Border Boogie

by Ben Small

Now that the elections are over, there's not much attention paid by the national media to the ongoing border invasion in our Southwest, unless stories leak out from U.S. local presses about the ongoing horrors or from our federal government about the Mexican government deserving some credit. And the Federales deserve some applause. They've made some successful raids on cartel leaders, and one cartel reportedly asked for a deal -- seeking protection from other cartels.

But more stories aren't told. Reporters in Mexico fear the cartels. And rightfully so. The cartels are targeting those who report their atrocities, their corruption of Mexican police and city governments. Mexico City's largest newspaper promised a few weeks ago not to cover these activities further after several of its reporters covering a massacre of seventy-some human captives were themselves kidnapped and murdered. Likewise, the largest newspaper in Ciudad Jurarez, Mexico's most violent city. That newspaper publicly asked the cartels what they want it to print.

And in the U.S., for the most part, the national media has moved on; drug and human trafficking no longer hot topics. They'd rather focus on Brett Favre's weiner, Lindsay Lohan's horrific parents, the Fed bloating our currency, Beck's crusade against Soros, Bush vs. Obama in book sales, Mel Gibson's rants or what Michelle Obama or the cast of Glee might be wearing tonight.

Such is the talking-head, Internet-fed 24/7 news cycle, and the clarion call for entertainment news.

But the flow of death and drug and human smuggling through our Southwest borders hasn't stopped; it's not even slowed.

In the last two weeks, we who live in the Southwest have seen the following:

• the American Consulate in Mexico issuing instructions to its employees not to travel unless in armored carriers.
• a gigantic Guatemalan human sex-trafficking bust in Phoenix.
• Three southern Arizona sheriffs state that Mexican cartel snipers dot the hills, carrying high-powered rifles equipped with scopes and night vision.
• Several tunnels from Nogales, Sonora to Nogales, AZ, one which featured electricity, lights, air conditioning and rail tracks, along with thirty tons of weed.
• Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security Secretary and former governor of Arizona, cutting off funding for the electronic fence project, leaving much of Arizona's border with Mexico with either no fence at all or fencing a paraplegic could cross...unassisted.
• National Forest lands abutting the border closed to Americans, the Border Patrol and ICE.
• Three separate inspections along Arizona's highways yielding $12 million in cocaine...in one day.
• The discovery of over a ton of marijuana daily no longer constituting  "News."
• Untold numbers of traffic deaths in human trafficking accidents. Sorry, they're on the local News almost every night, and I've simply lost headcount.
• Replacement of the orange warning signs throughout Southern Arizona with yellow caution signs, still advising those who witness illegal smuggling activities to call 911, which of course, is the Sheriff's Office, the same guys Eric Holder is suing and harassing -- for enforcing federal immigration laws the Feds ignore.
• Southwest officials attending a London Kidnapping seminar, and release of statistics that through July, 2010, Phoenix police -- not the whole of Maricopa County, mind you, but Phoenix alone -- registered one hundred forty-one kidnappings, contrasted to two hundred seventy-three average for all of 2008 and 2009.
• U.S. bound produce inspections terminated until the product reaches the U.S., because of cartel vengeance-risk to U.S. inspection agents -- resulting in massive delays in produce deliveries... and spoilage.
• The Mexican Consul in Tucson saying he's seen no evidence whatsoever of the claimed hundred thousand Mexicans who returned home from Arizona, despite U.S. government statements to the contrary. In fact, he admitted, no such statistics exist.
• A Tucson television news program entitled "How Safe Is Sierra Vista?" Sierra Vista, about forty miles south of Tucson, is just north of the major drug and human trafficking trails through the southern Arizona national forests, and ironically, is home to Fort Huachuca, the Army's Intel Center.
• The Pima County (Tucson) coroner reporting a backlog of eighty unidentified bodies awaiting processing, perhaps necessitating the purchase of a third refrigerated body-truck. The second one was just ordered and delivered this summer.
• A movement of the Mexican drug cartels into software piracy on a national scale.
• The seizure of one hundred five tons of marijuana in one Northern Mexico raid.

Yes, border agents are making progress, and yes, Mexico too has scored against the cartels. But much more drug and human cargo passes through our border defenses than is blocked.

Ask yourself this question: How hard is it to get reefer today? 

Better yet: Ask your kids.

And the National Guard's presence? An election ploy, a photo-op. Guardsmen instructions: Do nothing but report violations; defend yourself only if attacked. 

Don't get me started on cargo ships, on the millions of containers flowing through our ports each and every day. Even our federal government admits it inspects only about ten percent of these containers.

Feel safe? Ask yourself this question: If our borders are so insecure we cannot stop human or drug smuggling, how hard would it be to smuggle in a suitcase bomb?

Goodbye Chicago. Or San Diego. Or Phoenix. Take your pick.

Maybe our president should actually come down and see our southern border with Mexico...once. Michelle can find ice cream there, and Arizona has golf courses. Maybe our president should leaf through some of the Qurans left on Southern Arizona smuggling trails. Or if he's short on time, how about a fly-over? Even Bush buzzed New Orleans after Katrina.

Yes, the election drums bang no more. But along the Mexico-U.S. border, unheard by Washington, the Border Boogie beats on.