Thread: Mexican gangs, drugs are growing worries

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Mexican gangs, drugs are growing worries
By Perry Flippin, editor emeritus, pflippin@sastandard times.com or 659-8217
July 27, 2006

As debate heats up about illegal immigrants crossing the Rio Grande, I suspect our perspectives are influenced by one's history and by one's proximity to the Mexican border.

Since boyhood, I admired the industrious, thrifty, honest Mexicans who overcame great hardship to trek north and work our fields and ranches.

Generations of Hispanics - often illiterate - mustered up extraordinary courage to serve as productive neighbors. Many still do. My sentiments come from someone who lives only 150 miles from Mexico.

Lately, I've been reading daily reports compiled by the Governor's Division of Emergency Management. They help law enforcement officers coordinate efforts to improve border security.

In the same way San Angelo's police blotters don't truly reflect the larger reality of daily life here, the governor's reports don't reflect the thousands of decent immigrants who cross the Rio Grande daily without involving law enforcement officers.

Even so, the war on terrorism has added a major new initiative to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into Texas. These reports show another side to the happy-NAFTA talk.

Gangs such as MS-13 are causing great concern among educators, parents and law enforcement agencies. In February, Homeland Security arrested the largest number of gang members - all in the Dallas area.

Hispanics in communities such as Mount Pleasant report, ''They are already here.''

Moreover, U.S. citizens engage in criminal enterprises with accomplices south of the border.

For the governor's task force, an ordinary day can involve up to 40 entries, mostly around Brownsville, Laredo, McAllen and Uvalde.

Complaints include marijuana possession, assault, indecency with a child, property theft, family violence, criminal trespass, sexual assault, evading arrest, aggravated robbery, injury to a child, burglary of a building, reckless driving, parole violation and terroristic threat.

Should San Angeloans fear an approaching crime wave?

I hope not.

Not all people arrested are guilty as charged.

On the other hand, only a fraction of perpetrators are apprehended. Border residents are clamoring for more officers to protect them.

Perhaps a new administration in Mexico City will give Mexicans more economic and social incentives to remain in their native land. Perhaps the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church will effect policy changes to help spare families unwanted pregnancies.

On July 7, a former police commander in Nuevo Laredo was shot and wounded outside his house. Later, four masked men forced their way into the hospital where the commander was being treated and shot him dead.

In a separate incident, Nuevo Laredo police found the blindfolded and bullet-ridden corpse of a man whose identity could not be confirmed. A tattoo on his chest read ''Sinaloa,'' the name of a Mexican state on the Pacific.

Investigators said gangsters from Sinaloa are fighting a bloody turf war with rivals from Tamaulipas over the billion-dollar drug-smuggling routes through Nuevo Laredo into Texas and the rest of the United States - where our citizens eagerly pay top dollar for those illicit drugs.

In Cameron County, a former sheriff and several other officials were recently convicted of receiving drug-smuggling bribes.

As chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., contends that tougher border enforcement is needed to protect the nation against criminals and terrorists.

From safe and quiet San Angelo, it's hard to conceive of a looming threat only 150 miles to our south.

Its amazing the Republican party can completely IGNORE this issue....How long do they think America can take this nonsense? These people are insane...