Arizona in a State of Emergency

By Arizona Senator Sylvia Allen, November 29, 2011 (PART I OF II)

The Arizona border remains under assault. This assault is not diminishing but increasing! Just south of Arizona, Mexico is in a state of civil war. The death toll in Mexico is more than 40,000 lives lost since 2006. Only the Mexican military is able to maintain any semblance of order, and many within Mexico are now even openly questioning “for how long?” In a recent exclusive interview with Newsmax, former Mexican President Vicente Fox said bluntly his nation was at “war” with drug cartels. “Everybody’s trying to deny that we’re going through a war but that’s what it is.”

Graphic photos of beheadings, kidnapping scenes, and mass graves are sent to me weekly in Border Briefing reports. The cartels/gangs have corrupted Mexican law enforcement at all levels, thereby protecting their illicit $12-billion-a-year criminal enterprise. You would think the United States government would be greatly concerned; you would think those in positions of public trust in Washington would spend at least as much time working on stabilizing Mexico as they do on Egypt and Libya. Yet hardly a word is said about the increasing problems and threats stemming from our immediate neighbor to the south other than the spin from Washington that “the border is safer now than ever.”

But to those of us tasked with providing security to the citizens of Arizona and beyond, nothing of substance is said or enacted and, all the while, a war is headed this way. This war is real, and it is dangerous, and soon this war will be fought with increasing measures in America.

NewsMax devoted two months last Spring conducting more than 20 interviews during visits to border areas in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. They found overwhelming evidence that Mexico’s drug cartels have already penetrated deep into our nation’s heartland, and Americans are increasingly fearful.

As Chairman of the Arizona Senate Committee on Border Security, my committee heard testimony last year from many citizens who live in the border area. They reported home invasions, vandalism, stolen property, and a host of other criminal activities. An Intelligence Briefing to a Joint Session of Selected Legislators on November 10^th, 2011, by Zack Taylor, retired Border Patrol Supervisory Agent, and Dr. Lyle Rapacki, a Threat Assessment and Intelligence Specialist, went even further than the NewsMax articles.

These experts reported how “lookout posts” are positioned in key points throughout the desert, and as far north (65-miles from the border) as the City of Casa Grande, Arizona, the I-8 corridor and Apache Junction, and along the I-10 corridor approaching the bedroom community of Ahwatukee. This briefing further revealed that the cartels (and lookouts) are heavily armed with military-grade weapons, camouflage, sophisticated and expensive night-vision goggles, satellite communications, food and water, and organized logistical support. If you go to the Pinal County Sheriff’s website, you can read many reports of drug busts, fire fights, auto chases, and other serious encounters with the cartels/gangs/human smugglers occurring frequently in Pinal County, which is far inside the border of the United States of America.

Additionally, and with as much concern, Arizona has to deal with health issues and trash, mounds of trash left by illegal aliens marching into America. Fifth-generation rancher Jim Chilton has seen his once-beautiful ranch, just a few miles from the border with Mexico, be destroyed with crushed trees and cactus, whole hillsides turned into charred eyesores, years worth of his award-winning conservation projects obliterated – and his ranch is littered with trash, tons of trash, and some of this trash is dead bodies.

Mr. Chilton stated: “I’ve got 30,000 to 40,000 illegal aliens coming right through my ranch every year, and the Forest Service says each one leaves about eight pounds of trash. This means 100 tons of trash. Some of my cows eat the plastic bags that are thrown down, and about 10 head of cattle die per year, and their deaths are slow and painful. At $1,200 per cow lost, this means I lose $12,000 a year in cows to trash!”

Adding insult is the Bureau of Land Management with their insane proposal to shut down target shooting on 490,000 acres in the Sonoran Desert National Monument, and another 1.4 million acres of additional public lands in Pinal County. The Bureau claims shooters are leaving trash behind. It is NOT the shooters who are decimating the desert but drug and human smugglers! The BLM knows this but have developed this ploy to restrict Arizonans from entering this land. Arizona Game and Fish, on their maps, warn hunters that 35 miles north of the Border the land is impacted by illegal activity from illegal aliens.