Increasing Violence on the Border

News outlets across the nation reported Tuesday that the border city Juarez has exceeded 2,000 homicides this year alone, making it one of the most violent areas in the world outside of declared war zones.

Perhaps most startling is the rate in which the killings have increased. Before 2008 Juarez had about 200 homicides annually, but in 2008 that number soared to 1,600 killings by the year's end. Now, with two months to go before this year's end, the number has jumped again to exceed 2,000. The Houston Chronicle released an article in which they interviewed Tony Payan, a professor at the University of El Paso who has been studying the problem in Juarez. Payan is quoted in the article saying:

“Having hitched itself [Juarez] successfully to American patterns of consumption, including drug consumption, it has also become the one city where the crunch of the war on drugs and the worldwide financial crisis have had a very heavy impact,” Payan said. “Tens of thousands of young men roam the streets with little or no hope of obtaining a job, of receiving drug treatment, of escaping the cycle of violence.”

“And the possibility of violence, which also encapsulates the possibility of making some money, draws them back into the eye of the storm. And thus, they are falling dead right and left.”

The situation in Juarez and other border towns has left many in the U.S. questioning if the cartel violence will spread to the U.S. Just yesterday, the San Antonio Express reported that “several” people were killed in a shoot-out between cartel members and Mexican Police at the border town of Nuevo Laredo. The fire-fight took place in front of a day care center as parents were picking up their children from school. The SAE reported that no children or parents were killed, but that one woman suffered minor cuts from a piece of shattered glass. The article also stated that, “the Texas Department of Public Safety sent a helicopter at the request of Mexican authorities to help provide reinforcements, and as many as 20 troopers were sent to the border in case anyone tried to crash the bridge.” Officials were quoted in the article saying that as of late Wednesday, none of the suspects had tried to cross the border.

The question of whether drug cartel operations have filtered into the U.S. was arguably answered today when the U.S. Justice department announced that they have arrested 300 suspects accused of having ties to the La Familia drug cartel network. In the memo sent out by the Justice Department, Attorney General Eric Holder said:

“This unprecedented, coordinated U.S. law enforcement action - the largest ever undertaken against a Mexican drug cartel - has dealt a significant blow to La Familia’s supply chain of illegal drugs, weapons and cash flowing between Mexico and the United States.”

“We will not allow these cartels to operate unfettered in our country, and with the increases in cooperation between U.S. and Mexican authorities in recent years, we are taking the fight to our adversaries. We will continue to stand strong with our partners in Mexico as we work to disrupt and dismantle cartel operations on both sides of the border."

Further, an article in the Dallas Morning News indicated that 84 of the 300 La Familia arrests took place in Dallas. The DMN article also stated that they acquired a criminal complaint filed in Dallas in which “investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives claim that operatives of La Familia shipped hundreds of firearms from the United States to Mexico over the past 12 months.”

NPR related material:

Police Find 9 Decapitated Bodies In Western Mexico

October 16, 2009 | NPR· The state Public Safety Department said the bodies and severed heads were inside 18 plastic bags left in the bed of the truck, which was found blocking a highway in the town of Tlapehuala late Thursday. Police also found a threatening message attributed to the drug cartel known as La Familia.

Narcocorridos: Ballads Of The Mexican Cartels

October 10, 2009 | NPR· The news of Mexico\'s bloody cartel war is reflected in a controversial folk-music genre called narcocorridos, or drug ballads. They\'re like journalism put to song — telling stories of drug lords, arrests, shootouts, daring operations and betrayals. But, like the cartel war itself, writing corridos about drug traffickers can be risky business.

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Mexico\'s \'La Familia\' Cartel Mixes Spiritualism, Crime

October 1, 2009 | NPR· The Mexican government\'s war against drug cartels over the past three years has claimed more than 11,000 lives, snared thousands of alleged criminals and brought down scores of politicians. One of the newer cartels being pursued by President Felipe Calderon\'s administration is La Familia, a group that mixes politics, spiritualism and violence.

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Marijuana policy's affect on drug cartels

The Justice Department’s announcement that federal prosecutors are to back off medical-marijuana users has spurred a high level of debate between advocates and opponents. One primary topic of this debate is how the change in policy will effect Mexican drug cartels that gain much of their revenue from the sale of marijuana.

In a memo released to federal prosecutors, Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden wrote that the Department of Justice is still committed to the enforcement of the illegal sale and distribution of marijuana. The memo mentioned that illegal drug trafficking “provides a significant source of revenue to large-scale criminal enterprises, gangs, and cartels.” In addition, the memo stated that the prosecution of illegal drug activity was a “core priority” of the department, but that medical marijuana should be treated differently than illegal marijuana use. Ogden wrote, “As a general matter, pursuit of these priorities should not focus federal resources in your States on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.”

Representative Lamar Smith of Texas is one vocal critic of the new medical-marijuana policy. On his website, Smith is quoted as saying:

“For the past ten months, the Obama administration has promised robust drug enforcement efforts to help address cartel-operated marijuana fields in our national parks and drug-related violence along the U.S.-Mexico border. But we cannot hope to eradicate the drug trade if we do not first address the cash cow for most drug trafficking organizations—marijuana. Illegal marijuana sales in the U.S. help fund the illegal drug trade.”

Smith’s logic implies that the easing of prosecutions on medical-marijuana could benefit cartels and other organizations in the illegal drug trade. However, an article in the Los Angeles Times stated that one priority of the department’s new marijuana policy is “countering the violent Mexican drug cartels, which use vast profits from their U.S. marijuana sales to support other criminal activities.” The Justice Department's plan is opposite to Smith’s suggestion that the policy will help cartels, and the department is betting that the change in direction will allow federal officials to focus more of their energy on illegal drug traffickers, instead of those who are using marijuana legally.

NPR related material:

Government Issues Medical Marijuana Guidelines

October 19, 2009 | NPR· Federal agents won\'t pursue pot-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers in states that allow medical marijuana, under new legal guidelines issued Monday by the Obama administration.

U.S. Shifts Stance On Medical Marijuana

October 19, 2009 | NPR· U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is discouraging federal prosecutors from going after people who comply with state laws on medical marijuana. It\'s a significant departure from the Bush administration.

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Wanted: Professional Pot Critic

October 18, 2009 | NPR· Voters in the state elected to legalize medical marijuana almost a decade ago. But this year, there has been a boom in the number of dispensaries. Now, the Denver alternative-weekly newspaper, Westword, is seeking a freelance pot critic. Host Liane Hansen speaks to Westword editor Patricia Calhoun about the alternative weekly\'s search for a medical marijuana critic.

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Ban on Automatic Weapons Urged

According to the AP news, The Bi national Task Force on the United States-Mexico Border has recommended that the U.S. should immediately instate an assault weapons ban in order to improve the security of both the U.S. and Mexico.

One co-chairman of the Task Force, Robert Bonner, was quoted in the AP saying, “Improving our efforts ... will weaken the drug cartels and disrupt their illegal activities, and make it easier ultimately to dismantle and destroy them.”

In 1994 President Clinton instated an assault weapons ban. According to a Newsweek article, that ban lapsed five years ago and since then the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has “lifted virtually all restrictions on imports of foreign-made assault weapons, permitting a flood of cheap Romanian, Bulgarian and other Eastern European AK-47s to enter the country, according to gun-control groups.”

At the end of the 1994 assault weapons ban, the NRA put out a press release titled “Finally, the end of a sad era – Clinton Gun Ban stricken from the books!” The release argued that the gun ban was a “misguided law, which had no effect on the actions of criminals, but penalized law-abiding citizens, [and] was built on a campaign of lies. It was ended through a campaign of education, facts, and grassroots activism. The sunset of this ban was only made possible through the tireless efforts of millions of NRA members and tens of millions of American gun owners over the past 10 years.”

In February of 2009 Attorney General Eric Holder told the press that the Obama administration planned to reinstate the assault weapons ban. However, the Obama administration has since put the assault weapons ban on the back burner, claiming that Congress is too tied up with economic recovery and health care to deal with the ban at this time.

Immigration Detention to be Reformed

High reports of abuse and mismanagement has led the Obama administration to alter the way that immigrants are detained. In one new plan announced on October 5, immigrants awaiting deportation would now be held in hotels and hospitals converted into detention centers. This system would be different from the current immigrant detention system which includes holding immigrants in U.S. jails and prisons. According to an article by the BBC, accusations have been made that current detainees receive poor medical care and are denied due process. The BBC states that, "On 1 September, 2009, ICE had 31,075 immigrants in detention at more than 300 facilities across the US." The article goes on to describe how the majority of this population, 66 percent, were subject to mandatory detention, and that the other 51 percent were felons, and that 11% of those had committed violent crimes while the majority were seen as low risk.

The overhaul to immigrant detention was explained in a New York Times interview with Janet Napalitano, the secretary of homeland security. In the interview, Napalitano said that it was wrong to send those accused of immigration violations to jails and private prisons. "'Serious felons deserve to be in the prison model,' Ms. Napolitano said, 'but there are others. There are women. There are children.'"

In addition, the Fort Worth Star Telegram released an article stating that part of the Obama plan would "permit additional nonviolent illegal immigrants to await deportation proceedings wearing ankle bracelets outside prison walls rather than locked up in costly jail cells." Federal officials were quoted as saying that this process would keep families together, reduce the number of imprisoned immigrants without criminal records, and save money.

Global Public Policy Forum at UTEP

As the drug violence along the Texas-Mexico border continues, most seem dumbfounded as to how to address the problem. Last week, The University of Texas at El Paso hosted a bi-national drug conference to talk about the problems in order to better understand them. The conference hosted 30 speakers from both Mexico and the U.S.

An article by the San Antonio Express News quoted retired federal agent Terry Nelson as saying, “The global war on drugs is probably the greatest public policy failure of all time.” The Express article goes on to quote a California state judge, James Gray, as saying that drug crimes are one large part of why the U.S. leads the world in incarceration of their own people.



The El Paso Newspaper Tree, an online news site, pointed out in their coverage that two Obama admistation officials opted out of the conference at the last minute. “At a panel discussion organized by the El Paso Press Club on Saturday, UTEP Professor Kathy Staudt announced that President Obama’s border czar Alan Bersin and National drug control policy czar Gil Kerlikowske surprised organizers by bowing out days before the start of the conference.”

The fact that the federal officials did not show up was no surprise to El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles. “"I don't know why you're all so surprised about the federal government's unwillingness to address this because, quite frankly, they've ignored the problem for years, and that's why we're in the situation we're in now," Wiles told the Newspaper Tree.

Perry to Deploy "Recon Rangers"

In what he is calling a move to make Texans more secure, Texas governor Rick Perry has announced the deployment of a special team of Texas Rangers along the Texas-Mexico border. The special team is being called the “Recon Rangers” and was described in the Fort Worth Star Telegram as “resembling a military style commando unit in a foreign war zone.” In addition to the recon team, Perry has asked that a 200 member task force of Texas’ National Guard be deployed to assist in the operations. Perry said that in August of this year the team of recon rangers began monitoring private farms and ranches where cartels and human trafficking activities are thought to occur.

In a speech in Irving, Texas on September 10, Perry said that the creation of the recon rangers is necessary because the federal government has not paid enough attention to violence on the Texas-Mexico border. "Texas continues to deal with the federal government's abject failure to secure our international border," and he added later that “I have no idea why Washington has been so averse to defending, securing the Southern border."



Some have accused Perry of using the border issue as a way to charge up his campaign. An article by the Houston Chronicle quoted Senator Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, as saying, “Rick Perry gets real revved up right around election time. From border cameras to failed DPS funding, his border security measures have been abject failures.” Some of the local officials have also voiced their opinions about Perry’s plan. Laredo’s mayor, Raul Salinas, said that he is glad that Rangers have been deployed but would “appreciate coordination and cooperation with local authorities, because we can be of assistance. … We're the first responders in combating the drug cartels.”