Check this from eastvalleytribune.com: “Armed conflict in Arizona between sheriff’s deputies and heavily equipped drug cartel squads is inevitable.” Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu [not shown] announced at a speech last week. “We’re expecting a conflict. . . I absolutely believe you’re going to see that happen in the next 30 to 60 days. It’s not like I’m trying to start a war with the cartels. They’re coming through like they own this place, and we’re trying to stop them. I pray that every time, they surrender.” TTAG’s calling tomorrow (Monday) to see what firepower Barbeu’s boys are bringing to bear on the bad guys. Meanwhile, rest assured that it gets worse. Much, much worse . . .
Babeu ripped into Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s contention that the border is as safe and secure as it has ever been. Last year in the eastern portion of Arizona’s two sectors, which includes Phoenix and Tucson, the U.S. Border Patrol reported apprehending 241,000 illegal immigrants. However, the agency estimates there were an additional 400,000 illegal border crossers in this sector that were not caught, he said.
“Close to 20 percent already have criminal records established in America,” Babeu said.
A significant percentage of illegal immigrants caught in Pinal County are from countries other than Mexico, he said, including “countries of interest” such as Yemen, Somalia and Syria.
Huh. As a firearms website, I’m loathe to stray too far into a political arena. But let it be known that twenty percent of 641,000 is 128,200. Let’s say that estimate’s off by 50 percent. And let’s assume that 10 percent of these 64,100 illegal immigrants with a U.S. criminal record are involved in a violent crime in which a firearm is used. That’s 6,410 “gun crimes” per year.
Here’s one from azstarnet.com . . .
Three Mexican men accused in the killing a 15-year-old Tucson girl in 2009 have turned themselves in at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Customs and Border Protection spokesman Brian Levin says the men arrived at the Nogales port of entry in southeastern Arizona at about 1:40 a.m. Saturday and told officers they had warrants out for their arrest and were turning themselves in.
They were identified as 20-year-old Orel Vasquez, 26-year-old Christian Vasquez, and 29-year-old Juan Leon.
Police say the men broke into a Tucson home in August 2009 demanding drugs and money from those inside.
At some point they realized they were in the wrong house. They ran out the door and tried to carjack a passing vehicle.
A woman driving refused to stop and police say one suspect opened fire through the driver’s window, hitting and killing the woman’s 15-year-old daughter, Brenda Arenas.
Notice that this AP-circulated story forgets to mention all three men were illegal immigrants. What does that tell you?
Stick to what you have been doing. If you enter into politics on this site it will reduce your credibility. If you absolutely have to discuss politics set up a separate site! Politics is a dirty world to enter and will instantly taint this mostly clean, transparently pro-second amendment site.
Please stick to Guns and Gun issues.
I’m all for keeping the site focused on firearms, but to think that we can divorce ourselves from politics is both naive and seriously flawed. First of all, the politics of the 2nd Amendment have been a focus of the site. And because we are all about defending those rights, anything that touches on gun rights/gun legislation is fair game at TTAG. The problem here is that, when the media’s bias affects a story like this, it’s no longer a story about illegal aliens committing gun crimes, but becomes a story about gun violence. That skews the story over into the Brady bunch and Bloomberg territory. If we refuse to engage on this kind of thing, we’ll be guilty of complicity in allowing the MSM to frame the argument as a gun “control” story.
I agree with what Brad Kozak has say on matter. Keep expose what ant gun people are saying is not fact but opion that does match the facts that tell people truth about gun control . Once people like you expose there opion as being opions with out facts back up there opions on gun control makes them look cartoonish and silly. It kind strange push for gun control on Mexico border come from ant gun congressmen who live in states no where near border who keep think just ban all firearms world be safer place. Note people live near border not share this train thought becuase they have seen frist hand are goverment fail do any thing about what happing at border.
What does nationality matter in a home invasion and attempted car-jacking/successful murder? Would the girl be less dead if the perpetrators had been Americans? Are Mexicans all criminals, or do you think there might actually be some of them who are just peaceable human beings trying to get by in the world? Bringing up their immigration status doesn’t change what they did, and it won’t win any arguments against the anti-gun crowd, they’ll just call you a racist or a xenophobe. If you argument is “Well, those were illegal immigrants who committed those crimes!”, they might have a point.
If the stats are correct, then then illegal immigrants represents a clear and present danger to public safety as a group. As we have no method to screen them at the moment to weed out the bad guys, we must address this danger on the group level first, by closing our borders. Then we can screen them and allow law-abiding Mexican and South American (and Syrian and Iraqi) immigrants into the United States on a rational basis.
Like most readers of this site, I have nothing against legal immigration. Both of my parents and my wife are immigrants. But the people flowing across our southern border must be forced to adhere to rules on legal immigration. The federal government and the President of the United States are charged by the U.S. Constitution with the scared duty of defending our borders. Defend already.
Nationality matters when the nation in question has a serious problem with violent crime.
“Close to 20 percent already have criminal records established in America,”
And we are told now would be a good time to disarm.
IF those stats were correct, then there would be an issue to be addressed.
But they aren’t. They are made-up stuff to scare citizens into giving up more rights, and providing even more funding to government groups that are already grossly overstaffed, overpaid and overfunded.
I am loathe to post links but because this kind of deliberate disinformation from irresponsible government officials makes my blood boil…
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-04-29/justice/arizona.immigration.crime_1_sen-russell-pearce-illegal-immigration-immigration-law?_s=PM:CRIME
This article is a quick summary of the actual crime stats from the FBI, and Border and Customs. Crime is down. The flow of illegals has been slowing for years. 100 years of crime stats tells that illegal immigrants are the LEAST likely to break the other laws.
I’m not supporting illegal immigration or illegal immigrants in any way, shape, or form. We as a nation need to figure out what we want to do about it. BUT, unwarranted villification of ‘dem damn Mexicans’ just so some government agency can get more funding is just plain wrong.
IF those stats were correct, then there would be an issue to be addressed.
But they aren’t. They are made-up stuff to scare citizens into giving up more rights, and providing even more funding to government groups that are already grossly overstaffed, overpaid and overfunded.
I am loathe to post links but because this kind of deliberate disinformation from irresponsible government officials makes my blood boil…
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-04-29/justice/arizona.immigration.crime_1_sen-russell-pearce-illegal-immigration-immigration-law?_s=PM:CRIME
This article is a quick summary of the actual crime stats from the FBI, and Border and Customs. Crime is down. The flow of illegals has been slowing for years. 100 years of crime stats tells that illegal immigrants are the LEAST likely to break the other laws.
I’m not supporting illegal immigration or illegal immigrants in any way, shape, or form. We as a nation need to figure out what we want to do about it. BUT, unwarranted villification of ‘dem damn Mexicans’ just so some government agency can get more funding is just plain wrong.
(sorry if this posts twice)
Take Arizona and lay the points.
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