Driving by the border

[kingmantraveler]

Interesting.
We can talk this subject to death and not a solitary thing will happen.
It's very very unlikely 1070 will stand as is.
We'll return to the status quo, the people will continue to move north, politicians will rail against the increase in that northward movement, the unwashed masses will continue to show their displeasure on various and sundry blogs and forums, then someone's going to come out on the short end down there.
Unfortunately, that'll be the catalyst. It's going to take a bunch of deaths, and I'm not talking "Illegals", (Lord knows, enough of them have already met their maker trying to cross the desert). I am talking citizens of the United States.
Then, and only then will our elected politicians finally find common ground and control the border.
We shall see.

[Plays In The Dirt]

"Then, and only then will our elected politicians finally find common ground and control the border.
We shall see.

Unfortunate but true.

[Ghost]

Some of my family has lived on the border since 1849. Others since prehistory. The European settlers married Mexicans and vice versa. None of these family members can stand illegals. Not one. These American conservative "cracker" relatives are as brown as any ethnic "Mexican" and still express absolute hatred for the "scratchbacks". One explained to me that "back in the day" the Mexican-Mexicans would compete for the same girls at local American social events, like school dances and such. They were considered the biggest criminal threat for years before pot was popular The American-Mexicans were grateful to live "above the line" Proud of their assimilation, most served in the armed forces over the generations, hold college degrees and own businesses. They have earned every right to resent the illegals.
To the poster that travels to, and camps near the border: it's a nice place to visit but you really don't want to live here. The nightly AND daily gunfire, even out here on the frontier, is a frequent reminder that the west is still very wild.
We frequently get pulled over and questioned by the very brave and over-worked Border Patrol. A Border Patrol lookout is stationed about 1000 feet away from our place. They trust no one. They are rotated out every two weeks to help prevent corruption. They are supposed to have positive interaction with us locals but still suspect everyone. That has to be schizophrenic at the very least.
The military guys are not friendly and will run off the road ANYBODY they want to; it's happened to us numerous times. They skulk about with high tech gear and weapons, but like all the civilian police, they're impotent to stop the demand for cheap pot and meth.
Recently another body was recovered a half mile away from us. Only a mile from Mexico and within a stone's throw from a pond, the "immigrant" was most likely murdered by a competing cartel or he dipped into his backpack of meth a little too much.
The federal government has spoken loudly over the years: "Out here in the perimeter, you're on your own"
To the feds:
Message acknowledged loud and clear.

[hoser]

Penalty's are not high enough until you raise them their will be a market for slave labor and drugs the two major problems with not controlling your border, tighten up the border is only a temporary solution to stopping the flow they will figure a new way across or around as long as their is a demand.

Fine employers 10,000.00 per undocumented worker, so it ends up the illegal has false ID too bad the employer still pays 10,000.00 per worker when they are caught employing and the IRS collects the fines, if you want to challenge the fine in court and you loose the fine is now 30k bux per illegal employee, here is a HINT for anybody wanting to hire someone if they cant speak fluent English either set aside 10k bux to pay a fine or hire someone that can speak fluent English chances of you getting a illegal that speaks fluent English is pretty slim its all common sense, no more excuses.

So you run some of these business out of business, GOOD we dont need a business that is performing illegal activities in our communities.

Second time your caught with illegal employees the fines ALL triple.

Time to raise the penalty for drug offenses how many times you seen on COPS a cop letting a guy off because he only had a small amount of POT people all over this world are dieing every day because of POT and cops are going EASY on them WTF?, one of the major problems with our whole judicial system is they REWARD people for BAD BEHAVIOR what is the first thing they do for someone when its their FIRST OFFENSE they let them off EASY, all first offense charges should automatically be double the normal fine double the penalty no more rewards because its your first offense.

Solving the problem is EASY you just need to ENFORCE current laws, double your current law enforcement size and crack down, RAISE ALL fines to fund it, you could EASILY make law enforcement a PROFITABLE BUSINESS at NO COST to the tax payers.

Law enforcement corruption is EASY to control start putting convicted corrupt law enforcement officers in prison for life and make them WORK perhaps they can build some of that cheap crap walmart has built in china, build it here use convict labor, send enough of them to prison for LIFE they will think about doing something illegal once they see a bunch of others setting in prison if not thats cool too MORE employees for the convict labor program thats going to pay for this nations prison systems..

Run it like the BUSINESS it is!

[Plays In The Dirt]

Gentlemen/Ladies - While I have my own strong feelings regarding Illegal Immigration we are getting away from the intent of this forum which is "Travel In The Desert."

I don't want this to get out hand and have to delete posts so "please" let's move away from the Illegal Immigration issue and get back to Travel In The Desert.

Thanks for your understanding....

Greg - (Plays In The Dirt)

[kingmantraveler]

I understand your concern about getting away from the main topic, Greg, but I'll take my chances with your judgement calls.
As I (think) I mentioned earlier, I am planning on travel in the desert - down there on the Camino - and this is a great medium for getting answers and opinions. Thanks for the heads-up.

[Plays In The Dirt]

I've seen threads get out of hand many times (and quickly), especially hot button topics such as Illegal Immigration. Thanks for understanding.

Greg - (Plays In The Dirt)

[reptilist]

I was just down poking around the Pajarito Mtns, just West of Nogales.... I never had any troubles, I saw lots of border patrol and some game rangers....

I came around a bend and saw two badass crackers in full camo, holding assault rifles....I wanted to take their picture and sell it to a magazine, but for some reason, I just drove on by them.... Drat! Up the road a mile or so I ran into about 6 border patrol vehicles and they were pretty darned interested in the vigilantes that I mentioned in passing. They zoomed off to intercept them in short order.

I asked a game ranger about the illegal problem and he said that neither the drug runners nor the transient workers want anything to do with me. He said that they want to remain unseen, and that I pretty much had nothing to worry about. That was a lot different attitude than the paranoia I encountered over in Cochise County where that poor rancher was murdered.

I was a little apprehensive going into those hills, but I drove around all day and night and never saw any indication of violators except for the random water bottles at road side. In my opinion, there are a lot more dangerous circumstances out there in the desert than a chance encounter with illegal immigrants.

[LDMGOLD]

Terry:

I agree with you one hundred percent. My wife and I were down on the Papago Reservation at Sells and San Miguel. The situation was just about the same. None of the illegals want to make contact with us Gringos. Yes, there is a lot of paranoia associated with this illegal immigrant crisis in the Southwest. I have observe lots of Border Patrol Officers on the Papago Reservation. YES, I know it is the Tohono O'Odam Reservation, but that requires more typing. My Spanish is passable, but few illegals will chat even the Green Carders. A lot of extremist are spreading paranoia on this issue of illegal immigrants. If we are not careful these extremism will have this border country back to the level of conflict that existed during the Mexican Revolution 1910-1919. I have lived here all my life and I have never had a problem along the border or in Mexico. When I was a teenager I use to pick watermelons, cantaloupes, cotton and lettuce with the Mexicans. It was always better than no job. Then I got promoted to bucking bails of alfalfa in the Gilbert-Chandler area. I use to visit Sonora Town and Pueblo Alto to buy good tamales and burros. Do you remember Sonora Town and Pueblo Alto Terry?

Take care, excuse any errors!

Tom K.

[reptilist]

No, I sure don't remember those places Tom...
As a teenager I used to live with a whole town full of migrant workers at a place called Eaglefield, somewhere near Fresno, CA. I was the garbage man/horse stall manure shoveller....I don't know how I lucked into that.