Tag: us/mexico border

"We've already had one blue-on-blue incident," said the park ranger. "We don't want any more. There are fourteen different agencies working in this part of the desert." "It seems like you guys don't communicate very well with one another," I said. He smiled. "There are fourteen different agencies." In the past year, I've traveled to a number of locations in the Arizona/Sonora border region where smuggling activity is considered to be high. Sometimes I encounter law enforcement; sometimes I don't. I can't say that I've met people from fourteen different… Read More

Although the issue has declined in popularity among the major news organizations recently, the proximity of the border between the United States and Mexico to my home keeps border security high on my list of concerns. I regularly travel to various desert locations where "activity" is high, and feel that I have a basic understanding of the real situation, rather than what is presented through various media outlets. Law Enforcement Challenges The most important factor to understand is scale. Even in one state - such as Arizona - there's a… Read More

Feel free, however, to stand a few feet away from the border with them. The enormity of the vital task entrusted to (perhaps foisted upon would be more descriptive) an inadequate number of Border Patrol agents is not truly apparent until you're standing on the border. I thanked all of the agents I encountered today. Without exception, every agent was very polite and professional. The "big fence" becomes a series of welded-together "vehicle barriers", which gives way to a simple barbed wire fence a few miles later. This is what… Read More

I'm going to deviate from the subject I normally cover on this blog and discuss current events. As pretty much everyone knows by now, the governor of Arizona recently signed legislation relating to illegal immigration. There has been loud and, at times, violent opposition to the law. Some of the strongest voices against the law come from Mexico - in fact, the Mexican government has condemned the law and issued a travel advisory informing its citizens about it. Perhaps misinformed would be the proper term, but that's another topic for… Read More