Visit the border with the Campo Minutemen

/campominutemen

The Tohono O'odham Nation has spent years trying to limit intrusions onto its land, with little obvious success. The reservation is crisscrossed with at least 160 smuggling trails, littered with trash and even shrines erected by migrants. The tribe has given unprecedented access to the U.S. Border Patrol in hopes of stemming the tide.

Now the tribe wants more direct financial help from the Department of Homeland Security, tribal officials said.

"We're caught in the middle of this whole problem," Tribal Chairwoman Vivian Juan-Saunders said. "It creates a really high stress level for our people."

The 25 tribes along the southern and northern U.S. borders are forced to appeal for money directly from states because the Homeland Security Act of 2002 does not recognize Indian nations as sovereign governments. That adds a layer of bureaucracy and brings complaints than tribes are left out of the federal decision-making process.

The bottles, which were marked "ether," had been previously opened and were emanating an odor, prompting a hazardous materials situation, said Jesus Rodriguez, a spokesman for the Tucson sector Border Patrol.

"San Bernardino County SunA conservative, grass-roots organization has gathered nearly 40,000 signatures since Wednesday on a petition to be sent to President Bush on behalf of two Border Patrol agents convicted of violating a drug smuggler's civil rights."

The public can write both agents and their wives to:

Suddenly the smuggler turned toward the pursuing Ramos, gun in hand. Ramos, his own weapon already drawn, shot at him, though the man was able to flee into the brush and escape the agents.

Now, nearly 18 months after that violent encounter, Ramos and Compean are facing 20 years in federal prison for their actions.

Why?

A man and a woman were spotted nearby, the release said.

After stopping the man and the woman, agents searched the truck, which they later learned was reported stolen from Mesa.

Inside the truck's bed, they found 142 bundles of marijuana weighing more than 2,400 pounds.

Agents learned the two people were Mexican nationals. They were processed and returned to Mexico.

That could buoy the hopes of Republican gubernatorial candidate Don Goldwater who has made the Mexican border the centerpiece of his election efforts. Goldwater supports construction of a security wall along the border and wants to have illegal immigrants who are arrested construct the barrier. Goldwater is the nephew of late former U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater and is a top contender in the September Republican primary.

Zdunowski, 34, was eager to see the Arizona-Mexico border.

So when he and the other 100 or so members of the Maryland National Guard arrived Aug. 1 at Loews Ventana Canyon resort, which is regularly ranked one of the nation's top resorts, he was surprised.

● The five-year tab is $62.9 million for all forms of environmental remediation for immigration-related damage across Southeast Arizona, including $23 million for the first year. ....

....Most of the garbage is left at areas where entrants wait to be picked up by smugglers. The accumulation of disintegrating toilet paper, human feces and rotting food is a health and safety issue for residents of these areas and visitors to public lands, a new BLM report says.

......But a Cochise County activist who has been photographing garbage and other signs of damage from illegal immigration for five years said she is appalled the federal government is spending tax dollars to pick this garbage up.

In the world of human smuggling, metro Phoenix has emerged as an enormous staging area where illegal immigrants are held hostage in apartments, motel rooms or rental homes until relatives pay their fees.

State investigators say it is a $2 billion-a-year, black-market business that drives illegal immigration, spreading corruption and violence through the Valley.

On any given day in the Valley, agents say, thousands of undocumented immigrants are stuffed into drophouses as "coyotes" collect the cash, arrange for transportation and fend off other smugglers who would steal migrant clients for ransom.

The immigrants were trying to enter the U.S. through the Grand Tunnel, which runs from Nogales, Mexico into Nogales, Ariz., when they were discovered at 5:30 a.m., Rodriguez said. The flow at that point is north into the U.S. and the area was being hit by a major rainstorm.

 (NOTE: AP and other media are still reporting that illegal aliens are "immigrants")

"We're encouraging citizens to engage in this debate, a very important debate taking place right now in Congress," said Steve Elliott, president of Grassfire.org.  The billboard urges Americans to "Stop the invasion.  Secure our borders."

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, refused to yield the floor to Jackson Lee, the ranking Democrat, and challenged Lofgren's assessment on who was spewing the most gas.

The deployments are part of an immigration plan announced by President Bush in mid-May. Troops are helping with aerial reconnaissance and in shoring up infrastructure like roads and sensors. That is designed to free immigration agents to focus on law enforcement.

Seven immigrants and three sheriff's deputies were taken to hospitals for treatment, said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Officers used a helicopter, canine units and all-terrain vehicles and conducted foot patrols to search for others believed to be in the area, officials said.

While the Kentucky Guardsmen construct a road for the Border Patrol, other guardsmen are watching for illegal entries into the U.S.

Fitzpatrick said, "Just early this morning, one of the guard units spotted a load of narcotics coming into the country.  In conjunction with the guardsmen and our agents we ceased 600 lbs of marijuana."

"We are not in the apprehension business.  We simply observe and report," General Matthew Whittington explained.

The extra eyes and hands on the border are allowing Border Patrol Agents to shift their focus. 

Hundreds of rounds of automatic-weapons fire rained down on South Texas sheriff's deputies and Border Patrol agents from the Mexican side of the border as they investigated a horror story told by two American brothers who fled across the Rio Grande fearing for their lives.

Several Hidalgo County deputies and at least four Border patrol agents were met with a sustained hail of gunfire alternating from the south to the east and lasting nearly 10 minutes, the officers said.

Yet, not a single shot was returned by the deputies or the Border Patrol officers last Wednesday night because they were outmanned and outgunned – a condition increasingly common along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, say law enforcement officials.

Prior to January, 2004 the Borders of the United States had become a war zone. U.S. Border Patrol Agents had been shot at by automatic weapons fire from Mexico. Narcotics loads were protected by Mexican military and illegal immigration was a daily invasion in Arizona. Rural residents had been assaulted, carjacked, homes invaded and still there was little concern in Washington. On the 11th of March, 2003, a cadaver was found a mile east of the Diamond Bell Ranch, our home. The body was a homicide victim. In Cochise County, a rural resident was shot at, his home riddled by AK-47 rounds from agitated Mexican narcotics smugglers. His travel trailer that was used to block access to his ranch property was burned to the ground.

Abandoned back packs, human trash and water bottles would fill a thousand dump-trucks, on border smuggling trails, yet politicians could not and would not make any decisions in 2003 other than ignore the situation and create a guest worker plan. The guest worker plan, which amounts to stealth Amnesty was proposed by Arizona Senator John McCain and announced by President Bush in December 2003. By the end of January 2004, the U.S. Border Patrol had arrested 34,342 illegal aliens in Tucson Sector. 16,579 were arrested in Cochise County, the majority crossing illegally in response to the President’s address. The Border Patrol and local law enforcement agencies were overwhelmed. Crimes against citizens also increased.

New Jersey had planned to send as many as 650 soldiers and airmen to New Mexico as part of an initiative by President Bush to use National Guard troops to help the Border Patrol stop illegal immigration.

But a spokeswoman for New Jersey’s Military and Veterans Affairs Department says the state now expects to send about 250 troops.

New Jersey officials say they agreed to send troops as long as it was only for two weeks, and if they’re needed back in New Jersey, they will be sent home.

........Then, Hillary accomplished what the first Bush president and her husband had launched with NAFTA, and which was pushed forward by the second Bush president with the Central American Free Trade Agreement and the Security and Prosperity Partnership ­ the North American Community, stepping stone to a European-style union of the entire hemisphere.

 .....Painfully, you recall how, in 2006, concerned patriotic leaders asked for help. You were too busy to join a group or write a check. Contact your legislator? Too busy If only you ­ and other concerned Americans --had picked up the phone, called your congressional representative at 1(877)762-8762 and demanded: NO AMNESTY! NO GUEST WORKER PROGRAM! NO COMPROMISES!.

The flights, part of the Homeland Security Department's so-called repatriation program, aim to reduce the chances of migrants recrossing the porous Arizona border by flying them deep into the interior of Mexico.

 Your U.S. Border Patrol Agents are reporting sensor hits throughout every 24 hour period.

this morning and saw no evidence of National Guard working on or near the border.

Photo of the Day Archive

.......Absent things like a "felony DUI" where ICE may be notified "when feasible" (that two-minute phone call can be tough), the Phoenix Police Department protects illegal aliens. With the amount of crime being caused in Phoenix by the illegal alien tidal wave, they can at least partially blame themselves. www.local2544.org

..........The Protect Our City Initiative will amend the Phoenix city charter to require all officials, agencies, and personnel of the City of Phoenix, including the Phoenix Police Department, to cooperate with and assist federal immigration authorities in enforcing immigration laws within the boundaries of the city.    http://immigrationbuzz.com/

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) -- Kentucky will "step up" by sending more than 600 troops to the U.S.-Mexican border this summer, mainly to work on roads and fencing, Kentucky's adjutant general said.

Rep. Culberson's measure threatens to cut off funding

Still seeking suspect in ‘cold-blooded’ hit-and-run accident

"On Friday near the Benson highway exit, the U.S. Border Patrol attempted to stop a pickup truck — later found to hold between 15 and 20 passengers — heading west on I-10. At 8:57 p.m., the truck pulled onto a median at mile post 303, and a person jumped out and ran into traffic. A blue sedan struck the man but did not stop.'

(NOTE: There is no mention in the press so far that discloses of the 15 to 20 passengers are being held for conspiring and  if they are indeed responsible for the death that accrued on I-10 or if they were deported right away by Border Patrol.)

"THANK YOU FROM THE UNITED STATES BORDER PATROL AGENTS TRYING OUR BEST TO POLICE THE BORDER IN ARIZONA WHILE PRESIDENT BUSH, SENATOR McCAIN, "CONGRESSMAN" GRIJALVA AND OTHERS SELL US OUT EVERY DAY. "

Illegal Aliens Are Safe In Phoenix

We do need existing laws enforced. If we turn off the magnet (employment and benefits), they will quit coming. Then we can systematically enforce existing laws and, through attrition, most illegal aliens will go home. They left a home to come to the United States. They are neither homeless nor stateless. After a significant amount of enforcement, we can deal with those who remain and who have assimilated.

david stoddard lives in Cochise County.