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Texas officials rebuffed President Barack Obama's claim that the U.S.-Mexico border is secure and told a congressional panel Wednesday that cartel-related crimes in this country are under-reported.
Steve McCraw, Texas Department of Public Safety director, said 22 murders, 24 assaults, 15 shootings and five kidnappings in Texas were linked to Mexican cartels since 2010.
"There are consequences when you don't secure the border," McCraw told the subcommittee. "There has been a proliferation of organized crime in Texas."
Republicans on the House Homeland Security subcommittee on oversight and investigations asked Texas officials to give a rebuttal to U.S. officials' claims that the 1,969-mile border is secure.
Amy Pope, a U.S. attorney general deputy chief of staff, said no "significant spike" in crime on the U.S. side of the Southwest border has been associated with the drug war raging in Mexico.
And a Homeland Security Department official said the crimes that are committed along the U.S. border are not like those seen by drug trafficking or the cartels in Mexico.
"We are not seeing the level of crime and overall viciousness that you are seeing in Mexico," said Grayling Williams, Department of Homeland Security director of counternarcotics enforcement.
But Republicans on the subcommittee questioned the Justice and Homeland Security officials about how crimes are classified.
GOP lawmakers said crimes like attempted murder and kidnappings should be considered "spillover violence."
"The border is not secure, and it has never been more violent or dangerous. Anyone who lives down there will tell you that," said Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Austin, the subcommittee chairman.
Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez said the U.S.-Mexico border in rural South Texas is a porous gateway for drugs and weapons flowing both ways - with cartels in control on both sides of the border.
"We have seen armed individuals coming into our country," Gonzalez said. "We have seen the very ruthless behavior of the cartels."
Border Democrats have bristled at GOP depictions of lawlessness.
Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, chided Republicans for creating a "sky is falling" hysteria that impacts businesses and families in U.S. cities along the border.
Cuellar said he supports more resources to strengthen the border, but "I'm just asking that we do this in a measured way."
The testimony came one day after Obama was in El Paso to tout an immigration reform plan and declared the border as secure as it has been for decades.
Obama mocked Republicans for insisting on unreachable thresholds of border security as a way to justify their opposition to comprehensive immigration reform.
That piece of shit president has to go. If you believe in a Constitutional government, if you believe in drug legalization, if you believe in ending all these unconstitutional wars, if you believe the Drug War is a fraud, then vote for Ron Paul and he'll bring home our troops and station them all along the border where they're supposed to be.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Mr. Grayling Williams statement: Does it really matter HOW someone is killed? In fact, it could be considered ruthless and villainous cartel murder to transport deadly drugs to our nation's youth. With regard to Mr. Henry Cuellar's comment about the "sky falling": WTF? Everyone is the Valley knows he's pussy-footing around!
ReplyDeleteImjustagirl
(and a really pissed-off one)
if some loser gangbanger commits a crime, and he is vaguely connected to trafficking drugs, republicans say he is a cartel henchmen on a mission inside the u.s. to wreak havoc. except for a few incidents, you dont see the large scale violence these republicans and others claim.
ReplyDeleteIt is a shame that the issue of pourover crime from Mexico is now a DEM/REPUB Presidential campaign issue. When our Fed govt sues Arizona,Block state law enforcment,then Barac shows up in El Paso Cheerleading Mexicans to get on board the Democratic Welfare Wagon,you know that an election is looming. Now Democrats will claim all is O K this is also what the criminals want,the Repubs will cry for law enforcment,the rest of us stand around and watch the show. Bottom line if Mexico can be Civalized then all the people who cross over to US will be more likley to follow the rules,a good thing.
ReplyDeleteobama is a dumbas$
ReplyDeleteThere is one thing Obama and the anti Obamas can fully agree on: there is supposedly not enough money to do more border security!
ReplyDeleteWhat a crock of shit this guy is spewing. Built a fence, doubled the amount of patrols, insecting the skies and the rails going south, and you know what? THE SHIT HASN'T STOP MOVING ACROSS THE BORDER IN EITHER DIRECTION.
ReplyDeleteWho the fuck do these politicians think they are fooling? This is why I HATE politics. And also more proof that the whole war on drugs is nothing but fancy fucking window dressing.
I dare this asshole to go live with his family on one of the South Texas ranches where the cartels cross drugs on a regular basis, and then tell us that our fucking border is secure.
So build that wall already, and build a moat, and put sharks in it, and some lazers
ReplyDeleteand little red lights.
Forget it now everyone that wants in are already here, the cartels must be loving his comments having already set up cells in every state, get ready to see the drug addiction and crime skyrocket in the next few years.
ReplyDeleteKeep telling your lies mr. President.
We made this mess for ourselves with our laws. We wanted illegal immigrants here when things were booming. now we don't? it doesn't work like that. We are creating the violence with our laws. If we legalized narcotics and regulated them and taxed them like alcohol the violence would plummet. Just like it did after prohibition in the 30's. Why don't people get that?
ReplyDeleteAaron H
The crimes may not be spilling over or at the rate they are in Mexico. But, that doesn't lessen the anxiety of those on either side of the border who, "live on the line." Cartels are present in every Mexican community on the Border. Thus, there is a potential for violence there. The violence spreads as bullets from shootouts in Mexico strike the buildings in the US; cartels shoot at highway workers and plant IEDs on a US Federal Highways; kidnappings occur in a major US metro area; shootings happen on a street two blocks from the border; tunnels are dug through rock for 200 feet into the USA; several public officials in a US city, including the police chief, are charged with trafficing guns for the cartels in Mexico; elected officials in another city are arreested as cartel members; Police Officers and Border Patrol Agents are shot and killed as they encounter armed illegal immigrants who are hired to guard smuggled drugs or pwople; US citizens are forced off their land as a cartel takes it over to use for a smuggling sanctuary; bodies of murdered people (with potential ties to cartels) are found on a US military base; observation and communications points have been discovered along smuggling routes well within the USA; and many more that I probably have not heard about. All of these since June of 2010. Is this a secure border?
ReplyDeleteI am one of those that live on the line. My back fence is a DHS created secondary border fence, and I am concerned that violence may come over to me. I know the US Government will do nothing to protect me. They have already aligned with the cartels and refuse to defend our state; the president of my country has declared me an enemy because I don't support his Health Care law; Our Secretary of Homeland security has branded me as a potential terrorist simply because I'm a war Veteran.
I'm these because I know I still have first ammendment rights, and I do exercise them.
So, take this from the enemy, potential terrorist USA Veteran; the border is not secure. As long as it is wide open there will be criminals, real terrorists, sex deviants, contagious ilnesses bearers and poor crossing in droves. Some to find a job; and some to do a (criminal) job.
DC doesn't get it. Comprehensive Immigration Reform is a two platform program (Immigration regulation and border security) and both must proceed in parallel to achieve what is best for America.
God bless all who defend freedom and this nation; and, God bless the USA
'Our Secretary of Homeland security has branded me as a potential terrorist simply because I'm a war Veteran.'
ReplyDeleteAnother whiny, Ultra paranoid, USA Uniform Rigtist. Got they get tiresome with their bs...!!!!!!
'God bless all who defend freedom and this nation; and, God bless the USA'
Atheism, Anybody? I'd rather go to Hell than live eternally in 'heaven' with these types.
'As long as it is wide open there will be criminals, real terrorists, sex deviants, contagious ilnesses bearers and poor crossing in droves.'
Oh, I'm scared now! Poor people, too? ...lol...
Oh, Ardent, I'm sure your arrival in Hell is much anticipated, though perhaps as little desired as your snippy comments!
ReplyDeleteImjustagirl
Ardent- Americans are more awake than you know and evil like you who want to distroy this country will fail! We Americans are strong and United.
ReplyDeleteYou can't shut us up..and
Until this border is secure, we won't be silenced.
*We won in 1836 and we will win again.....
Whoever posted at 10:46AM is not Ardent, though he deliberately posted his ANONYmous trash in a way that would mislead others into thinking that it was me basically doing the posting. (I get so sick of the shenanigans that Right Winger thugs constantly come up with, fools that you most seem to be!)
ReplyDeleteAll those who replied to remarks by me made on other, much earlier threads, just blew off your hot air over NADA. You were replying to one of your own Anonys reposting on this unrelated thread material as being seemingly 'Ardent', by simply doing gratuitous and unrelated repastes by me on other earlier discussions, now to this thread about Obama's policies, Obama being a guy I did not even vote for! Talk about being off topic! Anoy 10:46 certainly is, and merely wants to change this thread into a flame war against me.
No doubt about it though, the Right Winger that brought me up again to be for your hateful Right Wingers discussion once again, probably believes I am a Democratic Party voter. I am not though.
Truth is, I have stopped posting so much at BB, since it has constructed itself to be mainly a forum for you Right Wing nit wits to trade racist banter amongst yourselves. As a forum for drug war news and discussion, it is beginning to slip bad. I would not even have caught that I was the current subject for you chimps to throw your feces at, if I had not caught my name inside the list of 'Recent Comments' over on the Left side of the site.