MICHAEL CUTLER: BORDER REALITY OF SPILLOVER VIOLENCE
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/border-security-reality-of-spillover-violence
Whenever the issue of immigration is raised, almost invariably the discussion focuses on the border that is supposed to separate the United States from Mexico. Of course, the issue of the southern border of the United States is a serious matter. It has been said that this border is the only place on our planet where the Third World collides with the First World. The violence related to the drug trade, playing out across Mexico, has claimed nearly 50,000 lives since Felipe Calderón, the current President of Mexico took office.
However, the issue of immigration is not just about the southern border, it is estimated that some 40% of the illegal aliens in our country did not run the US/Mexican border but rather entered the United States through ports of entry. It is officially estimated that there are more than 5 million illegal aliens in the United States who violated the terms of their admission into our country by overstaying their authorized period of admission, seeking unlawful employment, or failing to work on a temporary job or to attend a school for which they were admitted. Some of these aliens may have committed visa fraud in order to enter the United States or may have committed and subsequently been convicted of committing felonies in the United States.
In fact, the 19 terrorists who wrought such wanton destruction on our nation on September 11, 2001, all entered the United States through ports of entry. This is why I have repeatedly stated that any state that has an international airport or a seaport must be considered a “Border State.”
Beyond the issue of how illegal aliens enter the United States or come to become illegally present is certainly a major issue, but the failures of the immigration system do not end there. Fraud permeates the system by which USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) provides immigration benefits upon aliens such as conferring lawful immigrant status or United States citizenship upon aliens via the naturalization process.
However, for the purpose of this commentary, let us just focus on just how secure our supposedly secure US/Mexican border is and the issue of spillover violence.
Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of Homeland Security has proclaimed the US/Mexican border to be secure. She has repeatedly denied that spillover violence from Mexico is a problem for the United States.
On February 23, 2012 I wrote an Op-Ed for Fox News Latino that was entitled: “Michael W. Cutler: Border Spillover Violence is a National Reality”.
Even as the head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issues press releases and proclamations about how secure our borders are and how violence is limited to Mexico, she also issues statements as to how many hundreds of American cities are now infested by the extremely violent Mexican drug cartels that are known to be utilizing a level of violence that parallels the tactics employed by Middle Eastern terrorists including the use of IED’s (Improvised Explosive Devices) and beheading anyone who gets in their way.
Furthermore it is well-known that there are transnational gangs playing their “trades” throughout our country. Some of these gangs are linked to Latin America while other gangs have their origins in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Europe. Members of some of these gangs have entered the United States by running our nation’s borders, while others arrive at ports of entry and are admitted into the United States via the inspections process. A recent FBI report claimed that there are approximately 1.4 million gang members in the United States. While many of these gang members are United States citizens, many are not. The FBI report was entitled: 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment-Emerging Trends. Here is an excerpt from that report:
Key Findings
Gangs are expanding, evolving and posing an increasing threat to US communities nationwide. Many gangs are sophisticated criminal networks with members who are violent, distribute wholesale quantities of drugs, and develop and maintain close working relationships with members and associates of transnational criminal/drug trafficking organizations. Gangs are becoming more violent while engaging in less typical and lower-risk crime, such as prostitution and white-collar crime. Gangs are more adaptable, organized, sophisticated, and opportunistic, exploiting new and advanced technology as a means to recruit, communicate discretely, target their rivals, and perpetuate their criminal activity. Based on state, local, and federal law enforcement reporting the NGIC concludes that:
- There are approximately 1.4 million active street, prison, and OMG [outlaw motorcycle gang] gang members comprising more than 33,000 gangs in the United States. Gang membership increased most significantly in the Northeast and Southeast regions, although the West and Great Lakes regions boast the highest number of gang members. Neighborhood-based gangs, hybrid gang members, and national-level gangs such as the Sureños are rapidly expanding in many jurisdictions. Many communities are also experiencing an increase in ethnic-based gangs such as African, Asian, Caribbean, and Eurasian gangs.
- Gangs are responsible for an average of 48 percent of violent crime in most jurisdictions and up to 90 percent in several others, according to NGIC analysis. Major cities and suburban areas experience the most gang-related violence. Local neighborhood-based gangs and drug crews continue to pose the most significant criminal threat in most communities. Aggressive recruitment of juveniles and immigrants, alliances and conflict between gangs, the release of incarcerated gang members from prison, advancements in technology and communication, and Mexican Drug Trafficking Organization (MDTO) involvement in drug distribution have resulted in gang expansion and violence in a number of jurisdictions.
- Gangs are increasingly engaging in non-traditional gang-related crime, such as alien smuggling, human trafficking, and prostitution. Gangs are also engaging in white-collar crime such as counterfeiting, identity theft, and mortgage fraud, primarily due to the high profitability and much lower visibility and risk of detection and punishment than drug and weapons trafficking.
- US-based gangs have established strong working relationships with Central American and MDTOs to perpetrate illicit cross-border activity, as well as with some organized crime groups in some regions of the United States. US-based gangs and MDTOs are establishing wide-reaching drug networks; assisting in the smuggling of drugs, weapons, and illegal immigrants along the Southwest Border; and serving as enforcers for MDTO interests on the US side of the border.
Clearly, violence is most certainly spilling across our borders, and this information is to be readily found in an unquestionably authoritative FBI report, not some supermarket tabloid.
The impact of increasing numbers of transnational gangs and their members throughout our country and the failures of our government to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws effectively can be felt in every one of our fifty states and in communities from coast to coast and border to border.
Simply stated, the presence of these pernicious criminals causes America to bleed red (blood) and green (money).
Furthermore, the first step in problem-solving is to acknowledge that there is a problem in the first place. It is more than a bit disconcerting when the highest ranking official of the DHS declares that our borders are secure and that spillover violence is not occurring-especially when so many reports and news releases that are prepared by various government agencies provide clear evidence that undoubtedly contradicts the position that Ms. Napolitano has taken on these two highly important issues that have a clear nexus to national security.
People tend to not attempt to solve problems that don’t exist and it would certainly seem that in Ms. Napolitano’s world these serious problems are no problems at all. Perception becomes reality. As the saying goes, “None is as blind as he (or she) who would not see.”
Michael W. Cutler, is a retired INS Senior Special Agent. His career with the INS spanned some 30 years. He has provided expert witness testimony at more than a dozen Congressional hearings, he provided testimony to the 9/11 Commission and provides expert testimony at state legislative hearings across the country and in trials where immigration is at issue.
Mr. Cutler has been named Senior Immigration Editor at AND Magazine. His commentaries and weekly video programs that focus on border security and immigration issues especially where they impact national security, community safety, the economy and a host of other issues can be found at: http://www.andmagazine.com/category/talk_border.html
Read more: Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/border-security-reality-of-spillover-violence#ixzz1v7USHd7q
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