Recent Arrest for Mexico Murders

A recent arrest was made for one of the men supposedly involved in the dumping of 49 bodies in Nuevo Laredo. The Mexican army has arrested Elizondo Ramirez for his involvement and they are still searching for another man who was with Ramirez and  filmed the dumping of the bodies on the side of the highway. Ramirez was working for the Zeta drug cartel, however despite the messages left at the site claiming the mass murder to be the work of the Zetas, there have been signs found throughout Mexico denying their involvement. (Fox) The mutilated bodies of the 49 victims were found in an area that is part of "The Triangle of Death"

     This area is know to be particularly dangerous due to the routes used for trafficking drugs and other items. This areas has been fought over between drug cartels, where each cartel attempts to outdo the other, resulting in these mass murders. It is still uncertain who the victims are, they could be kidnapped immigrants, or they could be members of a rival cartel. There are reports that "mass body dumpings have increased around Mexico in the last six months" (Fox). It is evident that this violence is not going to end anytime soon, especially without the work of both the Mexican government working with the U.S. government.
    I decided it would be relevant to follow-up on this story simply because it is such a strong representation of the situation in Mexico. I do not wish to depict the entire country of Mexico as being full of poverty and violence at every corner, however it is relevant to point out the extreme violence that does occur. This violence is not something that every citizen of Mexico will deal with, however, it is violence that can be found in every state there.

     We know small amounts of violence compared to the violence experienced in other countries on a regular basis. We have school shootings and it quickly turns into National or even international news. That kind of violence is something that shocks and astounds the average American citizen. But that kind of violence of mass mindless murder is something that immigrants from other countries fled from, that is why they came here.
     We are relatively sheltered from violence, we are not told details of murders, nor are we shown images of dead bodies on our news channels. We cannot relate to this kind of violence, and perhaps this is why we do not understand the illegal immigrants coming from Mexico. We cannot understand their purpose for running across the border illegally, unless they were criminals trying to hide something from border patrol or the police.
    We cannot understand desperation because we have not experienced it. We cannot understand the man who is willing to risk his life crossing the desert to work picking fruit or doing day labor jobs. We assume that they are fleeing their country because they are criminals, bringing their crime here, stealing our jobs, and taking our opportunities.
    I was recently viewing an episode of Border Wars on National Geographic channel and was concerned by the way the in which the border patrol agents referred to or treated the illegal immigrants as if they were animals. Some agents commented on a raid and claimed that they "herded them up" before they began arresting people. It was dehumanizing in a way, they "hunted" them down, one officer even jumped on a man from behind, a man who was already under spotlight with other officers on their way. The one agent crept up from behind and leaped on top of the man as he was sitting on a hill, the man was banged up and hurt, the agent was young and aggressive and acted as if he was just as hurt as the man they arrested. The actions were inappropriate and unnecessary, and it was a clear demonstration of the attitude many agents and civilians hold toward these immigrants that they cannot relate to.
     On the same episode there was a "suspicious" man in a van trying to drive across the border, a female officer stopped him and had him removed from the vehicle so it could be searched. The man was detained while the search went on, the officers could find nothing wrong with the van, or with the man and their final comment about their mistake was "well we will catch him next time". This was making a bold statement that although they could come up with nothing wrong, no criminal activity, that he was still a criminal and they would figure him out on the next trip through.
    I would like to say that this shocked me, but honestly it didn't. This attitude is one that many American hold toward even those who cross the Mexican border legally, they are all considered illegals, and thus all considered criminals. It is sad really that we make these assumptions and associations that even if we didn't see them committing a crime at the moment, we "know" they are committing them when we are not looking.
     We need to rid ourselves of the image of all Hispanics being Mexican and all Mexicans being illegals and all illegals being outright criminals, it just shows our lack of intelligence and understanding toward other human beings. This image is what many think of when they think of Mexicans, and it is sad that this is all we can associate an entire country of people with.
    We are willing to relate and help and understand the struggles of other people across the globe and yet we cannot do the same for our neighbors. When mass brutal murders are occurring so close to U.S. borders we need to take a deeper look at what is happening and how we can be more productive ourselves in minimizing the problems that lead up to such brutality, instead of just building a bigger fence so we cannot see the bodies on the other side, or how we contributed to the death of those bodies, and the deaths of hundreds of bodies trying to escape a world that we helped create.

49 Bodies Found on Mexican Border

    Recently police discovered 49 bodies on the border between San Juan Mexico and McAllen Texas. These bodies were mostly male, and many of the bodies were missing arms, feet, or legs, and they were decapitated. These brutal murders are thought to be drug cartel murders, resulting from rival cartels fighting over territory. (Fox News). These types of murders are not uncommon, they have been occurring over the years across Mexico. Fox Reports that "Drug violence has killed more than 47,500 people since Calderon launched a stepped-up offense when he took office in December 2006".
    When we see this type of activity in some "third world" countries we often feel like we need to do something to stop it, nearly fifty thousand murders related to drug crime is something that we cannot ignore, and yet we are ignoring it. We report on the drug problems in Mexico and the crime associated with it, but we do not try to seek ways to help stop this, nor do we recognize this as a possible reason for people to want to leave Mexico to live here. I wish to point out what the definition of refugee is "a person who flees to a foreign country or power to escape danger or persecution". I argue that there are many people fleeing the country of Mexico for reasons we do not understand because we are not living in the middle of a huge drug war claiming thousands of lives.

     My claim is not to say that all people coming to this country from Mexico are fleeing for their lives, I simply wish to recognize it as a possible cause from some. Others may come to seek financial stability because their likelihoods have been destroyed by programs such as NAFTA, or because they wish to provide their families with education and opportunity that they are unable to provide in their home country. However, we must recognize the drug war as a real war, people who live in areas int he United States where gang activity is high will often claim the areas as "war-zones", simply because the danger is real, the murder and death is real, and the fear is there 24/7.
    Many of us cannot relate to this, if in the United States we found almost 50 decapitated bodies near the highway we wouldn't know how to process it. We have no idea what that kind of life is like, to find bodies brutally murdered in the streets, to find mass graves, to have entire cities being controlled by cartel operations. We don't know this life, this world, but we are contributors to it.
     I will never forget a quote I heard on either the National Geographic show Border Wars or the History channel show Gangland, a man stated that "we always say Mexico is the country with the drug problems, but in reality it is the United States with the drug problems, because without us to purchase the drugs there would be no need to sell them". This has stuck in my mind so strongly, a point that never is spoken on any news media channel, a point that is never presented in the debate of border security, a point we choose to ignore because it is easier to place the blame on Mexico and their corruption.
    It is much easier to say that drug cartels sneak drugs into this country, that they commit murders, that they create violence, that they fuel the gang activity that is overflowing into our country, that they create the need for further enforcement at the borders, and it is easy to imply that all illegals coming into this country are somehow associated with the criminal activity of these cartels even when they are not. However, it is not easy to accept our own role in this image, as the root cause of the problem, as the ones demanding the supply of drugs which in turn creates the cartels and the violence that accompanies them. We disconnect ourselves from the issue and tell ourselves a little marijuana is okay because it does not hurt anyone, quickly failing to recognize where those drugs came from and the many bodies that were hurt or killed for that leaf.

    It is easy to call those who illegally cross our borders as criminals, to simply say they broke our laws and they need to be deported, but it will never stop unless we think about why they might be risking their lives to cross a desert to be here. It must be pretty bad back at home when you are willing to risk your life to come and work as near slaves for very little in wages, living in constant fear of being sent back, if that doesn't sound like a refugee then what does? Mexico is dealing with a full blow drug war, this is eveident with the report that " In less than a month, the mutilated bodies of 14 men were left in a van in downtown Nuevo Laredo, 23 people were found hanged or decapitated in the same border city and 18 dismembered bodies were left near Mexico's second-largest city, Guadalajara."
    In order to get control of the illegal immigration in this country we must recognize the signs of why it is occurring and why it is occurring from some countries more than others. We need to look at today's headlines about the 49 bodies found along the border and think about how it is interconnected with illegal immigration and realize that there are many more layers to it than may appear.

What Politics Fail to Address

    It is important to bring to light the politics of the immigration debate. I wish to present Mitt Romney's stance on immigration as well as President Obama's stance and compare the two, but most importantly I wish to present what both these political figures fail to address within the immigration issue. It is important to understand candidates intentions and goals before electing them, but it is also important to educate yourself on the issues as well. Many people have strong opinions about immigration, particularly illegal immigration, however, not many people fully explore the reasons and historical context that leads to illegal immigration.

     Mitt Romney has a strong stance against illegal immigration, he sees it as unfair to those who have been waiting in line to come into this country legally. He states on his website that he “will protect legal immigration and the 4.5 million who are waiting in line to enter the United States legally by taking a strong stand against illegal immigration.” However, he fails to address the bigger issue at hand, not everyone in all countries have the same opportunities to even get in line to come here. It isn't some big clipboard that just anyone can sign. Just as it is in The United States, the wealthy have an upper hand in almost every situation. It is no secret that there is an immense amount of corruption within the country of Mexico, so why would it be impossible to think that there would be corruption within the processes of obtaining U.S. Visas or Green Cards? Before we make sweeping allegations of those who “cut the line” as being unlawful or criminal or unfair people, we must explore reasons as to why some countries have such high tendencies toward illegal immigration activities. We need to realize that usually when there is smoke there is fire, meaning that there is most likely a cause for Mexico’s large amount of illegal immigration.

            Romney also claims that one of his main goals is to “secure the border” by building “a high-tech fence and provide the necessary number of border patrol to finally secure our southern border.” Part of the problem with this statement is that is only addresses the “Southern Border”, it is completely naïve to think that only “bad things” or “criminals” come from the southern border, this is clearly a racial stigma that the U.S. needs to escape. There are historical purposes that have caused the increase of illegal immigration from the southern border that are never addressed within the political atmosphere. This is due to the fact that the U.S. would be forced to admit responsibility for illegal immigration, after all we were the ones who implemented it in the first place with The Bracero Program. This program ran from the 1940’s to the 1960’s, when the U.S. did not have enough workers to farm the land and they trained in thousands of Mexicans to work the land, picking crops. Despite promises to many workers to have a life in this country, when the U.S. no longer needed the workers they “were ousted from their jobs by workers coming out of wartime industries and by returning servicemen” (PBS). Many of these workers were forcibly loaded onto trains and sent back to Mexico.

            There is also the issue of  NAFTA, and the effects it has had on poor agricultural communities in Mexico, many villages lost their land and livelihoods to American companies or the Mexican government working with American companies. These people were left in situations of desperation, either starving or fleeing to the United States to find work. It is unfair for us to make bold statements against illegal immigration without recognizing our role in the issue, and addressing ways in which we can compensate for the havoc we have helped create. 

            The Obama administration has done little to help those who are in this country illegally, and has done little to help resolve the issue as well. I searched through the Obama website and had great difficultly locating his stance on immigration issues, this is particularly troubling to me. If he is not clear and upfront about his stance then we can assume he is going to do little to resolve anything, he is essentially ignoring the issue at hand that affects so many lives. This is astonishing to me considering the depth of the issue and the emotional ties to it, it is clearly a clever way to escape deep criticism from either side. This failure to recognize the issue fully is hurtful to those who are here illegally, especially the youth, we cannot ignore their existence in this country. Although this may seem like the politically easy route to take, it is an unjust route as well, it is a clear demonstration of many politicians’ desire to hold office for lengths of time instead of desiring to make this country better and stronger. We elect politicians to resolve problems, not avoid them, and Obama has clearly been avoiding the problem, which is equivalent to making it worse.

            No matter your personal or emotional ties to the issue, you must recognize that the issue has deep historical and cultural ties, it is something we created and it is something we need to own up to and take responsibility for instead of putting it all on the individuals. We need to make bigger changes and adjustments than “high-tech border fences”, we need to find the root causes and address them , this is the only way to create a true lasting solution.