Thread: Phoenix mayor welcomes border buildup

Phoenix mayor welcomes border buildup

By JACQUES BILLEAUD, The Associated Press
2:53 p.m. March 25, 2009

PHOENIX — Posing as police officers, gunmen in bulletproof vests pulled over a motorist, took him to a Phoenix house, bound him with zip ties and held him for a $30,000 ransom in an abduction that may have been carried out by Mexican drug smugglers.

The abduction earlier this month was one of nearly 1,000 kidnappings reported in Phoenix over the past years in a surge of lawlessness so terrifying that the mayor welcomed the news this week that Washington is sending more manpower and equipment to the Mexican border, 180 miles to the south.

"It's a good first step, but we'll need to do more," said Mayor Phil Gordon, who had pleaded with Congress for help.

The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it will dispatch nearly 500 more federal agents to the border, along with X-ray machines and drug-sniffing dogs, to stop the spillover of violence into the U.S. from Mexican drug- and immigrant-smugglers.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that the move is just a first step and that National Guardsmen might also be sent, something Texas Gov. Rick Perry has requested.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paid her first visit to Mexico and pledged that the U.S. will help Mexico fight its murderous drug cartels, a battle that has cost more than 7,000 lives south of the border.

The additional federal agents will be used to fight crime and illegal immigration in border communities. Some will be stationed in between border communities; some will scrutinize motorists entering Mexico, to curb the smuggling of guns. Guns brought into Mexico from the U.S. are blamed for 95 percent of the killings south of the border.

In the past, border inspectors mostly focused on traffic coming into the United States.

Authorities and residents along the more than 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border said the effort is a good first step, and a measured response, too. Some said sending troops would be an overreaction that would endanger innocents.

Some border politicians also argued that outside of the drug-trafficking hubs of Phoenix and Atlanta, the bloodshed spreading into this country from Mexico has been exaggerated.

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, like some of his counterparts along the border, said his city has seen very little spillover violence, noting that about four murders in San Diego over the past two years have been attributed to warring drug cartels.

In South Texas, Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino complained that media attention is stoking fear. "They want it to look like a battle zone," Trevino said.

Laredo Mayor Raul Salinas, whose city sits across from the once-embattled city of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, was in Washington this week, trying to convince officials his city isn't a cartel hotspot. The perception has cost the city money, he said, citing the cancellation of tours for the city's monthlong George Washington celebration.

Phoenix is clearly seeing the worst of the spillover. Investigators here suspect some of the kidnappings have led to killings in which bound and bullet-riddled bodies have been dumped in the desert.

In the kidnapping of the motorist earlier this month, the victim managed to escape from the house before any ransom was paid. Investigators suspect he was mixed up in drug- or immigrant-smuggling because his captors believed he could get his hands on $30,000 in cash.

The Phoenix mayor said that while he supports the Obama administration's steps so far, the key to reducing the violence is comprehensive immigration reform, which he said would reduce immigrant smuggling.

In Santa Cruz County, Ariz., Sheriff Tony Estrada said he believes cartels are responsible for kidnappings, shootings, rapes and banditry in his county, which shares 50 miles of border with Mexico.

Some law enforcement authorities in Arizona question whether the kidnappings are being carried out by bona-fide cartel members or by subcontractors – traffickers who get their merchandise from the cartels.
David Denlinger, chief of criminal investigations for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, likened the cartels to the tire business.

"You don't have a manufacturer of a tire that's the one putting it on your car at the end," Denlinger said. "So what you see up here in the interior is not your formal cartel. That's pretty much ended once they passed it through the United States."
But Estrada, a lawman along the border for the past 41 years, said the question of whether the violence is carried out by the cartels or affiliated traffickers is just semantics: "How can you separate one thing from the other?"
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Associated Press writers Elliot Spagat in San Diego, Alicia A. Caldwell in El Paso, Texas, Christopher Sherman in McAllen and Suzanne Gamboa and Eileen Sullivan in Washington contributed to this report.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... ndex=72558

But he doesn't want to deport illegals, and doesn't like the good
Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, like some of his counterparts along the border, said his city has seen very little spillover violence, noting that about four murders in San Diego over the past two years have been attributed to warring drug cartels.
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HEY STUPID MAYOR could it be because you have a double layered border fence that has almost stopped all smuggling into your city????? DUHHH

This is what I sent to the schmuck after hearing lies and falsehoods emanating from that hole called a mouth. I was pissed......


Despite what you tell the American people, you and that corrupt police chief run a sanctuary city for ILLEGAL ALIENS; NOT IMMIGRANTS which is the label pro open borders types as you use to obfuscate the issue of illegal immigration. Your policies akin to special order 40 in LA have allowed illegal aliens to run unchecked in your city and commit crimes while you and that so called chief of police hamstring authorities by not allowing them to ascertain citizenship status of criminal illegal aliens so they can be turned over to ICE for subsequent deportation after serving their sentences. This has resulted in many of them committing additional crimes having a devastating impact on your city. The blood of those two cops (including a twice cancer survivor) is on your hands Mr Gordon because they were murdered by illegal aliens (both had extensive criminal histories and should have been deported) but because of your pro-open border stance and sanctuary city policy were released and then murdered those two officers. Phoenix along with many other cities faces a financial crisis resulting in benefits and services cuts to Americans but offers taxpayer provided services to illegal aliens, many using stolen identities (The Justice Department estimates 75 percent of illegal aliens are involved in identity theft) encouraging even more illegal immigration. But you refused to provide the needed resources (automatic machine guns and other needed weaponry) for your police force out gunned by drug cartels freely operating within your city. Your law enforcement personnel had to rely on handouts from Hollywood celebrities to supply your police department to adequately protect and defend themselves and their city. Despite your falsehood that Americans won't work (you used the poor example of fruit pickers) we have plenty of stories of illegal aliens in your area displacing Americans from jobs as restaurants, construction, retail and other businesses.
Start doing your job by upholding the rule of law as Sheriff Arpaio has been doing by arresting illegal aliens committing crimes as identity theft to obtain jobs and benefits and other crimes as murder, rape, child molestation and driving without licenses, insurance and under the influence of drugs and alcohol posing a risk to other motorists and pedestrians including the deaths of several of them by illegal aliens. Sheriff Arpaio has been investigated by numerous government agencies and civil rights organizations who were unable to find one instance of civil rights abuse or racial profiling. Your city is the kidnapping capital of the United States. Sheriff Arpaio has been instrumental in the fight against this by arresting cartel and gang members who, because of your permissive attitude towards illegal immigration have been allowed to inflict mayhem on your city. Sheriff Arpaio must be doing his job because he constantly is reelected by an overwhelming majority of Maricopa county residents from both political parties and Independents. Your attacks on Sheriff Arpaio are a diversion from the serious issues of border security, Phoenix's sanctuary city status and an effort to allow the employment of illegal aliens in any businesses you or anyone else may own like Denver Mayor Hickenlooper who employs illegal aliens in his restaurants including one who murdered a cop. Your city's drop in crime is a direct result of Sheriff Arpaio's efforts in apprehending and deporting criminal illegal aliens while you and that chief of police have done nothing but allow and encourage illegal aliens to run amok because of an ineffective police department hampered, frustrated by and adamantly opposed to your hands off policy toward illegal alien criminals.
We are aware of your patent lies regarding Arpaio and your refusal to enforce the rule of law so you and your cronies can import more cheap labor and votes for your party (which is I left it).
I am retired military with 24 years service, and a disabled combat veteran who has to pay for my health care while illegal aliens in your city receive free dialysis, chemotherapy, organ transplants and other care denied to Americans including senior citizens, veterans and indigent Americans (I have folders full of stories as this) because of political hacks as you who allow, support and encourage illegal immigration further burdening our health care, land, food, water, energy and other LIMITED resources. Americans spend 400 billion dollars annually on illegal alien health care, welfare, food stamps, education, social security, unemployment insurance and a plethora of other benefits and the cost rises as 5,000 to 10.000 illegally cross the border every week supported by pro open borders politicians as you. I sacrificed my health and many others fought and died protecting, defending and preserving our sovereignty which is being sold out from under us by individuals as you.
You and that so called police chief should apologize to every city resident for the abject pain, suffering and misery you inflicted on them. You should also personally apologize to those families victimized by illegal alien criminals and explain how your sanctuary city policies have encouraged criminal behavior as murder and the rape and molestation of women and children by the 100 sex offenders illegally crossing the border every day and given shelter by hacks as you along with identity theft, kidnapping and other crimes committed by those with no legal right to be in this country.
For you to feel any shame for what you have done to innocent Americans would require a conscience which you do not have.......

Great letter RAF! This letter should be required reading to every so called elected official who advocates on behalf of illegal invaders, too often resulting in detrimental consequences to citizens of this country!

Great letter RAF! This letter should be required reading to every so called elected official who advocates on behalf of illegal invaders, too often resulting in detrimental consequences to citizens of this country!