Violence Crosses the Southern Border
[Guest post by DRJ]
A prominent Arizona rancher was shot and killed Saturday and authorities suspect the perpetrator was an illegal immigrant:
“At a news conference Monday, Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever said Krentz was out checking water line and fencing on the land Krentz’s family has ranched since 1907. Krentz had weapons with him in his all-terrain vehicle but didn’t use them, according to Dever.
Investigators said Krentz apparently came upon one person when he was shot. Krentz was heard telling his brother “illegal alien” on the radio earlier Saturday, and the area of the slaying is a known smuggling corridor, according to authorities.
While Krentz was still in his vehicle, mortally wounded, he managed to drive the ATV away from the scene at a high rate of speed before becoming unconscious. The ATV still had its lights on and the engine running when authorities found it.
Foot tracks were identified and followed approximately 20 miles south to the Mexico border by sheriff’s deputies, U.S. Border Patrol trackers and Department of Corrections dog chase teams, authorities said.”
The motive may have been retaliation for turning in drug smugglers:
“Dever told a Tucson newspaper that while investigators don’t have a motive yet, retaliation has been raised as a possibility. The day before the shooting, the victim’s brother, Phil Krentz, reported drug smuggling activity on the ranch to the Border Patrol.
Agents found 290 pounds of marijuana on the ranch and followed tracks to where they found and arrested eight illegal immigrants. All were still in custody when the shooting occurred.”
New Mexico and Arizona leaders have requested an enhanced Border Patrol presence at the border in response to this killing, but it’s not just ranchers who are at risk. Both local ranchers and Border Patrol agents face heightened dangers:
“Drug smugglers have apparently set “booby traps” for U.S. Border Patrol agents on roads along the border near Deming [NM] , agency officials said Monday.
The devices consist of barbed wire stretched like clotheslines across trails used by agents on all-terrain vehicles. The lines, which are difficult to spot, are about four feet off the ground and appear to be intended to knock a rider off the ATV.”
Meanwhile, the violence continues in Juarez, including 5 men who were gunned down in an auto shop and another who was killed in his bed.
— DRJ
more stringent gun control will solve all these problems.
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 3/30/2010 @ 11:39 pmCenter-mass works for me.
AD - RtR/OS! (a2cec7) — 3/30/2010 @ 11:49 pmOur local clergy, especially the Archdiocese of Los Angeles under the leadership of Cardinal Roger Mahoney, likes to advocate for immigration reform (i.e., amnesty) by blanketing us with anecdotes about various illegals who come here, work hard, raise a family, and hope someday to have a chance for a green card or even citizenship. Somehow I doubt if they will want to discuss the sort of anecdote that tragically involved Mr. Krentz.
JVW (fd30ab) — 3/30/2010 @ 11:55 pmThis is an on-going problem along the AZ-Mex border. Remember the farmer/rancher who was sued by an illegal for “kidnapping” when he held him for the Border Patrol….
AD - RtR/OS! (a2cec7) — 3/31/2010 @ 12:12 amand the illegal won!
one of the many reasons i gave up being Catholic one Lent and never looked back. Maphoney is a disgrace at any level you wish to consider.
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 3/31/2010 @ 12:13 amRedc1c4, Remember how George Putnam used to rip into Mahoney for his foolishness and challenge Mahoney to support 10 illegals by himself from his personal funds?
I remember an LA Cop, a 40 something mom, on her first day being killed by an illegal with a .44 magnum just because she stopped her car to question him. Mahoney wouldn’t address that.
PCD (1a283e) — 3/31/2010 @ 4:04 amAs a Catholic, Mahoney should be pushing for humane treatment of people. But he should be talking to the Mexican government that has shown no competence at solving their own problems instead of importing them to the U.S.
The Cardinal should also be advocating for legal citizens of Los Angeles instead of pretending illegals are no problem.
And amnesty pimps like John McCain and Goober Graham should have been pushing for stronger boarder security a long time ago instead of pushing their amnesty projects. And Bush gets blame too.
MU789 (4b9f51) — 3/31/2010 @ 5:41 amSooner or later the citizens of our border states will call for a massive retaliation if this keeps escalating – it could be worse than Pershing’s excursion into Mexico to pursue Villa.
Dmac (21311c) — 3/31/2010 @ 6:36 amBTW, for those of a certain dramatic event, the TV series “Southland” (on TNT now) is exploring this very same threat from the Mexican drug cartels on the LA streets.
Dmac (21311c) — 3/31/2010 @ 6:37 amUp here in MI, we have a lot of snowmobile, motorcycle, and offroad ATV activity.
In the past I have seen snowmobiles with a bar welded to the nose, rising about 5 ft, and having a sharp forward-angled bar at the top. The edge of this was sharpened.
It works like a cow-tipper on the front of a locomotive, except that rather than moving an animal, this catches, and cuts wires that would otherwise decapitate you when encountered at speed.
Should I patent the idea, and sell modifications to the BP?
NavyspyII (df615d) — 3/31/2010 @ 6:38 amIt is sad that he gave his life thinking Obama or the US government cared about stopping drug smuggling.
Alta Bob (e8af2b) — 3/31/2010 @ 7:03 amIt is sad that he gave his life thinking Obama or the US government cared about stopping drug smuggling.
jdub (ba3489) — 3/31/2010 @ 7:11 amYeah, it is. That’s the most sobering comment i’ve read on a blog in a long time.
Navyspy, Side question first, you serve in converted Liberty ships? I have a good friend that was a Golden Shellback on one.
2nd, thing. You can’t patent that idea. US forces in Occupied Germany used such a device on their jeeps as die hard SS were stringing piano wire across roads until almost 1950.
PCD (1d8b6d) — 3/31/2010 @ 7:13 amAnd amnesty pimps like John McCain and Goober Graham should have been pushing for stronger boarder security a long time ago instead of pushing their amnesty projects.
Ironically, Politico reports that John McCain wrote Janet Napalitano a letter requesting her to send in the National Guard.
“I am asking you and the administration to immediately reconsider your position and send National Guard troops to our southern border region,” McCain wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
It looks like McCain may have reconsidered his position on illegals as well. He was for it before he was against it…Elections can do that to a person.
McCain supported comprehensive immigration reform during the Bush years — legislation that would have provided a path to citizenship for the more than 10 million immigrants currently living illegally in the U.S. The position angered many on the right, but it’s a position he’s backed away from in the face a stiff primary challenge from former Rep. J.D. Hayworth. Hayworth, a darling of tea party activists, has repeatedly attacked McCain as wrong on immigration.
Dana (1e5ad4) — 3/31/2010 @ 7:25 amI just had a huge argument with an “academic” who feels that illegals should be given some type of bio-metric card that would allow them to continue working here because most are just here to work because they can’t support their families in Mexico. I asked him what he would do about the others, like the MS-13 members. He had no answer except to deport them IF they were guilty of a crime.
What does that do? Nada.
Here is my plan: make the E-Verify system fool proof. Right now it is only 50% accurate (should make you feel good about the government having your medical records). Any employer who knowingly hires an illegal should be prosecuted and required to foot the bill to send that illegal back to their native land. If the employer is a repeat offender, throw the book at them.
Any illegal caught should be sent back. No “catch and release” program. If they are caught again, let them work at Sheriff Joe’s farm for a year, using their wages to reimburse the law enforcement systems that caught them for the man hours required and for their ticket back home.
Caught the third time: federal prison.
If we started enforcing our laws, we would not have this problem.
We also need to end the practice of allowing school buses to cross our borders so that children, who still live in Mexico, can attend school here in the U.S.
But then, if you look at it from the DNC’s point of view, hey, that’s 12 million new voters.
retire05 (2abfb2) — 3/31/2010 @ 7:34 amretire05, good points all but there is simply a serious lack of will necessary to see any effective consequences followed through with. Unfortunately, it will take far more than one rancher killed to see any permanent action. There might be a momentary appeasement to quell the anger, but nothing permanent…it would anger too many potential voters.
Bottom line: It’s a travesty but more Americans will have to be sacrificed before the administration is compelled to move to protect it’s own people.
Dana (1e5ad4) — 3/31/2010 @ 7:52 amCondolences to the family of the slain rancher. This is exactly why it is necessary to carry personal protection when traveling anywhere in the open Sonoran Desert. I believe the rancher was targeted for assisting the BP in it’s efforts to staunch the flow of illegals.
Americans are killed on or near the border, BP Agents Ramos and Campean are imprisoned for doing their jobs, one illegal sues for damages because he is held against his will waiting for the BP and incursions occur along the Rio Grande as the drug runners test our defenses. We don’t visit the state park in Organ Pipe anymore because of the dangerous activity going on in that area close to the border and smuggling routes.
McCain, GOD love him, is a little late to the party.
vet66 (996c34) — 3/31/2010 @ 8:47 amDana, how many Americans have to die at the hands of those who should not be here? One of the worst serial murderers in our nations history was the illegal, Angel Resendez. Do we not have enough murderers of our own that we have to import them?
Why does no one on the left talk about the turf wars in L.A. where illegals are killing black Americans?
Can someone explain to me how the life of Phil Krentz was worth the cost in order to maintain political correctness? Can anyone explain to me why I attended not one, but three funerals in Wiemar, Texas due to an illegal who also voted in a presidential primary?
McCain lost me a long time ago. And now all his wailing about how this situation (that he made worse) must be dealt with only shows he is no longer qualified to hold office.
retire05 (2abfb2) — 3/31/2010 @ 8:54 amMillions of Illegals have had children who contributed greatly to our society, fought for this country, protected us and worked in squalid conditions, benefiting everyone
Some, have become horrible criminals of the worst sort
EricPWJohnson (924880) — 3/31/2010 @ 8:57 amretire05, sadly, our politicians don’t have the will or the steel to protect the very citizenry they are charged to protect. What you cite will be reduced to the anomalous and anecdotal, therefore, discounted in the bigger picture.
I don’t know what it will take for anyone to actually make a stand in support of Americans, but what I do know is that the fear of offending the illegal immigrants and their lobbies now outweighs the justified anger and frustration of citizens and victims of these families who have paid dearly for the weakness of our elected officials.
Dana (1e5ad4) — 3/31/2010 @ 9:56 amEricPWJohnson, you are right that there are decent and good illegals here, but the fact remains they are still, illegal. Had the corridor of entry been secured, then we would not have also had the criminal element freely entering our country. Frankly it’s not worth the risk to have the good apples allowed entry because it also allows the bad apples free entry as well. The deaths of American citizens should never be the price of that laxity and political squeamishness. The government is charged to first and foremost, protect it’s citizens. They have failed miserably. That cannot be denied.
Dana (1e5ad4) — 3/31/2010 @ 10:02 amWhat we need is to rebuild the entire southern frontier so it looks like the Korean DMZ.
Secret Squirrel (6a1582) — 3/31/2010 @ 10:15 amNo, I was stationed on a carrier, brownshoe all the way.
The patent idea was in jest, but it is good to know that others remember the context of the last time that modification was needed.
NavyspyII (df615d) — 3/31/2010 @ 11:46 am29, Secret Squirrel, do we have the cajones to shoot reporters as the North Koreans do?
PCD (1d8b6d) — 3/31/2010 @ 11:53 am“…do we have the cajones to shoot reporters…”
The Koreans in Korea-Town did during the Rodney King Riots.
AD - RtR/OS! (6f84de) — 3/31/2010 @ 12:08 pmAn info-babe for one of the TV outlets was setting up her curbside report on how the Korean merchants were posting armed guards on the roofs of their businesses and actually firing at looting mobs, when she and her crew started taking incoming (I think it was when they turned the lights on). She and the crew bailed, and she has never appeared on an L.A. newscast since – I heard she got out of the business – probably PTSD!
AD, I don’t remember that particular incident. I remember the Former Korean Marines (from both North and South) forming up and marching through the area to relieve, support, and station trained people to repel the looters. No, they weren’t armed, but the gangs were. A consequence of Liberal Gun Control laws.
I noted there never was a prosecution of the gang bangers that broke into gun stores and looted the entire inventory. One news account reported the gangs were issuing weapons like the Army did in boot camp, IE. By name of the recruit.
PCD (1d8b6d) — 3/31/2010 @ 12:31 pmYou would only know about it from some local media here in L.A.;
AD - RtR/OS! (6f84de) — 3/31/2010 @ 12:49 pmand the story had very short legs, as it did not reflect well upon the media itself,
unlike the story about the info-babe who was electrocuted (survived) by her technician when he raised the antenna mast into a high-tension wire.
Let’s focus on the real cause of the border violence, drugs. Were there no market for smuggled drugs, the violence would practically die away. But as long as there are moralistic types pushing for absolute ethical perfection, the obvious solution for drug smuggling will be disregarded.
The long term consequence of all this is going to be war. Intervention into Mexico to stop the cartels, and if it means overthrowing the Mexican government, then them’s the eggs the omelet requires. And it will be a never ending war that can only end, and will only end, with the legalization of drugs.
That’s the way we’re going, because the cartels are going to go after American law and American citizens because we threaten their profits, and their pride. Drug running will wind up doing what hard communism and soft socialism could only dream of doing, destroying the American way of life. The only way we’re going to win against the cartels is to admit we lost the war on drugs, and letting go our obsessive need to control the behavior of others.
Even then we’ll have some hard fighting to break the cartels, for they will do all they can to retain their power. Means an expansion of our military and the enlistment of the American people in the fight
Are we ready? Ready to let go of blind anger and an infantile need to run others lives? Or will we cling thoughtlessly to the urge to dominate? Or will we make the sacrifice necessary to give us the advantage in our war on the cartels?
It is a war after all, all we’re doing now is preparing the battlefield. There will be American troops patrolling the Mexican countryside. Will it be a short term exercise, or a permanent occupation with all the problems that entails? Do we accept our limitations, or do we entangle ourselves in the labors of Sisyphus?
Alan Kellogg (654668) — 3/31/2010 @ 7:46 pm