"One is a slow collapse, an economic collapse of Mexico in which hundreds of thousands would come here over a period of time.
"The second is what I call a Colombian collapse of Mexico, an assassination of the president, the drug cartels taking over the country, civil war breaking out on the streets, people fleeing for their lives, not for a job.
"We have to be prepared in the United States for both and Texas must be prepared. -- State Sen. Dan Patrick
There are rumblings in the Texas State Legislature—at least among the Republicans—that the Obama Administration is ignoring the mounting crisis in Mexico that threatens to spill across the border into Texas.
Governor Rick Perry has requested another thousand troops to guard the border, saying he doesn't much care if those slots are filled by soldiers or border patrol officers. But Homeland Security Sec. Janet Napolitano seems to believe that the all but open warfare hasn't moved north far enough to trigger a security plan drawn up during the Bush administration.
Napolitano said she wants “more detail from Perry” before responding directly to his request.
Quite an observation from someone who lives 2,500 miles from El Paso.
Let me help you Madame Secretary, I wasn't aware the "details" were hard to come by:
- Last week as thousands of protesters gathered along in several towns just south the Texas-Mexico border. Five people were killed at the Reynosa border crossing Tuesday.
More than 6,000 died last year in Mexico's drug war—almost one-third in Ciudad Juárez across from El Paso.
- Only two months into 2009, the death toll has already hit 1,000.
- Beheadings are becoming routine on the border with 20 in just the lat few weeks.
- It is becoming routine that the pitched battles against the federales, the cartels use hand grenades, RPGs and IEDs.
See here for Napolitano's idea of a secure homeland free of alien threat.
Top Cop Assassinated
Edgar Eusebio Millán Gómez, the public face of Mexico's offensive against drug cartels, was assassinated in his Mexico City outside his home last May in an obvious hit by the Sinaloa cartel. His family is in hiding and under police protection.
The brazen murder gave new confidence to drug cartels blamed for 6,000 killings in the past three years, and embolden other anti-government in Mexico.
"EL PASO -- Police are investigating threats against Juárez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz, who moved his family to El Paso for safety, El Paso police Detective Carlos Carrillo said Monday.
"We received information that the Juárez mayor lives in El Paso, and that possibly they were going to come to El Paso to get him," Carrillo said. "He has not asked us for our help, but it's our duty to protect any resident of our city who may be under threat."
Many of the Mexico border police and government officials live or their family members reside in the U.S.
Assassinations of federal, state and local police officers are routine. The cartel has such a free hand that, using sophisticated radio equipment, they broadcast the names of officers marked for death on the law enforcement frequency, then shoot them before backup can arrive.
According to the Washington Times, such hit squads have been dispatched as far north as the Carolinas.
"And in a specific example of the spread of Mexican drug-gang violence across the U.S., a confidential Department of Homeland Security advisory said an assassination attempt on a South Carolina deputy sheriff was the work of three illegal immigrants as part of the Mexican-American gang "SUR-13" with ties to the drug trade.
"Lexington County, S.C., Deputy Sheriff Ted Xanthakis and his K-9, Arcos, both survived the ambush by three men armed with a 12-gauge shotgun during a Feb. 8 incident in West Columbia, S.C."
The State Dept. has already issued a travel alert updating security information for U.S. citizens traveling and living in Mexico. If you allow your kid to go anywhere in Mexico for spring break, you are an idiot and should be arrested for child endangerment.
Hell, even the Marine Corps has put Mexico off limits for all personnel.
Narco Armies
There are on-going daily demonstrations by protesters paid, and in many cases forced by the drug cartel to demand that the Mexican Army leave Mexico's streets.
The recent protests and related violence against the Calderón government's militarization of its war on drugs broke out in the border towns of Reynosa, Nuevo Laredo, and Ciudad Juarez. In Reynosa, a military raid on an alleged drug lord's home left at least six people dead
The Gulf drug cartel and its well-armed enforcers--the Zetas--have blocked main avenues, slowed traffic across international bridges into the U.S. and clashed with federal police.
Mexico is fast becoming a narcostate, and the violence that impacts the residents of "Borderland" is a very serious problem, but not near the calamity that the collapse of President Felipe Calderón's would cause, perhaps triggered by a presidential assassination.
It is hardly an exaggeration therefore to believe that more than a million war refugees could flee north, and soon, literally overwhelming towns from Southern California to Louisiana.
Senator Patrick said yesterday that the Obama Administration calls this potential debacle a "mass migration" as opposed to the collapse of Mexico. And we need a plan here in Texas…."
Assault Weapon Ban for U.S.?
Following the doctrine of his attack dog Rohm Emanuel, "Don't let a crisis go to waste," Obama is going to reinstate the "assault rifle" ban that President Bush allowed to expire five years ago.
Just when border states residents may damned well need them, Obama AG Eric Holder said yesterday:
"As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons," Holder told reporters.
"Holder said that putting the ban back in place would not only be a positive move by the United States, it would help cut down on the flow of guns going across the border into Mexico, which is struggling with heavy violence among drug cartels along the border.
Look for gun sales to spike again in a couple of days.
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