Posted on 02/06/2005 6:14:14 AM PST by SandRat
The Arizona-Mexico border and the pathways to northern cities and farm fields have always been dangerous places.
Just ask the granddaughter of a Cochise County rancher. The 13-year-old was surprised on a hike by armed immigrant smugglers who were bringing their human cargo across her grandfather's ranch and through the desert. She still has terrible nightmares of these men with guns.
Or the 13-year-old immigrant girl named Montserrat who was making a trek to find work. Montserrat told the New York Times she thought she would go to school and eventually get a good job in the United States. Instead she was taken to a house in Phoenix. She didn't realize until then she had been sold into prostitution.
"The man said he'd already paid and I had to do whatever he said," Montserrat told the Times. "When he said he already paid, I knew why I was there. I was crushed."
Two young girls. Both terrified of the coyotes operating with impunity along Arizona's border.
And incredibly, there are no specific penalties under state law to stop the human smuggling that has become so prevalent.
That is why we are introducing identical bills in the state House and Senate to empower local law enforcement not only to arrest those who smuggle illegal immigrants but those who force them into prostitution and sweatshops, as well. The bills make it a felony to traffic human beings into the United States as well as to force them into prostitution.
Representing Cochise, Santa Cruz and Pima counties, we are struck by a general feeling of lawlessness in the border areas - a lawlessness many in Arizona assumed had gone away with gunslingers of the Old West. It is a new lawlessness created by smugglers.
We have all heard of the smugglers who create turmoil on Southern Arizona ranches on the one hand and leave immigrants to die in the desert on the other. They have no allegiance to the people they smuggle and no fear of law enforcement. And we have no idea who they are bringing into the United States.
One of the most stunning revelations has come from testimony before the House Commerce and Military Affairs Committee by garrison commander Col. Jonathan Hunter of Fort Huachuca, home of the U.S. Army intelligence school. Hunter related that more 3,600 illegal immigrants were found within the post's perimeter last year. Coyotes lead them there.
Some say the state has no responsibility to address this issue. The U.S. Attorney's Office, however, is so overwhelmed by other crimes that prosecuting smugglers has fallen down the priority list. But smuggling human beings has become more lucrative than drugs. The hundreds of e-mails we receive from constituents confirm they are tired of waiting for Washington.
Whatever your opinion on our bill, you will have your chance to make your voice heard - not only in Phoenix at the Capitol, but now here in Southern Arizona. We have taken the unprecedented step of asking the House Judiciary Committee chairman to take testimony on this - and several other immigration bills in an area where the impact of coyotes is strong - in Cochise County. We are hopeful that the public will attend this hearing and make their voices heard.
Will this bill end illegal trafficking? No, but it will give law enforcement another tool to protect the public. It will also help protect the lives of two girls who came from opposite sides of the border.
Border
The bills should be federal and all states should be able to enforce the law. Arizona is the model for what all states should be in enforcing the laws against the illegal flood.
Drugs, 13 year old prostitution, whats next coming from across the border?
Instead of doing something, let's make more laws to not enforce.
ping
Poverty, disease, ignorance and dependence. How many million have strolled across the border since 9/11/01? How many million more can America take? They'll keep coming as long as our government continues to provide the freebies and refuses to enforce immigration laws.
To me it's common sense to allow the police to enforce all laws, including immigration, that's what we pay them for. What's strange is that years ago they did so with no problem, now many legislators act like it's a new idea they have to debate first.
"Some say the state has no responsibility to address this issue."
Why are they being selecting in which federal laws can be enforced? Perhaps the State and Locals should stop cooperating with the feds altogether. If a state or local LEA can't enforce immigration law then perhaps they can't enforce federal drug laws or kidnappings, or credit card thefts, or federal gun laws or ....
There are many more illegal immigrant Mexican guys than women. They aren't going to go without sex forever. Thus the boom in sex trafficking, 99% of the time an immigrant (legal or illegal) is the pimp. Recent legal immigrants are so often the employers of illegals and facilitate their existence here. They guide them on how to remain in the United States
I heard one tale of pimps bringing their whores around to migrant labor camps in a triked out motor home. Bring the whores to the customers. The men lined up for their 15 minutes with the woman.
They just need to authorize Frontier Justice.
Shades of a scene from "Paint Your Wagon."
Ah, one of the "public services" James Woods' character provided in the classic movie "Fast Walking". Hosing the women off with a garden hose when the migrants were finished provided that extra romantic touch that meant so much.
The Federal government for some reason I can't decipher doesn't have one concern over protecting the territory known as the U.S. of America."
Two reasons
1. They need bodies to contribute to social security
2. They want world government
Well, that sums it up in a nutshell.
One of the most stunning revelations has come from testimony before the House Commerce and Military Affairs Committee by garrison commander Col. Jonathan Hunter of Fort Huachuca, home of the U.S. Army intelligence school. Hunter related that more 3,600 illegal immigrants were found within the post's perimeter last year. Coyotes lead them there.
Ay caramba!!!!!!!!!!!! If this isn't a serious national security breach... what is??
You've got to wonder about the "family values" of a people who allow their 13 year old daughters to go off alone and illegally to a foreign country. But then when you see the large numbers of kids abandoned to the streets in countries like Mexico -- you already know about the family values of very many.
This will only change when priorities are changed. Money, manpower and resources are plentiful and available but it will have to be diverted from less worthy but politically expedient areas and existing budgets increased. Perhaps some of the billion$ currently being doled out on totally unnecessary and useless state and local PORK BARREL welfare styled voter buying projects should be diverted to better secure and control our borders.
Like I said, priorities.
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