Cochise County

I just received a DVD, "Cochise County" which describes the turmoil on the Mexican border. The infrared shots of the throngs of illegals running through the mesquite are shocking to say the least! Hundreds and hundreds every night, a constant stream, just along that small section of the border. The citizens of Sonora and Arizona, the two states that abut the border in that area, are all begging for help. Corpses are being found on the southern side of the line, too! And those Sonoran ranch owners aren't any happier about them than the Arizonians.

The statistics are staggering! For example the costs to one local hospital in Bisbee (where my son David was born), in dollars and cents, are amazing! And the health-care workers come across as sympathetic, understanding and humanitarian (some of them are themselves, Mexican immigrants), but they are confronted and confounded by hard, heart-breaking economic facts of life.

Pictures of the debris found in that area are also staggering: maps, copies of the Koran, hypodermics, condoms, clothes, corpses, writings in Chinese, Farsi and other Arabic scripts, Bibles, blankets, water jugs, automatic rifles, ammunition, etc., etc. This debris is abandoned when they see they are going to be picked up by the authorities. The Border Patrol has to focus as much on rescue as on deportation these days.

The increase in drug traffic is phenomenal! Tons! And that's just in the Tucson District alone (which includes Cochise County). Cocaine and marijuana are the top imports, but there are lots of fake prescription drugs coming across, too.

The Minutemen come across as articulate, dispassionate, and law- abiding. They are mad at Bush, at the Governor, and at the Federales on the other side of the border. Bush and the Governor for the funding shortages that have handicapped the Border Patrol, and the Federales for using their high-powered glasses and cell phones to direct the "illegals" to spots where, temporarily, there is no Border Patrol presence. The Minutemen are armed, but it is because the drug smugglers are also armed. The Minutemen use their cell phones as their primary weapon of choice. So far, no shots have been fired...

One of the local Seattle columnists was commenting on some objections the other day. It is no longer politically correct to call these folks "Illegals" but instead the recommended "Undocumented Immigrants." He said if that is what they are to be called, we should call a bank robbery "An unauthorized withdrawal!"

See? The local Seattle fishwrap sometimes has good stuff coming from their uniformly liberal writers!