January 30, 1998

Local SWAT team aids in Van Horn drug raids

By CARA ALLIGOOD

Staff Writer

PECOS, January 30, 1998 - Members of the local SWAT team,

the Pecos Police Department and the Reeves County Sheriff's

Department joined with the Permian Basin Drug Task Force in

a sweeping drug raid yesterday to execute more than 50

drug-related warrants.

"We went over to Van Horn with our SWAT team and helped them

make some narcotics arrests," Reeves County Sheriff Arnulfo

Gomez said.

Nine females are now in custody in the Reeves County Jail as

a result of the raid, Gomez said. Females arrested are

Angela Guerrero, 18, Bernice Rojo, 20, Melany Reed, 17, Rosa

Isela Valdez, 44, Maria Elva Licon, 42, Valerie Valdez, 25,

Barbara Dollar, 45, Cindy Melendez, 26, and Sylvia Duarte,

23, all of Van Horn.

Gomez said that he wasn't sure how many men had been

arrested in the raid, but there were about 16 arrested by

the time he left yesterday. The exact number is not yet

available from the Culberson County Sheriff's Office. One

man arrested during the raid has been identified as Victor

Manuel Franco, 30, of Van Horn.

According to Gomez, Reeves, Upton, Midland, Jeff Davis,

Presidio, Crane and Culberson counties cooperated in the

raid.

A spokesperson at the drug task force headquarters said that

all information on the raid is not in yet and that a press

release will be issued today once all the information has

been compiled.

(Don: these some of your old buds?)  Down the road from Sierra Blanca. I don't think they're making deals at the roadside teepees yet.

If we leave it as a matter of choice for the politicians and the special interests, I don't think much will get done -- and we do need to get a handle on our borders.  I would also see somewhat smaller number of legal immiigrants admitted as well.  

The Census Bureau predicts that U.S. population will increase by over 100 million by 2050; a majority of this growth will be due to recent immigrants and their offspring.

We need to reestablish control over immigration and start cutting back on the numbers we admit now, before we're overwhelmed later.

LA Times

Trent dreams of early retirement, and he says he's already living the good life. His job? He drives illegal immigrants across the border.

...

Finally, the driver arrives, an American who puffs nervously on a cheap cigarette and calls himself Trent. Accompanying Trent is Felix, the heavyset smuggling boss.

"Venganse!" -- "Let's get going!" -- a gang member yells. One by one, the migrants get in the trunk, twisting to fit inside. The one woman hesitates. She crosses herself. She steps in.

Curled beside one another, the migrants look up at the gang member.

"It won't be long, 20 minutes," he promises. "Don't move," he adds, slamming the lid shut. Within minutes, Trent drives the car into a sea of traffic inching toward the row of U.S. inspection booths at the border.

Smuggling operations like this one -- Mexican rings teaming up with American drivers -- occur daily at the two main vehicle gateways into California, a phenomenon that frustrates U.S. authorities.

In the last fiscal year, Americans drivers were caught 4,078 times on suspicion of smuggling migrants through the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa ports of entry into San Diego. The figure has hovered around 4,000 since the number of car smuggling cases spiked about six years go. U.S. agents can only inspect a fraction of the estimated 64,000 vehicles that cross daily. Even if drivers are caught, they are usually released. Only 279 drivers in 2005 faced alien smuggling charges.

Federal authorities say they are overwhelmed.

Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, in a recent visit to San Ysidro, said he sympathized with federal prosecutors.

"There's a lot of crime out there," he said. "There just aren't enough prosecutors and judges to prosecute everything." Chertoff promised more alien-smuggling prosecutions in the future. Port authorities announced last week that drivers caught smuggling will be fined $5,000 for the first offense and $10,000 for the second.

The smugglers come from all walks of life -- homeless veterans, single mothers, senior citizens and college students. Some drivers are drug addicts or gamblers who are down on their luck.

Felix says he employs so many American drivers like Trent that he rents them to other smuggling organizations. Dispensing orders on three constantly ringing cellphones, Felix has a code word for U.S. drivers: monos -- monkeys.

"Siempre llegan los monos," -- the monkeys always come to me, Felix says with a glint in his eye.

Felix, like many smugglers, provides drivers with free stays at motels in Tijuana, meals and drugs included. A driver doing three weekly runs can earn more than $100,000 per year, Trent said.

There's nothing like the euphoric feeling that rushes over him, Trent says, when he clears customs, a sense of relief mixed with satisfaction. After he helps migrants from the car, some shake his hand and thank him.

In between runs, Trent dreams of an early retirement and spends his earnings on a "weakness for Latina babes," typically prostitutes. "What it boils down to: It's such an easy life, that it lures you in," he says.

...

more at the link

But isn't the reason so many drivers are employed as smugglers for immigrant workers is because America is a really attractive place for foreign workers to come?  

The immigrants that are smuggled are just looking for jobs and a way to support their families that Mexico isn't able to do?  Correct the problem with immigration and the drivers wouldn't be able to make so much money smuggling them in.  

The immigrants aren't bringing in drugs--most of them are very hard-working and will work for next to nothing (which is what they often get) because they are illegal.  What a vicious circle.

Most of the blame lies with employers who employ illegal workers and/or a society that won't pay them a living wage.  Give the illegal immigrants who are presently here a green card or deport them, then start over again with an immigration policy that gives out temporary cards, then fully functioning green cards after they have earned them for whatever time is specified.  

Also a migrant worker policy is needed and safeguards for the workers (living wage, benefits) who come under the new migrant worker legislation.  

Yes, it will drive up the price of a head of lettuce.  

------

For the money that is currently being spent on cameras, dogs, enforcers, surveillance of the border, that won't ever reduce the number of immigrants, the money would be much better spent addressing what is wrong rather than huge amounts on bandaide fixes.  

and provide more legal ones.

Currently legal entry is beyond the reach of most that need it. Until that changes, these people will continue to come illegally.

In times past workers did this seasonally and then returned home. Because of the difficulty and the cost of crossing illegally, they now stay.

They don't want our country. They want our money.

Think of the theory of osmosis with a semi-permeable membrane (which the border will remain until you start killing folks like they did around the German wall). The greater the inbalance of wealth, the greater the pressure that builds.

Some semblance of equilibrium will stop the flow. Nothing else will.

And remember this: most Mexicans are Native Americans, partially or wholly. You have no right to say they can't be here.

on the incident near El Paso.

NPR

Worth a listen. But please note that this is within fifty miles of El Paso. There, the river is very near I-10.

Should shots between their army and ours get fired...

Take a look at what's going on in Iraq now and ask yourself, do I want this on my street?

Our greatest enemy is right here, among us. He walks like us, talks like us, looks like us...

for migrant workers to work temporarily and return to their county of origin.  'Course that does mean there are standards--minimum wage and benefits for the migrants that come and then return.

Thousands of migrant workers come into Canada to pick tobacco, tomatoes, peppers, and do other jobs--they come temporarily and absolutely have to return when the time that is specified is up.  The days of migrant farm workers living in appalling conditions, being abused is long over.  Here, I see them in grocery stores each week getting what they need and probably sending the bulk of their wages home to wherever they live.  No one else will do these jobs.  Where I live is a rural community, and I see them on summer evenings sometimes playing baseball or other sports with each other.  They often don't speak English, but they are always very polite if you acknowledge their presence and return their smiles.    

The drug business is fueled by our insatiable desire for the products. Want to see the enemy? Look around.

Or in the mirror.

Mexican government invovlved?

Well, yeah. As is ours.

65 billion a year makes 65,000 millionaires a year in Mexico. (The total US figure for money spent on illegal drugs is estimated to be 165 billion, but who really knows. It's a lot.) If this money were to dry up, Mexico would be bankrupt. Remittances from illegals also provide a substantial part of their economy. Between the two, over half of that economy.

Are you as a Mexican going to support someone willing to starve you to death?

Think we have an immigration problem now?

Stop all drug money going to Mexico and watch what happens.

Either we help them create legal ways of supporting themselves, or we get more of the same.

And for those that say, why don't they help themselves as though we work so hard to get what they have and Mexicans don't; they don't have a fertile Mississippi valley to make them rich like we do. And most of us don't do shit other than live off of the blood and toil of others.

We aren't a Republic, we're an empire. Only in this day and time, we no longer want the body of the slave, (because you have to feed and care for that), just the product of his labor.

would be to require those using a 1099 as a sub-contractor to provide a tax number. It could be done by the IRS or by Bush simply with a signature. A large part of the illegal immigrant population works in construction or manual labor and is able to work in those fields because with a 1099 no doccuments are required. Haliburton is putting it to use right now. A sub-contractor should provide their own tools, equipment, and transportation. They should not work for an hourly wage, but on a contract basis as per deum or cost plus, or as a bid set price for perfoming a job. If someone bids in this way, they can afford an accountant, deduct for a home office, transportation and expences, and usually pay their taxes on a quarterly basis. Because it has become universal in construction and other areas to hire people using a 1099, virtually everyone working in those areas is forced to file the same way-- all so illegals can be hired without fines or problems. All the wages dropped and an hourly employee can't afford an accountant or take advantage of the deductions. Their tax rates are tripled and they are left unable to pay their taxes. We'd all be better of with this change. Illegals who can't work go home. Workers would be back paying taxes and contributing to society.We, as individuals have virtually every dollar accounted for that passes through our hands, to our knowledge or through our bank records. Companies should be held to the same standard. When using 1099's there is even a minimum pay out to one sub-contractor before it must be reported. Illegals simply use a different name when they reach the limit. All of this is part of the US Labor code and IRS regulations. If Bush can eliminate overtime pay, he could surely do something as simple as this, and conservatives should support it unless they are those benefiting right now.

come up with identity cards that will be effective very soon to cross the Canadian border, they can definitely come up with cards for Mexicans that want to work legally in your country.

It really does boil down to, this administration wants to exploit the cheap labour that Mexicans will work for at jobs Americans won't do.  So if picking lettuce, tomatoes, peppers or tending to gardens that Americans won't do at minimum wage, then the rest of the population will have to pay minimum wage to Mexicans who are more than willing to do that job at that rate of pay.

...if you cross the border bearing arms you are assumed to be hostile unless proven friendly.

Looks like the border cops need a little beefing up in arms and training....

Yes, the increased armament and training may well lead to abuse...the potential goes with the power.  Still, if these guys are crossing over, who else?  And, for what reason(s)?

walls, it's about hypocrisy.

If the government really wanted not to have cheap labour, they would heavily fine employers from employing them.  They would also adopt legal methods for immigrant workers to come in and do the jobs Americans don't want to do and pay them a living wage.    

what makes you think people can just walk across the Canadian border?  When's the last time you tried to cross?  Usually there are line ups the delay a crossing for more than 30 minutes from Canada to the States.  The lines are shorter coming from the States into Canada.  

And we do have a migrant worker programme that welcomes workers in from foreign countries such as Mexico, Haiti, and/or other improverished areas of the world...they are paid good wages to pick crops.  They also get benefits.    

The life blood of this country comes form the immigrant.  They give us the power to overcome, they give us the new blood.

My problem is not people who want to work for a better life but, the jihadist.

We are fooling ourselves, the recent threats by

Bin Laden of strikes in the home land can have validity.  It is easier the cross a border at night than it is to hijack four planes at once.  We are at risk and most do not realize we are at war.  I fear a wake up call.

Issues such as this one can't be taken out of context of the larger world. Here's the big picture.

There are too many humans on this earth and the numbers continue to grow.

If we do not address this problem, it will be addressed for us.

Here will be the results.

Wars.

Disease.

Famine.

Natural disasters and plauges created by imbalances.

I can only die once by one method, so I don't sit around worrying over my own fate. But the pain and suffering of so many should be a matter of deep concern for all of us. And it's not the dying that will be bad. It's the living before reaching that point.

Sadly, it is in third world countries where the majority of that population explosion is taking place. And it will be those countries that bear the brunt of the catastophies.

Our answer? Force women to bear unwanted babies.

WTF?

How about handing out free contraceptives?

And educating the world about this problem and the lack of resources required to sustain such huge populations.

it's the people who are legal that have to line up!  :)

There are places where only a ditch separates the two countries and there are other places where the boundary line goes though the middle of houses.  

I believe there are several Americans who are being extradited back to the States to stand trial in the States for smuggling marijuana.  And there is a Canadian supplier of marijuana seeds whose case hasn't come up that the States would like to prosecute him in the States.   I don't what its status is.  

who has the worse proven record on invading whom.  

Unless you think it's OK for our southern neighbors to shoot Marines, INS, and Customs agents on sight when they stray across the border, then a reasonable response that assumes their Mexican counterparts are friends and allies is indicated.  

Remember this?  There were no indictments.  We should hold our own goons to at least as high a standard as that to which we hold others, but so far we simply don't do it.  

Chalo

http://www.pecos.net/news/arch98/013098p.htm

but this is the region from which I come and also where I smuggled marijuana.

Contrary to what we are told, smuggling activity has been going on in that area as long as our country has been in existence and is no more a threat to our national security than it ever was.

This region has been ingnored by the licit economy and there are few choices for anyone wishing to stay.

Most end up smuggling drugs, if not then they join the military or for a few lucky ones, get an education and move away. Then there are the prisons where they can guard their friends, brothers, and now it appears, their sisters. Of course, the border patrol beckons as most know the area and speak fluent Spanish.

Either way, they kill, incarcerate and opress their own when they sign up with the government because that is what the job entails.

has a vineyard somewhere in those mountains, I believe. And Madden immortalized one of those Tex-Mex joints. But there ain't much else. You can probably graze 5 animal units per section. And mine caliche while you're at it.

bordered our farm in the Bakersfield vally, some thirty miles east of Fort Stockton. Same general area although quite a few miles from Van Horn which is on the opposite side of the Davis Mountain range.

In that region living a hundred miles from someone makes you neighbors.

Also. These incursions of the Mexican military are no threat to anyone. Did they mention our guys also cross into Mexico? They are many miles from the nearest population. Hours away, in a vehicle doing the speed limit. There is no line you can see once west of the Rio Grande, and in places all the water has been removed from the river. At night, you can easily cross the border without realizing it.

Could a terrorist enter the southern border?

Yes.

But near as easily as he could walk across the Canadian border.

Or, as those that bombed the trade center, fly into one of our international airports. Or do we forget that that's how they got here?

According to Michael Moore's Fahrenhiet 11, we have one guy guarding the entire Oregon coast. Coming into the Maine coast is also a cake walk.

If I were a Middle eastern terrorist, the heavily patrolled southern border is that last place I'd consider entering this country.

You sadly underestimate the ability of our enemy when you think he has to walk through the desert to get here.

IF IT'S FROM TEXAS, it's probably popular. Western clothes and Tex-Mex cuisine are hot and getting hotter. Handmade cowboy boots have shown up on the feet of Hollywood's most notable celebrities. But the last thing most people expected to be the next big thing from Texas was wine. Until recently, that is.

Ste. Genevieve Wines are turning up on tables all over. The largest of Texas' 54 wineries, Ste. Genevieve is one of the fastest growing wines in the country. Quality is the reason. Ste. Genevieve wines hold their own in state, national, and international competitions. As a result, Ste. Genevieve is now among the best selling brands in the state.

Few people realize that there was a thriving commercial wine industry in Texas more than a hundred years before the California wine business began. Today, Texas is the ninth largest wine producing state.

The majestic mesas depicted on the Ste. Genevieve label make their own contribution to the vineyards. Wine grapes require well-drained, sandy soil; a soil rich in calcium is best. Because the mesas are limestone mountains topped with layers of sandstone, centuries of erosion have covered the Escondido Valley below with near perfect calcareous soil.

Ste. Genevieve offers Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Gamay, White Zinfandel, and Red Zinfandel, plus their special blends - Texas Red, Texas White, and Texas Blush.

a big problem now is crystal meth - and it's hard to blame furreners on that, because it's made in local drug labs from good old American (or in our case, Canadian) ingredients.

Yep - crystal meth, ecstasy, acid, horse tranquilizers - the cases that blow the "build the borders higher" argument out of the water vis a vis drugs; the simple fact is that our people want to get high and if they can't get the imported stuff to do it they invent their own from local ingredients.

We've long had a gasoline-sniffing epidemic in the rural North - the mind boggles at trying to find an appropriate law enforcement solution to that. How do we attack the supply side on that?

We're asking the wrong question until we stop pouring resurces into simply fighting the supply-side of a small subset of many streams of drugs, and instead start putting resources into asking "why are so many people so desparate to escape from their lives, if only for a few minutes or hours, that they'll take such risks and pay such prices?" in an attempt to fix it at the consumer end.

But we won't, because we already know - and don't like - the answers.

$1,000 per adult?

All white people go back to their country of origen.

You sadly underestimate the ability of our enemy when you think he has to walk through the desert to get here.

Do you mean that the desert is their natural environment in Arabia? Except that it might be more vicious there.

Our first major experience with salinity in Texas was the University of Texas test plot at Van Horn, Texas. These vines became established and produced extremely high quality fruit, but the vine vigor due to salt was not strong enough to tolerate the west Texas climate. Though the fruit was outstanding, Dr. Charles McKinney had to pull up the vineyard because of salt problems and resulting weak or dead vines.

http://horticulture.tamu.edu/newsletters/vine/abv1095.html

The reds were good, but the vines did not make it, as the article says. I guess Stockton is still a big deal today.

I drove right thru the Canadian border at a former border crossing in summer 2002 and I went deep inside Canada. Didn't even have to put it in 4wd.

Just like a letter, i was onto Canada's great gravel roads. I like driving on them; you can slide and have fun. Even ran into a grizzly during that one (not literally, just on side of road and shook his hand, joke.)

I know of some Blackfeet Indians who do it almost daily.

No offence attempted to infringe upon Canada's sovereignty of course.

but I have seen pictures of remote areas and film of people walking across. There is no fence. There are less than opn quarter as many borderpatrolmen on duty and the distance to a place of refuge is minimal.

However, the film I saw is dated, and I suspect it is more difficult now. This is Western Canada to which I refer.

I also know of marijuana smugglers that work that area, and I believe it when they tell me, it's easier to get in along the border of Alberta or British Colombia than it is the Mexican border.

By the way, Canada provides a significant portion of the marijuana consumed in the United States. Northern lights, they call it.

Quite common, even here in Texas.

Should "native americans" cross the Bering straights back to asia ?  Where does it end ?  

Uncontrolled immigration is a danger.  No nation, no matter how rich, can accept an unlimited number of new people every year.  We arent there now, but it is a potential future danger.

Mad Dog

...without even realising it (been there, done that, bought the T-shirt).

What I heard was that a lot of the BC bud gets manpacked across the border and cached, then they go back across the border and call their contacts on the other side and give them a GPS-derived 12 digit grid on the cache location. Marijuana dead drops - pretty slick, with a low probability of compromise, but I don't know how common this is, given the volume that's doubtless going across.

just how much of a war zone our southern border has become. The United States has helicopters flying with the latest in techonology aboard. All cell phone calls within twenty miles of the border are monitored. There are motion detectors in the ground, satellites and landsat balloons float above, watching (like a blimp attatched to cables with monitoing devices). Military jets constantly patrol the border (and beyond it, yes, they fly over Mexico) and others sit waiting to deploy on a minute's notice should a plane try to enter the country illegally.

Border patrol swarm like flies. North, East and West bound roads near the border all have permanent checkpoints where all vehicles are stopped and subject to search. Temporary check points also are used. Dogs trained to smell drugs and weapons assist in the searches.

The ground is plowed and dragged routinely and vehicles constantly drive along these "drags" looking for footprints. Many locals call in illegals when they see them as well.

The activity is ceaseless. Reminds me of the first day of deer season, only it's every day and every night.

But when they catch these guys, what are they to do with them?

All our facilities overflow with people.

So they turn them loose and they try again and again until they get here.

Another thing. Border Patrol now have a device that can scan fingerprints. So if someone is wanted or hiding their identity and in the database...

I have friends that have been caught after being deported and trying to re-enter illegally and they tell me this thing works. Or rather, their family not in the jail where they sit tells me that.

...of the guys that actually became players, they're pretty urban guys, particularly the ones from Saudi. Ain't a Bedu among them, near as I can tell.

I was referring to their ability to get documentation and to avoid our law enforcement capabilities.

We have lots of cargo coming and going from this country, the majority of which is never checked.

And people come and go through legal crossings.

The majority of the drugs and the terrorists that enter this country will do so right though our checkpoints.

has a privately owned vineyard (can't remember the name but it's Europeon).

A huge monstrosity. They use mechanical harvesters and mass produce good but cheap wines.

UT leases the land and gets a royalty from the grapes.

on those gravel roads right across Canada from Nova Scotia to British Columbia.  There are some great roads in North Michigan.  

One time a rally started in Nova Scotia and we arrived at a border crossing about 2:00 a.m. and it was closed for the evening.  There was a sign that instructed us to drive 30 miles out of our way to our intended destination to report for US Customs.  Yeah...of course we complied!  :) :)

Those days are gone unfortunately.  The checkpoints are either now manned or there would be a fence of something that would be able to bring across to seal it.  But it really is an impossible task ... consider there are thousands of miles of geography east, and west, and north, then in some cases, extremely rugged terrain, to Alaska.  Then there are the waterways and Great Lakes and two oceans for marine traffic that is shared.  

The officers who do those jobs are very highly skilled with an impossible amount of territory to cover--and both sides do those jobs remarkably well.    

Migrant farm workers do get paid well and they are carefully controlled to ensure they go back to their country of origin.  

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) do the illegal trafficking stuff and it's usually cannabis or one of the softer drugs that is smuggled.  They catch quite a few, but somehow the substances elude the best detection.  Smuggler's don't blow things up, they're just interested in making money.  

There is a lot of co-operation between the two countries where terrorism is involved.

will work to a degree.

My thing is this.

When people start yelling and screaming about illegals their final argument is usually, but it's against the law.

The law needs fixing.

Shutting the border is good, if and only if we also provide legal ways for temporary workers to get here. Not become citizens or stay permanently.

Sure, some will break the law and stay. But I can honestly say a lot stay here permanently now, because they don't want to have to face the perils and the expense of an illegal crossing to get back.

We do enjoy a higher standard of living, largely due to republican types that have gone out and gathered the spoils. Problem is, liberals are quick to condemn this and equally quick to help themselves to their share of ill-gotten gains.

Now, the rest of the world wants some of what we have.

Simply put, the whole world can't live at this standard.

And for that, I have no solution.

Other than to warn people that this will come crashing down.

That, you can take to the bank.

He is pretty good in camping and hiking in the mountains of Afghanistan/Pakistan.

And I'm not very serious in this thread.

And you are right.

It has to be controlled.

The argument is how to control it.

I say give Mexicans favored status because they are our neighbors and largely Native Americans.

The current policy is just the opposite.

A prosperous and safe Mexico makes for a safer United States.

A prosperous Mexico would be great for everyone.  However, the US cannot make Mexico prosperous.  Allowing millions more (?) of immigrants in with no to few checks wont make Mexico prosperous, either.  Just how many more jobs in the US are available to immigrants ? Even if you allowed more legal immigration, would that stop the narco trafficers or make it easier for them ?  Ultimately Mexico has to solve the questions of the Mexican economy. While we can help (doesnt NAFTA help ?) the US cant do it alone.

Mad Dog

too many people for our planet. It's only that there are too many people for our economic model and system of wealth distribution. It's not the planet's failing or the peoples', it's the failing of the rulers to make the conceptual shift to larger chunks of identification - not tribal but human.

but we can help.

NAFTA has been a failure.

Our cheap (artificially so) agricultural products (stuff haveseted with machinery like corn and wheat), put their small farmers out of business and the maquilas don't pay well enough.

Even so, the maquilas paid too much to compete with China and lots of those jobs moved across the ocean.

Mexico has big probems with wealth distribution. There is lots of money in the country, but almost all of it remains in the hands of a few.

I don't have all the answers.

But I do understand the problems.

that we can't just go to Mexico and go to work, we (US citizens) can't even get the necessary papers to work there even if we are Mexican-American. I don't think we can just move to Canada, either, and go to work without papers. If Mexicans and Canadians can come here and work undoccumented, we should at least have the same priveledge.