THE BORDER REPORT

Not that one, the other one. No, not that one either. The one in Laredo.

Carlos X. Carrillo, the U.S. Border Patrol chief of Laredo Sector "hastily" retired last week and nobody is saying why. But in his resignation letter, Carrillo gives much indication that he was pushed out, apparently expected some people in his former agency to back him up and found himself standing very, very alone.

You may remember Carrillo. Last year, he received the dubious distinction of drawing retired Congressman Tom Tancredo's fire when he declared that the Border Patrol's job is not to stop illegal immigrants or narcotics, but to protect the country against terrorism. Apparently we'd had it wrong all along.

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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.

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THE BORDER REPORT

The rumors started almost immediately after Barack Obama won the election; Arizona's governor was going to head up his Homeland Security Department.

The job's a dicey one; Janet Napolitano would become the third director of Homeland Security since 2001, following former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge and former judge Michael Chertoff. Napolitano's tenure as a border governor is the usual reason most cited as her qualification for the job. Frankly, I don't see why, unless they're basing that notion on who's made the most noise.

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This story’s about a month old, but I like it because it serves as a tidy example of the inanity behind the lack of intelligence in U.S.-Mexico border enforcement. I dug up the federal search warrant last week during a cursory check of court records, and found this narrative from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Tucson concerning one, Moises Chavez Ramirez. Chavez is a migrant smuggler sitting in a U.S. prison after having worked this border for nearly a decade. But before he was captured this last time, Chavez was arrested and deported 13 times, sometimes even after agents identified him as a smuggler first. Last June, Chavez, masquerading as a Jason Rodriguez, and two other men, went into a Tucson dealership and picked up a 2008 Chevrolet pickup, paying out the $24,500 in cash. Clearly, Chavez was already on the Feds’ radar for migrant smuggling; over the next two months, ICE agents would pop in looking for him, at a small Tucson home with several bungalows making up the property. Finally, towards the end of July, the Border Patrol’s DISRUPT unit, its investigative arm, moved in, searching the home. They found bank ledgers, law enforcement badges, weapon magazines. Chavez was in custody by now, but telling the Feds he was a smuggled migrant, not a smuggler; that he was being moved to New York for $5,000 he was putting up. Finally, he broke, the investigator notes in the warrant; crying when he was asked if he was actually a smuggler and a bajador, those highwaymen that rip off the loads of other smugglers. The ledgers showed that Chavez had smuggled people into the U.S. a total of 32 times between January and May of this year. Previously, and this is really what caught my attention, he had been arrested by Border Patrol 13 times, working under an assumed name, identified correctly each time, noted that he was a migrant smuggler on at least two of those occasions, and then released each and every time. Take a look at these, drawn straight from the investigator’s own words: On May 1, 2000, Moises Chavez Ramirez, using the name Mario Chavez Baustista, was arrested by Border Patrol in Columbus, N.M., and voluntarily returned to Mexico. On May 19, 2001, Moises Chavez Ramirez, using the name Lorenzo Mendez Lopez ,was arrested by Border Patrol five miles southeast of Sasabe, Ariz., and voluntarily returned to Mexico. On June 14, 2001, Moises Chavez Ramirez, using the name Lorenzo Mendez Lopez, was arrested by Border Patrol about 15 miles northwest of Sasabe, Ariz., and voluntarily returned to Mexico. On June 19, 2001, Moises Chavez Ramirez, using the name Lorenzo Mendez Lopez, was arrested by Border Patrol. Chavez was one of eleven illegal aliens who were apprehended near the village of Topawa on the Tohono O’odham Nation Reservation. According to Border Patrol reports, Chavez was believed to the smuggler at that time. Chavez was voluntarily returned to Mexico. On June 23, 2001, Moises Chavez Ramirez, using the name Lorenzo Mendez Lopez, was arrested by Border Patrol about 15 miles northwest of Sasabe, Ariz. and voluntarily returned to Mexico. On September 20, 2001, Moises Chavez Ramirez, using the name Lorenzo Mendez Lopez, was arrested by the Phoenix Police Department and turned over to Border Patrol. Chavez Ramirez was not convicted and voluntarily returned to Mexico. On February 18, 2002, Moises Chavez, using the name Pedro Chavez Bautista, was arrested by Border Patrol in Fort Stockton, Texas, on a bus bound for Denver Colorado. Chavez Ramirez was granted a voluntary return to Mexico. On March 7, 2007, Moises Chavez Ramirez, using his real name, was arrested by Missouri State Highway Patrol after the vehicle, a white 2001 Chevrolet van, was stopped eastbound at Interstate 44 exist 47 for a failure to maintain a single lane. Moises Chavez Ramirez was one of 19 subjects who fled after the highway patrol stopped the vehicle. Chavez was later located at a nearby restaurant. During the interview, Chavez stated that he was the driver when the highway patrol stopped the van. He denied he was a smuggler and stated he was not being paid by anyone to drive. He was then taken to a St. Louis ICE office for processing. At that time, fingerprint checks revealed that Chavez had twelve prior apprehensions and was previously removed under the alias of Mario Mendez Lopez. The list goes on, by the end of the day, Chavez had been arrested 13 times and never charged, in each incident simply returned to Mexico, where he’d try again. For eight years, Chavez moved back and forth across the border before he was popped. In his final year working, assuming the charges stick this time, he still managed to move loads of people across the line 32 times. If Chavez is the sort of investigative effort being put forth by the Feds, walls, cameras and towers won’t make a lick of difference. The Feds don’t stand a chance.

THE BORDER REPORT

The underworld of crime offers so many opportunities to pull stories out of, tales of debauchery, barbarity, and audacity. Stories of the narco-santo, sons of druglords taken out with rocket launchers, last week's Tijuana killings when El Muletas cracked down on his cells like a psychotic father.

Then there's the others, like Master Sgt. Robert Kelley.

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