Showdown at border? MS-13 GANG THREATENS...

FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN
Showdown at border? Violent, terror-connected gang threatens
to confront civilian immigration patrols
Posted: March 7, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern

Editor's note: Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin is an online, subscription intelligence news service from the creator of WorldNetDaily.com – a journalist who has been developing sources around the world for almost 30 years.

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

It looks like there is going to be a second "showdown at the OK Corral" in Tombstone, Ariz., April 1.

A leader of the violent, terror-connected Latin American gang Mara Salvatruchas, Ebner Anivel Rivera-Paz, has reportedly issued orders from federal prison to members of his international criminal organization to teach a lesson to a group of Americans taking border control into their own hands.

The American civilians, known as the "Minutemen," say they have some 750 volunteers ready to show up in Tombstone to start policing the border and dealing with illegal immigration.

The Mara Salvatruchas, founded in Los Angeles, has become one of the most violent and widespread gangs throughout South America, the U.S. and even Canada. Many of its members and leaders have been deported from the U.S., but the group is said to be deeply involved in cross-border arms-running and drug-smuggling operations, according to U.S. law enforcement sources.

Lately, the gang has joined forces with former members of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, a radical terrorist group, and some U.S. intelligence sources say they may also be cooperating with Islamic terrorist groups – including al-Qaida.

Meanwhile, the Minutemen hope to form a group of civilians from all walks of life to patrol the border day and night – even with the threat of such violence. Their goal is stop the flow of illegal immigration through the Arizona-Mexico border, the biggest entry point into the U.S.

Jim Gilchrist of Orange County, Calif., is leading the project.

"I struck the mother lode of nationalism," he told a local TV station. "I thought I would be lucky to get 12 volunteers. In six months, I've gotten almost 500."

The target is a 230-mile stretch of desert along the Arizona-Mexico border. Some people call the area "America's Open Door." Along this section of the border, more than 43 percent of all illegal entries to the U.S. take place.

Last year, the Tucson Border Patrol apprehended 491,000. But for every person caught, immigration sources say, at least five walk in undetected.

"We're going to set up at least 40 maybe 80 outposts, four to six people per outpost 24/7, looking for people who are infiltrating over that border," said Gilchrist.

To do this, Gilchrist is amassing people from all walks of life to spend a month camped out on the border.

But some say taking the work of border patrol into their own hands could be deadly. While Gilchrist stresses non-violence, he doesn't rule out the possibility that many of his volunteers will be armed.

"Ten percent of our members are retired law enforcement officers who have a right to carry a concealed weapon. They probably will carry and you won't know it," he said.

But Andy Adame with the U.S. Border Patrol in Tucson warned "people are going to get hurt." Adame said many of these volunteers don't know what they're in for.

"When you have untrained civilians, that are armed, that are out in the middle of the desert, in the middle of the night, in the dark, and they meet up with one of these smuggling organizations ... you're going to have a gun fight," said Adame.

Border patrol agents have seen a growing problem with violence in recent years. Agents have been attacked by frustrated smugglers with rocks, bricks, even automatic weapons.

According to authorities, violence along the Tucson sector has climbed to an all-time high.

"Bringing untrained civilians into this border environment is a recipe for disaster," said Adame.

But that has not deterred many of the volunteers.

The Minutemen even have an air force. They plan to use about two dozen aircraft to patrol the skies near the border.

Rivera-Paz was arrested three weeks ago and is accused of murdering more than two dozen people in Honduras. He was wanted in connection with the December bus massacre of 28 people, including six children, in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

The Mara Salvatruchas identify themselves with tattoos, such as "MS" or the numbers 13 and 18, signifying their relationship to the gang. The gang formed in the United States in the 1980s in a Los Angeles prison. The 13 and 18 signify the city streets in L.A. where they hung out.

U.S. officials are concerned the gang members might help sneak al-Qaida terrorists into America.

Rivera-Paz was charged with illegally entering the United States after being deported, but is expected to be extradited to Honduras to face charges in connection with the bus massacre.

Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43171
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America's Most Dangerous Gang
... Until recently, MS-13 wasn’t that big a player in East Coast gang culture.

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Civil Homeland Defense
... is the American border territory immediately adjacent to the US border ...
violent gang called MS-13 who want the Minuteman Project blown sky high. ...
MORE:>>

TESTIMONY OFFERS INSIGHT INTO BORDER SECURITY

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz testified today on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims, talking about the underfunding of border security. The Subcommittee is led by Chairman John N. Hostettler (R-IN), and Ranking Member Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX).

Jackson Lee accompanied Ortiz to South Texas to examine elements of border security in September, 2004. They held the hearing to evaluate the need to fully fund the increase in Border Patrol Agents as authorized by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.

The Intelligence Reform bill passed by Congress, and signed by the President, mandated 10,000 Border Patrol agents over 10 years, 2,000 annually. The budget received by Congress in early February only funded 210 BP agents.

Additionally, Intelligence Reform mandated an increase of 8,000 beds in detention facilities annually for the next 5 years, still not nearly enough to hold all those coming in the U.S. … yet the budget proposal provides for only about 1,900 new detention space beds – over 6,000 beds short of the congressional mandate passed in December, 2004.

Ortiz’ formal testimony follows:

Chairman Hostettler, Ranking Member Jackson Lee, Members of the committee … Thanks for hearing about dangers in U.S. border security.

I am not an immigrant-basher; my mother was an immigrant and I am part of a rich tradition of immigrants in the U.S. Before coming to Congress, I was a sheriff in South Texas, which keeps me in close touch with the people who protect our safety and property along the southern border.

I want to address a growing, dangerous national security problem originating on the southern border with 3 major components:

1. the release of OTMs (other than Mexicans) by the U.S. government … Border law enforcement officers routinely release illegal immigrants into the general population of the U.S. because they do not have sufficient funds and space to detain them at detention facilities. Captured OTMs are released on their own recognizance and are ordered to appear at a deportation hearing weeks after their release. The number of “absconders” – those who never appear for deportation – varies widely, but is said to be 90% of those released, a number now approaching 75,000…
the growing number of Mara Salvatrucha (MS 13) gangs, the bloody, violent Central American gangs that are now a serious
2. criminal element in major cities and in states around the country. These gangs are entering the country as OTMs, and gaining easy release.
3. and … a recent warning to Americans by the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico illustrating the danger of narcotrafficking gangs along the U.S. border directed against Americans in the border area, including kidnapping of American citizens.

The Southern Border is literally under siege, and there is a real possibility that terrorists – particularly al Qaida forces – could exploit this series of holes in our law enforcement system along the southern border. There has been a 137% increase in OTMs in this fiscal year alone – translating to roughly 6,000 OTMs. 40% of OTMs pass through the McAllen Sector alone in south Texas. However, this problem is not just in south Texas.

Boston-area police have arrested a number of MS 13 gang members who are tearing through their community there, one of which was reported to be an OTM, released by border law enforcement. Central American law enforcement and news reports note that al Qaida is trying to get the ruthless MS 13 gangs to move high value al Qaida operatives across the border for a large sum of money, we’ve heard about $250,000.

Adm. Loy at DHS recently noted in testimony before the Intelligence Committee that al Qaida is attempting to exploit the southern border to enter the U.S. This is what we know.

The Intelligence Reform bill passed by Congress, and signed by the President, mandated 10,000 Border Patrol agents over 10 years, 2,000 annually. The budget received by Congress in early February only funded 210 BP agents. The Border Patrol will lose more than 210 agents to attrition – the strength of the Border Patrol is dwindling. Just this week, 24 more Border Patrol agents were mobilized with the National Guard to the war in Iraq from the McAllen sector alone.

Intelligence Reform mandated an increase of 8,000 beds in detention facilities annually for the next 5 years, still not nearly enough to hold all those coming in to the U.S. … yet our budget proposal provides for only about 1,900 new detention space beds – over 6,000 beds short of the congressional mandate passed in December, 2004. This is a clear and present danger inside the United States, and the number of released illegal immigrants not returning for deportation grows by the hundreds each week.

This willfully ignores a complex problem undermining our national objective: to take the war to the enemy so we do not have to fight the war on terror inside our country, yet we could very well be letting people in our backyard. Not only do we not know who we are releasing – we don’t know where they are going… the entire system depends upon the information given to us by the immigrants.

Without ID, agents simply have to trust they are getting accurate information. Local ranchers found clothing that is native to the Middle East … and Sudanese money – countries of special interest – and those OTMs are being released. They are showing up in taxis at Border Patrol stations to get their walking papers.

The more OTMs we release, the more we encourage their crossing in the first place. Until we have the resources we need – the border patrol agents, the detention facilities and the appropriate technology – to accurately screen these immigrants, they are going to continue to enter the country.

We must send a clear signal that they will be apprehended and put through the legal process in order for these OTMs to stop infiltrating our borders. Our borders are crossed illegally in waves; the first wave of 10 or so are captured, processed and nearly always released… but while the agents are processing the first wave, the next several waves come in uncontested.

Again, let’s be clear – this is not anti-immigrant rhetoric. Most immigrants crossing our borders merely seek a better life. In FY03, 95% of illegal immigrants were Mexicans; the remaining 5% (49,545) were OTMs. Before 9-11, concerns about illegal immigrants focused entirely on the cost to local communities and the fear that Americans could lose jobs to immigrants willing to work cheaper.

But that is not the case today. Once again, the OTM issue is not just a concern for border communities, but more importantly for all of us. It is a dire matter of our national security in this dangerous new age. I am introducing a border security bill shortly that will address some of the issues we have discussed here today. I hope all of you will consider co-sponsoring it and I invite you to my district to see all this for yourselves.

My recommendations – many of which are included in my bill – are on many levels:

•providing more security clearances to agents so more can access the database – presently only a few have the abilities – or providing more training for our agents
•More piloted aircraft, fewer UAVs – those who utilize it say our air ops is outdated
•In the McAllen sector, we need remote video cameras – they need cameras on both sides of the checkpoints
•More personnel to man the checkpoints and cameras
•More immigration judges
•Some type of roving collection facility to gather up illegal immigrants to keep agents on their post
•Work with Mexico to prevent OTMs from crossing in the first place
•Exchange criminal data with Central American countries to know who’s crossing the border
•Agencies need to talk to each other and stop denying the magnitude of this problem.

We can’t just talk about it, or authorize it … we must fund every single penny of it … now, in the supplemental coming before Congress in the next few weeks. I asked those who stand on our front lines what they would want to say to the U.S. Congress; here’s what they said:

- “Our borders are not secure.”

- “What’s our mission here? We’re spinning our wheels.”

- “The whole system is broken.”

- “We’re releasing OTMs without proper checks due to lack of time and info.”

I want to thank the Majority and the Minority members of the subcommittee – and the staff – for their concern on this issue and for inviting me to testify. I wish to submit for the record a number of new stories about these things, and I am happy to answer any questions you may have.
http://www.house.gov/ortiz/releases/pr_030305.html