Thursday, August 1, 2013

Aug 1, 2013 - BORDER RANCHER: Where is NCBA on Cartels? Perils of Taxpayer in Foreign Land - Ed Ashurst Apache, Arizona


The Perils of a Taxpayer in a Foreign Land
April 2012

 

“The border is not a fence or a line in the dirt…

 it is a third country that joins Mexico and the United States.”

 Quote by David Aguilar, Chief Border Patrol Agent under the Obama-Napolitano regime.

 

            The above statement made by Obama’s head Border Patrol agent set off a firestorm of controversy and anger from everyone except those encamped in the midst of the radical left and guaranteed Mr. Anguilar a permanent seat at the current administrations round table that has been graced with the likes of Tony Rezko, James Meeks, Sam Graham-Felsen, Van Jones and others. Given the U. S. Border Patrol’s already tenebrous mission statement, coming from controversial characters like Aguilar, Napotitano and even the President himself, one can’t help but question what is the true course of action we are pursuing on the Mexican border. In the next paragraphs I will leave innuendo and commentary behind and stick to documented facts. You and your imagination can do the rest.

            Since February 21, 2012 until today, April 20, 2012, in a 12 mile stretch at the international boundary starting at Naco, Arizona and going west to the San Pedro River there have been no less than 10 drive-through loads of narcotics breaching the new steel fence that is 13 feet high. This same fence is the one that many thought would be a cure-all solution to our current smuggling problem.

            One of the first drive-throughs traversed the bottom of a mesquite infested wash where whole crews of Mexican outlaws felled trees and bridged arroyos creating a road through the wilderness north to highway 92 some 3 miles distant. By drive-through I mean Mexican Cartel agents cutting truck size holes in the metal barrier facilitating the passing of whole truck loads of dope headed north to parts unknown.

            The last three of these ten loads of narcotics, which average 1000 to 1500 pounds per load, passed through a freshly cut hole on Sunday night April 15, 2012. All ten loads negotiated the supposed sealed border within one mile of each other and all were less than one half mile from a Border Patrol camera that is on top of a tower 85 feet in the air. At that distance these cameras costing in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to install and maintain can easily read a license plate on a car or see the expression on a man’s face.

            All ten of these truck loads of dope passed through a cattle ranch owned by a family who has made their living raising cattle on this same property going back to the late 1800’s. At the east end of the ranch lies the border town of Naco whose main industry is the Naco Border Patrol Station which boasts somewhere in the vicinity of 400 agents. The ranch owners long ago cooperated with the Border Patrol and welcomed the instillation of four of these mega expensive ultra high tech cameras which are supposedly monitored 24/7 at the Naco Border Patrol station a short distance away.

            When questioned by the rancher the Border Patrol’s excuse for this breach of security was that “no agents were available to respond.” The fact is that they had all been sent to the northern boundaries, wherever that is, of Aguilar’s imaginary Third Kingdom.

            Within a few days Border Patrol agents in Naco will be moving into a newly constructed station that cost the American taxpayer, including Third Kingdom residents, 42 million dollars to build. Among other important amenities it will include an indoor shooting range with a 14 million dollar price tag. According to a recent article in the Arizona Commercial Real Estate online newspaper the new station has been built to “Anti-Terrorist Force Protection standards.” Oh really?

            Since 1992 there have been on this one cattle ranch, where the aforementioned dope passed, no less than 500 thousand illegal aliens apprehended. By their own admission the Border Patrol catches no more than 20 percent that cross the border. Since Obama became president they apprehend fewer than that. You can’t have low numbers if you catch large quantities. That means upward of two and a half million people have traversed this one family’s property. Whether you live within the confines of a gated community in Scotsdale or on an Illinois corn farm you should be able to relate. Imagine having two and a half million people tromping through your corn field uninvited. For good measure throw in a few dozen $60,000 Ford Raptor pick-ups with Border Patrol insignia on the doors crashing about your property piloted by agents in green uniforms who having a high level of testosterone and a low level of respect for you and your corn destroying everything in their path.

            Why should border ranchers who grow calves instead of corn have to continually hump up and take it while Middle America sits idly by and does nothing? I am not Paul Revere but I have a message for you: the Mexican Cartels are not coming, they are here, aided by ambiguous ideology and total distain for constitutional law coming from leftist bureaucrats who have a corrupt axe to grind. The cartels move through a virtual open door. It astounds me that the National Cattleman’s Beef Association, which is supposed to be cattle ranching’s biggest and most powerful lobby, hasn’t come forth with more support for their constituents who live in close proximity to the border.

            In Frederick Bastiat’s book The Law he states and I quote, “to say that the aim of the law is to cause justice to reign is to use an expression which is not rigorously exact. It ought to be said, the aim of law is to prevent injustice from reigning. In fact, it is not justice which has an existence of its own, it is injustice. The one results from the absence from the other.” The Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security are in the business of creating unjust policies financed by taxpayer dollars, a good example being the derailed and ill-advised Fast and Furious program. David Aguilar’s self-proclaimed concept of a third country, which is wholeheartedly supported by the Department of Homeland Security is not only completely devoid of justice it is a gross violation of the constitution itself. Because of this odyssey into a hinterland of undefined proportions Border Patrol agents are allowed, even ordered, to abandon the line in the dirt, as Aguilar calls it, and take their dog and pony show north to parts unknown leaving gaping and bleeding holes which they try to hide with gesticulations of fatigue and cries for more funding and equipment: if we just had a better helicopter, or perhaps another 14 million dollar shooting range.

            Recently Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen introduced legislation proposing a volunteer militia trained by law enforcement and deployed to aid in the patrol of the border itself. She has received very little support and much criticism. The truth is the only time in history the Mexican border has been sealed is when the Minutemen peacefully and lawfully sat down and occupied the border itself in 2007; right there on the ground within arms reach of the line in the dirt that Aguilar says doesn’t exist. The U.S. Border Patrol did, do, and always will hate the Minutemen and others like them. They accomplished what the Border Patrol claimed couldn’t be done. Aguilar and his union-protected Brownshirts aren’t programmed for success. Personally I applaud Senator Allen for thinking outside the box that bureaucrats and gangster politicians have us all incarcerated in.

            On February 24, 2012 I attended, along with numerous Cochise County ranchers, a meeting at the stupendously opulent Tucson Sector Office Complex and Headquarters. This multi-cathedral-like edifice which cost untold millions to construct is completely devoid of any signs of economic recession; taxpayer dollars literally grow on the shrubs outside and ooze out of the finery within. Tucson Sector Chief Rick Barlow was in attendance along with the chiefs from the Douglas, Willcox, Naco, Sonoita, and Nogales stations. Two government attorneys were in attendance representing the Border Patrol’s interests. The Arizona Cattlegrower’s Association was present in support of the ranchers who were allowed to speak and voice certain grievances.

            A certain Cochise County rancher (not myself) related to all present at this meeting that they were well acquainted with David Aguilar who was at one time the Tucson Sector Chief. This individual went on to say that he (Aguilar) was a most dishonest and corrupt individual (their words not mine) and the Border Patrol had taken a visible turn for the worse under his leadership. In wonder I observed this communication and couldn’t help but notice the lack of denial. The Tucson Sector top brass along with attorneys who no doubt were experts in constitutional law sat in silence with no visible expression of anger or insult, but instead bore a melancholy countenance, not unlike one drinking vinegar.

            Ten truck loads of marijuana coming undisturbed out of Mexico upon reaching Phoenix, Denver or your hometown would have a street value of 10 to15 million dollars. Could there be something fishy going on here? Oh, but wait! I promised to stick to the facts, the facts, the facts, the facts…………. You supply the imagination.

 

                                                                                                Ed Ashurst

                                                                                                Apache, Arizona

April 20, 2012

                                                                                   

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