Posted on 03/02/2005 8:34:04 AM PST by JustAnotherSavage
GANG LAND By Michelle Malkin · March 02, 2005 10:32 AM
First Lady Laura Bush is leading a warm-and-fuzzy youth initiative to discourage young boys and men from joining gangs.
But as I report in my new column today, it's going to take a hell of a lot more than Kodak photo-ops to combat the criminal alien gang problem spreading across the country:
With all due respect to the First Lady, this is a job best left to law enforcement professionals willing to get tough, get dirty, and crack heads. From the suburbs to our national forests, savage criminal alien gangs are infiltrating America and luring young recruits.
Compassionate conservatism ain't gonna stop them.
As many law enforcement sources have been informing me, native gangs such as the Bloods and Crips have nothing on the recent wave of criminal alien enterprises settling across the heartland. Recent enforcement action in New York demonstrates the scope of the problem. Last month in New York, 41 criminal aliens with felony convictions were arrested by immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) agents on a single day as part of a joint public safety initiative between ICE and the U.S. Probation Office of the Eastern District of New York.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, the aliens arrested in New York — half of whom were here illegally—include citizens of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Ghana, Haiti, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Mexico, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Trinidad, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela. The operation targeted criminal aliens with prior felony convictions for "murder, firearms trafficking, drug trafficking, money laundering, racketeering, fraud, false statements, receipt of stolen property, producing false identity documents, copyright infringement and other federal felonies."
A related ICE operation in Chicago targeted violent Hispanic gangs. Over the past five years, ICE agents on Chicago’s Violent Gang Task Force have arrested more than 375 known alien gang members.
As I've been reporting in previous columns and on the blog, the most notorious criminal alien gang on the scene is Mara Salvatrucha/MS-13. They're on the border, in the suburbs, and now...in our national forests. Earlier this week, I spoke with Siskiyou County, Calif., sheriff Rick Riggins, who has uncovered massive marijuana farms in our federal forests . Riggins reports that the Mexican Mafia and MS-13 paraphernalia have been discovered on the scene.
My conclusion: The solution lies with increased federal-local cooperation, aggressive deportation, and uncompromising immigration enforcement, not with piddly anti-gang/"conflict resolution" grants doled out by the First Lady.
*** Related news:
Alleged gang members accused of murdering pregnant 17-year-old
Jail just a rest stop for gangsters
U.S. steps up battle against Salvadoran gang MS-13
An inside look at MS-13 gang initiations
Full-blown war by Hmong gangs alarms police (registration required)
Gang getting more violent (registration required)
Mara Salvatruchas to take on the Minutemen vigilantes TrackBack <1>
A related article:
GREEN CARDS AND GANGS
Siskiyou County, California, Feb. 26, 2005
They come from Mexico for jobs by way of a document called a “green card”. Such immigrants are termed “legal permanent Residents” with many of the same rights as US citizens outlined here,
o To live permanently in the United States provided you do not commit any actions that would make you removable (deportable) under the immigration law (section 237, Immigration and Nationality Act). o To be employed in the United States at any legal work of your qualification and choosing. o To be protected by all of the laws of the United States, your state of residence and local jurisdictions. o To vote in local elections where United States Citizenship is not required. Click here for more details on voting. Exceptions o Some jobs will be limited to United States Citizens because of security concerns. http://uscis.gov/graphics/howdoi/PermRes.htm
Today Siskiyou county Sheriff Rick Riggins and Captain Mike Murphy presented a slide show and details of Marijuana growing operations on federal forest land as a warning to residents of the dangers of happening across one of these farms. These operations are spearheaded by various Latino gangs, one being the powerful, well armed MS-13 gang that began in El Salvador. Sheriff Riggins stated that his biggest problem in combating this scourge is his office being labeled, "racist".
On Sept. 11, 2004, one such farm was busted by the Sheriff with help from BLM and the forest service netting thousands of plants and several Mexicans who either held green cards or were awol from the Mexican military and in this country illegally. These raids are no simple task as the terrain is nearly insurmountable and usually remote, however one growing operation was within 2 miles of the city limits of Etna, California. Resources are limited in such small counties, with little help from federal officials, even though this organized criminal enterprise has been going on in these mountains for many years. Homeland Security says such operations are not their concern.
The gangs are back this year getting ready for next falls harvest to be distributed across the US. Their supplies and equipment will be brought in from the cities and deliveries to replenish them are undertaken at night every few weeks. The farms are guarded at all times.
Slides of the “camps” complete with a “hooch” for living were shown. Huge pits are dug, one big enough for an SUV, for garbage and waste. The trees are cut or skinned to pile “moats” around the farms to camouflage them. Black irrigation pipe is buried for miles to get water to the plants. The environment on our national lands is being degraded by these operations, destroying habitat and watershed purity.
We saw the AK-47’s, axes, shovels, a . 22 rifle with the name “ Los Pleves” scratched on the stock. We saw notebooks of the growers with markings of MS-13 and a drawing of a Lexus that one “immigrant” intended to buy with the drug profits.
Most of the farms appear to be run by the same organizations mostly through the Mexican Mafia year after year. Though a few are busted, a substantive dent has not been made and they know they can operate here more safely and profitably than in Mexico and there is no worry of getting the product back into the states.
Across the border in Oregon, the story is the same. The Sheriffs of Jackson, Josephine and Klamath County work together to find the farms and arrest the perpetrators. All have been Mexican so far, most with green cards. These same gangs also brew Methanphetimine to finance their organized crime activities during off season.
We do not need yet another “guest worker” program to supply dangerous gangs with recruits. We need to find out why these people were ever allowed in this country in the first place and how to keep more of them out.
Siskiyou County, California TheTownCrier@gmail.com
While I agree with a lot that Michelle is saying here, she misses a point about the initiative the First Lady is undertaking. She is going to concentrate on boys in the schools and how they are left behind in terms of their reading ability, etc. That does NOT take law enforcement.
Gang ping!
BARACADE THE BORDERS!!!!!!
geeze Bush is as bad as Clinton when it comes to illegals and legals.....it aint worth the few votes.
Count on Michele to tell it like it is.
"As I've been reporting in previous columns and on the blog, the most notorious criminal alien gang on the scene is Mara Salvatrucha/MS-13. They're on the border, in the suburbs, and now...in our national forests. Earlier this week, I spoke with Siskiyou County, Calif., sheriff Rick Riggins, who has uncovered massive marijuana farms in our federal forests . Riggins reports that the Mexican Mafia and MS-13 paraphernalia have been discovered on the scene."
" she misses a point about the initiative the First Lady"
Did you see the point she is trying to make about the infiltration of these gangs everywhere? The point is, school boys are not the problem these gangs are and NO ONE is paying attention in the white house.
A criminal gang in effect declares war on the rest of us.
You respond to a declaration of war with war.
Michelle ping!
You know the rules!
Isn't that lovely that they get green cards, but a hard working Canadian girl with a Bachelor's degree can't get one to join the US Navy or Marine Corps.
Something's wrong with the immigration policy when they'll take people from every cesspool on earth but avoid places that aren't "diverse" enough. I thought they'd want people who blended into society.
The beauty part is the "Supremes" decision about the death penalty for teenagers.
I wouldn't say that no one is paying attention to the gang problem. Law enforcement is paying attention. Why just today I saw an FNC infomercial for an upcoming special they have on this very matter.
What would you like the White House to do?
It would be nice if Homeland Security considered this growing gang presence in small communities part of their charge, but they do not.
I'm sorry, but I can't get this machine to post a photo!
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