EDITORIAL

The United States consists of 50 states, and each one is a magnet for immigrants, both legal and illegal.

Mexico has 32 states, and each one seems to send hordes of people running across the border into America. Nobody actually knows how many illegals are here; published estimates range from 12 to 20 million.

As Mexico’s national newspaper, Excelsior, once opined, “The American Southwest seems to be slowly returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without a shot being fired.”

Given the influx of illegal immigrants crossing into California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, that statement seems to have a grain of truth, and none of our recent presidents—from Reagan to Obama—seem concerned about controlling the flow of newcomers.

While presidents and members of Congress procrastinate and do everything but tackle the illegal immigration problem head-on, many Americans are extremely concerned and mad as hell that nothing is being done.

Every federal official needs to realize that the problem is becoming more dangerous than ever before, as drug cartels which have seemingly overtaken Mexican authorities are creating violence that is now spilling over onto the American side of the border.

Murder and mayhem seem to rule many Mexican cities. Weekly stories of beheadings, mass shootings, hangings and the murders of judges, mayors and law enforcement officials are constantly reported in newspapers and on TV stations.

Just last week, an American husband and wife were attacked by Mexican pirates while they were riding a jet ski on Lake Falcon, which straddles the Texas/Mexico border. The couple ventured to the Mexican side, and the husband was shot and killed.

Reports surfaced on Tuesday that the severed head of a Mexican investigator looking into the disappearance of the husband’s body had been delivered in a suitcase to authorities in Mexico.

Back in March, Arizona cattle rancher Robert Krentz—who lived about 35 miles north of the border—was shot to death; his body was found slumped over his ATV, the engine and lights still on. Nearby, his dog lay fatally wounded, also hit by a bullet.

The day before his death, Krentz’s ranch was the site of a federal raid in which eight individuals were arrested on drug smuggling charges. Authorities said that the prime suspect in Krentz’s death—who was not believed to be a U.S. citizen— may have sought retribution for the raid.

Drug gang violence is overtaking Mexico; since 2006 more than 28,000 people have been killed in Mexico’s drug war. Thousands of troops and federal police have been deployed by Mexican President Felipe Calderon, but the fierceness continues.

If the U.S. government isn’t going to do anything about stopping illegal immigration from Mexico, then it must prepare itself for combat with invading drug gangs, lest the same bloodshed gripping Mexico takes hold of the border states and beyond.