Border Violence Is Our Fault, Say Democrats

[Ah, yes - the evil Gringos are the cause, so we must be sure not to step on anyone's civil rights here. Truly, liberalism is a mental disorder.]

Democrats Unaware of US Warning About Border Violence

By Penny Starr
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer

May 22, 2008

(CNSNews.com) - Three Democratic lawmakers who spoke Wednesday about alleged anti-immigrant coverage by conservative media outlets were not aware of a recent State Department travel alert warning Americans about military-like "combat" along the southern U.S. border in Mexico, where Americans are being kidnapped and murdered.

"The situation in northern Mexico remains very fluid; the location and timing of future armed engagements there cannot be predicted," said the State Department alert. "Armed robberies and carjackings, apparently unconnected to the narcotics-related violence, have increased in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez. Dozens of U.S. citizens were kidnapped and/or murdered in Tijuana in 2007."

When asked about the alert after the briefing, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) told Cybercast News Service: "I haven't heard about the report specifically, but certainly one of the reasons we are looking at the Merida Initiative is to work with Mexico to have them meet their challenges of the drug traffickers and the violence that takes place along our border. It's in our common interest and obviously this is a challenge of security." (The U.S. Merida Initiative provides equipment and training to help Mexican law enforcement confront criminal activity that spills over into the United States.)

The State Department's alert was posted in April and dated as current as of May 21.

Reps. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) both spoke to Cybercast News Service after the briefing and said they had no knowledge of the travel alert but were aware of the volatility along the U.S. southern border.

"I've read different reports of the violence in Mexico, and I am a strong advocate for cracking down on the violence, and I'm very concerned about the murder of women," Solis said. "But I'm more concerned about people having their civil rights violated here."

"I haven't seen the travel alert, but I'm going to take a look at it," Gutierrez said. "But does it surprise me? It doesn't surprise me."

Gutierrez blamed drug use in the United States for some of the violence.

"We are the consumers," he said. "We are the cause."

Speakers at the briefing said that CNN and Fox News Channel should be held accountable for television personalities who have "played major roles in creating this anti-immigrant hysteria," specifically Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck on CNN and Bill O'Reilly on Fox.

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Anti-immigrant hysteria? No. They are simply informing the public, you and me, about what is happening. Opportunistic thugs, murderers, rapists, criminals of all stripe are pouring over the US/Mexican border into the US. The liberals know this, but excuse it under the flag of misplaced compassion.