U.S. tipping Mexico to Minuteman patrols (telling the Mexican government)

While Minuteman civilian patrols are keeping an eye out for illegal border crossers, the U.S. Border Patrol is keeping an eye out for Minutemen -- and telling the Mexican government where they are. According to three documents on the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations Web site, the U.S. Border Patrol is to notify the Mexican government as to the location of Minutemen and other civilian border patrol groups when they participate in apprehending illegal immigrants -- and if and when violence is used against border crossers.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman confirmed the notification process, describing it as a standard procedure meant to reassure the Mexican government that migrants' rights are being observed.

"It's not a secret where the Minuteman volunteers are going to be," Mario Martinez said Monday.

"This ... simply makes two basic statements -- that we will not allow any lawlessness of any type, and that if an alien is encountered by a Minuteman or arrested by the Minuteman, then we will allow that government to interview the person."

Minuteman members were not so sanguine about the arrangement, however, saying that reporting their location to Mexican officials nullifies their effectiveness along the border and could endanger their lives.

"Now we know why it seemed like Mexican officials knew where we were all the time," said Chris Simcox, founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. "It's unbelievable that our own government agency is sending intelligence to another country. They are sending intelligence to a nation where corruption runs rampant, and that could be getting into the hands of criminal cartels.

I thought I'd seen it all during the Clinton years, but this story, if true, is simply breathtaking in its audacity. It's a big F-U aimed right at the GOP base.

So who conspired to violate our laws? Sounds like shielding from detection to me! Or at least encourages and induces! Who goes to jail? Do we seize Border Patrol assets used to monitor and report the Minutemen, such as aircraft? What if a minuteman is injured or killed as a result of such reporting? 20 years imprisonment to death?
.............

§ 1324. Bringing in and harboring certain aliens

Release date: 2006-04-21

(a) Criminal penalties
(1)
(A) Any person who—
(i) knowing that a person is an alien, brings to or attempts to bring to the United States in any manner whatsoever such person at a place other than a designated port of entry or place other than as designated by the Commissioner, regardless of whether such alien has received prior official authorization to come to, enter, or reside in the United States and regardless of any future official action which may be taken with respect to such alien;
(ii) knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, transports, or moves or attempts to transport or move such alien within the United States by means of transportation or otherwise, in furtherance of such violation of law;
(iii) knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation;
(iv) encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law; or
(v)
(I) engages in any conspiracy to commit any of the preceding acts, or
(II) aids or abets the commission of any of the preceding acts,
shall be punished as provided in subparagraph (B).
(B) A person who violates subparagraph (A) shall, for each alien in respect to whom such a violation occurs—
(i) in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(i) or (v)(I) or in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(ii), (iii), or (iv) in which the offense was done for the purpose of commercial advantage or private financial gain, be fined under title 18, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both;
(ii) in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(ii), (iii), (iv), or (v)(II), be fined under title 18, imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both;
(iii) in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(i), (ii), (iii), (iv), or (v) during and in relation to which the person causes serious bodily injury (as defined in section 1365 of title 18) to, or places in jeopardy the life of, any person, be fined under title 18, imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both; and
(iv) in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(i), (ii), (iii), (iv), or (v) resulting in the death of any person, be punished by death or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, fined under title 18, or both.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode08/usc_sec_08_00001324----000-.html

You might be onto something; but, how does that relate to what is being reported here? Informing a government about a detainee, has nothing to do with advising them in advance of tactical patrol deployments.

Well, if it involved the USG advising the Mexican government in advance of Minuteman "tactical patrol deployments," you might be onto something, but it doesn't relate to that at all.

Essentially, what happens is that, if the Minutemen are involved in making an arrest, that fact will be communicated to Mexican consular officials along with all of the other information in the arrest report (including the location of the arrest and all parties involved in same).

Aren't there enough Republican leaders who are FOR an effective method of securing the border and AGAINST 'earned' amnesty? Have they all crossed to the other side on this? I keep asking and get no answers. Do you know?

That is a good question. To be honest, I believe that GOP Senators fall in 3 camps; (1) pro-illegal because business lobbyist want it, (2) anti-illegal because of the extreme drain illegals put on the nation and (3) don't really care and are ready and willing to pander to both sides while doing nothing.

Unfortunately, the majority of GOP senators (especially those on their 2nd or 3rd term) fall into category #3. There is also a sizable but smaller portion of GOP senators that fall into category #1 such as Brownback.

Sadly, probably only about 10 or 15 GOP Senators are TRULY committed to battling illegal immigration and the Balkanization of America. When the president and the established party leadership solidly falls into group #1 then there isn't much they can do.

Eventually we're going to have to find a way to fix Mexico. The short (but wrong) answer is to invade. What can we do to help create a middle class there so that people have a shot at a decent life and don't have to come here to keep from starving?

You're right but that sure is a hard problem to solve since Mexico is so corrupt and the ruling families are very entrenched. This sounds a little crazy, but a socialist revolution (not a Chavez or Castro but more like a Canadian system) in Mexico might not be a bad first step to rid the country of the ruling families. A capitalistic system will never work in that country as long as the ruling class in that country is still in power and the people are far too uneducated and gullible to ever do anything about it.

NAFTA was supposed to help the situation by creating new industries in Mexico and I actually was in favor of it. As you pointed out, it NAFTA may have had it good points but it has outlived it's usefulness now.

As you also pointed out, a wall is the best first step. That way Mexico's problems can be contained and can therefore be more easily solved. If they want to keep the ruling european families in power then at least they will have to endure the consequences by living there.

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