A line in the sand.

[yota5]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND FINDINGS
The Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Homeland Security issues this
interim report summarizing its findings regarding the criminal activity and violence
taking place along the Southwest border of the United States between Texas and Mexico.


The Texas-Mexico border region has been experiencing an alarming rise in the level of
criminal cartel activity, including drug and human smuggling, which has placed
significant additional burdens on Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies.
This interim report will examine the roots of the criminal enterprise and its effects on the
local populations, what steps are being taken or should be taken to counter the threat, and
the significance of these issues for the overall homeland security of the United States.


The United States border with Mexico extends nearly 2,000 miles along the southern
borders of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. In most areas, the border is
located in remote and sparsely populated areas of vast desert and rugged mountain terrain.

While the Southwest border hosts robust legal commercial activity, the border also is the
site of violent criminal enterprises. These enterprises are carried out by organized
criminal syndicates and include the smuggling of drugs, humans, weapons, and cash
across the U.S.-Mexico border.

During 2005, Border Patrol apprehended approximately 1.2 million illegal aliens; of
those 165,000 were from countries other than Mexico. Of the non-Mexican aliens,
approximately 650 were from special interest countries. Special interest countries are those “designated by the intelligence community as countries that could export
individuals that could bring harm to our country in the way of terrorism.”

Law enforcement has stated that some individuals come across the border because they have been forced to leave their home countries due to their criminal activity. These dangerous criminals are fleeing the law in other countries and seeking refuge in the United States.

In addition to the criminal activities and violence of the cartels on our Southwest border,
there is an ever-present threat of terrorist infiltration over the Southwest border. Data
indicates that there are hundreds of illegal aliens apprehended entering the United States
each year who are from countries known to support and sponsor terrorism.
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations have revealed that
aliens were smuggled from the Middle East to staging areas in Central and South
America, before being smuggled illegally into the United States.
• Members of Hezbollah have already entered the United States across the
Southwest border.
• U.S. military and intelligence officials believe that Venezuela is emerging as a
potential hub of terrorism in the Western Hemisphere. The Venezuelan government is issuing identity documents that could subsequently be used to obtain a U.S. visa and enter the country.

http://www.house.gov/sites/members/tx10_mccaul/pdf/Investigaions-Border-Report.pdf

Neither the Clinton administration, nor the Bush administration, nor the Obama, administration, have done a thing to seal the South West Border. This is a bi-partisan charlie foxtrot, that must be corrected.

Janet Napolitano, the current head of Homeland Security, states that "our borders are as safe as they've ever been." Since our borders have never been safe that is a true statement. Hundreds of Americans have lost their lives along the U.S. Mexican border. I wonder how many more lives will need to be lost before the pinheads that we've put in Washington, wake up?

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "See there, tol' ya we was bein' flooded with Hispexicans an' such, now dey overwhelmin' the immigration courts...

'Massive crisis' snarls immigration courts
4/10/2011 - Critics say the system is plagued by long delays, shortage of judges

The mother from Cameroon came to immigration court bearing scars: She'd been imprisoned back home, she said, beaten with cables, burned with cigarettes and raped repeatedly, contracting HIV. Her husband had died behind bars; her three children she'd left behind were struggling to survive. She was seeking asylum, hoping to remain in Los Angeles and bring her children there. They were on their own after their grandmother died, living in a bamboo hut without water or a toilet, begging for food. For years, the mother, who'd fled Cameroon, had no contact with her kids, fearing she'd jeopardize their safety. When she finally did, her oldest son — gravely ill with malaria — sent her a letter:

"Ever since you left us mum, six years now, life has become so miserable, hope God intervains," the 20-year-old wrote. "Our greatest desire is to be beside you and ... acquire the love we need from you mama." If the system had worked, this kind of asylum case would have been resolved promptly. But this was immigration court, where justice often moves at a glacial pace. Files were lost. Background checks delayed. Hearings scheduled at least 12 times over five years. The woman's lawyers, fearing their fragile client had become suicidal, were so alarmed they appealed to two members of Congress — not to intervene, but to call attention to what they say is a system in desperate need of reform.

"So many things are wrong, it's hard to know where to start," says Judy London, one of two Los Angeles lawyers who represented the Cameroon mother. Some steps are being taken to fix the courts — federal officials are adding judges, improving training, reducing the influence of politics. But critics say these reforms are too little and long overdue. They follow a flurry of studies, congressional testimony and calls to do something about the crush of cases, complaints about erratic judges and delays that can leave thousands of immigrants in limbo for years.

Malcolm Rich, director of Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice, a legal research and advocacy group that has studied the courts, is hopeful the spotlight will have an impact. "Can I predict it with certainty?" he asks. "Of course not. But we do have people in place who want to improve the way these courts are run." One of the most immediate changes is the addition of 38 judges and about 90 others, including clerks, in the past 18 months. They'll help address a staggering backlog of nearly 268,000 cases at the end of last year, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research group affiliated with Syracuse University.

More 'Massive crisis' snarls immigration courts - US news - Crime & courts - msnbc.com

Uncle Ferd says dey need to open up dem old internment camps an' make the criminal ones stay there until their court date.

 

[waltky]

Obama sendin' more help to Mexico...

DoD to Increase Counter-Narcotics Support for Mexico 17-Fold Despite Mexican Security Forces Committing Unlawful Killings
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 Washington - The Department of Defense (DoD) will increase its counter-narcotics support to Mexico by 17-fold from funding levels of $3 million per year before 2009 to $51 million in fiscal year 2011, according to a top Pentagon official.

DoD will use the funds for “training, equipment, and information sharing as well as indirect support to units of the Mexican armed forces with counter-narco terrorism missions,” William Wechsler, deputy assistant secretary of defense for counter-narcotics and global threats, stated in remarks prepared for the Senate Armed Services Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee. The Pentagon will increase its monetary support to Mexico’s security forces engaged in that country’s drug war despite the recent State Department human rights practices report stating that Mexico’s security forces were involved in unlawful killings and corruption.

The Mexican military has assumed the leading role in Mexican President Felipe Calderón's efforts against drug cartels that began in December 2006. More than 35,000 people have died in Mexico’s drug war since the crackdown began. Mexico’s “security forces, acting both within and outside the line of duty, killed several persons, including minors” in 2010, revealed the State Department in its 40-page report on Mexico, which was released on April 8 along with reports on other countries. Last year, the report noted, the Mexican “government continued to deploy as many as 45,000 military troops dedicated to counternarcotics activities to assist civilian law enforcement authorities.”

The report also highlighted that “in several cases of reported disappearances, security forces had detained the missing persons incommunicado for several days.” Furthermore, the report stated that “corruption at the most basic level involved paying bribes for routine services or in lieu of fines to administrative officials and security forces.” Nevertheless, Wechsler testified yesterday [April 12] that DoD will allocate “over $50 million” in counter-narcotics support for Mexico in fiscal 2011, which will run from Oct. 1, 2011 to Sept. 30, 2012.

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