I read the local fishwrap this morning and read this article about how tough it is to do research and enviromental studies and blah blah blah along the border. On page 11 this part of the article comes up very matter-of-factly:
The criminal element
There's no question the border is getting rougher.
"The Tucson Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol - which stretches from the New Mexico border almost to California - has documented 216 assaults against its officers this fiscal year, which started in October. That's up from 118 for all of last fiscal year, 115 in 2003 and 146 in 2002. The numbers are up partly because there are more officers on staff, Border Patrol spokesman Jose Garza said. But they're still worrisome.
"The assaults are also going up in severity," he said. "In the outskirts, they're using the vehicles to try to ram our agents, shooting our agents in an attempt to avoid arrest."
Of 383,413 apprehensions so far this year, records checks on 28,900 of the people involved revealed criminal backgrounds. Because some arrestees are repeat border crossers, the proportion of criminals is actually higher than it looks, Garza said.
"We are catching a lot of bad elements," he said. "We're catching murderers. We're catching sexual predators."
But James Cain, a UA doctoral student who studies desert bighorn sheep at Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, said he has encountered crossers just three times in four years - never with any problems.
"Odds are, they're just people coming across to work," he said. "But you never know."
Let's look at some of those numbers, 216 assaults against officers in the Tucson sector alone! We are not talking about Tikrit Iraq here, this is our border. That number is double last year and certainly does not appear to be on the decline.
383,413 apprehensions with 28,900 of those with criminal backgrounds. Wait a minute........They are just here for the jobs. Car theft, drug smuggling, people smuggling, theft, robbery, assault and all the jobs they apparently cannot get in Mexico.
Why is this not on the front page with our Governor calling up the National Guard? Where is McCain and Kolbe and Kyl joining the Minutemen to defend the homeland? This is an invasion and we are on page eleven.
Of course they throw in the idiotic "Odds are, they're just people coming across to work" disclaimer at the end. What the hell is going on here?
Posted by BillyBudd at August 7, 2005 07:35 PM | TrackBackWe should have been calling up the national guard years ago.
Posted by: gindy at August 8, 2005 09:20 AM