Plan B Forum

PHOENIX (AP) - The Obama administration plans to announce Tuesday that it will send as many as 1,200 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to improve border security, an Arizona congresswoman said.
Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords also said in a statement released Tuesday that President Barack Obama will request $500 million in funding for border security.

Part of Giffords' district borders Mexico.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's spokesman said the governor hadn't been told of the move prior to her office being contacted by The Associated Press and had no immediate comment.

In 2006, President George W. Bush sent thousands of troops to the border to perform support duties that tie up immigration agents. The troops wouldn't perform significant law enforcement duties.

That program has since ended, and politicians in border states have called for troops to be sent there to curb human and drug smuggling and prevent Mexico's drug violence from spilling over into the United States.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id ... _article=1

Mexican Drug War Drives 3,000 Families Into U.S.
August 16th, 2008 Posted By Erik Wong.


MEXICO CITY — Mounting drug-related violence and 800 murders so far this year have driven some 3,000 families from the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez into the United States, a border expert said Friday.

Officials reported 10 new deaths in the Mexican border city Friday, and five others elsewhere in Chihuahua state.

Most of the families seeking safety across the border were middle-class, said Antonio Payan, a political science professor at the University of Texas in El Paso, the US city adjacent to Juarez.

The mayor of Ciudad Juarez, Jose Reyes Ferriz, said he “knew that some families had left to live in El Paso out of fear of the city’s violence,” but said that he had no figures.

Ciudad Juarez is the battleground in the power struggle between the Sinaloa and the Juarez drug cartels.

In escalating violence, the city of some 1.5 million has registered some 800 homicides so far this year.

Experts said the figure was triple that of the whole of last year.

Bank and car robberies, extortion, kidnappings and protection rackets were also on the increase in Juarez, according to the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego.

An increase in kidnappings in the business community was another reason for the relocations, with at least 38 reported this year.

Most of those who left and moved to the United States had dual nationality or children born there, Payan said.

Violence throughout Chihuahua state left 15 dead Friday, officials said.

Ten people died overnight in separate incidents in Ciudad Juarez, local police said, and an armed commando attacked and killed four males, including three youths, on a basketball court in the town of Casas Grandes.

One man died of bullet wounds in a hospital in a nearby municipality, police said.

Federal authorities have deployed more than 36,000 soldiers across the country, including 2,500 in Ciudad Juarez, in an effort to combat drug trafficking and related violence, but some 2,000 people have been killed in Mexico so far this year.
(AFP)

Andrew D wrote: Anyone caught here illegally should be deported and never allowed to return.

Andrew D wrote:We are overcrowded as it is

Treasury modelling released last year forecast the population would increase more than half to 35 million by the middle of the century. The increase will come from migration, more women reaching child-bearing age and higher fertility rates.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd welcomed the modelling, saying he was in favour of a big Australia. But it prompted criticism from Labor backbencher Kelvin Thomson, who has questioned whether the country can support such a population.

Mr Thomson has called for dramatic cuts to immigration levels.

Mr Morrison said he did not believe Australia should ''shut the door'' to immigrants but ''given that immigration accounts for almost 60 per cent of population growth, we can do something about it''.


http://www.smh.com.au/national/debate-o ... -mrni.html

thestoat wrote:

Andrew D wrote:We are overcrowded as it is

That's an interesting statement. Do US citizens consider themselves overcrowded? I have never considered the US to be overcrowded because it is so large (but then I don't live there). I do consider the UK to be overcrowded and was surprised to find that the UK is "only" the 51st crowded country (the US is the 178th most crowded, Australia 233rd). I know some areas of a place are uninhabitable and that can affect the result. My point is - I wonder if most citizens of whichever country consider their country overcrowded.

Now, since I am the product of an urban environment, my perspective may be skewed the opposite of Andrew's ....

It's really a question of well-planned use of urban space.

Andrew D wrote: What we should be asking is "How can we make it so that everyone who wants to can live in a single-family, detached residence .... ?"

Sue U wrote:

Andrew D wrote: What we should be asking is "How can we make it so that everyone who wants to can live in a single-family, detached residence .... ?"

Why is this the model for an "ideal" residence? Would you really prefer an 1100 square foot single-family house on a 60 x 75 foot lot in some drab suburb where you have to get in a car and drive 20 minutes just to get a half gallon of milk? Or would you rather have a 2500 sq. ft. apartment with magnificent views of the Hudson River/NYC skyline within a couple of blocks of shops and a short light-rail ride to the office? Or how about a spacious brownstone on a leafy street with a large park, tennis/basketball courts and community garden at the end of the block?

Believe me, I have no desire to live in a tenement. Have you seen the residential units being built and rehabbed in Manhattan, Brooklyn and North Jersey? This ain't your (or my) grandpa's slum anymore.