Report from the border

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Minuteman, Mar 19, 2006.


  1. Minuteman

    Minuteman Chaplain Moderator Founding Member

    I am back up around Laredo again. Actually North of there in Dimitt County. 22 miles from the road to the location. And you never leave the same ranch. Have to avoid the deer, rattlesnakes and wetbacks.

    Took some pics.
    Copy of PIC_0057.JPG Copy of PIC_0058.JPG Copy of PIC_0062.JPG Copy of PIC_0055.JPG Copy of PIC_0060.JPG
     
  2. E.L.

    E.L. Moderator of Lead Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    If my spanish serves me correct they are requesting that the wets do them the favor of using the ladder instead of tearing up their fence.
     
  3. Minuteman

    Minuteman Chaplain Moderator Founding Member

    Yeah, that's what I thought it was saying too.
    I was reading an article in the San Antonio newspaper, it had all the border areas broken into the BP sectors, El Paso, Del Rio, Laredo, McAllen.
    The McAllen sector led by far the number of crossings and captures.
     
  4. Minuteman

    Minuteman Chaplain Moderator Founding Member

    A little levity here in the border lands today.
    It has been raining every day for the last 3 days. There is a low water crossing on the 20 mile lease road back in here to the location. The water was running about 8' deep this morning and we had all kinds of service people stuck on the other side and couldn't get across to come to location.

    I told one of the guys I'm working with that this was a sad state of affairs, here we are in S. Texas, 3 miles from Mexico and we can't figure out how to get a half dozen Mexicans across a creek.

    We decided to play "Coyotes". We took our two 4x4 pick ups and took a back trail through the mesquite and came around (about 80 miles round trip), and got them and taxied them in to location. Only we don't get paid as much as the Coyote's get.

    I said we should have just put some welfare checks and food stamps on this side of the creek. They would have figured out a way to cross it.
     
  5. Minuteman

    Minuteman Chaplain Moderator Founding Member

    I overheard an interesting conversation yesterday. I had a rare chance to get away from the drill site and go to town to get a meal. I was sitting at a little border town cafe eating lunch and at the table directly behind me sat 3 Texas state troopers. I was listining to their conversation as one of them was telling the others about a stop he had made.


    It seems he pulled over a Wal-Mart tractor trailer rig heading North from the border. He said that the driver spoke no english but was wearing a Wal-Mart uniform. He presented the trooper with a Wal-Mart ID card and was very persistant in stating that he worked for W-M. The trooper became suspicious and after examining the card noticed that "Arkansas" was spelled wrong.
    He said that the truck tag was from Okla. and when he ran it, it came back as registered to W-M. Not satisfied they called W-M and aked if they had a truck with that tag #. The dispatcher said yes they did and GPS showed it making a delivery in California.

    The tag was a fake and the trooper was telling his freinds how it had reflective paint and looked just like the real deal. He said that they knew that a Wal-Mart truck was making a delivery at the local W-M so they called and asked is that truck could come out to where they had the fake one stopped. He said when the real W-M truck pulled up it was apparent that the other one, Truck and trailer, were fake. But just a casual look and you would believe that it was an actual W-M rig.

    With probable cause established they opened up the trailer and it was full of bales of pot straight from Mexico.

    This story got me to wondering, if the drug smugglers are that good at camoflauging a load of dope, how good would terrorists be at sending a truck with a dirty bomb or full of arms or whatever across the border. And this happened near the McAllen area which has the highest percentage of OTM (other than Mexican) captures on the border.

    A recent newspaper article had a chart showing the captures recorded in that area and a good number of them were from Middle Eastern countries.

    PIC_0073.JPG
     
  6. Minuteman

    Minuteman Chaplain Moderator Founding Member

    I am currently reading the sequel to "Enemies, Foriegn and Domestic" it is called "Domestic Enemies, The Reconquista".

    The basic storyline is that the SW states, New Mexico in particular, are overrun with Mexicans (natural and American) forming almost a country within a country. They have passed "Spanish Only" laws and fired "gringo" police and others who cannot pass a biased Spanish test. The gringo's left there are harrassed, swindled out of their property, and ignored by the courts.

    The author, Mathew Bracken, may just be an oracle and not know it. I have been working in the Tex-Mex borderlands for a couple of years now and have never felt like such an outsider. Like a minority, right here in the USA. I have been to places where no one could, or would, speak English. If you ask a person in Wal-Mart for something they look at you with disdain and act is if they hate using English, or speaking to a "gringo" or whatever their problem is.

    A few days ago I learned of an incident that could have come straight out of "Reconquista". A drilling supervisor working down here is in the habit of trailering his Harley down here with him when he is working. So on the occassions when he can get away from the rig he goes on a ride around the countryside. A few days ago he was riding on highway 83, skirting the Rio Grande river, when a car load of Mexicans came by and swept over just barely missing him. He gave them the one finger salute and kept going. They barreled up the road and pulled their car over just around a curve, blocking the road. When the biker came around the curve and stopped, they jumped him. They drug him off the bike and began to beat him. One of them had a board or tree limb and was beating him with that while the others were kicking and hitting him. They beat him bloody and left him bleeding on the side of the road. A passerby called the sheriffs and the guy was taken to the hospital.


    The Mexicans were caught, but today we learned that no charges will be filed. The attack was "Provoked" according to the authorities. All Mexicans of course.

    So I can tell you that there is no longer a South Texas. It is Northern Mexico now. The "Reconquista" is complete here.
     
  7. FalconDance

    FalconDance Neighborhood Witch

    I really wish I could say this surprised me -- but then I'd be lying. 'Course, with Dubya and the boys giving Mexican trucks the green light to roll on through, reports like this will likely become more common yet.
     
  8. dragonfly

    dragonfly Monkey+++

    My oldest son recently went to work here for the local sheriff's office.
    Already he has had more than his share of problems with illegals here.
    In fact, just 2 days ago 2 officers stopped a young man for jay-walking, he gave them a false name and as they proceeded to question him, he drew a pistol and shot 1 of the officers in the face. That officer died. The individual was later found as he car-jacked a driver and took that driver hostage....the police then surrounded the vehicle and shot the man to death...literally. Several accounts say there were from 19 and more wounds from the officers. The individual had been arrested before, and returned to Mexico. he came back.
    Now, my son just informed me that he has been transferred to El Mirage, where the local Police Dept. was so corrupt, that the sheriff's office had to come in to restore order there. They have a contract with that city, that will expire on Oct 13 this year.
    He knows that he has to be on his toes, as the town is known to be home to thousands of illegals, and a lot of gang members.
    He and 2 deputies stopped a Jeep with 4 gang members last week, all had warrants and all were illegals! He was quite upset!
    Bill
     
  9. Minuteman

    Minuteman Chaplain Moderator Founding Member

    Thank your son for his service for me. The LEO's down here are as much at war as our soldiers in Iraq.
     
  10. Tango3

    Tango3 Aimless wanderer

    :shock: s'all I can I say...[flag]
     
  11. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Looks like our northern neighbors are about to experience some of the problem as well. Lifted from the NYT without permission, and for our interest.


    Illegal Immigrants Chase False Hope to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>
    By MONICA DAVEY and ABBY GOODNOUGH; Monica Davey reported from Windsor, and Abby Goodnough from <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Naples</st1:place></st1:city>. Additional reporting was contributed by Julia Preston, Ian Austen and Lynn Waddell.
    1,423 words
    21 September 2007
    The New York Times
    Late Edition - Final
    1
    English
    Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.

    WINDSOR, Ontario, Sept. 20 -- Fleeing stepped-up sweeps by the American authorities, illegal immigrants to the United States, mostly Mexican, are arriving in growing numbers at the foot of the bridge in this Canadian border town seeking refugee status.
    Still more immigrants, mostly Mexicans living illegally in Florida, have begun trying to make their way past America's northern border at other locations, the majority of them flying into the airport in Toronto, Canadian officials said Thursday.
    The arrivals here began suddenly three weeks ago, just a family or two at first, fueled by the notion -- largely unfounded, the authorities here say -- that Canada would grant them asylum.
    The journey, some of the immigrants said, was first suggested by an organization in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Naples</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Fla.</st1:state></st1:place>, which charged a fee for assisting with the paperwork. Now the idea has spread on the Internet and through social networks.
    By Thursday, at least 200 people had turned up here, across the border from <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Detroit</st1:place></st1:city>, with as much of their lives as they could shove into suitcases, boxes and garbage bags in their cars. Thousands more, refugee advocates and Canadian officials say, may be on their way.
    Advocates for immigrants issued urgent warnings to Mexicans pondering similar journeys, and expressed fury at groups that were encouraging them. In truth, refugee status for Mexican citizens is relatively unusual in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Only 28 percent of such claims by Mexicans were approved in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> last year, compared with 47 percent of claims from all nationalities.
    ''It's an outrage that money is being taken to provide false information and dangerous information to these people,'' said Rivka Augenfeld of the Canadian Council for Refugees, a nonprofit umbrella organization focused on the rights and protections of refugees. ''This idea is just out there and growing.''
    <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Windsor</st1:place></st1:city> officials, who scrambled to arrange a meeting Thursday in a community center for some of the new arrivals so they could apply for social services, said they were overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught and deeply worried about the days ahead.
    Already, they have filled a shelter with 30 single men and are now paying four motels to house families, said Maj. Wilfred Harbin, administrator for the Salvation Army here. Meals were being delivered to the families by taxi cab.
    ''We have no idea what we are going to do,'' said Major Harbin, who said he had heard that as many as 7,000 Mexicans might be seeking refugee status in the coming weeks.
    Eddie Francis, the mayor of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Windsor</st1:place></st1:city>, faxed a letter Wednesday to Canadian federal authorities seeking financial help.
    ''I empathize with the challenges but we don't have the ability to manage this,'' Mr. Francis said. ''We have never seen anything like this.''
    Many of the families who drove here said they had learned about the possibility of fleeing to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region> from a <st1:city w:st="on">Naples</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Fla.</st1:state>, organization, the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Haitian</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Community Center</st1:placetype></st1:place>, which promoted ''Information required for Canadian Refugee Status Application'' on its Web site. The group, some refugees said, collected $400 for adults and $100 for children and assured them that there would be jobs and shelter.
    ''I don't know if what I was told about coming here was correct or not, but what am I going to do about it now?'' said Pedro Palafox Marin, who said he paid $800 to the organization before driving through the night to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Windsor</st1:place></st1:city> with his wife and children.
    ''In <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Florida</st1:place></st1:state>,'' Mr. Marin said, ''every job I got, everywhere I went, we were getting a lot of pressure from immigration. Being illegal was always on my mind. Now, I can relax.''
    Illegal immigrants have been especially frightened of deportation in recent months, people in <st1:city w:st="on">Naples</st1:city> and surrounding <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Collier</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">County</st1:placetype></st1:place> said. The community has been filled with tales of immigrants' being caught and deported and the sending of government letters to employers warning them not to employ illegal immigrants.
    The Collier County Sheriff's Office recently became the first local law enforcement agency in Florida to send its deputies for Immigrations and Custom Enforcement training, which gives them the authority to detain suspected illegal immigrants.
    In <st1:city w:st="on">Naples</st1:city> on Thursday, Jacques Sinjuste, the general director of the <st1:placename w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Haitian</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Community Center</st1:placetype>, denied that he had urged undocumented immigrants to seek asylum in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> or told them jobs would be waiting there. Mr. Sinjuste said he and a small group of volunteers at the center had merely helped immigrants fill out applications for asylum, he said.
    ''We fill it out for them and that's the end of our job,'' he said. ''Many people are taking the name of my organization with them when they go to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> and saying I sent them. But I don't know anything about that.''
    Mr. Sinjuste, a Haitian immigrant who founded the center in 2000, said he had first heard about the possibility of seeking asylum in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> from a client who brought one of the applications to his office two years ago. Since then, he said, the center has helped about 300 undocumented immigrants fill out Canadian asylum applications, charging $400 per person.
    Mr. Sinjuste said he had recently fired a lawyer who worked for the center for describing the charge as a ''fee'' on the center's Web site.
    ''It's not a fee; it's a donation,'' he said. ''Mostly it goes to pay the volunteers who help us do the job and to buy ink and paper.''
    In some cases, he added, money collected from the immigrants helped finance their travel to the Canadian border.
    ''Right now we do not have anything left,'' Mr. Sinjuste said. The center's bank account, he said, contains about $1,900.
    ''We don't want to make money off people,'' he said. ''My position is to defend minorities, not to rip them off.''
    He said the center, a nonprofit charity, mostly helped Haitian immigrants but had recently seen an influx of Hispanics seeking services.
    Haitians have long migrated to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region>, and particularly to <st1:city w:st="on">Montreal</st1:city>, the largest French language city in <st1:place w:st="on">North America</st1:place>. But immigration lawyers say Haitians are far more likely to be allowed to stay here as refugees than Mexicans are.
    To win refugee status from the Refugee and Immigration Board of Canada, immigrants must show ''a well founded fear of persecution'' linked to their race, religion, nationality or political background, said Charles Hawkins a spokesman for the board. Last year, 53 percent of Haitians who applied as refugees were admitted here. But even those who are rejected will not be returned to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Haiti</st1:country-region>: the government has put a temporary freeze on deportations there, given <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Haiti</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s turmoil.
    No such moratorium exists for <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Mexico</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Although Mexicans who have lived in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region> are permitted to seek asylum in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region>, they will be deported to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Mexico</st1:place></st1:country-region> if they are turned down.
    Several lawyers said they were pessimistic about these immigrants' odds of being granted asylum, a process that can take 6 months to 2 years. Even so, most of the Mexicans here said they were hopeful. They spent Thursday looking for apartments to move into, cleaning out cars, filling out paperwork.
    ''Maybe they'll have compassion for us,'' Manuel Gonzalez, 46, said of his request for asylum. ''All we want to do is live and follow the rules and work hard.'' Referring to the help Canadian authorities have already given them, Mr. Gonzalez, who traveled from <st1:city w:st="on">Naples</st1:city>, said, ''What we didn't have in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> we had here in a second.''
    Carina Gonzalez, who drove her red Suburban from <st1:city w:st="on">Naples</st1:city> a few weeks ago, said she had lived in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> for 10 years. When she reached a customs agent as she crossed into <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>, she recalled, she felt deeply nervous but also relieved.
    Ms. Gonzalez said that she had worked in a grocery store in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> but that her employers had been asking more and more questions about her documents and her legal status.
    ''I could smell the freedom when I crossed over,'' said Ms. Gonzalez, 25. ''I don't know what's going to happen next, but the pressure of worrying about getting caught never let you sleep well.''
     
  12. Minuteman

    Minuteman Chaplain Moderator Founding Member

    I was telling the above story to some folks today and they told me that the harrassment of gringo's down here is getting worse. The incidents of "Road Rage" attacks occur quite frequently.

    Any gringo traveling alone on the roads here are apt to be targeted.

    I was talking with a couple that were both born and raised here. Their families have had property here since before Texas beacame Texas.

    They were telling me that their boys are only two of about half a dozen gringo kids left in the high school in their town. They said that they are harrassed and picked on mercilessly.

    So much so that they are looking for work in Oklahoma and plan on selling out and moving North to get away from the border.

    If you have read "Reqonquista" it is an eerie feeling to see fiction become reality before your eyes.

    I went in to town today to get a pizza. The national chain restaraunt didn't have one single sign inside that was printed in English. I know that one of them started out with "Peligro" but I don't know what the rest said. There was not one person up front that could or would speak English to take my order. They had to get a busboy from the back to come up and ask me what I wanted.

    I have never had so many sneering, hostile looks and comments as I have had here in S. Texas the last couple of years. And I have worked in Islamic countries that hated America.

    I see a very similar situation. There are some very good hispanic people. Many that were born and raised in the USA. But just like there are a lot of good muslims that I have worked with and known, they tolerate the radicals and I believe, secretly agree with them. They don't speak out against the racism and the overt hostility. They are more loyal to their blood than their nation.

    If we don't get control of these borders we will cease to be as a nation. At least the nation that we have grown up with.
     
  13. dragonfly

    dragonfly Monkey+++

    Crime is really getting out of control here in Phoenix....and surrounding areas...
    My son, recently acquired a new Sheriff's dept. vehicle with "lo-Jack"...
    In 2 days he has had to use it twice...the first was to find some missing/stolen equipment...it was on a flat bed being driven by a Mexican woman with no english, no papers, no license,...well you know that routine by now....
    There were 4 "Bobcats" that were on the flatbed, all stolen and headed SOUTH!
    Problem: He almost ran into the rear of the trailer as it was PARKED in the middle of a 2 lane road, no lights on and motor shut down!
    She was awaiting another driver to show up, to show her the way into Mexico with her "booty".
    The next night he had to locate another "Bobcat" that was stolen and dropped off in the middle of the desert alongside a mountain.
    So far: $200,000 to the good guys, $0 to the bad guys!
    "LO-JACK" works!
    Bill
     
  14. monkeyman

    monkeyman Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    Aside from the drug runners and possibility of materials for terrorists comeing i in camoflaged rigs, just think how many illegals can be stacked inside a tractor trailer when to my understanding its common to put as many as 20 or more in a pannel van. Also consider that we generaly would only find out about the coyotes who are the least skilled comeing in and as high as the known/estimated numbers are likely several times that.

    Once the construction on the North American sper hiway advances it will undoubtedly become just as bad here in western MO as it is near te boarder if not worse since up here there is barely any INS presnece and BP dont exist so theres noone to even attempt to keep them in check/send them back other than LEOs who are not authorized to do so in general so would be more of a safe haven for them than the boarder region.

    Well, maybe this could be the upside if the economy colapses, things get bad here and if the Mexicans dont go home we can pass them headed south, hell as many of them as have come north Mexico should be damn near empty by now.
     
  15. hartage

    hartage Monkey+++

    Geez MM, I read about the part about them coming behind the vehicle. I'll tell you about our setup here. We put those cheap little infrared door chimes to the sides and straight back. Each one is set to a different sound so we know which direction the sensor trips. If anybody gets around 30-35 feet to the sides or the back you can hear it.


    When we get in an area that is bad I know this sounds wrong but this is what we do. Pull up do a quick sweep with spotlight, turn off lights hit the night vision (some of us have gen 2 and 3) if nothing then turn off motor and just quietly sit in the dark. You can see them better without all your lights on all the time rather just hit them with a spot when they get in range. Till then just quietly observe and listen. You can hear them from quite far via bushes scraping on them. From even further if they are dumb enough to be talking. Most of the time they won't even spot us and just walk past us. We wait till they are 50 yards past so they don't hear then make a call to the BP. They have night vision also so the trick is to pick a spot where the vehicle is hidden behind bushes and cannot be spotted by a quick night vision scan. Much better to have lights off till needed so you are on equal grounds as far as acclimated eyes are concerend. Most of the time we are hidden quiet in the dark unlike BP. Our calls to the BP are high quality because we always have eyes on target first and we know which trail/gully/direction the group is heading in before we call.

    Maybe you guys can form a group out there that can help secure your part of the border. If you guys have an issue I can try to tell you how we have over come it if we have.
     
  16. hartage

    hartage Monkey+++


    I was thinking the same thing. If SHTF the more advanced a community is the harder it is going to be hit. Conversely the more primative, small and agricultural based the less it will be affected. Going south and finding a small rural town might not be such a bad idea. Some small places are so independent they might not even notice if the rest of the world collapses.
     
  17. snuffysmith

    snuffysmith Monkey+++ Founding Member

    I'd like to hear more about job opps down there, I'm retired and would volenteer above the table and a little veg. under, wink, wink. Seriously, if I could do something to help and at least have my expenses paid, I'd go in a NYM.

    Snuffy
     
  18. hartage

    hartage Monkey+++

    Going south is not the only option if your primary goal is to get veg. Northern cal is an absolute hotbed for medical veg. Not hard to find communities there where it is very cheap and I mean just this side of free. No I don't partake but lots around me did morning noon and night. Just go to arcata and yack with the hippies there. I'm sure they'll point you in the right direction.
     
  19. monkeyman

    monkeyman Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    I believe his refrence to 'veg' was of the 'cabbage' variety as in cash to cover expenses of the trip and such.
     
  20. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Vig, maybe? (As in viggorish, an old term for greasing palms.) Then again, there are some leafy things one can use on lonely outposts.
     
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