Mexico's Act of War

What would you call it if a neighboring country used its military forces to escort illegal border crossers, including drug-runners, to border areas known to be less secure?

And that's what the Mexican government stands accused of doing this week – not just by the Minuteman Project President Bush derides as a "vigilante" movement, but by Border Patrol officers and elected U.S. officials.

President Bush still has a little time to save face – though it is slipping away quickly.

He can change directions, admit that the Mexican border poses the No. 1 national security threat to the United States and take definitive action to secure it, or he can face the almost certain risk of a major terrorist attack on this country with the border providing the entry point.

The "cheap labor" argument no longer holds water – not when we are squandering billions on ineffectual homeland security provisions that are rendered meaningless by the openness of the border.

Members of the president's own party in Congress are the whistleblowers on this latest outrage. He can't blame partisan politics. The president's support on every other issue of importance to his administration depends on a quick reversal of his misguided border policies.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., and chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, had some harsh but appropriate words for Bush's blindness to the border threat:

The president of Mexico is threatening to sue any member of the Minuteman who have contact with a Mexican national, threatening to take the U.S. into the International Court of Justice at the Hague over the passage of Prop 200 in Arizona, and is providing transportation to Mexican nationals trying to sneak into the U.S. ... One could say he is acting in the best interest of his nation. Isn't it unfortunate we cannot say the same thing about President Bush?

Border Patrol sources say the Mexican army recently moved about 1,000 troops to the Agua Prieta region, just south of where the Minutemen are. These troops, the sources say, are diverting all of the illegal alien and drug-smuggling traffic away from the Minutemen.

He needs to place troops on the border to supplement Border Patrol agents. He needs to support congressional efforts to hire 10,000 more Border Patrol agents over the next five years. And he needs to work with Congress on a bill to seal the entire Mexican border with a security fence.

Those should be the minimal conditions Congress requires even for discussion of the president's misguided call for a "guest-worker" amnesty program.

Even if the nation were not facing an imminent threat from cross-border terrorism, this would be the only responsible course of action. But today, after what Americans witnessed Sept. 11, 2001, we all recognize the next attack could be far worse.

It's time for Bush to admit he was wrong – that he made a mistake, that he miscalculated the threat the open border represents.

Yes, he will open himself to criticism by those who will never support him. But he can still win back the tens of millions of responsible Americans who only want what is best for this country.

If Republicans don't provide Americans with an alternative and responsible immigration and border policy, the party will go the way of the Whigs and the Bull Moose Party.

The clock is ticking and the bomb that will doom the Republicans and destroy the Bush legacy and kill untold numbers of Americans could go off at any moment.

"This is an internal debate and will not split the GOP"

2006 is right around the corner - let's see if the gains the Republicans have enjoyed in the past continue . . .

The Communists in the Democrat Party will stick together because they are in agreement with the way the party is being run. There is less agreement in the GOP, and, as long as the Republicans in power continue to show no backbone, the split will grow.

Whether you like it or not, there ARE people out here who have TRUE principles and are no longer able to compromise those principles just for the sake of winning elections.

Clinton won both times because the Republican leadership distanced itself from the principles epitomized by Ronald Reagan for a populist "big tent" philosophy that compromised core principles. George W. Bush won because he espoused those core principles again; however, he has not followed through with actions. He blames the small majority in Congress for the lack of progress. Ronald Reagan had the opposition in control of Congress and he did more to champion conservative values than any Republican since. I thank God he blessed us with Ronald Reagan.

We have the right to carry arms. However when carrying arms is a part of intimidating people, including illegal immigrants, this is called vigilantism.

And what is it when enemy alien criminals are targeting you for armed attacks?

Gang will target Minuteman vigil on Mexico border
NACO, Ariz. -- Members of a violent Central America-based gang have been sent to Arizona to target Minuteman Project volunteers, who will begin a monthlong border vigil this weekend to find and report foreigner sneaking into the United States, project officials say.
James Gilchrist, a Vietnam veteran who helped organize the vigil to protest the federal government's failure to control illegal immigration, said he has been told that California and Texas leaders of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, have issued orders to teach "a lesson" to the Minuteman volunteers.
"We're not worried because half of our recruits are retired trained combat soldiers," Mr. Gilchrist said. "And those guys are just a bunch of punks."
More than 1,000 volunteers are expected to take part in the Minuteman vigil, which will include civilian patrols along a 20-mile section of the San Pedro River Valley, which has become a frequent entry point to the United States for foreigner headed north.
About 40 percent of the 1.15 million foreign nationals caught last year by the U.S. Border Patrol trying to gain illegal entry to the United States were apprehended along a 260-mile stretch of the Arizona border here known as the Tucson sector.
Many of the Minuteman volunteers are expected to be armed, although organizers of the border vigil have prohibited them from carrying rifles. Only those people with a license to carry a handgun will be allowed to do so, Mr. Gilchrist said.
An operational plan calls for teams of four to eight volunteers to be deployed along the targeted 20-mile stretch of border at intervals of 200 to 300 yards, along with observation posts and a command center.
Mr. Gilchrist said some of the patrols and posts will be right on the U.S.-Mexico border, while others will be located farther north. The volunteers also have been told to "make lots of noise and burn campfires at night to be very visible."
According to guidelines issued to the volunteers earlier this month, organizers said they expect that they will be targeted by various protest groups and others and that some protesters would try to provoke confrontations.
"If we are to send the message loud and clear to President Bush and Congress, it is imperative we stay within the law," Mr. Gilchrist said.
"If one single person steps over the line for their personal gratification, we are all stained with that irresponsible behavior and labeled forever as a fringe element that embarrasses all who are counting on us to make this historic statement," he said.
The MS-13 gang has established major smuggling operations in several areas along the U.S.-Mexico border and have transported hundreds of Central and South Americans -- including gang members -- into the United States in the past two years. The gang also is involved in drug and weapons smuggling.
Gang members in America have been tied to numerous killings, robberies, burglaries, carjackings, extortion, rapes and aggravated assaults. Authorities said that the gang has earned a reputation from the other street gangs as being particularly ruthless and that it will retaliate violently when challenged.
The MS-13 gang, with 20,000 members nationwide, has risen in recent months to such prominence that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, has begun a nationwide crackdown on gang members in this country -- as part of a sweeping law-enforcement initiative known as Operation Community Shield.
ICE agents arrested more than 100 members of the gang during limited raids that began in January in just six cities, including 35 who were taken into custody in Virginia and Maryland. The authorities said MS-13 gang members originally moved into the Los Angeles area in the 1980s.

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