Free Republic

The law enforcement-based union that represents all 17,500 non-supervisory U.S. Border Patrol agents says Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s comments this week reassuring Americans that the U.S. border is safe and open for business are “wrong and give citizens a false sense of security.” “It is time for the political games to stop for fear of insulting the government of Mexico,” the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) said in a statement. “U.S. citizens are being kidnapped and killed while our Border Patrol agents fight a war at home that no one will allow them to win. “Not one more Border...

WHARTON, TX - US Border Watch is deeply concerned about the lack of progress being made from both Washington DC and Austin TX in securing our borders from drug smugglers, terrorists and illegal immigrants....

WASHINGTON – Congressman Michael McCaul (R-TX 10) pressed the head of the U.S. Border Patrol for a more rapid response to security concerns along the U.S.-Mexico border, particularly in Texas. The Department of Homeland Security’s SBInet includes technology for a virtual fence to secure America’s borders. However, the technology will not be online in Texas until at least 2014. Meanwhile, the state’s request for 1,000 National Guard troops to help patrol the border has gone unanswered by the Obama administration. “My constituents and the American people want this done and they don’t want to wait five years to see this...

What I suspect may be a gathering storm on President Bush's horizon in 2005 is a confluence of factors that will force on Washington a fundamental immigration reform -- one that will seek to genuinely secure our borders. This is something that up until now neither the Republican Party nor the Democratic Party has wanted... Adding piquancy to this legislative challenge for President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress is the entrance from stage right of Hillary R. Clinton, 2008 Democratic Presidential Nominee, presumptive. In the last few weeks the ever cold-blooded Miss Hillary has started to stake out a position...

A drug-sniffing dog alerted U.S. inspectors to suspected drugs in a vehicle at the Stanton Street Dedicated Commuter Lane while federal officials conducted a news conference Friday on the recent rash of drug busts at the “express lane.” “It’s an anomaly,” said Victor Jimenez, El Paso INS acting assistant district director for inspections. U.S. Customs Service officers contacted investigators about the alert, and escorted the driver of the 1998 Nissan Pathfinder with Texas plates to an adjacent office. Agents proceeded to take apart the vehicle carrying marijuana. Minutes before, U.S. customs Port Director David Longoria had announced that U.S. bridge...

PHOENIX - How to help rural Arizona counties, especially those along the U.S.-Mexico border, is one of the priorities Governor-elect Janet Napolitano said she will work on during her administration. While the problems of border counties are not on the back burner, Napolitano said she will first take care of the state's budget crisis and clean up Arizona's educational woes. Part of the state's economic well-being is tied to the border and the nations south of the United States, she said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "Arizona is the gate to the south, and I don't just mean Mexico,"...