Minuteman National Blog

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

PRESS CONFERENCE (TIME CHANGE to 3:00 p.m.)

TEXAS BORDER SHERIFFS TO JOIN CHRIS SIMCOX AT WASHINGTON, D.C. PRESS CONFERENCE

When: 3:00 p.m. Thursday, February 9, 2006
Where: Director’s Room, Omni Shoreham Hotel
2500 Calvert St., NW, Washington, D.C.

(PHOENIX, AZ) February 8, 2006 – Chris Simcox, President of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, will be joined by several Texas county border sheriffs at a press conference to be held 3:00 p.m. Thursday, February 9, in Washington, D.C. at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.

This will be the sheriffs’ first press conference after their Congressional testimony and meetings in Washington this week about their recent confrontations on American soil with drug smugglers guarded by heavily armed Mexican soldiers.

Simcox will be speaking about plans by the Minutemen to continue pressing Congress and President Bush to protect the country by securing the borders from incursions by foreign military, smugglers, human traffickers and terrorists. He will be urging the Senate to pass the Sensenbrenner bill on border security (H.R. 4437) without adding any amnesty/guest worker provisions.

Earlier that morning at 10:30, Simcox will be a participant in a panel discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference being held at the Omni Shoreham.

Interesting hearing conflict reported here by KFOX-TV, El Paso, TX. Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) all but calls the Texas Border Sheriffs "Liar, liar, pants on fire."

Note, the Congressman was not at the location of the Mexican military border incursion and accuses the Texas Border Sheriffs of having an "agenda" when they report what they saw at the border.

FROM THE KFOX REPORT:

El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego and Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West delivered a message before a Congressional Homeland Security subcommittee on Tuesday. But U.S. Representative Silvestre Reyes (D) El Paso, believes the Sheriff''s may have an agenda, and that some of the testimony presented "didn''t make sense."

For the entire article, click on the title link! And be sure to vote in the poll, do you believe the Congressman or the Texas Border Sheriffs?

The House Homeland Security Committee has on their website a LINK to a video from the Texas Department of Public Safety that covers parts of the high-speed chase of Mexican drug smugglers in Texas and their retreat back across the border into Mexico under the protection of the Mexican military.

We say "parts" of the video because we were told yesterday by one of the sheriffs after the hearing (and you can see that the title of the video file contains the word "condensed") that he has seen the full video footage and it absolutely captured shots of the Mexican military. That footage is not included in this "condensed" version released to the public.

Some good reporting by Brock Meeks at MSNBC.com coming out of the hearings that began on Tuesday in the House Homeland Security Committee''s brand new Subcommittee on Investigations. Explosive testimony was given by Border Patrol Union President TJ Bonner and Sheriff Arvin West of Hudspeth County, TX, where the latest border incursions by Mexican military guarding drug shipments have been documented.

Mexican incursions inflame border situation

WASHINGTON -- Armed men in Mexican military uniforms have illegally crossed into the United States to provide cover for drug smugglers, and have fired upon U.S. Border Patrol agents on several occasions, a congressional panel was told Tuesday.

Border Patrol Union President T.J. Bonner detailed three incidents since 2000 in which U.S. agents were chased and fired upon by what he characterized as Mexican soldiers operating inside U.S. borders. Bonner testified before the House Homeland Security Investigations Subcommittee on Tuesday.

To read the entire article, click on the title link!

C-SPAN will be broadcasting the hearing live on C-SPAN 3. If your cable doesn''t carry that channel, you can watch it online. Click here and then select C-SPAN 3.

House Committee
Border Incursions
Homeland Security
Washington, District of Columbia (United States)
ID: 191100 - 02/07/2006 - 2:00 - No Sale

Bonner, T.J., President, National Border Patrol Council
Reyes, Silvestre, U.S. Representative, D-TX
McCaul, Michael, U.S. Representative, R, Texas
Aguilar, David, Chief, Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

HERNDON MEETING ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION TO FEATURE MINUTEMAN FOUNDER CHRIS SIMCOX

(HERNDON, VA) February 6, 2006 – Chris Simcox, founder and President of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, will be the featured speaker at a public meeting of the Herndon Minutemen at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, February 8, 2006 at the Herndon Middle School.

The meeting is open to the public; reservations must be made in advance for entry. There is no charge for admission. Reservations can be made online at http://helpsaveherndon.org, then by clicking on ‘Minutemen Meeting’.

When: 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, February 8, 2006
Where: Auditorium
Herndon Middle School
901 Locust St.
Herndon, Va. 20170

Things are heating up...

SIERRA BLANCA, Texas - Sheriff Arvin West sat behind his desk, winced and realized he was up against one of the biggest battles of his life. He is heading to Washington next week to testify before the Subcommittee on Homeland Security far from his home on the Texas plains -- far from the cotton fields, Rio Grande Valley and the small town that he holds dear.

Arvin, a small-town sheriff, is considered a giant in his neck of the woods, and he''ll need all his strength to battle the international incident that has landed at his front door.

"It''s a two-way battle we''re fighting between the drug wars, which includes Mexico''s corruption," West said Saturday from the Hudspeth County Sheriff''s office. "And we''re also fighting the American government to get them to listen to us.

"I have yet to find in the federal government who swings the big stick," he said. "In Hudspeth County, if my deputies get out of line, the buck stops with me. Where does the buck stop in Washington?"

-- snip --

But the sheriffs of the Rio Grande Valley vowed they will not back down.

They said they will stick to their guns and testify that Mexican military officials have assisted cartel leaders, they will warn Washington leaders that the border is a national security risk, and they will plead with Americans to listen.

Last week, several of West''s deputies'' families were verbally threatened by narcotics traffickers. The families were told to back off or they would be physically harmed or killed, West said.

"I told the deputies that we would move them," West said, of his 11 deputies. "But none of them or their families would budge. This is a community that won''t give up and won''t back down. What are we supposed to do to get someone to listen, put a head on a platter and deliver it to Washington?"

-- snip --

Hudspeth County Sgt. John D. Schuller, 61, walked through the brush Saturday where the Mexican military incursion took place. The tire tracks of the Humvee vehicle were still imprinted on the rough ground. On the Mexican side of the border, the road used by the drug smugglers still had the markings of the struggle that took place.

Schuller, who has lived in Texas most of his life, said the event was just one in a series of increasingly violent encounters on the border and an example of how dangerous the border has become.

"This is no longer a game of cat and mouse," he said. "This is a game of life and death."

A lot more detail by clicking the title link above. You have to wonder why all the best coverage on this situation in Texas is coming from a smaller newspaper in Ontario, California...

From our friends at World Net Daily, the drug wars are heating up again at the border.

Grenades, bombs found at border
Feds say Laredo cache belonged to drug cartel

A federal task force yesterday seized weapons, grenades and homemade bombs in Laredo, Texas, the scene of deadly border violence in the last year.

It was the second stash of weapons and explosives found by the team in the last week – a sign, Customs agents say, of a war between drug cartels vying for control of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Laredo law enforcement officials called the weapons'' discovery – which apparently marks the first time such explosives have been found in the city – a worrisome development.

The feds captured more than 30 homemade bombs, grenade components, assault weapons, silencers, machine gun assembly kits, bulletproof vests, police scanners and cash, Julie Myers, assistant secretary of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a statement.

To read the entire article, click on the title link!