A

[RdrBill]

All.

Bill@Yuma

 

[madmikeb]

This situation is near and dear to me. I live in ME now but I bought land in se AZ about 5 years ago and am planning on moving there in a few years. The land is situated just north of Douglas right between the Sulphur Spring and San Bernadino valleys. Not really all that far from the Krentz ranch. Luckily I have never seen any illegal activity or evidence of illegal activity around my property. The land is pretty remote but I think that my saving grace is that I am due north of Douglas and the illegals tend to use the valleys to the east and west of me. I hope thats the case anyway. Maybe someday we'll have a government that does want to secure the borders.

 

[renosome]

Not a Camper anymore.

I have lived in Pinal County for the past 5 years; since coming from Nevada where I used to backpack and camp at least 10+ times a year. I no longer do anything outdoors due to the influx of illegals in this county. The wife and I do walk in the housing area in which we live; but I feel compeled to carry and have had the wife in classes so she feels comfortable using her handgun.

 

[pharmer]

A 200 yd wide strip along the border from the Pacific to the Gulf filled with those $.50 Chinese antipersonnel mines, should do the trick. Joe

 

[PALADIN85020]

The Arizona Republic, the main newspaper in Phoenix, recently ran an online survey which basically asked if illegal aliens are a problem in Arizona.

The results?

32% indicated "Yes, there is a bad problem."

68% said "No es una problema muy grande."

And that about says it all...

John

 

[billdeserthills]

Good luck with the camping,
I live in Cave Creek, so don't get to see much of the problem. I have noticed a large decline in illegal's trying to purchase guns from the gunshows I do currently, but I guess that is no indication of just how many are still walking on through the state. Obviously Big Business loves illegals & I can't figure out why this country is OK with that. Illegals cost the state tons of money and not just for incarceration, private hospitals also pay millions for care after people not well-trained hurt themselves at work. Facts exist that show illegals commit more crime than citizens do. We could probably go on & on and in the end hafta conclude that the possibilty that more Democrats are greedy, but greedy enough to grant an amnesty purely for the millions of free new voters they could get?

 

[Capt Steve]

As a southern California transplant who is now a full fledged Zonie(pickup truck, golf cart, Greyhound and a carry permit), a few thoughts... It is incomprehensible to me that there are large tracts of Arizona that are in fact "No mans land". There are signs posted along state highways as you enter these areas warning you not to. LEO's will urge you not to enter these zones as most of them won't either. If you choose to you are truly on your own and while you might just get by in daylight once the sun goes down it is a veritable combat zone. Can you imagine being stopped by your local LEO and being told not to drive down this road as you will likely be assaulted or worse and there is nothing more than a warning that he can provide??? Such is life in southern Arizona.

Why our government, state and/or federal, does not "man up" and reclaim these areas and reestablish law and order remains a mystery wrapped in political correctness and corruption. We do a lot of camping and choose our sites with care, always well armed and wary but it is ridiculous that this situation continues and sadly, worsens every day. Neither party seems to give a damn and I am afraid it is going to take something tragic on a major scale to wake up the do nothings in congress and Phoenix. )o;

 

[ace22]

arizona has been on my radar as a place i would like to move to in the future but the illegal problem is a concern.
thanks for the info in this thread, i can't say what i really think about our gov's handling of the illegal situation.

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

I read an article in the New York Times that "unusual number of people in Arizona like to own guns (gasp!) and do not believe that the police have a duty or the ability to protect them". Imagine that!

 

[billdeserthills]

I heard today that The Governor of Arizona just announced a lawsuit of the Feds to step up the enforcement. I recall payment demands for the added costs of having to maintain the borders without the Feds help too

 

[Stevens]

How about we bring back some, not all, of the US Army folks who are in Japan, Germany, and other areas that are not "hot" anymore there are many, thousands out there. We bring them to the border area let them set up camps temporary or better yet permanent. Let them secure the border. A WIN WIN situation! the border is secure, some of the millions we spend overseas will now be spent in the border states helping their economies. I believe that would even stop some of the violence in Mexico, their side of the border would not have such a concentration of drug and smuggling activity in one area.
Not PC but I believe would do a lot to solve the problem.
Steve W.

 

[RdrBill]

All.
Just over on the "AMERICAN THINKER" forum. There is an interesting article called, "Napolitano Goes on Offense".
It is a read of another persons perspective of the issues in ARIZONA.
As for the calls to put military on the border, that would work. The best solution is to let the BP and local law do their job. Get the politicians out of the process. Keep the news media and the lawyers away from the border.
Bill@Yuma

 

[delta-419]

Roger That! Stevens! Since our interest lie in a desert enviorment, it would make for a great training area for our troops in armored units. We could pay big bucks to the ranchers for use of their land, just like we use to do for the German farmers when the M60s would do their thing. Two divisions could do double duty, train in a live fire enviorment just like Fort Hood and do live border patrol. Lots of heavy stuff moving along the border with tight air cover would be awesome. Nothing like the roar of an M-1 tank or the dust cloud from a Striker Bn. Whats not to like.

 

[billdeserthills]

My pick is that border wall gets built--utilizing free illegal alien labor and much supervision. The expensive part of building anything is the labor. And as far as working for free, while basically living off the land these fellows will really be taking jobs no American wants to do.

 

[feralmerril]

While they are swinging a pickax how are you going to keep them from stepping one short step south? The free labor idea cant work. Stepping south of course is fine, if they would stay there.
Nothing is going to work except seriously useing the army. No rubber bullets either.
That said, if I had been born there I probley would be swimming the river to get here too. I can fully symapthise with the illegals, but yet feel we need to keep them out. Really, were there a way to trade our dredges of society for their honest hard working peons that would be the way to go! Just dreaming----

 

[John Eilertson]

I don't specifically direct this to any particular race, but the illegals do seem to be coming largely from below the border. I lived in Phoenix for 5 years, till '07, and I can tell you that there is a legitimate concern among residents regarding auto theft, drug sales, prostitution, overcrowded emergency rooms, things being written in Spanish everywhere, et cetera. There does seem to be some (confusion?) between AZ residents and the US government. Whether that will ever end is unknown. What IS known is that there is a lot of country down there that is basically barren of buildings and houses, and that the cartels know just where to come from. As far as just plinking away at them, well, that is just asking for many innocents to be slaughtered. And, frankly, they do not appear to have much respect for the law. If they did, why smuggle drugs?! This seems to require national response, and I too fear that it will take some sort of major event to perk national interest. Such an event will not likely favor any legal citizens. It may seem silly to actually BUILD a gigantic wall of some sort, but if that's what it takes, well...favor the legitimate citizens, regardless of race. USA, all the way!

 

[LennyLames]

So, how's the trash & pollution situation around those smuggling routes? Aside from the safety issues, is it really conducive for camping from a sanitation perspective?

Facts exist that show illegals commit more crime than citizens do.

Yes, 100 % of them are criminals, but I understand what you're referring to. Illegal entry is just the gateway crime, just like oxycodone is a gateway drug. Once you've done it, it's easier to progress to more potent acts.

. . .Democrats are greedy, but greedy enough to grant an amnesty purely for the millions of free new voters they could get?

I hope these politicians stop talking about amnesty. Anyone that supports amnesty (obviously in the hope of garnering more votes) has a very short term outlook. If you read about the 1986 amnesty (Simpson-Mazzoli Act), it was a failure, and a long term consequence is that there are about 11 million more illegals now, from an estimated 3 million back then.

 

[billdeserthills]

I don't specifically direct this to any particular race, but the illegals do seem to be coming largely from below the border. I lived in Phoenix for 5 years, till '07, and I can tell you that there is a legitimate concern among residents regarding auto theft, drug sales, prostitution, overcrowded emergency rooms, things being written in Spanish everywhere, et cetera. There does seem to be some (confusion?) between AZ residents and the US government. Whether that will ever end is unknown. What IS known is that there is a lot of country down there that is basically barren of buildings and houses, and that the cartels know just where to come from. As far as just plinking away at them, well, that is just asking for many innocents to be slaughtered. And, frankly, they do not appear to have much respect for the law. If they did, why smuggle drugs?! This seems to require national response, and I too fear that it will take some sort of major event to perk national interest. Such an event will not likely favor any legal citizens. It may seem silly to actually BUILD a gigantic wall of some sort, but if that's what it takes, well...favor the legitimate citizens, regardless of race. USA, all the way!

I don't see anything silly about China's Great Wall, it seems to have worked as designed

 

[dcxplant]

East Germany did a heck-of-a-job walling off the west.

My father is from the former state of Pomerania, Germany which is now part of Poland due to war reparations.

He and his family escaped from the Russian sector into the British sector of Berlin when it had concertina wire and sandbags before the wall. A lot of Germans made dashes across the border despite that a lot of Germans were shot by Russian machine guns. After the wall went up, the defections dribbled down to almost zero, with the occasional high drama affair that made the news.

Even regular shootings on the border by Russian army machine gun nests did not deter people from attempting to escape a bad environment for one that promised freedom and prosperity.

A wall did.

My beef is not with those crossing the border as much as it is with the corrupt and crime-driven Mexican government. Mexico has every opportunity in the world to provide jobs to its people. It has a willing labor force (who have to migrate to work), thousands of miles of beachfront property, beautiful mountains, oil reserves etc., everything a country needs to be productive with a thriving middle, and upper middle class.

I really don't know what their problem is....

They are pretty good at blaming the US for their problems though.

 

[John Eilertson]

Yeah, there have been some cases of walls doing what they were meant to do. Stopping the illegals from oozing in would be this wall's first job. I fail to see how that wouldn't work.