Segel: The Borders Are More Secure. Where?
By Thomas D. Segel October 18, 2010 6:46 AM


During this stupid season of electioneering the American public has been subjected to and endless litany of misquotes, misrepresentations, distortions lies and just plain old BS from those seeking either to hold on to their squishy government jobs or unseat incumbents. Nobody in America has been told the truth about anything, including the mess our national government has made of any attempt to secure the borders.

The sad truth is, no one living any distance from the United States-Mexico border has the slightest idea about how bad things are relative to illegal immigration and the ongoing Mexican drug war. In fact, they treat the issues as if they were part of some scripted drama on evening television.

Those who live in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas have a much different prospective when it comes to viewing this national issue. Their small collection of South Texas counties are not just nestled up next to the border. They have become an expressway for illegal activity moving into the United States. Sadly, with the exception of an under staffed Border Patrol and local law enforcement in the small towns and cities of this region, little is being done to ease the citizen's plight or resolve the problem.

While the Department of Homeland Security keeps telling us our borders have never been more secure we have daily news features such as the reported murder of an American jet skier on Falcon Lake and the lack of Mexican support in bringing the crime to a final solution.

The Border Patrol will admit to stopping only about half of the illegal immigration activity and drug smuggling impacting our country. For example during a single week in July this summer the Rio Grande Valley sector of the Boarder Patrol reported 1,935 pounds of marijuana and a van had been seized in La Rosita. 2,098 pounds of marijuana, a tractor-trailer and a driver were apprehended at the Sarita checkpoint and 1,254 pounds of marijuana, a truck and two illegal aliens were seized in Progreso. Border Patrol agents also seized 3,311 pounds of marijuana, 17.8 pounds of cocaine, a tanker truck and an illegal alien near Falfurrias, 1,117 pounds on marijuana and a truck were stopped near Bruni and an illegal alien who admitted being an MS-13 gang member from El Salvador was arrested near Havana, Texas.

By their own accounting methods, this must mean an equal number of aliens and smuggled drugs escaped apprehension.

Local Rio Grande Valley police are constantly reporting stash house raids, high-speed chases to capture drug smugglers, arrests of illegal aliens and crimes perpetrated by gang members from across the border. This week in Hidalgo County local police stopped a pickup stacked with twenty illegal aliens in the truck bed. The officers admitted a second truck filled with illegal human cargo had escaped them because they didn't have the manpower to chase it down.

Valley residents have found illegal aliens hiding in their back yards, breaking into businesses and I personally found one man hiding in the large dumpster behind my house. Worse yet, bullets from the Mexican Army and drug cartel street fights have actually struck buildings of the University of Texas-Brownsville campus on this side of the river.

None of these reports show those of us living along the United States - Mexico border that things have never been safer. Border Texans used to frequent businesses in neighboring Mexico towns on a regular basis. Today those shops and cafes stand empty. Bridges crossing the Rio Grande are recording up to a fifty percent drop in traffic, from both Mexico and the United States.

None of these things seem to make any impact on our government or Americans living any distance from the conflict. However, it should be of concern to everyone. The Rio Grande Valley has a lot of human traffic and drug activity to report. However, none of these incidents reflect what is actually taking place. We are not the port of call for this illegality. We are only the highway that is carrying all of it right into every one of your neighborhoods.

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