Cortez, CO back in 1998 for one of the largest manhunts in that area. We deployed all over the area as OP's and blocking/interdicting forces.
The FBI didn't like us knowing everything that was going on, not to mention some of us actually telling them they were trying to run things like a bunch of clueless boobs so they had us removed from the game.
Now if the government is really serious about stopping the drug cartels, I recommend they deputize the SF guard and deploy them to monitor and control the lines of communication north of the Mexican border. Just a thought.
I recommend they deputize the SF guard and deploy them to monitor and control the lines of communication north of the Mexican border. Just a thought.
Good idea, TOMAHAWK9521, but you'd have to select the Team from a bunch of guys you didn't like because they'd soon run afoul of BHO and his covey of punks. It'd frustrate the hell out of them just like it did you in '98.
Can't repeal the laws of supply and demand, even for something illegal.
http://townhall.com/columnists/JohnStossel/2010/06/16/end_the_drug_war
I heard this awhile back. That it would of been much cheaper to pay the Colombian Cartels money equal to their Cocain profit then it was to spend money fighting the Cartels.
I do favor legalizing Marijuana. But I don't think legalizing it would actually stop the illegal trafficking of it. Maybe years down the road but it would take years for the legal sale of MJ to put the illegal dealers out of business. Also the trafficking of Coke and other dangerous Drugs would take the place of MJ trafficking.
GratefulCitizen
07-19-2010, 17:04
Sheriff Joe isn't taking any chances...
http://www.examiner.com/x-9270-LA-Border-and-Immigration-Examiner~y2010m7d16-Arpaio-on-16th-immigration-sweep-takes-out-the-big-gun
The Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio launched its 16th crime and immigration sweep in a stretch of desert in the southwestern U.S.-Mexico border, on Thursday.
Although the next crime suppression operation had been announced for July 29, Arpaio said the one-day sweep was executed sooner due to reports of many drug and immigrant smugglers activity through the Vekol Valley.
Arpaio ordered the deployment of a powerful belt-fed .50 caliber machine gun to be on site during the operation to ensure deputies' safety, as there have been recent reports of violence in the desolate desert areas.
“If anyone shoots at our deputies, they are going to have a problem,” said Arpaio in a news conference in the minutes prior to the sweep.
In a later statement, Arpaio also said that he is not afraid, but well prepared to face drug traffickers.
"I want to send a message to these criminal traffickers that we will not be intimidated by reports claiming that traffickers are better equipped than our law enforcement officers […] we have the machine guns too and we will not hesitate to use them if the situation calls for it."
By late Thursday night, sheriff's deputies said they had arrested 11 people, including seven of those being investigated for human trafficking. The rest were detained for outstanding warrants and traffic violations.
Thursday's crime sweep coincided with the very first federal hearing regarding Arizona's new immigration law, but Arpaio denied any connection between the two. The next planned sweep is set to take place July 29th, the same day Senate Bill 1070 is scheduled to take effect.
Bordercop
07-26-2010, 11:06
We just returned form 10 days near Sierra Vista marking out our future abode.
A rancher friend of ours there told us that there are known migrant camps in the county. When my wife asked why they weren't raided, he said they're on BLM land and they won't allow the BP on it!
Excuse me, but BLM is PUBLIC land! How the hell can one federal agency (land management) tell another (sworn LE) that it cannot patrol it? For the most part, ANYBODY can go on PUBLIC land. :mad:
pissed Pat
p.s.: This is, obviously, hearsay. So if Bordercop, or someone else on the front line, can explain or correct this information I welcome it.
There are not, to my knowledge, migrant camps on BLM land. The Border Patrol is prohbited by law from patrolling in vehicles in wilderness areas but we are allowed access afoot and on horseback. I lived in Sierra Vista and worked in Naco in 2007 & 2008, and I guarantee you that if I had received a report about a camp of migrants anywhere in Cochise County we would have responded and arrested anyone at such a camp who was illegally in the country.
As far as the signs mentioned in the beginning of this post warning Americans about the presence of illegal activity, those have been posted for years. It's nothing new. The land is government owned, mostly by the Forest Service and/or the BLM, and the signs are true. There are illegal aliens being smuggled and drug smugglers moving their bundles northbound. Arizona is still the wild, wild west and it can be very unforgiving if you don't know what you are dealing with. The signs are posted as a warning and if you don't heed them then you may be in for a nasty surprise.
As far as the stories about aliens getting shot at, I'm inclined to believe the two migrants were targeted by bandits. There are armed people guarding the drug loads these days but they are there to guard against rival gangs stealing the loads. We don't take kindly to being shot at and they usually drop their drugs and weapons and skidaddle when we run across them.
As you might guess, a lot of our young/new agents have combat experience in Iraq or Afghanistan and when they go afoot tracking sign, they go with a long arm just in case. Hope you enjoy Sierra Vista. It's a nice town.
There are not, to my knowledge, migrant camps on BLM land. The Border Patrol is prohbited by law from patrolling in vehicles in wilderness areas but we are allowed access afoot and on horseback. I lived in Sierra Vista and worked in Naco in 2007 & 2008, and I guarantee you that if I had received a report about a camp of migrants anywhere in Cochise County we would have responded and arrested anyone at such a camp who was illegally in the country.
As far as the signs mentioned in the beginning of this post warning Americans about the presence of illegal activity, those have been posted for years. It's nothing new. The land is government owned, mostly by the Forest Service and/or the BLM, and the signs are true. There are illegal aliens being smuggled and drug smugglers moving their bundles northbound. Arizona is still the wild, wild west and it can be very unforgiving if you don't know what you are dealing with. The signs are posted as a warning and if you don't heed them then you may be in for a nasty surprise.
As far as the stories about aliens getting shot at, I'm inclined to believe the two migrants were targeted by bandits. There are armed people guarding the drug loads these days but they are there to guard against rival gangs stealing the loads. We don't take kindly to being shot at and they usually drop their drugs and weapons and skidaddle when we run across them.
As you might guess, a lot of our young/new agents have combat experience in Iraq or Afghanistan and when they go afoot tracking sign, they go with a long arm just in case. Hope you enjoy Sierra Vista. It's a nice town.
Nice to get some unpolluted info, thanks for the post!
There are not, to my knowledge, migrant camps on BLM land. The Border Patrol is prohbited by law from patrolling in vehicles in wilderness areas but we are allowed access afoot and on horseback. I lived in Sierra Vista and worked in Naco in 2007 & 2008, and I guarantee you that if I had received a report about a camp of migrants anywhere in Cochise County we would have responded and arrested anyone at such a camp who was illegally in the country.
Thanks for the reply, BC.
What about the complaint that too many BP agents are manning checkpoints 20 miles from the border and accomplish little more than the harassment of the locals? They would like to see those guys actually patrolling the border, a border with 24/7/365 watchtowers or high-resolution video equivalent.
Pat
Bordercop
07-27-2010, 05:47
Pat,
After all the time I've spent on the border, over 23 years, believe me I've heard that complaint plenty. The majority of the Border Patrol is on the border but the purpose of the checkpoints is to have defense in depth. At the present time, we don't have the technology in place to detect every entry when it happens so we set up checkpoints in an effort to deter the smugglers from just driving unimpeded on the highways away from the border area into the interior.
One of the significant differences in Arizona, compared to California, New Mexico and Texas, is that Arizona, specifically the Tucson Sector, was prohibited by Congress from constructing permanent checkpoints until 2007. The Border Patrol, only in Ariozna, could set up checkpoints but was forced by statute to move the checkpoints every two weeks to another location. Having permanent checkpoints with infrastructure like canopys and lights on roadways stragecially placed leading from the border into the interior is a significant deterrent. Believe it or not we catch a lot of drug smugglers and illegal aliens at those checkpoints. We also catch a lot of wanted persons, U.S. citizens and aliens, and aliens who are out of status and get them removed from the country by deportation.
Think of the strategy like a football team's defense. You have a defensive line and linebackers, but you also have cornerbacks and safetys who back them up and hopefully prevent the other team from scoring. In the case of the border however, the ones who get away could be coming into the country to ruin some innocnet civilian's life forever.
We know that the folks who live in the area of the checkpoints get tired of waiting in line at the checkpoints. We are however empowered by law and various court decisions with the authority to stop and question every person at an immigration checkpoint regarding their right to be in or remain in the United States. In the process of determing someone's citizenship we uncover a world of other criminal activity.
I also know, from personal and professional experience, that some of our agents, mostly the younger and immature agents, can be unprofessional and rude to the traveling public. If that happens to you, ask to speak with a Supervisor, there's usually one at or near the checkpoint, and point out the Agent's rude or unprofessional behavior to the Supervisor. We need the public on our side and Border Patrol management won't stand for you or anyone else being dealt with in a less than porfessional and courteous manner by our agents.
Our job, especially after 9/11, is to protect this country from terrorists who might try and enter the country illegally between the ports of entry. We are still charged with catching illegal aliens and drug smugglers too, but I'm not as worried about somebody coming to work here out of status as I am about some true believer coming and doing God knows what to a bunch of innocent civilians. Every one of us try and do the best we can to protect you and yours from the people who want to come here and destroy what its taken over 200 years to create.
I hope that clears it up a little.
alright4u
07-27-2010, 08:07
The illegals coming here for work are not the ones we need to worry about. Its the cartels we need to go after. The solution to hiring illegals is to throw the people that hire them in prison for 20 yers of hard labor. If there are no jobs for them here they will not come here. The drug dealers on the other hand need to be delt with.
As for the reporting I take sometinh like that with a grain of salt. Their story may be that they were just poor working illegals coming here to work. They forgot to mention they are part of a cartel packing drugs over and shot at some campers first. I guess I am just jaded.
I do not buy that. Informants, add old men and women are the one's who are lookouts. Same same in CI. Illegal means illegal.
At the present time, we don't have the technology in place to detect every entry when it happens…
This, to me, is proof positive that the Feds are not serious about sealing the border. While I may be new to the area as a civilian, I was stationed at Ft. Huachuca in 1970. I was an Unattended Ground Sensor instructor at the Electronic Warfare/Combat Surveillance School. We had very good perimeter intrusion devices 40 years ago as well as remote sensors that could monitor trail and river activity. These still exist, and, I would hope, are even better.
As for Defense-in-Depth, it sounds like a good job for local LEOs to me.
Permanent checkpoints, I WANT to know where you are if I want to get by you. Those football Corners and Safeties don’t just stand in one spot and wait for the Running Back or Wide Receiver to come to them. The fact that some are caught at the checkpoints indicates to me that they are stupid, cocky, lazy, or a decoy. I'm cynical enough to believe it could even be “tossing the BP a bone.” If they never caught anyone or anything, they'd be hard pressed to defend the present practice, and the bad guys like it just the way it is. It’s a "known known", to quote Rumsfeld.
Ft. Huachuca was built there, over 130 years ago, for a reason.
V/R
Pat
Those football Corners and Safeties don’t just stand in one spot and wait for the Running Back or Wide Receiver to come to them.I sure as heck wish someone had explained this point to Roy Williams when he was with the Cowboys.
There are not, to my knowledge, migrant camps on BLM land.
Sir respectfully, while they may not be "camps" there are definitely well used staging/changing areas well inside of the US border. Lets go with the easy example of the Antelope Peak area just south of the I-8. The trails are littered with trash clothes ect... While I suppose this could be from hikers I don't see it on any other AZ trails I visit.
Don't get me wrong I'm not calling you out personally and I realize Border Patrol's hands may be tied on some things, but as a member of the Border Patrol you have to admit there is a big problem.
The trails are littered with trash clothes ect... While I suppose this could be from hikers I don't see it on any other AZ trails I visit.
Might be a valid reason for that - ever hear the term canalization used in a tactical context? :confused:
Just sayin'...
Richard's $.02 :munchin
Might be a valid reason for that - ever hear the term canalization used in a tactical context? :confused:
I had not but after some research it would appear to only validate the thought that these trails are well known/used routes for drug and human smuggling.
Derek
Bordercop
07-28-2010, 07:36
Sir respectfully, while they may not be "camps" there are definitely well used staging/changing areas well inside of the US border. Lets go with the easy example of the Antelope Peak area just south of the I-8. The trails are littered with trash clothes ect... While I suppose this could be from hikers I don't see it on any other AZ trails I visit.
Don't get me wrong I'm not calling you out personally and I realize Border Patrol's hands may be tied on some things, but as a member of the Border Patrol you have to admit there is a big problem.
There is a big problem and you are correct that there are well used trails that are littered with clothing and trash left behind by groups of illegal aliens as they pass through the more remote sections of the Tucson area of responsibility.
There are also drop houses and lay up spots where the groups congregate awaiting a pick-up by the alien smuggling organizations.
We know about the trails and lay up spots and will investigate suspected drop houses, or give the information to ICE so they can investigate.
Most of the trails are bugged with sensors that give us a heads up that a group has entered and the sensors are checked by agents.
We do the best we can with the resources at our disposal. Do we need more help, better technology, and additional infrastructure? Heck yes...but this is the "Guvmint" we're talking about and everything takes time. Why do you think so many people are against the Federal Government being in charge of health care?
I, and the rest of the Border Patrol, are used to being criticized by land owners, ranchers, business owners, immigrant activist groups, constitutionalists, the Mexican government, the U.S. government, and the general public about everything we do, don't do, should or shouldn't do etc...
I was just trying to give a real answer to a real question. We aren't perfect but we do our best to catch everything and everyone who comes across the border illegally.
P.S. We're hiring...think you can do what I've done? Sign up and show me!
I had not but after some research it would appear to only validate the thought that these trails are well known/used routes for drug and human smuggling.
And BP/LEO counter-drug/smuggling activities. ;)
Richard
ZonieDiver
07-28-2010, 09:20
There is a big problem and you are correct that there are well used trails that are littered with clothing and trash left behind by groups of illegal aliens as they pass through the more remote sections of the Tucson area of responsibility.
There are also drop houses and lay up spots where the groups congregate awaiting a pick-up by the alien smuggling organizations.
We know about the trails and lay up spots and will investigate suspected drop houses, or give the information to ICE so they can investigate.
Most of the trails are bugged with sensors that give us a heads up that a group has entered and the sensors are checked by agents.
We do the best we can with the resources at our disposal. Do we need more help, better technology, and additional infrastructure? Heck yes...but this is the "Guvmint" we're talking about and everything takes time. Why do you think so many people are against the Federal Government being in charge of health care?
I, and the rest of the Border Patrol, are used to being criticized by land owners, ranchers, business owners, immigrant activist groups, constitutionalists, the Mexican government, the U.S. government, and the general public about everything we do, don't do, should or shouldn't do etc...
I was just trying to give a real answer to a real question. We aren't perfect but we do our best to catch everything and everyone who comes across the border illegally.
P.S. We're hiring...think you can do what I've done? Sign up and show me!
Bordercop,
Thanks for the information. I drive I-8 a lot, and have for years (my previous employer was HQ'ed in San Diego). I often wondered why there were those cool "permanent" checkpoints in CA, but often NONE in AZ, or "temporary" ones. (BP used the AZ Ag-Livestock station E. of Yuma for a short time, I think.) Now I know. One question: WHY were they previously prohibitted in AZ? Did it have anything to do with a former governor, or one of our "quaint" S. AZ "Congress-Critters"?
While passing through these checkpoints over these many past years, I have never observed Border Patrol agents to be anything but courteous, pleasant, and efficient. Even the dogs are polite!
Thanks. If you guys take 61 year olds, I'll sign up.
Bordercop, again I wasn't calling you out and hope you don't feel that I was. My post was trying to show that the info that PSM got about "camps" was probably valid but the camps are temporary and move often.
I know about the drop houses and government mishandling of the situation all to well.
We need to get an exchange program of some sort set up... I'd love to come down there and work with you for a while.
Derek