Immigration News Roundup

The Bush misAdministration's bright idea of militarizing the U.S./Mexico border appears to be yet another in a long line of instances of 'baiting and switching'. Typical politicking from the All Hat, No Cattle government.

The Bush administration has been unable to muster even half the 2,500 National Guardsmen it planned to have on the Mexican border by the end of June, officials in the border states said.

[snip]

As of Thursday, fewer than 1,000 troops were in place, according to military officials in Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizona.

President Bush's plan called for all 50 states to send troops. But only 10 states, including the four border states, have signed commitments.

Some state officials say they cannot free up Guardsmen because of flooding in the East, wildfires in the West or the prospect of hurricanes in the South.

"It's not a combat priority. It is a volunteer mission," said Kristine Munn, spokeswoman for the National Guard Bureau, an arm of the Pentagon, "so it's a question of balancing the needs of the Border Patrol with the needs of 54 states and territories, and all those balls roll in different directions." - linkage

The WaPo has a piece up today highlighting the hairy buttcrack scratching by the GOP leadership as they try to figure out how to salvage this issue for the fall congressional elections. More politics, no real solutions; just a bunch of verbal diarrhea.

Republican Senate leaders are considering how to revive immigration legislation and cut a deal with the more hard-line House, a sign of increasing GOP concern that inaction on the emotionally charged issue could hurt the party with voters in November.

Keep it up, you bunch of empty suits, it's clear you don't really care about this issue enough to address it in a meaningful way. While you bicker and monger your hate, hopefully additional groups of friends won't have to take on the gruesome task as these warriors of humanity had to endure recently.

Torres' friends in Tucson, all from the village of La Loma de Buena Vista, Guanajuato, Mexico, learned about his death this week.

After a Border Patrol search Wednesday failed to find the body, his friends stepped in. After work Wednesday, 24 people armed with cell phones fanned out across the desert to find their friend.

"We couldn't leave him out there," said 36-year-old Geronimo Jimenez.

The men suspended the search as night fell and continued the next morning.

Most of Torres' friends are U.S. citizens. The others are legal residents. All work in construction or carpentry. Some own their own businesses. It's a tight-knit group that gets together every weekend.

Most came to Tucson in the mid-'80s and got their papers with the help of the 1986 amnesty.

"The sad part is, Antonio used to be a resident as well," said his friend Saul Pacheco, who coordinated the search. - linkage

A complex issue deserves comprehensive reform; something a triple-layer wall will do nothing to solve. Here's an obligatory reminder that you can support humanitarian efforts to end the ongoing flow of death through the desert by assisting the work of groups like the Border Action Network of Southern Arizona.