Posted on 08/16/2005 6:53:53 PM PDT by Happy2BMe
Mexico's Fox protests as second US state closes border
Arizona ignored pleas for greater cooperation from Mexican President Vicente Fox to become the second US state to declare a state of emergency on its border due to rising illegal immigration, violence and smuggling.
Four days after New Mexico declared a 90 day state of emergency for border areas, Arizona did the same for its four counties on the Mexican frontier, citing uncontrolled illegal immigration.
"The federal government has to secure our border, and the health and safety of all Arizonans is threatened daily by violent gangs, coyotes (human traffickers) and other dangerous criminals," said Arizona governor Janet Napolitano in a statement.
"I intend to take every action feasible to stem the tide of criminal behavior on the Arizona side of the border," she said.
Napolitano explained her decision based on statistics showing that illegal crossings on US borders are as high as three million every year, and that as many as 700,000 new unauthorized immigrants entered the country last year, many through Arizona.
On Friday, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson issued the state of emergency along his state's border with Mexico, citing "recent developments ... including violence directed at law enforcement, damage to property and livestock, increased evidence of drug smuggling and an increase in the number of undocumented immigrants."
The moves followed the week-long closure at the beginning of August of the US consulate in Nuevo Laredo, on the border with Texas, following a rise in lethal gang violence in that Mexican city.
The state of emergency declarations for the two states' border areas opened the way for the two governors to tap into emergency funds to expand border control operations.
Napolitano said Arizona would be earmarking 1.5 million dollars in emergency funds "to combat the growing devastation caused by the crimes associated with illegal immigration."
Mexican President Fox responded Tuesday to the moves by the two US governors with calls for greater cooperation over border problems.
He exhorted the United States to coordinate with Mexico to resolve border problems.
"Instead of pointing fingers, let's have proposals; instead of each side working by itself, let's work together; only like this will we be able to win," Fox said.
"There are criminal organizations on both that side (of the border) and this side; there are drug users on that side and this side," he said.
Sean McCormack, spokesman for the US State Department, said Tuesday that the US government is working alongside the Mexican government to protect the border.
McCormack said in regard to Richardson's decision that, as the governor of New Mexico, he has the responsibility to protect his state citizens in the manner he sees apprpriate.
Mexican agencies continued to stress the need to cooperate on border problems. On Monday, Jose Reyes Baena, the governor of the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, met with Texas authorities to discuss border security, especially the problem of drug trafficking, which has resulted in some 550 deaths along the border so far this year.
The Mexican foreign and interior ministries also said Tuesday in a joint statement that they were contacting Napolitano to discuss the new measures.
"We will watch to see that any action by police organizations remains respectful of the rights of our compatriots and respect domestic and international laws," the statement said.
Increased access to increased federal funds.
Richardson pretty much said that was the plan when he was on O'Reilly the other day.
BS. Maybe if you consider "working alongside" to mean "doing nothing".
McCormack said in regard to Richardson's decision that, as the governor of New Mexico, he has the responsibility to protect his state citizens in the manner he sees appropriate.
It's appropriate because the federal government is doing next to nothing. It's a shame that Democrats have to be the ones to protect our borders. The Republicans are going to get killed on this issue if they don't stop worrying about offending the Hispanic vote or getting cheap labor in here and wake up and fix the problem.
If AZ and NM shut their borders I guess I'll get flooded even worse now here in Texas. Gov. Perry are you listening? I hope we're next to declare an emergency.
Excellent.... thanks!
*snort* Yeah, right.
Them $400.00 hand towels, wipe the sweat off your brow, I hear Ireland a good place to retire.
I notice a "bonus" in the form of freeing up allocation of federal funds upon the act of declaring an emergency. Mighty cynical to boot.
I think the attention is warranted, and absolutely agree with your sense that the GOP is too quiet, too slow, too indifferent, or whatever on the issue of unregulated immigration.
I wish you were correct, but I fear you are not...The long term but unstated policy for both parties is to eventually open the southern border completely, without the need for any travel restrictions either way. Ultimately, the actions of both parties lead to the inescapable conclusion that there will be nothing accomplished.
Note that there is declared a state of "emergency", yet the money will be used to train new employees of the government, which training will not even begin for quite some time. The truth is, they are taking extra federal money to bolster the hiring of local law enforcement, and making the Republicans look bad at the same time...it's a twofer!
If it was an emergency, the National Guard would be standing at the boprder, but its not!
Watch for the great footage on television of the installation of some extra cattle fencing along the border in return for the landowner's agreement not to let the minutemen on that privately owned land...
And praises a person(Chinagate figure richardson) who publiclly snubs and humiliates him on the radio.
I agree employers are the primary problem. However, we'd still need a fence. Mexico is such a cesspool they'd still want to come here, jobs or no jobs.
Fox insults us by saying the situations are similar both sides of the border. BS. Americans are NOT swimming across the Rio Grande to get into Mexico.
Works for me. I'll even donate my Quick-and-Easy Repatriation Machine for sure-fire deportation!
Apparently enforcing the laws we already have is NOT easy. And let's say, for arguments sake, the our government WOULD ENFORCE those laws. You have left out one of the most important points regarding border security. Terrorists. They could care less if they can get hired here illegally, or legally. Al Queda, and other terrorist groups, pay for their expenses. All a terrorist needs is to be able to cross our border. And with our open borders they can not only do so quite easily (as millions of illegals are proving every year), but they can even get through with WMD's, suitcase nukes, etc. It's not just illegal aliens that are the problem, although they are a huge burden on every taxpayer in the United states, it's the fact that we are in a War on Terror and we have left our borders open! How crazy IS THAT? Ahhhh, it's just as plain as the nose on your face.
#122 - thank you sir!
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."
---Robert Frost
:~)
Actually Dane, you're just like Bill Richardson.
You both pretend to care about closing the border... but for the both of you, it's just for show.
" And praises a person(Chinagate figure richardson) who publiclly snubs and humiliates him on the radio."
I'd like to see the FULL quote, in context.
I take NOTHING you say at face value.
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