Arizona's anti-imigration law...

[Babagounj]

Border Patrol Joins ICE Agents In Condemning Obama Administration
On the heels of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ 258-0 “vote of no confidence” against their superiors, U.S. Border Patrol agents are slamming President Barack Obama’s administration, especially Attorney General Eric Holder. “We are receiving reports… that Eric Holder and DOJ have signaled that they [will continue to] challenge SB1070. If this development wasn’t so sad, it would be funny,” according to the membership of the National Border Patrol Council Local 2544, which represents U.S. Border Patrol agents in Tucson, Arizona.
While lamenting the disinterest in the Obama Administration for border security and immigration enforcement, Local 2544 officials said in a statement,”Now, [Attorney General Eric] Holder and DOJ [Department of Justice] apparently have found resources to challenge SB1070. This is an obvious political ploy, and Americans should be outraged [that] they actually go after a state for trying to do something about the out-of-control illegal immigration mess.

 

[Babagounj]

Baby Shot Dead, Man and Boy Beheaded in Mexican Border City

(AFP) – A six-month-old baby died after being shot in the head by hitmen in northern Mexico, where officials Tuesday also reported the discovery of two headless males, including a teenage boy.
The northern state of Chihuahua, home to Mexico’s most violent city of Ciudad Juarez, is at the epicenter of a wave of drug-related attacks which have left more than 28,000 dead since 2006.

 

[Babagounj]

Stray Bullets Across U.S. – Mexican Border


Drug war sends stray bullets across the border

Officials worry it’s only a matter of time before someone gets hurt or killed
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL
EL PASO, Texas — The first bullets struck El Paso’s city hall at the end of a work day. The next ones hit a university building and closed a major highway.
Shootouts in the drug war along the U.S.-Mexico border are sending bullets whizzing across the Rio Grande into one of the nation’s safest cities, where authorities worry it’s only a matter of time before someone gets hurt or killed.

 

[klein]

Another reason why the US trade deficit keeps getting larger :

U.S. farmers go where workers are: Mexico

CELAYA, Mexico — Steve Scaroni, a farmer from California, looked across a luxuriant field of lettuce here in central Mexico and liked what he saw: full-strength crews of Mexican farm workers with no immigration problems.
Farming since he was a teenager, Scaroni, 50, built a $50 million business growing lettuce and broccoli in California's Imperial Valley, relying on the hands of immigrant workers, most of them Mexicans and many probably in the United States illegally.
But early last year he began shifting part of his operation to rented fields here. Now, about 500 Mexicans tend his crops in Mexico, where they run no risk of deportation.

The Department of Labor has reported that 53 percent of the 2.5 million farm workers in the United States are illegal immigrants, though growers and labor unions say as much as 70 percent of younger field hands are illegal.

Scaroni expects to recover his start-up costs because of the lower wages he pays farm workers here, $11 a day as opposed to about $9 an hour in California, although Mexican workers are less productive in their own country, he said.
"It's not a cake walk down here," he said. "At least I know the one thing I don't have to worry about is losing my labor force because of an immigration raid."

 

[pickup]

Another reason why the US trade deficit keeps getting larger :

U.S. farmers go where workers are: Mexico

CELAYA, Mexico — Steve Scaroni, a farmer from California, looked across a luxuriant field of lettuce here in central Mexico and liked what he saw: full-strength crews of Mexican farm workers with no immigration problems.
Farming since he was a teenager, Scaroni, 50, built a $50 million business growing lettuce and broccoli in California's Imperial Valley, relying on the hands of immigrant workers, most of them Mexicans and many probably in the United States illegally.
But early last year he began shifting part of his operation to rented fields here. Now, about 500 Mexicans tend his crops in Mexico, where they run no risk of deportation.

The Department of Labor has reported that 53 percent of the 2.5 million farm workers in the United States are illegal immigrants, though growers and labor unions say as much as 70 percent of younger field hands are illegal.

Scaroni expects to recover his start-up costs because of the lower wages he pays farm workers here, $11 a day as opposed to about $9 an hour in California, although Mexican workers are less productive in their own country, he said.
"It's not a cake walk down here," he said. "At least I know the one thing I don't have to worry about is losing my labor force because of an immigration raid."

Actually, here is how I read into the situation, he pays a guy a dollar an hour in Mexico. The ones that are the hardest working and least likely to get into trouble in Mexico are the ones he helps gets to his fields up in California. In the event that they get deported, they go back to work in his fields in Mexico.

 

[Babagounj]

Mexico is Lost to Narco-Terrorists — U.S. Diplomats Told to Send their Children Out of Monterrey


U.S. diplomats told to send their children out of Monterrey

By the CNN Wire Staff
(CNN) — The State Department told U.S. government employees in Monterrey, Mexico, on Friday to send their children elsewhere because of heightened security risks related to drug violence.
The order is the first of its kind in any Mexican city, said Brian Quigley, a spokesman for the U.S. Consulate General in Monterrey, adding it reflects an increasingly violent and insecure reality. Monterrey is located in northern Mexico.

 

[Babagounj]

Illegal Aliens Want Sanctuary Policies In Writing

Lawmakers and police in a major U.S. city have reassured illegal immigrants that they’re protected under longtime sanctuary policies amid demands from open borders advocates that the measures be formalized in writing.
A group of Latino activists, clergy and civil rights leaders took to the street this week to command Baltimore officials to further solidify the city’s measures to shield illegal aliens from federal authorities. Like many law enforcement agencies across the nation, Baltimore Police bans its officers from inquiring about suspects’ immigration status.
Now emboldened illegal immigrants want the policy in writing to reduce crime and help bridge the gap between officers and immigrants after the recent murders of three Hispanic men in the area.

 

[Babagounj]

Massacre Investigator Killed

Source: Investigator in migrants’ massacre killed

Mexican police officer’s body reportedly also found as two blasts rock area
SAN FERNANDO, Mexico — The body of a local official investigating the massacre of 72 Central and South American migrants has been found, a government source told a leading Mexican newspaper.
El Universal said the body of Roberto Jaime Suarez was found on a highway. He disappeared two days ago in the town of San Fernando, along with a transit police officer.
A second body was found and is thought to be the officer.
Suarez was involved in the initial investigation of the massacre, which authorities have blamed on the Zetas drug cartel.

 

[Babagounj]

Mexican violence closes in on border states

The violence is not just in Juarez; it’s also south of New Mexico, Arizona, and California
By Diana M. Alba
Alamogordo Daily News
LAS CRUCES, NM — Daily reports of drug cartel-related killings in Juarez may numb sensitivity to the severity of the situation just across New Mexico’s southern border.
There is, after all, an international boundary lined with miles of fence and patrolled by scores of federal agents that separates Mexico from the United States.
Periodically, however, incidents like one last weekend in El Paso call to mind that the raging cartel war is just a stone’s throw or a bullet’s shot away.

 

[KingofBrown]

http://www.hnn.us/articles/130543.html

Manuel García Loya, Eleazar Ruelas Zavala, and Bernabe H—men between the ages of 18 and 25—all held jobs in Mexico, but came north for higher wages. Their path took them across a ranch owned by the Hanigans. Thomas and Patrick Hanigan, sons of George Hanigan, spotted the migrants from their pickup truck. After demanding that the Mexicans explain why they were in the United States, the brothers bound them, forced them into their truck, and drove them out into the fields. There they beat them, robbed them, hung them from a tree, burned their feet, held a knife to their genitals, and finally cut them loose and told them to run back to Mexico. As the migrants ran towards the border, the Hanigans fired more than one hundred rounds of birdshot into their backs.

The Hanigan Case suggests a whole other set of lessons as well. First, it reminds us that Mexican migrants are more likely to be victims of crimes than perpetrators. Second, it demonstrates the strong correlation between recession and anti-immigrant sentiment. On this point, it should come as no surprise that politicians now seek to divert attention from their own political failures and shortsightedness by blaming Mexicans. Third, the Hanigan Case shows that vigilante activism in Arizona is not the domain of a few extremists who have found a home there only since Chris Simcox moved to Tombstone. From the KKK to the Minutemen, exclusionary vigilantes have a rich tradition in southern Arizona. Finally, Arizona also has an equally impressive tradition of civil rights activism.

 

[KingofBrown]

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-brief...not-a-reflection-of-an-entire-political-party

Steele says immigration law 'not a reflection of an entire political party'

 

[Babagounj]

This past March, rancher Robert Krentz was murdered.
By someone who had been laying on the ground.
The assumption is that his killer was waiting for him, playing that he needed some water, so when Krentz started walking back to his vehicle, he was shot in the back .
His neighbors found his body & were able to follow his killer"s trail for some 20 miles back towards Mexico.
It is also assumed that his death was to be a message from the drug cartels to all in his area that anyone who removes their hidden loads of drugs from their ranches would receive the same treatment.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

I saw an advertisement for a show called "Border Wars" on National Geographic channel while watching the Red Sox/Rays on MLB. This may give someone such as myself, who is not impacted directly or indirectly by illegal immigration, a glimpse in to life along the southern border.

 

[Babagounj]

myself, who is not impacted directly or indirectly by illegal immigration,

Everyone is impacted, directly.

 

[trplnkl]

http://www.hnn.us/articles/130543.html

Manuel García Loya, Eleazar Ruelas Zavala, and Bernabe H—men between the ages of 18 and 25—all held jobs in Mexico, but came north for higher wages. Their path took them across a ranch owned by the Hanigans. Thomas and Patrick Hanigan, sons of George Hanigan, spotted the migrants from their pickup truck. After demanding that the Mexicans explain why they were in the United States, the brothers bound them, forced them into their truck, and drove them out into the fields. There they beat them, robbed them, hung them from a tree, burned their feet, held a knife to their genitals, and finally cut them loose and told them to run back to Mexico. As the migrants ran towards the border, the Hanigans fired more than one hundred rounds of birdshot into their backs.

The Hanigan Case suggests a whole other set of lessons as well. First, it reminds us that Mexican migrants are more likely to be victims of crimes than perpetrators. Second, it demonstrates the strong correlation between recession and anti-immigrant sentiment. On this point, it should come as no surprise that politicians now seek to divert attention from their own political failures and shortsightedness by blaming Mexicans. Third, the Hanigan Case shows that vigilante activism in Arizona is not the domain of a few extremists who have found a home there only since Chris Simcox moved to Tombstone. From the KKK to the Minutemen, exclusionary vigilantes have a rich tradition in southern Arizona. Finally, Arizona also has an equally impressive tradition of civil rights activism.

There is no excuse for torturing three individuals. However, we probably have not heard all of the story on this and probably never will. We don't know how many times these ranchers have had cattle butchered by illegals crossing their land or if vehicles have been stolen or lives of the rancher's family have been threatened or any other details that may have preceded this incident. The report stated these young men held jobs in Mexico but made a choice to come here illegally for higher wages, they knew it was illegal.
The three illegals may ought to count themselves lucky, lucky to still be alive. Again, I do not feel that torture was right but forcing them to go back to Mexico dang sure was.
I'm not sure if the term vigilante is appropriate in this case, as Americans we have the legal right to protect our lives and our property.

As far as politicians blaming someone else for their own failures? What a shock!

 

[dilligaf]

KOB

First off, if you're gonna post this, at least acknowledge that this case is 34 years old. To do otherwise is disingenuous. Todays world is FAR different that what it was 34 years ago.


I disagree that the Hanigan case reminds us that immigrant mexicans are more likely to be the victims of crimes rather the the perpetrators. The majority of AZ citizens, and especially border citizens are not vigilantes. They are trying to protect their lives and their property from an influx of illegals. The illegals crossing the border are just that, illegal. They are perpetrating a crime. Many of them, but not all, are carrying that crime to the nth degree. They are bringing drugs across, destroying lives and property. They are trafficking in humans, holding hostages for ransom. And before you say that the mexicans that are being held against their will for payment are indeed victims, stop and think. How did they get there? They put themselves in that position by trying to get across the border illegally. They made themselves the victims. It was their choice.


Footnote:

The use of 'migrant' in the article denotes the time frame. Migration was an accepted and widely practiced thing in the 70's and many years prior and post to. The migrants came here to work and returned home.

It is safe to say that the word 'migrant' is not applicable in todays world. Immigrant would be the more acceptable term.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Everyone is impacted, directly.

Please explain how I am directly impacted by a situation 2,000 plus miles away.

 

[dilligaf]

Please explain how I am directly impacted by a situation 2,000 plus miles away.

I can't speak for Baba but I kind of understand where he is going, I think. There are illegal immigrants all over the country. I have no doubt that you have more than a few right there in UpstateNY. In that sense you would be directly affected even if not blatantly so. You probably don't even notice it. The closer to the border the more the effect and/or affect.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

I can't speak for Baba but I kind of understand where he is going, I think. There are illegal immigrants all over the country. I have no doubt that you have more than a few right there in UpstateNY. In that sense you would be directly affected even if not blatantly so. You probably don't even notice it. The closer to the border the more the effect and/or affect.

The problem we have here is the smuggling of goods (untaxed cigarettes) across the border; beyond that, the only "foreigners" we get are the Jamaicans that are brought in to harvest the apples and the Canadians who come down to go shopping and enjoy Lake Champlain/Adirondacks.

 

[dilligaf]

Dave, to further follow up on what I just posted. I needed to think for a few..................

It is widely claimed and widely argued that mexican illegal immigrants (I used mexicans to be specific to this thread) pay no taxes, increase crime, are a drain on state welfare, state education system, take jobs away from American citizens and the list could go on. In many ways this statement is true but there are semantics in this statement that make it false. Everyone is directly affected in some way or another. If not at your local or state level then most assuredly at the federal level. Every American citizen pays taxes, pays for education and pays for welfare. Some, but not all, illegal immigrants pay these same monies to a varying degree. This is where the cause and effect comes in.