Why are neo-Nazis doing the federal government’s job in Arizona?

            Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu admits that parts of Arizona have been surrendered to Mexican smuggling cartels. Babeu’s request for additional aid from the federal government has gone largely ignored for political reasons. The danger to American and Mexican citizens is not lessened by the unwanted, but not illegal, actions of citizen patrols by the likes of Jason “J.T.” Ready, a reputed neo-Nazi who’s leading a militia in the Arizona desert.

            Humans hunting humans is a deadly game, though I’m hardly ready to freely grant “human” status to anyone who associates with supremacists, neo-Nazi or otherwise. At the same time, I’m angered that criminal enterprises from a foreign country have literally occupied areas of my home state mere miles from my residence.

            Hidden cameras document regular occurrences of drug and human smugglers, often heavily armed, traversing known smuggling paths more than 75 miles north of Mexican border. Federal and local law enforcement agencies are aware of observation outposts on the U.S. side of the border manned by armed and regularly supplied Mexican Nationals using encrypted radios to report on the movements of American law enforcement patrols. These are areas where myself and many other Arizonans used to hike and hunt. Those areas are now posted off limits or dangerous to be in because of foreign criminal invaders.

            Worse, should I choose to ignore those infuriating warning signs and enter one of those posted regions, I risk being accosted and possibly shot by Mexicans and neo-Nazi Americans. After the recent shooting of a Pinal County Sheriff’s deputy, I’d be nervous about encountering any American law enforcement agency’s patrols out in the desert. When Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio does a “crime sweep” that includes breaking out .50-caliber machine guns, it is not just grandstanding on the part of “America’s Toughest Sheriff.” It is an unmistakable indication that Arizona is at war with sinister invaders. Judging by the increasing number of dead illegal immigrants being found in the Arizona desert, it is obvious that to the smuggling cartels, human life is as cheap in this country as it across the border in Mexico where the instruments of violent murder now include car bombs.

            More than one source hints that Mexico’s cartels are learning new tricks in exchange for smuggling OTM’s across the border and providing transport out of Arizona. Those “other than Mexican” illegals that have been apprehended include hundreds from countries listed as supporters of terrorism. According to active and retired Border Patrol agents I spoke with, perhaps one-quarter of the illegal border crossers are caught and deported. Simply put, if 100 radical foreign terrorists pay the cartels to smuggle them into the United States, 75 will get through undetected. It is not paranoia when they really are out to get America.

            I wonder how General George S. Patton or Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing would have reacted to an order from the Environmental Protection Agency to stop the fight because the battleground was home to an endangered pronghorn antelope. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol are prohibited from entering areas of known smuggling routes for just that reason. The smugglers know and profit from this.

            The smugglers’ routes are easy to find. They are well-trodden paths littered with tons of garbage, human waste and cast-off clothing and backpacks. I too believe that extinction is forever, but not one of the experts will admit that the ecological damage caused by illegal immigrants and smugglers is as, or more, inimical to the survival of an endangered species as occasional enforcement patrols. To do so would add to the environmentalists’ credibility and force federal action to stop the invasion. The EPA’s Endangered Species Act imposes fines and incarceration for trespass in posted areas. According to an attorney, those penalties are not waived because of nationality. I would consider donating money to the environmental group that sues the federal government for failing to enforce its own regulations.

            Of course, there would be no need for that lawsuit if the government simply upheld its constitutional duty to secure the border and control immigration. Department of Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano, a former two-term Arizona governor who was also once the state’s attorney general, repeatedly states the border is more secure than ever. Her rational is that DHS, ICE and the BP have poured money, technology and manpower into border security. She’s an Obama shill wasting tax dollars and lying to America about the real problems on the border while admitting in the same breath that the federal government has failed for years to protect American citizens. She repeats the mantra of “comprehensive immigration reform is the only solution,” while her bosses in Washington, D.C. hold the Border States and their residents hostage to a political ploy for an unpopular immigration reform plan.

            Napolitano and her puppet masters in the White House and the Department of Justice, the same people suing Arizona over SB 1070, have repeatedly misrepresented the scope of the law and the problem it was passed to remedy. Napolitano’s most recent statements about Arizona were made while she was in Texas. She announced that Mexico will receive more money than Arizona from the next round of Stone Garden grants for border security. Instead of giving more money to a corrupt foreign government, the United States should hold back any tax payer dollars currently allotted for Mexico and set a date to cut trade and diplomatic relations unless Mexico takes effective measures to secure their side of the border and combat the cartels’ bloody opposition to the rule of law.

            In truth, cutting off the billions of dollars Mexico and its corrupt politicians receive from the cartels ill-gotten profits and the wages illegal workers send south of the border each year would collapse the Mexican economy. The civil uprising south of the border would require the United States to send in the military to secure the U.S. border. Apparently, we are content to see bloodshed by Mexican police and military troops, as long it is only a little bit at a time. Death from a thousand cuts is still death and bribing Mexico into addressing its problems is a failed scheme financed by taxpayers.   

            Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, (D-Nev.), now in the midst of a desperate re-election campaign, had the temerity to state the there are no illegal workers in Nevada. I suggest Sen. Reid and a news crew accompany an unannounced Border Patrol sweep of the largest home construction projects in Nevada. The results would put an end to that lie.

            Right next door in Utah, two state workers became so frustrated with the number of illegals receiving state and federal benefits that they released a list of 1,300 to media and enforcement agencies. Their act was contrary to the law and they will pay the consequences of the federal government’s failure. Authorities were quick to apprehend the list makers, but neither the federal government nor the state will confirm that they are investigating the immigration status of those on the list, or planning to enforce the law against those proven to be in the country illegally.

            The rules of engagement need to change on the Southern Border. We are as much at war with Mexican smuggling cartels as we are with their terrorist allies overseas. SB 1070 and the federal lawsuit against Arizona are the first of many skirmishes the states will have with the federal government. The government must stop fighting against the citizens who agreed to be ruled under the terms of that document we call the Constitution. It is the law of the land.

UPDATE:

            A friend forwarded this message that was posted by Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu on his Facebook page. Mr. Ready and his minions might not have considered the potential consequences of their actions, but I’ll wager the members of his militia are having second thoughts now.

CASA GRANDE, Ariz. — Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu has made headlines for his tough stance against the thousands of undocumented people who flow through his county every day. On Saturday, he took a stand against a different group.

“Not only do we not encourage, we did not invite, and we do not want this group or other groups to come into our county,” Babeu said, referring to a know group led by J.T. Ready, a reputed neo- Nazi. Ready has been leading armed vigilantes into areas of the Pinal County desert where drug activity is frequent.
“This is an extreme group that does not represent me, does not represent Arizona, and does not represent the private citizens who do want ligament action to be taken,” Babeu said.

Ready’s group may have gotten the attention of the Los Zetas drug cartel in Mexico.

Michael Webster, columnist with the LA Times, said he sat down with one of the cartel members who told him they believe a group of vigilantes killed two of its members earlier this month.

“They attribute a vigilante group, much like this, to having killed the members of their cartel and we’re a part of it which is false and is something would never happen,” Babeu said.

During the interview, the cartel member specifically mentioned Babeu.

“We’re going to hold Sheriff Paul Babeu personally responsible,” Babeu said quoting the article. “I’ve never seen threats made publicly, using our media to make threats south of the border to us.”

Babeu still believes a rival cartel was behind the deadly showdown in his desert, and said the threat will not intimidate his department.

Babeu admits, with groups like Ready’s patrolling the desert, the likelihood of a war erupting between citizens and heavily armed drug cartels may be eminent.

“We cannot have groups go out there, believing they have the authority of law enforcement and taking actions into their own lands,” Babeu said.

He said his department will prosecute anyone who takes the law into their own hands.

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