Border Blogs: Expressing our Border Culture

There is no doubt it is very difficult to reduce County operational costs. The reality is that we are talking about people, individuals with families, mortgages, car payments and new borns.

At the same time, the easy way out is to continue to tax home owners, individuals with families, mortgages, car payments and newborns.

The choice reflects how one perceives the role of government and the duties and responsibilities it must undertake in the best interests of the population as a whole.

Hard decisions need to be made. In more prosperous times, perhaps "enhancing revenues" as Commissioner Escobar refers to property tax increases might have passed critical review by taxpayers. But, in the worst recession since 1932, keeping a government bureaucracy living beyond its current revenue stream is unwise and self-defeating.

Ms. Escobar's advocacy for a tax increase reveals, for all to see, her approach to the role of government and desire to increase its size and function.

The community must stand firm against this tax and spend mentality and support the majority of the Court in their efforts to reduce the bureaucracy and streamline costs.

In a pubic appearance, my opponent, stated that she did not understand why I was addressing immigration as this was a national issue.

Really?

My Dear Ms. Escobar:

You may not have noticed during your tenure at the County that it has been sued because of purported enforcement of immigration laws by our Sheriff.

You may not have noticed that the largest group of illegal immigrants reside in the outlying County areas.

You may not have noticed that given the large number of legal and illegal immigrants in El Paso County, there has been serious and vigorous debate regarding the role of the Sheriff in enforcing federal immigration law.

You may not have noticed that national leaders are taking their cue from Sheriffs, Commissioners and Mayors to determine the optimal course relative to immigration law enforcement.

You may not have noticed the County is funding a new bridge in Fabens that will have a direct impact relative to drug running and human smuggling.

You may not remember you strongly supported the prior County Attorney's advocacy for illegal immigrants through word AND resolution.

Given the above, your posture that immigration reform is not within the domain of the County because its a "national issue" reveals a profound misunderstanding of the leadership role of County Judge.

I listened to a recorded radio program in which my opponent for the County Judge seat, Veronica Escobar, addressed our policy differences.

It was astonishing to hear her comments which revealed one of three things: feigned ignorance, incompetence or lack of knowledge of many issues. Whatever the case, she is demonstrating a profound and disturbing lack of leadership.

Relative to the proposed policy of the tax and spend marijuana cartel that it wants to outlaw pet stores, Ms. Escobar said, "This does not affect the County." She proceeded to laugh and said, "Maybe, he should run for Mayor..ha, ha."

My dear Ms. Escobar:

You may not have noticed that during your tenure at the County the single biggest complaint from County taxpayers and constituents is the high number of stray and dead dogs dumped by city folk in the outlying county areas.

You may not have noticed, the primary issue in contention with the City health department is precisely the handling of carcasses.

You may not have noticed the Sheriff's department is expending time and money to address the issue of dogs and other animals which is not in the least bit in their job description.

You may not understand that if the city closes down pet stores, they will move to the county, as has happened with other things flushed from the city like an aromatic morning deuce.

Mano a Mano on the Issues
Over the course of the last few months, it has become increasingly clear County voters have a choice in the November election relative to the County Judge race.

The contrast of Conservative versus Tax & Spend Cartel perspectives are on full display.

Commissioner Veronica Escobar Pleters and County Judge Chief of Staff Jaime O. Perez offer starkly different solutions to the problems facing the County both in fiscal and social impact terms as evidenced below.

Voters demand to be fully aware of the issues on which the candidates differ and the perspectives they bring with them to the office of County Judge.

Both candidates are educated, experienced and well-qualified but the issue is what decisions they will make and how those decisions will impact the fiscal and social well-being of taxpayers and voters.
Issue
Deny Smokers Jobs UMC....JOP Opposes - VEP Favors
Law Enforcement Consolidation....JOP Opposes - VEP Favors
Legal Marijuana....JOP Opposes - VEP Favors
Restrict Tattoos in Office....JOP Opposes - VEP Favors
Outlaw Pet Businesses....JOP Opposes - VEP Favors
Domestic Partner Benefits....JOP Opposes - VEP Favors
Alien Amnesty....JOP Opposes - VEP Favors
Certificates of Obligation....JOP Opposes - VEP Favors
Low-Income Housing Tax Credits....JOP Opposes - VEP Favors
Parks District....JOP Opposes - VEP Favors
Parks Outsourcing....JOP Favors - VEP Opposes
Alien Decriminalization....JOP Favors - VEP Opposes
Control Borders....JOP Favors - VEP Opposes
Militarize Border....JOP Favors - VEP Opposes
Cut Property Taxes....JOP Favors - VEP Opposes
Lower County Debt....JOP Favors - VEP Opposes
Eliminate Non-Mandated....JOP Favors - VEP Opposes

With a potential cost in the tens of millions of dollars, tremendous acrimony between city and county officials and a baseline of hundreds of millions of dollars with a growth rate of 9 to 10 percent a year, the proposal by Veronica Escobar to consolidate the sheriff's and police departments is simply misguided and fiscally irresponsible.

In times of shrinking budgets, pie-in-the-sky wish lists that cost taxpayers additional dollars is wrong-headed and, almost, insulting.

The tax and spend cartel of el paso is at it again.

The County is facing a severe retrenchment of services due to budget constraints. This is not going to improve over the next few years. To propose a goal that will add tens of millions of dollars to the budget is not a sound, fiscally responsible approach.

The list of wrong policy approaches goes on.

The doobeous, tax and spend and intrusive government advocates in power continue to push through what is increasingly an anti-business, anti-taxpayer agenda.

Tobacco - City government has already taken away 1. the liberty of business people to decide what to allow in their business and 2. the liberty of consumers to decide which businesses to patronize by making smoking illegal. Now, one public entity wants to deny employment to taxpayers whose behavior they find offensive.

This policy is misguided.

Tattoos - The city is denying freedom of speech to those that choose to brand themselves with tattoos. As long as professionals are groomed and serve the public honestly and diligently, it is not right to force them to conform to some standard of beauty or behavior.

This policy is misguided.

Terriers - To force the commercialization of animals underground is to ensure crime, poor health and their exploitation. The fundamental argument by the doobieous tax and spenders is that legalizing dope reduces crime. The same logic applies. Criminalizing animal sales ensures an increase in abuse and crime.

This policy is misguided.

Taxes - To increase taxes to cover spending it cannot afford is not going to help get the city or the nation out of recession. This policy ensures more fiscal pain in the future.

This policy is misguided.

The recent announcement the city will seek a tax increase, during a period of time in which the populations is suffering high unemployment, housing foreclosures and repossessions, is outrageous.

In response to this announcement, Citizens for Good Government, a conservative non-partisan advocacy group that favors a freeze on property taxes and reducing public debt, has come together again.

It will circulate a citizen's petition to demand a freeze on property taxes for two years and a 7 percent reduction in public debt of all levels of government including the city, county, hospital and school districts.

If you want to help collect signatures, please contact me. The goal is to collect 32,000 signatures or 25 percent of November voters.

A member of the yellow-dog democratic faction called me rather concerned that Commissioner Escobar had been heard at a conservative gathering that she was a, "fiscal conservative" that would not raise taxes. He called me because he knew I was at some forums with her and wanted to know what she was saying to the public at those debates.

If it is true that Escobar is shifting right, this would be very worrying to Democrats because it means more county government employees will lose their jobs and programs will be in cut in the budget process. It is no secret I have proposed an across the board deflation of salaries to make up for the $12 million shortfall in the budget.

The Democrat asked if what he was hearing is true.

I can only report that I do not know if Ms. Escobar will raise taxes. The good news for constituents is the budget hearings are being held during the month of August.

Commissioner Escobar's budget votes will be part of the public record.

Marijuana advocates Beto O'Rourke and Steve Ortega were shaken up over the fact Mayor John Cook and City Manager Joyce Wilson were summoned to appear in District Judge Bonnie Rangel's courtroom at the request of Theresa Caballero and Stuart Leeds during a city council meeting.

They claim the episode was an "example of the dysfunctional courts system in El Paso."

They added they are upset one of their colleagues still has no final trial date, that a local judge was jailed for misbehavior on the bench and that another judge stands accused of violating the law.

They were equally offended downtown property owners with back taxes are able to postpone their cases. O'Rourke and Ortega describe downtown owner properties as "rotting firetrap properties that litter Downtown El Paso."

Their solution?

They want to appoint judges writing, "We feel the state of Texas, and the City of El Paso, should adopt a system whereby judges are selectively appointed so that their only constituency is justice."

They, of course, failed to add, "and whomever appointed them."

If only O'Rourke and Ortega could appoint the judges, everyone would gain justice. Tears well up in my eyes every time I visualize O'Rourke appointing a judge or extend the city manager contract or, otherwise, remove accountabiity of public officials from the voter.

Justice is a function of not being accountable to the voter argue O'Rourke and Ortega.

If only God would hear them and give them the power to control the administrative, judicial and legislative branches. Amen!

Not long ago, a local radio talk show host mocked a local political activist for "running for everything under the sun."

The embarrassed activist called in to clarify he had run for a few positions and to stand up for himself in the face of the apparent intention to humiliate him.

Any citizen who engages civic activity and participates in the life of the community should be respected, not mocked.

There are many people who have run for multiple offices, carried petitions, participated in campaigns and held public positions on the important issues of the day. Some have been successful and others have not.

I, among them, have participated in many activities and my participation is a function of the fact that I care about my values that include participating in my community, my family and my country.

I have no doubt, others who participate as I do, care about our community. I have helped some petition organizers even when the issue at hand is something with which I personally disagree.

In my view, the more citizens learn how to engage the civic process and participate, the better for our democratic society.

Those that sit in their chairs, pontificate, second-guess and ridicule the work of those that give of themselves to make a better community need to rethink their condescension.

I suppose it should come as no surprise.

Despite an arguably tainted federal crusade and its misuse of FBI publicity-oriented tactics to slam guilty and innocent alike

And

Despite the intention of the feds to destroy one political group and solidify support for another

And

Despite the effort by those self-same FBI operatives to cover their skullduggery with high-sounding phrases of cleaning up "corruption."

The stupid among us continue with their penchant for cutting deals as if nothing at all had ensnared their colleagues over the last five years.

Leaving aside the innocent for a moment, the stupid among us really need to wake up and smell the Kanoff thesis.

You remember the Kanoff thesis right? Named for the zealous prosecutor in the FBI cases in El Paso, Debra Kanoff, the thesis holds that political contributions are bribes.

If you want to know who pulls a politicians strings, look at their financial contributions.

It didn't take long for influence peddlers to rear their ugly heads.

No doubt, the egg on the face of federal prosecutors, due to their inability to bring their targets to justice and have them serve jail terms, has made them gun shy.

The more things change...

Ratings drive talk radio and so allowances must be made when hate speech issues from local talk hosts such as Freyermuth, Abeytia or Strelz.

Unfortunately, important social, legal and political issues are polarized, trivialized and convoluted to such an extent that little clarity glimmers through the rhetoric.

The discussion around the Arizona SB 1070 legislation is a case in point.

Clearly, nations must safeguard their borders. The US is no different. Tragedy and death sometimes occur in the exercise of safeguarding sovereignty.

While I agree and advocate for safeguarding borders, I take issue with those that want to push the envelope further by attempting to overturn long-time traditions including the promotion and value of cultural awareness and rights that inhere in those born in the US.

Such things must be let alone lest they threaten the status of millions of legal immigrants and their children and by definition, possibly provoke true civil conflict.

If some force people to take sides by ethnicity or race, the nation loses.

The following is the slogan adopted to promote my campaign for County Judge:

More With Less.

Our nation, and by extension local government, has reached a point of no return. Either Americans agree to practice frugality as public policy or risk literally destroying the world around us.

It is imperative we adopt restraint in the acquisition of goods and services and creatively use what is already within our control to achieve a reasonable, long-term quality of life.

As a community, we must decide to reduce and recycle waste, curb unnecessary or whimsical and costly habits, suppress the impulse of instant gratification with the use of credit, seek efficiency and cost-free options, and practice bartering.

The end goal is to cut expenses, channel more money to long-term productive and quality of life goals, and maximize financial capacity.

There are many skills that applied to the environment can yield benefit, e.g. self-help, gardening, fishing and animal husbandry. These self-same skills can provide interactive and profound meaning to life. They are the source of significant values, e.g. self-reliance and low-impact restorative living.

To accomplish this, we, as a community, must adopt a frugal strategy and must resist the dominant "get high, tax and spend someone else's money" strategy personified by local elected officials that believe "more is better" or that "credit is a means to sustainability."

A classic example is the proposal by an elected official promoting streetcar restorations at a million dollars a car who received the support of print media editors. That kind of thinking is directly opposite of what is talked about here. In a context of high government debt, consumptive patterns that are destroying the earth and a banking system driven by financial derivatives -- such policy is consumptive, highly and negatively impactful on the environment, credit-based and not grounded in anything tangible.

I challenge the community to adopt a policy that seeks possibility in a context of fewer resources. Let's do More With Less.

Disproportionate Force

A number of voices have been clamoring about "disproportionate use of force." This is a concept that is of little use according to most serious students of jurisprudence and international law. It is vague and amorphous to be of much use to yield any conclusions relative to incidents that occur on international borders.

The Border Patrol Standards

Border Patrol Laws, Part 12
(ii) Non-deadly force may be used only when a designated immigration officer, as listed in paragraph (a)(1)(iv) of this section, has reasonable grounds to believe that such force is necessary...
(A) Border patrol agents...
(2) Deadly force.
(i) Deadly force is any use of force that is likely to cause death or serious bodily harm.
(ii) Deadly force may be used only when a designated immigration officer, as listed in paragraph (a)(2)(iii) of this section, has reasonable grounds to believe that such force is necessary to protect the designated immigration officeror other persons from the present danger of death or serious bodily harm.

Appropriate Response

There is no reasonable standard applicable to an international border that does not require a significant underlying premise - An international border is a legal and military boundary that requires absolute standards of inviolability. Crossing it is, by definition, an invasion and, as such is subject to deadly use of force.

Moreover, in the subject case, the shooting on the US Mexican border in El Paso, a border patrol officer was in imminent physical danger.

While tragic, the response was consistent with federal policy and international standards.

Two migrants, two border agents, two tragedies within days of each other.

Needless, senseless and heart-breaking.

Yet, as tragic as these deaths are, the blame falls squarely, fully and unequivocally on President Felipe Calderon and his abject failure to control the norther border.

He needs to stop being the principal enabler of illegal migration and President Obama needs to stop looking the other way.

The blood of those migrants are on the hands of Calderon. His policies continue to fail to address a porous open border for which he has responsibility. He has failed to properly lead his people to prosperity and has engaged a drug war that is destroying the country.

Tragic circumstances. Nevertheless, we must stand firm in support of those that protect our borders.

A group of lower valley residents is lobbying Rep. Eddie Holguin to run for the seat currently held by Rep. Norma Chavez.

The primary contest between Rep. Chavez and her, ultimately successful, opponent left many in the central and lower valley disappointed. They believed the media had a very important role in the race and feel the true Democrat did not win.

Eddie Holguin is the current Representative for District #6. City council positions are non-partisan, although Holguin makes no bones about his Democratic credentials.

However, a run for the seat would require him to file as an independent.

The last time Holguin was drafted to run for office, he received 600 calls from constituents in one week.

Those close to the Representative say he is not interested in the race. However, after a great deal of lobbying, he left the door open to the possibility. He said that if enough people stepped up to support him, he would reconsider.

Polls conducted during the Chavez race showed Holguin as the top vote getter in a potential matchup with those running in the primary.

In what can only be considered an insulting and bigoted effort to impose a chauvinistic doublethink upon border residents and national policy-makers, the associated press ran a story that asserts the border is safer than ever.

Indeed, it claims there is no problem of violence on the border.

George Orwell coined the term doublethink.

It is defined as the mental state that allows anyone,

"To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory...to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it...to forget, whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself -- that was the ultimate subtlety; consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed.”

Associated Press doublethink is the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously,...To tell deliberate lies...to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies — all this is indispensably necessary (for) the exercise of doublethink.

It is scarcely imaginable that the Associated Press would run such a story in the face of so much pain among our residents. The latest victim a 3 year old girl.

What possible crime might that innocent soul have committed? Simply because she is not American, she doesn't count?

What of those kidnapped americans that have been found tortured and shot? decapitated and dismembered? Simply because they were murdered in Juarez, they do not count?

How shamelessly insensitive, uncaring, and bigoted.

Perhaps the individual who allowed the story to go to print, should sign his or her name to the story. In the final analysis, they should also be accountable to those who suffer at the hands of Los Desgraciados.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/292678

Reality can not and will not be ignored.

To all men and women in the armed forces:

Thank you for your service, sacrifice and commitment.

In memory of those that have enriched our lives, let us all re-dedicate ourselves to our great country's founding principles.

To all those who make dedicate their lives to the mission of protect all Americans.

Thank you.

(What follows is a compilation of comments received by Mexican leaders for a report requested by the County Judge of El Paso.)

Military actions directed by the Mexican government to disrupt drug corridors, capture drug cartel leaders and otherwise disrupt relations between the cartels are having severe consequences on the social fabric of key northern cities including those on the US side of the border. There is widespread insecurity and fear.

Recent events suggest the central government has lost control of large sections of northern Mexico.

Local police forces have been wiped out or are highly compromised. The military has not been able to exert control over key major cities and complaints of rapes, theft and violence by the military against citizens has resulted in a partial pull-back in some areas.

According to border officials on the Mexican side, the problem of violence stems from the dissolution of the shadow, “La Oficina de Gobernabilidad” (L.O.G.), that operated under the federal regimes prior to Felipe Calderon administration.

This L.O.G. office was an informal tool by the government that managed and directed the flow of drugs through the country. The handful of existing and major cartels, at that time, had an explicit agreement to work within assigned spheres of influence.

The administration prior to Calderon's, in an effort to be responsive and be deemed cooperative with the US in order to gain favorable economic concessions (and control the trade through informal channels), made a fateful decision to eliminate the L.O.G.

Some members of the Fox administration took it upon themselves to become the de facto managers of the major corridors. However, the informal transfer of authority occurred without the institutional knowledge that had been accumulated by L.O.G. This included the names of key players and significant mid-level actors. As a result, there were significant gaps in the territorial allocation of spheres of influence.

Absent a directed accommodation among cartels in some sectors by the federal government, freelancers took up the challenge. Initially, these freelancers were not difficult to control and were referred to as “Encuerados” (naked ones) because they were lower class, poorly educated and cash poor.

However, things changed dramatically: By the time of the assumption of President Felipe Calderon’s administration, “Encuerados” were increasingly known as the “Desgraciados” (Immoral heartless brigands). They were now cash rich and had acquired a taste for unrestrained social and personal power, “15 year olds with $400,000 and with no one to tell them they couldn’t do what they wanted.”

They have distinguished themselves with, particularly gruesome, acts of violence such as, cutting off heads, torture and rape, not to mention, kidnappings of those with family in the US.

This grisly modus operandi includes innocents. The key symptom of the growing presence and power of the Desgraciados was the rape, torture and murder of women who worked in the maquiladoras.

These smaller gangs had six years (late 1990s to early 2000s) to build their cash and infrastructural capacity. It is these gangs that are primarily responsible for the on-going carnage in the urban centers. They do not have a central authority and are widely dispersed. They also are not educated, relatively young (20s) and have no moral compass. This is a consequence of their entry into the drug trade in their formative years as mules and couriers.

The collapse of the police forces occurred during the same time frame because they were the default managers of local drug movements. The closing of the L.O.G. resulted in local police captains making decisions at their discretion. The symptom of the problem became evident when municipal police began showing up dead.

Once top level officials no longer played the game or changed the focus of the game, “Encuerados” turned “Desgraciados” and their local law enforcement protectors became the perpetrators and targets of violence at the same time.

The most common complaint against the drug war as being conducted by President Calderon is the “Cortar Cabezas” (Off With Their Heads) strategy. This is provoking greater disaggregation of the major cartel leadershp and, inadvertently, expanding the recruitment base for “Desgraciados” with links to the principal cartels.

Another complaint is the intimidation of the judicial system. Asserts one informant, “The northern states are not dominated by the political and judicial class any longer but rather by agreements between the political groups and the dominant cartel operating in the state.”

The point was made this way, “Calderon is working off a map of reality that no longer exists. The new map is not made up of 10 major cartels but tens of dozens of minor gangs of Desgraciados. Some have links to the major cartels but many operate independently.”

Even when some leverage can be applied, key opportunities are lost. For example, the arrest of the wife of a cartel leader was a major event recently but fear of retribution made the event a lost opportunity. One opinion held, “Applying the IRS formula against the Mafia would have worked in that case. Any review of the financials of the family would have borne fruit but the prosecutors were intimidated. One prosecutor brought in from outside the state to take over one prosecution lasted less than 10 days on the job because of the pressures to rig outcomes favoring the cartels.”

Another respondent stated, “One federal judge goes to work in a baseball cap and a beat up truck to avoid being recognized.” Yet another said, “Recent disappearances of high-powered attorneys are a consequence of their failure to fulfill their function as protectors of the cartel leaders.”

Despite reports of the emergence of one cartel in the fight for control of Juarez, this resolution is far from clear. The battle continues: One major group is lead by “La Linea” with some complicity with current state officials (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Tamaulipas) and accommodations with the Gulf Cartel and one lead by “El Sinaloense” (Sonora, Baja California and part of Chihuahua) with their respective federal government and military allies on both sides of the US-Mexico border.

Both have hired mercenary armies (e.g. Zetas, Barrio Aztecas) composed of professional criminal gangs with military-trained operatives to assert territorial dominance. In turn, they have empowered local neighborhood gangs for urban distribution of drugs, intimidation and control of local law enforcement through threats on relatives.

Officials on the US Mexico border have expressed need for increased manpower on the border as well as infrastructure (roads, facilities, ports of entry) support. Mexican officials concur with that recommendation. However, they believe that nothing will change unless the border is effectively “closed to drug trafficking on the US side.”

One poignant difference between perceptions by US officials and their Mexican counterparts is the distribution of illegal exports into the U.S., “The industrial quantities of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana are moving through Texas at Reynosa and the southern Texas border and including Cd. Juarez with major distribution hubs in El Paso, Dallas ad Houston (then on to Atlanta and Chicago - not Arizona or New Mexico.

The fact is law enforcement at various levels is complicit with the importation and distribution of drugs into the US through Texas. For example, the Gulf Cartel is in business not as a distributor of drugs primarily but as a border crossing agent and importer.”

As for exports of guns and cash from the US into Mexico, there has been little effort or willingness on the part of US government to stop the flow because it threatens key cartel interests tied with law enforcement.

Rural areas in the US report “increasing” transportation of marijuana in the last few months ascribed to legalization of (medical) marijuana in California, New Mexico and Colorado. They note general lack of communication, coordination and information from federal law enforcement.

Mexican officials noted they believe wholesale legalization must be on the table in Mexican federal policy or, alternatively, the US must take responsibility for its policy that is promoting increasing demand for drugs including the medical marijuana strategy. This strategy is increasingly supported by political and law enforcement actors in the Southwest.

As for increase in Mexican military action, myriad complaints from Mexican citizens regarding the increase in military personnel, untrained to police urban centers, is the immediate direct cause of the pull back announced recently by the Calderon administration. But there is a consensus that the military strategy has failed.

Some local officials in Texas supported by the fact of political action by US states and cities to legalize marijuana in California, New Mexico and Colorado have given rise to the perception by Mexican officials there is an effort to shift market share from Mexican to US sources of marijuana.

Already there are reports 75% of the marijuana supply to Texas is coming from California.

These same officials do not conclude legalization of marijuana in the US will impact the level of violence.

As for spillover, Mexican officials assert that the US cartels have issued orders to keep the US side peaceful in order to not create any disruption of their distribution networks. The people who have been killed that are US citizens or residents have been murdered because they brought attention to some aspect of the business or are involved. “Quiet neighborhoods are good business.”

At the same time, there are reports that US citizens, particularly children, are being kidnapped by Desgraciados in order to extort money, in some cases, and punish those that will pay for protection.

The solutions to these problems are simple but there is no political will “on either the US or the Mexican side to resolve the problem.”

The fact is strong action by either government in the right direction would ratchet down the tension, an essential ingredient of a new accommodation that will allow an independent police force to emerge on the border.

There is a strong feeling the safety valve of entering the US must continue to be available. Many Mexicans “with financial capacity are moving into El Paso and other border areas on the US side.” Symptomatic of that is the thriving retail business that caters to Mexican tastes and sensibility.

At the same time, there is great empathy with the challenges faced by the US. There needs to be a decriminalization of status “con candados” (with locks). “There are many people that are industrious, entrepreneurial and hard working families. The US needs to get rid of the scum but the majority are good people. The fact is that 90 percent of all illict smuggling of people, cash, drugs and weapons flows through the ports-of-entry.”

Recommendations

On Drug War
1.Interdict weapons, cash and drugs through inspection of south-bound traffic at Ports-of-Entry with Mexico;
2.Stop complicity of local law enforcement with cartels in SW states;
3.Militarize ports-of-entry;
4.Interdict drugs and illegal immigrants through inspection of north-bound traffice at Ports-of-Entry with Mexico; or, alternatively,
5.Legalize all drugs in Mexico and control the trade.

On Immigration
1.Decriminalize status of Mexican citizens in US “con candados”, that is, with no right to public welfare and benefits;
2.Deport anyone with a criminal record from US; and
2.Retool Immigration, visa, system (The backlog in applications is “the primary reason for illegal immigration.)