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  1. #1
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    Use of 'war' leads to fear on U.S.-Mexico border

    Use of 'war' leads to fear on U.S.-Mexico border
    By Will Weissert Associated Press
    Posted April 12, 2012 at 10:56 p.m.

    AUSTIN — A Texas state senator took issue Thursday with characterizing the entire U.S.-Mexico border as a war zone, bristling at a top agricultural official's assertions that America's food supply could be threatened because farmers are being run off their land by drug smugglers.

    State Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples presented a report to the Texas Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee detailing recent testimony from border landowners that farmers and ranchers in the area are often terrorized by drug and human smugglers who traverse their property.

    He said that some Americans have even abandoned their farms and suggested that the trend could eventually affect the U.S. food supply.

    The committee's chairman, Sen. Tommy Williams, a Republican from The Woodlands in suburban Houston, told of maintenance workers assigned to canals and other infrastructure projects on Texas soil who had been chased off jobs by drug gangs and gunfire.

    Williams noted that Mexico is Texas' largest trading partner but said that things have gotten so violent on the border that trade there could be compromised.

    "I think we invaded Mexico for a lot less than this back when Pancho Villa was down there," he said. "So it's something we need to talk to our friends in Mexico about."

    But Staples' comments drew sharp objection from Jose Rodriguez, a Democrat from El Paso, which borders the violence-torn Mexican city of Juarez.

    "None of us can deny that there are incidents occurring on our side of the border," he said, "it's just the broad brush that is used to declare that we are in a war zone."

    Rodriguez said using what he called incendiary language, "creates this climate of fear."

    Staples countered that those calling the U.S.-Mexico border a war zone are law enforcement officials and "people who are being fired upon."

    Rodriguez also pressed the agricultural commissioner for hard data on the number of farmers who have stopped producing food because of threats from drug smugglers.

    "If we are going to be making state policy on border security, we have to be doing it on the basis of facts."

    Use of 'war' leads to fear on U.S.-Mexico border » Abilene Reporter-News
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    Senior Member HAPPY2BME's Avatar
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    We are at the point of corruption in U.S. government now that when you see someone in public office publicly playing down the lethal effects of the Mexican Invasion there is a strong probability that they are either being bribed by drug cartels, are involved in one, threatened by one, or all of the above.
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  3. #3
    Senior Member oldguy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by HAPPY2BME View Post
    We are at the point of corruption in U.S. government now that when you see someone in public office publicly playing down the lethal effects of the Mexican Invasion there is a strong probability that they are either being bribed by drug cartels, are involved in one, threatened by one, or all of the above.
    Agree, from my experience on the border one is never sure which side they are fighting for, and that is a PC way of saying the cartel has deep pockets.
    I'm old with many opinions few solutions.

  4. #4
    Administrator Jean's Avatar
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    Lawmakers clash over border violence talk
    By Gary Scharrer
    Published 09:00 p.m., Friday, April 13, 2012

    AUSTIN - Don't call it a war zone. Despite reports of violence on the Texas-Mexico border, the region is safe, according to a state senator from El Paso who claims the violence is hyped and unfairly tarnishes those communities.

    In the face of steady drug-related violence as cartels battle for the borderlands, state Sen. José Rodríguez, D-El Paso, said the U.S. side of the border is not as grossly affected as is portrayed.

    "Our concern is that we use language that is incendiary and that creates this climate of fear about border communities," Rodríguez said this week at a Senate Transportation and Homeland Security hearing on border security. "That is not the reality of life on our side of the border. That's just a fact."

    Ranchers in rural areas, however, offered testimonials of intimidation and occasionally, brutal crime. Much of the testimony included anecdotes about intimidation and violence along portions of the border and testy exchanges between Rodríguez and fellow lawmakers who, he noted, do not live there.

    The hearing also produced a general consensus: The federal government is not doing its job to maintain border security, and security and immigration policies are inseparable.

    State officials should set public policy with reports reinforced by facts and data instead of anecdotal observations, Rodríguez said.

    Descriptions of fear

    Texas Agricultural Commissioner Todd Staples responded tersely: "We have more than testimony. We have pickups that are riddled with bullet holes."

    Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, also challenged Rodríguez.

    "I'm not … going to put my head back in the sand and say, 'Oh, it's real safe around here. Things are pretty good.' There are many people who don't believe it, and I don't believe it," she said.

    Some border sheriffs agreed that border communities are not part of the Mexico's drug war zone - but they are close to it.

    "We are living yards away," said Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr., past president of the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition. "Our side of the border? We are relatively safe."

    Still, he, Hudspeth County Sherriff Arvin West and several ranchers described fear and intimidation.

    "It's just not right for individuals that live on this side of the border having to abandon their farms, abandon their ranches and are afraid to go on their land after dark because they are afraid to be confronted by Mexican drug traffickers or human smugglers," Gonzalez told the committee. "People are afraid to live and work on the border."

    Issue of trespassing

    San Antonio lawyer and former Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission Chairman Joseph Fitzsimons owns a large ranch seven miles from the Rio Grande. Border Patrol agents now chase groups through his Dimmit County ranch daily, Fitzsimons said.

    "They don't know if they're chasing hotel and construction workers or members of terrorist organizations," he said. "With a legal process, through which those who are coming here to work are documented, the only ones left in the brush would be those who have no business here."

    Lawmakers clash over border violence talk - Houston Chronicle
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