Doing the job that government won't!
Posted on 08/22/2005 11:48:27 AM PDT by TERMINATTOR
County governments in Texas, overwhelmed by a flood of illegal aliens and rapidly increasing border violence, want the federal government to come up with $10 million to help them pay for manpower increases, rising fuel bills and much-needed vehicles and equipment.
Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez, a member of the Texas Border Sheriffs' Coalition, said the federal government's failure to control illegal immigration and to curtail the growing violence along the 1,200-mile Texas-Mexico border had forced county law-enforcement authorities into a "financial nightmare."
"We have tried everything we know to make the federal government aware of the problems at the border and how they have [affected] us," Sheriff Gonzalez told The Washington Times. "And while they say they are aware of the problems, they just leave it alone."
The Texas coalition includes all the sheriffs from Texas' 16 border counties. They think the U.S. government has failed to control the border and formed the alliance to seek funding from federal officials to help pay for their rapidly escalating border-enforcement costs.
"We feel our government is not protecting our country, particularly at a time when terrorists could make their way into the United States through our southern border," Sheriff Gonzalez said. "If anything happens along the border areas, we're the first ones to respond, and it's the local taxpayers who are footing the bills for the federal government's inability to control the area."
The coalition will meet next month in El Paso to discuss its funding request, Sheriff Gonzalez said, adding that while $10 million "may not seem like much to elected officials in Washington," it would "go a long way" toward paying for new personnel, overtime, equipment and fuel.
Sheriff Gonzalez said he did not know what response to expect for the funding request. He noted that in July, when it invited President Bush, a former Texas governor, the state's two U.S. senators, six members of Congress who represent Texas' border areas, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico and other elected officials to a coalition meeting, only Rep. Henry Cuellar, Texas Democrat, attended.
A major concern to the coalition, Sheriff Gonzalez said, is the possibility that terrorists could be paying Mexican drug and immigrant smugglers for help in crossing the border. In the meantime, Sheriff Gonzalez said Texas border residents are terrorized by rising violence.
Zapata County, with about 13,000 residents and a median annual income of $24,635, is about 50 miles south of Laredo, Texas, along the Rio Grande. Sheriff Gonzalez has fewer than two dozen deputies to patrol nearly 1,000 square miles, including 60 miles of Texas-Mexico border.
"We are concerned about this border, and what we're asking for is help in being able to better defend it," he said.
Nuevo Laredo, across the river from Laredo, has been the site of a deadly war between drug cartels and more than 100 people have been killed this year. A gang of Mexican military deserters known as the "Zetas" work out of Nuevo Laredo to protect cocaine and marijuana being brought into the United States.
Doing the job that government won't!
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Support our Minutemen Patriots!
Be Ever Vigilant ~ Bump!
George W. Bush isn't listening to his fellow Texans on the illegal immigration disaster any more than he listens to the rest of us. He disgusts me.
http://www.minutemanhq.com/tx/
Border Ping!
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.
He isn't listening to them on the education and taxation crises in Texas. It all goes hand in hand. I am surprised at how much apathy seems to dominate the outlook on education in the Lone Star State. I wish we had English-immersion laws like in California, not bilingual education here.
Is there a group of Texans out there organizing to light a fire for education reform?
Is this really about protecting the border or just an attempt to get money. I didn't see anything in the article about what they were planning to do. I did see a lot about the need for funding. Let's be careful who gets the much needed help in protecting the border.
No sooner than I suggest it, it becomes policy. I guess we know that Texas sheriffs read FreeRepublic!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1468234/posts?page=24#24
Of course, I've suggested it many times in the past, so perhaps the turn-around time is not so quick, but one way or another it's clear that Texas sheriffs are reading my posts. ;-)
We're beginning to see that the money in New Mexico is being given to private citizens to use to "repair their fences" and other personal uses that will not benefit the public at all.
Why don't we just get Congress to approve a "big dig" for a super underground highway along the border. We could say that it's necessary to put it underground to keep illegals from using it. Texans can always find ways to spend a couple dozen extra billion dollars of Yankee tax money.
Bilingual education STILL goes on here in Mexifornia, it's just not advertised. Every time we vote anything into law that has to do with illegal aliens, it's somehow overturned or ignored.
I'm just wondering if that will happen with the Border Patrol police as well. A democratic governor will never use them to actually enforce the law at worksites and a Republican will be terrified of being called a racist if he or she does.
Gonzalez has been out front on the immigration issue for some time. It's apparent to me that he is serious about illegal immigration. It's also apparent to me that he desperately needs help because he doesn't have the resources to deal with this problem.
Asking the federal government won't help. There needs to be a task force created by the border sheriff's with financial and manpower help from other counties also experiencing problems but not on the border.
These sheriffs have the constitutional duty and authority to do what the federal government has sorely failed at doing. The sheriffs are our first, last and only line of defense, and if they've got a coalition of border counties talking then that's a good start.
There's no difference between the Bush-haters on the liberal side and those on the whacko side, their only goal in life is to defeat Bush.
I hope you don't get too depressed when you learn that he isn't running for election anymore. He's already won everything and is retiring the undefeated champion.
No, there's plenty of difference. On the right are folks who are disappointed in Bush but voted for him.
You use the phrase "Bush-haters" so broadly. I would like to defeat all the Texas legislative RINOs, though.
Bush is not a second Reagan. He is a second Bush.
Bush to TX sheriffs....No.
Yeah, I'm sure it also gives you a warm feeling to know by being so utterly clueless on certain issues that he's about to repeat history by having an inept Bush presidency greasing the skids for another Clinton to be elected.
It seems to me that all the local counties need to do is pass a local ordnance that requires the Sheriff to ensure employment is properly documented. This would give the Sheriff the authority to verify I-9 forms or other employment verification mechanisms. No job, no need to stay here illegally.
You obviously weren't politically aware during Reagan's terms. A few very bitter, mean spirited, isolationists have tried to revise Reagan to fit their image. Unfortunately their devotees have bought into the revisionism.
What's your opinion of the Schweiker decision?
Oh no, not that idiotic "send a message" childishness again. That's the battle cry of the perpetual losers.
If you want to send a message try Western Union.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.