Posted on 07/27/2006 8:00:37 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
Officers outgunned by criminals from Mexico, he testifies
MISSION - Drug and smuggling gangs controlling Mexican border territory are proving an increasingly violent and sophisticated threat to Texas border law enforcement, Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzales told a state Senate committee Wednesday.
"The weapons we possess are like water guns compared to what they have," Gonzales said. "They're trying to scare us away from the border."
Gonzales, representing the Texas Border Sheriffs' Coalition, was one of more than a dozen witnesses to testify before the Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security. The panel was in South Texas for a hearing on border security and funding for sheriffs along the border.
Gonzales said federal efforts to protect the U.S. side of the border have failed, allowing foreign criminals to infiltrate Texas counties - in some cases just to commit violent crimes before slipping back into Mexico.
"Many murders committed in Laredo were committed by Mexican gang members," he said. "(Improvised Explosive Devices) seized in Laredo, we think were being brought to Mexico to be used against us."
Laredo is in Webb County, just west of Zapata County. Gonzales said that in his own county, residents have reported men marching two abreast, carrying backpacks and automatic weapons. He recounted the barrage of gunfire coming at Hidalgo County sheriff's deputies from across the Rio Grande this month.
"It's not just illegal immigrants," he said. "Something more frightening is happening."
Steve McCraw, the governor's director of homeland security, said: "I call them organized crime. They're no longer traffickers."
Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, said the committee must ensure sure state funds newly dedicated to help border sheriffs were well-used.
Hinojosa asked Gov. Rick Perry in May to create rules on how the sheriffs can spend the $367,500 awarded to each of 16 border counties under Perry's "Operation Linebacker."
His letter to Perry expressed concern that El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego was using grant money to run roadblocks and raids aimed at ferreting out illegal immigrants. Samaniego has denied that, saying his department's checkpoints were part of a traffic safety program.
"There are allegations of abuse," Hinojosa said. "And the governor has requested about $100 million next session to continue funding Operation Linebacker."
Follow the money.
"The weapons we possess are like water guns compared to what they have," Gonzales said.
Where are all the promised National Guard? Still in 2+ months of training for a 2-week border stint?
Governor Perry needs to deploy the National Guard to the border immediately, fully armed with orders to shoot these criminals on sight as they cross the border. In the 1910s, the Texas Rangers were rapidly expanded to deal with the spillover of the violence of the Mexican Civil War into the Lone Star State. Today's Texas Ranger lawmen are more or less a state equivalent of the FBI. It may be time to restore the Rangers to the role they served in the 1800s and early 1900s.
The average citizen (in most of the US) is within his rights if he shoots a trespasser on his land. Why can't that include illegal aliens, Mexican criminals, and drug cartel members?
Shoot them where they stand. When we get serious about this problem it will be solved.
Wake up Bush! A lot of people are going to die shortly while you continue to sell out the country to the Mexicans!
EXPERT LEGAL OPINION NEEDED.
Police agencies in the United States have regularly purchased heavy weapons, such as .50 caliber machine guns, armored cars, and a huge assortment of explosives. But their plan in obtaining this weaponry was flawed, because their officers are trained in police, not military, operations.
Can the Sheriff of these border counties deputize, train in military tactics, and deploy a paramilitary militia to defend his part of the border?
(On the surface this may seem easy, but it has precendents going back to before 1776. Other aspects are in the Indian Wars, Reconstruction, WWII, and the Patriot Act.)
IED's in Laredo?What's next?Not long ago I had an opp to move to Yuma(for work).Glad i decided to stay put.
Those minutemen are just a bunch of alarmists. Mexicans are just coming here to do jobs lazy gringos won't do. We don't need a wall or troops on the border... /sarcasm
Bush's policy has given Mexico a sense of entitlement like no other I've witnessed before, all the way from the Mexican government to the drug dealers and to the invaders. GWBush has given them all a free pass into our country.
It will be up to the individual states to take back their territory, because this president will do nothing of substance to help.
this is the fruit of treason at the top. bilderburgers dreaming of superstates for which the US middle class pay the bill.
UN/Bilderburgers dreaming of superstates for which the no longer a Republic, US middle class pay the bill.
Nonsense! They're just sweet, innocent people who only want a better life! Are you trying to say that they can't have a better life!? *sob* *sob* *sob*
Yet another liberal position is brutally dashed and torn apart upon the shores of reality.
Guns are cheap..get some
I know of a department where I used to live that bought a truck load of surplus M14s and M-16's from the Anniston arsenal for 40 bucks a piece.
No pair of mexican thugs in a truck with a rusty AK are going to last long against a determined pair of riflemen with M14 rifles.
ping
Bttt!
You are absolutely wrong about this. Even if an ARMED intruder is in your house, and you shoot him, in most states you will automatically have that shooting reviewed by a DA and possibly a grand jury. In several states if you had the opportunity to retreat (ie, flee from your own house) and instead stood your ground, you will likely be charged with a crime such as manslaughter.
The odds of shooting someone and not getting charged go down drastically if it is outside of your house (say on your driveway) and down even more if you own a few hundred acres somewhere.
Logically the court imposed penalty for trespassing (after due process) is something like a $1000 fine, if there are no mitigating circumstances either way. So, there is no justifiable use of deadly force to prevent a misdemeanor from taking place.
I agree what is going on in Texas is an outrage, but our current laws were just not drafted with anything like this slow motion invasion in mind and don't leave belabored land owners many good choices.
The National Guard solution is a good one.
That might be true in a Liberal state like Washington but, in Texas, you have the right to protect your property from trespassers. My Wife has shot at people who continually insisted on coming on their land.
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