Lawmakers challenge border security priorities

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Republican lawmaker criticized the Defense Department on Tuesday for not making the drug violence in Mexico as big a priority as Afghanistan and for not coordinating U.S. resources to confront it.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., said the Mexican turmoil is "a lot more important, in my own judgment, than Afghanistan at this moment." He added: "We need to raise this to a higher level."

Lewis praised the Homeland Security Department for deploying unmanned aerial vehicles to track human activity along the U.S.-Mexico border, but he criticized the Pentagon for not providing helicopters to help patrol it.

"You can't chase these people around in trucks," said Lewis, the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee.

Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey D. Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Defense Department has been working with Mexican officials on ways to deal with shared threats along the border, including training and equipping counter-narcotics forces.

"We are concerned about the escalating cartel violence in Mexico and its effect on public security," Gordon said, adding that Pentagon officials support Mexican President Felipe Calderon's effort to curb the violence.

Since 2008, about 7,000 people have been killed in the Mexican drug wars, and violence is spilling into U.S. cities in some parts of the country. There have been reports of drug cartel members settling scores with adversaries in such places as Atlanta, Phoenix and Birmingham, Ala.

"It doesn't just involve Mexico and Mexicans, it involves our kids dying in cities all over the country," Lewis said. "Every major city in the country is being impacted by these cartels. "

There are plenty of reports of gang violence south of the border. According to this Daily Telegraph Article:

Since January,2008 more than 1,300 people have been killed in execution-style hits or gunned down in fire fights, which often rage for hours in broad daylight and turn residential neighbourhoods into war zones. If the trend continues, 2008 will top last year's toll of 2,500 deaths in drug-related killings.

You don't hear so much about Americans at the Border. Too bad.

Americans are regularly abused. According to this article entitled US Warns Tourists of 'Small-Unit Combat' at Mexico Border -- Murder and kidnapping of Americans has become routine all along the US Mexican border. According to the State Department sometimes heavily armed attackers wear the uniforms of the Mexican police or military. According to Mexicans their military has even become part of the problem. The US Border Patrol has complained to the Bush administration about Mexican military incursions to no avail.

If there is silence about events at the border. The silence about killings north of the border is deafening. And yet....

More Americans killed by illegal aliens than Iraq war, study says The liberal LA Times is now reporting that Mexico's drug wars are now north of the borders--but soto voce. Think about it. A man or woman killed in Iraq or Iran in the line of duty is a hero. But what is an American killed at home by an illegal alien because the government has failed in its sworn duty to guard the borders. This is a pact between the sovereign and the person has paid taxes and loyalty. The answer is to that question is pretty awful. And it bodes ill for the republic.

But is it true?

Yes, according Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa.When you start digging into the numbers the only ones that can be sourced with the feds are the number of American murdered in 2005: 16692
I have seen federal numbers for illegals held in jail ranging from 19.3% to 27% of the federal prison population.

Here's a sampling of USA cities wanted for murder. What you'll see is that in big USA cities like LA or NYC most of the murderers are Hispanic. Unknown are the % of illegals. In smaller cities the FBI will post the nationalities of the murderers. About 25% of the most wanted are illegals wanted for murder. This number agrees with the percentage of illegals incarcerated in federal prisons. +-25%
Pictures of top 10 most wanted in LA. Up until recent stories about crime in LA posted by the LA Times--the pictures included the nationality of the murderers. They were all foreign nationals and mostly Mexican.

Wanted for Murder in New York City.

Chicago wanted for Murder

Philadelphia wanted for murder

San Francisco wanted for Murder

New Orleans wanted for Murder

Pictures of suspects wanted for murder in Washington DC Alas, the Washington DC pictures have recently been taken down.

FBI USA 10 most wanted. (two of 10 are Mexican nationals) Around 40% of the FBI's wanted for murder are Mexican Nationals

There are currently no exact numbers on the number of Americans killed by illegals. Part of the reason is that the government deliberately obscures the number. I talked on the phone with the head of statistics for the US Bureau of Prisons. He said his office wasn't allowed to publish the number of illegal alien murderers. Rather they were forced to put legal and non legal residents in the same category. He said further that most of illegals in the federal prisons were in for drug related charges. Most of the illegals in jail for murder were in the state prisons. I talked to ICE. They put out detailed numbers on illegal child molestors. However, they put out nothing on illegal murderers.

Part of the reason for the silence on the matter is that there is evidence to suggest that most Americans--but by no means all -- being killed by illegals are black--as is the suggestion in this LA Times Article. Also this article from the LA Times. And here. This makes intuitive sense. We see stories regularly of drug gang killings in Mexico but we don't see those same stories in the USA. The reason we don't see those stories is not because its not happening. Rather we don't see the stories about illegals killing blacks because that kind of story is terribly politically incorrect. The populations being displaced in downtown sanctuary cities especially are American blacks. That means that their criminal elements would be pushed aside by Mexican gangs as well. That's also the story that the wanted for murder posters in all the major cities seems to suggest.

Why isn't there an outcry in the black community? Beats me.

Nevertheless, the pattern of non reporting is starting to break. Discovery Channel has a series called Gangland that mentions ethnic cleasing of blacks by Mexican gangs. One woman in San Francisco who had her family killed by an illegal is even demanding the city to drop its sanctuary city status. Illegals themselves have become the targets of kidnappers Mexican style in Arizona where drug money from south of the border is often parked.

Reported Foreign Nationals on Death Row in the U.S.

To look at other USA cities go here http://stlouis.fbi.gov/ and replace stlouis with the city you want.

That said, the true number of criminal aliens is far higher than is revealed by criminal aliens in prisons. Most are simply waived through the courts. DHS Secretary Chertoff, has been quoted as warning that two million people in this country illegally have committed serious crimes. Here is more info from Judicial Watch.

However the number of illegals on death row is far lower. Sadly, so many small towns and villages across America have sent their warriors off to war half way across the world only to see communities fill up with illegal aliens. The Center For Immigration Studies has provided a detailed account of the illegal alien gang problem

I posted the following to another thread earlier today (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2203420/posts?page=14#14). I may keep posting it to related threads until either the Mods stop me, or preferably, when my concerns start delivering reliable answers. I hope the Mods will indulge my concerns as answers may help bring the Mexican drug cartel violence in this nation to a heightened sense of urgency.

~~~

I've a serious problem with this report and all news stories regarding the Mexican drug cartels. They all conclude that the drug trafficking is a cross-border operation. I disagree, but have absolutely no facts, only conjecture to support my position.

Yes, there is a tremendous amount of cross-border drug traffic. I don't believe it is limited to that though.

The Central California is among the most prolific areas of production for methamphetamine in the valley areas and marijuana farming in the Sierra Mountains. Daily, the local news reports include stories of murder involving illegal aliens, drug busts, and gang activities. I strongly believe much of this activity is controlled by the cartels headquartered in Mexico. If my hunch is correct, we're no longer speaking of only a cross-border drug trafficking problem.

Comments anyone? Does anyone know of any news service that could do an investigative report on this hunch to see if it has merit?

Also, I've heard years of whining from Mexican authorities that it is the drug appetite of Americans fueling the drug trade. Those Mexican authorities and the news media may find this difficult to believe, but many of the illegal aliens from Mexico now in this country are the very ones buying the drugs brought in from Mexico. It shouldn't surprise anyone to learn that these illegal aliens not only had outright contempt for our immigration laws. They have great contempt for our drug laws too.

We know that Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) produce drugs here. That is no secret. You can look at materials put out by the DEA and other various governmental entities going back many years and see where they are talking about meth “superlabs” in Western states run buy Mexican DTOs, and large scale marijuana growing operations.

Some of these organizations doing these things up here are taking orders directly from cartel leaders back in Mexico. Many are smaller organizations based here.

There are huge amounts of drugs coming from Mexico though. IN the USDOJ’s 2009 National Drug Threat Assessment they estimate that 15,500 metric tons of marijuana were produced in Mexico in 2007 and most of it came here. The government estimates that about 90% of the cocaine coming into this country is coming through Mexico and being supplied by Mexican cartels. They estimate that better than 80% of the meth and heroin consumed in this country is coming from Mexican drug cartels. The heroin is all being produced in Mexico or is being purchased from countries below Mexico by Mexican cartels and then smuggled into this country. Most of the meth is being produced in Mexico and some is being produced here by Mexicans.

Marijuana is their biggest money maker. Our drug czar, John Walters said marijuana is the “bread and butter,” “the center of gravity,” for Mexican drug cartels. The ONDCP estimates that roughly 62% of the cartels’ gross proceeds from drugs bound for the U.S. come from marijuana. About 28% of their gross proceeds come from cocaine bound for the U.S., but they are only the middlemen for cocaine which must first be purchased and snuggled into Mexico before it is smuggled into this country.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/022208dnintdrugs.3a98bb0.html

And on the question of whether illegal aliens are using most of the drugs the Mexican DTOs bring in, that just isn't possible. There aren't nearly enough illegal aliens to use all the drugs being brought in for one thing. Also, government statistics show that people who are not Hispanic or Latino are more likely to use drugs than Hispanics. According to the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health 8.2% of non Hispanics 12 and older are current illicit drug users compared to 6.6% of Hispanic or Latino people in this country. According to that survey there were about 17.6 million non-Hispanic people who used illicit drugs in the month preceding the survey compared to about 2.26 million Hispanics. And of course most of the Hispanics surveyed were probably either citizens or legal permanent residents, but they survey a random sampling of all households whether the people in the households are legally here or not. Illegals may very well be using drugs more than Hispanics here legally, but they could only be using a small amount of the total amount of drugs being smuggled in or produced here by Mexican DTOs.

See Table 1.19A for the number of people estimated to have used drugs broken down by demographics and Table 1.19B for per capita percentages of drug users broken down by demographics:
http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/NSDUH/2k7NSDUH/tabs/Sect1peTabs1to46.htm#Tab1.19B

I don't think they weigh all the plants they seize. It would be mostly water weight, stalks, stems and leaves no one smokes. The federal government does keep track of how much finished product they seize within this country though. It averages around 1,300 metric tons per year. There is no good accounting of what is seized by the states. They'll seize anything from tiny amounts on up to several tons at a time time though. They seize at least a couple of tons a year off a little stretch of highway that runs through my county every year, and I'm not even in a border state. These are drug mule cases where they'll find a couple of hundred pounds at a time in a car or a lot more in a truck, all compressed Mexican pot. I'm a lawyer and I've handled thousands of pounds worth of these cases. I don't know what the total amount seized is in the states, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that including what the feds seize in this country the total amount is over 2,000 metric tons a year. There is no telling how much of that is grown here. My guess is most of it is Mexican grown as a lot of that which is grown here is sold in the general area where it is grown and having to be transported less is less likely to be seized, at least in large amounts of several hundred pounds or more at a time.

Estimates about how much is produced here are all over the place. I read an article just recently where a DEA division chief said they believe that about half the marijuana on the market here comes from Mexico. The federal government estimates that the total marijuana supply in this country in a year, including domestic production and imported pot, is between 12,000 and 25,000 metric tons. All they can really do is guess.

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