Note: Mr. Ashurst has lived here on the border for a long time.
Strongly suggest reading it.
His words, of course, are his own. But a lot of folks down here agree.
Subject: : Essay by Ed Ashurst
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:22:27 +0000
The Perils of a Taxpayer in a Foreign Land
"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 installation 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
Scottsdale 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 disdain 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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