The American Spectator : How Enviros Obstruct the Border Patrol

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Capitol Ideas

How Enviros Obstruct the Border Patrol

By Tom Bethell from the September 2010 issue

Here's another thing the mainstream media won't report.

(Page 2 of 2)

THE IMMIGRATION ISSUE IN Arizona can therefore be viewed through a property lens. In 1998 I wrote a book about property and the unacknowledged role that it has played in many historical situations. For years it has been clear that the enviros have been major enemies of private property. Their war on property has been every bit as vehement (although less candid) than the one conducted in the 20th century by the Communists and their socialist allies. Greens, socialists, and American liberals all share the leftist goal of centralizing power.

Also drawing attention to Arizona was the murder of Robert Krentz Jr., from a popular ranching family in southeast Arizona. "After radioing to his brother that he was aiding someone he believed to be an illegal immigrant," the New York Times reported, "he was found shot to death March 27 on his vast remote ranch."

But the Times, in the person of Randal C. Archibold, still didn't get the story. In a follow-up on June 18, Archibold found a source who said that Robert Krentz was "the face behind the violence" at the border and then pursued this red herring. Krentz's death has misled us, he wrote, because "the rate of violent crime" at the border has been declining. The border "may never be secure enough" in Arizona's "hothouse political climate." Manpower and technology at the border "are at unprecedented levels."

But manpower levels are irrelevant if environmental laws keep the border patrollers non-functional. Krentz's wife, Sue, saw the real issue three years earlier. She warned in a 2007 letter to Congress that adding more wilderness areas along the border would "worsen criminal activity." Observation towers are placed in poor locations to keep the greens happy. The new National Guardsmen that Obama promised for the border will no more be able to preempt federal rules than the Border Patrol can.

That is what the federal lawsuit against the Arizona law is all about. The national government is accustomed to telling the states what they can and cannot do. The left-liberal goal is to centralize power, and the environmental rules help keep it that way. Decentralization is surely the real goal of the Tea Party, and it's a healthy sign that Arizona also sees things that way.

This story, starting out with the wild game dinner on Capitol Hill, is more about the unacknowledged power of the greens than it is about migrants, legal or illegal. In the above dispute, an assertive Department of Homeland Security head would be able to force the issue by telling her subordinates that where border security and green regs are in conflict, to give precedence to the former. That would put it on the front pages, and we know which side would win that battle.

But it won't happen, first because the media side with the enviros and present them only in a favorable light, and second because the Secretary of Homeland Security happens to be a former governor of Arizona and a liberal named Janet Napolitano. Her priorities are those of her boss, Barack Obama.

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About the Author

Tom Bethell is a senior editor of The American Spectator and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science, The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity Through the Ages, and most recently Questioning Einstein: Is Relativity Necessary? (2009).

Letter to the Editor View all comments (34) | Leave a comment

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 9.8.10 @ 7:00AM

Thanks for a great article. I actually learned something today.

Redstateboy| 9.8.10 @ 2:25PM

I really am glad I found this site and that my company hasn't found a way to block it. I learn more in-depth stuff at this site than any other place

Alan Brooks| 9.8.10 @ 8:56PM

Tell it to Codevilla, he and his "latinos are indispensable to this country." DUH! that is the problem-- we are stuck with them.

RCV| 9.8.10 @ 9:55PM

Maybe you should do your employer's work that you are paid for instead of using company computers for your own enjoyment.

Alan Brooks| 9.8.10 @ 10:12PM

You have the soul of a computer.

And your God is POWER,
RCV, power-- you worship it.

michigander_sandusky| 9.8.10 @ 8:12AM

"Common sense is a very uncommon commodity." J.W. McGarvey

Alan Brooks| 9.21.10 @ 5:53PM

The enviros will change their minds when they see crime inter-border crime increasing exponentially.
What a shocker it will be when numerous civilians are killed in border communities.

Louis Jenkins| 9.8.10 @ 8:15AM

Enviromentalism? Has anyone seen the pictures of the trash left behind by the illegals? I'm for preserving the land, but give the border patrol the license to do their job. Stop the illegals, stop the drug cartels. Make Arizona a better place to live.

CopyKatnj| 9.8.10 @ 8:43AM

Then arrest the trespassers under environmental law. Surely littering, destroying cacti and trampling vegetation on federally protected land is a crime. Use the environmental laws against them, send in the Green Police.

Truth On The Border| 9.8.10 @ 10:11AM

The trash is measured in TONS. Until you see it, you can't really imagine it. Most areas are also biohazards because of the human waste.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9iwjitsNyQ

Texas Mom 2010| 9.8.10 @ 10:49AM

It seems that we could use the enviro agenda against them. Why not frame the Border Patrol as a force to protect our wilderness lands from the hoards of illegal aliens trampeling and befouling our formerly pristine border areas??? Stop illegals at the border and save our wilderness! Could have some great billboards showing all the trash and waste left along the route from our border. Maybe with photos of destroyed endangered cacti. And the question: why won't Washington protect our sensitive environment from the invasion of illegals who are destroying it and won't even pick up their trash?

Albert| 9.8.10 @ 11:48AM

I like your idea very much. But you are asking the Bozo Administration to do this, and they simply will not. The Democrat Party WANTS illegal aliens to enter the USA illegally. It is that simple. As long as Democrats hold Congress and the White House, that will not change.

bull-gator| 9.8.10 @ 9:40AM

Sounds to me like Grijalva is on the take from the Mexican government.

Truth On The Border| 9.8.10 @ 9:57AM

This is absolutely right on the mark. Thank you for reporting on this important issue. Senators Bingaman and Udall (both D-NM) are pushing for MORE wilderness legislation along the border in NM (S.1689). It is irresponsible and reprehensible.

Here are a couple videos that detail some of the issues with federal lands and the resulting crime and destruction.

The Harsh Realities Along the Mexican Border (warning – graphic)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c1n4gGnVnY

Trash On The Border
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9iwjitsNyQ

Truth On The Border| 9.8.10 @ 9:58AM

Smugglers routinely rape the women they smuggling into the US. This is another issue completely ignored by the mainstream media and leftists.

The Price of Admission – Wilderness Rape Trees
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5-q3vQZ38o

Rape Trees – A Look At The Numbers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfnEokHStm0

Truth On The Border| 9.8.10 @ 9:59AM

Everyone has seen the signs in Arizona telling American citizens to "keep out" of the wilderness areas, parks, and wildlife refuges in southern Arizona. The danger because of smuggling and drug running is too high to allow U.S. citizens to enter these areas.

Border Wilderness – Too Dangerous for the Public
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY6sPP7m8rA

Realities of Wilderness on the Border – Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvu5HObipbk

Truth On The Border| 9.8.10 @ 10:01AM

And yet the NM Senators, Bingaman and Udall, both Democrats, continue pushing HARD for several hundred thousand acres of federal wilderness designation in southern New Mexico. WHY??? What could they possibly have to gain? They will be duplicating the deadly situation in Arizona. Why could they possibly be pushing this agenda?

The Perfect Drug Smuggling Corridor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVOb0Bsfh3I

The Inadequacy of a 5 Mile Buffer for Border Security
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg7EwacCJiM

Louis Jenkins| 9.8.10 @ 5:04PM

Could it be a chance for the Drug Cartels to move into Southern New Mexico like they have done in Arizona?

Jodi D| 9.8.10 @ 10:03AM

There is a good website with information about the situation on the border

www.peopleforwesternheritage.com

They have a lot of data on the enviros, their agenda, and the situation on the border.

gearjammer| 9.8.10 @ 10:21AM

Winning the house and hope so too senate means we can hold hearings. Now, we can't go overboard like that nut job Waxman, but surely this is just the issue we can calmly and clearly investigate. Let the main stream media pick sides and present idiocy as sound policy. It will only further erode their withering credibility.

dan| 9.9.10 @ 7:13PM

The liberal establishment media won't even cover it.

Anthony| 9.8.10 @ 10:42AM

I think it's time we contact the British and resume the War of 1812, and ask them to complete the job of burning down Washington D.C., that they never quite completed.

Texas Mom 2010| 9.8.10 @ 10:47AM

It seems that we could use the enviro agenda against them. Why not frame the Border Patrol as a force to protect our wilderness lands from the hoards of illegal aliens trampeling and befouling our formerly pristine border areas??? Stop illegals at the border and save our wilderness! Could have some great billboards showing all the trash and waste left along the route from our border. Maybe with photos of destroyed endangered cactus. And the question: why won't Washington protect our sensitive environment from the invasion of illegals who are destroying it and won't even pick up their trash?

Richard| 9.8.10 @ 11:48AM

Remember that enviros are Leftists first.

Steve A| 9.8.10 @ 12:34PM

Lady cutting my hair yesterday tells me how we are causing earthquakes when we drill for oil as the cavity we leave void in the ground collapses. I did not say a word as I did not want my ear cut off but I was sitting there thinking that there is just simply no hope for some of these wackos.

JKS| 9.8.10 @ 2:01PM

I would change hair stylists...

ABNCP| 9.8.10 @ 2:38PM

The American/Arizonan citizens who live within 60/80 miles of the Arizona/Mexico border have for years been under assualt and have pleaded for help from the Federal Government to stop the daily human invasion of those who illegaly cross this border. Ranchers who live in the area have testifed in Arizona courts that on a daily basis military type drug smuggling operations are happening here. Now we have actual pictures of groups with a point man with an AK-47 type of weapon, about a half mile behind are the guards fully armed, about a half mile further back are the mules (people) carrying the drugs, then behind them more guards. And yes, after exiting private property they are going through Federal lands like the Barry Goldwater Bombing range which will take them right to InterState 10 for pick up. These smugglers will bring anyone who has the money across the border. Many of the people coming across the border now are people America should be worried about. Can you say terrorist?? Arizonans who live in these areas live in small ranches and isolated homes.
Many of them feel they cannot leave their houses at night for safety reasons. They feel that cannot leave their homes for any period of time for fear of nothing being left when they come back. This is unbelievable, citizens of this country being oppressed by foreigners in their own country. Come on American, where is the outrage Mr. Obama?? Most Americans have no idea what is going on in Arizona. Parts of Southern Arizona are a war zone.
Janet Icompetano says that the border is now safer that it has ever been. It isn't. She is just a stooge for the Obama administration who wants open borders in order to try and get the block votes from Hispanics that they currently getting from the African-Americans. The Border Patrol cannot be on Federal lands on the border. 20% of Arizona's Prisons population are illegals. Many emergency care units have closed down because they are forced to treat illegals who cannot or will not pay
for treatment. Arizona has the burden of funding state services illegals use. Education costs have risen to over a billion dollars. Our state is broke.
We have a $ 3.5 billion deficit. And the beat goes on. Yet we have politicans like Gmjalva who has let his etnicity overcome his common sense and his patroitism. Roll on November!!

Steve| 9.8.10 @ 3:56PM

The border patrol can go into Big Bend National Park any time, that's not wilderness land. You can see the coyotes on the other side of the river from the park and find the trinkets and things that idiotic American's leave on our side for hikers to buy leaving the money for the illegals coming across. I found two of these trinket/money displays will hiking a short section of the park in March. The things are set up so fact the park service can't confiscate them fast enough without them being set up again in other spots. These morons leaving the stuff for the illegals need to be arrested by the BP just as much as the ones floating across.

Redstateboy| 9.8.10 @ 4:19PM

Ya read articles like this and for me.. I get so damned angry...! Why is our Lame-stream-press so...... Lame!?? The American People should know about this stuff!

Nobama| 9.8.10 @ 4:49PM

Come on, people, they're not Greens, They're REDs! Doesn't everyone know that by now? Doesn't everyone know the Green movement was hijacked to serve as a tool of socialist/communist takeover? Grivalja (sp) was one of the 70 socialists identified in our congress if I'm not mistaken.

T1Brit| 9.9.10 @ 3:47AM

They are WATERMELLONS

green on the outside ...

The Westerner| 9.9.10 @ 12:57AM

Thanks to Tom Bethell and AMSPEC for the article. Most people don't realize you can't even ride a bicycle in a wilderness area, much less a BP vehicle. It's the endangered species that cause the delays on all lands...but in wilderness vehicles and mechanical equipment are strictly prohibited. And as one commenter says, S. 1689 would create more wilderness on the border. In fact Bingaman's bill would designate a quarter of a million acres at or near the border as wilderness. So thanks again to Bethell for bringing this issue to a national audience.

T1Brit| 9.9.10 @ 3:55AM

At what point does it become treason to sit in the government of the USA while taking money and orders from a foreign country whose priorities are hostile to the well being of the country you profess to serve?

Christian Louboutin| 6.23.11 @ 6:19AM

At the latest dinner I was told something I had never heard before about the Arizona immigration law that has caused so much liberal fury. Why has the illegal immigrant problem been concentrated on Arizona? The mainstream media respond this way: