Crashpad Anyone?
Jan. 2, 2009
Anybody up in the Phoenix area who can accommodate myself and a photographer next Tuesday and Wednesday night? We’ll be there on an assignment; don’t need much more than floorspace for a couple air mattresses and a shower. E-mail me offsite, marizco@borderreporter.com.
Border’s Man of the Year
Jan. 2, 2009
THE BORDER REPORT
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Ralph Basham made one of those grandiose “tour de border” that government officials are so fond of taking earlier this month; sweeping through the Arizona sectors of the Border Patrol and frankly, doing absolutely nothing more than giving himself a media opportunity – which the local press was more than happy to provide him.
Myself, I’ve never known what questions to ask guys like Basham. What answer can he possibly give to any direct question? “We’re winning the war against illegal immigration,” maybe? Or go the way of Laredo Sector Border Patrol Carlos Carrillo and bust out with “we’re here to fight terrorists,” not illegal immigration or drug trafficking as I’ve been brought up to believe.
Border Rat of the Year
Dec. 22, 2008
THE BORDER REPORT
So Time Magazine, almost predictably, names president-elect Barack Obama the Person of the Year and Oprah Winfrey earned Person of the Year from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Meanwhile, the American Bar Association named former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Lawyer of the Year. And a quick news feed search shows about fifty more people named person of the year by institutions, rags, and whack-job organizations. It’s never ending.
About the only one missing is a Person of the Year for the U.S.-Mexico border.
Caliente
Dec. 20, 2008
THE BORDER REPORT
Alright you bastards. Just because it’s Christmas; Heat thread.
Best scene in the movie; Val Kilmer smiles just as he unloads with the AK on Pacino’s cops right after the bank robbery.
Mexico’s Narco Bailout
Dec. 17, 2008
THE BORDER REPORT
From time to time, I like to give other people space to share their perspective on this border. Today, it’s a former drug trafficker for the Juárez Cartel, back from the days of Amado Carrillo Fuentes.
“Rabbit,” as he was known then and will be known on BorderReporter.com, worked for the Juárez Cartel from 1984 onward. He was charged, and I have copies of the U.S. District Court indictment and sentencing agreement that establish his credibility, with possession with intent to distribute more than one thousand kilograms of marijuana, money laundering and the Kingpin Rule, known as running a criminal enterprise.
