It's troubling but hardly surprising. Now comes this news on Examiner (LA).com that Mexican drug cartels have put a bounty of the head of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe
Arpaio.
http://www.examiner.com/x-35532-Dallas-Political-Buzz-Examiner~y2010m7d30-Arizona-Sheriff-Joes-head-Mexican-drug-cartel-offers-1M--price-for-Arpaio-video
Joe Arpaio (though we never met) is a retired DEA agent like myself. He is older than I, and as I recall, when I began my career in the early 1970s, he was the head of the Mexico City office.
This border issue is much more than just illegal immigrants. It is also about the drugs that flow across our border and the vicious traffickers who have turned the entire border area into a war zone. That aspect gets forgotten a lot in the overall debate.
I hope that all the pro-illegal alien advocates consider this new story. Who are really the bad guys here? It is not the state of Arizona, not Joe Arpaio, and it is not Jan Brewer. (And it is not the majority of the migrants themselves, most of whom come for decent reasons-to work, survive and support their families. We get it.)
However, the criminal aspect of this wave cannot be ignored or swept under the rug. This is not immigration. This is an invasion, and along with the poor workers are gang members, drug dealers and other assorted criminals. And guess who they prey upon primarily? The Mexican and Mexican-American community-including other illegal aliens.
One would hope that all those know-nothing activists, mostly from California, who raised Hell in Phoenix this week and hurled abuse toward Arpaio will stop and think about this latest development. You may not realize it, but that is what you are supporting.
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2 comments:
There was a bounty on Nacho's head ($5 million). I wonder who will claim it?
An interesting merry go round. Let's assume that drug cartels find Arpaio is an obstacle to the free flow of their business. The kind of clowning that gets him his headlines in the U.S. does not include anything that would, but he may do some serious law enforcement work when he's not showing off pink underwear and baloney sandwiches.
In that case, the drug cartels are taking the opportunity to put out this contract at a time when they can pose as heroes of the oppressed masses of hard working undocumented workers in the USA. Cynical, but politics is like that.
Ideally, advocates for these workers, without whom significant portions of the U.S. economy would falter, at least in the short term, would see through this cynical ploy, and denounce the cartels, who do, after all, prey primarily on impoverished Mexicans, on both sides of the border.
That's about as likely to happen as sincere, thoughtful pro-life advocacy groups denouncing Sarah Palin. Politics does, after all, run on a good deal of emotionalism, and a deficit of critical thinking.
Still, we have seen drug cartels threaten the sovereignty of Columbia, Mexico, and now they are testing the United States. So, paraphrasing Voltaire, I may not agree that Arpaio should be re-elected, but I will defend to the death his right to exercise the duties he was elected to exercise, in the teeth of the drug cartels.
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