Thread: We shouldn’t militarize the U.S.-Mexico border

April 3, 2009

We shouldn’t militarize the U.S.-Mexico border

By Yolanda Chávez Leyva

We should not send troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, despite the drug-related violence on the Mexican side.

President Obama, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and a variety of other government officials have discussed the possibility of sending the National Guard. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has requested 1,000 troops on his southern border.

To be sure, violence has risen dramatically across the border in the past year and a half. There have been almost 2,000 murders since the beginning of last year in Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, across from my hometown of El Paso in Texas.

I hear stories from friends and acquaintances almost daily of the robberies, kidnappings, carjackings and shootouts.

The local university has undertaken a study of women in Juarez who are experiencing post-traumatic stress syndrome as a result of living in the chaos of ever-increasing violence.

While once a frequent visitor to Juarez, I haven’t crossed the border in months. I grew up on the Texas-Mexico border, but I have never seen this level of violence on the Mexican side.

But do I want troops sent to the border in the name of protecting me?

No.

For more than twenty years, those of us who live on the border have witnessed the increasing militarization of the border. The border wall is a daily reminder of this, as are the helicopters that fly over our neighborhoods, the checkpoints manned by the Border Patrol and local law enforcement, as well as the daily harassment of citizens who happen to have darker skin. We are frequently the target of various “warsâ€

I'll tell you what Yolanda Chávez Leyva, why don't you stand on the border with flowers. Maybe that will help stop the violence. I prefer the military to end this mess once and for all.

Put our bases along the border!

I'm convinced that Liberal is a mental illness.

Proof she's a liberal.
She says, it's our fault and we did nothing to stop it, we should waste money trying to rehab people that want to do drugs, she's anti-gun & anti-military...

It's worse than that, she's a Socialist. Look at her website.

Dixie

Oh how horrible! Helicopters flying overhead. I understand totally, as every few days there are police helicopters trying to spot some law breaker.
What a flaming idiot with a complete disconnect of national sovereignty and the violation thereof.

Wait until you deal with liberal/conservative pro-uniform in your public schools. Has anyone read, "Animal Farm" or "1984" by George Orwell?

And then the whole world is to be made equal by Americans giving away their rights, liberties, and COUNTRY to foreigners..

Too often the war against drugs or terrorism or undocumented immigration turns into violence against innocent civilians.

LOL yeah no agenda here, huh Yolanda? "Innocent" civilians enter the US via manned checkpoints. Those who cross illegally do so willingly, unlawfully, criminally, willfully, and are far from innocent. They put themselves into dangerous positions, not my problem.

Militarizing the border is the right solution and the only answer.

[quote]What is the price that those of us living on the U.S. side will be asked to pay because of the possibility that the violence will “spill overâ€

Take our military out of the middle east and let our military take care of Mexico, while enforcing all of our immigration laws and send the illegalsl packing. And impeach any politican that threatens to give illegals anything.....................let alone Amnesty.

So America,in her point of view is the culprit the villain the reason for all the problems in Mexico. She may be right about one thing. It is a war and as in every war,innocent people do get hurt.

So,since there are Americans that take drugs,that gives Cartels the license to turn a whole country into a war zone?

I do believe there are other countries involved in this drug trafficing besides the USA and Mexico. And they are finding that the weapons are not just from the USA and not quite the high number of 90% percent they had everyone believing.

Yolanda, you are truly "blind" dear... why don't you take off your "rose-colored" sunglasses and WAKE UP! Just because you are "inconvenienced" does NOT MEAN Americans will NOT PROTECT THIS NATION!!!!!!!