In our opinion: Border patrol death raises questions about border security

The issue of illegal immigration is not relevant in the context of Agent Ivie’s death. It is about the rule of law on this side of the border, where we have been and should remain vigilant against the import of narcotics from the Mexican cartels.

The death of a border patrol agent in what appears to be an ambush by drug smugglers is a tragic loss for his family and the community at large, and a sad reminder of the treacherous duty facing those assigned to keep the border secure.

Agent Nicholas J. Ivie, who grew up in Provo, leaves a widow and two young daughters. He is remembered as a man dedicated to his family, stalwart in his duty to the border patrol, a leader in his church, a man who had many friends, and at the age of 30, a full life ahead of him.

Read more at Desert News

Border Patrol shooting: 2 held in Nicholas Ivie’s death, reports say friendly fire also possible

NACO, AZ – Federal investigators are looking into the possibility the deadly shooting of a Border Patrol agent in southern Arizona Tuesday was the result of friendly fire, according to a Thursday report.

NBCNews.com said the investigators are trying to determine if officials accidentally shot each other, despite initial reports which claimed armed criminals were responsible for the incident. Read more.

U.S. Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Ivie was killed in the early morning shooting in Naco. Another agent was injured and a third agent escaped unharmed.

Federal police have arrested two men who may be connected with the fatal shooting just north of the Mexico-Arizona border, a Mexican law enforcement official said Thursday.

Mexican ‘theme park’ gives illegal border-crossing experience without the danger

A “coyote” in a ski mask barks orders: “We have to cross! We’ll go in groups of three. Let’s go!”

A small group runs down a desert road. Sirens begin to blare, so they veer off the road and down a rocky hill.

There’s a shout of “This is immigration!” and agents tackle a man to the ground. The others hide in the shadows.

“They found him,” a boy says sadly. “Immigration.”

Alberto, Mexico, sits about 700 miles from the U.S. border. Illegal immigration turned it into what one resident called a “ghost town,” but now, ironically, a simulation of the clandestine border-crossing experience is revitalizing it.

Read more at New York Daily News

Americans Shot in Mexico Were C.I.A. Operatives Aiding in Drug War

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD and ERIC SCHMITT / The New York Times

MEXICO CITY — The two Americans who were wounded when gunmen fired on an American Embassy vehicle last week were Central Intelligence Agency employees sent as part of a multiagency effort to bolster Mexican efforts to fight drug traffickers, officials said on Tuesday.

The two operatives, who were hurt on Friday, were participating in a training program that involved the Mexican Navy. They were traveling with a Mexican Navy captain in an embassy sport utility vehicle that had diplomatic license plates, heading toward a military shooting range 35 miles south of the capital when gunmen, some or all of them from the Federal Police, attacked the vehicle, Mexican officials have said.

The Mexican Navy said Tuesday in a statement that an American was driving the vehicle and that during the attack the captain, who was handling logistics and translating for the men, remained in the back seat calling for help on his cellphone.

Read more at Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Obama amnesty runs into a road block in Arizona — Governor Brewer

PHOENIX—Once again Governor Jan Brewer is shaking a finger at the Obama administration. Governor Brewer signed an executive order enforcing Arizona law preventing illegal aliens from receiving government benefits and driver’s licenses.

The blanket amnesty by the decree of the current administration bypasses Congress and violates the separation of powers and the Constitution of the United States.

Executive order 2012-06 states, “The issuance of Deferred Action or Deferred Action USCIS employment authorization documents to unlawfully present aliens does not confer upon them any lawful or authorize status and does not entitle them to any additional public benefit.”

Title 8, Section 1622, according the the EO, authorizes States to determine the eligibility of government benefits to various class of aliens residing in the State. Section 1621 of that Title provides that aliens unlawfully in the United States are not eligible for and State or local public benefit.

This “Deferred Action” program does not give illegals legal status.

The EO cites Arizona Revised Statute 1-501 and 1-502 limiting public benefits to legal residents of the State of Arizona and 283153 prohibiting the Arizona Department of Transportation from issuing driver’s licenses or identifications to persons unless they can demonstrate a lawful presence in the U.S.

Stand With Arizona

California becomes terrorist friendly State

(Reuters) – The California Senate passed a bill on Thursday that seeks to shield illegal immigrants from status checks by local police and challenges Republican-backed immigration crackdowns in Arizona and other U.S. states.

On July 5, the California Senate passed their TRUST act which prevents their law enforcement officers from stopping or catching terrorists entering the country illegally. The law has been called the “Anti-Arizona” law passed in response to the recent supreme court decision on SB-1070.

From the bill’s front page:

This bill would prohibit a law enforcement official, as defined, from detaining an individual on the basis of a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold after that individual becomes eligible for release from criminal custody, unless the local agency adopts a plan that meets certain requirements prior to or after compliance with the immigration hold, and, at the time that the individual becomes eligible for release from criminal custody, certain conditions are met.

“Today’s vote signals to the nation that California cannot afford to be another Arizona,” Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, a Democrat who sponsored the measure, said in a statement.

California, of course, could not become another Arizona until they start teaching the Constitution of the United States of America in public schools. This bill is an obvious reason that Arizona should not be teaching the Constitution as they do in California.

The bill supported by 100 illegal immigration groups supported the bill which passed the Democrat State-Assembly 47-26. Final approval is expected in August and it will be sent to the desk of Governor Brown for his signature.

Recently it was revealed that a local traffic stop in Boston, Massachusetts revealed an illegal alien running a flight school which was responsible for issuing at least six pilots licenses to illegals. This is a very similar situation to the manner in which SB-1070 would be enforced.

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1. Reuters
2. San Jose Mercury News
3. LA Weekly Blog

TSA keeps you from flying; allows illegals


While TSA fondles American citizens and keeps a “no-fly” list to keep us “safe,” they have no mechanism to prevent illegals from attending flight school and obtaining a pilot license. TSA is apparently responsible for ensuring flight school security. Those on the “no-fly” list, numbering about 500 according to the Associated Press, are allowed to learn to fly.

“I was stunned. That just caught me completely off guard, and I’m pretty angry about it,” Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., said after a hearing Wednesday to examine the Homeland Security Department’s programs to screen foreigners who want to attend flight schools. “Everybody should be concerned.”

According to Homeland Security Today, ICE detectives “…investigated a flight school in Boston, Mass., and discovered 25 illegal aliens taking pilot training there.”

The article does not report that the flight school in Boston was run by an illegal alien. Six illegal aliens were able to obtain pilots licenses. The activity went unreported until the illegal alien owner of the flight school was stopped by local police for a routine traffic violation. Such an event might be caught in Arizona if all of SB-1070 were ruled constitutional.

Closure of Border Patrol stations across four states triggers alarm

FOX NEWSThe Obama administration is moving to shut down nine Border Patrol stations across four states, triggering a backlash from local law enforcement, members of Congress and Border Patrol agents themselves.

Critics of the move warn the closures will undercut efforts to intercept drug and human traffickers in well-traveled corridors north of the U.S.-Mexico border. Though the affected stations are scattered throughout northern and central Texas, and three other states, the coverage areas still see plenty of illegal immigrant activity — one soon-to-be-shuttered station in Amarillo, Texas, is right in the middle of the I-40 corridor; another in Riverside, Calif., is outside Los Angeles.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it’s closing the stations in order to reassign agents to high-priority areas closer to the border.

“These deactivations are consistent with the strategic goal of securing America’s borders, and our objective of increasing and sustaining the certainty of arrest of those trying to enter our country illegally,” CBP spokesman Bill Brooks said in a statement. “By redeploying and reallocating resources at or near the border, CBP will maximize the effectiveness of its enforcement mandate and align our investments with our mission.”

Read more at FOX News