http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/story.html?id=1520295 The border for dummies National Post editorial board National Post Published: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 Can someone please tell us how U. S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano got her job? She appears to be about as knowledgeable about border issues as a late-night radio call-in yahoo. In an interview broadcast Monday on the CBC, Ms. Napolitano attempted to justify her call for stricter border security on the premise that "suspected or known terrorists" have entered the U. S. across the Canadian border, including the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack. All the 9/11 terrorists, of course, entered the United States directly from overseas. The notion that some arrived via Canada is a myth that briefly popped up in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and was then quickly debunked. Informed of her error, Ms. Napolitano blustered: "I can't talk to that. I can talk about the future. And here's the future. The future is we have borders." Just what does that mean, exactly? Just a few weeks ago, Ms. Napolitano equated Canada's border to Mexico's, suggesting they deserved the same treatment. Mexico is engulfed in a drug war that left more than 5,000 dead last year, and which is spawning a spillover kidnapping epidemic in Arizona. So many Mexicans enter the United States illegally that a multi-billion-dollar barrier has been built from Texas to California to keep them out. In Canada, on the other hand, the main problem is congestion resulting from cross-border trade. Not quite the same thing, is it?
Where does Obama find these people? She's sorta right about this: But 180 degrees the wrong way. Mexico's border should be equated to Canada's. We're not at war with those people or the Canadians. Just a few years ago, I was able to go to Tijuana by just driving or walking across the border. Now I need a passport. WTF?
I liked it a lot better when I didn't need a passpport. Tijuana's a fun place. Or it was. Since the pressure to build a wall between us and our neighbors, it's not a fun place at all (and way more dangerous).
dunno. i haven't been to TJ since requiring passports. A few years ago we waitied in a long line but then we paid some mexican guys a few bucks and they let us ride their bikes across into a special lane to bypass most of it?????
The news here is filled with reports of violence and killings and how dangerous it is to go to Tijuana or other places just over the border. Maybe Mexico was a poor country with a corrupt govt. and even a lot of organized crime, but it was never like this. All I can see that's changed is the anti-immigrant sentiment and that we're building a wall to keep them out.
I'm actually down in Mexico right now. Its a drug turf war and reactions to the government cracking down on the cartels and distribution of the drug chains, not the anti-immigration sentiment. To blame the troubles on the building of a border wall is ridiculous. I can't believe you watch the news there and are blind to what the real problem is.
If the borders WERE more secure, most of this trash coming into San Diego, Phoenix and other hotbeds of activity would be less of a problem than they are becoming. The problem is quickly seeping over the border into US-latino communities.
A spike of 10,000+ killings since 2006. What's significant about 2006? Isn't that when the wall was built? Yes. The law to build the fence was passed in 2005, and Senator Obama voted for it.
I think 2006 is when Calderon was elected. He made cracking down on the cartels a priority. That and along with a collapse of the mexican economy have caused a rise of crime, especially in border town where the routes of the drugs funnel into the US. My correlations make sense. Yours don't. The mere presence of a fence doesn't cause organized crime rings in Mexico to go out and murder the police, citizens and foreigners.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States–Mexico_barrier The barriers were built as part of three larger "Operations" to taper transportation of illegal drugs manufactured in Latin America and illegal immigration: Operation Gatekeeper in California, Operation Hold-the-Line in Texas, and Operation Safeguard in Arizona.
uhh..good? What's the correlation of a barrier to stop the flow of drugs into the united states and the gang wars between cartels and the mexican government? they are relatively unrelated. the presence of the wall won't noticably affect the drug violence at the border as its not really related to the main problems in mexico. I mean, it seems like it pissed off a few Native American tribes??
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0424/p01s02-ussc.html On tighter US border with Mexico, violence rises PHOENIX - The harder it gets to sneak illicit cargo – immigrants or drugs or other contraband – into the US, the more violence-prone the border has become, not only for border-crossers but also for law officers trying to halt the smuggling. The escalation in violent crime is most pronounced here in Arizona, where border-tightening measures have put a clamp on the preferred route of "coyotes" and smuggling rings. During the first three months of the year, roaming bandits, heavily armed and looking to hijack valuable payloads, waged at least eight attacks on illicit shipments of people or drugs traversing Arizona. Though no US border patrol agents have been killed, they've been assaulted more often by illegal immigrants this year – 112 attacks, an 18 percent jump – in the state, compared with the same three-month period a year ago. Along the entire US-Mexico border, there's been a 3 percent increase in such attacks. Recent federal raids at drop houses in metropolitan Phoenix, say officials with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), have also turned up bigger and more sophisticated weapons caches, along with people suspected of illegal entry. "It is an unintended consequence of the hardening of the border," says Alonzo Peña, special agent in charge of ICE for Arizona. "Because of stronger border patrol, it's harder for the smugglers to get their commodity – whether drugs or aliens – across. It's costing [the smugglers] more, so the value for that commodity goes up, as does the level of protection, usually through violence." The law-enforcement agencies that track crime along the border – county sheriffs' offices, ICE, the border patrol – report an uptick in almost every category of crime in recent months, a period corresponding to the US border crackdown. Few are surprised, however.
Can anyone who voted for Obama or wanted change really tell me with a straight face that I should feel safer with this woman in charge of Homeland Security?
Again, you were initially talking about deaths, for which this report notes none. Of course when you enforce the borders more properly, the more people are going to attack border agents. As for the weapons...they're simply catching more. The border fence is a good idea.
