StormWarning’s Counterterrorism

It is difficult to avoid the derogatory terms. But there is a massive human trafficking industry that has been created by another Cuban exodus. We have a serious problem here and neither of the candidates is addressing it. Illegal immigration is continuing. Our borders are not safe. And now the “Dusty Feet” are are our newest illegal arrivals.

U.S. Coast Guard patrols have sharply reduced the flow of Cubans across the narrow Florida Straits, enforcing a policy of returning people intercepted at sea to Cuba’s communist government.

It’s called “wet-foot, dry-foot” - wet for those caught at sea, dry for those who reach land in Florida and thus qualify for U.S. entry. A third expression has entered the jargon - “dusty-foot,” referring to Cubans who arrive in Texas, where Cubans need only present identity documents and undergo medical and background checks before being welcomed to America.

The price of passage is $5,000 to $10,000 per person and much shorter than in the days when Cubans would spend days at sea headed for Florida or Mexico on rickety boats and rafts. They were known as “balseros,” from the word “balsa” to indicate the flimsiness of their boats.

But the Mexican route is also becoming increasingly prone to violence.

Cut the crap people! Illegals, more illegals and many of them “other than Mexicans” are entering the United States through Texas. I once took a position that Congressman Steve King’s solution, an electrified fence was wrong. Now, I wonder if I was wrong. There are many other ways to guard our border, other ways to track the people entering the country illegally.

I suppose that I now even agree with Texas Fred. Shoot’em before they take over this place.

Dusty Feet, illegal immigration

5 Comments »

Startling disclosure in an intercepted email from an imprisoned Ghanaian. The man is in prison for smuggling East Africans into the US, supposedly for economic reasons (Djibouti, Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan). Officials are concerned that terrorists could use the same channels.

In the 12 months that ended last Sept. 30, U.S. officials caught 372 East Africans trying to get into the country, the assessment said. This is the most from these countries since the Homeland Security Department was formed in 2003. And 159 people from the same countries have been caught trying to enter since Oct. 1 - including 138 from Eritrea, far more than any other country in the Horn of Africa.

Apparently one illegal channel is closed, another is opened.

Mohammed Kamel Ibrahim, a 26-year-old Ghana citizen living in Mexico known as “Silk the Shocker,” wrote in an Oct. 24, 2006, e-mail to an associate that he would have no problem smuggling somebody into the United States.

“I will pay my immigration friend 2 days before he comes so that he can be waiting for him immediately he gets out of the flight. that way there is no questioning,” Ibrahim wrote in the same e-mail.

Its not just Mexicans. Preferred routes include:

East Africa ===> Johannesburg, South Africa ===> Sao Paulo, Brazil
East Africa ===> flew from Abu Dhabi, Dubai, or Rome to Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico and Venezuela

The smugglers have access to fake and real Belizean, Bolivian, Chilean, Mexican, Peruvian and South African visas.

Its not just Mexicans, now is it? Technology may be one way to help stop or slow this. However, Janice Kephart, former counsel to the Sept. 11 Commission said, “They do what they need to based on what their end goal is.”

East Africa, human smuggling, other than Mexicans

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Its been subrosa for a while, but now revealed, that a group of Catholics named Grupo Romo is working to address what thet call “the increasingly toxic anti-immigrant atmosphere” by turning the Alamo City into a sanctuary for unauthorized immigrants. These are “faith-driven” activists providing shelter, food and medical care for what this article refers to as “unauthorized immigrants” (this is political correctness carried to a ludicrous extreme!)…call these people what they are! They are “illegal aliens” who enter this country illegally by surreptitiously sneaking across holes in our border with Mexico (along with G-d knows whoever else).

The encouragement offered by this “well meaning” Grupo Romo is contrary to anything that any law-abiding citizen of the United States should countenance…residents of Texas where the population is 36% Hispanic (counting only the legal residents) and in San Antonio, where the legal Hispanic population is nearly 58% is astounding. Grupo Romo, despite their “faith base” and religious cloak, are aiding and abetting law breakers.

“We are the new Sanctuary Movement in San Antonio,” said group member Víctor Ruiz, 63, who works for the immigration division of Catholic Charities and previously was with the Defense Department in Corpus Christi. “If immigrants need help, we will do all we can to help them out.”

The original “Sanctuary Movement” was a religious effort in the 1980s that created an underground railroad for Central Americans fleeing the region’s bloody civil wars, whose trail crossed South Texas…

…Offering sanctuary to the undocumented is controversial even within immigrant-heavy congregations…

Despite their religious basis, Grupo Romo and other like them are breaking the law! This whole “New Sanctuary” movement is contrary to the Law of the Land!

● Jim “Hoot” Gibson, a San Antonio teacher and member of U.S. Border Watch, a Houston-based immigration-restriction group, said he and others stand ready to protest the Romo group. The law is unequivocal, Gibson said: They’ll be aiding and harboring undocumented immigrants.

● local ICE Director, Jerry Robinette says that “He’s all for people acting on political and religious convictions, and he’s got nothing against helping needy folks, but he can’t look the other way if they break immigration laws.” and “I’d caution them that good intentions could make them criminally liable,” Robinette said. “They have to make the decision whether they want to violate the law or not.”

Movements like the New Sanctuary Movement work against our National Security in the name of “faith.” Groups like these must be stopped. While their ideals a correct, the fact that they encourage law breaking is something I cannot support.

FYI, check out Right Truth’s Memorial Day Weekend Reading Assignment.

Grupo Romo, New Sanctuary Movement, San Antonio

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America is known as the melting pot. People of all sizes, shapes and colors come here to take advantage of all of the benefits of freedom. A new study by a Duke Univ. economist shows that newcomers are assimilating more quickly than their predecessors did 100 years ago — especially Cubans, Vietnamese and Filipinos — but not Mexicans!

Mexicans — by far the most numerous nationality — lag significantly behind other big immigrant groups, possibly because a lack of legal status keeps many Mexican immigrants from advancing.

Why? Its obvious:

● lower rates of citizenship
● higher incidences of teenage pregnancy
● higher incidences of incarceration.

Sorry to say that its a vicious circle, and one that generally validates at least one stereotype.

assimilation, Mexican immigrants

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It is time that we wake up America!  The Rio Grande Valley along the Texas-Mexican border is a war zone…and it is going to be a battlezone for freedom if we are not careful. If the battles between the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels aren’t enough to scare the crap out of you (along with the viciousness of the Gulf Cartels’ henchmen, Los Zetas), then examine more closely the gunning down of Edgar Eusebio Millán Gómez. As the public face of the Mexican government’s war on drugs, his being killed on the doorstep of his apartment in Mexico City, no less, holds in it the risk that the cartels will be emboldened (see Washington Post article). We are witnessing the first real protracted battles of the War on Terrorism in our Hemisphere.

“This could have a snowball effect, even leading to the risk of ungovernability,” Luís Astorga, a Mexico City-based sociologist and drug expert, said in an interview. “It indicates terrible things, a level of weakness in our institutions — they can’t even protect themselves.”

Already, there have been more than 6000 deaths in this Drug War within the country that lies to the south of our porous border. Millán Gómez’s murder is not the first high level (and visibility) murder.

Before Millán Gómez was slain, assassins also killed Robert Velasco Bravo, the head of the federal police agency’s organized crime tactical analysis office, as well as two other top police officials, all of them in Mexico City. One of the killings was in Coyoacan, an old-money haven popular with tourists.

The message seems clear. The Drug Lords and their cartels reign supreme in Mexico. I don’t care about the Merida Initiative! It won’t work (IMO of course). Merida is the appropriation of funds for the U.S. to help Calderon quell the violence and stop the drug trade. Who the hell are we kidding? The problem is that the problem is going to become more difficult to stop.

The worst part of all of this is the International connections to the Mexican Drug War…the first battles on the War on Terrorism in the Western Hemisphere are being fought today in Mexico. In his post on the Counterterrorism Blog, Doug Farah connects the dots for those who cannot or do not already see (anyone who has a familiarity with counter-narcotics issues already knew this).

It is worth remembering that the chaos the traffickers are wreaking in Mexico is not just aimed at the Mexican state, it is also aimed at undermining the already-battered viability of our southern border. The hundreds of dead across the border states of Mexico show where the battles are being fought.

The easier it is to cross dope, weapons, illegal aliens from around the world, the higher the profits for the traffickers.

And the FARC rebels in Colombia are now in a direct business relationship with Mexican trafficking organizations, according to the recently-captured FARC documents resulting from the raid that killed rebel leader Raul Reyes.

The FARC, in turn, is allied with Nicaragua (Ortega) and Venezuela (Chavez), who in turn are allied with Iran, which in turn runs Hezbollah, which in turn is actively working to expand its beach head in Latin America.

Remember Monkey Point? StormBlog is one of the only places, I dare say, that discussed the Iranian foothold in South America. Its been quiet down there recently. No news, but its there!

In his own blog, Farah connects the dots for those who do not already see them!

It is not a conspiracy to see all these developments as inter-connected. As I often tell military audiences and others, every piece of the mosaic, looked at individually, is serious but not alarming. But when the tiles of the mosaic are assembled into a picture, even if the picture is a bit blurry, it is astonishing and dangerous.

Wake up America! The battles along our border are alot more important than keeping all of those Mexicans from swimming across the Rio Grande! or walking through the desert. We need to worry about the so-called, “Other Than Mexicans.” Our Southern Border with Mexico is indeed and battlezone. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that the Battle of the Rio Grande will soon expand.

As my “regular readers know, I have been writing on the brewing invasion of the U.S. related to the war in Mexico for quite some time now. A different view can be found here. Also see a more recent view of this issue written by Snooper.

[I needs ta git me a "posse"]

counter narcotics, Edgar Eusebio Millan Gomez, FARC, Los Zetas, mexico drug cartels, Monkey Point, Washington Post

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EDITORIAL AND OPINION

Time has come again - see May 17, 2007 - North American Union - URBAN LEGEND (Updated) - for me to write in opposition to the conspiracy theorists’ contention that a covert movement is afoot to erase our Nation’s boundaries through the creation of what is referred to as the North American Union.

Just because its in the WorldNetDaily (I cannot believe that I’ve just linked to a WorldNetDaily “exclusive” commentary - AUTHOR’s NOTE: it is generally held by credible bloggers and experts in the field of counterterrorism that WND is not a credible source of information) doesn’t make it true.  There is even this morning an “editorial” from a thing called NaturalNews in which a “school psychologist, a published author in the area of personal finance, a breast cancer survivor using “alternative” treatments, a born existentialist, and a student of nature and all things natural” writes about a “secret meeting of the Security and Prosperity Partnership” discussed PR. Problems implementing this conspiracy abound.  Not the least of which is the elimination of illegal immigration.

False Claim: The leaders of Canada, the United States and Mexico agreed in 2005 to subsume their countries into a great “North American Union” by the year 2010.

False claim: The U.S. Mint has been producing the “Amero,” a coin to be used by the economic union of the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Bits and pieces of unrelated information being spun together by libertarians and others (of their ilk) looking to offer that an economic linkage or an outer band of security around North America will immediately bring down the Sovereignty of the United States. Inevitably, my position will leave me open to criticism and maybe ridicule, or as in the post from a year ago, a commenter urging me to “do my own research” and to open my eyes to the obvious of what the Security and Prosperity Partnership says. And yes! I am aware of the United Nations resolution, 55/2. Millennium Declaration that was enacted on September 8, 2000. And yes! I am aware of the Trans-Texas Corridor (it is among a list of “Gov. Rick Perry’s Follies” that will be his unfortunate legacy when he is finally defeated in the Texas elections).

Well, despite the derision that is likely to follow, I don’t believe all of this conspiracy theory sh!t. I acknowledge that there are people, good people, some people who I consider friends and blogging buddies, who believe 100% that the NAU is coming and will eliminate the Sovereign borders of the United States. For further texture and detail on this subject, and then debunking of the NAU fears, please see Debunking the North American Union Conspiracy Theory By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted June 15, 2007.

The subject of “Negotiating North America” is discussed at Right Truth. I vehementally disagree with the words and thoughts of Phyllis Schlafly whose article is referred to in that post.

Gov. Rick Perrys Follies, North American Union

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According to the Homeland Security undersecretary for intelligence and analysis, Charles Allen, even though there are indications of clear intent, there is no sign of al Qaeda actually trying to move jihad terrorists into the United States from Mexico (not just yet, at least). Let us hope this revelation does not reduce our vigilence on the southern border and our efforts to stop illegal immigration.

“We do know that going back to 2004, the southern border is something that al Qaeda’s central leadership has looked at. But we know of no specifics of where al Qaeda has really endeavored to cross our borders in the south,” he said.

Of course, the contrast is that at least one Islamic militant has been caught trying to enter the United States from Canada by land to attempt an attack…before 2000.

al Qaeda, illegal immigration

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Again?  More like still!%@#*&!.  In Ciudad Juarez, just over the El Paso Texas border, 200 people have been murdered this year alone (22 on Easter Weekend).  Behind all of this violence in ”El Chapo,” the head of the Sinaloa drug cartel.  In total, the murder count is over 700 in 2008.  All of this is happening in spite of the Calderon anti-drug initiative, proving, perhaps that nothing will stop the drug lords from continuing to kill each other and innocent bystanders along with law enforcement officers in their insane spree of violence.

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is such a nice guy though.

Police say Mexico’s most wanted man, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who leads a consortium of traffickers from the Pacific state of Sinaloa, has taken his fight for control of smuggling routes to Ciudad Juarez, targeting the dominant Juarez cartel amid a much lighter army presence there than in other cities.

Look at that face!

WANTED

(Aliases: El Chapo, Chapo Guzman, El Rapido)

DOB: December 25, 1954
POB: Mexico
Nationality: Mexican
Citizenship: Mexico
Height: 5 feet 8 inches
Weight: 165 pounds
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Brown

Of course there is hope along with unsubstantiated speculation that El Chapo has been killed in Guatemala during a gunbattle outside a water park in Teculutan, a drug-trafficking stronghold in northeastern Guatemala.

Let is be so, but as with other terrorists, the likelihood of the terror ending even if the head of this snake is chopped off is limited.

Ciudad Juarez, El Chapo, El Paso, pipsqueak

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Well, I was busy for alot of the day, and never got to write this.  Doug Farah at CTBlog (and his own blog) beat me to it.  Its time for all of the people arguing to relax the border wake up to the very real danger.  I’ve written about this so many times before!  In this case, 3 Afghan men with legal Mexican passports tried to enter the U.S.

Three Afghani Muslim men caught posing as Mexican nationals last month while en route to Europe were part of a human smuggling operation and carried what are now believed to be altered but genuine Mexican passports for which they paid $10,000 each, Indian investigators told The San Antonio Express-News.

The key point is this: “At issue to some U.S. national security experts is whether another of Mexico’s embassies and consulates abroad might be implicated in selling travel documents to people from countries like Afghanistan where terrorist organizations are active…”

Here’s more for the disbelievers and those who want to have an open border!

Travelers from Islamic countries carrying passports that are valid but altered with fake names and photographs are among the most difficult to detect, he said. In the black markets of human smuggling, real national passports with embedded security bar codes rank among the most valuable travel documents because they enable their bearers to more easily slip through airport inspections.

“If you’ve got a Mexican passport you’ve already crossed the bridge,” Conway said. “And you can become part of the flood of people who cross into the U.S. If terrorists wanted to exploit the infrastructure in place, they can. It’s there.”

We are dealing with a very persistent enemy…they have multiple faces and skin colors…they come from many different countries…

So, here is the question for the moment: HAVE TERRORISTS CROSSED? (the U.S.-Mexican border). Of course they have!…Border security critics assert no terrorist has ever crossed; they would be wrong.

…the heart of a central question regarding just how much of a national security threat is posed by a small category of border-jumping migrants known in homeland security agencies as “Special Interest Aliens.”

Terrorists across the border???

According to unearthed intelligence reports, court records, interviews with federal agents and a variety of open sources, other border jumpers that can be publicly tied to terrorism since Al-Qaeda began its international bombing campaign against American targets in the mid-1990s are:

– Kuwaiti national Nabil al-Marabh. Listed as number 27 on the FBI’s list of Most Wanted Terrorists for alleged links to the 9-11 hijackers and other plots…

– Palestinian Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer. Found guilty of conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction after authorities uncovered his 1997 plot to bomb a New York City subway…

– Ahmed Ressam. Convicted of plotting the 1999 “millennium” bomb attack on the Los Angeles International Airport after he was caught trying to cross into Washington State in a car loaded with explosives and bomb components…

– Algerian Abdelghani Meskini and Abdelhakim Tizegha. Convicted of charges related to the thwarted 1999 “millennium” plot…

– Mohmoud Khalil and Ziad Saleh. Among a group of men, including members of the designated terrorist group Hamas, arrested in January 2005 in connection to a wire fraud, trademark violations and alien smuggling investigation…

– Ahilan Nadarajah and Saluja Thangaraja. Reputed members of the Tamil Tigers caught at the Mexico border in 2001 after being smuggled through Thailand, South Africa and Brazil en route to Toronto Canada…

Close the freakin’ border! Control the documents…make them more secure than they are…or will be under the current regulations and guidelines.

And here is the point…

One territory where Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina meet, known as the “Tri-Border” region, home to tens of thousands of Arab immigrants, has been under unrelenting scrutiny by American intelligence services since 9-11.

The U.S. Treasury Department in December designated nine people and two organizations in the Tri-Border region it says “provided financial and logistical support to the Hezbollah terrorist organization.” A department fact sheet accuses some of the men of trafficking in weaponry, another of running Hezbollah front businesses in Chile. Another man is named as an expert in illegally acquiring Brazilian citizenship and bogus Paraguayan travel documents.

I don’t know how many times I have written about the Tri-Border region…or about so many of the other issues relating to illegal immigration. We’ve got a problem here, and now, more than 6½ years after the attacks of September 11th, we are still playing politics with immigration.

I’ve written about this many times before:
Terrorists Have Been Arrested at Texas Border
Breaching America: Iraqi Chaldean Christian Granted Asylum
Chaldean Christians - Aliens in Search of Religious Freedom
Border Security - The Danger of Illegal Immigration from Islamic Countries - Part 4
Border Security - The Danger of Illegal Immigration from Islamic Countries - Part 3
Border Security - Breaching America: The Latin Connection

border security, Hezbollah, immigration, State Department, Tri Border region

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Its hard to figure out which side of the fence Rick Perry is on.  He’s for it, he’s against it.  He’s got video cameras watching people cross the Tex-Mex border, and now, he states that coordination and that a fence from El Paso to Brownville is not is the answer.  Its called pandering to the audience.

Perry’s comments before the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce came less than two weeks after he told reporters in Austin that “there is some strategic fencing that we support” and “that you can use strategic fencing to help control the flow of illegal activities.”

The governor’s speech on Monday, which drew applause from the audience, made no mention of “strategic fencing.”  

Perry’s spokesman, Robert Black claims that there is no contradiction. 

Antonio Gil Morales, an opponent of any sort of border wall…[skip]…suggested that Perry’s comments were tailored to his audience. “Everybody’s trying to play the middle road without [upsetting] anybody,” said Morales, of Fort Worth.

Morales has Perry pegged.

First Rick was a supporter of Giuliani, now he supports McCain (I support McCain).  I support strong border security.  I don’t think that Gov. Perry does.  Its all too transparent for me.

border fence, border security

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Sad.  Its just another job that no American (or Texan) is capable of doing!  The Dallas Morning News has declared that the illegal immigrant is the Texas Man of the Year.  IMO, even Governor Rick Perry is more worthy; frankly, so is Kinky Friedman is more worthy.  Shame and sadness falls upon the great State of Texas for willingly succumbing, and “tossing in the taco.”

He breaks the law by his very presence. He hustles to do hard work many Americans won’t, at least not at the low wages he accepts. The American consumer economy depends on him. America as we have known it for generations may not survive him. We can’t seem to live with him and his family, and if we can live without him, nobody’s figured out how.

I can’t believe this.

●  Texas’ immigrant population has increased by nearly 33 percent since 2000, according to an analysis of government data by the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies.

●  Half the immigrants in Texas — about 7 percent of all Texans — are here illegally.

●  Texas’ immigrant population has jumped a whopping 32.7 percent since 2000

The myth of the “job American’s won’t do.”

“There is no such thing as a job that natives won’t do,” Dr. Borjas, an immigrant from Cuba, wrote last year. “Instead, there are jobs that natives aren’t willing to do at the going wage.”

The state comptroller’s office had a different take on Texas, reporting in 2005 that illegal immigrants provided a net economic boost of nearly $18 billion that year. While the state government took in more taxes from illegal immigrants than it paid out in services for them, the comptroller said, the opposite was true for Texas’ local governments.

Is this still the United States?

The importance of immigrant labor to Texas was underscored this year with formation of a new political alliance – big business and the Legislature’s Mexican-American caucus. They threatened to cripple the lawmaking machinery if legislative leaders allowed a slate of “anti-immigrant” bills to advance. The tactic worked.

And so it goes…[I'll add more to this later when I have finished some other work].

illegal immigration, Texas Man of the Year

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Often, the thoughts of some of our Nation’s greatest statesmen relate so well to today’s issues.  That is no less true of Teddy Roosevelt’s position as expressed in his letter to the president of the American Defense Society on January 3, 1919, three days before Roosevelt died.  “On Immigrants and Being an American”:

“In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American… There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag…We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language…and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.

Do we believe that today?  I do.  President Roosevelt favored assimilation rather than hyphenation.  He believed that hyphenation could lead to the downfall of the Nation.  He believed that split allegiances could lead to fighting amongst ourselves.  I believe that he, if he were President today, also would have been strict in this interpretation of what was legal versus illegal immigration.  In fact, I believe that TR would defend American sovereignty against the onslaught of illegal immigrants.  He might actually have deployed the military despite (or maybe inspite of) Posse Comitatus.

Although the attributed date to this important quote in American history is wrong…TR did in fact write those words, but not in 1907 as is often stated.

border security, On Imigrants and Being an American, Teddy Roosevelt

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Leave it to Texans to do what should be done.  Operation Streamline is a zero-tolerance policy of deporting all people captured entering the U.S. illegally.  It started in Del Rio, Tx. about 2 yrs. ago.  Now, its being enforced in Laredo where not only do we have a problem with illegals, but the narco-terrorists continue to cross from Nuevo Laredo and kill law enforcement and journalists.

Border Patrol gets tough in Laredo - Some worry crackdown on illegal immigrants will overwhelm courts

The operation began quietly Tuesday in Laredo as the Border Patrol apprehended 31 illegal immigrants from Mexico in the urban area. Until this week, most of the 31 arrested would have been eligible for “voluntary departure” – put on a bus once they passed a criminal background check and returned to Mexico without charges.

But from now on, under Operation Streamline, all illegal immigrants caught in Laredo will be sent to federal court for misdemeanor charges of entry without inspection, a trial and deportation. If they return, they face felony charges and jail time.

Commentary: But part of the issue relates to jurisdiction and budgets.  The local areas like Del Rio and Laredo are our Nation’s first line of defense against the onslaught of illegal aliens.  And yet for the most part the jurisdiction over enforcement lies with the FEDS while the cost of housing and prosecuting them falls to the locals.  Its a serious issue because many times, when we all rail on about cities, towns or states that become so-called sanctuary cities, its largely because the locals do not have the funds to jail these people, so unless the illegal commits another illegal act (as though entering this country illegally is somehow not a crime), the locals have no motivation.  Frankly, its time for the federal government to pay for the expenses incurred by the locals when the local governments apprehend an intruder.

From US Border Patrol Expands Zero-tolerance Program in Texas: The basic idea behind the Border Patrol’s Streamline program is enforcement of a law that has been on the books since 1952 that authorizes fines and imprisonment for anyone illegally crossing over the border into the United States. Since the program started in Del Rio, Texas in December, 2005 there has been a 67 percent reduction in illegal alien apprehensions. The program started in the Yuma, Arizona sector just ten months ago and has resulted in a 70 percent drop in apprehensions.

“The recidivism rate for those aliens that have been prosecuted under the Streamline operation nationwide is less than two percent.” he said.

Want some facts:

• Last fiscal year, the Border Patrol apprehended 54,911 illegal immigrants in the Del Rio Sector
• In Laredo, it caught more than 90,000 illegal immigrants – 74,840 from Mexico alone.  

One of the results on Operation Streamline in Del Rio was the drop by nearly 2/3 of the Mexican illegals being apprehended, and the ability to refocus the resources onto the illegal drug trade, which so happens also increased by 2/3.  Imagine that? What does it mean?

Under Streamline, voluntary departure is a thing of the past in the so-called zero-tolerance zones. Anyone caught entering illegally where Streamline is in place will be prosecuted in federal court and charged with a misdemeanor for the first offense. Any subsequent illegal entry may be prosecuted as a felony. The maximum penalty is six months in jail and removal from the U.S.Those convicted are then barred from legal reentry for five years; 20 years for a second removal. Conviction of an aggravated felony would result in a permanent bar to reentry.

OPERATION STREAMLINE
Operation Streamline-Laredo is patterned after similar programs in the Del Rio and Yuma Border Patrol sectors:
Purpose: Reduce the number of illegal immigrants entering the United States within the Laredo Sector.

Benefits: Greater border security and improving the quality of life for people living in the sector.

How it works: Under this program, all persons who illegally enter the United States in the Laredo Sector at locations designated for zero­tolerance and other than a designated legal port of entry will be prosecuted in federal court for violation of Title 8 USC 1325, Entry Without Inspection, which can result in up to 180 days incarceration.

Penalties:

•First conviction is a misdemeanor, with a maximum sentence of 180 days incarceration.

•Subsequent offenses may be prosecuted as felonies.

•Once removed, an illegal immigrant is subject to being barred from legal reentry for periods of:

Five years for the first removal

20 years for a second or subsequent removal

Indefinitely, if convicted of an aggravated felony

Sounds about right to me! 

Other discussion about “Op-Stream” - Soon, all illegal immigrants found crossing into the United States for the first time will face a jail sentence.  The program is already underway in Yuma with great success.  Border Patrol is trying to get away from the old catch-and-release system in order to keep illegal immigrants from coming back to break the law.  “Operation Streamline” is the name, zero tolerance is the game.“It’s been very effective.  We’ve managed to prosecute almost every single alien we’ve apprehended within the border zones in Yuma sector,” says Yuma Sector Border Patrol Agent Michael Bernacke.

With or without the damn border fence that had become a political football and a distraction, its time to make ZERO-TOLERANCE policy of these here United States of America. If people do not respect our sovereignty, then I say Push them back, push them back…W-A-A-A-A-A-Y BACK! (I actually might say “it” a bit more forcefully, but Wordpress might object to my use of four-letter words.).

From the link above:  In its initial phase, the Streamline program in the Laredo sector is being targeted at the city of Laredo and nearby areas, but it will eventually be expanded to the entire 273-kilometer Laredo sector border corridor. Immigration officials in Washington are also keeping a close eye on the program, studying the possibility of implementing it on the entire US-Mexico border.

And they’re waiting for what?

border security, Del Rio, deportation, illegal immimgration, Laredo, Operation Streamline, zero tolerance

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“South of the Border, Down Mexico Way“…For months now, I’ve been writing about how U.S. National Security is threatened not just by the illegals flowing across the border, but also because of the drug cartel violence that persists and spreads.  This follows the Stratfor report last week of the spreading narco-violence and its spread across the Texas border with Mexico.

It said there were 1,543 drug-related killings in Mexico in 2005 and more than 2,100 in 2006, and that the more than 2,100 estimated since Jan. 1 will “certainly make this year the deadliest yet.”

Announced today is a new plan, called “Plan Mexico,” a plan for U.S.-Mexico Security Cooperation (that references the aid packaged discussed below):

…the $1.4 billion, two-year package to help the Mexican government combat organized crime. Dubbed “Plan Mexico” by the media, in reference to Plan Colombia, a multibillion dollar counternarcotics initiative, the aid package will provide funds for police training, equipment, and intelligence gathering. But some question whether such measures are enough to stem Mexico’s security troubles and shore up its weak institutions.

Despite the optimism expressed by the Council for Foreign Relations, there is now concern (no kidding) that this plan…not $1.4 billion but actually up to $8.4 billion if Mexico provides the $7 billion it says it will spend, could fall short because it could miss to cut-off cartel funding channels and fail to create the greater police authority and security that is needed (read that as eliminating corruption in the corrupt Mexican police):

The plan will improve Mexico’s range of anti-drug tools with new helicopters, aerial surveillance equipment and detection gear. Yet, experts say the approach is superficial.

“More helicopters won’t make a difference because you are only dealing with the armed side of the cartels. You’ve got to go after their finances and find out where their banks accounts are. That is the way to weaken them,” said Ernesto Mendieta, a security advisor and former Mexican anti-drugs prosecutor.

Its downplayed by the U.S. and denied by Mexico, but the role of the Mexican military in some of what is happening on the border is irrefutable…sometimes there are even suggestions that drug smugglers are actually Mexican soldiers in disguise.  One source contains the following:

●  A U.S. Department of Homeland Security document in 2006 reported 216 incursions of Mexicans into the U.S. in the period 1996-2006

●  There are 11 Mexican military garrisons on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexican border.  Moving from west to east, these garrisons are located at Tecate, San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonoyta, Agua Prieta, Ciudad Juarez, Ojinaga, Palomas, Ciudad Acuña, Piedras Negras, Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros.

●  According to the treaties of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (1848) and the Gadsden Purchase (1853), which established the current U.S.-Mexico border, each country reserves the right to fortify any part of its side of the border.

From a column written by Antonio O. Garza Jr. is U.S. ambassador to Mexico in the Dallas Morning News…

During my five years as U.S. ambassador, I have watched as narco-trafficking violence has rapidly spread in Mexico. Organized criminals have brazenly assassinated Mexican police, senior government officials and thousands of civilians caught in the crossfire. Last year, more than 2,000 drug-related murders took place; more than 2,000 have been reported this year. This challenge also dramatically affects us, as untold thousands have died or had their lives ruined by the corrosive impact of the drugs that Mexican cartels smuggle into the U.S.

Supply-Demand and Mexican Drugs (my title)

…a recent report from The White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy offered a comparable inversion of the status quo. Cocaine prices, which have been steadily dropping in the United States for the last 40 years or so, rose 24 percent in the second quarter of 2007, topping out at an average of US$118.70 a gram.  But questions are justifiably raised: The ONDCP’s release seemed in part to be an answer to a September report from the US Government Accountability Office, whose lengthy title included the phrase “Tons of Illicit Drugs Continue to Flow into the United States,” and was generally critical of the lack of cooperation between Mexico and the United States. Like virtually every other credible report written about the challenges drug warriors face, the GAO’s didn’t leave the reader thinking that success is right around the corner. And the GAO is strenuously non-partisan and objective, while The White House, to put it mildly, is not.

In the context of this news about Mexican drugs, we have today’s report in the San Antonio Express:

“Together, our countries can defeat criminal organizations that threaten our region, and we look forward to working closely with our neighbors to realize that goal,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Bush administration officials are asking Congress to include $500 million of the Mexican aid package and $50 million for Central American nations in a $46 billion supplemental spending bill to finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan…

…The Bush administration hopes the $50 million for Central America will be the first installment on a larger initiative to fight international organized crime, said Thomas Shannon, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs…

…Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderón have sought to hammer out an agreement that would provide U.S. aid and training since the leaders met this year in Mérida, Mexico…The agreement would provide helicopters, surveillance aircraft, communication equipment and other resources to help Mexican authorities disrupt drug trafficking and weaken the power of the cartels.

Things are bad enough on the Mexican border without some idiot reporting “news” of last year’s incursion…that was January 2006.  This is now, and frankly, even though the posting was nearly two years old, the problem remains.  And in fact, given the militarization of the Mexican side of the Texas border, why would it not surprise if there was a shooting outbreak?

Recently on Storm Blog:

Cutbacks in Mexico’s Intel Leads to Internal Terrorism

Border Security - National Guard Force Halved

Marxist Rebels Threaten Mexican Stability

Go and read about Mexico and the War on Drugs at Becky’s place.

Down Mexico Way, drug violence, Plan Mexico, South of the Border, U.S. Mexico Security Cooperation

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It seems fitting that an anti-illegal immigration protester would be arrested in front of the Alamo for burning a Mexican flag without a permit.  The man, David Bohmfalk, says that he was driven to this act of patriotism and protest by all of the pro-immigration rallies in favor of “undocumented workers” in May 2006.

Of course, the silly thing is that no one issues permits to burn a Mexican flag, and in fact, that wasn’t what he was charged with.

Bohmfalk had his own protest in front of a building known for revolution, where Davy Crockett and James Bowie made a stand. So did Bohmfalk but he used a lighter instead of gunfighter. Park police cited Bohmfalk for illegal burning of rubbish, even it was a Mexican flag he set ablaze.

“Because of what it’s made out of, it took a little while to burn it. It took me two minutes, but I got it lit,” Bohmfalk

Authorities say his actions left some of the Mexican nationals in the Alamo crowd feeling burned. However, Bohmfalk’s attorney, Jason Jakob, says, freedom of speech is Bohmfalk’s constitutional right.

“My client felt so strongly, and exercised protest, by burning that flag,” Jakob said…

Now, aside from any other controversy surrounding this protest, Bohmfalk (a former Texas police chief and military veteran) is being denied his right to a speedy trial that has been delayed and re-set three times already.  His premise, beyond his directly protesting the issue of amnesty for illegal aliens, is that we as a country have become desensitized to the burning of American flags, and that if so, then a foreign flag should not raise any eyebrows.

It is absolutely essential for everyone to remember that the burning of an American Flag is a protected right of Free Speech and expression.  Ironically, the case protecting flag burning is known as Texas versus Johnson (491 U.S. 397)

The case involved Gregory Lee Johnson, who was a member of the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade, which itself was the youth wing of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. Johnson, outside the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas, burned an American flag while others protesting in his group chanted “America, the red, white, and blue, we spit on you”.

Here is the Supreme Court’s opinion by Justice Brennan.

After publicly burning an American flag as a means of political protest, Gregory Lee Johnson was convicted of desecrating a flag in violation of Texas law. This case presents the question whether his conviction is consistent with the First Amendment. We hold that it is not.

This is reported to be his personal account of this event (I didn’t know that it happened back in May 2007).I don’t know how this is going to turn out for Bohmfalk, but frankly, I wish him well.  It should be noted that the population of the Alamo City is about 58% Hispanic - of course, that does not count the numbers of illegals walking the streets and using municipal resources.

Cross posted on Real Clear Politics

Alamo, burn Mexican flag, David Bohmfalk, flag burning protest

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