According to a new report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the single largest cost of illegal immigration is educating the children of illegal aliens. Of the estimated $113 billion the U.S. spends on illegal immigration annually, roughly $52 billion goes toward educating the children of illegal aliens.

Friday, August 06, 2010
By Edwin Mora

(CNSNews.com) — The 1,200 National Guard troops that are being deployed incrementally to the southwest border “will not be doing direct law enforcement,” said U.S. National Guard Bureau Director of Communications Jack Harrison when asked if the forces would be interdicting drugs and undocumented immigrants.

“The two mission sets are criminal analysts and enter-identification team,” Harrison told CNSNews.com. “I can tell you that guardsmen will not be doing direct law enforcement on the southwest border.”

In other words, the National Guardsmen will not be used to actually stop and detain illegal aliens trying to sneak across the border into the United States.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE!

It was hard not to feel bad for the locals. They live in fear from the enemy every night. They say the first casualties of war are the civilians. This war is no different.

There have been over 22,700 deaths in this war since December 2006: civilians and combatants. Six thousand six hundred people died in 2008, alone.  That is far more than the US fatalities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The enemy uses every terror means at their disposal: beheadings, dismemberment, feeding live captured prisoners to lions, slowly lowering live victims into tanker trucks filled with acid and worse. These tactics are extremely effective. There are no rules in this war. The targeted kidnapping of children and family members is now Standard Operating Procedure. The enemy has even twisted religion into a cult membership tailored to its warriors and assassins.

After leaving the war zone, I would later experience how hard it was not to feel guilty. The locals over in that compound are good people. Besides the dogs, they are on their own. Once this mission was over, I could go home. Not so for them, this was home.

The enemy doesn’t like dogs. We had been alerted to and had been tracking their new routes in country by following a trail of recently killed canines. Every time the enemy would plan a new route, they would send their scouts ahead to take out any detection systems: in this case, the dogs.

Killing family pets was the least of the cruelty that I would see in my months in this sector: women left damaged and scarred by the atrocities acted upon them in the wilderness, their undergarments hung over tree branches as trophies for the enemy to brag about; the countless bodies, victims of the enemy who press the civilians into service; the terrain, the elements and especially the hopelessness of their existence in their own stolen, corrupted country.

They had been flocking into this region for years; lately, in record numbers.  Millions of them.  Some called them immigrants, some called them criminals. Some of them are both. I came to know them simply as: refugees.

This is a long war. As long as the enemy rules in their country and throughout the region, I do not see an end in sight.

The plight of the refugees creates not only sadness and compassion, but economic hardships, social and cultural divisions that threaten to tear apart the host nation.

The barking intensified. From a quarter of a mile away, I checked to make sure my weapon was clear. I didn’t want use it. We came here to gather intell. But if the enemy fired first, I wanted to be the one to go home to my family. I silently thanked those dogs for giving us the heads up that the enemy had crossed the line.  Then I asked God to keep us safe.

I love dogs. In the bush, in the dirt, in the middle of the night, if you asked me to choose between a good pair of night vision goggles and a good dog, I would take the dog every time. We didn’t have good night vision goggles, just a gen two scope. But even if we did, night vision can’t see through trees, berms or around corners. A dog’s nose and ears can. At that moment I was really missing my dog: Scout. The two nights  previous he had found the enemy more than 200 yards out. A silent lifting and tilting of his head, and all I had to do was sight between his ears. Sooner or later their scouts would come into our perimeter.

Many of the scouts were just beaters. They would hump a ruck through the bush, ignoring any kind of noise discipline. But some of them were simply outstanding. The enemy often recruits indigenous people from the interior for just such skills. The night before, I listened as this bush rat patiently took over half an hour to crawl 40 yards to freedom. He would match his movements to any sound camouflage opportunity that arose. As a distant vehicle would approach he would move. The louder the noise, the more ground he would cover. As soon as the vehicle passed, he would hunker down until the next one.

The plan had been to let the scout pass us, seemingly undetected. Once he radioed back that the route was clear, the main body of infiltrators would move up and we would film them.

That was the plan. The reality had been different. As the scout was about to move over our position, Scout had let out a low growl. In the thick brush the enemy couldn’t see us, but Scout’s growl had compromised our position. The enemy scout hit the dirt and patiently low crawled away. The rest of his squad never appeared.

So tonight, I had left Scout back at basecamp. In Iraq the Marines use German Shepherds and Dobermans. In this arena, Scout has an advantage over them. When you come across refugees in need of food, water or first aid, an orange Queensland heeler is much less threatening. After the abuse heaped upon the refugees by the enemy in the desert, they are fragile. Care must be used when aiding them.

Just as it was in Nazi Germany and Tojo Japan, once the enemy has been defeated, the refugees may return home to rebuild in freedom and prosperity. If America could win this war, that could happen again.

I would have felt more confident with the whole team on line. The enemy held the high ground. They had eyes in the hills. They had satellite communications. We didn’t.  We were in a dead zone, with no means to call for back up. If the proverbial fertilizer hit the fan, we were on our own.

The distant barking faded. The enemy had moved beyond the compound and was nearing our position. This wasn’t the only group that we would come into contact with that night. A group of  29 refugees had trekked directly through our position. Their scout halted the column as he went on alone to scan the wash down the trail. Although my language skills are limited, I listened as they whispered about the cold, the already sore spots from their packs, the soreness in their arms from the loads of water they carried. This is rough country and it was already taking its toll on them. As they dropped some of their gear for a brief rest, I prayed that they wouldn’t step on me.

Gunny  Thurman had once coached me: “If you are setting up in a tree, you be that tree. You believe with your entire will and every cell in your body that you are part of that tree and the enemy can walk right up to you, look straight at you, and he will never see you.” I hoped he was right. Problem was, at that moment I didn’t even have a real tree, more like a bush. “Be the bush….be the bush….” kept repeating in my brain.  I held my ribs as tight as I could with my left arm and tried to breath without expanding my rib cage. Forget flat on the ground, I was desperately willing my legs to sink beneath the sand.

That group picked up their gear and moved on as soon as the scout determined that the wash was clear. I wondered how many of the women in that column would ever make it to trail’s end.

This squad was better. They were almost to the trees before we heard them. That was outstanding noise discipline. The soldier on point was very good. At 27 yards he spotted the red pinhead sized dot from my spotting scope and slammed to a halt. I quickly shut it down.

Funny the thoughts that run through your head. My first was, “Wow. He is a pretty good dresser. His hat matches his coat, which matches his pants, which really sort of coordinate well with his sidearm and all the equipment that he has slung on his web gear.” A split second of silent brain laughter moved me into my second thought…. “These guys do slapstick better than the three stooges…” Boom, boom, boom. The three shorter men behind the leader stacked up and ran into each other with his abrupt halt.

Looking back at the tape later it was easy to see why. Their heavy loads had them bent over looking at the ground, instead of the man in front of them. Also, by watching the ground and stepping in the same prints of the man in front of them, the enemy made it much more difficult for us to accurately determine their numbers when we were tracking them.

The thermo cam still hadn’t come on line. You can bet your butt I was thoroughly impressed as the squad leader halted his column, and with only hand signals and a few whispered orders, he divided his men into two groups. He sent the first one around our right flank and up a low hill.

Our thermo came up just as his second in command brought up the rear and led the remainder of the squad to link up with the first.

These men were only yards away, full packs and equipment and we barely heard squat.

Usually when surprised, you will hear tuna cans or water jugs clinking together as the infiltrators didi mau away. Not these guys. There wasn’t a buckle jingle or cracking twig between them. These guys were well trained pros. This was a very efficient mule train moving contraband incountry at will.

We filmed the last of them as they picked up a higher trail around our position. I was very concerned that they would circle back behind us. I doubt they knew that there were only three of us. They continued on North.

As we came out of the bush the next morning we discovered that same night, not far from us, an infiltrator been shot and badly beaten. Left in the bush to die, I have always wondered if he had been one of the men we had filmed.

The last words of advice that Border Patrol had given us before we entered the Buenos Aires Animal Preserve was: “If you see guys with uniforms and automatic weapons, run the fuck away, because they aren’t ours.”

Those agents were dead right.

As I drove back to California, I got a phone call from the acting Border Patrol Tucson Sector chief asking me if I could give them a copy of the footage that we shot. He thought that it might save lives of new agents if they used it in the academy. I said absolutely. In fact we had just dropped a DVD of raw footage off at the BP sector station.

DHS and the Border Patrol Public Information Office leadership did not want us going into that dead zone. Rank and file agents went under the radar and sent the word out on the wire to keep an eye out for us anyway. I will always be grateful. That wasn’t the first time I saw field agents bucking Washington. While these heroic men and women face a superiorly armed enemy force from the South, they must constantly guard their rear from the bureaucrats and activists in Washington and the media.

A few minutes later I got a phone call from a federal agent on behalf of the Buenos Aires Animal Preserve, informing me that I had broken federal law by filming without the proper permit. I was told that if I ever came back I could be arrested and have my camera equipment confiscated.

That was my first firsthand experience with elements in the Federal government that are more focused on covering up the dangers of the border, than fixing them.

In July of 2005 I started to make BORDER, a film that I had hoped would document an important time in US history. If for no other reason, my wife and I wanted to have the truth on record for our kids. In my wildest dreams I never thought that in October of 2005 I would film foreign troops entering our country at will.

About the same time, on a ranch that we had just left in South Texas, 21 armed soldiers in black battle dress uniforms, the first three wearing night vision goggles, were observed escorting 6 civilians through the bush. That ranch is 69 miles north of the border. Who were these civilians that they afforded  such protection? Where are they now?

Five months after that night Texas DPS and Hudspeth Co. Sheriff’s deputies ran into Mexican troops and Humvees on our side of the Rio Grande. The drug laden SUVs tried to escape across the river and get back into Mexico. One made it. One got stuck.

Mexican troops deployed into the dense cover of the riverbank salt cedars and tried to outflank the US law enforcement personnel, as drug cartel members unloaded narcotics from, and then burned the SUV. The Federal officers were ordered out of the area. The agents wanted to stay, but the orders from higher up said no.

A similar situation had happened in Hudspeth Co. in November of 2005. When Sheriff Arvin West reported the confrontation with Mexican Military troops to the US Federal government, he was told that the incident never happened. Instead of arming his deputies with bigger guns, he bought them video cameras. When the next confrontation happened, they filmed the entire event. This time the Federal government responded very quickly. The FBI called and wanted to confiscate every tape. Sheriff West told them to go to hell, he was going to the media.

Fifteen months after we filmed our incursions in Arizona, a unit of  Tennessee National Guardsmen were deployed on the same ground. This time when foreign military troops came into the US positions, the US troops were ordered to fall back, observe and report. They did.

The foreign troops probed further and tried to outflank the US troops.

Again the US troops were ordered to fall back, observe and report. They did, and again the opposing force advanced further until Border Patrol air support came on scene and the foreign soldiers retreated back into Mexico.

We are the United States of America. We have the strongest military in the world. These things aren’t supposed to happen, not on American soil, but they do. Often.

Like it or not, this is a war.

I was invited to Washington to screen BORDER for the House and the Senate.  We showed them the reality of the border. We explained the reality of the coming war. Nothing happened. No wait, check that:

Rep. Virgil Goode (R. -VA), the leader whom had invited us to screen it for the House, lost his bid for re- election. He was villified by liberal and progressive critics calling him: “Nativist. Xenophobe. Fear Monger.” Congressman Goode had stood up and said that if we didn’t act, America’s sovereignty would be in danger. Time would prove him correct.

Cartel members have long been bragging and arrogantly performing as if the Arizona territory south of Highway 8 was not American territory, but cartel territory. When the federal Government closed 3500 acres of the Buenos Aires Animal Preserve to Americans, and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeau also admitted that he no longer has operational control over large parts of his county, the cartel’s claims have been confirmed.

This is war and the Americans are losing.

Like so many of their brother border county Sheriff’s, Pinal County Sheriff’s wear body armor and carry the same weapons as our frontline marines and soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Like their Texas DPS air brethren, Pinal County choppers have taken small arms ground fire. When Deputy Purnoll was ambushed by five drug cartel members, he took AK-47 rounds to the torso, but survived.

As I said, this is war.

With any war, there is sympathy for the refugees. Like any war there are the hoopleheads, sympathizers, traitors and saboteurs.

However in this war, the American people have not had the awakening event that Pearl Harbor and 911 provided. There has been no galvanizing of the American Spirit. This may not have been by chance. Our enemies long ago learned that there is no greater force on the planet than the united will of the American people.

The enemy that we now face is smart. His profits soar above Haliburton’s.

The enemy now recruits assassins and soldiers from America’s own middle schools and high schools. Those recruits that lack the talent for killing may be used in surveillance, record keeping, communications or distribution. Talented youths are often ear marked for tuition free rides to law school. NAFTA has provided a plethora of vulnerabilities for young attorneys to exploit.

This is war on a multitude of battlefields.

Do not be misled. The enemy cares nothing for immigration. To them the wave of humanity is simply a means to greater profits. It serves as camouflage for narcotic shipments and an aid to render the cries of border law enforcement impotent.

The Obama administration will tell you that 95% of all Mexican drug cartel weapons come from retail stores and gun shows in the United States. If only the government could restrict second amendment rights in the US then all the cartel violence would go away.

This is false information. This information was proven false over a year ago yet this administration repeats it over and over again, hoping that the standard mantra will result in millions of Americans accepting it as truth. This is propaganda.

Perhaps if instead of threatening to arrest a taxpaying, camera carrying US citizen, the American government would have said: “Wow, this is wrong. Let’s arrest the guys with the uniforms, guns and contraband assaulting into the country….” then maybe Arizona Rancher Rob Krenz would still be alive.

Perhaps if the Tennessee National Guard troops would have been allowed to stand their ground and defend this territory, then we would not have just ceded it to a foreign military power.

Perhaps if the Federal Government of the United States would only enforce her own laws, then Arizona might not be forced to create new ones.

This is war and America is losing. On an administrative level, she has refused to protect her citizens. The border ranchers have telling us this for many years. The Federal Government’s number one duty is to protect her citizens.

She has broken the covenant with her people. President Obama has chosen not to secure the border for the sake of power. He wants amnesty. The border security card is the only one he holds.

As in any war the only acceptable goal must be victory. Whenever any leader, politician, bureaucrat, organizer, union representative, businessman or activist acts in opposition to that goal, then their motives (and income) must be thoroughly examined.

This is supposed to be the job of a free press, but if the honor and integrity of that profession have gone the way of the dinosaurs, then it is the God given responsibility of every free American citizen to challenge them.

The violence will get worse. More people are going to die. More innocents will suffer.

This is a dirty war.  The enemy is not only at the gates, the enemy moves among us.

It is here and now that we must make a stand and we must never, never, never, never give up.

- Chris Burgard

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is being blasted in liberal precincts for some less-than-precise rhetorical formulations about the increasingly dangerous crime situation on the border between her state and Mexico.

Dana Milbank of The Washington Post, for example, mocks Brewer at some length for repeating a claim that has recently been circulating in the immigration debate concerning headless bodies being found in the Arizona desert:

“Jan Brewer has lost her head.

The memo is three years old, but it is unlikely that much has changed, since parts of five federal lands — including two designated national monuments — continue to post travel warnings or be outright closed to the public because of the dangers of “human and drug trafficking” along the Mexican border.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

“He’s working very hard to get that support and I know he wants to do it in the next months,” Clinton told NTN24 reporter Gabriella Baer. “I can’t tell you exactly when, but fairly soon.”

FULL ARTICLE HERE

About 30 relatives and friends gathered late Tuesday to mourn Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereka, whose shooting Monday evening came along the border with Texas. He died on the Mexican side of the river.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

The killing of the Mexican by U.S. authorities — the second in less than two weeks — has exposed the distrust between the two countries that lies just below the surface, and has enraged Mexicans who see the death of the boy on Mexican soil as an act of murder.

READ FULL ARTICLE…

READ FULL POST HERE