This is a brilliant article in a series from the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, a fairly large paper that covers San Bernardino, California. San Bernardino is the “ground zero” of Southern California when it comes to illegal immigration. The Bulletin has been very outspoken on this issue. They produce a series called “Beyond Borders” that is absolutely spot on when it comes to the problems created by illegal aliens and illegal immigration. It’s worth bookmarking this site.

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

By Sara A. Carter and Edward Barrera Staff Writers,

Usually glossed over in the debate about illegal immigration and border security is a seemingly endless battle fought in rural Mexican border towns, cities and political circles.

And like any battle, this one has casualties.

Since January 2005, more than 1,800 killings have been tied to drug cartels in Mexico, according to the Mexican newspaper El Universal.

Mexican police do not keep a tally of narcotics killings, but according to El Universal, at least 176 people were killed in January alone. High-profile assassinations of law enforcement officials are the latest manifestations of the drug war, experts say.

“Intimidation, violence and death is the result of speaking out against the cartels,” said Hardwick Crawford, a former special agent in charge of the FBI’s El Paso field office. “Sometimes it’s better to say nothing at all.”

The killings, though stunning in their number and frequency, certainly aren’t anything new. Those who deal drugs on the border have risked death on a near-daily basis for years, and so have those who try to catch them.

The kidnapping, torture and murder of U.S. Drug Enforcement Agent Enrique Camarena in Mexico two decades ago put a spotlight on the drug war, and a human face on the death toll.

For DEA agents still investigating the 1985 murder of their colleague, it has been a long and brutal crusade.

“If anything came out of his death, it was the awareness it brought to the serious drug problems our nation faces,” said agent Sarah Fenno, spokeswoman for the DEA in Los Angeles.

Last October, Mexico’s foreign minister, Luis Ernesto Derbez, said cooperation between both nations is vital if the Southwest border is to be protected.

“President Vicente Fox has continually fought organized crime in order to defeat violence in our country,” Derbez said. “The Mexican government takes most seriously any threat to its national security and to the security of North America. For this reason, it maintains various mechanisms of cooperation at the federal level with the United States.”

In the state of Tamualipas, which includes the border city of Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas, execution-style murders are commonplace.

(Editors note; This is coming to your neighborhood.)

Derechos Humanos en Mexico, a nonprofit human rights organization in Tamaulipas, keeps detailed records of the killings.

In 2005:

205 people were shot to death.

29 people were stabbed to death.

61 were beaten to death.

Two were drowned.

11 were hung. Four decomposed bodies were found in the desert.

Eight people were burned alive.

Less than two weeks ago in San Pedro Garza Garcia — 145 miles south of Nuevo Laredo — a police chief was executed.

To write your elected officials about this important issue click this link.

No tags for this post.