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.
Immigration issues are becoming more of an global issue to be addressed it would seem.
Fun huh? Here, let me answer for you" "If only we would adopt the president's program, why, all of these terrible things would end".
It is to laugh.
Now we know who you are.
I have run into a couple of people here, that know exactly who they are bringing in, and the fact that absolutely no one, I mean NO ONE, bent on doing us harm is among them. Under no circumstances. The "who" are all people wanting to do the jobs..yada, yada, yada.
Sennsebrenner's bill is not bad but however, I disagree with one poison pill. It requires states to participate in the AAMVA Driver License Agreement which will requires tickets received anywhere in North America to count against your home state driving record with points and also personal info like SS# would be accessible to any cop anywhere in North America including Mexico regardless how corrupt Mexican cops are.
In other words, a visa would have somehow magically prevented this crime from happening. Uh-huh. Now we know who you are: Someone reality-challenged.
All they want to do is frighten people by creating an imaginary crises that they claim is solely President Bush's fault.
As soon as some towns start running all the illegals out by busting their employers, the Buchanan/Tancredo Bush-haters will have lost their primary reason for sending them money and attacking Bush.
Either extremely poor, destitute even with nothing else, an orphan/street urchin abandoned or no values at all.
What sophistry. Too bad about the girl, but your side seems to blame all crime and poverty on immigrants and Dubya. What else is new?
Did you think your comments were so clever you just had to ping me? I didn't know we were friends now. I haven't talked to you in 3 months. You didn't wish me a Merry Christmas or nothing, and now you pull me over to this thread like an old pal. Did you miss me? I see your logic hasn't improved with age, but I'm sure you have plenty of years to grow before you'll earn your right to vote...so no pressure.
It is to laugh.
That's what I do. It's a great time to be a Republican.
They'll say what they've been saying all along, that they're opposed to rewarding foreigners for violating our immigration laws, which a guest worker program would do.
Now Bush has just presented a budget that apparently will harm the immigrants ---- that's already being claimed --- so a few here are going to be pretty upset with him if he is serious about cutting the give-aways. Who will subsidize the cheap labor they want then?
This is the natural result of tolerating massive lawlessness. Crime breeds crime, period. Defining away the crime merely lowers society to that level. Witness the social order in the Third World.
No big deal, right Kid? Hey, you grew up with all that goin' on, so what's the problem, right? She'll get over it. What's her problem, anyway? She got paid, right? It's a job, and that's what counts. Just a whiner and a complainer, she should get back on her knees and get to work.
Yeah. Right. You're a "Republican".
Really? What cuts will harm them? That's GOOD news!
You sure ain't. Thanx for some more laughs. It is hilarious to see the way you turn a sentence like "Too bad about the girl" into part of your overall conspiracy worldview. Have a nice day.
Around here there is a lot of hand-wringing about the cuts in welfare program spending. Supposedly Bush will be paying the military more and the freeloaders less --- if so I applaud him loudly. But the poverty stricken from Mexico who have grown accustomed to overly generous handouts aren't going to like to have to scrimp and save --- they might have to cut back on the beer and lottery tickets, and if they have to pay their own way here, it's going to cut back on how much they can send home.
Nope kid, that would be you. Long before y'all barged the gates, my family were Republicans in the Free States and even covert Unionist Republicans in Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee. Check out the real history of the United States and you might get a glimpse of the country my ancestors helped found and sustain.
Once you realize who they were and why they fought for what they did, you might have an inkling of an idea what the country and the party is about.
But you're probably a bit too young now, and too indoctrinated to accept it.
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