A sad day for not only Arizonans but for all Americans. Another heroic U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed in the line of duty. Words of condolence to the family of officer Brian Terry seem so inadequate at this time. The agents of the U.S. Border Patrol perform the front-line defense of America’s borders. Theirs is a thankless job. They are reviled and demeaned by the left-wing liberals as racist bigots. Yet I, as a Mexican-American, have only been treated with courtesy and respect whenever I have crossed back to the United States.
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano called for increased security when she was governor of Arizona but changed her tune when President Obama selected her to be in charge of the U.S. Border Patrol as one of her duties. Since 2000, there have been three Border Patrol officers killed in the line of service and 19 have died in accidents in pursuit of illegal aliens crossing the Mexican border. Most of the deaths that occured in pursuit of illegal aliens were single-person accidents because there are not enough agents to work in pairs. Billions of taxpayer dollars are spent for earmarks but not enough to provide a two-person patrol against drug/illegal alien traffickers and coyotes armed with automatic weapons. When did America’s borders become an illegal alien rights issue? When did liberal political correctness override the constitutionally required defense of America’s borders? The U.S. Border Patrol never lost its way.
They are America’s Heroes.
Leon Ceniceros, Mesa
Dale Whiting posted at 9:00 am on Wed, Dec 22, 2010.
Leon,
Agree that border security is a constitutionally mandated responsibility of the Federal Government, not Jan Brewer or Joe Arpaio. And that is why SB1070 violates the Constitutional consept of federal pre-emption. Agree that when governor, Janet Napalitano called for more ICE agents and border patrol. Then she got the job and saw how much more difficult it was to just send in more agents. Agree that ICE and the border patrol are doing their jobs to the best of their ability and agree that they despirately need more help. But strongly disagree that any more focus needs to be placed on those illegals who cross the border looking for work. It's those pistol packing drug smuggler leaders and coytees who need to be stopped. And Arpaio cannot find them. Why? Because they are hard to find. And it is easier to get good press coverage arresting the easy to find! SB1070 has and will accomplish only one thing. It got Brewer and Pearce re-elected by a population who know next to nothing about the real problems.
Arpaio and SB 1070 would have the ICE system get backed up with illegal aliens who came looking for work, not terribly different that did my ansestors and yours. Sure, we can "build the dang fense" but that doesn't solve the problem. We need to address the border problem comprehensively, not with pills to treat symptoms but with cures that address all aspects of the problem. Is that a liberal point of view? No, it is a common sense point of view, a point of view once championed by the likes of then Texas Governor Geo. W Bush and AZ Senator McCain [version 1.0, not today's version 3.0. Who knows what version will be hear tomorrow!] both of whom no one has characterized as Liberal [until perhaps now! Are McCain version 1.0 and G.W. Bush liberals?]
And I have never heard of anyone, let alone "left-wing liberals,"revile and/or demean border patrol agents as racist bigots or as anything other than hard working dedicated men and women facing near impossible tasks. I have two acquaintances who are ICE agents. My opinions are founded primarily on what they tell me. Do you know anyone who works for ICE? Thought not!
Slabside posted at 2:49 pm on Wed, Dec 22, 2010.
Leon, I agree with you 100%. The Border Patrol is doing it's best against overwhelming odds and a total lack of support from the Federal government. I am so thankful for Governor Brewer, Russell Pearce and Sheriff Arpaio and SB1070 as this open border is out of control. Too many innocent Americans have lost their lives to illegals and yet the Feds do NOTHING. Arizona has to protect themselves from these vicious invaders. To H E L L with the bleeding heart idiots that pander to illegals. Over 70% of the population want these laws enforced.
Accuracy posted at 3:45 pm on Wed, Dec 22, 2010.
And I agree with Leon Ceniceros and what Slabside posted.
The federal government seems to have failed in its duty to protect its border and its U.S. citizens. Citizens have a constitutional right for our laws to be enforced.
As you have spelled out . . . The U.S. Border Patrol wants to solve our immigration problems, and are not for “Open Border.”
We need to secure our borders. We need to stop drug trafficking by illegal immigration.
Slabside posted at 4:57 pm on Wed, Dec 22, 2010.
Well said friend Accuracy![beam]
samkat posted at 6:16 pm on Wed, Dec 22, 2010.
Dale: You all over the map with your comments. Do you mean to say amnesty is the way to solve our immigration problems. If so, I would say you are missing the boat altogether.
Rich posted at 9:20 pm on Wed, Dec 22, 2010.
Heroes? Who are yours, who are mine? I'll give you a few of mine look them up, Thomas Aquinas, Percy Shelley, Benedict Spinoza, Averroise, Rene Descartes, Wilhelm Leibnitz, William James, Fredreich Neitzshe. What you have said is that thinking inside the box, doesn't work. None of your heroes creates paradise, mine might,
Slabside posted at 2:58 am on Thu, Dec 23, 2010.
Rich, your heroes have a rich legacy but are long dead. The heroes Leon is talking about are the ones dying on the front lines TODAY on the Arizona/Mexico border so you have the freedom to ramble about dead poets and condemn current conservative government that is trying to ensure your security.
Dale Whiting posted at 8:47 am on Thu, Dec 23, 2010.
Rich, clearly we are talking over their heads again.
They are thankful that SB1070 was passed. But they have no comprehension of why it is unconstitutional and will remain gutted. I suppose they are thankful for whatever they perceive they can get.
I use the word "comprehensive" in referring to immigration reform and they cannot think beyond "amnesty." I give up. I might define amnesty for them, but then I would be condescending. And apparently they do not wish me to descend to their level of thinking.
Have a good Holiday Season, Rich. I know you are a gnostic. What do gnostics do for celebrations through out the year? And do not take offense. But I find that gnosticism was one of the earliest influences on what came out of the early church and has descended to today's definition of Christianity. Would you agree?
And by the way Accuracy, I am still waiting for your reply to my response to your comments given to my August 28 Column length piece on the history of Islam. Individually Rich and I know more about Islam than do any of the rest of you put together. And clearly we also know more about Christianity, too.
Accuracy, you seemed to get hung up on Cordoba House. So I found a piece in the New York Time from Dec 5, 2010 which addresses head on the initiative which lead to Cordoba House, now known as Park51. Allow me to condecend to the depths of your ingorance and assist you to begin to understand.
"The Gift of Reconciliation
"NY Times, Published: December 5, 2010
"In 1983, Rauf's father ''passed the baton to me.'' Rauf became the imam of the Al-Farah mosque in SoHo, now in TriBeCa, a dozen blocks north of the World Trade Center. ''I have been 27 years at Al-Farah mosque,'' Rauf said. ''That gave me my pulpit.'' Imam Rauf followed his father as a leading Islamic participant in interfaith dialogue, co-founding the multifaith Cordoba Initiative, named for -- and taking its mission from -- the Iberian city that was a medieval center of Jewish-Christian-Muslim reconciliation. ''There is a perception that Jews and Muslims and Christians must be each other's existential enemies,'' he says. ''To defeat that is an act of reconciliation.'' But then the great shock occurred. ''After 9/11, I was often challenged to improve U.S.-Muslim or Jewish-Muslim relations.'' And that is what he set about to do, including his role in the proposed Cordoba House at Park51, to be a center of reconciliation two blocks from Ground Zero."
This artical is factual and disputes most everything you said. Your facts are wrong about Park51. If there are too many big words here, look them up! But understand that even before 9/11 this imam was actively working on reconciliation between Christian, Jew and Muslim. That is why Bush 43 chose him as a diplomatic spokeman after 9/11! But now you "thick headed neo-cons" want to declare war on the vast majority of Muslims who would make peace and who are the primary sources of information on the terrorist activites of that very small group of militants who would make war. Love the message but kill the messinger? Now that's a new one on me!
Go figure!
Your Conservative [in the image of Goldwater and Buckley] Patron!
Accuracy posted at 9:25 am on Thu, Dec 23, 2010.
Dale Whiting comments: "Rich, clearly we are talking over their heads again."
Bragging again!
Well maybe that’s your ‘bragging rights’ to assert boastfully about your status, your superiority, your age, and your years of achievement . . .
Instead of sticking to the subject, which happens to be “Border Patrol are America's heroes”. As samkat ask you Dale; “Do you mean to say amnesty is the way to solve our immigration problems?”
Rich posted at 9:45 am on Thu, Dec 23, 2010.
Security slab? They are incompetents, and only aggravate the situation. Security consists of buying equipment from the friends of Obama, using it badly and putting us all in danger. If security is what they are trying to do, I want a refund on my taxes.
Gnosticism predates Christ by a couple centuries and is a theology, not a religion. Gnostics have been Jewish, Christian, Moslem, Zoroastrian and Hindu.