Thread: How rapists prey on vulnerable border crossers

How rapists prey on vulnerable border crossers
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
November 21, 2005

http://washtimes.com/national/20051121-122534-8097r.htm


JACUMBA, Calif. -- Among the thousands of women who will illegally cross into the United States this year from Mexico, some will be raped by the same men who demanded $1,500 to $2,000 for safe passage -- their underpants often hung on a border fence as a trophy.
"I thought the wailings we heard at night were the coyotes barking at the moon," said Tim Donnelly, who headed the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps border vigil here. "I didn't know until later that those sounds were the cries of women being raped in the Mexican desert, some less than a hundred yards away from the border.
"There was absolutely nothing anyone could do about it," said Mr. Donnelly, grimacing as he turned away to hide his emotions. "It's something you never forget."
The women, according to U.S. law-enforcement authorities, have no realistic recourse, because they are foreigners seeking to enter the United States illegally. Separated from other illegals just south of the border, the smugglers take them into the desert where they are raped or sodomized.
U.S. authorities said some Mexican border police have taken part in the violence, often targeting migrants headed to the United States from Central and South America.
The rapes are part of what the U.S. Border Patrol said is a growing pattern of violence on the U.S.-Mexico border from California to Texas, including a rising number of assaults and robberies of illegals and a dramatic increase in attacks on Border Patrol agents and other law-enforcement personnel along the 1,940-mile border.
The incidents of violence and the intensity of the attacks, the authorities said, continue despite an ongoing and expensive effort by the Department of Homeland Security in the wake of the September 11 attacks to gain "operational control" of the border.
Alien and drug smugglers -- many armed with automatic weapons, global-positioning units and night-vision scopes -- have become increasingly aggressive in protecting their illicit cargoes, the authorities said, adding that attacks on Border Patrol agents have risen fivefold in the past year.
The State Department issued a warning earlier this year to Americans traveling into the northern border regions of Mexico, saying they should be "aware of the risk posed by the deteriorating security situation," including killings, kidnappings and sexual assaults.
The National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), which represents the agency's 10,000 nonsupervisory personnel, has blamed the increased violence, in part, on Homeland Security's "restrictive enforcement policies," saying border agents often are prohibited from actively pursuing those involved.
NBPC President T.J. Bonner, a 27-year Border Patrol veteran, said the enforcement policies have emboldened alien and drug smugglers to become more aggressive in challenging competitors, protecting themselves from detection and arrest and attacking illegal aliens.
But for Mr. Donnelly, a 38-year-old plastics salesman from Twin Peaks, Calif., who is married to a Hispanic woman and has five children, the violence is intolerable. He said the migrants who "cross every day into the United States through this rugged and dangerous terrain are the victims."

"They've been abused and abandoned by their own government. How can we not be outraged and ashamed that we allow these people to risk their lives -- and sometimes die -- in search of a better life?" he said. "What in the world is going on in our country that we will allow this to continue?"
More than 200 civilian volunteers signed up for the California vigil, standing watch along a rugged and isolated section of the U.S.-Mexico border about 70 miles east of San Diego. The monthlong event in October was part of the Minutemen's "Secure Our Borders" initiative, with volunteers in Vermont, New York, Washington state, California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
"The Minutemen are not vigilantes or racists, just Americans asking that the law be enforced, that our borders be protected against drug dealers, alien smugglers and terrorists," Mr. Donnelly said.
His involvement with the Minutemen began in April in Arizona, but Mr. Donnelly said he considered "long and hard" whether to take part in the border watches, worrying about whether President Bush's label of "vigilantes" was correct and whether those who signed up were racists and troublemakers.
He said he wanted no part of a group that would stand against migrants and human rights, adding that he carefully watched as the April vigil unfolded, listened intently to those who had organized the event, stood watches on the border and talked with "everyone I could about why they had come to Arizona."
In September, he accepted the job as head of the Minuteman operation in California. "In the sea of exploited humanity that moves across our open borders every day in pursuit of a false promise, all sorts of ugly things can and do happen," he said. "I just don't want them to happen on my watch."

One more excellent reason to discourage people from paying coyotes to enter this country illegally.
Still, the Mexican government encourages them.
How very sad.

Of course they do not bother to explain that on American TV shows.

A dear friend of mine was here on a tourist visa. She considered overstaying, but we didn't want her to have to live the life of an illegal alien so we sent her home. That was before 9/11, and now she can't get her visa renewed. We never even considered bringing her with a coyote. It's just too dangerous.

Where was she from, Man?

I had a friend who was a Polish citizen during the first Gulf War who was married to an American man and had what is called a "white passport." I don't know how to explain what that is but she should have been able to come to the US on that passport. All US dependents of the company her husband worked for were evacuated. She was stuck on a plane to Cyprus and wasn't allowed to enter the US with the other evacuees! Another woman I know was Russian but a German citizen married to an American and the same happened to her only she was sent to Turkey. I guess they just stuck them on any old plane out and then let them worry about the rest. It was quite a mess.

I know a British woman married to an American who had to jump through hoops to get a green card. She is a nurse and we are and have been for years in dire need of nurses in this country!

Yet our government passes out preen cards as if they were playing cards to Mexican citizens and others who can be used as slaves.

Another lady I know is Palestinian by birth, married to an American, and some congressman stepped in and got her citizenship! Not that it bothers me that she is a citizen, but that the one person who strikes me as the most suspect got to the head of the line.

Now all this was obviously prior to 9-11 but nevertheless, the entire immigration system seems suspicious to me because of those incidents and others like them.

I can't figure out why people with legitimate ties to this country can't visit or come home or whatever yet they let in students from countries that we know to be enemies of the US, they overstay their visas and do us harm because nobody kept track of them.

Originally Posted by JuniusJnr

Where was she from, Man?

She IS from Central America.

OOPS--IS.

Thanks for the information.