Violence on the border endangers Americans

During New Year's week, we were in El Paso, Texas, for the Brut Sun Bowl and frankly felt very safe because when you drive along the border there is a large fence and about every 50 yards a checkpoint with bright lighting at night to keep the thugs from bringing violence into El Paso. The news was filled with killings across the border in Juarez and warnings were everywhere for Americans not to cross the border. With the fence and other security measures the City of El Paso is keeping the violence across the border.

This violence comes from the Mexican Government not cleaning up these border towns years ago but then they were happy their gang thugs were taking the violence across into El Paso and other American cities that are located on the border. It is time the Mexican Government got its act together and took out these gang thugs who run drugs and will kill someone for no reason. Mexico is fast being turned into a lawless group of cities on the border.

It is time for Napolitano and Obama to step up and do something to prevent violence from spreading to the United States along with stopping illegals from entering the Country from Mexico instead of putting their heads in the sand. Why did Congress take funds from the fence building as it has shown to work in El Paso with the lower crime? A fence needs built along the entire stretch of border. If you are coming to the United States legally, then go through a checkpoint. If you do not come through a checkpoint, then you should be arrested and deported. That should have been going on for years, and we wouldn't have this problem.

Now we have a President and Secretary of Homeland Security ignoring the pleas of the border governors. What is it now in this Country -- you have to be a Democrat Governor to get any help?

Violence on the border endangers Americans
Examiner Editorial
April 8, 2010

A clash with police in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, a border city overrun by drug gang violence. (Miguel Tovar/AP)

Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, hears a lot of disturbing reports from Texas law enforcement officials working along the U.S. border with Mexico. Poe returned from his most recent trip to the Lone Star State claiming to have seen photographs taken by local sheriffs of Mexican military helicopters in action over U.S. territory. One copter was photographed hovering over a building; the other over a recreational vehicle park, according to the Examiner's Barbara Hollingsworth. "We don't know what their intention was," Poe told Hollingsworth, adding: "The Mexican military has no business coming into the United States."

As troubling as is the possibility that a foreign military force may have violated U.S. airspace on multiple occasions, what is even more disturbing is the escalating violence on the border. It's no exaggeration to say that the Mexican government is fighting a desperate battle with powerful drug cartels for control of the country. Americans who dismiss fears that this violence will spill over into this country should listen to Poe. He recently contacted sheriffs in the 14 Texas counties that share the border with Mexico and found that more than a third of the people in their jails are foreign nationals who have been charged with committing serious crimes in this country.

The apparent apathy of President Obama and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano is inexplicable. Texas Gov. Rick Perry recently asked Napolitano to dispatch unmanned surveillance drones and 1,000 additional U.S. soldiers to boost federal Border Patrol agents and local sheriffs in the effort to protect the border. Instead of heeding Perry's warning, Napolitano instead canceled the "virtual" border surveillance project approved under the Bush administration. That decision virtually leaves Perry and the governors of Arizona, New Mexico and California to cope with the increasing flood of illegal immigrants, drugs, money and guns coming over the border from Mexico.

Excerpt: Read more at Washington Examiner