Border Patrol agents assaulted daily, U.S. Justice Dept. says

Three Border Patrol agents are assaulted on the average day at or near

the U.S. border. Someone is kidnapped every 35 hours in Phoenix, Ariz.,

often by agents of alien smuggling organizations. And one-in-five American

teenagers last year used some type of illegal drug, many of which were

imported across the unsecured U.S.-Mexico border.

These facts are reported in the recently released National Drug Threat

Assessment for 2010, published by the National Drug Intelligence Center, a

division of the U.S. Justice Department.

They ought to add some perspective to the national debate raging over

Arizona's new law that requires local law enforcement officers to make a

"reasonable attempt" to determine the immigration status of persons they

legally come into contact with and whom they reasonably suspect of being in

the country illegally.

Assaults on Border Patrol agents have massively escalated in recent

years, according to the Justice Department's threat assessment, which was

released on March 25. "Assaults against U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) agents

increased 46 percent from 752 incidents in FY 2006 to 1,097 incidents in FY

2008," says the assessment. Given that there are 365 days in the year, 1,097

assaults equals 3 per day.

"Contributing most to this increase were rocking assaults, which rose 77

percent from 435 incidents in FY 2006 to 769 incidents in FY 2008," said the

assessment. A "rocking assault," the assessment explains, "is defined as the

throwing of rocks at Border Patrol agents by drug or alien smugglers with

the intent of threatening or causing physical harm to the agent."

The assessment also noted that Border Patrol agents are sometimes

murdered in the line of duty. "However, some assaults against USBP agents in

California have been deadly," it said, "including the January 2008 murder of

a USBP officer who was struck and killed by the automobile of a fleeing drug

suspect in Imperial County and the fatal shooting of a USBP officer

investigating suspicious activity in Campo in July 2009."

The assessment indicates that kidnappings have become commonplace in

Phoenix, Ariz., because families involved in alien smuggling have moved

there to escape inter-smuggling-organization violence in Mexico.

"Although much of the violence attributed to conflicts over control of

the smuggling routes has been confined to Mexico, some has occurred in the

United States," says the Justice Department assessment. "Violence in the

United States has been limited primarily to attacks against alien smuggling

organization (ASO) members and their families - some of whom have sought

refuge from violence in Mexico by moving to U.S. border communities such as

Phoenix. For example, in recent years, kidnappings in Phoenix have numbered

in the hundreds, with 260 in 2007, 299 in 2008, and 267 in 2009." The 267

kidnappings in Phoenix in 2009 equals one kidnapping every 1.37 days - or

one every 35 hours.

"Nineteen percent of youth aged 12 to 17 report past year illicit drug

use," the report says. That is approximately one out of every five teenagers

in the United States.

The main drug suppliers for these American teenagers are Mexican drug

trafficking organizations (DTOs), which increasingly dominate the U.S.

market for illegal drugs. "Mexican DTOs continue to represent the single

greatest drug trafficking threat to the United States," says the Justice

Department assessment. "Mexican DTOs, already the predominant wholesale

suppliers of illicit drugs in the United States, are gaining even greater

strength in eastern drug markets where Columbian DTO strength is

diminishing."

Drug production is up in Mexico, the assessment said, and thanks to a

massive network of criminal gangs on this side of the border with whom they

can do business, the Mexican DTOs now distribute their wares in communities

all across America.

"Mexican DTOs increased the flow of several drugs (heroin,

methamphetamine, and marijuana) into the United States, primarily because

they increased production of those drugs in Mexico," said the assessment.

"In 2009, mid-level and retail drug distribution in the United States

was dominated by more than 900,000 criminally active gang members

representing approximately 20,000 street gangs in more than 2,500 cities.

Mexican DTOs were the only DTOs operating in every region of the country,"

said the threat assessment.

SOURCE:

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Now can someone tell me again why they have issue with the new AZ Law which is doing nothing more than requiring local LEA to enforce the Federal Laws when they recognize or have reasonable suspicion that they are being violated. I mean DAH? As far as I'm concerned if you have issue with the AZ law you probably have the same issue with the Federal Law and any other law because you'd rather see anarch. Well, if that's the case why don't you return to the country of your ancestors and see how far you get with that line of thought.