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I've talked to a couple of guys that work on the border and they tell me it is pretty bad down there.
AUSTIN -- Texas officials are working on a plan to respond to a potential collapse of the Mexican government and the specter of thousands fleeing north in fear for their lives after recent reports indicated the country could be on the verge of chaos.
"You hope for the best, plan for the worst," Katherine Cesinger, spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry, said last week. "At this point, we've got a contingency plan that's in development."
Late last year the U.S. Department of Defense issued a report that listed Pakistan and Mexico as countries that could rapidly collapse. The report came after similar alarms sounded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and former U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey.
"I think their fears are well-grounded," Texas Home land Security Director Steve McCraw told lawmakers recently at a border security briefing.
Lawmakers expressed concern that the state's southern neighbor, embroiled in drug violence and facing uncertain economic conditions, could send thousands north in search of safety.
State Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Sugarland, asked McCraw at the meeting whether Texas had a plan to cope with such a situation.
"We have a preliminary plan," McCraw said. "There needs to be one in place."
McCraw, a Perry appointee, was unavailable to comment for this story, but Cesinger said the plan was in early stages. It now deals with only law enforcement concerns, she said, and not any potential crush of humanitarian needs the state might face if thousands of refugees flood across the border. "That might be something that comes into consideration as it's developed," Cesinger said.
Destabilization in Mexico might be only a remote possibility, but lawmakers said preparing for any potential disaster is prudent.
State Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, said Texas should plan to deal with not only security concerns but also basic needs refugees would have for housing, health care and food.
"It seems very far-fetched that something like this could occur," he said. "At the same time, I think it would be na ve to believe it's impossible."
El Paso Democratic state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh said El Paso is already seeing refugees from the violence in Juárez.
More than 1,600 died in the drug violence there last year, and the bloodbath continues. More than 200 people have been slain so far this year.
Nearly 50 victims of the violence in Juárez were shuttled to Thomason Hospital for treatment last year. And Shapleigh said many people from Juárez who can afford to are moving north to El Paso.
Developing a contingency plan to deal with a potential Mexican downfall makes sense, he said.
"Better to investigate, examine and plan now, rather than make ad hoc decisions later," Shapleigh said.
Tony Payan, a political science professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, said Mexico is nowhere near the brink of demise.
Problems in Mexico are serious, he said, but the nodes of violence are concentrated in specific areas of the country and primarily involve the warring drug cartels.
"I am standing on campus in Ciudad Juárez now," Payan said Thursday. "Students are working, students are going to class, people are shopping."
Developing a plan to cope with a disaster south of the border was not a bad idea, Payan said.
But Texas could do more to help prevent a catastrophe in Mexico, he said, by working with state and local officials in that country to reinforce their governments.
While federal officials in the U.S. and Mexico often work together, Payan said, state and local leaders with firsthand knowledge of the problems often mistrust one another and fail to collaborate to deal with their mutual concerns.
"Often we want to solve the problems with the border as if they stopped at the international line," Payan said, "and they do not."
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I've talked to a couple of guys that work on the border and they tell me it is pretty bad down there.
I know of a ranch in arizona that they can cut through if they need to.....
where if anything happens to them, they can sue the rancher
oh no. im telling you, im shooting them right on the spot if they encroach on my property.
do you know the history of Texas? anglo families settled beyond the border of the louisiana purchase, and when the spanish tax collectors stopped by, the anglo men loaded their rifles and said "get off my property or i'll shoot you," and so, Texas was born.
its the same scenario. mestizos are coming on our property and asking for our taxes. aint gonna happen.
yeah, let's give them free housing, free health care and free food....also basic needs refugees would have for housing, health care and food.
I don't care much for your sig. The only odor on this forum is coming from you. Despite Obama screwing up big time and the economy going sour, America is still the hope for the world's future.
If you don't like the smell, go somewhere else.
USA's disastrously, perennially failig drug war and illegal drug market greatly contributes to the chaos south of the border.
sorta like dubya's bull war on terror, also a distastrous failure causing tons of in other countries.
the American financial sector and their enabling capitalists, enriched to wreak their havoc with too much money from dubya's tax cuts for the super wealthy, has wrecked the world economy.
I doubt the world will ever look to USA's leadership in anything.
America has dropped the ing ball.
i agree. with all of our covert operations in south america, the cartels
fled to mexico.
Yeah, it has nothing to do with the billions in cocaine we put up our noses every year.
the drug wars eliminated compe ion within the drug market, so cartels were able to crank up prices and maximize profit.
now theyre filthy rich.
We already do.
LOL, I don't want us to lead . I just want to be left alone.
The fed will remain relaxed on illegal immigration because it fits into the plan.
The fed will remain relaxed on illegal immigration because if they really clamped down on it Mexico would collapse.
didnt they end up building a wall along the border? what happen to it?
instead of snakes on a plane, why not put snakes on a wall...too deter fukn illegals coming over the border....
to fund this stimulus i got a good advice to any govt out there. All your govt dept offices have bunkers and , your mountains and out in the desert/rural areas.........grow fukn drugs and resell them. Look at north korea, afghanistan what they are doing to fund their govts. who knows maybe with the profit made can start paying back that foreign debt. All of this at the expense of more junkies on your streets, but who cares if most of them end up dieing anyway....another form of population control at workor
start shuttling people to mars, and default on NFD lmao restart all over on mars.
oh no. im telling you, im shooting them right on the spot if they encroach on my property.
do you know the history of Texas? anglo families settled beyond the border of the louisiana purchase, and when the spanish tax collectors stopped by, the anglo men loaded their rifles and said "get off my property or i'll shoot you," and so, Texas was born.
its the same scenario. mestizos are coming on our property and asking for our taxes. aint gonna happen.
That is some serious bull history. The Anglos were the illegals and we pretty much screwed the Mexicans. Mexico was too weak to hold their ground-so be it-but you don't know jack about Texas history.
LOL you take wayyyy too seriously. read between the lines.
and yes, i DO know my Texas history, corso. i had to take like 20 school fieldtrips to la bahia.
plus, the Anglos were not illegal (with the exception of mustang-catchers like Philip Nolan, but that was at the time Spain ruled) because they were brought in with a grant by Stephen F. Austin, but i assume you know all the jack about Texas history, so that must have been a trick statement.
Last edited by The Reckoning; 02-12-2009 at 04:10 PM.
You're an idiot.
Repugs, you forgot to mention Repugs.
Just about any of your posts.
ill keep that in mindJust about any of your posts.
bring em on, increase the tax base.
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