The border for dummies

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Denny Crane

Denny Crane

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http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/story.html?id=1520295

The border for dummies

National Post editorial board
National Post Published: Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Can someone please tell us how U. S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano got her job?

She appears to be about as knowledgeable about border issues as a late-night radio call-in yahoo.

In an interview broadcast Monday on the CBC, Ms. Napolitano attempted to justify her call for stricter border security on the premise that "suspected or known terrorists" have entered the U. S. across the Canadian border, including the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack.

All the 9/11 terrorists, of course, entered the United States directly from overseas. The notion that some arrived via Canada is a myth that briefly popped up in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and was then quickly debunked.

Informed of her error, Ms. Napolitano blustered: "I can't talk to that. I can talk about the future. And here's the future. The future is we have borders."

Just what does that mean, exactly?

Just a few weeks ago, Ms. Napolitano equated Canada's border to Mexico's, suggesting they deserved the same treatment. Mexico is engulfed in a drug war that left more than 5,000 dead last year, and which is spawning a spillover kidnapping epidemic in Arizona. So many Mexicans enter the United States illegally that a multi-billion-dollar barrier has been built from Texas to California to keep them out.

In Canada, on the other hand, the main problem is congestion resulting from cross-border trade. Not quite the same thing, is it?
 
Where does Obama find these people?

In an interview broadcast Monday on the CBC, Ms. Napolitano attempted to justify her call for stricter border security on the premise that "suspected or known terrorists" have entered the U. S. across the Canadian border, including the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack.
Click to expand...

:lol::biglaugh::lol::biglaugh::crazy::crazy::crazy:

She's sorta right about this:

Just a few weeks ago, Ms. Napolitano equated Canada's border to Mexico's, suggesting they deserved the same treatment.
Click to expand...

But 180 degrees the wrong way. Mexico's border should be equated to Canada's. We're not at war with those people or the Canadians. Just a few years ago, I was able to go to Tijuana by just driving or walking across the border. Now I need a passport. WTF?
 
I liked it a lot better when I didn't need a passpport. Tijuana's a fun place. Or it was.

Since the pressure to build a wall between us and our neighbors, it's not a fun place at all (and way more dangerous).
 
dunno. i haven't been to TJ since requiring passports. A few years ago we waitied in a long line but then we paid some mexican guys a few bucks and they let us ride their bikes across into a special lane to bypass most of it?????
 
The news here is filled with reports of violence and killings and how dangerous it is to go to Tijuana or other places just over the border.

Maybe Mexico was a poor country with a corrupt govt. and even a lot of organized crime, but it was never like this. All I can see that's changed is the anti-immigrant sentiment and that we're building a wall to keep them out.
 
Denny Crane said:
The news here is filled with reports of violence and killings and how dangerous it is to go to Tijuana or other places just over the border.

Maybe Mexico was a poor country with a corrupt govt. and even a lot of organized crime, but it was never like this. All I can see that's changed is the anti-immigrant sentiment and that we're building a wall to keep them out.
Click to expand...

I'm actually down in Mexico right now.


Its a drug turf war and reactions to the government cracking down on the cartels and distribution of the drug chains, not the anti-immigration sentiment. To blame the troubles on the building of a border wall is ridiculous.

I can't believe you watch the news there and are blind to what the real problem is.
 
If the borders WERE more secure, most of this trash coming into San Diego, Phoenix and other hotbeds of activity would be less of a problem than they are becoming. The problem is quickly seeping over the border into US-latino communities.
 
A spike of 10,000+ killings since 2006. What's significant about 2006? Isn't that when the wall was built? Yes.

The law to build the fence was passed in 2005, and Senator Obama voted for it.
 
Denny Crane said:
A spike of 10,000+ killings since 2006. What's significant about 2006? Isn't that when the wall was built? Yes.

The law to build the fence was passed in 2005, and Senator Obama voted for it.
Click to expand...

I think 2006 is when Calderon was elected.

He made cracking down on the cartels a priority. That and along with a collapse of the mexican economy have caused a rise of crime, especially in border town where the routes of the drugs funnel into the US.

My correlations make sense. Yours don't. The mere presence of a fence doesn't cause organized crime rings in Mexico to go out and murder the police, citizens and foreigners.
 
Denny Crane said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States–Mexico_barrier

The barriers were built as part of three larger "Operations" to taper transportation of illegal drugs manufactured in Latin America and illegal immigration: Operation Gatekeeper in California, Operation Hold-the-Line in Texas, and Operation Safeguard in Arizona.
Click to expand...

uhh..good? What's the correlation of a barrier to stop the flow of drugs into the united states and the gang wars between cartels and the mexican government? they are relatively unrelated. the presence of the wall won't noticably affect the drug violence at the border as its not really related to the main problems in mexico.

I mean, it seems like it pissed off a few Native American tribes??
 
Denny Crane said:
A spike of 10,000+ killings since 2006. What's significant about 2006? Isn't that when the wall was built? Yes.

The law to build the fence was passed in 2005, and Senator Obama voted for it.
Click to expand...

That's simple collinearity.
 
AgentDrazenPetrovic said:
uhh..good? What's the correlation of a barrier to stop the flow of drugs into the united states and the gang wars between cartels and the mexican government? they are relatively unrelated. the presence of the wall won't noticably affect the drug violence at the border as its not really related to the main problems in mexico.

I mean, it seems like it pissed off a few Native American tribes??
Click to expand...
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0424/p01s02-ussc.html

On tighter US border with Mexico, violence rises

PHOENIX - The harder it gets to sneak illicit cargo – immigrants or drugs or other contraband – into the US, the more violence-prone the border has become, not only for border-crossers but also for law officers trying to halt the smuggling.

The escalation in violent crime is most pronounced here in Arizona, where border-tightening measures have put a clamp on the preferred route of "coyotes" and smuggling rings. During the first three months of the year, roaming bandits, heavily armed and looking to hijack valuable payloads, waged at least eight attacks on illicit shipments of people or drugs traversing Arizona. Though no US border patrol agents have been killed, they've been assaulted more often by illegal immigrants this year – 112 attacks, an 18 percent jump – in the state, compared with the same three-month period a year ago.

Along the entire US-Mexico border, there's been a 3 percent increase in such attacks.

Recent federal raids at drop houses in metropolitan Phoenix, say officials with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), have also turned up bigger and more sophisticated weapons caches, along with people suspected of illegal entry.

"It is an unintended consequence of the hardening of the border," says Alonzo Peña, special agent in charge of ICE for Arizona. "Because of stronger border patrol, it's harder for the smugglers to get their commodity – whether drugs or aliens – across. It's costing [the smugglers] more, so the value for that commodity goes up, as does the level of protection, usually through violence."

The law-enforcement agencies that track crime along the border – county sheriffs' offices, ICE, the border patrol – report an uptick in almost every category of crime in recent months, a period corresponding to the US border crackdown. Few are surprised, however.
 
Last edited:
Denny Crane said:
http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/story.html?id=1520295

The border for dummies

National Post editorial board
National Post Published: Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Can someone please tell us how U. S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano got her job?

She appears to be about as knowledgeable about border issues as a late-night radio call-in yahoo.

In an interview broadcast Monday on the CBC, Ms. Napolitano attempted to justify her call for stricter border security on the premise that "suspected or known terrorists" have entered the U. S. across the Canadian border, including the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack.

All the 9/11 terrorists, of course, entered the United States directly from overseas. The notion that some arrived via Canada is a myth that briefly popped up in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and was then quickly debunked.

Informed of her error, Ms. Napolitano blustered: "I can't talk to that. I can talk about the future. And here's the future. The future is we have borders."

Just what does that mean, exactly?

Just a few weeks ago, Ms. Napolitano equated Canada's border to Mexico's, suggesting they deserved the same treatment. Mexico is engulfed in a drug war that left more than 5,000 dead last year, and which is spawning a spillover kidnapping epidemic in Arizona. So many Mexicans enter the United States illegally that a multi-billion-dollar barrier has been built from Texas to California to keep them out.

In Canada, on the other hand, the main problem is congestion resulting from cross-border trade. Not quite the same thing, is it?
Click to expand...

Can anyone who voted for Obama or wanted change really tell me with a straight face that I should feel safer with this woman in charge of Homeland Security?
 
Denny Crane said:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0424/p01s02-ussc.html

On tighter US border with Mexico, violence rises

PHOENIX - The harder it gets to sneak illicit cargo – immigrants or drugs or other contraband – into the US, the more violence-prone the border has become, not only for border-crossers but also for law officers trying to halt the smuggling.

The escalation in violent crime is most pronounced here in Arizona, where border-tightening measures have put a clamp on the preferred route of "coyotes" and smuggling rings. During the first three months of the year, roaming bandits, heavily armed and looking to hijack valuable payloads, waged at least eight attacks on illicit shipments of people or drugs traversing Arizona. Though no US border patrol agents have been killed, they've been assaulted more often by illegal immigrants this year – 112 attacks, an 18 percent jump – in the state, compared with the same three-month period a year ago.

Along the entire US-Mexico border, there's been a 3 percent increase in such attacks.

Recent federal raids at drop houses in metropolitan Phoenix, say officials with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), have also turned up bigger and more sophisticated weapons caches, along with people suspected of illegal entry.

"It is an unintended consequence of the hardening of the border," says Alonzo Peña, special agent in charge of ICE for Arizona. "Because of stronger border patrol, it's harder for the smugglers to get their commodity – whether drugs or aliens – across. It's costing [the smugglers] more, so the value for that commodity goes up, as does the level of protection, usually through violence."

The law-enforcement agencies that track crime along the border – county sheriffs' offices, ICE, the border patrol – report an uptick in almost every category of crime in recent months, a period corresponding to the US border crackdown. Few are surprised, however.
Click to expand...

Again, you were initially talking about deaths, for which this report notes none. Of course when you enforce the borders more properly, the more people are going to attack border agents.

As for the weapons...they're simply catching more.

The border fence is a good idea.
 
Denny Crane said:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0424/p01s02-ussc.html

On tighter US border with Mexico, violence rises

PHOENIX - The harder it gets to sneak illicit cargo – immigrants or drugs or other contraband – into the US, the more violence-prone the border has become, not only for border-crossers but also for law officers trying to halt the smuggling.

The escalation in violent crime is most pronounced here in Arizona, where border-tightening measures have put a clamp on the preferred route of "coyotes" and smuggling rings. During the first three months of the year, roaming bandits, heavily armed and looking to hijack valuable payloads, waged at least eight attacks on illicit shipments of people or drugs traversing Arizona. Though no US border patrol agents have been killed, they've been assaulted more often by illegal immigrants this year – 112 attacks, an 18 percent jump – in the state, compared with the same three-month period a year ago.

Along the entire US-Mexico border, there's been a 3 percent increase in such attacks.

Recent federal raids at drop houses in metropolitan Phoenix, say officials with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), have also turned up bigger and more sophisticated weapons caches, along with people suspected of illegal entry.

"It is an unintended consequence of the hardening of the border," says Alonzo Peña, special agent in charge of ICE for Arizona. "Because of stronger border patrol, it's harder for the smugglers to get their commodity – whether drugs or aliens – across. It's costing [the smugglers] more, so the value for that commodity goes up, as does the level of protection, usually through violence."

The law-enforcement agencies that track crime along the border – county sheriffs' offices, ICE, the border patrol – report an uptick in almost every category of crime in recent months, a period corresponding to the US border crackdown. Few are surprised, however.
Click to expand...

I read this and I see a Mexican problem, not a United States one. They can't get their drugs in so violence increases? I think the Mexican government needs to take control of their own country.
 
Denny Crane said:
Can anyone who voted for Obama or wanted change really tell me with a straight face that I should feel safer with this woman in charge of Homeland Security?
Click to expand...

She doesn't use the word terrorism, instead she uses "man-made disasters". Her explanation was as follows: "I referred to "man-caused" disasters. That is perhaps only a nuance, but it demonstrates that we want to move away from the politics of fear toward a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur."

So, you should feel safer. She's moving away from the politics of fear!:sigh:
 
Yeah, if the right wing extremists don't get ya...it'll either be veteran's returning from Iraq..or Canadians!
 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090424/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_napolitano_republican_heat

Homeland secretary apologizes to veterans group


By EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer
Fri Apr 24, 6:38 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano met with the American Legion on Friday to apologize for a right-wing extremism report written by her agency, and the veterans group walked away from the meeting mollified.

Napolitano blamed one of her agency's analysts for prematurely sending out the intelligence assessment to law enforcement, according to Craig Roberts, an American Legion member who attended the meeting. The report says veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan could be susceptible to right-wing recruiters or commit lone acts of violence.

"She essentially admitted fault within her office," Roberts said.

Legion National Commander David Rehbein said, "I think the session in Secretary Napolitano's office will go a long way to help our returning veterans in the future."

After the meeting, Napolitano's office issued a statement saying the department "has fixed the internal process that allowed this document to be released before it was ready."

The report, one of Homeland Security's periodic assessments, warned that right-wing extremists could use the bad state of the U.S. economy and the election of the country's first black president to recruit members. The analysis said veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars could be targeted by the groups.

It drew angry reactions from Rehbein, conservative bloggers and Republican members of Congress who took to the House floor this week to criticize Napolitano, confirmed to her Cabinet position less than 100 days ago.

"Has this homeland security secretary gone absolutely stark raving mad?" Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn, said Wednesday.

"I think the appropriate thing for her to do would be to step down," Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, told Fox News on Thursday.

"Janet Napolitano should resign or be fired," Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, said on Wednesday.

Obama administration aides dismissed the criticism as a "typical Washington game" and "political theater."

Despite the furor among some Republicans, party leaders did not bring it up in a meeting with President Barack Obama and on Thursday. House Republican leader John Boehner had indicated it likely would be discussed Thursday. But his spokesman, Kevin Smith, said the topic was not broached.

White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said the right-wing extremist report originated in the Bush administration and Napolitano was working to keep the nation safe from terrorists.

"She doesn't have time for these games — and neither does the president," Shapiro said.

The veterans issue wasn't the only flap. Earlier this week, Napolitano drew criticism for flubbing an explanation of federal law prohibiting people without proper documents from crossing U.S. borders into the country.

In an interview with CNN, Napolitano, whose career has included stints as a U.S. attorney and attorney general and governor of Arizona, said: "Crossing the border is not a crime per se. It is civil."

While crossing the border illegally is a crime, most illegal immigrants caught in the United States face only civil penalties and deportation.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., characterized Napolitano's statements as one of the most "baffling" he has ever heard from a senior government official.

"It is breathtaking that a Cabinet secretary, bestowed by the public with the responsibility to protect our nation's borders, could be ignorant of the indisputable fact that it is a violation of the criminal code to enter our country illegally," Sessions said.

Napolitano spokesman Sean Smith said: "She may be new to Washington, but she has been around politics for a long time, and she knows political theater when she sees it."

Smith said Napolitano spent 16 years enforcing the law on the Southwest border. "Americans can rest assured that she understands what the law is along the border," he said.

She also has drawn criticism for claiming in an interview that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists entered the U.S. across the Canadian border. The Sept. 11 commission found that none came through Canada. But others have, such as the would-be millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam.

Discussing security along the U.S. border on Canada's CBC News on Monday, Napolitano said, "To the extent that terrorists have come into our country or suspected or known terrorists have entered our country across a border, it's been across the Canadian border. There are real issues there."

When asked whether she was talking about the 9/11 terrorists, Napolitano said: "Not just those, but others as well."

Smith on Thursday said Napolitano acknowledged she misspoke and had been thinking of the millennium bomber.
 
I can't see her lasting much longer in this job. I wonder how long it is before she becomes too ill to continue her job or has a urgent family matter to attend to.
 
is the CDC part of homeland? she was doing a press conference because the HHS chick hasn't been confirmed.
 
Who still thinks the border doesn't matter? How many people have snuck in across the Mexican border since the swine flu broke out in Mexico? The people who flew, we can keep track of. Who knows how many infected people have crossed the border in search for a better life.
 
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