Posted by
Gabrielle Cusumano on Friday, January 19, 2007 1:44:41 PM
"Americans should be told that diseases long eradicated in this country -- tuberculosis, leprosy, polio, for example -- and other extremely contagious diseases have been linked directly to illegals," said Scottsdale Congressman J.D. Hayworth. "For example, in 40 years, only 900 persons were afflicted by leprosy in the U.S.; in the past three years, more than 7,000 cases have been presented."
IMMIGRATION'S SILENT INVASION, DEADLY CONSEQUENCES
BY STEPHANY GABBARD, RN, CLNC AND FROSTY WOOLDRIDGE
Dec 22: The invasion of illegal aliens pouring over the borders of the United States is taking an ominous turn. They are not alone! Their bodies may carry Hepatitis A, B & C, tuberculosis, leprosy and Chagas Disease. Chagas is a nasty parasitic bug common in Latin America where 18 million people are infected and 50,000 deaths occur annually.
Illegal aliens, by avoiding health screenings at U.S. borders, carry TB, the most serious being MDR, a multi-drug resistant tuberculosis—with a higher death rate than cancer. MDR-TB occurs when Mycobacterium tuberculosis becomes resistant to at least Isoniazid and Rifampin—the two most powerful TB drugs. According to the New York Academy of Sciences, 2002 update, "Ordinary TB requires a six-month regimen of four drugs for cure. MDR-TB requires up to two years of treatment with a complex regimen of much more expensive drugs to which the patient's TB bacteria are susceptible."
Many of these drugs have toxic side effects. A patient with MDR-TB will infect others with MDR-TB--not ordinary TB. "It has been called "Ebola with Wings," in the chilling book: 'TIME BOMB: THE GLOBAL EPIDEMIC OF MULTI-DRUG RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS', by Lee B. Reighmann, M.D., M.P.H.
According to the New York Academy of Sciences, Update, January, 2002, "TB bacteria readily fly through the air, as when an afflicted person coughs. It's estimated that each victim will infect 10, 20 or more people--in whom the disease will likely remain latent, creating the potential 'time bomb' effect."
To make matters worse, in excess of 7,000 new cases of leprosy have been diagnosed in the USA in the past three years. Hansen's Disease (leprosy) is now endemic to the Northeastern United States for the first time ever. Ironically, because of First World personal hygiene and sanitation practiced in America, leprosy affected only 900 people in the previous 40 years. However, illegal alien immigrants from India, Brazil, the Caribbean and up through Mexico have fueled the resurgence into the United States.
Chagas, called the kissing bug disease because the parasite favors the face as a route of infection, comes in acute and chronic forms, which can damage your heart and intestines. This parasite now threatens our blood supply, yet no means to test the blood is currently available. Ironically the public health community has been aware of this danger for years. "Hundreds of blood recipients may be silently infected, experts say, and there is no effective treatment for them. After a decade, 10 to 30 percent of them will die when their hearts or intestines, weakened by the disease, explode," according to a New York Times story, November 18, 2003 by Donald G. McNeil, Jr. Three people received Chagas infected organs in 2001, the first such cases reported in the United States ever! Two of those three died.
Dengue Fever, reports of polio, and now, the first case of malaria in Texas trickle into the United States as the invasion of illegal aliens increases in numbers.
Undiagnosed disease due to uncontrolled illegal immigration is not confined to the Border States. This health care crisis spreads daily across the nation. In 2002, Northern Virginia reported a 17 % increase in tuberculosis cases. Prince William County alone reported a staggering 188 % over the previous year. Health officials link immigrants to this outbreak and credit them with introducing the drug resistant strains. In 2001 Marion County experienced an outbreak of Multi-Drug Resistant TB, which was investigated by the Indiana University School of Medicine. Their findings? Mexican Nationals, i.e., illegal aliens, had flooded into the area causing the outbreak.
In Queens, New York the health department found that 81% of new TB cases in 2001 were "immigrants". The CDC reports that last year one-half of all new TB cases were attributed to foreign born people, who have an eight times higher incidence of TB. "Health officials state the rise of TB is largely a consequence of the migration of people from parts of the world where the disease is common. It is thought that two-thirds of the cases of TB brought into the United States originated in three countries: Mexico, the Philippines and Vietnam. Recent outbreaks include Portland, Maine, Del Ray Beach, Florida and Michigan.
In 1999, a health advisory was issued due to a Dengue Fever outbreak along the Mexico (Nuevo Laredo)/ Texas—(Webb County) border. Though not usually fatal, there is a more serious strain called dengue hemorrhagic fever, which CAN kill you.
It gets worse. The U.S. government, which is sworn to protect American citizens, is in reality, aiding and abetting this health care crisis. Quoting a Fox News Report from April 4, 2003, Miguel, an illegal alien who worked construction on a subway renovation project for months, was able to change his status to legal permanent alien. Unfortunately, Miguel was infected with tuberculosis. This did not stop the federal government from issuing Miguel a health waiver under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a waiver that permits him a green card, even though his disease made him inadmissible for the waiver. Miguel is now legally free to move about the country—and is, at this moment.
What does this mean to American citizens? Does it take the immediacy of a SARS or tuberculosis epidemic to force our Congress and president into action? After the fact? After the deaths of dozens or thousands of innocent citizens? What does it require for them to take action as this 'silent invasion' crosses into our country? Our borders are as porous today as they were on 9/11. But this terror is a silent invasion--a deadly, growing, ticking 'Time Bomb'.
It means your children are at risk when attending school or going to the movies. It means that when a classmate from a foreign country sneezes or coughs, your child may be at risk for any number of diseases. If you eat at a fast food restaurant, a person infected with hepatitis could prepare your food. If you need a blood transfusion, the blood could be infected with Chagas Disease.
What can you do? You may visit the principal of your school and insist that every child pass a complete health screening, especially for tuberculosis and hepatitis. You may ask local health inspectors to check restaurants in your community to see that all employees are legal residents or American citizens and have been health screened. For all these undetectable diseases, you may call your senator or representative, 800-648-3516 and demand they secure the U.S. border with Mexico to stop illegal immigration by whatever means you deem necessary, i.e., US troops, National Guardsmen, mass deportations and arrests of employers who hire illegal aliens. Make the punishment worse than their profit.
Sources: TIMEBOMB: GLOBAL EPIDEMIC OF MULTI DRUG RESISTANT DISEASES
NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
FOX NEWS: 'WAIVING DISEASE' MATT HAYES 4/4/03
'Rare Infection Threatens To Spread In Blood Supply, by Donald G. McNeil, Jr.
New York Times, 11/18/03
Dengue Fever: Division Director's Bulletins-Division Animal Industry,
11/07/99
TB STILL ON RISE IN NORTH VIRGINIA: DRUG RESISTANCE, IMMIGRATION CITED IN
DISEASE'S SPREAD, by Leef Smith, Washington Post Staff Writer, 03/18/02
Stephany Gabbard, RN, CLNC, (health@legal-nurseconsultant.com), is a
Registered Nurse and Certified Legal Nurse Consultant specializing in
disease prevention. She has worked in several County Jail Health Systems,
witnessing first hand the effects of disease in the jail population.
Frosty Wooldridge, (frostyw@juno.com) web site:
(www.frostywooldridge.com) is a former US Army Medical Service Corps
officer, cardiac catheterization technician, teacher, national radio
guest speaker, TV guest, writer and world bicycle traveler who has seen
the consequences of overpopulation up close and personal. He will send
you information on how to gain access to networks in your state. He is
available to speak on your radio and TV stations and will send talk show hosts his press
releases when you write him. Contact www.numbersusa.com to take national
action or call your Congressional rep: 1 800 648 3516 toll free.
Stephany Gabbard, RN, CLNC
Montana
http://www.senselessplanet.com/disease.htm
http://www.nrilinks.com/news/n/9/9186.aspx
Immigration and Disease: It's Enough to Make You Sick
Posted by Robert Klein Engler
Friday, November 21, 2003
Uncontrolled and illegal immigration to the United States causes many problems for the nation. Just the tax revenues spent on welfare programs, education, health care, and housing for illegal immigrants is enough to make one question our immigration policies. Now, we can add another problem and cost associated with illegal immigration: illegal immigrants can make you sick.
According to an article at newsobserver.com and other news sources, a deadly Pennsylvania hepatitis outbreak has spread panic among many residents of the area. ''More than 500 people got sick and three have died from this hepatitis outbreak.'' Charles Sheehan, writing for the Associated Press, claims that ''The nation's biggest known outbreak of hepatitis A is causing such a panic that people are lining up by the thousands for antibody shots and no longer eating out.''
Health investigators are looking into whether contaminated produce--perhaps scallions from Mexico--may have caused the outbreak at the Chi Chi's restaurant in the Beaver Valley Mall, about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. ''We're very concerned. It's very serious and we've sent a team of people out there to assist,'' said CDC spokesman David Daigle.
According to yet another article on station WPIX Pittsburgh's web site, ''In light of the hepatitis A outbreak from a Center Township restaurant, Chi-Chi's has pulled green onions from its menu nationwide as a precaution. As far as the investigation into the Chi-Chi's outbreak, the virus has been identified as the 'Mexican Strain.' '' Health officials reported, ''Workers may have contaminated food by failure to follow basic hygiene in cleaning hands after using the bathroom.''
The U. S. is not alone in its fight against illegal immigration and disease. Illegal Chinese immigrants to Europe are bringing to that continent malaria. Even Thailand has problems with diseases brought in with immigrants from Burma. The biological clock is ticking and a world health crisis is looming. Because the U. S. suffers more immigration than any country in the world, our health problems are growing faster. Certainly, the potential for biological disaster has come to the notice of terrorists and Al Qaeda.
Although the out break of Hepatitis A in Pennsylvania is the largest in U. S. history, it is just the tip of the iceberg in so far as disease and immigration is concerned. Frosty Wooldridge in his many articles reports that, ''Thousands carry head lice, leprosy, tuberculosis, and hepatitis A, B, and C into the U. S. Tuberculosis, five years ago, was almost nonexistent in the USA. A school in Sebewaing, Michigan, reported 30 children and four teachers had tested positive for tuberculosis infections.''
Wooldridge goes on to add, ''In the past four years, 16,000 cases of multi drug resistant (MDR) TB, which was formerly endemic ONLY to Mexico, crossed over the borders inside the bodies of illegal aliens. These adults and their children have spread out across the country to work in fast foods and harvesting. Another outbreak occurred in Austin, Minnesota, where eight police officers tested positive for tuberculosis.'' A similar outbreak reportedly occurred in Portland, Maine where 28 tested positive for tuberculosis.
And the list gets even longer: ''Leprosy totaled 900 cases in the USA in the past 40 years. In the past three years, according to a report from the New York Times in February, 2003, leprosy has infected over 7,000 people in the United States. It was brought in by illegal immigrants from India, Brazil, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Leprosy spreads by infected illegal aliens working in fast food, dish washing and hotels."
Then there is Chagas Disease. This disease ''is brought directly from Mexico and Latin America where it has infected over 18,000,000 people. One can contract it by eating uncooked food contaminated with infected feces of the Vinchuca Bug. It crosses over the border in the bodies of an average of 2,200 illegal aliens daily.''
Disease transmission by immigration is not limited to just the states that border Mexico. As far north as Kentucky and Illinois, problems of disease and immigrants are to be found. A Kentucky state legislator blamed illegal Hispanic immigrants for spreading disease in Kentucky and draining the shelves of local food charities. Illegal immigrants whom Kentucky State Representative Fred Nesler described as ''mostly your Mexicans'' have caused problems in his Western Kentucky district. He said, ''Whenever they come into a community, those people bring quite a bit of disease with them.''
In northern Virginia, state health authorities announced that ''tuberculosis continues to rise'' and that ''immigration is fueling the spread.'' According to the Washington Post, this strain of TB is the drug resistant strain (Washington Post, March 18, 2002). The state Health Department released figures showing an increase of nearly 5 percent in TB cases in the state between 2000 and 2001, and 57 percent of the increase occurred in northern Virginia itself.
As the Washington Post explained, ''Health officials say the rise of TB ... is largely a consequence of the migration of people from parts of the world where the disease is common. It is thought that two-thirds of the cases of TB brought into the United States originated in just three countries: Mexico, the Philippines, and Vietnam.''
A study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform in the St. Louis Business Journal (August 20, 2003) reports that Missouri spends about $21.4 million a year and Illinois spends $484 million a year to educate school-aged illegal immigrants. The report goes on to state that, ''The money spent in Illinois is enough to supply healthcare to every person under the poverty line for two years or to supply financial aid to the nearly 34,000 college students denied it.''' Clearly, illegal immigration is lowering the standard of living of all American citizens.
Writing in the National Review, James R. Edwards cites the dramatic increase in diseases immigrants bring to the United States. He states, ''TB is especially prevalent in Mexicans....Mexican immigrants have an infection rate of 35.5 cases per 100,000, far above the native-born rate.'' Edwards then goes on to ask, ''Does America have the resolve to safeguard public health first, even at the risk of being politically incorrect? Do American taxpayers willingly accept the additional burden of the costs mass immigration places on the nation's healthcare system?''
The answer to Edwards' question is, ''No.'' It is obvious there is no desire or resolve to safeguard public health in either political party. Nor do the politicians want to do anything about illegal immigration, especially illegal immigration from Mexico. What is lacking here is a long term vision of what is good for the U. S. Instead, everyone is looking at short term political or economic gains.
A solution to the problems of illegal immigration probably will hurt some people in the short run. That is the pain that precedes a cure. Some families may be broken up and some decent, hardworking people sent back to a country that has no jobs for them. Nevertheless, in the long run, policies that deport illegal immigrants will benefit the U. S. These policies may even force Mexico, among other nations, to get their house in order. But because there is short term pain for a long term benefit, politicians will stay away from doing anything to solve the immigration mess and its attending public health problems. The problem of illegal immigration and disease will just grow worse. It's enough to make you sick!
Robert Klein Engler lives in Chicago, and teaches at Roosevelt University. His book, A WINTER OF WORDS, about the ethnic cleansing at Daley College, is available from amazon.com.
http://www.senselessplanet.com/disease.htm
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Illegals bring new disease outbreaks! Who's cooking your food?
Posted on Monday, May 16 @ 12:00:03 UTC
Topic: Diseases Biohazards illegal immigration |
 Higher disease rates attributed to influx of illegals
5/15/2005
By Angela Gonzales and Mike Sunnucks
The Business Journal of Phoenix
Topics: Disease, Health Care, Border Patrol, Illegal Immigration, Laws, Security, Food Preparation
Arizona hospitals and doctors are worried about the resurgence of some serious infectious diseases, and some believe illegal immigrants are the cause.
Read the latest headlines about illegal immigration.
A rise in diseases such as whooping cough, tuberculosis, malaria, measles and even leprosy are creating public health concerns and could hit hospitals and health care systems already financially burdened by indigent illegals flooding emergency rooms and urgent care centers.
The resurgence also is fueling conservative calls for tougher border security and could cause problems for Arizona industries that rely on migrant workers for jobs in food services, construction, tourism and agriculture.
The Maricopa County Health Department reported earlier this month a 100 percent increase in the number of cases of whooping cough (pertussis) over the past year.
TB concerns grow
Hospitals and health care professionals also are concerned about Mexican immigrants bringing tuberculosis with them to border states such as Arizona.
"I've been in practice in Arizona for 25 years," said Dr. Tim Kuberski, president of the Arizona Infectious Disease Society. "The one disease that is most often associated with undocumented aliens is tuberculosis because there is a resurgence in the number of cases of TB."
The federal government reports that while TB is on the decline nationally, Hispanics are the most-likely ethnic group to have the disease, and high TB rates in Mexican border areas are a big concern.
Recent federal reports found that Mexican border regions have high rates of infectious diseases and that half of U.S. TB cases are from immigrants.
TB rates in U.S. border regions, including Arizona, are "roughly double the national rate, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The department reports the TB rate for Mexican border areas is greater than the Mexican national rate.
Greg Padilla, chief executive of Maryvale Hospital Medical Center, agreed.
"Typically, TB shows up in a lot of border cities," he said.
Limited health care access, lack of vaccinations, migratory population movements and poor living conditions all encourage the spread of TB and limit its treatment in border areas.
There were 14,500 TB cases in the U.S. last year. Mexico has 16,000 cases annually, with one quarter coming from border areas. The U.S. has a population of 296 million; Mexico 106 million persons.
Dr. Fritz Bredeek, an infectious disease specialist with El Rio Special Immunology Associates in Tucson, said tuberculosis is his biggest concern when it comes to people crossing the border illegally and bringing their diseases into the U.S.
"tuberculosis is a contagious disease brought in from any poor country because TB is in countries with a poor health care structure, whether that is in Mexico or Eastern Europe or Asia or Africa," Bredeek said. "So that's certainly an infectious disease we do see."
Health care worries
Increased diseases are cause for obvious public health worries, but they also require hospitals and health care systems to dedicate more resources from an already strained system. Hospitals and the state and federal government often have to foot the bill for treating migrants, many of whom are indigent and have no health care coverage.
Worries about immigrants bringing infectious diseases into the country are prompting conservative calls to tighten up the U.S./Mexican border to stem the wave of migrants.
"Americans should be told that diseases long eradicated in this country -- tuberculosis, leprosy, polio, for example -- and other extremely contagious diseases have been linked directly to illegals," said Scottsdale Congressman J.D. Hayworth. "For example, in 40 years, only 900 persons were afflicted by leprosy in the U.S.; in the past three years, more than 7,000 cases have been presented."
There also are worries that illegal immigrants from Asia, particularly China, are bringing rare and infectious disease into the Western U.S.
Hayworth, a Republican, said the problem highlights the need for tougher border controls and immigration law enforcement.
"This emerging crisis exposes the upside-down thinking of federal immigration policy," he said. "While legal immigrants must undergo health screening prior to entering the U.S., illegal immigrants far more likely to be carrying contagious diseases are crawling under that safeguard and going undetected until they infect extraordinary numbers of American residents."
Rusty Childress, a Valley car dealer and a big backer of tougher immigration controls, worries about the spread of disease because of the prevalence of migrant labor in the food-service industry.
"This is one of the cheap thrills of cheap labor," said Childress. "As you may have noticed, many immigrants, legal or otherwise, are employed -- if they are at all -- as cooks, dishwashers, waiters and food handlers. And it's a fact that Hepatitis A, B, and C show up in fast food environments."
Steve Chucri, president of the Arizona Restaurant Association, said food-service companies and restaurants follow county health codes and some do brief health screenings for new hires to make sure they are not spreading some diseases when handling food.
Churci said restaurants do not usually require formal doctor's notes or physicals for prospective employees. He said state law prohibits employers from asking about medical conditions as a condition for employment, but some restaurants will ask employees after they are hired about health issues.
Vaccinations may help
Kathleen Howard, a registered nurse and infection-control specialist at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, said she is seeing a fair amount of disease, especially measles, coming in from other countries.
Howard and other health care professionals are concerned about the lack of vaccinations among immigrant populations.
"We see that from people who have come in and are not vaccinated," Howard said. "It puts our population at risk who also may not have been vaccinated."
A study that came out this week in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine found that there is an increasing number of parents who choose not to vaccinate their school-age children because they believe the medicine will cause harm.
When people entering the U.S. bring diseases with them, American children who are not vaccinated are at a greater risk of getting diseases for which there are preventive measures available, Howard said.
"When you have children who have not been vaccinated, they can pass measles, mumps and rubella quickly," Howard said. "Even polio would be a risk for a child who was not vaccinated."
In the study, 69 percent of the parents of the 277 children with vaccination exemptions said they made that choice because of concerns that shots might cause harm.
Dr. Fred Scott, medical director of Maryvale Hospital in Phoenix, said the chances are overwhelming that a child could have very serious problems if the diseases are contracted because of a failure to immunize.
"If you're going to play the odds, the odds are in favor of surviving childhood with the immunizations as opposed to not getting immunizations," Scott said.
But he is not so sure the rise in TB can be attributed to Mexican nationals crossing the border illegally.
"It's related more to socioeconomic classes -- people who live in very close contact with one another," Scott said.
Tuberculosis spreads from coughing droplets onto another person. A persistent cough is accompanied by fever and chills.
"While there is no vaccine for TB, patients can be treated with anti-TB medications, said Dr. Ngozi Osondu, an infectious-disease specialist at Maryvale Hospital.
Kuberski, who also practices at John C. Lincoln Health Network, said there is a law in Arizona that prohibits hospitals from discharging a patient until that patient is free of infectious TB.
"What the fine politicians have done is shifted the burden of paying for these undocumented aliens to the hospitals," Kuberski said. "They get their two weeks of anti-TB therapy and they're discharged. My tax dollars are paying for them to take care of this illegal alien, and obviously the doctors don't get paid, either."
Kuberski said he takes care of lots of undocumented patients.
"It's just part of being a doctor in Phoenix," he said.
http://www.alipac.us/article408.html |
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A Ticking Time Bomb: Diseases that Cross American Borders
by John W. Whitehead
12/13/2004
As an American, I have always been inspired by the fact that my country welcomes those who seek refuge. And as long as our government officials maintain our borders and ensure that those coming from other countries are screened in order to protect those who legally live here, the concept of welcoming immigrants is a noble one.
However, something has gone awry. Indeed, illegal immigration into the U.S. has become an immense problem and a clear and present danger. Documented illegal immigration has more than doubled in the last decade. It has grown, by conservative counts, from 3.5 million in 1990 to 8 million in 2000. The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that at least 13 million individuals will immigrate to the U.S. in this decade.
If the illegal immigrants in America were simply the huddled masses that the Statue of Liberty welcomes, then there would be little concern over illegal immigration. But it is much more complicated than that. The fact is that the United States is being assaulted by a global criminal network. While some of those crossing over American borders may genuinely be seeking better lives for themselves and their families, there are also, unfortunately, those crossing over whose motives are more sinister, who charge thousands of dollars for transporting illegal immigrants, who traffic young girls into America to be used in sexual prostitution and who prey on children for sex.
More alarming is the Center for Immigration Studies’ conclusion that lax immigration enforcement was partially responsible for the terrorist attacks within the U.S., and that such slack immigration policies may lead to more terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, including chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear. Indeed, Time magazine recently reported that there may be plans to “smuggle nuclear weapons to Mexico, then operatives would carry material into the U.S.” This may be inevitable, in that thousands upon thousands of illegal aliens will continue to settle in the U.S., many from countries that seem to export terrorists.
Efforts to protect American borders, especially at the Mexican line, have increasingly become lax over the last several presidential administrations. The Bush Administration, for example, has been lax on its stewardship of the southern border because of its close relationship with Mexican President Vicente Fox. There is the sad, continuing story, writes George Putnam (Newsmax.com), “particularly in those states that border Mexico, where there is a steady, silent, pervasive invasion of the United States by an unarmed army carrying an assembly line of diseases into the heart of America.” Further details can be found in a report entitled “Immigration’s Silent Invasion, Deadly Consequences” where the authors state: “The invasion of illegal aliens pouring over the borders of the United States is taking an ominous turn. They are not alone! Their bodies may carry Hepatitis A, B & C, tuberculosis, leprosy and Chagas Disease. Chagas is a nasty parasitic bug common in Latin America where 18 million people are infected and 50,000 deaths occur annually.”
Illegal aliens, by avoiding health screenings at U.S. borders, carry TB, the most serious being MDR, a multi-drug resistant tuberculosis with a higher death rate than cancer. According to the New York Academy of Sciences, Update, January 2002, “TB bacteria readily fly through the air, as when an afflicted person coughs. It’s estimated that each victim will infect 10, 20 or more people—in whom the disease will likely remain latent, creating the potential ‘time bomb’ effect.”
To make matters worse, in excess of 7,000 new cases of leprosy have been diagnosed in the U.S. in the past three years. As the “Silent Invasion” report concludes, “illegal alien immigrants from India, Brazil, the Caribbean and up through Mexico have fueled the resurgence into the United States.”
Chagas, called the kissing bug disease because the parasite favors the face as a route of infection, comes in acute and chronic forms, which can damage your heart and intestines. This parasite now threatens our blood supply, yet no means to test the blood is currently available. Ironically, the public health community has been aware of this danger for years. “Hundreds of blood recipients may be silently infected,” writes Donald G. McNeil, Jr. in the New York Times (November 18, 2003), “and there is no effective treatment for them. After a decade, 10 to 30 percent of them will die when their hearts or intestines, weakened by the disease, explode.” Three people received Chagas infected organs in 2001, the first such cases ever reported in the United States. Two of those three died. Moreover, “Dengue Fever, reports of polio, and now, the first case of malaria in Texas trickle into the United States as the invasion of illegal aliens increases in numbers.”
Undiagnosed disease due to uncontrolled illegal immigration is not merely confined to the border states. This health care crisis spreads daily across the nation. In 2002, Northern Virginia reported a 17% increase in tuberculosis cases. Prince William County alone reported a staggering 188% increase over the previous year. Health officials link immigrants to this outbreak and credit them with introducing the drug resistant strains. And in Queens, N.Y., the health department found that “immigrants” made up 81% of new TB cases in 2001.
What does this mean for American citizens? As the “Silent Invasion” report concludes: “It means your children are at risk when attending school or going to the movies. It means that when a classmate from a foreign country sneezes or coughs, your child may be at risk for any number of diseases. If you eat at a fast food restaurant, a person infected with hepatitis could prepare your food. If you need a blood transfusion, the blood could be infected with Chagas Disease.”
While we are engaged in far-away wars costing billions of dollars, America is simultaneously engaged in an ominous battle at our borders, which are as porous as they were at 9/11. Even the recently passed intelligence bill offers little hope for a solution. Will it take an epidemic to force our President and Congress to act? Or will it take another terrorist attack on American shores to get the attention of the federal bureaucrats who have been charged with protecting American citizens?
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org.
http://www.rutherford.org/articles_db/commentary.asp?record_id=313
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By Martin Brass
Soldier of Fortune Magazine
Illegals Face a Gauntlet of Doom: The Border Patrol Faces Dopers, Terrorists, and the Desperate Victims of Coyotes.
The 2,100 mile southern border of the U.S., with its treacherous mountain ranges, canyons, rivers and deserts, has become an uncontrollable stretch of violence, death, rape and exploitation.
Over a decade ago, SOF rode with Border Patrol Agents in Arizona when the situation already seemed out of hand. One of those agents, now retired, recently contacted SOF with a disturbing and frustrated update, reflecting the deterioration of the Mexico-United States border.
"In my career, spanning three decades, many of my friends and partners were killed on duty, enforcing immigration laws, and are listed on our honor rolls. Their deaths, and devotion to duty, are beyond politicians' ability to understand, it seems, and are without meaning. This past year the Patrol has arrested a million illegals, with twelve to fourteen million in country, home free. Mexican military incursions, escorting narcotics, are commonplace. Rival alien smuggling organizations thrive in Arizona, and politicians pander, and grovel to Mexico's demands, in a time of war."
Vulture-like smugglers, drug gangs, entrepreneurs, and corrupt officials cash in on human smuggling into the United States, which has become a multi-billion dollar business.
Refugees from Mexico, and worldwide, come by foot, across blistering hot sand, and are then crammed into trucks and trailers. They wade through the New River, the most polluted river in the United States, to avoid immigration agents. They swim through raw sewage, slaughterhouse remains, and pesticide runoff. They are stuffed in suitcases. Hundreds have died in the Rio Grande.
The more fortunate ones take the faster route, buying their own tickets in Mexico for around $200. Others are flown in by coyotes, and trafficked throughout the United States. Mexicana, the Mexican stateowned airline, opened a direct flight several years ago from Oaxaca to Hermosillo, with a stop in Mexico City. With three flights a day, Mexicana station manager Jorge Carrillos estimates that half of 290 daily passengers are heading for the United States.
Three other airlines, originating in Vera Cruz and Chiapas, fly illegal immigrants (mojados) to the United States. Migrants tell of being assaulted, robbed or overcharged because they are thought to be carrying lots of money," says the Arizona Daily Star.
CNN reports that in the year 2000, during one of many illegal immigration crackdowns at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, and at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas, within just a few hours, one hundred INS agents apprehended a hundred illegals being smuggled to Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas and the East Coast.
Unfortunate Pilgrims
The flood of humans includes many other than Mexican (OTM). Apprehensions of OTMs have increased 42 percent according to Border Patrol spokesperson Rene' Noriega. Migrants come from El Salvador, Cuba, Haiti, the former Soviet Union, Asia, and the Middle East. Most illegal aliens pay their trafficker, from $1,500, up to $50,000 for their journeys.
A Border Patrol agent confirmed, to Warriors for the Truth, that nine Yemenis attempting to enter the United States after 9-11, "can't get a coyote to transport them, and they are offering $30,000 per person with no takers."
"The further the smuggling route, the higher the fee. Smugglers often guarantee success for the high prices they charge, promising to give passage back into the United States to those who are apprehended in route and sent back. Some keep that promise while other smugglers let the customers die in a box car or in the trunk or under the hood of a car," says veteran Border Patrol official J. William Carter.
Illegal immigration busts have doubled this year in Arizona. Two thousand and thirty-eight are being apprehended daily. Yuma agents have captured more than 43,000 this year, a one-third increase over last year.
Witnesses express their outrage and disgust at the destruction left behind by the endless parade of illegal migrants.
Take a border town in Arizona, Whetstone, near the "epicenter of an invasion of contraband and humanity that is unrivaled throughout the western world. Trails are worn into the earth by tens of thousands of human travelers. Landowner fences are either cut by illegal migrants and their smugglers, or bent over and torn down completely.
"So heavy is the illegal smuggling traffic in some parts of Whetstone, Arizona 'suburbs' that local residents have constructed roadblocks made of scrub brush and branches. The smell in many areas is overwhelming, especially in the heat of the summer. The amount of refuse is astounding," says wnd.com.
Elsewhere, in the backcountry, "the foot traffic is so heavy it has the ambience of a garbage dump and smells like an outdoor privy. In places, the land is littered a foot deep with bottles, cans, disposable diapers, sanitary napkins, panties, clothes, backpacks, human feces, used toilet paper, pharmacy bottles and syringes," reports Warriors for the Truth.
Silent Invasion, Deadly Consequences
"This is a sad, continuing story, particularly in those states that border on Mexico, where we witness a steady, silent, pervasive invasion of the United States by an unarmed army carrying an assembly line of diseases into the heart of America," George Putnam reports in Newsmax.com. He cites "Immigration's Silent Invasion, Deadly Consequences", researched by a registered nurse and a former U.S. Army Medical Service Corps officer. The research presents a "frightening study of how the hordes" of illegals invading our nation have reintroduced tuberculosis, leprosy, smallpox and Chagas disease. Chagas, a parasite, kills 50,000 annually and has infected 18 million people in Latin America. It damages the heart and intestines and may infect through blood transfusions.
"The most serious is multi-drugresistant TB, spread through the air by an infected person. Each TB patient is said to infect ten to twenty others. More than 7,000 new cases of leprosy have been diagnosed in the U.S. in the past three years. The Queens, NY Health Department diagnosed eightyone TB cases among illegals, and concluded that foreigners have an eightfold higher incidence of TB, and that two-thirds of imported cases come from Mexico, the Philippines and Vietnam," reports Newsmax.
"The Dying Season" began in the deserts in the spring of 2003, just as it does every spring, when eighteen Mexicans and Central Americans were found by Native Americans of the Tohono O'odham Nation on their reservation in Southern Arizona," their report concludes.
"The pilgrims begin their journeys, or return to the United States, after holidays in January, February and March, when the Border Patrol prepares for the biggest influx.
"They drown, they die of the desert heat, they die of hypothermia" Miguel Reyes, a protection officer for Mexico's foreign ministry in south Texas told Reuters.
"There is a belief that if you cross in the desert that the snakes will not cross the railroad tracks" Reyes said. Six Mexican immigrants who believed that sleeping on railroad tracks would protect them from poisonous snakes were crushed by a freight train near Norias TX in 1998. Their mangled bodies, smashed with cans of beans and tortillas, were unidentifiable.
The tales are endless.
Thirteen immigrants nearly suffocated in a sweltering 140 degrees inside a boxcar in San Antonio TX before they could struggle out. The rotting bodies of seven of them were found under a tree a week later.
Smugglers hire truck drivers to smuggle their human cargos over the border, and from state to state. A passerby on U.S. Highway 77, outside of Victoria TX, called the police to report a hand, waving a bandana out of a hole in the back of a white 18-wheeler, in 2003. "A flood of human beings" spilled out, said U.S. Attorney Michael Shelby. Eighteen out of 100 Mexicans, El Salvadorans, Guatemalans and Hondurans were asphyxiated in a trailer abandoned by three traffickers. The trailer was registered to Tyron Williams of Schenectady, NY, who was later arrested.
Lone Coyotes and Syndicates
Felipe de Jesus Preciado Coronado, head of Mexico's National Immigration Institute told the Washington Post that the government has identified at least 57 organized smuggling bands. Jim Chaparro, head of the anti-smuggling office at U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, INS - abolished in March, 2003 and incorporated into the Department of Homeland Security - said that the small and informal smuggling business has evolved into a powerful web of "literally hundreds of syndicates, some at a low level and some at the kingpin level… Gangs are ripping off aliens from other smugglers and holding aliens captive until they sell them to a buyer." Drug smugglers have turned to alien smuggling.
Prices for transport have increased dramatically, partially to pay for high-tech equipment. Encrypted radios, cell phones, and the internet, used for warning of patrolling U.S. agents have replaced the flashlights that were once used to cross the Rio Grande.
Those that charge the most offer computer generated fake documents, or stolen visas and passports. Migrants from Asia and Europe pay far more than Mexicans -- upwards of $50,000 to get in U.S.
"The flow of illegals has become much more organized, and that has opened the opportunity for these groups to market their services to non-Mexicans," Armand Peschard Sverdrup, director of the Mexico project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies told the Post.
Arrests of coyotes have been publicized for years. A cursory examination of the records of Office of the United States District of Arizona alone reveals numerous arrests monthly this year.
Four Smugglers were arrested after a four-month investigation of the Raul Green and Jose Humberto Marquez human trafficking organization in February 2004. Cesar Balderas-Grandos, a Mexican citizen was convicted of trafficking after a U.S. Border Patrol agent saw the knees and elbows of humans bouncing in the bed of his truck.
Grandos refused to stop. He was arrested after a multi- Border Patrol unit high-speed chase. Eleven undocumented aliens were in the bed of the truck and fourteen in the cab of the truck. The defendant had previously been deported from the United States.
Jose Guadalupe Chairez-Jauragui was indicted in February for smuggling 65 illegal aliens. A canine, conducting a routine sniff around his trailer, made the alert. Border Patrol agents had to remove pallets stacked in the back of the trailer and found the smothering aliens. Also in February Alonso Ruiz Avila was indicted in Arizona for transporting 50 aliens in a Freightliner tractor-trailer. The aliens were stowed behind crates of citrus.
Maria Christina Baez and Laura Gastelum were arrested for smuggling five children. The women were paid $50 for each child and were to turn the children over to a stranger. They did not even know who the children were.
In March, Breton Rodriguez, an illegal alien, attacked a Border Patrol agent, and grabbed the agent's Beretta from his holster. The gun discharged, striking the agent in the groin.
Push Here, Pop There
El Paso TX, and San Diego CA, were the two busiest gateways in illegal immigration crossings. The crackdown began. Operation Hold-the-Line was initiated in El Paso in 1992, Operation Gatekeeper in San Diego in 1994, and Operation Rio Grande was established in 1997 in the McAllen sector in South Texas. In that program, agents at the border were tripled.
Operation Hold-the-Line strategy included installing fences, and the use of sophisticated technology, including monitoring devices. The San Diego border had become violent, and Border Agents were struggling to control the "chaos" and anarchy" in the nightly riots. Mexicans across the border threw rocks at them and fired shots, then dash across en masse in "banzai runs."
"The Border Patrol has absolutely no jurisdiction over the Mexican side of the border. The Mexicans can stand there and taunt the Patrol, and there's nothing we can do, until they cross into the United States," Carter confirmed.
Operation Gatekeeper more than doubled Border Patrol Agents and vehicles at the fourteen-mile San Diego border, installed lighting, infrared scopes, underground sensors and Computer IDENT system to track illegal immigrants.
"Due to efforts in the nineties, entries into the United States decreased, The flow of illegal aliens at those fortified borders where additional agents were placed, such as San Diego CA and El Paso TX, apprehensions decreased significantly.
"During that time the Clinton Administration, and Attorney General Janet Reno, were very supportive of the Border Patrol. They went to Congress with the numbers, and asked to increase our resources. They had no choice but to approve. In 1972, there were 2,250 agents. When I left two years ago there were over 10,000 agents," Carter told us.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out they will go east or west of El Paso, and through the rougher routes and rugged terrain, knowing they were taking a greater risk.
"Lots of things have to be considered to create an effective barrier. There are the natural barriers. You have the Rio Grande. In Del Rio, TX, you open up the dam and they can't get across. Rugged mountain terrain makes it impossible to cross. Big Ben country is very rugged country. Marfa, Alpine, Presidio, the Rio Grande, and the high canyons are desolate, hot and miserable. Natural barriers there slow down illegal immigrants," Carter said.
"Most Americans are opposed to any kind of fence. Remember, we knocked down the Berlin wall. The original barriers in San Diego consisted of landing mats (pierced-steel planking), metal that was welded together and buried a couple of feet in the ground, leaning towards Mexico. It was pretty successful.
"Then the Mexicans started to butt holes in it. You can drive down and see the three layers of fencing that were put up in San Diego for border control.
"When the fence was built in San Diego, the border patrol had to develop a strategy. Push the balloon here, it pops up there. From San Diego to Tucson, all the way down the bor- der, a strategy had to be developed in such a way that the flow could be controlled." Carter continued.
Migrants were diverted into dangerous territories, many getting lost.
The Border Patrol was forced to shift its efforts from patrolling to rescuing victims," Patty Mancha, Border Patrol spokesperson told visalaw.com. "They are spending as much time searching for victims as they are doing their regular job."
For two days in May 2001, migrants were lost during Arizona's hellish heat season. Helicopters and four-wheel-drive vehicles, searching for survivors transported eleven injured to local hospitals. Two others were found after an all-night search, but footprints showed that three others were missing.
"We intend to work this until we've made sure there is no one left out there," Border Patrol spokesman Maurice More said. Coyotes who smuggled victims through the rugged terrain of the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge promised to return with water, and told the migrants to walk for "a couple of hours" to a highway. The highway was fifty miles away. Five were able to walk far enough to find agents in the scorching 115-degree heat, reports the Washington Post.
The Border Patrol got lots of grief for their role in the crackdown.
"What's causing it (the deaths of illegal immigrants) is the deadly strategy of the Border Patrol that has forced people into the most hazardous area of the desert," said the Rev. John Fife, Tucson pastor who helped build a watering station for immigrants in Arizona, the Post continues.
U.S. Rep. Tancredo (R-CO), supportive of the crackdowns, reacted after an agent was shot at by Mexicans in a humvee, five miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border in 2001. "I cannot in good conscience stand by and watch another incursion along our border take place.
"Unless we open our eyes and recognize that what's happening along the U.S./ Mexico border is real, one of our guys is going to get killed. "As far as I am concerned, that (incursion) should be an act of war," reports the Sierra Times.
Dozens of Border Patrol Agents have died since the organization of the Agency in 1924. Twenty-one have been killed since 1992.
Dumping Ground
U.S. Border Control Chairman Edward Nelson, outraged by Mexican consuls-general and Foreign Ministry officials' criticism of Operation Rio Grande, responded angrily, "America has become a favorite dumping ground for Mexicans their own government cannot, or chooses not to, care for. These diplomats are total hypocrites. Illegal migration is not 'a natural phenomenon' as the Mexican government would have us believe. It is, instead, a serious crime and a clear violation of American sovereignty."
The Mexican government does nothing to stop illegal migration because it is in their economic interests to have millions of their citizens go to the United States, especially those with no job skills and no money, or those with serious long-term health care problems," reports Usbc.org.
"Mexico," Nelson said, "even refuses to take back Mexican criminals that have been caught and convicted in our country (see future parts of this series). These diplomats are well aware of the fact that their citizens are being exploited, robbed and even murdered by the coyotes. They are aware that many are carrying drugs into America that will wind up in the veins of American children.
"Our border patrol, which has suffered more than 200 cross border attacks recently, should worry less about being 'sensitive' and more about being bushwhacked by the drug cartels killers who now control our southern border and most immigrant traffic.
"We've been called racists, imperialists, and most recently, murderers," the Usbc.org report continues. Mexican Response
In 2001, the Mexican Government announced its plan to distribute 200,000 survival kits as part of a broader program to instruct illegals in what to expect "tips on maintaining self-esteem, and on Asian meditation techniques, to combat depression, stress and anxiety in a country they have entered illegally and without speaking the language," says the Orange County Register.
The survival kits include first aid kits, rehydration tablets, dried foods, and snake bite antidotes. U.S. officials criticized the plan as further risking the lives of the Mexicans and the Border patrol. "It gives the perception to our U.S. public that the Mexican government is encouraging people to break U.S. laws by entering the country illegally," said Hipolito Scosta, INS district director, to CNN. America's Palestinians
Glenn Spencer, host of the popular talk show American Patrol, and immigration expert, produced a video "Conquest of Aztlan" in which he warns that a radical group, self-named "America's Palestinians" declare the goal of reclaiming the American Southwest, including California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and parts of Colorado and Texas. The area is named "Aztlan" by Hispanic activists, or the mythical place of origin of the Aztec people, says Shop Net Daily.
H. Millard, in the Sierra Times, cites a Zogby poll, which found that 58 percent of Mexicans in the Southwest believed that the U.S. rightfully belongs to Mexico, and that 57 percent of Mexicans believe they have the right to enter the U.S. without permissions. He quotes Mario Obled, founder of the Mexican American Legal and Defense Fund (MALDEF), "California is going to be a Hispanic state, and anyone who doesn't like it should leave. They should go back to Europe."
MALDEF, according to Frosty Wooldridge, teacher, author and overpopulation specialist, reporting in the Washington Dispatch, is one of the most anti-American advocacy groups in the United States and is bent on returning Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California to Mexico as part of their 'Aztlan Reconquista.'
Three hundred more Border Patrol agents were deployed by June 1.
In spite of all these efforts, and after a four-year decline, illegal immigration from Mexico has spiked this year as several thousand migrants a day rush the border. U.S. Border Patrol told AP that detentions rose 25 percent, to 535,000, in the six months prior to March 31 compared to the year previous. Seventy-five percent are Mexican.
"And there's no way to determine 'got-aways,'" Carter told us. "I have no idea where anybody's getting those numbers, except in unsophisticated ways-border patrol agents in the desert, working a trail of aliens, don't report 'got-aways'. Then you have those areas and trails that are not worked and no-one to detect the immigrants."
No telling how many 'got-aways' are running loose in the United States, uncounted.
Then there are the many bodies that are never found.
Dr. Martin Brass is an International Lawyer and longtime contributor to SOF.
http://www.military.com/NewContent/0,13190,SOF_0804_Mexico,00.html
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