Patterico's Pontifications

7/24/2012

14 Killed in Immigrant Smuggling Crash

Filed under: Immigration — Patterico @ 7:16 am



Illegal immigrant smuggling just killed more people in a single incident than James Holmes killed at the Aurora movie theater:

With little more than photographs and fingerprints, authorities were trying to identify 14 suspected illegal immigrants who were killed when a pickup truck packed with nearly two dozen people crashed in South Texas in one of the nation’s deadliest immigrant smuggling accidents.

The victims — men, women and children — were carrying toothbrushes, toothpaste and changes of socks and underwear but no identification. Authorities said the white Ford F250 was carrying 23 immigrants from Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala when it veered off a highway and crashed into trees Sunday night.

“It’s the worst single-vehicle wreck I’ve worked in my 40 years in the funeral business,” said Adrian Fulton, a local funeral home director who picked up the 11 people who died at the scene. Fulton estimated their ages from 8 to 30, and he said Homeland Security Investigations agents came Monday to photograph and fingerprint the dead.

All the dead were coming here to make better lives for themselves, and none of them did. What’s more, this is hardly an isolated incident.

As with Holmes, what should be done (if anything) in response is open to lively debate. But 23 people in a pickup is not a situation you strive for, is it?

Meanwhile, Janet Napolitano tells us not to pay attention to what President Obama says about immigration:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano accused her boss President Barack Obama of making an inaccurate statement on immigration law enforcement during testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday.

A hot topic during the hearing was the Obama administration’s decision to selectively enforce immigration laws. The administration decided in mid-June – via an announcement from Napolitano and a subsequent Rose Garden speech from Obama – that it would not deport illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as “young children.”

The president’s decision to selectively enforce immigration laws directly contradicts a public statement he made in March 2011. Back then, Obama said he thought “[t]here are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply through executive order ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as president.”

Correct, sir — and yet, that’s what you’re doing.

22 Responses to “14 Killed in Immigrant Smuggling Crash”

  1. Ding.

    Patterico (feda6b)

  2. Napolitano also said that it was she who made the policy decision by her memo and that she had not consulted with the President prior to the release of that memo, yet within hours, Obama was in the Rose Garden pandering for Hispanic votes because of “his” decision. In other words, his decision to encourage potential voters illegal aliens to continue to flood across our borders. Add that to this administrations food stamp ads on Spanih channels and working with the Mexican government to make sure that those potential voters illegal aliens are fully aware of the social welfare benefits available to them as long as they continue to dodge ICE agents.

    Napolitano’s statements makes you wonder just exactly who is running the asylum if a cabinet member is setting policy that can only be dictated by Congress.

    Now about the crash in Goliad County, Texas that took the lives of at least 14. With the outcry from the left that with stronger restrictions on fire arms Aurora would have never happened, will we now see a cry from them to a) restrict pickup trucks and b) seal the border? It is clear that these illegals were standing in the back of that F-250 since the max the bed of that 3/4 ton truck will hold is 8 if they are sitting down. So if you allow that there could have been no more than 5 in the cab, that means that the other 18 were all standing in the bed of the pickup.

    It is also illegal in Texas to allow children to ride in the bed of a truck unless a) they are in a parade b)is the only vehicle available to the family and the children are restrained.

    While every news media in the nation will lament over the Aurora shooting for weeks, there has been little reporting on the Goliad County disaster. Where are all the left wing bleating hearts on this “tragedy?” Or are we so used to the deaths of illegals, mostly at the hand of cayotes, that we have become numb to the loss of life in that area?

    More and more of these senseless deaths are going to occur as we have an administration that not only refuses to adhere to current immigration law, but who seems to be doing everything in its power to encourage even more events like this one. And the Mexican cayotes just got the message from the Oval Office and Janet Napolitano, “Collect your paycheck.”

    zane (14b5c2)

  3. Say, rather, keeping immigration from Central and South America illegal killed 14 people.

    Sammy Finkelman (f560b6)

  4. Tighter enforcement will only create more tragedies like this (if they are acknowledged as tragedies) at least until you are over the hump.

    Sammy Finkelman (f560b6)

  5. All these people probably paid an average of $3,000 a piece. If instead the money was collected by the U.S. Treasury (and deposited in the Social Security trust fund) all this would be prevented.

    You’d place a ceiling on the amount smugglers could charge and you could put them almost out of business.

    That’s what President Bush was for. Maybe not exactly that, but liberalizing immigration (especially from Mexico) at the same time as tighter border enforcement was tried. That wasn’t done, so this is the result.

    Sammy Finkelman (f560b6)

  6. It is well past time to seal the border, and to declare that human-smuggling is a Crime Against Humanity, deserving the Death Penalty wherever it is encountered (Summary Execution).
    Perhaps then a dent can be make in the scale of the Collateral Damage the “coyotes” create.

    AD-RtR/OS! (b8ab92)

  7. Comment by zane — 7/24/2012 @ 8:32 am

    Napolitano’s statements makes you wonder just exactly who is running the asylum if a cabinet member is setting policy that can only be dictated by Congress.

    Well, of course she had to go along too, and it was probably her who did this for legal reasons.

    Where are all the left wing bleating hearts on this “tragedy?”

    They are too scared of the issue. They do not argue on principle. It’s the third rail.

    Therefore this is not treated like abortion, where they said, and say, if abortion is not legal people will kill themselves or get themselves killed trying to do something that is against the law (back alley abortions) and therefore it should not remain illegal.

    This proves this argument on abortion is sophistry. They only argue that because they are willing to argue there is nothing wrong with abortion.

    But they are afraid of the implication of “open borders” and so it stays like this.

    Or are we so used to the deaths of illegals, mostly at the hand of cayotes, that we have become numb to the loss of life in that area?

    Every case is treated like a surprise.

    More and more of these senseless deaths are going to occur as we have an administration that not only refuses to adhere to current immigration law,

    Wrong, wrong wrong. The Obama Administration tightened border control. It was nothing but enforcement for the first three years. Obama in effect said, or maybe even literally, I think there;s some quote that resembles that, I tried it that way, that did not result in Congress passing a law, now I’ll try it the other way.

    I found this. It’s not the right quote:

    http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/06/15/remarks-president-immigration

    In the absence of any immigration action from Congress to fix our broken immigration system, what we’ve tried to do is focus our immigration enforcement resources in the right places. So we prioritized border security, putting more boots on the southern border than at any time in our history — today, there are fewer illegal crossings than at any time in the past 40 years.

    but who seems to be doing everything in its power to encourage even more events like this one.

    Only to unsophisticated people. This was, after all, limited to people who’d been here a long time already.

    Sammy Finkelman (f560b6)

  8. Comment by AD-RtR/OS! — 7/24/2012 @ 8:56 am

    It is well past time to seal the border, and to declare that human-smuggling is a Crime Against Humanity, deserving the Death Penalty wherever it is encountered (Summary Execution).

    It is not, of course, although you could argue the opposite (enforcing the law) is. Congress will never pass it. And summary executions even if limited to the smugglers, would lead to the killing of many smuglees.

    But you are right on one thing: No border has ever been controlled in this sense except at the expense of getting people killed one way or another (or the presentation of a better alternative)

    Sammy Finkelman (f560b6)

  9. Actually SF, I think if you look, that you’ll find some declaration of sorts from the UN classifying human-smuggling on the CAH scale.
    Of course, they didn’t really mean it.
    Just another CYA exercise like Blood-Diamonds.

    AD-RtR/OS! (b8ab92)

  10. This is terribly sad. Can we resist the temptation to immediately devise political solutions?

    Pious Agnostic (7c3d5b)

  11. Sammy Finkleman, so you believe the lies that come out of this Administration about how they (while walking on water) are lessening the number of illegals coming to the U.S.?

    Do you not take into consideration that the Mexican unemployment rate is considerably lower than our own? If you can find a job in Mexico, why pay a cayote $3K to bring you here? Bottom line, you don’t.

    And Napolitano testified that the cases of illegals being allowed to stay since they were brought here as children is done on a case-by-case basis, yet when questioned if those cases had to prove the age they were brought here by say, public school records, she dodged the question by answering that the system had not been worked out yet. So, here is how it currently works: claim you were brought here as a child, no proof required, and you get an Obama/Napolitano work permit. Never mind that 14 million Americans are out of work while this Administration is out of control.

    zane (14b5c2)

  12. Politiks Ubber Alles!

    AD-RtR/OS! (b8ab92)

  13. Two more crashed this morning south of houston carrying about dozen a piece. Both trucks were stolen. Half of them got away.

    Rorschach (d62b54)

  14. Ironically Obama IS reducing the number of illegals. He is ruining the economy so badly that they have a better shot at living at home than here. Soon we will be trying to sneak into their country if things don’t get much better soon.

    Rorschach (d62b54)

  15. Border control before gun control.

    Rip VanBullwinkle (0f4cff)

  16. The obvious answer is to ban high-capacity pickup trucks. Truck beds must be limited by federal law to be able to carry only 10 standing individuals. This would limit the number of deaths per crash and all liberals could sleep better at night.

    But wait…what if they use two pickup trucks?

    navyvet (f5da59)

  17. 9. Comment by AD-RtR/OS! — 7/24/2012 @ 9:23 am

    Actually SF, I think if you look, that you’ll find some declaration of sorts from the UN classifying human-smuggling on the CAH scale.
    Of course, they didn’t really mean it.
    Just another CYA exercise like Blood-Diamonds.

    I think probably must be human-trafficking, which is keeping the people smuggled prisoner and dforcing them into slavery or prostutution to pay off the debt.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_to_Prevent,_Suppress_and_Punish_Trafficking_in_Persons,_especially_Women_and_Children

    The UN being the UN there may be people trying to confuse two very different things.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  18. “…and dforcing them into slavery or prostutution to pay off the debt(sic)…”

    Which is not much different than the tactics used by the coyotes to extort additional funds from their “clients” once they arrive in El Norte.

    I think the name they have chosen for themselves – coyote – is apt, and should remind us that when we thought that this particular breed of dog was a problem, we put a bounty on it and shot it until it ceased being such.
    The solution is within our grasp (and memory) if only we have the cajones to implement it.

    AD-RtR/OS! (b8ab92)

  19. Meanwhile in Baltimore…..

    http://www.newsmax.com/US/baltimore-illegals-blind-eye/2012/07/25/id/446469

    The first time somebody gets injured or killed by an illegal, I hope The Mother of All Lawsuits is slapped on Baltimore. Watching Baltimore’s idiot mayor try to explain why political correctness was more important than public safety will be pure comedy gold.

    MarkJ (42fe5b)

  20. Comment by zane — 7/24/2012 @ 9:28 am

    Sammy Finkleman, so you believe the lies that come out of this Administration about how they (while walking on water) are lessening the number of illegals coming to the U.S.?

    Do you not take into consideration that the Mexican unemployment rate is considerably lower than our own?

    While I didn’t know what the unemployment rate is in Mexico, I did know that the unemployment rate in the U.S. is much higher and everybody says that that is a prime reason why the number of illegal immigrants from Mexico went down – also the fact that Mexico started to have a lower birth rate some time ago.

    I didn’t say that the border tightening is the oprime reason trhe number iof illegal immigranst from Mexico is going down. But I did say there was border tightening. They have drones now for instance, and is somebody is spotted they send people. But I did say, or imply, that the bordr tighttening was responsible for accidents. That’s why these pickup trucks were speeding. They might get intercepted near the border. I assume there are more accidents now.

    If you can find a job in Mexico, why pay a cayote $3K to bring you here? Bottom line, you don’t.

    It might be still that the jobs in the U.S. pay more. Or they have family here.

    But anyway the fact is a lot of illegal immigrants are now coming from Guatemala and Honduras (and there are also people working illegally in southern Mexico. In fact around there I think I read employers can hardly find any other workers.)

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  21. Sent it too soon before looking it over and correcting typos. And I should have let it rewamin “And I did say” I already had used the word but.

    We need to check out if there are more accicents, but if there are, that means there’s definitely been border tightening, even if the main effect is to raise the price, and drive people into the hands of fewer and more reckless and heartless coyotes and cause people to take risks in dealing with peiople in Mexico so they get killed.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)


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