THE BORDER REPORT

U.S. Marshals are being called in to ramp up security at the U.S. District Courthouse in Tucson after a federal judge received "significant" threats this past week. Details are scanty on the particular case that sparked the threats against the federal judge – though I do have my suspicions. The Feds aren't saying anything publicly about the threats or the beefed up security at the courthouse, but federal agents tend to get a bit ... intense ... when someone starts talking about putting a hit out on a judge. I suspect the calls came in because of the high profile civil case against a Southern Arizona rancher accused of holding 16 illegal migrants against their will in 2004. There's been some outrage in southeastern Arizona (and beyond) that the case is even being heard and Judge John M. Roll has already refused to turn down the case one time. I expect this will end shortly. You've got to be crazed to make a threat on a federal judge and think there isn't going to be some repercussions. But we'll find out; the trial is supposed to end Friday.

THE BORDER REPORT

(Story's updated with the court documents. I don't like loading them as jpegs, but my pdf upload is on the fritz so bear with me)

A U.S. magistrate in Tucson has ruled that federal agents can lie under oath and it won't be viewed by her court as an act of bad faith.

And if they manage to forget details relevant to a case, like, say, discovering pieces of evidence that they lose first, well, that's okay too.

I'll give you Judge Jennifer Guerin's words pulled from her review of a defendant's motion to dismiss and then the back story on the drug trafficking case.

Read the full post

THE BORDER REPORT

We're just going to file this under unsubstantiated gossip for the moment, but what I'm hearing is that the U.S. Border Patrol is reducing training time to 54 hours which, if true, is astonishing. It wouldn't be the first time the agency reduced its training hours. Last year, in a hurry to meet its goal of hiring 6,000 new recruits, the Border Patrol shortened training time to 11 weeks from 19 weeks. At the same time, the agency lowered its standards on its entrance exams from 85 percent pass to 70 percent. Now, I'm told, the Border Patrol is worried that newly-minted Homeland Security Sec. Janet Napolitano is going to be eyeing the National Guard again, which is something the woman enjoyed doing when she was  Arizona's governor. And that's got Patrol officials worried, and as a result, they've dropped training time to a little more than a work week. If this is true, you can start training on Monday and be ready to hit the lines by the following Sunday. Or it's not true, also a possibility but I'm just going to throw this out there and see what bites.

THE BORDER REPORT

Claiming that rushed hiring practices have infested the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson sector with criminals and that special interests were behind the agency's vaunted SBInet system, a group of anonymous Border Patrol agents have been circulating a letter through the sector that arrived at my desk yesterday afternoon.

Anonymous letters present all sorts of credibility issues and in fact, I waited a while before posting this because I wanted to make sure Patrol agents were circulating this thing amongst themselves. Turns out this letter's been making the rounds in Tucson sector for a while. That said, take it as you will, as a joke, as a hit-piece or as a serious concern. Download the pdf here: Letter to David Aguilar

THE BORDER REPORT

Now that we've gotten the inauguration out of the way, we can look around at what to expect from Pres. Obama's administration on this border.

And so far, it's looking like a Hail Maria pass, replete with talk of Mexico as a failed nation, one that is presenting as many if not more problems than Iraq and Iran and the re-introduction of the conversation about the U.S. military being placed on the border. This time, nobody talks about unarmed National Guardsmen, either. I think that is one element of Homeland Security Sec. Janet Napolitano (man, that's a weird proper noun to type out) that's been skipped over: her enthusiasm for soldiers on the border. She was a key cheerleader for them in 2006 and as recent as last November, was pushing for them to return. And now there's a very, very different level of discourse about Mexico; Washington's talking about militarizing the border, not to keep illegal migrants away but to stop cartel wars from spilling over. Take a look at some of the warnings high level Feds tossed out within the past month: Sometime around Christmas when Homeland Security leaked to The New York Times that if the border violence were to spill over, the department has a plan for activating special response units to quell any problems. (Myself, I’ve been watching the Special Response Units, SWATs for the Feds, race from Douglas, Ariz., to Nogales and back east to Naco half a dozen times in the past year alone, usually because of something a snitch leaked out. I think Homeland Security would be better served by investing in better intelligence in Mexico than hurtling armed agents at whomever they think is coming but nobody asked me what I thought.) Then CIA chief Michael Hayden said Mexico poses a bigger problem for the incoming Obama Administration than Iraq. Then National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley piped up, saying Mexico’s democracy is being threatened by warring cartels. The conversation’s going viral, bouncing from official to official to the media and out to the public. Topping the list, the U.S. Joint Forces Command, with the ominous message that Mexico is right down there with Pakistan as a country facing potential collapse: “The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and press by criminal gangs and drug cartels. ... Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone.” Clearly, someone is orchestrating this debate; the question is why? I’ve been hearing about Mexico’s impending collapse since 2003; at the time, it was usually blamed on the Brain Drain, an exodus of intelligence and education to the United States as people fled the lack of decent jobs. Then the blame shifted to the Zetas after Nuevo Laredo exploded. And now it’s the Sinaloans and an apparently ceaseless war that’s drawn on since at least late 2004 when Rodolfo Carrillo Fuentes and Arturo Guzmán were murdered. (Happy anniversary to Chapo Guzmán on eight successful years on the run, by the way). It's a new day but it's an old border. Watch the U.S.’s next maneuver toward placing soldiers on the border. It'll be interesting to see how it manifests itself. Will someone (Napolitano) directly propose it? Or will it begin with an incident; training exercises along Cabeza Prieta, maybe. And as always with these things, the question arises, who’s going to benefit.