Posted on 12/30/2001 11:46:53 PM PST by sarcasm
ALPINE, California - Activists stocked emergency cold weather packages Saturday in a mountainous area of Southern California where at least 11 illegal immigrants have died in the past three years while trudging through snow to enter the United States.
The aid packages, which contain blankets, sleeping bags, food and drinks, are the cold-weather equivalent of the emergency water stations the same activists began installing in the desert two years ago in response to a rising death toll among illegal border crossers.
"We know it's not the answer. It's not going to solve everything,'' said Enrique Morones, one of the volunteers behind the effort. "But we have to do something.''
The volunteers collected donated goods and installed the first six aid stations in the mountains of the Cleveland National Forest, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of San Diego, two weeks ago. Each has a bright blue flag and a small battery-powered red light to mark the site at night.
While adding more blankets and food Saturday, Morones and John Hunter, another volunteer behind the effort, said they plan to have up to 25 winter stations in place by the end of February.
The U.S. Border Patrol is aware of the winter stations, but will neither endorse nor criticize them, said Agent Raleigh Leonard, a spokesman for the agency in San Diego.
"We're just remaining neutral,'' Leonard said. "We don't want to give the immigrants a false sense of security by saying its safe to cross.'' Border Patrol officials have confronted the issue before.
Hunter, Morones and other volunteers set up several hundred water stations in the desert of Southern California, and activists in Arizona later did the same. Agents agreed not to remove the water or to stake it out to catch migrants.
The effectiveness of the efforts is impossible to gauge.
Volunteers have said there is evidence that people have used the water stations. Still, 322 illegal immigrants died last year along the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) U.S.-Mexico border, most from exposure or drowning, according to the Border Patrol.
In the mountains east of San Diego, the main risk has been cold. Three people froze to death during a storm in the area last year; eight others perished in 1999.
The Border Patrol, which has created special search and rescue teams in response to the deaths, has saved dozens of immigrants caught trekking through the snow in jeans, T-shirts and sneakers.
Volunteers placed the first winter aid stations in an area called Horse Thief Canyon, about nine miles southeast of the town of Alpine.
Migrants cross there to avoid the intense Border Patrol presence established around urban San Diego as a result of Operation Gatekeeper in October, 1994.
Morones, a former executive with the San Diego Padres baseball team and a Democratic activist, blames Gatekeeper and U.S. immigration policy for the deaths.
Hunter, a Republican business owner whose brother is conservative congressman Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, doesn't question the government's desire to seal its border but wants measures taken to stop the deaths.
"I support the concept of Gatekeeper,'' he said. "But I think you need to be kind to those people who come across.''
These people are "accomplices".(In crime).
There needs to be a shakeout, pronto, of the deadwood at the U.S. Porous Patrol.
Can you imagine if the U.S. Marshals Service "neither endorsed or criticized" winter aids stations for escaped convicts?
Perhaps he could appeal upon the tax payers of the Border States to build a monorail to ease the plight of the “immigrants”.
Hunter, Morones and other volunteers set up several hundred water stations in the desert of Southern California, and activists in Arizona later did the same. Agents agreed not to remove the water or to stake it out to catch migrants.
Sure wish I found this type of support when I started a program to give out hot cocoa, bags of potato chips and umbrellas to local drug dealers on cold nights…
But the bigger forces behind the valley's population explosion are a sizable influx of immigrants and a breathtaking birthrate, particularly among the region's huge Latino community.
< SNIP >
The valley is the poorest region in the state, with poverty levels in some spots sinking as low as Appalachia. The median income is roughly half that enjoyed in the Bay Area or Los Angeles. Nearly one in four families lives below the poverty level.
< SNIP >
Huge societal consequences teeter in the balance, many of them already issues of the day: Water shortages. Conversion of farmland. Traffic headaches. Urban-style air pollution. A dearth of tax dollars, particularly with the economy swooning, for needs ranging from sewers to schools. Epic poverty. An undereducated work force.
This has come up before. The use of the term "migrants" for these lawbreakers seems to come from the Mexico City newspaper. If it's an accurate translation, it's all we need to know about the open border concepts.
Migrants bring their culture and values, or disdain of such values. Immigrants accept the laws and values of the country they enter. "Illegal immigrants" can't very well accept our values and laws, since they broke the law to get here.
And the cheap labor? It's a double edge sword. Low wages to get a lawn mowed or dishes washed or whatever is good for people who won't do it for themselves, I guess. But, social problems and extra government expenses, downward pressure on wages of citizens just trying to make ends meet, impacted neighborhoods, money being sent out of the country, these are not plusses.
I'm not a bigot or racist, but I do believe that people have to be part of an established culture, family, religion, community etc. to thrive. This isn't happening.
Can you believe this is coming from The U. S. Border Patrol? Why do we even bother with INS and the USBP? That's just money down the toilet. These guys don't get paid good money to get out of bed everyday, put on a badge and a gun just to go out into the field and remain neutral. Do something damn it!!
It gets more unbelievable every day.
Yet another example of Bubba Bush being a wuss. This is a National Forrest,and putting these aid stations there would normally require the approval of the Virgin Mary,and signed permits by every bureaucrat in the gooberment.Anybody who didn't have all this would normally be arrested for a felony offense that could land them time in a federal prison. This benefits illegal aliens instead of actual Americans,so everything is just peachy-keen with Bubba Bush. After all,he and the RNC don't want to take a chance on losing both of their "brown votes". I'm sure the "La Raza" crowd will run right down and change their registrations from Dim to Dim-Lite (Republican) because of this.
Why? You don't seriously think they are deciding to ignore these laws all by themselves,do you? They are following directives from their political superiors. If Bubba Bush didn't want them doing this,they wouldn't be doing it.
Repeat after me,"Our diversity is our strength!".
I forgot to address this in the other post,but the correct answer is,"Of course,if Janet Ashcroft and Bubba Bush order them to do this,this is what they WILL do."
As an old boss of mine used to say: "A faulty workman blames his tools".
I think we can para-phrase that for political use to say,"A crafty politician knows the public will blame his appointees for any unpopular policies of his as long as he remains smiling in the background. He knows they must follow his orders and take all the blame".
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