Posted on 02/04/2019 7:41:49 PM PST by caww
Border residents in New Mexico say they are hesitant to report suspicious immigration activity to local and federal law enforcement because they fear the Mexican cartels moving drugs or people into the U.S. will retaliate against them.
Seven residents who live 30 to 50 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border told the Washington Examiner that picking up the phone to call for help if they have been burglarized or found someone sleeping in their barn can lead to nasty consequences.
Billy Darnell, a cattle rancher in Hidalgo County who has lived in the region more than 70 years, said he calls in every incident but has paid the price for informing Border Patrol and the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Department.
"My house is maybe 100 yards from my barn. One time, I found a hand-drawn map that I turned over to the sheriff's department that listed every ... water tank from south all the way to my house. And my barn was marked with a big X. And they even labeled it 'Massey barn.' So, they’re pretty informed on what they’re doing. And this is literally on the highway, so you know what they’re doing out here in the pastures, and you find bundles of drugs in your field when you’re harvesting — backpack size," Massey said.
Joel Edwards was elected in November to the highest position in Hidalgo County as one of its three commissioners. He said claims that ranchers and farmers have been retaliated against by cartels after reporting suspicious activities are "legitimate."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
So they do or don’t want the Wall?
It's not just near the border. Illegal aliens bring fear and crime into every neighborhood.
That does fit a working theory in that many here believe that landowners who live on the border are being paid by the Cartels, hence their refusal to support a wall...likewise they also know that if the publicly press for a wall, they may not see their kids again. Hence they’re compromised.
Really no different than Muslim women insisting on their ‘right’ to wear a Burka and supporting FGM and Sharia...there’s no way to know if they really feel that way (which is highly unlikely)...or they know that they better ‘properly’ answer the questions being posed - or else.
This is the future for the USA, if the Democrats have their way.
It’s not about the wall.....it’s about what the players want...Dems want to open up Obama’s deals paying to assist the illegals with housing, attorney’s etc. etc.
That’s right....seeing the videos of those coming here certainly are here for the handouts....or they’d be getting jobs in mexico who has offered them.
Cash talks if there’s enough.....then just make a well maked path through your property.
Billy Darnell is an elderly man now but in his younger days he was one tough character and County Sheriff...for many years. Years ago a school teacher at our little country school and her husband were murdered by illegals.
That incident was thoroughly investigated by several agencies, they figure out it was 4, kept working on the case until they knew pretty much everything, identified the suspects, but of course they were long gone. Sheriff Darnell tracked down all four and brought them back to justice...well one tried to escape and didn’t make it.
These are salt of the earth people, and have good reason to fear cartels. Some people get their water tanks messed with and others are murdered.
As a work companion farmer said as why he did not report his next door neighbor for making meth, “I don’t want my cattle gut shot in retaliation.”
In parts of TX where the border crime has always been serious and the people who live there say there is no problem everything is fine I have thought they were bought. The Border Patrol recently plastered the country over there with a toll free number to report suspicious activity anonymously. No rewards are offered, no info is taken from caller. I have noticed they are making some large busts over there since then. I am going to say many of the people there are not paid off but scared.
We report things, but we are careful who we report to. We have been lucky enough to trust trustworthy people and not had an issue. We do not randomly call and make a report, we report to agents we have built a relationship with. It is not only that the cartels will retaliate but there are also dirty LEOs of every agency and people working in their offices that have been found to be working for cartel.
Most ranchers do report things, but if they trust the wrong person then they are burned. If we the people demand a secure border, and there is enough of us, then things will change. Until then we all have to live here as we say when asked why we don’t do this or that. ]
Many are talking to the media to get word out about what goes on here. So far most of the articles have been pretty fair. I do not trust the media and will not talk to them. I do what I can to get word out, but not going to be interviewed by some goofy left reporter that will twist my words.
I can promise you all of these people gave an in depth interview about all the border issues here, and fear was mentioned as only one issue of many. This reporter zeroed in on the one thing- fear. That may be good, but not a representation of what the people talked about when they talked about a lot of stuff. As you read this take it in the context. These are people who have had friends and neighbors kidnapped and murdered. They still live here, they are still fighting for this border.
The cartels control the entire border on the Mexican side. If anyone stands up to them the whole family is murdered. I would argue the cartels own pockets along the border on the US side. If we don’t get control of this border the cartels will. That is a fact.
There are many reasons, that is just one. Cartels bribe officials on both sides of the border. The thing is now we have been electing politicians so clueless they don’t even need to be bought. I bet the cartels are having a good chuckle about that.
And there are more than a few down there that close property to Border Patrol access. They cannot prevent USBP walking out there, but they do have the right to not allow horses, Jeeps or ATVs out there.
They get paid to close off USBP vehicle access, and to simply “not see anything” when they look out the window. The agents are welcome to walk 8 miles across the property. Talk to any agents you find down there, you’ll hear some stories.
There is an assumption by some that every landowner on our side of the border is ok. Some are as dirty as anyone on the other side of the fence.
YES! A woman I met at a conference told me that is she reported any suspected cartel tunnel activity on her property, that she would be killed. She has to go around armed all the time.
THe cartels rule the border areas, and reportedly have either threatened or paid off local officials for their silence.
Until we militarily attack the cartel as an enemy army, both in Mexico or the US, the Cartels will hold the best hands.
We should be taking a buffer zone out of the Mexican side.
Intimidating Americans in America??? Sic spec ops on cartel big shots (and little shots) and kill them without mercy. Zero reason for America to put up with this crap from messycan thugs. Word to the wise in the Mexican gov’t: Stand aside and don’t interfere.
Well... That’s my request of the best American president ever!
Not all ranchers that essentially keep BP off their land are dirty by a long shot. Years ago BP Agents had sense enough to close gates they found closed and not destroy things, run over livestock and not only not report it but deny it ever happened. Border Patrol used to hire people that grew up in the country and knew how to get along.
We had issues with the BP leaving our corral gates open next to a state highway, our horses would come across the pasture, find the gates open and walk through the corrals to the highway and play chicken with cars. It happened over and over. I called every BP office I could find a number for, talked to every agent, they were denying they had agents doing that, or even working on our place at that time. Denial, denial all the way and nothing changed. A friend of ours had a real nice horse turned out with ours and he got out and was killed by a car. One morning early I went to feed and when I got to the corrals I saw a BP truck parked there so I pulled off and watched him. He was walking out the corrals leaving every gate behind him open. I drove up and blocked his truck in and told him I wanted to talk to his supervisor. He had no clue why I was so upset. I asked him if anyone had told him to close gates you found closed on a ranch. No one had, and he had no idea there were horses in the pasture that could walk right out to the highway if he left gates open. His other excuse was the gates were old and hard to close. I told him well since I was a kid I was told if you can’t close a gate don’t open it. I guess he was too lazy to shut the gates or climb over fences. I did talk to his supervisor and our corral gates were never left open again. All the calls I had made, no one even bothered to tell the guys in the field. BP also opens a gate, drives through- don’t see any livestock standing right at the gate so they think they can leave it open until they come back. Nope. It is ALWAYS denied unless you catch them red handed doing it.
We have never restricted BP on our property but have come close to it. They also run over livestock and if their truck will run they will leave and claim they drove off in a gully or some other nonsense. I was in the store here one day when a ranch lady came in and told an agent he ran over ha black calf...he denied it. She told him his grill was broken, he said he did that some other way. She insisted on him getting a supervisor to talk to her. I walked out to my truck, looked at his grill and lo and behold there was black hair and blood in his busted grill.
Another neighbor locks his gate and let BP put their lock on the chain too. Their agents would leave it unlocked, and after he complained one night they locked him out of his property because they locked it wrong where his lock wouldn’t open the chain they way they had their on. He did end up making them hike in after that.
Most BP agents now do not grow up on ranches and farms, we understand that. A short course in how to deal with issues out here would be outstanding, and they need to remind them when needed and stop lying when one of their agents does mess up.
When the BP is causing more problems on your ranch than the cartel does it is time to do something different. The sad thing is there is no need for it with a little training. And don’t talk to me about ranch laisons, they will lie to your face and seem to have little to no contact with the actual agents from what I can tell. Seems to me they are just supposed to talk nice and make promises to calm people down, we have never had an issue solved by talking to one.
I support BP every chance I get, and most are great people. There seriously needs to be a Ranch 101 class at the academy though.
Well we all thought it was common sense but common sense is not so common any more.
Wow, thanks for the info. It reminds me of a couple of things.
In 2002, Muslim Palestinians entered the Church of the Nativity (in Bethlehem) while fighting Israel and simply trashed it. The people who normally operate the church are Christian Palestinians (some of the very few left in the ‘occupied’ territories). Israel’s military was there trying to free up the church from the Muslims. I’m watching the Christians, now on the outside, watching what’s happening, and all they’re doing is BLASTING Israel, as if Israel started the damn thing, which, of course, they didn’t. They didn’t have one bad thing to say about the Muslims in the church, who were tearing it apart and using it as military base.
Years later it finally hit me: Back then, during the siege, the Christians knew that Israel would be leaving at some point in the near future, once they got control of the church and gave it back to the Christians - but their Muslim ‘friends’ would not be leaving, they would still all be there, some 90% of the population of Bethlehem. So, yea, it sounded like the Christians were being idiots, siding with the Palestinians, but it’s called ‘survival’. Kind of related to that is when one sees a Muslim women in a space suit DEMANDING that this practice be allowed to continue, even those damn things have to get hot as hell in the summer, and no person in their right mind would ever want to wear one - yet they insist it is their cultural identity and crap like that. But, one must remember, those women have husbands and families - and in that culture, things don’t end well for women who try ‘taking a stand’ against their masters.
As to our southern border - there was an interview of a Border Patrol agent and he noted just what you said - which is that the cartels have done something that only Trump (and we) dream of, which is to secure the border. No one lives who tries crossing the border without their approval. This is no longer the days of Juan and Jose heading north to work the fields for the summer, this is serious business, the rules are clear, and the penalty is torture and then death (and death of the family, as you noted). For people who STILL think that we have ‘friends across the aisle’, the fact that Democrats are DEFENDING these cartels in Congress, only because of their hatred of Trump - that should tell them something, but it won’t.
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