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Here comes the War on Guns - Texas are you ready for 100 more BATFE Agents?

Thundar

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If you think the war on drugs is bad, hold on brother because the war on guns is starting now in Texas!



Link: [url]http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090324/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/border_violence[/url]

White House unveils anti-cartel effort for border


By DEVLIN BARRETT and EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writers Devlin Barrett And Eileen Sullivan, Associated Press Writers – 54minsago

Featured Topics:

AP

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration plans to send more agents and equipment to the southwestern border to fight Mexican drug cartels and keep violence from spilling over into the United States.

Speaking at the White House Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said officials were still considering whether to deploy the National Guard to the border. She plans to meet with the governor of Texas to discuss the matter.

Deputy Attorney General David Ogden pledged "to destroy these criminal organizations" through a united effort on both sides of the border.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will travel to Mexico Wednesday for the start of several weeks of high-level meetings between the two countries on the drug violence issue.

Many of the moves announced Tuesday are a continuation or expansion of programs that already existed under the Bush administration.

Violent turf battles among the cartels have wracked Mexico in recent years, and led to a spate of kidnappings and home invasions in some U.S. cities.

Authorities said they will increase the number of immigrations and customs agents, drug agents and anti-gun trafficking agents operating along the border.

Prosecutors say they will make a greater effort to go after those smuggling guns and drug profits from the U.S. into Mexico.

Officials said President Barack Obama is particularly concerned about killings in Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana, and wants to prevent such violence from spilling over into the United States.

Among the moves the government is making:

_Doubling the border enforcement security teams that combine local, state, and federal officers.

_Adding 16 new Drug Enforcement Administration positions in the southwest region. DEA currently has more than 1,000 agents working in the southwest border region.

_Sending 100 more people form the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to the border in the next 45 days. A recent bill passed by Congress already provided money for the ATF to hire 37 new agents and support staff in the region to fight gun trafficking.

• Boosting the FBI's intelligence and analysis work on Mexican drug cartel crime.

The administration is also highlighting $700 million that Congress has already approved to support Mexico's efforts to fight the cartels.

Yet the plan so far falls short of Texas Gov. Rick Perry's request last month that 1,000 troops be sent to bolster border security in his state.

During a visit to El Paso last month, Perry said he had asked Napolitano for aviation assets and "1,000 more troops that we can commit to different parts of the border."

Asked then it he wanted the military, Perry said, "I really don't care. As long as they are boots on the ground that are properly trained to deal with the border region, I don't care whether they are military troops, or National Guard troops or whether they are customs agents."

Last week, a Perry spokeswoman said that federal border protection had been underfunded for some time and that the 1,000 extra troops Perry requested would fill in gaps that state and local agencies have been covering.

While Mexico has insisted the U.S. take more responsibility in the drug fight, officials south of the border have also bristled at the increasing "militarization" of the border.

Mexico officials are likely to welcome the stepped up efforts north of the border, but they have argued that much of the extra border security added recently has made illegal immigration more dangerous and done little to nothing to crackdown on the illegal weapons trade.

_____

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writer Christopher Sherman in McAllen, Texas, and Traci Carl in Mexico City.
 

demnogis

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Why send BATFE agents instead of Natl. Guard or Army? My thoughts:

1) The drug smugglers that come through the border are protected by the corrupt Mexican Military. They even come up past our borders and shoot at our border patrol agents, Minute Men, etc. There are even documented incidents of Mexican Military and drug cartel members impersonating officers, performing faux raids, murdering our civilians, etc. If they were to engage any of our military in this fashion at our border, our men would not lose. It would also be an official act of war.

2) The BATFE may also provide another level of protection to these smugglers. It is known that some police departments knowingly "look the other way" in respect to incidents involving the Mexican Military (detailed in #1) and take no action. This will give the appearance of another agency "handling things", when they are actually going to be hands-off, dealing inside Texas with the citizens giving the appearance of increased security.
 

DKSuddeth

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I get it. This is how the executive branch will get around congress not re-enacting the AWB. By sending federal agents he can declare the drug war border crossings a clear and present danger to the security of the US and implement his own form of a ban.
 

spy1

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Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
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U.S. to Redirect Resources to Stop Spillover Violence From Mexico

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/firs...olence-mexico/

"The Department of Homeland Security is doubling the number of law enforcement working along the Southwest border and could request border state governors to send National Guardsmen to help curtail spillover violence from Mexico."
...
"The recent moves are part of a $700 million plan for securing the southern border with Mexico. The plan includes "redeploying" existing personnel from immigration enforcement, work site enforcement and possibly even customs enforcement to help prevent spillover violence."
...
"Working with the Department of Justice, DHS has announced eight components to fighting back against violence along the border, including doubling DHS presence in certain areas along the border and beefing up the violent crimes unit from 50 to 100 agents; tripling intelligence analysts along the border, likely centered in El Paso, Texas; and increasing Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel at the attache office in Mexico from 24 to 36 officials.

DHS is also increasing its technology and south-bound rail screening to look for guns going from the U.S. to Mexico. DHS will also increase its outreach to state and local law enforcement and grant programs aimed at law enforcement."
...
"The FBI is also creating a Southwest Intelligence Group to serve as a clearinghouse of all FBI activities involving Mexico and is increasing its focus on public corruption, kidnappings, and extortion relating to border issues. It is also recommitting itself to the Central American Fingerprint Exchange initiative, which was developed to collect, store and integrate biometric data from El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and the Mexican state of Chiapas as well as the Transnational Anti-Gang initiative, which coordinates the sharing of gang intelligence between the U.S. and El Salvador, where the gang MS-13 originated.

The Drug Enforcement Administration will add 16 new agents to its 11 offices along the southwest border region, and the Justice Department will create four new "mobile enforcement teams" in Chicago, Atlanta, Phoenix and El Paso.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is creating 37 new positions for "Project Gunrunner" to keep guns from going to Mexico. ATF has helped bring in 1,500 defendants on charges involving 12,000 weapons.

U.S. Marshals are going to Mexico to help authorities pick up and bring back cartel leaders to prosecute and the Justice Department is going to create a Southwest intelligence group located in El Paso to focus on public corruption and kidnapping.

Treasury has also made targeting the financial networks of Mexican drug trafficking organizations a top priority and is collaborating with the Mexican government to analyze cross-border cash flows to try to distinguish legitimate activity from drug money laundering and other illicit transactions.
"
 

SlackwareRobert

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Well if the feds declare the danger wouldn't that protect the guns in LA, since
they have coded law that forbids them from touching the arms of citizens?

Just heard the feds will increase xray machines, how many assault weapons
can you shove up you *ss and still walk over the border?

Lets hope they use the words WAR on anything, then take them to task
for war crimes by purposely targeting civilians against the geneva convention.
 

Thundar

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SlackwareRobert wrote:
Well if the feds declare the danger wouldn't that protect the guns in LA, since
they have coded law that forbids them from touching the arms of citizens?

No, the law says they cannot confiscate, but they will raid, detain, harass, etc until the cows come home. Road blocks, check points, questioning, profiling and other harassment will be part of the game plan.

They say they are looking for gun runners, but how do they decide if you are a LAC with a gun near the border or a gun runner?

Go ahead BATFE, try to take away a Texans guns. It i not a matter of if, but of when more WACO and Ruby Ridge incidents happen.
 

DKSuddeth

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May 8, 2006
Messages
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Bedford, Texas, USA
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just throwing a little conspiracy theory out here, but what if the gov and media feel they must absolutely continue this false reporting that the cartels are getting this massive run of guns from the US, because if those of us along the southern border states like TX and AZ were to actually determine that drug cartels were using machine guns in our states, we would actually demand congress remove the 86 ban?
 
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