Mexican Invasion

Lots of news today about a reported incursion into the United States by what appeared to be Mexican troops on a drug-running mission:

Texas law enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents engaged in an armed standoff with Mexican military personnel and drug smugglers just inside the United States along the Rio Grande yesterday afternoon.

According to a report in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin of Ontario, Calif., both Texas law enforcement and the FBI stated nearly 30 American agents were part of the incident.

Chief Deputy Mike Doyal of the Hudspeth County Sheriff's Department told the paper Mexican military Humvees were towing what appeared to be thousands of pounds of marijuana across the border into the United States.

Border Patrol agents called for backup after seeing that Mexican Army troops had several mounted machine guns on the ground more than 200 yards inside the U.S. border – near Neely's Crossing, about 50 miles east of El Paso.

Doyal said Hudspeth County deputies and Texas Highway patrol officers arrived shortly afterward.

"It's been so bred into everyone not to start an international incident with Mexico that it's been going on for years," Doyal told the Bulletin. "When you're up against mounted machine guns, what can you do? Who wants to pull the trigger first? Certainly not us."

Andrea Simmons, a spokeswoman with the FBI's El Paso office, confirmed the incident, saying, "Bad guys in three vehicles ended up on the border. People with Humvees, who appeared to be with the Mexican army, were involved with the three vehicles in getting them back across."

A Cadillac Escalade reportedly stolen from El Paso was captured, and U.S. officers found 1,477 pounds of marijuana inside.

The Mexican soldiers set fire to one of the Humvees stuck in the river, Doyal indicated.

Doyal emphasized Border Patrol agents and county deputies are not equipped for battle with military personnel.

"Our government has to do something," he told the Bulletin. "It's not the immigrants coming over for jobs we're worried about. It's the smugglers, Mexican military and the national threat to our borders that we're worried about."

I don't think it would be any great surprise to find out that the corrupt Mexican military is involved in drug-running, or that the Mexican government is looking the other way while it happens. It's obviously not just jobs in the U.S. that the Mexican government is trying to protect by demanding that we open our borders to illegal aliens.

Although the Federal government hasn't shown an interest in placing U.S. troops on the border (and is current forbidden from doing so), if somebody gets killed by a Mexican Army machine gun during a drug run, you'll see a sudden interest in placing heavily armed troops, along with air support, in the border areas. One pass by an Apache gunship could have quickly ended this latest Mexican standoff, and made them think twice about trying it again.

UPDATE: In other news, the Mexican government plans to hand out maps to those attempting illegal entry into the U.S. They claim the purpose is to reduce deaths among illegal border crossers, but clearly another goal is to make it easier to cross. Mexico needs the money the illegals send home.