Saturday, July 6, 2013

July 6, 2013 - Cattle Ranchers and Drought (HUFFINGTON POST GREEN) JAN 13, 2012

U.S. Drought In 2013 Hurts Cattle Ranchers With Dry, Poor Wheat Crop
Reuters | Posted:


* Wheat pastures wither as drought persists

* Cattle moved to feedyards sooner than expected

* Record high cattle, beef prices seen this year

By Theopolis Waters

CHICAGO, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Oklahoma rancher Kent Donica has given up. The drought that has ravaged pastures on his ranch and throughout the region has won.

Since last September, Donica has sold nearly all of his 800 cattle because there is no pasture to feed them and he now works as a ranch hand nearby to make ends meet until it rains again.

Last autumn he had hoped his winter wheat crop would feed his cattle and keep his ranching business going. The wheat also would reduce the need to buy high-priced feed like corn, which would wipe out earnings from the cattle he fattens and sells.

But the worst dry spell in half a century stopped the wheat crop from sprouting properly, depriving Donica's herd of the green shoots that would have sustained it through winter.

Donica is not alone. Across the southern Plains, the worst ever starts to the winter wheat crop have put in jeopardy ranches that depend on wheat pasture for cheap feed, raising the prospect of higher beef prices this summer.

U.S. farmers, squeezed by high prices for corn and other fodder on one hand, and drought that has parched pastureland on the other, are cutting back their herds in a bid to survive. The U.S. cattle herd has shrunk to 91 million animals, the smallest in 60 years.

More pain seems to be on the horizon for ranchers after the USDA on Friday reduced its estimates for corn stocks, sending Chicago Board of Trade corn futures sharply higher. Meaning anyone feeding corn to cattle, hogs, chickens and other animals, will pay more for it.

"The drought has absolutely put me in a survival mode and I finally decided there was no way to fight this," said Donica, who now tends a nearby rancher's cattle to pay expenses.

"If we don't get some rain pretty quick, it will be the end of the world in Oklahoma as far as the cattle business is concerned," said Donica, 47, whose ranch is near Ardmore, Okla.

Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, which have all been hurt by drought, are important pieces in U.S. cattle production accounting about 25 percent of the nation's herd, including dairy. The share is even larger for beef cattle, with the three states currently fattening 46 percent of the supply.

Already the shrinking herd is driving up cattle and beef prices, which could further accelerate the decline of beef consumption in the United States, which has fallen more than 16 percent per capita in the last decade.

Farm lender Rabobank forecasts U.S. cattle prices will soar to a record high $140 to $145 per cwt this spring as numbers decline.

The shrinking herd will reduce beef production, with USDA forecasting a 4.3 percent drop this year from 2012.

The smaller U.S. cattle herd and the resulting drop in beef production has lifted retail beef prices to an all-time of $5.15 per lb in November, surpassing the previous peak of $5.09 in January 2012.




POOR WHEAT CROP

Winter wheat is a key link in the economic chain of the U.S. cattle industry. Animals that graze on the tender shoots in the fall and early winter before snow covers the ground tend to put on more muscle than they would eating grain like corn, which boosts their value at auction.

Only a third of the U.S. winter wheat crop at the end of November was rated "good to excellent" by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the crop has deteriorated since then.

"We essentially have no wheat pasture. There are very few cattle on wheat in Oklahoma at this time and many of them will probably not make it through the winter," said Darrell Peel, Oklahoma State University extension livestock marketing specialist.

Peel expected ranchers to continue selling off their herds to avoid buying high-priced feed.

The sting of the poor state of the winter wheat crop in the southern Plains is being felt as far away as Tennessee and Ohio where farmers, who specialize in rearing calves then selling them off to ranchers like Donica, are struggling to find buyers.

This year, stocker cattle in the Ohio Valley are going to go to auction barns or feedyards a lot sooner, said Sam Roberts of United Producers Inc, a farmer-owned and operated livestock marketing cooperative based in Columbus, Ohio.

"Many of those cattle will wind up being moved to feedyards in the Midwest at a lighter weight than they would normally," said Roberts, an assistant vice president of corporate marketing at United Producers Inc. (Editing by K.T. Arasu and Bob Burgdorfer)
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U.S. Drought 2012-2013
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July 6, 2013 - Editorial Miami Herald from anonymous sender: "GOP should deal with realities of immigration"

GOP should deal with realities of immigration

 
14 hours ago
The following editorial appeared in the Miami Herald on Thursday:
The U.S. Senate delivered a gift to the nation last week in the form of an immigration reform bill that has the potential to fulfill the promise of what it means to be an American for millions of longtime U.S. residents who are stuck in limbo.
We are not so dewy-eyed as to believe that members of the Senate acted for purely patriotic reasons.
Republicans who got behind the measure know their party has a dim future as long as Hispanic Americans believe the GOP is blocking immigration reform. Democrats and President Obama, meanwhile, need to show Hispanic voters that they are capable of enacting reform - and reaping the political benefit in coming elections.
Nor do we think passage of an immigration reform bill by Congress is a sure thing.
The Senate measure faces obstinate opposition in the House of Representatives, where Speaker of the House John Boehner has already signaled that he will bow to the wishes of his Republican caucus no matter which way the chamber's majority is leaning. This means that if most GOP members don't support comprehensive reform, the measure won't come to a vote even if it could pass with a combination of Democratic and Republican votes.
Talk about a party shooting itself in the foot. This is both shortsighted and self-defeating. It caters to the hard-right sentiment of voters who control GOP primaries, but it puts the party on a permanent losing trajectory with the rising number of Hispanic voters. That's a losing proposition if ever there was one.
But for the moment, set aside the bleak scenarios and take time out on this most patriotic of holidays to savor the moment. This is a nation of immigrants, as those who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 well knew. Over the years, America's vitality has been refreshed time and again by waves of immigrants who brought their aspirations and their energies to our shores.
As Sen. Marco Rubio so eloquently put it in his remarks on the Senate floor just before the bill went to a vote, "They have come because in the land of their birth, their dreams were bigger than their opportunities." And so they came to America, to embrace a country big enough to encompass those dreams and generous enough to allow them to be fulfilled.
It should be a special mark of pride for Miami and South Florida that two of its legislators are at the forefront of the fight for reform, perhaps because they know in their hearts that this is the right thing to do.
They have lived the immigrant experience and understand the yearnings of immigrants and their dreams because of personal familiarity. They come from a place that has been transformed by immigration into one of the nation's most vibrant communities.
In the upper chamber, Rubio was instrumental, first, in writing the bill in a bipartisan effort with seven other senators, and then in getting it passed.
In the lower chamber, U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart has been waging a quiet but determined effort behind the scenes to give immigration reform a chance. Like Mr. Rubio, he realizes that his party has a big stake in the outcome. And he knows that the problem will persist even if Congress fails to deal with it.
"Ignoring that reality does not make it go away," Rep. Diaz-Balart told a panel discussion in Washington last week. May the holdouts in the GOP embrace reality
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Friday, July 5, 2013

July 5, 2013 - "FL cattle ranchers thrive; west struggles with drought" (THE LEDGER.COM)

Florida Cattle Ranchers Thriving While West Struggles With Drought.

Outlook for 2013 hopeful while West struggles with drought.

By
THE LEDGER
Published: Tuesday, February 12, 2013 at 11:57 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, February 12, 2013 at 11:57 p.m.
TAMPA | While other segments of the U.S. cattle industry are struggling, the 2013 outlook for the cow-calf operations, the dominant segment in Florida, continues to run with the bulls.
"Calf prices were at record levels last year," said Kevin Good, senior analyst at CattleFax, told about 1,600 ranchers, feedlot owners and meat packing officials Friday at the 2013 Cattle Industry and National Cattlemen's Beef Association Trade Show in Tampa. "We expect that to continue."
CattleFax, based in Centennial, Colo., collects, analyzes and disseminates information on U.S. and global beef markets for its members representing all segments of the cattle industry from calf producers to meat-packing companies and retailers.
Two Polk County ranchers agreed with that positive outlook for the Florida industry.
"We've made the most we've ever made in the last few years," said Cary Lightsey, a sixth-generation cattle rancher based in Lake Wales with about 9,000 head across the state. "Fortunately Florida is one of the very few states where cattle herds are higher now than they were five years ago."
"We've had a few good years, and the indications are 2013 will be another good year," said Will Putnam, vice president of Putnam Groves Inc., which also has a cattle herd of more than 1,000 head.
Like most Florida ranchers, Lightsey and Putnam operate cow-calf operations that supply calves generally sold by 1-year-old to ranches in other states, where they continue to grow until ready for slaughter.
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July 5, 2013 - Desperate times for N.M. Ranchers (ABQ JOURNAL) MAY 26, 2013


‘Desperate times’ for N.M. ranchers

 

  • Cattle near the headquarters of the Double V Ranch near Fort Sumner where Livestock Board officials reportedly found an estimated 1,000 malnourished cattle. (Greg Sorber/Journal)
  • Brown land on the 180,000-acre Double V Ranch near Fort Sumner shows the effects of prolonged drought and a lack of green grass to feed an estimated 1,000 cattle on the ranch. (Greg Sorber/Journal)
  • Rangeland surrounding the headquarters of the Double V Ranch shows an absence of green grass for cattle fodder. (Greg Sorber/Journal)
  • New Mexico Livestock Board officials delivered loads of hay to the Double V Ranch near Fort Sumner on Saturday. (Courtesy state livestock Board)
  • The range land around the Double V Ranch headquarters is devoid of grass on Thursday, May 23, 2013. (Greg Sorber/Journal)
  • Cattle near the headquarter building at the Double V Ranch south of Ft. Stanton on Thursday, May 23, 2013. An estimated 1,000 cattle on the drought stricken ranch have become so emaciated that state and law enforcement officials are deciding whether to seize the herd and charge the owner with cruelty to animals. (Greg Sorber/Journal)
  • Cattle near the headquarter building at the Double V Ranch south of Ft. Stanton on Thursday, May 23, 2013. An estimated 1,000 cattle on the drought stricken ranch have become so emaciated that state and law enforcement officials are deciding whether to seize the herd and charge the owner with cruelty to animals. (Greg Sorber/Journal)
  • The range land of eastern New Mexico, which is usually green with grass, is a vast plain of brown on Thursday, May 23, 2013. (Greg Sorber/Journal)
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    Cattle near the headquarters of the Double V Ranch near Fort Sumner where Livestock Board officials reportedly found an estimated 1,000 malnourished cattle. (Greg Sorber/Journal)
The view of eastern New Mexico from the air this year is a vast, brown expanse from horizon to horizon that looks a bit like a moonscape.
Green grass needed to feed cattle is virtually absent throughout much of New Mexico, forcing ranchers to drastically cut the size of their herds, officials and ranchers say.
“I don’t think there’s any green, other than lawns, in that whole eastern New Mexico area,” said Jerry Wertheim, whose family has ranched in the Fort Sumner area since the 1930s.
“At this point, it looks like it’s going to rival the very dry 50s,” said Wertheim, who graduated from Fort Sumner High School in 1956.

“I know ranchers that are getting rid of all of their cattle where they never did before,” Wertheim said. “It’s a difficult decision for a rancher.”
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July 5, 2013: "Border Patrol...,absent..." (KRGV-TV..So. Tex. Prop. Rights Association)

Border Patrol Agents Absent from Many Areas

 Jul 2, 2013 7\12:25 AM

WESLACO - Border Patrol agents are staying away from some areas in the Rio Grande Valley, agency officials admitted on Tuesday.
Border Patrol officials said they are relying on area residents to alert them about any problems. One of those areas is off Highway 186 in San Manuel.
U.S. Border Patrol Special Operations Supervisor Henry Mendiola said that area falls under the responsibility of the McAllen station. Agents from that station, though, are busy patrolling the river from Los Ebanos to Pharr, he said.
Mendiola said agents respond to the area only when needed.
"There's nothing that says they can't go from one station's area to another," Mendiola said.
Agents said their absence from certain areas results in more stash houses.
Areas like San Isidro must rely on a single constable to control the flow of illegal immigrants.
"I get woken up at 5 a.m. ... that there are aliens running around in the street," a Starr County constable said. He patrols the San Isidro area.
Mendiola said additional resources are assigned to roving patrols or backup duties.
Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino said his deputies many times are the first to arrive at stash houses.
"This is becoming a problem now. We're snatching up 50, 60 up to 100 a day in stash houses," Trevino said.
Trevino said rounding up illegal immigrants takes his deputies away from their regular duties.
Border Patrols officials said they have a special operations team they use for remote areas. They said those agents are tied up in Brooks County.
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July 5, 2013 - Historic reform....ARIZONA STAR JUNE 28, 2013

By Erin Kelly and Dan NowickiRepublic Washington BureauFri Jun 28, 2013 12:19 AM
WASHINGTON - Immigration-reform advocates and opponents are turning their attention to the House of Representatives after Senate passage of a landmark immigration-reform bill to boost border security and provide a pathway to citizenship for many of the estimated 11million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.
The Senate passed the historic 1,200-plus-page bill on Thursday by a vote of 68-32.

Fourteen Republican senators joined all 52 Democrats and two independents to pass the bill, which was crafted by a bipartisan “Gang of Eight” senators that included Arizona Republicans John McCain and Jeff Flake.
The far-reaching legislation is the first comprehensive immigration-reform bill to clear the Senate since 2006. That year, the bill died in the House, which reform supporters fear poses a similarly steep challenge this year.

“The Senate’s passage of a major immigration-reform bill is a milestone, but it is only half the battle,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration expert and law professor at Cornell University Law School. “A tougher battle lies ahead in the House.”

Speaker John Boehner vowed that the House will take up its own legislation rather than vote on the bipartisan Senate bill.

“The House is not going to take up and vote on whatever the Senate passes,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said before Thursday’s vote. “We’re going to do our own bill, through regular order, and it’ll be legislation that reflects the will of our (Republican) majority and the will of the American people.”

Boehner plans to meet with House Republicans on July10 to discuss how to proceed.

House leaders have so far favored a much narrower, piecemeal approach to reform that does not include a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, which is the top Democratic priority.

After the vote, McCain, the top GOP negotiator in the Senate group that wrote the bill, warned that the worst thing Senate reform supporters can do is be “disrespectful” toward the House and its agenda. He predicted the proposed pathway to citizenship will remain the primary point of contention.

“We can’t bully the House. We can’t force them,” McCain told The Arizona Republic. “But what we can do is do everything we can to make sure that they understand that we’d like to negotiate with them and we’d like for them to act. But we’re also going to have to have the strong support of the business community, the Catholic Church, the evangelicals — all of this very large coalition that has been assembled behind this legislation. That’s really the key to it.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., McCain’s Democratic counterpart in the Gang of Eight, predicted that the House will not be able to ignore the strong bipartisan support the bill received in the Senate.

“I believe that support will propel it through the House and to the president’s desk for his signature by the end of this year,” Schumer said.

Backers had repeatedly expressed hopes of passing the bill with 70 votes, but it fell two short of that goal. After the vote, some critics called the final tally a disappointment.

“Sixty-eight is a very strong number, and we did get a significant number of Republicans,” McCain said. “We will be judged whether we ever get a bill to the president’s desk or not. Not whether it was 68 or 70 or 65.”

Senators who supported the bill hope that the bulk of their legislation will survive after House and Senate negotiators meet to reconcile their versions of reform, assuming that the House passes a bill.

But Boehner, who is struggling to hold together his fractured Republican caucus, warned that he will not bring any bill to the House floor that cannot win the support of a majority of Republicans. He said he would not allow a bill — even a conference agreement — to pass with a minority of Republicans joining with a majority of Democrats.

“For any legislation — including a conference report — to pass the House, it’s going to have to be a bill that has the support of a majority of our (Republican) members,” Boehner said.

Flake, who served 12 years in the House before joining the Senate this year, called Boehner’s hard-line position “unfortunate.” Flake had been hoping that Boehner, who some have viewed as a potential ally on immigration reform, would not block any final compromise that emerged from House-Senate negotiations simply because a majority of House Republicans didn’t like it.

“I hope it was a misprint,” Flake told The Republic.

However, House conservatives have made it increasingly clear to Boehner that he could risk an insurrection should he try to circumvent the GOP caucus.

Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., this week became the second House Republican to send a public warning to Boehner, telling the Wall Street Journal that relying on Democrats to ram through an immigration-reform bill opposed by most in the House GOP “could be the proverbial straw that would break the camel’s back.”

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., previously threatened Boehner’s gavel over the issue.

Still, immigrant-reform advocates said they hope Boehner and other House leaders will be inspired by the Senate vote.

“House leaders must come together in the same bipartisan spirit that defined the Senate debate,” said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum.

President Barack Obama, an immigration-reform supporter who publicly kept his distance from the Senate deliberations, also called on the House to do its job, while telling immigration-reform supporters to stay vigilant.

“As this process moves forward, I urge everyone who cares about this issue to keep a watchful eye,” Obama said in a written statement. “Now is the time when opponents will try their hardest to pull this bipartisan effort apart so they can stop common-sense reform from becoming a reality. We cannot let that happen.”

Organizing for Action, a liberal group that supported the Senate bill, is already organizing grass-roots events throughout the country to push House members to pass comprehensive reform.

“The Senate vote was a great step forward,” group leaders said in a written statement. “Now, it’s time to take the fight to the House.”

Opponents of the Senate reform bill plan to do the same.

“We fully expect that this betrayal of the American public will be dead on arrival in the House,” said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. “Thankfully, the House has made it clear that true immigration reform must protect the interests of the American people.

“FAIR expects to work with members of the House to ensure that legislation coming out of that body provides a workable plan to secure our borders, enforce immigration laws in the interior of the country, and protect American jobs and tax dollars.”

One expert on Congress said supporters may find it tough to persuade House Republicans to go along with Senate-style reform. Many represent conservative districts, and they all face re-election next year, unlike some Senate supporters such as Flake, who won’t face voters again until 2018.

“The Framers designed the two chambers to respond to different kinds of pressure, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing here,” said John J. “Jack” Pitney Jr., a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in Southern California. “A two-thirds vote in the Senate isn’t necessarily going to carry any weight in the House. Because if you’re a House member, your constituency consists of the people back home and not the guys on the other side of the Hill.”

For the Senate, Thursday’s vote represented a rare bipartisan effort to solve one of the nation’s most vexing problems. The last major immigration bill considered by the Senate was rejected by senators in 2007. Congress has not passed such a sweeping immigration overhaul since 1986.

“We cussed one another, we cheered one another, and we produced a bill,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., a member of the Gang of Eight, said of the negotiations and compromises that led to passage of the legislation.

“I’m not going to miss those hours-long meetings every day,” McCain said jokingly.

The bill began in February with closed-door negotiations by the eight senators, who unveiled their plan in April. The Senate Judiciary Committee then held public hearings, followed by a long amendment process in May.

During the three-week debate on the Senate floor, support for the bill appeared to waver as critics attacked it as weak on border security.

But the legislation regained momentum late last week when a bipartisan agreement was reached on an aggressive, $38billion border-security amendment.

That amendment, which was added to the overall bill, would double the number of border-security agents to about 40,000, complete 350miles of fence along the southwestern border and invest in drones, radar and other surveillance equipment to detect illegal border crossings.

“This bill secures the border, and anyone who says it doesn’t does not understand our security needs,” McCain said.

But senators who opposed the bill said it does not go far enough in ensuring that the border-security measures are in place and working before granting legal status to undocumented immigrants.

“We screwed up in 1986 by not securing the border first,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. “We’re right back here again. ... This bill won’t ensure that a future Congress isn’t back here in 25years dealing with the very same problems.”
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Tuesday, July 2, 2013

July 2, 2013 - IMPORTANT: TEX. BORDER SHERIFFS COAL. RECOMMENTATION BORDER SEC. STATEMENT #2 DON REAY EXEC. DIR.

NOTE:  COMPARE TEX. SHERIFFS RECOMMENDATION TO PREVIOUSLY POSTED THIS DATE, SENATE BILL THAT PASSED..NOTE DIFFERENCES IN E-VERIFY ID
 
DON REAY – EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF TEXAS SHERIFFS BORDER COALITION

Interview with Nancy Dale on border security

STATEMENT #2 – July 2, 2013

BIO OF DON REAY:

 

“My background is almost 40 years in law enforcement as a Border Patrol Agent, a Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent, as a Special Agent with the U. S. Customs Service retiring as an Assistant Special Agent in Charge; as a Training Director for El Paso County Sheriff’s Office Regional Training Academy while serving six counties in West Texas, and as a consultant to U. S. Customs and the National Drug Intelligence Center. My specialty has been, and is, working within task force and coalition environments.

 

The Texas Border Sheriff’s Coalition was organized on May 4, 2005, and is represented by the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of each respective county. Texas Sheriffs, empowered by the state constitution, are committed, from a national security perspective, to protect lives, property, and the rights of the people, maintain order and security in the United States along the Republic of Mexico border, enforce the law impartially, and provide police service in partnership with other law enforcement agencies and community partners. This is the Mission of the Coalition.”

Don Reay recently attended a summer conference in Charlotte, North Carolina and met with the Congressional Affairs Committee working on immigration reform.  He has participated, directed many conferences in his 40 years of law enforcement as well as programs in U.S. Customs and the Border Patrol.  He participated in a recent border security study group under “A PAC,” an Israeli lobbying group in Washington, D.C.  The Israeli government invites various groups to their country to explore international concerns.  (Highlands County, Florida Sheriff Susan Benton was also in attendance.)

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: 

(Due to the overload of information regarding Immigration Reform and Border Security issues in Congress, the difficulty of sorting out and attempting to understand the language and intricacies is difficult.  Included in Statement #2, Don Reay provides a few definitions and background info for further clarity. See Statement #1, June 26, 2013 on this blog for first part of interview.   ND)

BORDER PATROL TRAINING: 

Although this information is constantly changing as new bills are introduced, the Senate bill that passed this week proposes an increase in Border Patrol personnel from 20,000 to 40,000 at an estimated cost of $62 million and adding more fencing from 350 miles to 700 miles.  (THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE MEX/US BORDER FROM ARIZONA TO CALIFORNIA IS APPROXIMATELY 1,969 miles.  Motorized vehicle patrols are prohibited along the border on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) i.e. national parks and federal land. (See pictures on the blog of 2 “Warning Signs” posted for visitors at the Coronado National Park in Arizona: Note the difference in language on the older sign and on the new one.)

 

“TH E CURRENT “E-VERIFY PROGRAM” USED BY U.S. COMPANIES TO VERIFY CITIZENSHIP OF MIGRANT WORKERS IN ORDER TO HIRE THEM, IS BROKEN.  MEXICAN CARTELS INFILTRATE ILLEGALS WITH MIGRANT WORKERS THROUGH ‘TRANSNATIONAL CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS’ OPERATING IN THE UNITED STATES:

“The present ‘E-Verify Program,’ used by U.S. companies to document and hire legal immigrants is broken, as workers are verified AFTER employment.  If illegal laborers are hired by a U.S. company, unintentionally or intentionally, the company is fined thousands of dollars.”

“Often the Mexican cartels,” says Reay, “infiltrate immigrant workers through cells of Transnational Criminal Organizations” [see detailed definition on the blog].  The cartels help illegals obtain false IDs, social security cards in order to gain employment in the United States. 

The Texas Border Coalition, recommends the implementation of ‘biometrics,’ the use of fingerprinting, using Iris scans, and DNA swaps to cross-reference authenticity of an immigrant seeking employ and as an application process for people seeking legal status through an international data base and Homeland Security.  Most of our Sheriffs are against outsourcing the application process for legal status to non-governmental entities and remain a federal responsibility.”

“There is discussion that strengthening the Mexican economic infrastructure will provide Mexican citizens with financial opportunities and curtail the flow of illegals into the U.S.  Drugs and human trafficking is an economic engine for Mexico run by the Zeta and Sinaloa cartels.  At one point the U.S., through the MERIDA imitative, allocated $1.4 billion dollars to support the economic infrastructure in Mexico. There was no accountability as the U.S. was told by Mexican officials that Mexico is a sovereign nation and can spend the money as it chooses.”

“The Texas Border Sherriff’s Coalition is against these types of programs that give away money with no provisions for accountability.”
 THE GUEST WORKER PROGRAM PROPOSAL:

“Legislation is proposed to establish a “Guest Worker Program” and hire migrants in the U.S. for Ag and labor jobs. The Guest Worker Program allows migrants to work in the U.S.,” explains Reay.

“The Guest Worker proposal is based on the BRACERO Program established in the 40’s when there was a shortage of U.S. labor due to WWII.  ‘In the beginning it was a good program,” says Reay “but became mismanaged by government and landowners.  This program was useful to ranchers as many of the greatest cowboys come from Mexico.  It is difficult to find an abundance of hard working cowboys (ranchands) in the U.S.”

[“BRACERO” means manual labor.  The BRACERO program was established between Mexico/U.S to provide temporary contract laborers in 1947 and then continued under various other programs through 1964.]

FUNCTIONS OF BORDER PATROL PERSONNEL AND SHERIFF’S OFFICE:

“If a crime has occurred or a person is trespassing on U.S. soil, the Sheriff’s office responds through 911 calls and the Sherriff’s office can make an arrest.  If a suspected illegal is found to be criminally trespassing on private property, the matter is referred to the Border Patrol or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).  In Arizona Law 1070, a person suspected of a crime or being an illegal can be legally asked ‘their alienage,’ by the Sheriff’s Office.  The suspect can be detained for a reasonable period until CBP or ICE can determine citizenship,” Reay explains.

“The responsibility of the Sherriff’s Office is to keep the community safe not dealing with immigration. The Texas Border Sheriff’s Coalition is interested in law enforcement and economics in the community: We are an agency of men and women for all seasons. Our organization is comprised of 31 Sheriffs in the 4 Border States to protect the security of their communities.”

“In reference to the Senate bill passed this week, there is a proposal to increase border patrol personnel from 20,000 to 40,000 at a cost of $30 billion.  It costs more than $100 a day to put one Border Patrol officer in place with 5-7 years of training.  It took 7 years to affirm background checks and other requirements to hire additional BP personnel from 7,000 to 20,000 in years past.”

“The Texas Border Sheriff’s Coalition recommends strengthening the protection and maintenance of the Northern, Southern, and Maritime borders of the United States.  For example, if you have a leaking water hose and you put a plug in one spot, another leak occurs.  Illegals will switch around to find the weak spot for entry.”
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July 2, 2013 - $$$ for defense manufacturers (WASHINGTON POST - SO. TEX. PROP. OWNERS ASSOC. SENT

Immigration deal would boost defense manufacturers

Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post - A small group from the Mexican Army can be seen through the fence that stands on the U.S.-Mexico border on February 28, 2013, in Naco, Ariz.

By Matea Gold, Published: July 1E-mail the writer

The border security plan the Senate approved last week includes unusual language mandating the purchase of specific models of helicopters and radar equipment for deployment along the U.S.-Mexican border, providing a potential windfall worth tens of millions of dollars to top defense contractors.
The legislation would require the U.S. Border Patrol to acquire, among other items, six Northrop Grumman airborne radar systems that cost $9.3 million each, 15 Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopters that average more than $17 million apiece, and eight light enforcement helicopters made by American Eurocopter that sell for about $3 million each.
Graphic
 
Video
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a co-sponsor of an amendment to the Senate immigration bill that greatly increases the resources allocated for border security, explains why his plan should help compel wavering senators support the bill.
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a co-sponsor of an amendment to the Senate immigration bill that greatly increases the resources allocated for border security, explains why his plan should help compel wavering senators support the bill.
 
The legislation also calls for 17 UH-1N helicopters made by Bell Helicopter, an older model that the company no longer manufactures.
Watchdog groups and critics said that these and other detailed requirements would create a troubling end-run around the competitive bidding process and that they are reminiscent of old-fashioned earmarks — spending items that lawmakers insert into legislation to benefit specific projects or recipients. In the past several years, Congress has had a moratorium on earmarks.
The language was included in a $46 billion border security package the Senate approved last week as part of a comprehensive immigration bill. The so-called border surge — an additional $38 billion in spending — was added in the final week of negotiations to attract more GOP support for the measure, which passed with 68 votes, including 14 from Republicans.
The legislation would spend $30 billion over the next decade to hire more than 19,000 new Border Patrol agents, an undertaking that would double the size of the force and that many immigration experts consider wasteful and unnecessary.
The measure also would devote $7.5 billion to build 350 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexican border and $4.5 billion to buy new border technology. The legislation would have to be fully implemented, along with electronic visa and employment verification systems, before immigrants could receive green cards.
Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.), who co-sponsored the plan, said the provisions were aimed at assuaging the concerns of Republicans who are wary about creating a path to citizenship without tougher border measures.
“I was just trying to work with our caucus to get as many of our guys to participate,” Hoeven said.
That approach did not win over holdouts such as Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who said: “Taxpayer funds should enhance border security, not provide border stimulus for contractors. Unfortunately, the Senate bill does exactly that.”
The list of equipment included in the legislation was drawn from a technological needs assessment developed by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency in 2010, according to a senior Department of Homeland Security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the internal process. Agency staff members compiled the list at the request of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano after she stopped a virtual-fence project that was plagued by cost overruns and delays.
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July 2, 2013 - IMPORTANT: Summary Sen. Immigration bill (WASHINGTON POST - SO. TEX. PROP. OWNERS ASSOCIATION )

Key provisions of the Senate bipartisan immigration bill

Published: June 27, 2013

Senators approved a massive immigration bill by a vote of 68 to 32 on Thursday. The sweeping legislation includes provisions that will bolster security on the U.S. southern border and offer a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants. See what happens next with the immigration bill and read the related article.

Path to Citizenship

The estimated 11 million people living in the U.S. illegally could obtain “registered provisional immigrant status” six months after enactment of the bill as long as certain requirements are met:
The Homeland Security Department must develop border security and fencing plans, per the specifications set out in the bill. (See Border Control, below.)
Undocumented immigrants must have arrived in the U.S. prior to Dec. 31, 2011, and maintained continuous physical presence since then.
Undocumented immigrants must have not had a felony conviction or three or more misdemeanors.
Upon payment of a $500 fine, the provisional legal status lasts six years and is renewable for another six years for $500.
People in provisional legal status could work and travel in the U.S. but would not be eligible for most federal benefits, including health care and welfare.
People deported for noncriminal reasons can apply to re-enter in provisional status if they have a spouse or child who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, or if they had been brought to the U.S. as a child.
After 10 years in provisional status, immigrants can seek a green card and lawful permanent resident status if they are current on their taxes and pay a $1,000 fine, have maintained continuous physical presence in the U.S., meet work requirements and learn English. Also the border triggers must have been met, and all people waiting to immigrate through the legal system as of the date of enactment of the legislation must have been dealt with.
People brought to the country as youths would be able to get green cards in five years, and citizenship immediately thereafter.

Border Control

Certain border security requirements must be achieved within 10 years before any undocumented immigrant can obtain a permanent resident green card. These include:
The number of Border Patrol agents stationed along the U.S.-Mexico border will be roughly doubled to at least 38,405.
Seven hundred miles of pedestrian fencing along the border must be completed, which will require approximately 350 new miles of fencing.
A host of new security measures and technologies in specified locations along the border will be installed. These include specific numbers of surveillance towers, camera systems, ground sensors, radiation detectors, mobile surveillance systems, drones, helicopters, airborne radar systems, planes and ships.
A system for all employers to verify electronically their workers’ legal status will be implemented.
A new electronic system to track people leaving the nation’s airports and seaports must be set up.
The border security improvements are designed to achieve 100 percent surveillance of the border with Mexico and ensure that 90 percent of would-be crossers are caught or turned back. If the goals of a 90 percent effectiveness rate and continuous surveillance on the border are not met within five years, a Southern Border Security Commission made up of border-state governors and others would determine how to achieve them.
Border security spending in the bill totals around $46 billion.

H-1B high-skilled visas


The cap on the H-1B visa program for high-skilled workers would be immediately raised from 65,000 a year to 110,000 a year, with 25,000 more set aside for people with advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering or math from a U.S. school. The cap could go as high as 180,000 a year depending on demand.
New protections would crack down on companies that use H-1B visas to train workers in the U.S. only to ship them back overseas.
Immigrants with certain extraordinary abilities, such as professors, researchers, multinational executives and athletes, would be exempted from existing green-card limits. So would graduates of U.S. universities with job offers and degrees in science, technology, engineering or math.
A startup visa would be made available to foreign entrepreneurs seeking to come to the U.S. to start a company.
A new merit visa, for a maximum of 250,000 people a year, would award points to prospective immigrants based on their education, employment, length of residence in the U.S. and other considerations. Those with the most points would earn the visas.
The bill would eliminate the government’s Diversity Visa Lottery Program, which randomly awards 55,000 visas to immigrants from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States, so that more visas can be awarded for employment and merit ties.

Guest worker “W-visa” program


A new W visa would allow up to 200,000 low-skilled workers a year into the country for jobs in construction, long-term care, hospitality and other industries.
A new agriculture worker visa program would be established to replace the existing program. Agriculture workers already here illegally, who’ve worked in the industry at least two years, could qualify in another five years for green cards if they stay in the industry.

Changes to family visa program


Under current law, U.S. citizens can sponsor spouses, children and siblings to come to the U.S., with limits on some categories. The bill would bar citizens from sponsoring their siblings and would allow them to sponsor married sons and daughters only if those children are under age 31.
Legal permanent residents can currently sponsor spouses and children, but the numbers are limited. The bill eliminates that limit.

Employment verification


Within four years, all employers must implement E-Verify, a program to verify electronically their workers’ legal status. As part of that, noncitizens would be required to show photo ID that must match with a photo in the E-Verify system.
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July 2, 2013 - Due to increase in illegals, Honduras opens So. Tex Consulate (FOX NEWS LATINO, JULY 1 ...SO TEXAS. PROP. OWNERS ASSN)

Increase In Illegal Border Crossings Prompts Honduras To Open Consulate In South Texas

Fox News Latino
  • rio grande valley.jpg
    The Rio Grande Valley area has become the busiest sector for illegal immigration on the whole U.S.-Mexico border with more than a 50 percent increase in the last year. (2013 Getty Images)
At a time when thousands of Hondurans end up detained by U.S. border agents after crossing the Rio Grande, the country is joining McAllen’s “Embassy Row” when it opens a new diplomatic outpost in the border city, according to The Brownsville Herald.
The newspaper said that since Oct. 1, Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector arrested roughly 20,000 Honduras who entered the United States illegally.
The Guatemalan government also has a consulate in McAllen, the largest city in the Valley, a 120-mile-wide region that is the deepest portion of southern Texas along the Mexico border.
According to the Herald, the reason Honduras felt compelled to open a new consulate in the region is due to the significant uptick in arrests and deportations of Hondurans.
Unlike Mexicans, other nationals don't have the option to sign "voluntary departure" forms and be swiftly deposited back on the Mexican side of the border. Non-Mexicans have to be formally processed for deportation, a process involving the diplomatic intervention of their home governments, who have to officially accept deportees from the U.S.
Besides McAllen, Honduras also is opening another diplomatic outpost in Dallas, the newspaper quoted Karol Escalante, an official at the Honduran Embassy in Washington, as saying.
Diplomats from Honduras, Guatemala and Honduras assigned to the region certainly have their hands full. Deportation requires that countries of origin provide identification and travel documents.
The newspaper noted that in the last fiscal year, the Rio Grande Valley Sector had nearly 100,000 arrests, 50 percent of which involved nationals from countries other than Mexico, or "OTMs," primarily from Central American countries.
“Central Americans have always represented the largest population group of OTMs other than 2006, when we had an influx of Brazilian nationals here,” said Rosendo Hinojosa, chief of the Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley sector.
“We’ve already apprehended more OTMs this year than we did the entire year last year,” Hinojosa said.
Guatemala opened a consulate in the area in 2011.
“A lot of people from Guatemala use this border to cross and enter the United States,” said Alba Caceres, the Guatemalan consul in McAllen.
The newspaper said that in the last calendar year, the Guatemalan consulate processed almost 11,000 travel documents for deportations and made arrangements for the remains of 29 dead migrants to return home.
“With about 10,500 travel document requests and 22 deaths during the past six months, both numbers could double, if the pace does not slow,” the newspaper said.
McAllen Mayor Jim Darling said that local consulates can help the city build ties with Central America.


Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2013/07/01/increase-in-illegal-crossings-prompts-honduras-to-open-consulate-at-texas/#ixzz2XwwOy6oT
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July 2,2013 ANNOUCEMENT ON BORDER SECURITY AND SHERIFFS: DON REAY, EX.DIR.TEX.BORDER COALITION STATEMENT #2

Look for Mr. Reay's Statement #2 to be posted later today.

ND
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July 2, 2013 Mayan Muslims in Mexico ANONYMOUS SENDER SPEIGEL ONLINE MAY 2005

Praying to Allah in Mexico: Islam Is Gaining a Foothold in Chiapas
By Jens Glüsing
Long a bastion of Catholicism, southern Mexico is quickly turning into a battleground for soul-savers. Islam, too, is gaining a foothold and the indigenous Mayans are converting by the hundreds. The Mexican government is worried about a culture clash in their own backyard.
Subcomandante Marcos of Chiapas entered into an alliance with a Muslim movement in the mid-1990s.
AFP
Subcomandante Marcos of Chiapas entered into an alliance with a Muslim movement in the mid-1990s.
Anastasio Gomez, a Tzotzil Mayan from Mexico, fondly remembers his pilgrimage to Mecca. He circled around the Kaaba, the highest sanctuary of Muslims, seven times. At Mount Arafat he prayed to Allah and then he, together with 15 other Indians, sacrificed a sheep before boarding the flight back to their Mexican home.
"In Islam, race plays no role," the young man says joyously. His enthusiasm is understandable. After all, in his home state of Chiapas, Mexico's poorest, the indigenous people are viewed as second class humans, and whites and Mestizos treat the Indian majority as if they weren't there. In the southern Mexican provincial metropolis San Cristóbal de las Casas, the descendants of the Maya even have to move onto the street if a white person approaches them on the sidewalk.
Gomez, 23, converted to Islam eight years ago; ever since then, he has called himself Ibrahim. On his first pilgrimage seven years ago, the Indian was still something of an anomaly. Today, however, Muslim women in headscarves have become a common sight on the streets of San Cristobal.
Conquerors from Spain
About 300 Tzozil-Indians have converted to Islam in recent years and it's a development that is beginning to worry the Mexican government. Indeed, the government even suspects the new converts of subversive activity and has already set the secret service onto the track of the Mayan Muslims. Mexican President Vincente Fox has even gone so far as to say he fears the influence of the radical fundamentalists of al-Qaida.
But the Indians have no interest in political extremism. Rather, they belong to the Sunni, Murabitun sect that was founded by the Scotsman Ian Dallas and is seen as an offshoot of a Moroccan religious order. The Murabitun followers represent a sort of primal Islam: Earning interest profits through money lending is a no-no and they preach a literal interpretation of the Koran.
"The see themselves as restorers of Islam," says the anthropologist Gaspar Morquecho, author of a study of the Muslims of Chiapas. "Their defiance of capitalism is similar in many respects to the critique of globalization espoused by many left-wingers."
More and more Mayans are finding their way to Mecca.
DPA
More and more Mayans are finding their way to Mecca.
While the Mayan Muslims in Chiapas have been receiving extra attention of late, the Tzotzil conversion has been underway for some time. In the mid 1990s, a group of Spanish Muslims embarked to Latin America to spread the word; their leader was Aureliano Perez, who is now worshipped by the Maya-Muslims as Emir Nafia. He offered the Zapatista rebels fighting under Subcomandante Marcos, whom Perez supported, an ideological-religious alliance. Marcos was hesitant to enter the odd pact, but the Muslim missionaries were unperturbed: They discovered that the Tzotzil Indians made up the majority of the Zapatista rebels and were quite open to the teachings of the prophet Mohammed.
The battle for the souls of Chiapas is nothing new. In the 16th century, the Spanish conquistadors used brute force to convert the Indians to Catholicism. Half a millennium later, evangelical preachers from the US have turned Latin America into a religious battleground in their efforts to lure Catholics away from the Church. In the town of San Juan Chamula alone -- whose church is seen as something of a spiritual center by the Tzotzil Indians and attracts thousands of tourists a year -- there are 11 different congregations seeking to save the souls of the Indians.
The loss of cultural roots
The Catholics, however, are still, for the most part, in control. They belong to the mafia-esque former state party PRI run the town hall and the lucrative weekly market. In face of the advance of the evangelists, however, they fear that their influence may be waning and they have chased out more than 30,000 protestant Indians out of San Juan Chamula in the last three decades and hundreds have been killed or assaulted. Most of the refugees settled down in the slums on the outskirts of San Cristobal. Cut off from their cultural and religious roots, the Indians are easy prey for all manner of soul-savers.
"In Islam, the Indians rediscover their original values," claims Esteban Lopez, the Spanish secretary general of the Muslim community. "The Christians destroyed their culture." He presents the use and abuse of alcohol as proof. Alcoholism is wide-spread under Tzotzil Indians and the strict ban on spirits in Islam helps many to break the vicious circle of addiction and poverty.
In San Cristobal, the Mayan Muslims run a pizza shop and a carpenter workshop and they are seen by the whites as hard-working and diligent. In a Koran school, children learn Arabic and five times a day they pray in the backroom of a residential building. Empty congregation halls are not a problem for the new Muslims: Converted Muslims vow to witness the teachings of Mohammed among their families.
Anastasio Gomez -- aka Ibrahim -- for example, has managed to convert his entire family. He is especially proud of the conversion of his 100-year-old grandfather who was member of a Christian sect. "He was wandering from religion to religion all his live. Now he has found his peace of mind with Allah," says Ibrahim
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