Mexico Trucker Online Articles

DOJ Report debunks the myth that Mexican trucks are the main conveyance for illegal drugs

The U.S. Department of Justice National Drug Intelligence Center has released its National Drug Threat Assessment 2011 and to the consternation of many who have made the claim that Mexican trucks are the main conveyances with which drugs enter the US, pretty much debunks this idea.

And as usual, we can count on Charlie Morasch, a Landlinemag.com staff hack, to spin the report in a direction that evidence doesn’t indicate.

Morasch uses quotes from a FBI special agent, Kevin Donovan to get his points across, yet one of the remarks attributed to this agent totally blows one of OOIDA and the TEAMSTER positions against Mexican trucking clean out of the water.

In that regard, of Mexican trucking firms being owned by cartels for the express purpose of moving contraband, Donovan is quoted as saying;

In some instances, drug organizations purchase trucks and establish their own motor carrier for the purpose of controlling the transportation leg of their operation.

“It does offer them the opportunity to have more control over the individuals that are transporting the loads. But oftentimes the individuals transporting the loads won’t even necessarily know they’re carrying narcotics because it’s secreted in a legitimate load. That way the driver doesn’t even appear to be nervous because they don’t even know the drugs are there.

Establishing a motor carrier, however, isn’t widely used for reasons every trucking business is aware of: Truck ownership, maintenance and state and federal licensing upkeep are costly.

“From a business perspective, it is an expensive route to take.”

“And the bottom line is,” he said, “it’s a business.”

And it’s certain these trucks would never stand up to the scrutiny that would allow them to operate throughout the US.

Donovan stopped short of saying trucks were the most widely used method for illegal drug transport into the US, something OOIDA, Teamsters and others opposed to Mexican trucks continue to maintain.

So, how do these trans national criminal organizations (TCO’s) move their product? According to the report, they generally smuggle smaller loads of cocaine,heroin, and methamphetamine in noncommercial vehicles (cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks), most likely to blend in with cross-border traffic. Some of the larger loads come across in non commercial and commercial vehicles but likely as not, they’re caught at the border.

Interestingly enough, The number of illicit drug seizures involving noncommercial conveyances at the Southwest Border greatly exceeds the number of seizures involving commercial conveyances.
Analysis of NSS seizure data reveals that only 578 of the 34,274 seizure incidents at and between Southwest Border POEs between 2005 and 2010j involved commercial vehicles. These seizures accounted for less
than 10 percent of the total quantity of illicit drugs seized.

More than 99 percent of illicit drug seizures made between POEs in Arizona and New Mexico involve marijuana; more than 91 percent of the marijuana seized in these incidentsis seized from smugglers on foot.

At the interior POE’s in Texas, Signs indicate that more than 900 US CDL holders have had their licenses revoked under the Texas Hold Em’ Initiative. This is further proof of what the DOJ reports as to the method that drugs make their way into the country. Not by Mexican trucks but by non descript personal vehicles and on the backs of humans.

1 million truck violations cited at border crossing? The story behind the story

Federal and Texas DPS inspectors at Brownsville POE

Today’s El Paso Times has a piece out titled “1 Million Truck Violations Cited at Border Crossing”by Diana Washington who has in the past been a reputable reporter on things concerning the US/Mexico border in El Paso. But the story is misleading and just the sort of thing we expect OOIDA to jump on first thing tomorrow morning. So let’s defuse this bomb before they have a chance to use it.

The story reads in full;

Texas state inspectors in El Paso have found thousands of safety violations in trucks coming from Mexico, including bad brakes, flat tires, axle problems and defective lights, statistics show.

Between fiscal years 2007 and the first six months of 2011, the state conducted 1.2 million inspections at state facilities by the Bridge of Americas and the Zaragoza International Bridge. The state fiscal year runs from Sept. 1 to Aug. 31.

During that period, officers found a million violations, and placed 31,519 trucks and 625 drivers out of service. Many trucks had multiple violations.

Why that’s just terrible folks, isn’t it? Based on that, we should ban all Mexican trucks from the US, Canadian too if you want to be fair about it. But how do those number break down?

The fiscal year runs from October until September 30 of the following year so in the case of this report we would be looking at,

• 54 fiscal months
• 216 fiscal weeks
• 1620 fiscal days (give or take a day or two)

Opponents of Cross Border Trucking turn to recognized “hate groups” for support.

"We're as close as you can be," Mexican Economy Minister Bruno Ferrari (left, shown here with US Trade Rep Ron Kirk) said yesterday, confirming that his country is preparing to sign the formal Cross Border Trucking agreement to end the trucking dispute with the U.S. as early as this month

“We’re as close as you can be,” Mexican Economy Minister Bruno Ferrari  said yesterday, confirming that  his country is preparing to sign the formal Cross Border Trucking agreement to end the trucking dispute with the U.S. as early as this month, setting the stage for the country to remove the punitive tariffs that have cost 25,000 or more US jobs and market share.

Opponents of the program, The Teamsters and OOIDA in particular, in their desperation appear to be pulling out all stops, including turning to recognized HATE GROUPS to spread their message.

In this case, the organization in question is FEDERATION FOR AMERICAN IMMIGRATION REFORM (FAIR), a misnomer meant to confuse the public and lend them legitimacy.

FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, has employed white supremacists in key leadershpi roles, has accepted over a million dollars from a eugenics foundation AND, as if that weren’t enough, has helped to bolster racist conspiracy theories throughout the country.

FAIR is not the voice of the mainstream, it’s the voice of individuals who have helped fuel the 40% increase in the number of hate groups in the US. These aren’t citizen advocacy groups, or simply groups of concerned folk- they are hate groups plain and tall. But then, neither is the TEAMSTERS nor OOIDA.

A recent report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, outlines the story of FAIR as a hate group, and it justifies their official addition to the national list of hate groups maintained by the organization.

It’s been proven that opposition to Mexican trucks has nothing to do with safety, the ability of the Mexican carriers and their drivers to comply with and follow our rules and regulation, but is simply a veiled attempt to keep Mexicans out of this country. Jumping in bed with organizations such as FAIR, the largest and most vile anti-Hispanic organization in the US further proves this.

FAIR has an “Action Alert” posted urging all their nativist members to harass Congress to stop the program. Not much chance of that happening of course, but it there. and like this article in the CONSERVATIVE DAILY NEWS, has OOIDA executive vice president Todd Spencer’s prints all over it.  As the article states, “Where is the Outrage?” We should all be outraged that these two groups, insignificant at best, continue to cost Americans thousands of jobs while pushing their anti-Mexican agenda.

For the most part, they’ve failed. More than 1400 trade associations, the majority of Congress have gotten behind this latest effort to bring us into compliance with our international obligations.

Despite being proven otherwise, we still see people showing their gross stupidity of the issue, or maybe it’s not stupidity, but their bigotry and prejudices coming to the surface such as this letter written to the Tuscaloosa News by Dwight Stripling of Northport Alabama.

Stripling writes;

Dear Editor: Under the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement, which President (Barack) Obama is working to get passed, Mexico will be entitled to haul goods throughout the United States.

But it was discovered that many of the trucks used in the program were poorly maintained, uninspected, and overloaded. Their brakes were bad, their tires were bald and almost always dangerously over the legal weight limit, but that’s not the worst of it.

The United States has safety regulations about how many hours a trucker can drive before he has to take a mandatory break, but the Mexican drivers have no such restrictions, and most are popping pills to keep themselves awake. There is also a possibility of them transporting illegal aliens, drugs, and potential terrorists and their weapons.

When Mexico began sending its trucks across the border, most of the drivers who were stopped for inspection were carrying some kind of contraband to supplement their incomes.

Back then, they carried marijuana and illegal aliens. Today, who knows what they could be carrying in those trucks besides drugs and illegals? Terrorists? Roadside bombs? Anthrax? Think about it!

 

As you can see, Stripling hasn’t a clue what he’s writing about. He blindly follows what he’s been told.

Rusty Wade, aka Yoda, webmaster for Dale “Trucking Bozo” Sommers website, even jumped into the mix with a article he titled, “UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED AGAIN”.  Yoda claims;

A friend sent me pictures from his cell phone of trucks in Arizona that had just come across the border from Mexico at Nogales, Az.
I wondered how safe these Mexican trucks were, so I decided to check them with the FMCSA.
Things I noticed, the authorities were all valid, and there is nothing in that authority that specifies only in the border region, many of those trucks have both Mexican and Arizona tags. I have seen trucks tagged like this in every state of the union. Some do have a “z” after the DOT number some do not!
The absolute truth is these trucks are unsafe, they have repeated inspections that find the same defects.

What did Yoda think he found? Well, one company with 3 drivers, 2 tractors, 2 straight trucks and 4 trailers would seem to have racked up a total of  607 vehicle inspections, 752 driver inspections and 128 haz mat inspections in a 2 year period and they have an AWFUL CMS score if you look at it on the surface. However digging down, you see the majority of the driver violations is for a “non English speaking” driver, and all inspections of this cross border drayage company were done in Arizona.

Another company he lists, LOGISTICA DE CARGA DEL NOROESTE SA DE CV,  similar stats. A vehicle OOS rate of 22% and a driver OOS rate of 2%, comparable to that of US drivers.

And it goes on. Many of these violations of these companies could probably be “DataQed” and removed, but at the end of the day, it’s more smoke and mirrors to mask the truth and shows the lengths opponents of Mexican trucking will go to.

Opposition to cross border program less than expected, but just as nasty

Friday, the FMCSA RELEASED CROSS-BORDER TRUCKING PILOT DETAILS and the reaction was basically “so what’s new?” except amongst the usual suspects who object to anything concerning Mexico.

OOIDA Executive Vice President Todd Spencer released his usual whining rant making baseless allegations they’ve never been able to document nor prove

ATA President Bill Graves issued a statement in support of the proposal.

James P. Hoffa, President of the Teamsters Union who is usual first out of the box with his sophomoric rants about “unsafe” Mexican trucks and “unqualified” Mexican drivers, was suspiciously absent, however, the website, TEAMSTERS NATION chimed in with their instructions, showing they haven’t got a clue and are pushing fear mongering to achieve their agenda.

Their instructions to whoever reads their blog:

Write down this number: FMCSA-2011-0097

It’s the docket number for the Transportation Department’s official proposal to open the border to trucks coming from the war zone known as Mexico.

The proposal will be published in the Federal Register on Monday, if the government doesn’t shut down. You have 30 days to tell them why this is the stupidest fucking idea EVER. We’ll let you know on Monday (if the government isn’t shut down) how to send in your comments. But you’ll have to include the docket number.

Here’s one suggestion, just to get you going: Hundreds of border officials are being investigated for corruption. According to NBC News………………………

Start drafting those comments now! The government has to respond to every single one, so let’s keep ‘em busy until the next millennium!

How silly and comical is that suggestion? But it gets better.

This morning, they published instruction on How to stop Mexican trucks

Here’s what they are telling their members:

Tomorrow, you must get out your ink pen and write to the government to say, “DO NOT open the border to Mexican trucks.”

Do it tomorrow. Do it the next day, and the next. Do it every day for 30 days.

Here’s why: The federal government must post an official notice in the Federal Register in order to open the border to Mexican trucks. The public has 30 days to submit comments. The government must read every single comment and respond to it before the border can be opened.

Let’s send them so many letters they’ll be retired by the time they can respond. The letters don’t have to be long. They just have to give a reason for keeping the border closed. Click here if you need a reason.

They go on to give a sample letter for their members to write that has absolutely nothing to do with Mexican trucks or truckers. This is the sample they provide:

FMCSA-2011-0097
April 11, 2011

Dear Sir:
An an American citizen, I am horrified by FMCSA’s plan to open the border to Mexican trucks. Giving violent drug cartels more access to American highways is harmful to American interests. Mexico is in a state of war. Nearly 35,000 people have been murdered in drug violence in that country since 2007. Ciudad Juarez, which is right across the border from El Paso, is the most dangerous city in the world.
Sincerely,
Name
Address

So please people. If you oppose having the United States comply with our legal obligations to allow Mexican trucking companies access to the United States, then by all means, follow the instructions of TEAMSTERS NATION to the letter. Put down you crayons, pick up a big boy/girl pen and send your letter as instructed. (Don’t forget to stay inside the lines kiddies)

AND WHEN YOU’RE FINISHED, YOU’VE WASTED YOUR TIME!

Think I’m joking? Lets backtrack to 2007 when comments were opened concerning the past Cross Border Program which was defunded by union cronies in Congress.

TEAMSTERS NATION is correct that FMCSA must read every comment submitted and take them into consideration at the end of the comment period. They DO NOT have to respond to the comments individually, only in a general manner in the Federal Register.

In 2007, comments coming into FMCSA concerning 2007-28055 where ridiculous, sophomoric and moronic. Out of almost 2500, only a handful contained valid reasons for or against commencement of the Cross Border Program.

As FMCSA wrote in the Federal Register after the comment period had ended, “All comments were accepted and studied an duly noted that few offered any valid reason to suspend the program” [paraphrased]

You can read some of the examples I used here, or you can Google 2007-28055 and read all of them at the source.

BITS AND PIECES

Our favorite OOIDA/TEAMSTER is back in action at Congress.org, this time with an even more moronic letter directed at President Obama. Here’s some highlights complete with misspellings.

Since that time, we have been subjected to a clash of cultures that is anything but positive as I have tried to point out in previous letters titled The Downside of Cheap Labor. In those reports, I spoke of the tendency of illegal migrants to partake of higher than normal bouts of drunken driving, drag racing drunk, murders and sexual crimes; the latter committed against women as well as children as young as eight months. And now in addition to this, we the people of this nation, thanks to you sir, will be exposed to drunken Mexicans driving substandard trucking rigs on our highways because you have an axe to grind with the people of this nation………………

As for Mexican truck drivers, Pres. George W. Bush had the sense to initiate a trial period during which Mexican trucks were allowed in our country, but restricted to an area no more than twenty-five miles north of our southern border. It was during this trial period that it was determined that Mexican trucks and their drivers are unfit for our highways………………….

We have to believe this because U.S. citizens cannot enter Mexico by just walking across our common border. No sir. Getting caught in Mexico without a Visa is a felon. Illegal migrants are not welcome in Mexico………..

But what trucker in his right mind would want to enter Mexico to subject themselves to murderers, beheadings, thieves and Montezuma’s revenge? ……………………..

e. Sir, even if you were sincere, and sincerety is not one of you hallmarks, we don’t have the manpower to thoroughly check each and every Mexican truck and its driver entering this nation bringing drugs, illegal migrants and a clash of cultures into our country………………………..

Mexican truckers will not be required to carry liability insurance, keep their trucks in top running order or pay high road taxes to pay for their wear and tear on our highways, as must our truckers……………………….

Somebody is going to die at the hands of Mexican truckers because they do not know the rules of the road, drive drunk the wrong way on one way streets and highways. A tiny little girl was recently killed by one of those drunken Mexican truckers. Keep Mexican truckers off our streets and highways. They are already congested with the three million new migrants–legal and illegal–that enter our nation each year. Just keep taking trips in Air Force to invite everyone on this continent to “y’all come. Amnesty and jobs await you . . . yadah yadah yadah.” The insanity must stop!!!!!! Please do us a favor and wihdraw your name from the 2012 election? We need a break………………………………………

Yeah, Todd and Jimbo are probably really proud of this clueless moron in Fredericktown Ohio.

TRUCKING TALKERS AND OTHER LOONY TOONS

Admittedly, I fell asleep from boredom Friday and Saturday night listening to ATN and Bubba Bo who seemed to have problems keeping his phone lines full so we can only imagine what was said. The usual without a doubt.

Steve Sommers, on ATN last taking his first opportunity to break the news since it’s release, was his typical sardonic, sarcastic self, maintaining the OOIDA party line concerning Mexican trucks, referring to the proposal as “comical” and his Buddy Hackett soundalike, Warren, aka “Sugar Bear” coming on throughly pisses and ready to stick pencils in his ass to dull the pain. And has anyone heard Sommers latest spiel for OOIDA where he incredulously revealed that “FMCAS is going to open our borders to Mexican Trucks!! Really!!! You can’t make this stuff up!” Had me laughing my ass off and bouncing lane to lane.

Dave Nemo, this morning to his credit, finally admitted the the excuses about safety, security and all the rest were a sham. His main focus is on supposed job losses. I have a lot of respect for Dave, who along with Evan Lockridge are about the only two talkers on trucking radio worth listening to. But Nemo really needs to look at the numbers to realize his fears are groundless.

The proposal is scheduled to be published int he Federal Register Wednesday, April 13, 2011 with comment accepted through May 13, 2011 unless the opposition whines their way into an extension as they did back in 2007. Comments can be made at REGULATIONS.GOV and you will need the Docket Number which is FMCSA-2011-0097.

We’ll be monitoring the comments as we did in 2007 and share some of the more whacked out ones with you.

Opposing Mexican Trucking program with lies is irresponsible

Mexican truck coming in for border inspection

Todd Spencer, Executive Vice President of OOIDA preaches that complying with our NAFTA obligations is “irresponsible and reckless”. What is more “irresponsible and reckless” is the opposition attempting to inflame the publics passions and prejudices with lies and misinformation about Mexico and it’s trucking industry.

A relatively new website, THE TRUCKERS VOICE is looking for 100 volunteers to help spread the misinformation and lies by having these volunteers;

1. Call every politician, even your mayors.
2. Email every politician, even your mayor.
3. Write (snail mail) ever politician, even your mayor.
4. Get all your friends (even your pet if he can legally write) to do the same.
5. Start a petition in your town. Sit in front of your grocery store, or bring it to your church.

Kind of cute isn’t it, but in the end, a totally worthless effort.

Heather Pontruff, the publisher of TRUCKERS VOICE seems to be fully on board with OOIDA’s ridiculous claims of Mexican truckers taking over our industry, those truckers being controlled by the cartels. She says;

The public safety is at risk with this one.

A. There is a MAJOR cartel issue in the border states. These cartels grow stronger daily, and sneakier. How are we to keep them from completely taking over if we open the borders to all Mexican trucks? In short, we can’t ensure it.

B. There is an illegal immigration issue. True, the drivers in Mexico honestly make more per mile than American truckers. The issue here is there’s no guarantee that once upon entering, these drivers would actually exit.

C. Our border patrol is overwhelmed as is. With no money going into the system, they can’t afford to hire even more agents more. This means more stuff would get past the screening areas and into the U.S.

The only cartel issue we have in the border states is the baseless claims made by politicians seeking to secure more DHS funds for their districts and departments. Recently, the head of the Border Patrol in the Tucson sector chastised Cochise Country Sheriff Larry Deaver for spreading the lies about the cartels overrunning his county.

The cross border issue has absolutely nothing to do with illegal immigration other than to be used as an excuse to bash the program. People ignore the fact that trucks from Mexico, grandfathered in when Reagan signed the Foreign Carrier Exclusion Order in 1982 have continued to operate throughout the United States for more than50 years. And in addition, the dray trucks that operate in the commercial zone do so legally. No trucks are being abandoned as drivers disappear into the heartland. Simply another mechanism to stir the fear and prejudices people have in these times against Mexicans.

Further showing she knows nothing of issue is her claim about the Border Patrol being overwhelmed and can’t handle another hundred trucks crossing the border at the rate of one or two per week.
[pullquote]The agency anticipates an average of one long-haul border crossing per week per truck with each Mexican carrier having two trucks participating in the program. It assumes an attrition rate of 25 percent after 18 months in the project and calculates 46 carriers will suffice to achieve a target of 4,100 inspections within three years – OVERDRIVE MAGAZINE[/pullquote]

The Border Patrol has nothing to do with what crosses the border. That is the area of responsibility of Customs and Border Protection, a separate unit of DHS.

According to the fact sheet released by FMCSA concerning the issue that confuses Ms. Pontruf,

FMCSA has a staff of over 250 distributed at each commercial truck crossing between the
United States and Mexico. Our State partners have an additional 350 personnel to support the
program. These personnel, currently overseeing the safety of the trucks entering the U.S. commercial
zones, are adequate to oversee long-haul operations also.

So we have adequate personnel to oversee the inspection of these additional 100 or so trucks and the infrastructure is in place to screen them as they do all the others when they pass through Customs.

But perhaps the most outrageous statement she makes, and totally baseless and without facts is this;

I remember the last time they did the cross border program with Mexico, I lived in Texas. CMV “at fault” accidents sky rocketed. Why?
A. They brought over the best trucks Mexico across the border for the pilot program. Once they opened the border to a total of 100 outfits, the trucks were scary and unsafe.
B. Unlike Canada, there is no structured method for HOS (hours of service). The truck
crossing into the U.S. border could’ve driven 4 hours straight before entering or 40, there’s
no way of knowing.

CMV accidents might have skyrocketed, but they did not involve trucks from Mexico nor have anything to do with Mexican trucks.

According to FMCSA STATISTICS accident rates involving Mexican domiciles carriers actually went DOWN in 2007, the year the previous cross border program was initiated.

• 2006 – 92
• 2007 – 76
• 2008 – 67
• 2008 – 58
• 2010 – 17

Yes, Mexico has differing regulations than does the US and Canada’s regulations differ from ours, such as more liberal hours of service laws. Mexico’s regulatory environment sets out the rules the drivers and companies are expected to follow and puts the onus on the company and drivers. Traffic accidents in Mexico are criminal, not civil as they are in the US. Fatalities or accidents involving extreme property damage, causes the driver to lose his license and freedom. Yes, they put them in jail and there are no second chances. Perhaps something we should be looking at here.

But articles such as this one, and the ones OOIDA is publishing around the internet are the height of irresponsibility, something we’ve come to expect from Spencer and his gang. But there is no reason people like Ms Pontruf and THE TRUCKERS VOICE should lower themselves to that level.

OOIDA members use racist extremist websites to oppose Mexican trucks

After President Obama and Mexican President Calderon announced Thursday a working agreement on allowing Mexican trucks access to American highways after almost 20 years of the US violating it’s obligation under NAFTA, the airwaves and internet are alive with renewed debate as talkers and opposition groups feed on the unfounded paranoia of the American trucker.

Eric (Bubba Bo)Boulanger  hosts the weekend slot on America’s Trucking Network (ATN) heard on  700WLW and XM 152 allowed the usual callers to make veiled threats of violence and destruction of the Mexican trucks and their drivers as he fielded calls on the subject of Mexican trucks. And he didn’t stop those that would use demeaning names for the Mexicans such as “jalapenos” or “beaners”, giving the callers his tacit approval.

Perhaps the most disturbing discovery is some of these “patriotic” American truckers turning to the extremist right wing racist websites to get their message out and enlist the help of the “turd reichers” and knuckle dragging racists.

I refer to a thread on the white nationalist website STORMFRONT. Stormfront was the first major hate site on the Internet. Claiming more than 130,000 registered members,
the site has been a very popular online forum for white nationalists and other racial extremists.

I say an OOIDA member or perhaps staff at OOIDA is turning to this despicable collection of racists in an attempt to derail the new Mexican truck program. A member by the handle of TRUCKIN and who joined the site in February of 2011, heavily promotes OOIDA as the all encompassing solution to keeping those damned Mexicans out of the US. And he has a very receptive audience.

Stormfront, where you’ll find such titillating tidbits as “Beating down a mud [a non-white person] when they try to poisen [sic] one of our own or when they try to seduce one of our girls may not be God inspired, but rather a righteous act of collective preservation.” is a place where this OOIDA message seems to be readily accepted and acted upon.

OOIDA members also appear to be taking their message to the right wing extremist Mexican hate site ALIPAC, who made the list of the SPLC’s Year in Hate and Extremism 2010 Where Stormfront opposes African Americans, Jews and anyone not of caucasian ancestry, ALIPAC is just the opposite. Their focus is on Mexican bashing and demonization of all Hispanics, who they seem to consider to all be illegal.

ALIPAC, the majority of whom are elderly and retired, perfect targets for President William Gheen to scam donations from to support his lifestyle also have a smattering of members who heavily promote OOIDA as the end all solution.

Here’s an example of ALIPAC and their suggestions:

Make a seperate lane for those trucks. Before they enter go over them with a fine tooth comb. Strip it down. Sure its gonna take time but then its their gas. (Mod Edit.) Let them know what is in store.

The mod edit was “then burn them to the ground making sure the wetbacks watch and “………

And if there is any doubt about OOIDA or it’s members aligning with the White Nationalists to push their agenda of opposing Mexican trucks, here’s another post by the same person.

That’s enough to make any self respecting trucker to cut up their OOIDA card and mail it back to them.

Along the Border – Immeasurable fear overrules reality

MATAMOROS — Violence in this border city, residents say, is often left unreported by authorities yet exaggerated when caught on tape by the media, making it difficult to measure.

But if there is some certainty in the muddle of misinformation, many say it is this: Fear is ravaging the public perception of Matamoros. People no longer cross as frequently into the Mexican border city as they did in the past, and its retail businesses and restaurants are hurting.

“It is not to say that there have not been dangerous incidents, but we can say the same for this side of the border,” said Susan Ritter, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College. “These things (crimes and violent acts) get reported on and repeated and exaggerated, and on and on they go until everybody thinks it is gospel.”

Regardless of the case and regardless of where it occurs, Ritter says, “Generally, the fear is larger than the crime.”
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Like the Minutemen, Texas Rangers not welcome at the border

"We don't need the Texas Rangers to come to the border to quell any imaginary disturbance," said Lupe Trevino, vice chairman of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Southwest Border Task Force.

McALLEN, Texas — Rancher Mike Landry recently came upon a group of unarmed men dressed in camouflage burglarizing his guest house and stealing a truck from his 11,000 acres in Terrell County, rugged country bordering the Rio Grande in West Texas.

A couple of shots over their heads from his hunting rifle kept nine of them, all Mexican citizens, in place until Border Patrol agents arrived.

“It has really gotten to be pretty spooky,” said Landry, who has run cattle in the area for 29 years.

Stories like Landry’s seem to bolster Gov. Rick Perry’s recent decision to send elite teams from the state’s top law enforcement agency, the Texas Rangers, to remote borderlands to help them with security and deter a spillover of the gruesome drug-war violence plaguing Mexico. But Landry’s situation never grew violent, and many other ranchers, sheriffs and politicians along Texas’ 1,200 mile border with Mexico found the governor’s announcement puzzling.
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