When the Mexican drug cartels took over from the Colombians the first thing they did was use their vast monetary resources and utterly ruthless tactics to compromise almost all civilian, police and military officials all across Northern Mexico (and a good many just on the other side). That money and aggression also allowed them to purchase state-of-the-art communications, vehicles, weaponry and their pick of the best/worst of the Mexican Army's soldiers.
Those former soldiers are called Zetas, often led by men who were trained at our own School of the Americas in high military skills and tactics back in much friendlier times. Now those skills and that superior gear is used against our inadequate border patrol on a regular basis in order to get drugs and humans smuggled into the US interior.
Their scouts learn the Border Patrol's patterns and use commo to coordinate movement - usually so successfully that the BP had no idea they went through until seeing the tracks long after the incursion. Political pressure from the upper leadership has made it plain to the BP on the ground that they don't want to hear about it or see them cited as press report sources.
The US civilians who happen to live in the path of the incursions are either in on it through money or intimidation or powerless while their pleas for help go unanswered by the state and Federal governments that are charged to protect them. Their plight motivated private individuals to form organized groups that patrolled public and private lands (with the owners' permission), reporting the incursions of illegal aliens and the cartels' missions to the Border Patrol. These volunteer groups eventually gave rise to the Minuteman Movement our President likened to vigilantes.
The US House of Representatives passed a very strong package of measures to finally address these ongoing problems. OUR problem is that the Senate, the Administration and the Chamber of Commerce is striving to reduce the enforcement parts of it while adding a guest worker (amnesty) clause before it comes up for final vote next month.
Senate vote on H.R. 4437 on Friday, 01/27/06...
Urge Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) to use his leadership power by opposing Senate passage of a guest worker amnesty. Call Senator Frist and express your opinion: Senator Frist's Nashville office (615-352-9411) and D.C. office (202-224-3135) offices by Friday.
From the FAIR website, there is this:
The second session of the 109th Congress is poised to renew debate on controlling the borders and bringing an end to illegal immigration. As most of you already know, the House passed a bill in mid December that purports to get tough on illegal immigration without adding any guest worker or amnesty provisions. This much is satisfying, but the House bill could and should have been stronger. Only the TRUE Enforcement and Border Control Act, H.R. 4313, aims directly at the root incentives that drive illegal immigration and mirrors what the public is demanding.
Read FAIR's exclusive analysis of the major immigration legislation pending in Congress, updated January 2006 (PDF)
Many of these incentives are ignored in the House-passed Border Protection, Anti Terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act, H.R. 4437. For example, this bill conveniently ignores any requirement for employers to dismiss their illegal alien employees even after they have been shown to be unauthorized to work in the United States following mandatory verification.
The bill also fails to:
--Construct a contiguous fence along the southern border; --Authorize sufficient personnel at DHS to enforce our immigration laws; --Protect the integrity of the social security card; --Protect the integrity of birth certificates; --Reduce the number of documents usable for worksite verification; --Suspend the visa waiver program; --Restrict birthright citizenship; --Restrict the use of ITINs; --Require additional detention space for illegal aliens --Stop the granting of mortgages to illegal aliens; --Stop the business tax deductions employers take for their illegal employees; --Stop claims by illegal aliens for the earned income tax credit.
These failures are remedied in the TRUE Enforcement Act and all of them, if left unchecked, will leave in place an environment where illegal aliens may continue to live without inconvenience and nearly invisible to law enforcement.
You just (als) described conditions in Afghanistan.