Thread: US Congressman: Drug Violence Not Spilling into US

U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez: Drug violence hasn't spilled over into US

US rep reassures W. Texas residents

By Adriana Gómez Licón \ El Paso Times
Posted: 04/10/2010 12:00:00 AM MDT

FORT HANCOCK -- The solitude of West Texas towns like Fort Hancock is what attracts drug smugglers to the area, border law officials said Friday while visiting with residents concerned for their safety.

The rural towns stretch 50 miles southeast of El Paso. They are bound by farming towns on the Mexican side, where many killings, arson attacks and kidnappings have occurred in the past few weeks. The area, called the Valley of Juárez, had more than 50 murders in March.

U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-Texas, told frightened residents of Fort Hancock that the narco violence has not spilled over to the U.S. side yet.

"In terms of crime, we don't have any evidence to show that," he said.

Rodriguez held a community meeting Friday at Fort Hancock High School to hear the concerns of residents and border law officers.

The FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and Border Patrol did not comment on the situation in the Valley of Juárez, but they recognized the concerns of U.S. residents that have surfaced in the past two weeks.

Debbie Brenzovich attended the meeting to let officials know she fears for her safety.

"We heard a machine gun fire on Easter Sunday," she said.

Fort Hancock Independent School District Superintendent Jose Franco said many Mexican families arrived last weekend, and the schools received 10 new students coming from the valley in one week.

"I welcome the students," he said. "The concern is that some of the people coming over are people who instigated all of the violence."

Rodriguez, Franco and Hudspeth County sheriff's officials told Fort Hancock residents to remain calm but to watch for suspicious activity.

During the past two years, the area bound by the valley on the Mexican side and West Texas towns on the U.S. side became a hot corridor. It was the motive for combat between two rival drug-trafficking organizations -- the Juárez cartel, led by Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, and the Sinaloa cartel, led by JoaquÃ*n "Chapo" Guzmán.

As the U.S. government built the border fence halfway and beefed up its inspections mostly at the large cities' ports of entry, the remote West Texas region has become a strategic point for the drug cartels and their contract-based gangs. Some of these areas go miles and miles without a fence.

On the Mexican side, the rural areas' police are not equipped to prevent violence.

Criminal organizations in the United States have historically chosen smaller towns for the drug trade. Detroit gangs, for instance, handled their crack-dealing operations in smaller towns in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia.

Rodriguez said Gov. Rick Perry has directed away from the border areas the money the state receives from the Department of Homeland
Security. He also said the federal government should add $15 million to the $60 million Operation Stonegarden, which has already beefed up law enforcement in West Texas.

As remote as it seems, Border Patrol Agent Valeria Morales said, Fort Hancock has stepped up its efforts. She said the agency has doubled the number of agents in that area in the past couple of years.

"Our agents are much more vigilant," Morales said.

Border Patrol officials at the meeting said the number of apprehensions in the agency's El Paso sector have dropped significantly because criminals and non-criminal immigrants arrested are now prosecuted in federal courts. The drug seizures also have declined, officials said.

"The activity level here is very, very low," Border Patrol Deputy Chief Michael Pryzbyl said. "But it is an area of concern because of the level of violence."

The violence in the Valley of Juárez has prompted the increase in vigilance.

On Thursday, the Mexican army took over the patrolling of the towns inhabited by few er than 18,000 people, said Facundo Rosas, the federal police chief.

Last weekend, two federal police helicopters began flying over the valley, and police increased their presence along the Juárez-Porvenir highway.

Chihuahua Gov. José Reyes Baeza traveled to the area Monday and promised to dispatch state police to the valley.

At El Porvenir, gang members gave residents deadlines to leave the town or face consequences, such as death or kidnapping.

Francisco González, 19, found a threatening note outside his one-bedroom home in El Porvenir about a month ago.

"It said they gave me 24 hours to leave or they would kill me," he said.

In distress, the ranch worker fled Mexico and crossed into the United States with a tourist visa to settle in Fort Hancock. He said gunmen had already killed one of his friends in a multiple shooting.

Now González lives in a trailer and receives financial help from his family in Mexico. He does not feel like a stranger on the U.S. side because, he said, many people of El Porvenir have ties to Fort Hancock.

If the influx of immigrants continues, Fort Hancock school district's Franco said, public safety could soon become a concern.

"The newcomers are going to let this die down first," he said.

Rodriguez said he will go back to Fort Hancock in August to follow up on the law- enforcement efforts. His district stretches from eastern El Paso to San Antonio, where he lives.

Rodriguez is up for re-election in November. Republicans Will Hurd and Francisco "Quico" Canseco are competing in next Tuesday's Republican primary runoff to challenge him in November.

Adriana Gómez Licón may be reached at agomez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6129.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_14856847

Rodriguez said he will go back to Fort Hancock in August to follow up on the law- enforcement efforts.

Well that certainly means he is concerned, but August of what year?

Bull! When are the people in this country going to stop voting in Mexicans? We will never change anything if we keep electing these people. Not all Hispanics like illegal immigration, but why take the chance especially with one that has a strong accent. Before anyone calls me a racist, I have blacks and Mexicans in my family.

This is nonsense. Not only is there is drug war at the border but in the streets of this country. We have drug and/or gangs shooting people on the streets of south Florida almost every night. They killed a 7 year old last night who was hit in the cross fire.

U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-Texas, told frightened residents of Fort Hancock that the narco violence has not spilled over to the U.S. side yet.

Yet?? Yet?? Why not nip this in the bud!?! They really don't care about Americans lives do they? Unbelievable the callousness of these politicians. It never ceases to blow my mind tho I see it daily!

Originally Posted by jamesw62

U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-Texas, told frightened residents of Fort Hancock that the narco violence has not spilled over to the U.S. side yet.

"In terms of crime, we don't have any evidence to show that," he said.

Here is my email to US Rep. Ciro Rodriguez:

In the ElPaso Time on April 10h you were quoted as saying, "that the narco violence has not spilled over to the U.S. side yet."

Do you not read new papers? Have you not listened to the Department of Homeland Security, the DPS, DEA, FBI and every other law enforcement branch in the USA?

Cartel slayings on the rise in Houston
In one case, an innocent man died in gang’s 3 tries to kill target

It was not the first time a rival tried to kill Mexican drug cartel-connected gangster Santiago “Chagoâ€

Mr Rod, aren't the threats to Texas lawmakers enough proof?

Maybe he didn't get threatened because he is one of them?

Originally Posted by TakingBackSoCal

Mr Rod, aren't the threats to Texas lawmakers enough proof?

Maybe he didn't get threatened because he is one of them?

They might be paid off to look the other way you never know. It wouldn't surprise me as that is what they do in alot of those drug producing and trafficking countries.

big, i would have added the stories about Robert Krentz. the Arizona rancher killed two weeks ago by an illegal alien, possibly from a drug cartel

U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-Texas, told frightened residents of Fort Hancock that the narco violence has not spilled over to the U.S. side yet.

Unless he is deaf, dumb and blind, he is really ignorant. Does this man ever read the paper or watch tv? It scares me to have him represent our country.