The sky wept all day. Instead of playing pickleball in the rain we went to the activity center to hear a talk given by the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol. During the hour+ talk we learned the true answer to the question raised in an earlier blog: how many of the total people illegally entering our country actually come from Mexico. According to the chart below (and for other years) the ratio of Mexican citizens to citizens from other countries is 1/5, or 2 out of 10. Most of the OTM’s (other than Mexicans) come from Central America, but they also come from all over the world.
The chart below synopsizes the main concerns of the Border Patrol: the use of the ease of entry not only of illegal people, but the use of the open border by the drug cartels for flooding the US with illegal drugs, primarily marijuana and cocaine. The other concern for the Border Control is the welfare of the illegals. Many have to be rescued because they are injured or dehydrated. The dead need to have their next of kin located and be returned to their home countries.. Keep in mind that this chart only reflects one year in the Rio Grande Valley, which represents just a fraction of Texan border, which is only one state.
OTM means "other than Mexican"
When people talk of Dreamers—unaccompanied children here illegally—I wonder two things: how did we end up with 800,000 illegal children and why, after growing up here, and if we know how many there are, are they still illegal? The Border Patrol explained that the the term “unaccompanied children” means not with their parents. They usually come in large family groups including aunts, uncles, and other adult family members. The trip here is relatively easy—cross the river, hide in the tall grasses or sugarcane, get to TX 281, and then melt away. Since portions of the wall have been built along the US/Mexico border blocking access to some fields and other properties , farmers must open special gates to access their properties. Recently, a lot of these groups wait until someone opens the gates to access their property, walk through and wait to be picked up. Once they get onto American soil, the Border Patrol has to take care of them. The illegals must be given food, medical attention, and clean shelters, and personal items while they wait to be processed. Once everyone over 14 years of age are fingerprinted and photographed,they are sent to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) where they are told that they will be prosecuted on the felony charge of illegal entry, then flown home. They are given a court date and told to show up. Since the courts are backed up for months, most of them don’t bother to show up. They can’t be traced through fingerprints unless they commit a(nother) felony, so they become Dreamers.
After listening to the training required to become part of the Border Patrol, I have new respect for anyone who takes the job. After 5 months training, the new Patrol agents must be in top physical condition and know all of the laws that they have to inforce. It sounded to me very like a combination of armed forces physical training combined with law enforcement training required by police forces. The reason for this strenuous training is because the job is very dangerous.
The drug cartels operating along the border are very powerful, very rich, and very well armed, and very much in control of the Mexican government and police force. They have no trouble coercing people to carry their drugs across the border. They have no trouble orchestrating a disturbance at one point along the border in order to push the shipments across at another point too far away for the Patrol to cover both places. They have no trouble arranging deadly ambushes for Border Patrol agents when it suits their purposes. The controversial “Wall” was the subject of a short film. The film showed hundreds of people running into the US through the southern California border check. There weren’t enough agents to detain everyone. When a wall was erected there, the illegal entries dropped 90 percent. The film showed several entry points in different states where the same thing happened. In some, where the checkpoint was open, vehicles carrying drugs would crash through anyone in the way and take off. Since the vehicles were speeding through areas with a lot of people, agents weren’t able to give chase for fear of hurting people. They could only monitor the vehicles and hope they could be safely apprehended. (A lot weren’t.) Whenever a wall, and sometimes a vehicle barricade also, was erected, illegal entries dropped to 10 percent.
During a Q and A session, someone asked whether using our politicians to talk to the heads of Mexico and other Central American countries would help. Our presenter Agent said yes, that did work to reduce the number of their residents trying to enter the US. The problem arose when public attention shifted. Someone asked if the Border Patrol was in favor of building the entire Wall. The reply was that they saw the Wall as a deterrent. A lot of people couldn’t climb it and it gave the BP time to get to the area. They also said that it would make their job safer because it would be harder to set up ambushes.
Before I went to this presentation, I was ambivalent about the need for a wall. After hearing the statistics and other information, I now think the wall would be a good idea—at least until Mexico can implement and maintain a stable legal government, and the US can stem the flow of drugs entering the country from Mexico. After all, who foots the bill for all the illegals? We do, with our taxes.
Kind of a ‘downer’, but now you know.
Louise and Duane
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