CIA Director: Mexican nationals' violence a threat to US

(This column is based on a report submitted to the National Association of Chiefs of Police by the US Department of Homeland Security.)

During Monday's edition of Fox News Channel's Glenn Beck Show, the decidely conservative host asked his viewers to answer a question: outgoing CIA Director Michael Hayden had stated that Iran was the Number One threat to the security of the United States; what country did Hayden rank as Number Two? The answer was Mexico.

Meanwhile, retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey, the former U.S. drug czar, told the Los Angeles Times that the Mexican government "is fighting for its survival against narco-terrorism" and could lose effective control over large swaths near the U.S. border.

However, the new Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano in a report obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police, stated on January 23 that, "The northern border of the United States has become, since 9/11, important to our national security. As we have designed programs to afford greater protection against unlawful entry, members of Congress and homeland security experts have called for increased attention to the Canadian border.

"What are the current vulnerabilities, the overall strategy for reducing those vulnerabilities, the requirements, the programs, the budget, and the timeframe for improving security along this border and what level of risk will remain once the programs are completed? An oral report is due by Feb. 10, with a final report due Feb. 17."

With the out-of-control crime gangs and government corruption, Mexico is the threat to the American people not Canada. And the current White House and most members of congress are either denying the danger exists or merely ignoring it.

As the agency with the broadest law enforcement authority within the Department of Homeland Security, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is said to be uniquely positioned to combat vulnerabilities and threats to America from individuals involved in terrorism, organized crime, human smuggling and narco-terrorism at US borders

According to DHS officials, ICE has established aggressive intelligence and investigative operations at the nation’s borders, ports of entries, and between the ports and the nation’s interior. However, some security experts are concerned with the current Administration's failure to address border problems. In fact, the new Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano is concentrating on the US-Canadian border.

The southern border of the US is a region particularly vulnerable to cross-border criminal organizations and enterprises and the violence associated with them. In recent years, ICE has witnessed an unprecedented surge in brutality by drug and human smuggling and trafficking organizations along the Southwest border. Below are a few of the initiatives that ICE has launched to combat the criminal organizations behind this activity.

Drug-related violence along the Texas-Mexico border, particularly in the Nuevo Laredo/ Laredo area has drastically increased over the past year. This violence is caused by intense competition between the remnants of the Gulf Cartel and the so-called “Federation.” The Gulf Cartel continues to be supervised by Osiel Cardenas Guillen despite his arrest in 2003. Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman Loera and Arturo Beltran Leyva are members of the Federation which is attempting to take control of this important smuggling corridor from the Gulf Cartel

In response, ICE first partnered with other federal, state, and local law enforcement officials in Laredo, Texas, to create a multi-agency operation called Operation Black Jack in July 2005. Operation Black Jack has since evolved into the DHS’s Border Enforcement and Security Task Force, known as BEST.

The BEST task force incorporates personnel from ICE, Customs and Border Protection including the Border Patrol, Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, US Marshals Service, US Attorney’s Office, and key state and local law enforcement agencies. The BEST task force concept incorporates personnel from existing intelligence groups -- who are involved in both collection and analysis -- to help identify and disseminate information relating to violent smuggling organizations. The BEST task force has been a highly successful tool to combat violence in the Laredo area.

This coordinated approach has led to significant enforcement results, including the January / February 2006 seizures in Laredo of dynamite, numerous live grenades, as well as materials to make roughly 33 Improvised Explosive Devices. Since its inception, BEST made 31 arrests and the seizure of 41 assault rifles, 12 handguns, 5 silencers, a large quantity of weapons components, kits, and ammunition, as well as roughly 700 pounds of marijuana, 336 pounds of cocaine and roughly $1.14 million.

Nationwide, ICE investigations into drug trafficking activity last year resulted in the seizure of more than 300,000 pounds of cocaine, 2.2 million pounds of marijuana, nearly 4,000 pounds of heroin, 2,200 pounds of methamphetamine, and hundreds of thousands of pounds of other smuggled drugs.

The violence experienced on the Southwest border is not only caused by drug trafficking organizations, but also human smuggling and human trafficking rings. These international organizations, which earn hundreds of millions of dollars annually through smuggling and exploitation of illegal immigrants, are becoming increasingly ruthless. In case after case, ICE agents have seen aliens being smuggled in squalid conditions without food, water, or even air. Moreover, they are frequently subjected to violence, forced labor and sexual exploitation upon arrival at their U.S. destination.

Since the creation of ICE in March 2003, ICE investigations into human smuggling and trafficking organizations had resulted in more than 5,400 criminal arrests, 2,800 criminal indictments, and 2,300 criminal convictions. The amount of assets seized by ICE from human smugglers and human trafficking organizations has increased from almost none before 2003 to nearly $27 million in 2005.

In one case that culminated in January 2006, ICE agents in El Paso, Texas, arrested the leaders of two large-scale criminal organizations on charges of smuggling more than 600 aliens across the Southwest border. The organizations allegedly generated more than $1.6 million in smuggling fees. Depending on their nationality, aliens were charged between $1,500 and $6,000 apiece. During the investigation, ICE agents encountered large numbers of smuggled aliens crammed into trailers for non-stop trips with no food and limited water.

In another recent ICE case, two individuals were convicted on February 2, 2006, in Tucson, Arizona on 15 counts each of smuggling aliens. Both face potential life sentences based on enhancements for causing death and bodily injury during their smuggling venture. These smugglers were transporting aliens in a stolen truck on an Arizona Interstate in October 2004 and, during a high-speed pursuit, caused an accident that involved 10 vehicles. The accident resulted in death of five 5 people, including an elderly couple. In addition, 38 people were injured, including 21 people with "level one" traumas.

In some cases, increased actions by law enforcement agencies along the border are driving smuggling organizations underground. In January 2006, ICE worked with its Mexican counterparts, as well as with the DEA and CBP in the United States, to discover a sophisticated tunnel beneath the border between San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico. Mexican authorities later executed a search warrant at a location in Mexico and seized 4,351 pounds of marijuana.

Further investigation revealed that the tunnel was the longest ever discovered under the Southwest border, extending nearly half a mile from Mexico into the United States. Descending to a depth of 81 feet below ground, the tunnel was equipped with lighting, ventilation and cement flooring. An exit was found inside a warehouse in Otay Mesa, California. Approximately 300 additional pounds of marijuana were seized at this location. Since 9/11, federal authorities have discovered more than 20 cross-border tunnels along the U.S. - Mexico border in California and Arizona.

The smuggling of bulk currency out of the United States, and especially across the Southwest border, has become one of the preferred methods of moving illegally obtained money out of the country. In 2001, Congress criminalized the act of bulk cash smuggling under a section of the Patriot Act, which makes it a crime to conceal and smuggle more than $10,000 in currency and monetary instruments into or out of the United States with the intent to evade U.S. currency-reporting requirements. ICE agents have used this section of the Patriot Act to make more than 330 arrests. In addition, ICE and CBP have cumulatively seized more than $160 million of the funds involved in these bulk cash smuggling violations.

ICE’s efforts against bulk cash smuggling do not end at U.S. borders. In August 2005, ICE partnered with CBP and the State Department to initiate a training program with Mexican authorities on ways to combat cash smuggling. As a result of this joint financial initiative, Mexican authorities have seized more than $18 million in cash and $5 million in negotiable instruments that were involved in violations of Mexican currency-reporting requirements.

Aside from bulk cash smuggling, ICE works to investigate other methods that criminals use to move their illicit funds out of the United States, such as the use of unlicensed money services businesses. These businesses operate outside the traditional banking system and have been long recognized by law enforcement as vulnerable to abuse.

The enhancements enacted in the Patriot Act, provide law enforcement with increased authority to investigate unlicensed money remitters. Since the passage of the Patriot Act, ICE investigations of unlicensed money services businesses have resulted in more than 171 arrests and the seizure of $25 million, but much, much more needs to be done.

There are plenty of reports of gang violence south of the border. According to this Daily Telegraph Article:

Since January,2008 more than 1,300 people have been killed in execution-style hits or gunned down in fire fights, which often rage for hours in broad daylight and turn residential neighbourhoods into war zones. If the trend continues, 2008 will top last year's toll of 2,500 deaths in drug-related killings.

You don't hear so much about Americans at the Border. Too bad.

Americans are regularly abused. According to this article entitled US Warns Tourists of 'Small-Unit Combat' at Mexico Border -- Murder and kidnapping of Americans has become routine all along the US Mexican border. According to the State Department sometimes heavily armed attackers wear the uniforms of the Mexican police or military. According to Mexicans their military has even become part of the problem. The US Border Patrol has complained to the Bush administration about Mexican military incursions to no avail.

If there is silence about events at the border. The silence about killings north of the border is deafening. And yet....

More Americans killed by illegal aliens than Iraq war, study says The liberal LA Times is now reporting that Mexico's drug wars are now north of the borders--but soto voce. Think about it. A man or woman killed in Iraq or Iran in the line of duty is a hero. But what is an American killed at home by an illegal alien because the government has failed in its sworn duty to guard the borders. This is a pact between the sovereign and the person has paid taxes and loyalty. The answer is to that question is pretty awful. And it bodes ill for the republic.

But is it true?

Yes, according Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa.When you start digging into the numbers the only ones that can be sourced with the feds are the number of American murdered in 2005: 16692
I have seen federal numbers for illegals held in jail ranging from 19.3% to 27% of the federal prison population.

Here's a sampling of USA cities wanted for murder. What you'll see is that in big USA cities like LA or NYC most of the murderers are Hispanic. Unknown are the % of illegals. In smaller cities the FBI will post the nationalities of the murderers. About 25% of the most wanted are illegals wanted for murder. This number agrees with the percentage of illegals incarcerated in federal prisons. +-25%
Pictures of top 10 most wanted in LA. Up until recent stories about crime in LA posted by the LA Times--the pictures included the nationality of the murderers. They were all foreign nationals and mostly Mexican.

Wanted for Murder in New York City.

Chicago wanted for Murder

Philadelphia wanted for murder

San Francisco wanted for Murder

New Orleans wanted for Murder

Pictures of suspects wanted for murder in Washington DC Alas, the Washington DC pictures have recently been taken down.

FBI USA 10 most wanted. (two of 10 are Mexican nationals) Around 40% of the FBI's wanted for murder are Mexican Nationals

There are currently no exact numbers on the number of Americans killed by illegals. Part of the reason is that the government deliberately obscures the number. I talked on the phone with the head of statistics for the US Bureau of Prisons. He said his office wasn't allowed to publish the number of illegal alien murderers. Rather they were forced to put legal and non legal residents in the same category. He said further that most of illegals in the federal prisons were in for drug related charges. Most of the illegals in jail for murder were in the state prisons. I talked to ICE. They put out detailed numbers on illegal child molestors. However, they put out nothing on illegal murderers.

Part of the reason for the silence on the matter is that there is evidence to suggest that most Americans--but by no means all -- being killed by illegals are black--as is the suggestion in this LA Times Article. Also this article from the LA Times. And here. This makes intuitive sense. We see stories regularly of drug gang killings in Mexico but we don't see those same stories in the USA. The reason we don't see those stories is not because its not happening. Rather we don't see the stories about illegals killing blacks because that kind of story is terribly politically incorrect. The populations being displaced in downtown sanctuary cities especially are American blacks. That means that their criminal elements would be pushed aside by Mexican gangs as well. That's also the story that the wanted for murder posters in all the major cities seems to suggest.

Why isn't there an outcry in the black community? Beats me.

Nevertheless, the pattern of non reporting is starting to break. Discovery Channel has a series called Gangland that mentions ethnic cleasing of blacks by Mexican gangs. One woman in San Francisco who had her family killed by an illegal is even demanding the city to drop its sanctuary city status. Illegals themselves have become the targets of kidnappers Mexican style in Arizona where drug money from south of the border is often parked.

Reported Foreign Nationals on Death Row in the U.S.

To look at other USA cities go here http://stlouis.fbi.gov/ and replace stlouis with the city you want.

That said, the true number of criminal aliens is far higher than is revealed by criminal aliens in prisons. Most are simply waived through the courts. DHS Secretary Chertoff, has been quoted as warning that two million people in this country illegally have committed serious crimes. Here is more info from Judicial Watch.

However the number of illegals on death row is far lower. Sadly, so many small towns and villages across America have sent their warriors off to war half way across the world only to see communities fill up with illegal aliens. The Center For Immigration Studies has provided a detailed account of the illegal alien gang problem

Nice theory, if it were only true.

Its true:

Canadian Intelligence (CSIS) Director Jim Judd testified recently before the Senate committee reviewing Canada's anti-terrorism legislation, he noted there were now suspected terrorists in Canada that "have had no discernible previous link of any kind with the terrorist networks." Canadian intelligence experts believe that converts to Islam in the country are becoming a major source of Al-Qaeda combatants and pose a risk to security.

An intelligence report from Canada's spy service, released to a daily said "there is a direct threat to Canada and Canadian interests from Al-Qaeda and related groups," and that those groups are attempting to expand their support in Canada. "Converts are highly prized by terrorist groups for their familiarity with the West and relative ease at moving through Western society," the recently declassified Canadian Security Intelligence Service report said.

This is from a few years back but nothing has changed. We need to look after both borders. When either we or Israel go after Iran you can expect an attack from their Hezbollah or Hamas proxies living on the government dime in Canada. According to the RCMP, over 50 known terrorist organizations, comprising more than 10,000 individuals, operate in Canada. I think the new SEC/DHS must have just got the briefing.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.