"Spin" from abroad and misc Border Articles

[nutkin]

Hi all....

My gawd you guys have been busy. Came in here wanting to help with the articles....you have my HUGE apologies if I duplicate something (will do my darndest not to.)

Edit to add: So that I don't screw up the great flow you guys have going...I'm gonna go ahead and post what I find, just on this thread. -Have tried to catch up on my reading with what has already been posted in this sig...but, I may still accidently dup something. Hope these help...

This from the U.K.

Fair Use:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1450762,00.html

US vigilantes begin border stake-out

Immigrants' rights activists fear that volunteers arriving in Tombstone, Arizona, for month-long patrol could provoke mayhem

Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Saturday April 2, 2005
The Guardian

Hundreds of anti-immigrant activists were gathering in Tombstone, Arizona, yesterday to begin a month-long unofficial patrol of the border with Mexico. To greet them, hundreds of immigrants' rights activists planned to travel to the desert of Arizona from across the southern US.
And caught in the middle, are the thousands of undocumented immigrants who try to cross the border from Mexico each day, and the hundreds of US government border patrol agents who try to stop them.


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"It's a dangerous place down there," says TJ Bonner, the president of the 10,000 member Border Patrol Council, which represents the agency's officers. "It's the wild west reincarnated."
The Minuteman Project, which is organising the volunteer patrols, is being run from the offices of the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper. Many of the volunteers are expected to be armed. They will wear improvised uniforms and be equipped with everything from shortwave radios to nightsights to a small fleet of light aircraft.

Their strategy is to split into groups of six, spread out across a 23-mile stretch of the border between the two countries, and wait.

They should not have to wait long: in January alone, the Tucson sector, which includes the portion south of Tombstone, saw 35,704 undocumented immigrants detained by the border patrol. In 2004 491,000 were apprehended in the sector. The reckoner generally used is that for every would-be immigrant apprehended, three enter the country.

Should the Minuteman volunteers see someone who appears to be an undocumented immigrant, they have been told to report the sighting to the authorities and stand aside while they do their work. "You will offer your assistance and become force-multipliers to assist their monumental task of turning back the tidal wave of people entering our country illegally," reads the project's website.

"If challenged, you will physically remove yourself from the situation ... The idea is for your firearm to remain holstered ... Why risk going to jail and ruining the mission by engaging a group of illegals? The time for that is not yet upon us. Remember, this is activism, yet it is symbolic at best. We know millions of illegals are here, thousands continue to come and nothing short of military intervention will cease the flow."

Some critics are concerned that despite the advice to remain within the law, elements attracted by the rhetoric could easily create mayhem. The Aryan Nation group has described the project as a "white pride event" and left leaflets in letterboxes in Douglas, a predominantly Latino town on the US side of the border.

The Los Angeles-based Latino gang MS-13 has reportedly instructed its members to travel to Tombstone to teach the Minutemen a lesson. The former silver-mining town, the setting for the gunfight at the OK Corral in 1881, is a fitting location.

But the potential for violence seems to have diminished in recent days as the Minuteman Project has sought to describe itself as a political protest, aiming to highlight the inadequacies of federal immigration policies.

"We certainly do appreciate any support from any group of citizens, and we share their frustration at the federal government's inaction," Mr Bonner says.

"But we do have concerns about what they are proposing to do. It's a political protest about the government not meeting its responsibilities: could they do it in a safer environment? Absolutely."

Robin Hoover, the president of Humane Borders, a group that leaves water for immigrants trekking across the Arizona desert, says the potential for violence lies elsewhere.

"I can just imagine some guys on day four or five, and they're having their tailgate parties and drinking some beer, and along come some drug mules.

"These people are armed, and don't take kindly to having their business interrupted.

"I can certainly understand people wanting to bring attention to the border, because it's broken. But only the federal government can fix it. The circumstances of this are just a chemistry for confusion and possibly death."

Others are concerned that the Minutemen will turn into what their critics already call them: vigilantes. Chris Simcox, an organiser of the group and the editor of the Tombstone Tumbleweed, was convicted on a federal weapons charge last year, and some point to the illegal detention of immigrants by US citizens in the area.

But while allegations of abuse of immigrants abound, there have been no prosecutions. The immigrants, say law enforcement officials, refuse to press charges.

Whether the Minuteman Project lives up to the hype remains to be seen. A month is a long time to sit in the desert. But it might succeed in highlighting the country's dysfunctional immigration policies and bringing pressure to bear on the Bush administration.

Both George Bush and his Mexican counterpart Vicente Fox have criticised the Minuteman Project, with Mr Bush denouncing the participants as vigilantes, and Mr Fox saying international law would be used to prevent such groups from making progress.

But the politicians have succeeded in bringing all sides in the debate together to condemn their proposed solutions.

Mr Bush's guestworker programme, says Mr Hoover, was drawn up by the US chamber of commerce. Mr Bonner says that "until the government gets serious and enacts tough legislation on employers of illegal immigrants" the problem will remain.

Both sides agree that, should a combination of gangs, vigilantes and federal agents achieve the unlikely feat of closing down the Tucson sector border, it will have one effect: those who they are trying to stop will simply move to another point on the frontier.

 

[nutkin]

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20050401-114206-1340r.htm

'Heroes' poised for vigil on border


By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES


TOMBSTONE, Ariz. -- More than 100 Minuteman Project volunteers clapped, shouted, waived American flags and stomped their feet during an old-fashioned revival-style meeting yesterday called to denounce President Bush and formally kickoff a 30-day blockade of the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona.
"I'm proud of every single one of you," Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican, told the cheering crowd inside the city's 120-year-old community center, once frequented by Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday.
"You are not vigilantes. You are heroes," said Mr. Tancredo, founding chairman of Team America, a political action committee dedicated to electing legislators sensitive to defending U.S. borders and protecting American jobs.
Bay Buchanan, chairwoman of Team America and sister of former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, received a standing ovation as she berated Mr. Bush for failing "our country."
"You have failed us, and you have failed our children, by continuing to let criminals and drugs come across this border," she said.
The rally, described as an orientation meeting, capped off a day of registration for the Minuteman volunteers, who will begin patrols of the border south of here on Monday to protest the lax immigration-enforcement policies of the administration and Congress.
The daylong event saw counterprotesters line the street outside the hall, American Indians dancing in native custom to a steady drumbeat and "Lady Liberty" twirling through one lane of the city's main street -- all under the watchful eye of dozens of Arizona police, rangers and sheriff's deputies.
Members of the press, many of them from Mexico, outnumbered the volunteers, with satellite trucks lining the street leading to Big Nose Kate's Saloon. "Legal observers" hired by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) also patrolled outside the hall.
The volunteers will gather again today and tomorrow for rallies at the U.S. Border Patrol stations in Naco and Douglas, where -- according to Minuteman organizer James T. Gilchrist -- "we will show our support for the men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect our country despite a lack of manpower and resources."
The weekend rallies are a prelude to a monthlong border protest by more than 1,000 Minuteman volunteers that formally begins Monday and will focus on a 20-mile stretch of the San Pedro River Valley west of Naco and a remote border area west of Douglas.
The two regions have become favorite corridors for illegal aliens headed into the United States. Last year, Border Patrol agents in the Tucson sector, which includes Naco and Douglas, accounted for more than 40 percent of the 1.15 million illegal aliens apprehended nationwide.
The volunteers, many of whom will camp out in recreational vehicles and tents along the border, registered here yesterday and received their assignments, including guidelines prohibiting them from confronting illegal aliens they encounter on the border.
"We will not tolerate any confrontations by our members," Mr. Gilchrist, a retired California certified public accountant and a combat-wounded Vietnam veteran, told The Washington Times. "This protest is about the rule of law, and there will be no exceptions."
Several civil and human rights organizations have hired legal observers and teams of lawyers ready to file lawsuits against the volunteers if the illegal aliens' rights are abused.
But Mr. Gilchrist, during an interview at his border command post, said he expects that the volunteers are more likely to be the ones abused and has asked the FBI in Phoenix to ensure that their right to demonstrate is protected.
In a letter to the FBI, Mr. Gilchrist said efforts by the volunteers to conduct a peaceful political protest and rally have been threatened by the counterprotesters, adding that the ACLU has a "witch-hunt mentality."
FBI officials this week said they are committed to ensuring that no laws are violated during the border vigil, by either the Minuteman volunteers or those opposed to them.
The ACLU in Arizona could not be reached for comment.
Yesterday's registration saw numerous glitches, with Minuteman volunteers being asked to file new registration forms after a computer failure.

 

[nutkin]

http://www.americandaily.com/article/7331

Mexico Is To Blame For Illegal Immigration To The U. S.

By Robert Klein Engler (04/01/05)

The uproar over President Bush's proposal to reform Social Security has died down. Taking the place of this uproar is a growing clamor over illegal immigration. You can't help but wonder if the former was a smoke screen to obscure a debate over the latter.

Because illegal immigration to the U. S. is a problem requiring controversial solutions, few politicians want to embrace this issue. Part of the solution involves securing our borders and deporting at least 2 or 3 million of the estimated 11.3 million in the U. S. illegally. What politician wants that, when they are relying on vested interests and always running for reelection?

Recently, I questioned why anyone should write more about the problems associated with illegal immigration. Most of our elected officials seem to be beyond persuasion and prefer to do nothing to stop the invasion of our country. Then I realized that if we cannot change their minds at least we can document their failures. Let the next generation decide who were the fools.

How many times do we read or hear that hardworking Mexicans are coming illegally to the U. S. to improve their lives? These Mexicans take low paying jobs because these low paying jobs are better than poverty in Mexico. Yet, why is it that most journalists do not ask the more important question about this migration: Why are there no jobs in Mexico for its citizens in the first place?

The lack of jobs in Mexico is not a problem you can lay at the feet of U. S. citizens. The U. S. is not responsible for Mexico and its poverty. Lack of jobs in Mexico is a Mexican problem that the Mexican government refuses to solve. Furthermore, U. S. elected officials and business men and women should not put the interest of Mexican nationals above the interest of U. S. citizens. It bears repeating that U. S. citizens ought to put patriotism before profits, too.

There are many reasons why Mexico does not have enough jobs for its citizens. Some of these reasons like the historical and cultural differences between the U. S. and Mexico should not be overlooked when we consider why the tide of illegal immigration ought to be held back. When Mexicans come illegally into the U. S. they not only bring their poverty, but a complex of cultural and historical baggage as well.

Instead of questioning why there are no jobs in Mexico, most illegal immigrants just take the easy way out and cross the border. Illegal immigrants from Mexico only have personal ambitions, not national allegiances. If illegal immigrants cared half as much about their own country, as they do about their pocketbooks, then they would stay in Mexico and work for social change there.

Change is needed in Mexican society to increase jobs, but for years nothing has been done to create those jobs. Years ago politicians in both countries knew the numbers of illegal Mexicans in the U. S. would dramatically increase because there were fewer and fewer jobs in Mexico for their growing population. Few politicians did anything, however, to stem this increase or create jobs. Now, the Pew Hispanic Center confirms what we all know. The center claims in a recent report that "Mexicans by far remain the largest group of undocumented migrants at 5.9 million (in the U. S.)."

A year ago it was proposed that if the U. S. government did not do something about illegal immigration, then citizens along the border would take things into their own hands. Now, we see that after April 1st, more than 1,000 volunteer civilian Minutemen, some of them legally armed, will be patrolling the border between Arizona and Mexico. President Bush may refer to the Minutemen as "vigilantes," but face the fact: People will take affairs into their own hands when the government refuses to protect them.

If you had a neighbor that was wasting his money on drink and cards and then sent his many children to your yard to play, and eventually eat and sleep, what would you do? Many would be considerate for a while, but when the children keep coming, you would ask your neighbor to clean up his life and take care of his own children. Failing that, you would resort to more drastic measures. Can we not see Mexico as that irresponsible neighbor, and ask that they get their national house in order? Mexico must stop sending us their problem children, or we ought to build a better fence.

Instead of building a better fence and deporting illegal immigrants, politicians in both the U. S. and Mexico will make those who complain into the problem. Now, the problem will be that we have vigilantes on the border, instead of illegal immigrants. Instead of saying "The borders are wide open, and we have to close them," we will hear official statement after statement about how we must "Let the Border Patrol do their job. Not vigilantes!" Political smoke screens never dissipate, they just move from one bureaucracy to another.

With their heads in the sands of Iraq, few in the Department of Homeland Security can see over the horizon to our wide-open borders and uncontrolled immigration from Mexico. That is a shame, because governments collapse when they worry more about a possible threat from afar than a real crisis at home. Social security is not just getting a check every month from the government, it is also feeling safe at work from an invading army of foreign, low paid workers.




Robert Klein Engler lives in Chicago. He is an adjunct professor at Roosevelt University. His book, A Winter Of Words, about the ethnic cleansing at Daley College, is available from amazon.com.

 

[nutkin]

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/04/02/news/top_stories/4105102125.txt

Border-crossers in Mexico undeterred by Minuteman Project

By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer

NACO, Mexico ---- Sitting near the U.S. border with Mexico, 36-year-old Alberto Gonzalez said he was concerned but not deterred by the Minuteman Project, a civilian border-watch group that aims report illegal immigrants coming across the Arizona border with Mexico.

"I think they should leave that work to authorities," said Gonzalez, who said he was contemplating crossing the border illegally.

Thousands of illegal immigrants cross the border through Arizona each year. The members of the Minuteman Project said they want to call attention to the problem and to have the federal government increase resources to the U.S. Border Patrol.


Last year, more than half of the 1.1 million people caught by the U.S. Border Patrol were caught in Arizona, according to immigration authorities. Much of the illegal immigration has shifted to this part of the country after significant resources were poured into securing California's border with Mexico 10 years ago.

Gonzalez said he spent six years working in Seattle as a plumber and doing other odd jobs until he returned to Mexico because of a death in his family. He said most illegal immigrants go to the United States for work, not to collect benefits or commit crimes as some of the Minuteman volunteers claim.

About 30 miles away, in the dusty Mexican border town of Agua Prieta, a group of other would-be migrant workers said they were also preparing to cross the border illegally for economic reasons in the coming days.

"In Mexico, I make 50 pesos (less than $4), but over there I can make $50 or $100 a day," said a man named Hector, who declined to give his last name. "That's the difference."

The 22-year-old man said there are thousands of people like himself ---- well educated, but unable to earn enough money to live. He said that many were willing to risk their lives to find better opportunities in the United States, even if that means facing groups such as the Minuteman Project.

"If there was a legal way for me to go work for six months and then come back, I would use it," he said while in the lobby of a hotel in Agua Prieta, surrounded by another 15 people who said they too are hoping to cross the border illegally.

Another man, who declined to be identified, said no matter how many Minuteman volunteers watch the border or how many Border Patrol agents are stationed there, illegal immigrants will find a way to get through.

"There are many more of us," he said. "We will get through, we have to."

 

[nutkin]

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/04/02/opinion/commentary/4105200105.txt

Opinion: Columns

Last modified Friday, April 1, 2005 8:48 PM PST



When blood is spilled in Arizona, blame ...

By: Dick Smith - Commentary

Come this weekend, the Minutemen Project formed by some 500 well-intended citizens in Arizona will monitor the Arizona-Mexico border with the intent of stopping illegal immigrants from crossing the border. They say they are taking this action to assist law enforcement. In this morning's North County Times (March 23), the front page carried an article about a group from North County who call themselves the "National Alliance for Human Rights," who will monitor the Minutemen Project.

The third element in this tragedy about to unfold is our elected officials, who stand by wrapped in the American flag, proclaiming "Bring me your huddled masses etc." If ever there is a powder keg about to explode, this is a classic. The sheriff in the old Western town turns his back as a vigilante group is formed to rid the town of the unwanted, knowing full well there will be bloodshed.

Yes, there will be bloodshed and the blood will be on the hands of our do-nothing politicians who see self-preservation in the illegal, i.e., cheap, labor ---- people who will take any job the Anglo wishes not to do ---- for our corporations and for developers who need the cheap labor to keep housing prices down; politicians who curry the Latino vote by ignoring the immigration laws, deliver political speeches in Spanish, blah blah blah, all political pablum for the votes.


President George W. Bush, Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham, Gov. Schwarzenegger and our county supervisors all take an aloof attitude, or at best a Band-Aid approach such as adding more fences. In their minds, the collateral damage that will follow ---- loss of lives on both sides of the border ---- is an expense that must be endured to reap the rich mother lode of cheap labor.

Day after day, we see in the North County Times Letters to the Editor section write-ups from people expressing their views of disgust with the excessive burden on our infrastructure, schools, hospitals, jails, roads, low-income housing, welfare system and entitlement programs, all forcing excessive taxation on the citizen. Even the FBI says gang-related activity is largely activated by illegal immigrants. This is not about racism, this is plain economic facts. We are being purged of our lifestyle by the politicians, not any one political party. Remember, for every one who writes letters to the editor there are 10 who want to but never do.

What do we do? Throw out the politicians like we did Gov. Davis? Sounds too radical to me, but we do need a plan. Why not equip our Social Security system with computers to answer the inquiries of legal or illegal documents via fax so the employer will know if they are hiring a legal person. Empower our immigration authorities with the right to pick up illegal immigrants anywhere for deportation and impose fines of $10,000 per illegal immigrant on the employer. Stop the job availability, and the flow of illegal immigrants will dry up.

No need for bloodshed. That's my idea, what's yours? In the meantime, sit by your television and watch the needless tragedy unfold, for surely the blood will flow on the Arizona border as the politicians do nothing.

Where are the statesmen?

Dick Smith lives in San Marcos.

 

[nutkin]

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/richtucker/rt20050402.shtml

Trade Goods, Not Insults
Rich Tucker (archive)


April 2, 2005 | Print | Send

Who would have expected a soccer game could be noteworthy?

On March 27, some 100,000 fans packed a stadium in Mexico City to watch a game between Mexico and the United States. That’s not really news. Soccer is a big deal south of the border. It’s also not newsworthy that the Mexicans prevailed, 2-1. Most Americans were too busy watching NCAA basketball that day to care about a soccer game.

The real news is that, during the countries’ national anthems, the Mexican fans booed “The Star Spangled Banner.” Some even chanted “Osama, Osama” after we scored our only goal. Shame on them.

But in that shame, an opportunity. After all, if they’re booing our national anthem on a Sunday, maybe they’ve decided to remain in Mexico, rather than make a run for the U.S. border on Monday. And let’s face it: The only way to prevent illegal immigration is to convince immigrants to stay home. If they want to come here, there’s no way to stop them.

Consider: The Department of Homeland Security plans to add an additional 500 agents along the border, to augment the 9,900 it already has. Also, a private group plans to launch the Minuteman Project. About 1,000 volunteers will watch a 40-mile stretch of border and report illegal immigrants to the border patrol.

That’s fewer than 12,000 people, trying to guard 2,000 miles of border and block 2 million (or more) immigrants. The arithmetic doesn’t add up.

Besides, Mexicans are motivated to come here. Per capita income in the United States is $37,800, four times higher than in Mexico. Free-market economics says people are going to risk everything to cross that border.

And not only is life better here, but it offers opportunities to those who remain behind. In 2003 Mexico’s president announced that emigrants had sent back some $12 billion. Such payments “are our biggest source of foreign income, bigger than oil, tourism or foreign investment,” Vicente Fox declared.

But there’s a way to enable Mexicans to be as financially successful at home as they are here. Free trade.

For an example, let’s look a little further south, to El Alto, Bolivia. That city seems an unlikely place to find supporters of free trade. In October 2003 street protests there helped topple the country’s pro-U.S. leader, Sanchez de Lozada. But during those protests, when rioters tried to destroy the United Furniture plant, Bolivian employees of the plant fought off those rioters.

No wonder. About 100,000 El Alto residents have jobs because they’re able to export products to the U.S. duty-free. As Juan Carlos Machicado, a supervisor at the plant, put it, “I’m in favor of free trade. It’s helping us move forward. I wouldn’t have thought this way five years ago. But now I work here.”

The people in El Alto probably don’t love the United States. But they’re gainfully employed, and they’re not risking their lives to come here. The same thing can happen in Mexico, if we maintain our free-trade policies and convince the Mexican government to privatize inefficient state-owned industries.

Of course, charity begins at home, and so does the battle against illegal immigration. It’s pretty clear that illegal immigrants are working here; how else did they earn that $12 billion they sent home? Not by hitting the lottery.

But for some reason, our government isn’t punishing those who employ illegals.

TIME magazine reports that in 2002, even as millions of illegals poured across our border, the Immigration and Naturalization Service opened only about 2,000 investigations of employers. That’s down from 7,000 in 1992. Even worse, the magazine notes that, “fines for immigration-law violations plunged 99 percent, from 1,063 in 1992 to 13 in 2002.”

Employers see that they can easily hire illegal aliens, save money by not paying benefits to those employees or paying taxes on their wages, and never face any penalties. So why wouldn’t they hire illegals?

 

[nutkin]

http://www.kfvs12.com/Global/story.asp?S=3157386

Mexico officials to monitor U-S volunteer patrols in Arizona

Mexicans watching the big bad minutemen...making sure nobody crossing is abused.

Clickie the linkie for the very short article.

 

[nutkin]

"Spin" from Mehico...

As always fair use cited...

Vigilantes set to 'confront' migrants



Wire services
March 29, 2005

U.S. nationalist vigilantes are set to begin patrolling the border with Mexico in an effort to stem what they see as a tide of undocumented immigrants, and some reports say violent Central American gang members are preparing to confront the selfstyled sentinels.

A group calling itself Civil Homeland Defense said Monday that it will deploy more than 1,000 volunteers along the Arizona-Mexico border this week to block those seeking to cross without visas.

Members of the CHD involved with the "Minuteman Project" emphasize they have no intention of doing any more than reporting immigrant sightings to the Border Patrol. However, one member of the group said in comments to the Washington Times that had been told of plans by the notorious Central American gang Mara Salvatrucha to confront the self-appointed border guardians.

Mexican President Vicente Fox has described the civilian border patrollers as "immigrant hunters," and U.S. President George W. Bush said last week that he does not approve of the activities of vigilante groups.

In February, the Mexican government sent a diplomatic note to the United States expressing concern over vigilante activities of anti-immigrant groups like the Minuteman Project.

Foreign Relations Secretary (SRE) official Gerónimo Gutiérrez said it was "very probable" that these groups would violating the rights of undocumented migrants. The note urged the United States to ensure that vigilante groups do not break the law when dealing with Mexican migrants, he added.

The Minuteman Project will commence April 1, organizer James Gilchrist said.

Gilchrist told the Washington Times that California- and Texas-based capos of Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, have ordered their members to teach a "lesson" to the CHD contingent planning to stake out a 32kilometer (almost 20-mile) stretch of the San Pedro River valley.

But the Minuteman organizer was undaunted by the threat. "We're not worried because half of our recruits are retired trained combat soldiers," Gilchrist told the Washington daily. "And those guys are just a bunch of punks."

Vigilante groups like the Minutemen have appeared in increasing numbers in Arizona in recent years, despite an increase in the number of Border Patrol agents by the U.S. government. However, they have largely been small, informal groups, unlike the Minuteman project.

Between 1998 and 2004, Mexico has initiated 76 legal cases against vigilantes who have detained Mexican migrants, but only five have made it before a judge.




http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impreso/noticia.html?id_nota=9968&tabla=miami

 

[nutkin]

http://www.mensnewsdaily.com/archive/m-n/newman/2005/newman032905.htm

The Mexican Insurgency

March 29, 2005

by Bob Newman

After reading and deleting the usual liberal hate email this Easter morning (hate email on Easter from frothing-at-the-mouth liberals was not a surprise), I was reminded how border security and immigration reform are such contentious issues on both sides of the ideological aisle. But I continue to be surprised at the mishandling of the situation by the Bush administration and Congress.

As a registered independent and a terrorism & national security analyst, I am able to look at America’s border-security situation objectively and analytically. What I see is a disaster with cataclysmic potential. And I see a president who, with the help of a complacent Congress and Department of Homeland Security, is rolling the dice in a voluntary craps game that, if we lose, could cost hundreds of thousands of American lives in a worst-case scenario.

Since President Bush took office, an average of 485,000 illegal aliens have successfully infiltrated America from Mexico every year. These nearly two million immigrants consist mostly of people looking for work who have no intent to break our laws other than entering America illegally. However, an unknown percentage are criminals who intend to commit more crimes, and there’s no doubt in any genuine (there are plenty of frauds; just turn on any cable news channel to see some of them) terrorism analyst’s mind that terrorists or terrorist enablers are among the swelling crowd (approximately 15 million illegal aliens are in America).

Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13 is a deadly, especially brutal international gang with a heavy presence in several states and every Central American country plus Mexico. Among other things, they operate smuggling routes to move people and drugs into the United States. There is evidence that MS-13 has, is or is attempting to do business with al Qaeda by smuggling terrorists into America. Stacks of intelligence says al Qaeda is keenly aware of our porous border. And more intelligence from a multitude of independent sources indicates al Qaeda is trying to acquire nuclear weapons for delivery to America.

When you put it all together, you have to wonder why President Bush and the Congress refuse to secure our borders, even though the technology and equipment are readily available, and even though we could produce the manpower to install, operate and maintain a vigorous border protection system.

Instead, because some politicians believe our economy would be harmed if we secured the border, and because some believe rewarding illegal aliens with amnesty is a good idea, we remain at extreme risk.

If you want to see an economy suffer, watch what happens when Phoenix vanishes in a bright flash courtesy of an al Qaeda team with a big one easily smuggled in from Mexico.

And Mexican head honcho and bandito-in-chief Vicente Fox, who was recently basking in the luxury of the Bush ranch in Crawford, says he will do everything in his power to stop the Minuteman Project next month, which will see more than 1,000 American civilians helping the Border Patrol secure a 20-mile stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border by radioing and phoning the Border Patrol to tell them where illegals are crossing. Fox is the man running this insurgency, of course. And he is calling for President Bush to totally dismantle what border security we have and go to an open-border situation such as that found in Europe.

An American who was instrumental in the capture of an al Qaeda operative crossing the border would be given the Medal of Freedom by President Bush. But an American who tells the Border Patrol where Mexican or other Hispanic illegals are crossing our border is called a “vigilante” by the president with Fox standing right beside him.

Why?

And now the Mexican state of Yucatan has published and is issuing an 87-page, detailed manual including a DVD that tells its citizens how to break U.S. laws. This manual follows the official Mexican government manual that teaches the same thing. Yet President Bush embraces and praises Fox after greeting him in Spanish.

The war on terror can not be successfully prosecuted unless we secure our borders. The president must cease this extraordinarily dangerous façade immediately. Mexico is running nothing short of an insurgency that, if we fail to stop, could result in the unthinkable.

Bob Newman


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Bob Newman, a decorated, retired US Marine, is host of the “Gunny Bob Show” on Newsradio 850 KOA in Denver, and host of “Inhuman Newman’s Anger-Management Hour” on 630 KHOW, also in Denver. His “Global Positioning Statement,” a daily insider’s update on the war on terror, is carried by various Clear Channel radio stations from coast to coast. A ground-combat veteran, he is the director of international security & counterterrorism services for The GeoScope Group and is the military science & terrorism columnist for The Denver Daily News. He can be reached at bobnewman@clearchannel.com.