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US lawmen outgunned in firefights along Mexican border

Little-Acorn

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Funny how this stuff doesn't get much press. Do we need to get some sheriffs or other American citizens killed, before the media decides it's worth talking about?

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http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51080

U.S. lawmen outgunned along Mexican border
Bad guys have superior firepower, can eavesdrop on communications of American law enforcement

Posted: July 17, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Joseph Farah

Hundreds of rounds of automatic-weapons fire rained down on South Texas sheriff's deputies and Border Patrol agents from the Mexican side of the border as they investigated a horror story told by two American brothers who fled across the Rio Grande fearing for their lives.

Several Hidalgo County deputies and at least four Border patrol agents were met with a sustained hail of gunfire alternating from the south to the east and lasting nearly 10 minutes, the officers said.

Yet, not a single shot was returned by the deputies or the Border Patrol officers last Wednesday night because they were outmanned and outgunned – a condition increasingly common along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, say law enforcement officials.

"This is one of the reasons that I do not allow my deputies to patrol the riverbanks or levies close to the river," explained Sheriff Lupe Treviño, "because we do know there are drug gangs and human trafficking gangs that will not hesitate to shoot in our direction to get us out of the area."

U.S. police officers and Border Patrol agents facing superior firepower from drug cartels, criminal street gangs and human smugglers based in Mexico? Yes, say law enforcement officials – and the situation is getting worse, not better.

Sigifredo Gonzales Jr., sheriff of Zapata County, Texas, recently testified in startling detail before a congressional committee how his officers are facing overwhelming odds in any confrontation with the criminal gangs who consider the border their turf.

"The cartels operating in Mexico and the United States have demonstrated that the weapons they possess can and will be used in protecting their caches," he said. "One informant familiar with the operations of these cartels mentioned to us that the weapons we use are water guns compared to what we will have to come up against if we ever have to. These cartels, known to frequently cross into the United States, possess and use automatic weapons, grenades and grenade launchers. They are also experts in explosives, wiretapping, counter-surveillance, lock-picking and GPS technology. They are able to monitor our office, home and cellular phone conversations. The original members of this cartel were trained in the United States by our government."

Gonzales was one of several law enforcement officials who testified before the Committee on House International Relations Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation on what they see as a serious terrorist threat at the Mexican border.

These powerful criminal gangs would not think twice about bringing terrorists or even weapons of mass destruction into the U.S. if the price was right, the officials agreed. Some of them believe they have already arrived.


(Full text of the article can be read at the above URL)
 
Yeppers ..... no reason to erect a wall...:doh . Can't think of a one :roll:
 
Seems like a good reason to have wall on the border.
 
If only....our "National Guard" was used to ...well...Guard the nation. The border patrol is under funded, and unapppreciated for what it must do to secure our borders (having lived in San Diego I am well aware), Yet we do not place the needed resources where they can do the most good....Why?

Bush budget scraps 9,790 border patrol agents
President uses law's escape clause to drop funding for new homeland security force




Washington -- The law signed by President Bush less than two months ago to add thousands of border patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border has crashed into the reality of Bush's austere federal budget proposal, officials said Tuesday.

Officially approved by Bush on Dec. 17 after extensive bickering in Congress, the National Intelligence Reform Act included the requirement to add 10,000 border patrol agents in the five years beginning with 2006. Roughly 80 percent of the agents were to patrol the southern U.S. border from Texas to California, along which thousands of people cross into the United States illegally every year.

But Bush's proposed 2006 budget, revealed Monday, funds only 210 new border agents.

The shrunken increase reflects the lack of money for an army of border guards and the capacity to train them, officials said.

Retired Adm. James Loy, acting head of the Department of Homeland Security until nominee Michael Chertoff takes over, said funding only 210 new agents was a "recognition that we need to balance those things as we go on down the road with other priorities."

The White House referred questions about the border agents to the Homeland Security Department.

The law signed by Bush had a caveat that went virtually unreported at the time. A summary, published by the Senate Government Affairs Committee, required the government to increase the number of border patrol agents by at least 2,000 per year, "subject to available appropriations."

Democrats were unhappy that the proposed budget used the escape clause so soon after the president approved the huge boost in border agents.

"We know we must do more to shore up security along our borders," said Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, top Democrat on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. "The president's budget does not even attempt to meet this challenge."

Some Republicans also were displeased.

"This is an area of homeland security that needs to be ramped up in order to increase surveillance and patrols of our nation's vast and often remote borders," said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

A Jan. 24 letter signed by leading Republican lawmakers implored the president to fully fund the new law "in order to secure our borders against infiltration by terrorists."


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/02/09/MNGOKB837T1.DTL


Virtually everyone in Congress was upset at this move......and yet, I will bet this is the first anyone here has heard of it.
 
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