Desert Invasion - U.S.

• Former U.S. Border Patrol Agent Speaks Out
  Anynomous letter of opinion, WorldNetDaily, 2002
   
  "I am a property owner in a rural ranch area west of Tucson and 30 klicks from Sasabe, Arizona and the Mexican Border. I spent 30 years as a U.S. Border Patrol Agent, Aircraft Pilot and Criminal Investigator with DOJ. Through the early years, we controlled the territory until Politics and Carpetbaggers in D.C. dictated open borders policies and mindless agendas which '"hamstrung'" an effective agency... Politicians from both parties in Congress, in pandering for Votes and Cheap labor and refusing to revamp an inept Immigration Service, created a different caste of border crossers who care nothing for the laws of the U.S. nor property rights, and upon reaching interior cities are basically 'home free'.
   
  If the government will not protect taxpayers, property owners from constant invasions from Mexico, citizens must rely on their own resources."
   
   
  
• The Federal Government Has Met The Enemy And They Are - The Tombstone Militia
  By Sam Francis, December 30, 2002. (See Samuel Francis archives at VDare and IConservative).
   
  "Earlier this month a plainspoken gentleman of Arizona named Chris Simcox announced that a citizens' group he founded - the Tombstone Militia - was about to undertake the function of protecting his state's and the country's borders from invasion.
   
  In Arizona illegal immigrants continue to pour across the borders in numbers undiminished by or since Sept. 11, 2001. While the federal government has responded to the 9/11 attacks by conquering Afghanistan, threatening war against Iraq, creating a vast new agency to fight terrorism and unleashing the security and intelligence communities with enhanced powers, it has done almost nothing to control or reduce immigration.
   
  That's why Mr. Simcox is going to war - or, more accurately, non-war. 'It is a monumental disgrace,' he told the Washington Times, 'that our government is letting the American people down, turning us into the expendable casualties of the war on terrorism.'"
   
   
  
• Park rangers being called upon to patrol criminals and critters By ROBERT GEHRKE, Associated Press Writer, Monday, December 30, 2002
   
  "A series of attacks on rangers, including the fatal shooting in August of a ranger at Arizona's Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, and a scathing report on problems in the Interior Department's law enforcement structure have officials looking at changes aimed at protecting rangers and park visitors.
   
  Today's rangers are armed, in some cases with M-16s. But they remain spread thin, with fewer than 1,400 patrolling 84 million acres in 387 parks, monuments and historic sites that attract more than 400 million visitors annually."
   
   
  
• Militia gets 90% backing in StarNet poll
  Arizona Daily Star, December 23, 2002
   
   
  
• Park Service planning steel barriers at border
  By Tim Steller, Arizona Daily Star, December 8, 2002
   
  The National Park Service is proposing to build a vehicle barrier along the Arizona-Mexico border in an area where a ranger was killed in August... A similar barrier would be built along the southern edge of Coronado National Memorial.
   
  Randall Kendrick, the executive director of the U.S. Park Ranger Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, said the proposal is good but late. "It should have been done years ago."
   
   
  
• Parks Under Siege
  Associated Press, December 3, 2002
  By Tim Vanderpool, National Parks Magazine, November/December 2002
   
  "Nowhere is the situation more pressing than in Organ Pipe Cactus, spanning 30 miles of the Arizona-Mexico border, where rugged bluffs and gentle slopes have become a war zone known for both drug and people smuggling."
   
  "Organ Pipe Cactus Superintendent Bill Wellman calls it a looming catastrophe. 'We've lost most of our wilderness characteristics already, and within the last two years, we've started hearing comments from visitors about resource damage,' he says. 'If the situation doesn't improve, I would suspect that within ten years we'll reach a state of impairment by anybody's definition.'"
   
   
  
• Border Patrol Seizes Nearly a Ton of Marijuana
  Associated Press, December 3, 2002
   
   
  
• Immigrants Leaving Mounds of Trash on Tohono O'Odham Indian Sacred Lands
  By Paul Cicala, KOLD News-13, Tucson, AZ, November 27, 2002
   
  The Tohono O'Odham Nation faces an environmental crisis. Every day, nearly 1,500 undocumented immigrants [illegal aliens] pass through the U.S.'s second largest indian reservation, leaving thousands of pounds of trash on tribal lands.
   
  Some sacred areas on the Tohono O'Odham Indian reservation larger than the size of a football field are littered with thousands of pounds of trash left behind by illegal border crossers...
   
  Ramon says his people shouldn't be left with the burden of dealing with the mounds of trash. The Tohono O'Odham Nation shares a 71-mile-border with Mexico. Ramon says it's a federal border so it's also a problem of the federal government.
   
  The Tohono O'Odham Nation is the second largest reservation in the country, with a population of 22,000. Nearly 2,000 tribal members live south of the border.
   
  Border crossers enter the reservation from Mexico on foot, and form makeshift camps near major pickup points for coyotes, or undocumented immigrant [illegal alien] smugglers.
   
  Carrasco adds, "They get to here (a spot about 30 miles north of the Sonora/Arizona border), and basically from here is where they're gonna load up. So, they don't need the extra clothes and water jugs. They leave trash here, because there's no where to put it as they get loaded up."...
   
  Tohono O'Odham officials estimate each undocumented immigrant [illegal alien] leaves behind more than 8 pounds of litter. With nearly 1,500 crossing tribal lands every day, that amounts to 13,000 thousand pounds a day, and almost 5 million pounds a year.
   
   
  
• If the Gov't Won't Do It... Using the law to get results.
  By Mackubin Thomas Owens, National Review, October 25, 2002
  An Arizona newspaper has proposed an interesting way to curb illegal immigration during a time of war: the use of a citizen militia.
   
   
  
• Number of crossers caught in Az. doubles
  By Luke Turf, Tucson Citizen, November 29, 2002
  "On his Douglas ranch, Roger Barnett also has noticed an increase in illegal immigrant activity. Barnett, 60, is a member of the American Border Patrol... He said he caught 47 illegal immigrants and turned them over to Border Patrol in October 2001. Barnett said he caught 215 last month."
   
  "He said he hasn't seen a Border Patrol helicopter patrol in six months. 'What's this government doing?' Barnett asked... 'It's unbelievable how many people get by because the Border Patrol doesn't stop them,' he said."
   
   
  
• Immigrants Leaving Mounds of Trash on Tohono O'Odham Indian Sacred Lands
  By Paul Cicala, KOLD-TV, Tucson, November 27, 2002
   
  "Every day, nearly 1,500 undocumented immigrants [illegal aliens] pass through the U.S.'s second largest indian reservation... Some sacred areas on the Tohono O'Odham Indian reservation larger than the size of a football field are littered with thousands of pounds of trash left behind by illegal border crossers."
   
   
  
• EA monumental problem - Ironwood plan must deal with smugglers, drug gangs and target shooters
  The Arizona Republic, November 24, 2002
   
   
  
• Ariz. Man says he'll lead a 'militia' border patrol
  By Reuters, The Boston Globe, November 20, 2002
   
   
  
• Marijuana Found Thriving in Forests
  By NICK MADIGAN, New York Times, October 16, 2002
  Sequoia National Park, California:
   
  "Almost every day through the marijuana harvest season, which recently ended, federal agents and the local police descended on the increasingly large pot farms in California's national forests, looking for the growers and their possible connections to Mexican drug traffickers."
   
  " 'The Mexican cartels have taken over the industry, and when they do something, they don't do it in small amounts,' said Sonya Arriaga Barna, operations commander for a California Department of Justice task force... The Drug Enforcement Agency says that 935,680 plants, worth about $3.7 billion on the street, were seized in California this summer and early fall, the most ever."
   
  " 'The majority of these growers are armed, and that poses a threat if someone is hiking or camping in the wilderness,' Mr. Delaney said. While no campers or hikers are known to have been harmed, several law enforcement officers have been injured in shootouts."
   
   
  
• Video: Barnett Says U.S. Is Being Invaded From Mexico - Rancher has turned over to BP more than 2,000 illegal trespassers this year
  KGUN News, November 10, 2002
   
   
  
• Eggles speak to Congressional leaders on border security
  By Lesa Ingraham, Cadillac News, October 9, 2002
   
   
  
• Immigration conundrum
  The Washington Times, October 8, 2002
   
   
  
• Chaos along the border
  The Washington Times, October 6, 2002
  "On any given day, 10,000 illegal aliens will cross the U.S.-Mexican border. About one in three will be caught and expelled. Among those who succeed, nearly half will become permanent U.S. residents. The vast majority of those who are caught will try again, frequently the very next day.
   
  Today, record numbers of illegal aliens find their way to the United States, whose estimated illegal alien population is between 9 million and 11 million, or double the 1994 level.
   
  An estimated 80 percent of the cocaine and 50 percent of the heroin consumed throughout the United States will enter through the U.S.-Mexican border. The drug cartels spend about $500 million annually buying the cooperation and assistance of Mexico's corrupt generals and police officials."
   
   
  
• Border rancher fights to stem flood of aliens
  by Jerry Seper, The Washington Times, September 25, 2002
  "It was 1998 when Roger Barnett first began to notice the trash and the tracks. His 22,000-acre Cross Rail Ranch near Douglas, 50 miles east of here, had become a major route for illegal aliens headed out of Mexico. The ranch sits in what Cochise County authorities call 'the avenue of choice' for illegal immigration."
   
  " 'Thousands of aliens have crossed my property,' said Mr. Barnett, a businessman here. 'There are so many that I can tell you that at times it looks like a slow motion invasion.' Mr. Barnett, 59, began rounding up illegal aliens after he said they started to vandalize his property, northeast of Douglas along Highway 80. He said the aliens tore up water pumps, killed calves, destroyed fences and gates, stole trucks, and broke into his home."
   
  "His actions at the ranch also have made him a target of immigrant smugglers and drug smugglers in Mexico. Law-enforcement authorities told him the smugglers had placed a bounty on his head. 'This is my land. I'm the victim here,' Mr. Barnett said."
   
   
  
• Border War: Mexican police join drug lords
  by Jerry Seper, The Washington Times, September 25, 2002
   
   
  
• 'We are overwhelmed'
  by Jerry Seper, The Washington Times, September 24, 2002
  Every month, more than 50,000 illegal aliens cross the Tohono O'odham Nation reservation. The second largest Indian reservation in the United States is facing a crisis.
   
   
  
• Thin green line takes a new strategy
  by Jerry Seper, The Washington Times, September 23, 2002
  "Everyone tells you about Douglas, but until you actually see it for yourself, there's no way you're going to believe what's happening down here," said Willie Barber, a field operations supervisor at the Douglas station. "It seems that when the sun goes down, someone flips a switch and yells, 'Go,'" he said.
   
   
  
• Stop immigration if we are to fight terrorism
  by Yeh Ling-Ling, Diversity Alliance for a Suatainable America
  Published in the Tucson Citizen, September 4, 2002
   
   
  
• Illegal immigrants tied to eight major wildfires
  The Buffalo News, September 10, 2002
   
   
  
• Perilous parks: Border's sensitive areas are trampled
  by Max Becherer / Staff, Arizona Daily Star, September 9, 2002
   
   
  
• Perilous parks: Border crossers tied to costly wildfires - Tab for fighting eight blazes put at $5.1 million
  by Mitch Tobin, Arizona Daily Star, September 9, 2002
   
   
  
• Perilous parks: Sonoran pronghorns in a 'crisis situation'
  by Mitch Tobin, photos By Max Becherer, Arizona Daily Star, September 8, 2002
   
   
  
• Perilous parks: Understaffing tolerated - until disaster strikes
  by Mitch Tobin, Arizona Daily Star, September 8, 2002
   
  
• Perilous parks: Danger funnels northward - Flow of drugs, people places lives at risk
  by Mitch Tobin , Arizona Daily Star, September 8, 2002
   
   
  
• Slide Show:Illegal immigrant workers
  Iillegal immigrant workers making a living in the migrant town of Perra Flaca, near Willcox, Ariz.
  by Max Becherer, Arizona Daily Star, September 8, 2002
   
   
  
• Slide Show:The border: A thin line between life and death
  Arizona Daily Star, September 8, 2002
   
   
  
• Video: A day with the Shadow Wolves
  Arizona Daily Star, August 22, 2002
   
   
  
• Ranger's border killing prompts call for hearing
  The Associated Press, August 22, 2002
  (Also see open letter by Ranger John Malone and congressional testimony.)
   
   
  
• Hometown honors ranger slain in Arizona
  The Associated Press, August 18, 2002
  (Also see open letter by Ranger John Malone and congressional testimony.)
   
   
  
• More details emerge in ranger's death
  by Ignacio Ibarra, Arizona Daily Star, August 15, 2002
  (Also see open letter by Ranger John Malone and congressional testimony.)
   
   
  
• On the Edge of Disaster
  by Tim Vanderpool, Tucson Weekly, August 15, 2002
   
   
  
• Blast from bushes killed ranger
  by Tim Steller, Arizona Daily Star, August 11, 2002
  (Also see open letter by Ranger John Malone and congressional testimony.)
   
   
  
• Ranger killed in shootout - Death linked to hit squad that killed 4, officials say
  by Ignacio Ibarra and Tim Steller , Arizona Daily Star, August 10, 2002
   
   
  
• The Devil's Highway - An Old Wagon Trail Becomes a Treacherous Route for Migrants
  ABCNews.com, August 8, 2002
   
   
  
• Environmental Impacts of Illegal Immigration on the Cleveland National Forest in California
  The Professional Geographer, August 2002
   
   
  
• Investigation of Samaritan Patrol sought
  by Ignacio Ibarra, Arizona Daily Star, July 20, 2002
   
   
  
• Group to tell Border Patrol of illegal immigrants
  by Ignacio Ibarra, Arizona Daily Star, July 20, 2002
   
   
  
• Border policy is brutalizing our deserts - Monuments are funnels for 'coyotes,' drug smugglers
  The Arizona Republic, July 8, 2002
   
   
  
• Immigration, drug traffic hurts federal land
  by Billy House, Arizona Republic, June 30, 2002
   
   
  
• Troops for border sought
  by Dave Boyer, The Washington Times, June 19, 2002
   
   
  
• Arizona is weak link in stopping smuggling
  San Diego Union Tribune, June 18, 2002
   
  Many people don't remember the lawlessness on the border in San Ysidro, Otay Mesa and the Tijuana River Valley about a decade ago... Police fought firefights with gangs of bandits in canyons and dense underbrush... San Ysidro residents locked themselves in at night as smugglers and immigrants traipsed through their yards. Caches of drugs were carried across the border by smugglers and the people they were leading. Hundreds of illegal immigrants lingered in the median strip of Interstate 5 waiting for rides northward.
   
  Then came Operation Gatekeeper, and the chaos stopped. Unless, that is, you live in or around the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation in southern Arizona, where the smuggling of immigrants and drugs has created chaos... The worst of it, however, is that the Tohono Nation has been turned into a war zone and the adjacent Organ Pipe National Monument is being irreparably damaged.
   
  If Gatekeeper ceased, the chaos might simply move back to San Ysidro... Instead of less Gatekeeper, we need more Gatekeeper. The Tohono Nation desperately needs it. In these days when homeland security is the No. 1 topic in Washington, it's unbelievable that such a lawless situation is allowed to exist on our borders.
   
   
  
• Tribal lands at border turned into 'war zone'
  by Jerry Kammer, COPLEY NEWS SERVICE, June 16, 2002
   
   
  
• INS investigates shooting of 8 near Mexico border
  by Stephen Dinan, The Washington Times, June 15, 2002
   
   
  
• Drug runners, migrants crushing national parks along U.S.-Mexico border
  by Julie Watson, Associated Press, June 13, 2002
   
   
  
• Mexicans: Southwest U.S. is ours - Poll also shows Americans want military on border
  by Jon Dougherty, WorldNetDaily.com, June 13, 2002
   
   
  
• Unruly trample National Parks
  by Julie Watson, The Associated Press, June 12, 2002
   
   
  
• A deadly, fragile desert
  by Penelope Purdy, Denver Post, June 04, 2002
   
   
  
• Border Patrol agent fired on
  by Stephen Dinan, The Washington Times, May 23, 2002
   
   
  
• Drug Seizure and Arrests on Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge
  U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
   
   
  
• Mexican soldiers in border crossings
  By Steve Miller, The Washington Times, May 13, 2002
   
   
  
• Mexican official confirms border crossings - says military or law enforcement came into U.S. 23 times in 2001
  by Joseph D'Agostino, WorldNetDaily, May 23, 2002
   
   
  
• Tancredo presses Mexico about 'incursions'
  by Bill McAllister, Denver Post Washington Bureau Chief, May 07, 2002
   
   
  
• Border accident or bounty hunting? - Stories conflict as to why Mexican soldiers shot at U.S. border agents
  by Jon Dougherty, WorldNetDaily.com, March 28, 2002
   
   
  
• Border Patrol encounters Mexican soldiers - Heavily armed foreign troopers on U.S. turf near Tecate
  by Jon Dougherty, WorldNetDaily.com, March 16, 2002
   
   
  
• Invasion USA
  Whistleblower Magazine, February, 2002
   
   
  
• Is Mexico reconquering U.S. southwest? Illegal immigration fueling aims of Hispanic radicals
  by Art Moore, WorldNetDaily.com, January 4, 2002
   
   
  

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