It's not just us, Border Patrol and Illegals down here. As remote as it is, there are several other players on the gameboard. Each of them crosses our path more days than not and considers themselves the good guys here.In reality, they're all pains in the ass that we could better do without.
First one is a group called "Humane Borders" that runs around out here setting out water jugs for the illegals. They advertise in Mexico so that border-crossers know where their water stashes are, and make it a lot easier for the smugglers to get through. They claim that they only want to help "migrants" but you can't help one group without materially aiding the other group too. And they try to intervene when we contact illegals, videotaping us and trying to advocate for the illegals. It's pretty clear where their loyalties lie and it's not with us.
Then we've got "No More Deaths", or "No Mas" as they refer to themselves. These are the more radicalized version of the group above. They are openly antagonistic and provocative towards us and their main activities seem to consist of setting out secret water and food caches on routes known to be used mainly by drug smugglers and following us a nd Border Patrol around to harass us for their youtube videos. Many of their members are also members of the above group.
Next we have "Veterans on Patrol", another group of people who apparently have no jobs and spend their days running around near the border while open-carrying their guns and pretending to fight the cartels and US government corruption. As far as we can tell, very few of their members have ever served, and their leader, Michael Meyer, is a convicted felon who is certifiably nuts. Google him and his group if you have time to waste. They basically just drive around and get in the way of real border operations while making videos about all of their pretend heroics.
And finally we've got the indian reservation adjacent to us that most of the smugglers head to. The indians love tha drug money and stash houses and drivers abound on the res, making life so much easier for the smugglers. If they were to try to hike clean up to I-8 to the north, it would take them 10-14 days. But they can cut across us and hit the res in a day or two and dump their loads at any one of a number of village houses set up to hide them. They have their own tribal police but many are complicit and the rest don't try too hard because they have to live there.
This doesn't include a few local businesses known to be sympathetic to illegals and passively hostile to us and BP. Even in the towns where most of the trade comes from BP agents and their families, there are still some who take the other side due to family ties or other reasons. A particular woman ad the local gas station loves to ask us questions about what do and what our day's plans are. She's anglo but lives in Mexico with her twice-deported husband.
Even down in this sparsely populated area, there are many facets in the fight to protect our border and the interior beyond.
I know of a San Diego deputy sheriff (well over 30 years ago) who worked in the remote area, toward Imperial County, who used to pick off the odd smuggler with his AR-15. He was never apprehended because he was "the only law" in the area and nobody much cared. The bodies were found here and there. When found they were chalked up to narcos killing each other but it was the deputy, who I knew personally.
ReplyDeleteWe need another fence along the southern side of I-8 and then everything between there and the border could be considered to be a 'free fire zone'. I expect that would eliminate a lot of the "do-gooders" and the narco/illegal alien smuggling trade.
Thanks for the update, Murph, and be safe.
ReplyDeleteYep. People who should be against the illegals and the smugglers, Indians and Social Groups, do seem to be the largest supporters of said groups, and often for rather base reasons, money and power.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your continued work at attempting to make us safer.
Sigh, of course NONE of that makes the media, because it would upset the agenda... Too bad the No Mas and others can't be prosecuted for trespass/littering if nothing else.
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