Bill White outlines border-security plan

Slater:
Bill White says Gov. Rick Perry talks a good game on illegal immigration but hasn't done much to fix it. The Democrat today announced a plan he says would make the border more secure. http://dallasne.ws/bdc6Wy

Obama to send 1,200 troops to US-Mexico border

President Barack Obama will send 1,200 National Guard troops to boost security along the U.S.-Mexico border, officials said Tuesday, pre-empting Republican plans to try to force votes on such a deployment. (AP) http://tinyurl.com/2g5ylrw

Juárez drug violence not likely to go away soon, authorities say

Corchado reports from Ciudad Juárez:

CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico – Even after thousands of drug-related slayings in this border city, U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials say that a war between rival cartels could continue for years – contradicting reports that one group had gained control over a key smuggling route.
http://tinyurl.com/2e3hasu

Texas senators stress need to stop Mexican violence from spreading to U.S.

Tom Benning reports:

WASHINGTON – Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison pressed for more federal action Wednesday in securing the Mexican border and preventing violence from spilling over into the United States.
http://tinyurl.com/29omxf8

Texas border towns fear violent spillover from Mexico

Alfredo Corchado in our Mexico City bureau reports:

EL PASO – Texas law enforcement officials are bracing for a bloody weekend along the border, advising farmers to arm themselves as signs across northern Mexico point to a new escalation of violence after coordinated drug cartel attacks against the military this week.


In the northern Mexican states of Nuevo León and Tamaulipas, both bordering Texas, drug cartel gunmen used trucks and buses Tuesday to block approaches to military bases in Reynosa and Matamoros, apparently in an attempt to trap the troops inside. In all, gunmen attacked military targets in a half-dozen towns in the two states.

At least 18 suspected attackers were reported killed. One soldier was reported wounded.
(note: other reports have it as a toe injuty -- jj)

Fear now a way of life in border towns

The AP's Paul Weber reports:

FORT HANCOCK, Texas (AP) – Fear has settled over this border town of 1,700, about 50 miles southeast of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, epicenter of that country's bloody drug war.


School enrollment in Fort Hancock, Texas, which is about 50 miles from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, has been growing as more people flee the drug gang violence. Mexican families fleeing the violence have moved here or just sent their children, and authorities and residents say gangsters have followed them across the Rio Grande to apply terrifying, though so far subtle, intimidation.

White, Perry camps spar over border security

Hoppe reports:



AUSTIN – Democrat Bill White pressed for help with federal border security in a call to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and he said Thursday that Republican Rick Perry, the governor he is challenging, also should have picked up the phone.

Texas senators invite Obama to US-Mexico border and urge action in drug-war violence

Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison invited President Obama today to join them "soon" in a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border. "Such a visit would draw national attention to a national priority," they wrote, in a letter released by Cornyn's office. Gillman reports.

Fighting Cartels on the Camino Real Corridor/Merida II

See the original .pdf here. -- jj

Texas State Senator Shapleigh's letter on the volatile and violent border situation:
I write to update you on the situation in Juarez. Over the last few weeks, approximately 250 experts from Washington, D.C. and Mexico, D.F. representing a dozen agencies have been on the ground in Juarez, San Diego, Tijuana and other Border communities on a fact-finding mission to inform a policy review and assessment of the fundamental policy changes critical to US-Mexico bilateral relations.

Their basic plan is to frame Merida II around four key policy objectives: federal security, local/state security, jobs, and socioeconomic concerns. Key interest groups here and in Mexico want to broaden the policy discussion further to include the trillion-dollar annual (and growing) demand for drugs in the United States.

Cartels use intimidation campaign to stifle news coverage in Mexico

Another fascinating story from Corchado in our Mexico City bureau:

REYNOSA, Mexico – In the days since a long-simmering dispute erupted into open warfare between the Gulf drug cartel and its former enforcers, the Zetas, censorship of news developments has reached unprecedented dimensions along much of Mexico's border with Texas. A virtual news blackout has been imposed, several sources said, enforced by threats, abductions and attacks against journalists.

In the past 14 days, at least eight Mexican journalists have been abducted in the Reynosa area, which is across the border from McAllen. One died after a severe beating, according to reports that could not be independently verified. Two were released by their captors. The rest are missing.

Read on here.