U.S., Mexican legislators discuss border vigilantes - States may stop groups targeting illegals

Associated Press ^ | November 24, 2002 | Associated Press Staff

[MeekOneGOP]

U.S., Mexican legislators discuss border vigilantes

States may take action against groups that target migrants

11/24/2002

Associated Press

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico - U.S. and Mexican lawmakers expressed concern Saturday about a growing number of American vigilante groups that capture and sometimes hurt or kill Mexican migrants who cross into the United States illegally.

The fringe groups have sprung up in several border towns in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, where residents frustrated by U.S. border agents' inability to stop illegal migration have taken matters into their own hands, said Arizona state Rep. Robert Cannell.

Mr. Cannell said Arizona legislators will likely take up the issue of vigilante groups during the state's next legislative session. The Democrat said he was "strongly opposed" to the groups.

Mr. Cannell was one of eight U.S. state legislators - three from New Mexico, two from California, two from Arizona, and one from Texas - who joined 38 lawmakers from the six Mexican border states at the third annual legislative border forum in Nuevo Laredo.

In separate Binational Commission meetings on Monday and Tuesday in Mexico City, high-ranking U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, will hold talks with their Mexican counterparts on what to do about the estimated 3 million Mexicans working illegally in the United States.

New Mexico state Sen. Mary Jane Garcia said vigilante groups appeal to undereducated young men who feel that state and federal governments haven't done enough to protect towns along the border. The Democrat said the issue also needed urgent attention in the New Mexico legislature.

Also on Saturday, Chihuahua state lawmaker Cesar Castro Lopez called on investigators from the FBI and Britain's Scotland Yard to help solve the brutal slayings of women in Ciudad Juarez.

More than 75 women have been raped and killed since 1993 in Ciudad Juarez, the border's largest city. Dozens of suspects have been arrested, but bodies have continued to turn up in the desert.

Mr. Castro Lopez said that Mexican state and federal commissions assigned to investigate the crimes have failed to produce any concrete leads.

"It has become a financial issue of vital importance for those who do business on the border," he said, adding that violence in Juarez has begun to affect U.S. commercial interests, thus ensuring that the killings fall under U.S. jurisdiction.

The killings have "ruined the reputation of Ciudad Juarez in the eyes of the world," Mr. Castro Lopez said.

---

Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/tsw/stories/112402dntexvigilantes.b2a17.html

[Deep_6]

re:
"..If you change the citizenship laws so that birth here by non-citizens does not
convey citizenship you might get some takers to such a plan. Add the ability to
deny publically funded services to non-citzens and you would get some more.
End welfare and you might even get my vote......"

Absolutely. Only citizens should receive dollars contributed by other citizens
to our tax base, not non-citizens. That has got to stop.

Unless you can convince Americans to work for less and able us to provide
inexpensive items to sell, we need those willing to work for low wages. The
working "illegal immigrant" provides that. Let 'em work and leave on a daily
basis, but let's stop the free ride.

 

[dalebert]

Yes, But its mostly a financial issue. Get ready for a shake down. More money and less to show for it. Maybe if they try comming here by legal means they wouldn't have to worry about it and just maybe if these were not criminals Americans would not have to form vigilante groupes.

[TigersEye]

You ought to cut back on the coffee a pot or two and just skip the LSD altogether.

[dalebert]

Letter from the president: "As my Administration seeks to improve the system that welcomes legal immigrants, The United States must also continue its efforts to combat illegal immigration." It goes on to mention adding more border agents and strenghtening laws.

[TigersEye]

You never know. Those rednecks can be very clever. They may be sneaking across the border at night to dump the bodies. If he is sufficiently armed, an American can go anywhere he wants to go.

On second thought, double your LSD dose. Where you there is no coming back from. Trip on, dood!

[TigersEye]

Where you are there is no coming back from.
(Oh well, you can't read anyway so what's the difference.)

[BJungNan]

Just so you know, if we all used colors so our posts stood out, we might find none of them stood out at all. So then, some would resort to other methods to make sure everyone saw what they had to say. For instance, some would resort to all bold face test. Others would go to ALL CAPS BUT WOULD SOON BE TOLD TO STOP IT BECAUSE IT IS CONSIDERED YELLING AND RUDE. Okay they would say, I won't use ALL CAPS, instead, I'll just use a larger type face, italic even. And oh what a mess that would become. And it all started with someone that thought they would try to have their message stand out not for its content but instead by making it - and all of us - blue.

Best Regards, BJN

[TigersEye]

Freedom is just so messy isn't it? FReepers have been free to post in any manner they want for quite a long time now and it still seems to me to be working.

FReedom! Gotta love it! ; )

[philetus]

I was thinking more of mobs who take the perp from the law and hang them, but Merriam-Webster defines it as:

Main Entry: vig·i·lan·te
Pronunciation: "vi-j&-'lan-tE
Function: noun
Etymology: Spanish, watchman, guard, from vigilante vigilant, from Latin vigilant-, vigilans
Date: 1865
: a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law appear inadequate); broadly : a self-appointed doer of justice
- vig·i·lan·tism /-'lan-"ti-z&m/ noun

Since the LAW is not doing it's duty, I can support vigilantism.

[BJungNan]

That's exactly what I said!

[Joe Hadenuf]

This border mess just gets wierder and wierder.

It's volatile.

[TigersEye]

Is it? I guess I didn't see it with all those colors swirling around in my head. ; )

[DoughtyOne]

Oh you... (smile>

[DoughtyOne]

It should get real interesting in the next six months to a year.

[CWOJackson]

Perhaps you would be so kind as to point out which article of the Constitution or Bill of Rights that defines our national language?

Then perhaps you can point out which section defines our national culture?

The problem for you is that the Constitution does not define a national language or a national culture. It does not say that a "citizen" who speaks Spanish and observes Mexican traditions is any less "American" that a "citizen" who speaks "English" and observes Irish customs.

That might have something to do with the fact that so many of our first citizens spoke different languages and followed diverse social and religious cultures and customs.

[PRND21]

If American politicians and bureaucrats truly want to discourage vigilantism, they should cease and desist their own ongoing and bipartisan malfeasance with regard to Illegal Aliens.

American politicians aren't hiring with the gusto that American people are hiring.

Cause and effect.
Chasing the effect is stupid. Just ask Buchanan. (and Tancredo very soon.)

[BJungNan]

With photo evidence of all encounters, it will be hard for our "Lawmakers" to keep up these claims of injury and murder being committed by these fine people.

Thanks for the account of what you saw on the feed. Very interesting. Where can this be viewed? I heard they were setting up a live link. Thanks.

[BlackElk]

If you should be so rash as to personally participate in vigilateism so defined, be prepared for jail and for paying from your own pocket (since insurance companies do not cover wilfull violations of criminal laws) the damages levied in the civil suits.

[BlackElk]

Actually, there is always prosecutorial discretion as to ANY violation of the law. If the government can nolle or dismiss homicide charges, it can ignore border-jumping. In fact, you can bet it will.