Humane-Rights-Agenda Report: U.S. vs. Mexico Border War Heats Up!

Humane-Rights-Agenda Report: U.S. vs. Mexico Border War Heats Up!
http://humane-rights-agenda.blogspot.com/2006/01/humane-rights-agenda-report-us-vs.html

BEYOND BORDERS
Dreier asks for probe of Mexican incursions: Ontario, CA, 1/28/2006
http://dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3415702

By Sara A. Carter, Staff Writer  
Email: sara.carter@dailybulletin.com or Phone @ (909) 483-8552.  

Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora, has called for a congressional investigation into reports that Mexican military personnel have crossed the border into the United States more than 200 times in the past 10 years.

Several members of Congress have said the soldiers cross the border to help drug traffickers and human smugglers pass safely into the United States.

"We've got to have a full congressional investigation into this," Dreier said Wednesday. "It's horrifying. This is the kind of stuff that we feared, and it is certainly a threat to our national security."

The Daily Bulletin first reported Sunday the details of a Department of Homeland Security, Customs and U.S. Border Protection document showing 216 incursions since 1996.

Additionally, the paper obtained a 2001 map bearing the seal of the president's Office of National Drug Control Policy that displays 23 incursions along the Mexican border that year.

"The issue of corruption in Mexico is what has been of concern all along when it comes to focusing on border issues," said Dreier, chairman of the House Rules Committee. "This is the kind of corruption that the top people in Mexico would like to gain control of."

Dreier said he contacted Mexican government officials about the issue Wednesday.

Mexican officials denied Wednesday any incursions by their military.

"I've already been in touch with the Department of Homeland Security and requested all information regarding the incursion," Dreier added.

Officials with the department would not confirm Saturday the number of incursions, but said they were in ongoing discussions with the Mexican government regarding the issue, said Kristi Clemens, a spokeswoman with the department.

Department Secretary Michael Chertoff on Wednesday, however, downplayed reports of the incursions, saying most were as a result of lost military personnel or drug runners dressed in military uniforms.

Mexican government officials would not comment on Dreier's call for a congressional investigation into the incursions.

Rafael Laveaga, a spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C., said Tuesday the "Federal Government of Mexico stands by their original comment" denying the incursions occurred.

Laveaga added that Mexico's law enforcement agencies work closely with the FBI and the Office of National Drug Control Policy to curtail drug cartel operations along the border.

He said smugglers disguise themselves as military personnel and paint their vehicles to look like Mexican military vehicles.

T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said, however, that on numerous occasions agents have reported confrontations with fully armed Mexican military personnel.

"A congressional investigation has been long overdue but better late than never," Bonner said. "I have no idea why an investigation hasn't happened sooner."

In one 2000 incident near Santa Teresa, N.M., a small town west of El Paso, Border Patrol agents apprehended 16 Mexican soldiers after they crossed into the United States and fired on the agents.

Bonner said a letter was sent to officials in the Clinton White House by his union about the incident, but that it fell on deaf ears and was apparently not investigated.

None of the agents was injured in the gun battle, but Bonner said the State Department ordered the release of the soldiers and their return to Mexico with their weapons.

In July, two Border Patrol agents, operating in the Tucson, Ariz., sector were shot with high-powered firearms by a group of armed men dressed as Mexican military in Nogales, Bonner added.

"The men are still suffering," he said. "They are still in rehab for their injuries."

Chris Simcox, co-founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a volunteer organization of border watchers, said a congressional investigation is imperative if the borders are to be protected and said he would testify before a congressional committee if called upon.

"It is a clear dereliction of duty not to close those borders after Sept. 11," Simcox said. "It's a war zone. Border Patrol agents have known about it but have not talked about it for fear of reprisal. The truth about our borders will eventually reach the American people."

On Monday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Chertoff announced their border security plan.

The plan includes the use of new technologies and data bases, Chertoff said.

Included is the People Access Security Service, or PASS system card, which will be issued to frequent travelers throughout the Western hemisphere. The voluntary card will meet the requirements of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which requires that by Jan. 1, 2008, anyone entering the United States, including U.S. citizens, have travel documents that prove their identity and citizenship.

Related Stories:
• Mexican troops aiding smugglers, says report
http://dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3408634

• Mexican soldiers defy border
http://dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3404101

Special Report: Beyond Borders
http://lang.dailybulletin.com/socal/beyondborders/

Blog Site: Beyond Borders Blog
http://www.langamp.com/borderblog/

Contact/About
As a staff blogger for the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and San Bernardino Sun newspapers Conor Friedersdorf writes more about immigration before changing out of his pajamas than most newspaper reporters write all day. Previously a beat reporter covering Rancho Cucamonga, suburban development and transportaion, among other topics, Conor took a year off to travel Europe and pen a novel (as yet unpublished). Meanwhile he began a personal Web log, acquiring the skills frequently displayed on the main page.

Curious to learn more? conor.friedersdorf@dailybulletin.com
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Incursions Spark Tension on U.S.-Mexico Border: Friday, Jan. 27, 2006
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/1/26/152430.shtml?s=tn

NewsMax.com Wires

Armed Mexican government personnel made five unauthorized incursions into the U.S. in the last three months of 2005, according to confidential Department of Homeland Security records.

The incursions involved police officers or soldiers in military vehicles and were among 231 such incidents recorded by the U.S. Border Patrol in the past 10 years, the Los Angeles Times reports.

"It's clear you're dealing with a large number of incursions by bona-fide Mexican military units, based on the tactics and the equipment being used," said T.J. Bonner, a Border Patrol veteran and president of the National Border Patrol Council, the agents' union.

Bonner told the Washington Times that it was "common knowledge" along the border that some Mexican military units, federal and state police and former Mexican soldiers are paid by smugglers to protect shipments of cocaine and other drugs into the U.S.

Incidents in the Homeland Security records include Mexican helicopters flying north into U.S. airspace near El Paso, Tex., for about 15 minutes; five Mexican officials armed with assault rifles entering the country near El Centro, Calif., and returning without incident; and two Mexican police officers observed on the U.S. side of the border near Yuma, Ariz.

Details of the incidents emerged "as authorities on both sides of the border scrambled to investigate a dangerous confrontation Monday in Texas," the LA Times reported.

A confidential Border Patrol summary of the incident said it began when county sheriff's deputies and state troopers tried to stop three vehicles on an interstate highway southeast of El Paso. The three vehicles made a run for the border, the report said.

One vehicle, a black 2006 Cadillac Escalade loaded with nearly 1,500 pounds of marijuana, was abandoned near the border, said Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West.

As deputies approached the river they saw a Mexican military Humvee – equipped with a .50-caliber machine gun – on the U.S. side, West disclosed. A second vehicle got stuck in shallow water in the Rio Grande, while the third made it back to Mexico.

"The Humvee attempted to push and pull [the stuck vehicle] toward Mexico to no avail," the Border Patrol report states.
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Reports Cite Incursions on U.S. Border: January 26, 2006
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-border26jan26,0,6521548,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines

By Richard Marosi, Robert J. Lopez and Rich Connell, Times Staff Writers

Armed Mexican government personnel made unauthorized incursions into the United States five times in the last three months of 2005, including one incident last month in Southern California, according to confidential Department of Homeland Security records.

The crossings involved police officers or soldiers in military vehicles and were among 231 such incidents recorded by the U.S. Border Patrol in the last 10 years.

The records obtained by The Times provide new details on more than a dozen incursions into the U.S., including the five most recent ones.

Details of the incidents emerged as authorities on both sides of the border scrambled to investigate a dangerous confrontation Monday in Texas.

Heavily armed personnel in a military-style Humvee from Mexico helped drug smugglers fleeing police to escape back across the border, according to authorities. An internal Border Patrol summary of the incident said the Humvee was equipped with a .50-caliber machine gun.

It was the second such incident in three months in the same rural county southeast of El Paso.

"It's clear you're dealing with a large number of incursions by bona-fide Mexican military units, based on the tactics and the equipment being used," said T.J. Bonner, a Border Patrol veteran and president of the agents union.

Reports of incursions into the U.S. by gun-toting groups of men dressed in what appeared to be military or police uniforms along the Mexican frontier have become a powerful rallying point for advocates of illegal immigration crackdowns and tighter border security.

The incursions have also intensified a long-running debate over the merits of fencing the 2,000-mile Mexican border, now a patchwork of metal barriers, rusted and broken barbed wire and expanses of rugged terrain where the divide is difficult to identify. In Texas, the Rio Grande separates the two nations.

U.S. Border Patrol Chief David V. Aguilar said that incursions by Mexican government personnel were nothing new, and that U.S. agents on occasion have crossed accidentally into Mexico. He noted that incursions have declined by more than 50% since 2002. Still, with assault rates against agents at record highs, any incursion is taken "very seriously."

"These are not taken lightly at any level within the Border Patrol … and it is an ongoing concern," Aguilar said.

U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said in an interview Wednesday that this week's incident in Texas was "about as serious as it gets" and noted that dozens of reported incursions have occurred in his state.

The encounters seriously undermine efforts to stop the flow of drugs coming across the U.S. border and suggest possible cooperation among Mexican authorities and traffickers, he said.

"You do not want to get into a fight with guys carrying machine guns," said Kyl, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security.

He has asked the State Department to investigate the incursions and said that he plans to hold a hearing on the issue in March. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), a leading anti-illegal immigration lawmaker, called this week for U.S. troops to be deployed along the border to counter armed incursions.

Mexican officials on Wednesday denied that their police and military have been involved in illicit crossings but said they are investigating Monday's incident.

In recent interviews, local and federal law enforcement officials in south Texas and the San Diego area said a long pattern of encounters with Mexican government units along the border have bolstered suspicions that their counterparts work with smugglers. In Laredo, Texas, authorities said they have repeatedly seen Mexican military units clearing people from brushy areas along the south banks of the Rio Grande shortly before loads of migrants and drugs are brought across.

Several of the incidents described in the Department of Homeland Security reports appeared to involve Mexican officials getting lost or pursuing suspects. For example, five Tijuana police officers pursued two men across the border in 2004. Some of the officers fired at the suspects while on U.S. soil, according to a Border Patrol report. The police returned to Mexico after arresting the men.

Other encounters were more suspicious and add to concerns among many U.S. law enforcement officials that corruption in Mexico is eroding efforts to gain control of the border and combat trafficking in humans and drugs.

In October, Border Patrol agents in the El Cajon area east of San Diego reported seeing Humvees on the south side of the border fence. Minutes later, they saw two men in Mexican military uniforms carrying rifles in a creek bed north of the border, according to the records. When an agent approached, the two men ran south and drove off in the Humvees. Agents found footprints indicating three or four individuals had come north of the border and then returned.

Other incidents included Mexican helicopters flying north into U.S. airspace near El Paso for about 15 minutes, five Mexican officials armed with assault rifles entering the country near El Centro and returning without incident, and two Mexican police officers observed wandering along the U.S. side of the border near Yuma, Ariz.

Witnesses in El Paso reported in 2004 that a Mexican military-style helicopter landed just south of the border and armed men in federal police uniforms crossed into the U.S. and questioned them about vehicles before returning to Mexico, according to a Border Patrol report.

A spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, Rafael Laveaga, said Wednesday that he had not seen the report and declined to comment.

He said there have been accidental entries across the border in recent years by both U.S. and Mexican law enforcement personnel. As a result of those incidents, Mexican military units are prohibited from coming within a mile of the U.S. border unless they receive authorization from commanders to pursue criminals, Laveaga said.

Many U.S. law enforcement authorities paint a different picture.

"Every time traffickers come across, the military is close by," said Sheriff Arvin West of Hudspeth County, Texas, where Monday's standoff occurred. He said military crossings occur weekly in his county and are so common that "people don't even report it anymore."

Monday's incident is being investigated by U.S., Texas and Mexican authorities. But initial accounts appear to make it one of the clearest examples yet of either private militia or government troops aiding traffickers.

A confidential Border Patrol summary of the incident said it began when county sheriff's deputies and state troopers tried to stop three vehicles on an interstate highway southeast of El Paso. All three vehicles made a run for the border, the report said.

One vehicle, a black 2006 Cadillac Escalade loaded with nearly 1,500 pounds of marijuana in plastic-wrapped bales, was abandoned near the border, West said.

As deputies approached the river they saw a Mexican military Humvee on the U.S. side, West said. A second vehicle bogged down in ankle-deep water in the Rio Grande, while the other made it back to Mexico.

"The Humvee attempted to push and pull [the stuck vehicle] toward Mexico to no avail," the Border Patrol summary said.

At that point, West said, Mexican soldiers and civilians began unloading marijuana from the stranded vehicle. About 20 Mexican personnel in military uniforms, with insignias on their caps, took up positions on the south side of the river and pointed automatic rifles at about half a dozen sheriff's deputies and state troopers.

"They were daring my guys to make a move," West said.

As deputies took photos, the uniformed men burned the vehicle after it had been unloaded, then retreated into Mexico.

Laveaga, the Mexican embassy spokesman, said his country's military units in the area do not use Humvees or the types of weapons described by U.S. authorities. He noted that Mexican drug-smuggling rings have been known to use military uniforms and weapons.

Bonner, of the border agents union, questioned how anyone "can move around in a Humvee with a 50-cal on it unless they have the permission of the government."

West said the confrontation was similar to an incident in mid-November in the same area. In that incident, sheriff's deputies and Border Patrol agents who intercepted a disabled dump truck filled with several tons of marijuana were backed off by heavily armed, uniformed men described by West as military personnel.

A bulldozer appeared on the Mexican side, West said, and towed the truck back across the border.

Texas has launched its own investigation of this week's incident, said Rachael Novier, a spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry. Regardless of who was involved on the Mexican side, she said, "it was unacceptable."
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Tancredo: Deploy Troops to Stop Mexican Incursions
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=5127

By Congressional Desk
January 25, 2006
Congressman Cites Mexican Military’s Recent Armed Assistance in Transporting Drugs Into U.S.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) today called on the federal government and the governments of southern border states to immediately deploy troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in light of recent armed assistance Mexico’s military has given to drug smugglers.

Mexican military officers and drug smugglers led a standoff against more than 30 U.S. law enforcement officials east of El Paso, yesterday. According to the FBI and local sheriffs, law enforcement was tipped off to three SUVs carrying drugs across the Rio Grande River. When the sheriffs arrived at the crossing, they saw a Mexican military vehicle equipped with mounted machine guns on the U.S. side of the river waiting to escort the SUVs into the U.S.

The caravan turned back to Mexico, but only one SUV made it back—one SUV got caught in the river and was set ablaze by the Mexican military, and the other was captured by the sheriffs and found to contain more than 1400 pounds of marijuana. When called for help, a Border Patrol agent told the sheriffs’ dispatchers, “If you want to get your a** shot over a load of dope go ahead, but we’re not coming.” Apparently, some border patrol units showed up after the incident was over.

“Our border has literally turned into a war zone with foreign military personnel challenging our laws and our sovereignty,” said Tancredo. “The Mexican military is using its overwhelming firepower to hold the U.S. Border Patrol and other law enforcement at bay. The only way to deal with this dangerous situation is to tap the resources of our own military. I call on President Bush and the Governors of border states to immediately deploy military personnel to defend our borders against the Mexican military.”

In 2002, Congressman Tancredo visited Arizona’s border with Mexico and was briefed about the repeated military incursions. Tancredo wrote a letter to Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S., Juan José Bremer, asking about the incursions, to which Bremer responded: “Mexico has not had and does not have a policy of military incursions in any other Nation… every case… [is] unnoticed or accidental.”

“The Mexican military has made hundreds of incursions into the U.S. over the last few years, yet Secretary Chertoff continues to call them ‘accidents’. The systematic smuggling of contraband into the U.S. is no accident—it is a sanctioned activity used to grease the wheels of a corrupt military.”
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Another Mexican Military Incursion Reported
http://www.minutemanhq.com/hq/article.php?sid=42

(SCOTTSDALE, AZ) January 24, 2006 – Chris Simcox, President of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (“MCDC”) today expressed outrage over the incident yesterday in Texas when heavily armed Mexican soldiers were allowed to retreat to their country after being caught in a massive drug smuggling operation inside the United States.

According to reports in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, the FBI and the Hudspeth County Sheriff’s Department have confirmed that Mexican Army troops armed with mounted machine guns accompanying civilian drug smugglers were confronted by federal and local law enforcement officers several hundred yards inside the United States near Neely Pass on the Rio Grande. Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West held a press conference earlier today about the incident.

The retreating Mexican soldiers and the civilian smugglers abandoned a Cadillac Escalade (that was stolen in the U.S.) loaded with over 1400 pounds of marijuana. The Sheriff’s department confirmed reports that another drug-laden SUV which got stuck in the river was set ablaze by Mexican soldiers.

Sec. Chertoff, responding last week to reports of more than 200 such incursions by the Mexican Army over the past ten years, downplayed the incursions, calling the reports “overblown.”

Hudspeth County Deputy Sheriff Mike Doyal was quoted in a report by the Inland Daily Bulletin report saying, “Our government has to do something," he said. "It's not the immigrants coming over for jobs we're worried about. It's the smugglers, Mexican military and the national threat to our borders that we're worried about."

MCDC President Simcox issued the following statement on the armed incursion by the Mexican Army:

“The politically correct policies of President Bush, Sec. Chertoff and Gov. Perry regarding our border are going to get Americans killed – by Mexican soldiers, drug smugglers or al-Qaeda terrorists. These office holders seem to be more afraid of offending the government of Mexico than protecting the lives of American citizens.

“American troops, whether regular Army, National Guard or state militia under the authority of Gov. Perry, need to be deployed immediately to secure our borders.
“Sec. Chertoff recently said reports of such incursions by the Mexican Army were ‘overblown.’ He should resign his post, as he clearly has no intention of taking these incursions seriously. If heavily armed members of the Mexican Army are crossing the border with with impunity guarding drug shipments, what’s to stop al-Qaeda from doing the same with weapons of mass destruction?

“The Minutemen, who have themselves observed Mexican soldiers violating American sovereignty, demand immediate action to protect American citizens.”

2006-01-24 11:39:41
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War on drugs sparks incursions, officials say: January 20, 2006
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20060120-9999-7m20border.html

By Anna Cearley and Leslie Berestein
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS

An increased Mexican military presence along the border over the past decade could be making it more likely that Mexican and U.S. authorities are crossing paths, according to several border law enforcement experts.

"The military in recent years is being drawn into the war on drugs," said David Shirk, director of the Trans-Border Institute, based at the University of San Diego.
  
Victor Clark, a Tijuana-based human rights activist who follows drug trends, said "there is more militarization along the border because the U.S. is pressuring to have more there."

In recent days, reports of incursions along the border by Mexican authorities have caused a media and political frenzy, despite assertions from Homeland Security officials that incursions by authorities on both sides are, though not frequent, fairly common.

"It's important to put this in perspective," said Mike Friel, a Washington spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol. "Incursions do happen on both sides, but for the most part they are infrequent. Generally these incursions are situations that happen when authorities are pursuing criminals, usually in unmarked stretches of the border. These reports of the incursions are being overblown."

Friel added that criminals also have been known to pose as Mexican authorities.

Some proponents of stronger border enforcement say the incursions are an indication that powerful drug smugglers have compromised some members of the Mexican military.

Earlier this week, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said there are an average of about 20 incidents a year in which Mexican police or military might set foot on U.S. soil, but that "a significant number of those are innocent things . . . because they're not aware of exactly where the line is."

Chertoff's comments were in reaction to a newspaper report that the Mexican military had crossed 216 times into the United States since 1996. The story was published in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin of Ontario.

The statistics were attributed to a Homeland Security report, although a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman said yesterday he had not seen the report.

Even though the potential for violence is high in such encounters, most ended with Mexican forces retreating, said T.J. Bonner, the San Diego-based president of the National Border Patrol Council, the Border Patrol agents' union.

Bonner said he didn't have statistics for incursions along the California border, and recalled one major incident six years ago. In October 2000, two Border Patrol agents encountered armed men in military-style uniforms about eight miles east of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry, Bonner said.

According to Bonner, the agents came under fire and the assailants pursued them into United States before backing off. Mexican authorities later confirmed a military group was operating in the area, but said it didn't step into U.S. territory. U.S. authorities later said there wasn't evidence the agents were shot at, and closed the case despite criticism of downplaying the incident.

In July 2000, Mexican officials decried what they called a deliberate incursion on the part of two Border Patrol officials, who crossed into Mexican territory to detain individuals; U.S. officials said the agents thought they were still on U.S. soil.

Alberto Lozano, a spokesman for the Mexican consulate in San Diego, noted that the consulate had still not seen a copy of any report detailing Mexican incursions.

"The Mexican military has never deliberately stepped onto U.S. soil, and every incident or supposed incursion has been investigated and clarified," he said.

Meanwhile, politicians in favor of stricter border enforcement have taken the opportunity to promote various security proposals. U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., took to television and radio yesterday to promote an amendment calling for increased aerial surveillance that he made to the recently passed HR 4437 border security bill.

"Our borders are under attack by sophisticated organizations that have no qualms about firing upon our Border Patrol units," he stated in a news release Wednesday.

Though the Mexican military hasn't traditionally been involved in combating drug trafficking, Mexico has turned to the military over the past decade because it's considered less corruptible than police agencies.

That isn't always true, however. For example, in 1997 a top Mexican general who went on to lead an anti-drug group was linked to a major drug cartel.

Bonner, the Border Patrol union chief, said he suspected that many of the incursions are drug-related. "Our agents are convinced that they are facilitating the entry of drugs, whether they are rogue units or recognized units," Bonner said.

Bonner said he believes anyone patrolling the border has a clear idea of where the boundaries are. Shirk, the Trans-Border Institute director, and Clark, the human rights activist, disagreed.

"It's not a very clear line drawn in the sand," Shirk said. "It goes through valleys and over mountains and across vast stretches of desert. There has been a number of incursions – in both directions, I think it's important to say – across this line."
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Comment: Let’s remember the social context of the big picture: Mexico is still a neo-colony of the Amerikan Empire; both the U.S. and Mexican governments are corrupt and rotten to the core; the U.S. has powerful media access, endless cover-up resources {think Afghanistan + heroin +$$$}; better shrewder lawyers; and the biggest military machine in human history. Plus, illegal drugs should be legalized and monitored, especially marijuana for medical purposes.

DO NOT let these border events blind you to the fact of illegal Mexican immigrants who cross the U.S./ Mexican border in search of jobs to make a decent living and are NOT Axis of Evil terrorists!

Partial Solution: There needs to be respectful joint U.S. - Mexican Conferences on these critical matters with all related parties involved with amnesty as an option. This critical ‘hot issue’ is directly and indirectly related to humane rights and will not go away by wishful thinking or military maneuvers!

Naturally, these border skirmishes will feed the flames of the neo-fascist Minutemen vigilantes. I do strongly suspect this is going to get a lot more ugly, bloody and entangled, esp.  being we are still in Winter!
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