RACISM OR COMMON SENSE?

Arizona passes a law to try and control its borders and all we hear are charges of racism. Is it racist to look across the border, see what's happening and say, "Not here!"? Just because the Mexicans that are involved in the wholesale slaughter of other Mexicans in the name of drug profits happen to be Mexican, is it racist to think that Mexicans may be part of the problem?

This isn't racism; it's common sense.

My guess is that the Mexicans that have come here legally don't want this violent insanity to follow them. Furthermore, and this is just a guess, most legal Mexican immigrants will be willing to put up with a little inconvenience to make sure they and their families remain safe.

No one wants to have to deal with the police any more than necessary and most don't like the idea of needing to carry identification with them everywhere they go. It just rubs Americans the wrong way. And it should and will continue to.

Sometimes though, for a short period, we have to do things we don't like to accomplish a greater goal. In this case, to secure our borders and keep our citizens and those that have come here legally safe from the hell that is playing out just across the border.

"Gunmen ambushed two police vehicles at a busy intersection in Ciudad Juarez on Friday, killing seven officers and a 17-year-old girl who was passing by, authorities said.

Chihuahua state spokesman Enrique Torres Valadez said six of the police officers were federal, and one was municipal. Authorities said the police officers in the vehicles were distracted by someone selling items on the street when the gunmen opened fire. The assailants then fled in three vehicles.

Investigators said they don't know why the officers were shot, although they don't believe they were targeted because of any recent arrests they had made.

No one has been arrested but police said they have recovered two of the three cars used in the shooting.

Ciudad Juarez is one of the world's deadliest cities, and a two-year turf battle between drug cartels has left more than 5,000 people dead.

...In the western state of Michoacan, a mayor of a drug-plagued town arrested last year for alleged ties drug traffickers was released from prison late Friday.

Genaro Guisar Valencia, who was stripped by lawmakers of his post as mayor of Apatzingan because of his arrest, told reporters outside the prison in the state capital of Morelia that he would ask the state's legislature to revert its decision.

Guisar Valencia was among 12 Mexican mayors arrested last year in an unprecedented roundup of elected officials accused of protecting drug traffickers in the state of Michoacan.

He's the ninth mayor released for lack of evidence.

An estimated 22,700 people have been killed in Mexico's drug war since December 2006."
Washington Post

IMMIGRANT ABUSE RAMPANT-IN MEXICO

To Archbishop Doaln and the rest at the USCCB; may I suggest you cast your gaze just a bit further South?

"Amnesty International called the abuse of migrants in Mexico a major human rights crisis Wednesday, and accused some officials of turning a blind eye or even participating in the kidnapping, rape and murder of migrants.

The group's report comes at a sensitive time for Mexico, which is protesting the passage of a law in Arizona that criminalizes undocumented migrants.

The Interior Department acknowledged in a statement that the mainly Central American migrants who pass through Mexico on their way to the United States suffer abuses, but attributed the problem to criminal gangs branching out into kidnapping and extortion of migrants.
Rupert Knox, Amnesty's Mexico researcher, said in the report that the failure by authorities to tackle abuses against migrants has made their trip through Mexico one of the most dangerous in the world.

"Migrants in Mexico are facing a major human rights crisis leaving them with virtually no access to justice, fearing reprisals and deportation if they complain of abuses," Knox said.

Central American migrants are frequently pulled off trains, kidnapped en masse, held at gang hideouts and forced to call relatives in the U.S. to pay off the kidnappers. Such kidnappings affect thousands of migrants each year in Mexico, the report says.

Many are beaten, raped or killed in the process."
Yahoo

STATES RIGHTS AND THE MEXICAN INVASION

"Mexicans in Arizona should carry documentation and “act carefully” after the state passed a law requiring local police to determine the immigration status of anyone suspected of being in the country illegally, Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said."
Bloomberg

I'd be the first to admit I'm not a world traveler but I'm thinking; isn't carrying your passport and acting carefully good advice for anyone traveling abroad?

...“There is an adverse political environment for migrant communities and all Mexican visitors,” Mexico’s ministry said. “It’s important to act carefully and respect the local laws.”

From people that I've talked to that do travel quite a bit, the same could be said to an American traveling in France, or Quebec, for that matter.

..."Mexican President Felipe Calderon said April 26 that his country’s citizens are “angered and saddened” by the Arizona law, which he said “doesn’t adequately guarantee respect for people’s fundamental rights.”

Well, President Calderon, Americans are angry and saddened that you can't stop the drug cartels from crossing our borders and killing our citizens. We're also a little pissed that you send slaves to our country to take our jobs from us. Killing us and taking our work doesn't show a whole bunch of respect for our basic human rights, either.

"...Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said during congressional testimony in Washington today that her agency has “deep concerns” about the law and that it will “detract from and siphon resources that we need to focus on those in the country illegally who are committing serious crimes.” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said today that the Justice Department may go to court to challenge the statue."

If the laws aren't worth enforcing then why do we have them on the books?

The Congress shall have Power To...provide for the common Defence;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization;
To define and punish...Offenses against the Law of Nations;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.
United States Constitution

While I see nothing in the Constitution authorizing the federal government's involvement in health care, cap and trade or bailing out the "too big to fails", there is a whole lot said about it's responsibility to control the borders. Yet, while our political leaders plot to take our freedoms through unconstitutional programs, the thought of actually fulfilling their Constitutional duties, you know, the one's they swore to uphold, doesn't seem to cross their minds. Perhaps if they had done their duty, we wouldn't be having to see the states pick up the ball.

Because the states are formed by the people and represent them, the states have the same right to self defense as that possessed by their citizens. When the Constitution was written to form the federal government the states authorized giving the federal government power to protect them in Article 1, Section 8. In so doing they did not abrogate their own rights and authority to defend themselves if the federal government refuses to act.

Arizona is defending itself against invasion because the federal government won't.

Just because the people form a police force for the common defense doesn't mean I don't have the right to shoot you if you enter my home without my permission. It's no different for the states.

"SOCIAL JUSTICE" CAN GET SOMEBODY KILLED ALONG THE BORDER

I just don't get it. People from other countries come here, break the law, avoid taxes, use the public services they don't pay for, take jobs from legal citizens by working for slave wages and yet, we are supposed to turn our backs. Many of these same people are involved in the drug trade, complicit in murder, extortion, kidnapping and all sorts of felonious activities and we're supposed to turn our backs.

WHY??!!

Because of some misplaced religious concern for the welfare of criminals that completely overlooks the very real threat posed by these same criminals to the welfare of the law abiding citizen, regardless of ethnicity.

Families may be separated; true enough. Families are separated every time a criminal is sentenced to prison. Yet, I don't hear an outcry from these same religious leaders to abolish prisons and set the felons free to maintain the cohesion of the family structure. Why?

Witnesses may be afraid to come forward. Again, true enough. The real and complete truth is that they are already afraid to come forward because they know that the drug gangs have the power along the border. If anyone is found to have reported criminal activity they will be killed along with their family. So tell me bishops, how does refusing to allow law enforcement to do it's job protect anyone from drug gang coercion? And who are you more afraid of; the American law enforcement officer that is controlled by the force of law or the Mexican drug gangster that controls by the gun?

We must absolutely control our borders before any other discussion takes place. Murder is a greater sin than separation of families and until immigration is controlled and our borders are secured murder will be the way of life along our Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and California border. The bishops have let a false sense of compassion blind them to evil. They've accepted this idea of a seamless garment; that all sins are equal, abortion and murder equivalent to a perceived denial of "social justice".

Common sense and our faith tell us this is a lie.

"Arizona’s three Catholic bishops and other religious leaders in the state have issued a statement calling on Gov. Jan Brewer to veto recent legislation targeting undocumented immigrants. They warned the bill would separate families and discourage crime victims and witnesses.

The Arizona Senate passed SB 1070 on Monday by a vote of 17 to 11. It requires state and local police to determine the immigration status of people if there is “reasonable suspicion” they are illegal immigrants. They must arrest those unable to provide documentation showing they are in the United States legally.

The religious leaders’ April 19 letter voiced “common serious concerns” about the bill. Bishop of Gallup James S. Wall, Bishop of Phoenix Thomas J. Olmsted and Bishop of Tucson Gerald Kicanas were signatories to the letter, as were leaders from Protestant denominations and a rabbi with the American Jewish Committee.

They warned it could classify as felons not only dangerous criminals, but also undocumented immigrants who came to the United States at “a very young age” and have “no familiarity” with any other country."
Catholic News Agency

THE NEIGHBORS COME OVER FOR A VISIT

So let's, for the sake of argument, say that this incursion over our airspace was approved by the military. Why wasn't the local sheriff notified?

If it was approved this is just further evidence of the complete lack of regard for state sovereignty displayed by the federal government.

If it wasn't approved, this is a chilling reminder of just how little regard the world has for our national sovereignty. Of course, one would expect this from Mexico. George Bush gave 'em the keys to the place and told 'em to use it whenever they want. They just took us up on the invite.

"The Zapata County sheriff Thursday was questioning why a Mexican military helicopter was hovering over homes on the Texas side of the Rio Grande.

It was one of the more jarring incidents of the fourth week of border tensions sparked by drug killings, and rumors of such killings, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez said he'd reviewed photos of the chopper flown by armed personnel Tuesday over a residential area known as Falcon Heights-Falcon Village near the binational Falcon Lake, just south of the Starr-Zapata county line. He said the helicopter appeared to have the insignia of the Mexican navy.

“It's always been said that the Mexican military does in fact ... that there have been incursions,” Gonzalez said. “But this is not New Mexico or Arizona. Here we've got a river; there's a boundary line. And then of course having Falcon Lake, Falcon Dam, it's a lot wider. It's not just a trickle of a river, it's an actual dam. You know where the boundary's at.”
My San Antonio