{"id":31300,"date":"2017-08-01T14:45:18","date_gmt":"2017-08-01T18:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=31300"},"modified":"2017-08-01T14:45:18","modified_gmt":"2017-08-01T18:45:18","slug":"a-necessary-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=31300","title":{"rendered":"A Necessary Step"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judicial Watch<\/a> released the following statement today:<\/p>\n

In a major shift from lax Obama-era regulations, the Trump administration is finally allowing customs officers to screen all cargo trucks entering the U.S. from Mexico and sources on both sides of the border tell Judicial Watch Mexican drug cartels<\/a> are fuming. U.S. Customs and Border Protection<\/a> is using X-ray technology and other non-intrusive tools to screen 100% of cargo trucks crossing the southern border after eight years of sporadic or random screening permitted under the Obama administration.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt like we were the welcoming committee and not like we were guarding our borders,\u201d said veteran U.S. Customs agent<\/a> Patricia Cramer, who also serves as president of the Arizona chapter of the agency\u2019s employee union. \u201cThe order was to facilitate traffic, not to stop any illegal drugs from entering the country,\u201d Cramer added. \u201cWe want to enforce the law. That\u2019s what we signed up for.\u201d Cramer, a canine handler stationed at the Nogales port of entry in Arizona, said illicit drugs are pouring in through the southern border, especially massive quantities of fentanyl, an opioid painkiller that the Drug Enforcement Administration<\/a> (DEA) says is more potent than morphine.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Approximately 471,000 trucks pass through the U.S-Mexico border<\/a> monthly, according to figures <\/a>published by the U.S. Department of Transportation<\/a>. The busiest port of entry is in Laredo, Texas<\/a> where 167,553 trucks enter the U.S. from Mexico monthly, followed by Otay Mesa in California (76,953), El Paso, Texas (58,913), Hidalgo, Texas (45,355) and Nogales with 29,439. Other busy ports include East Calexico, California (29,173), Brownsville, Texas (16,140) and Eagle Pass, Texas<\/a> (12,952). Trucks bring in everything from auto parts to appliances, produce and livestock. In fact, a veteran Homeland Security official told Judicial Watch that cattle trucks passed without inspection during the Obama administration because Mexican farmers complained that the security screenings frightened their cows. \u201cOur guys were livid that we were not allowed to check cattle,\u201d the federal official said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Frontline customs agents stationed along the southern border confirm that trucks containing \u201clegitimate\u201d goods are often used by sophisticated drug cartels to move cargo north. This is hardly surprising since most illegal drugs in the United States<\/a> come from Mexico<\/a>, according to the DEA, and Mexican traffickers remain the greatest threat to the United States. They\u2019re classified as Transitional Criminal Organizations (TCOs) by the government and for years they\u2019ve smuggled in enormous quantities of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana. Last year the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the nonpartisan agency that provides Congress with policy and legal analysis, published a disturbing report outlining how Mexican cartels move record quantities of drugs into the U.S. Because cartels move the drugs through the Southwest border, western states have become part of what\u2019s known as the \u201cheroin transit zone,\u201d<\/a> according to the CRS.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Federal law enforcement sources tell Judicial Watch Mexican cartels operate like efficient businesses that resort to \u201cother more treacherous routes\u201d when necessary, but driving through a port of entry in a cargo truck is a preferred method of moving drugs. Cartels station shifts of spotters with binoculars in Mexican hills near border checkpoints to determine the level of security screenings. \u201cThey know if we\u2019re on the job, the level of screening that we\u2019re conducting,\u201d Cramer said. \u201cThe cartels watch us all the time.\u201d Nogales is a favorite for cartel spotters because the U.S. checkpoint sits in a valley surrounded by hills on the Mexican side, where unobstructed views facilitate surveillance. \u201cThey see everything,\u201d Cramer said. For years the cartel spotters saw that much of the cargo passing through the checkpoint was waved through, according to agents contacted by Judicial Watch.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have no right to complain about the opiate epidemic in America if we are not willing to take the actions necessary to stem the flow of illegal drugs coming into the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judicial Watch released the following statement today: In a major shift from lax Obama-era regulations, the Trump administration is finally allowing customs officers to screen all cargo trucks entering the U.S. from Mexico and sources on both sides of the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[97,10492,285,3678],"class_list":["post-31300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-barack-obama","tag-u-s-customs-and-border-protection","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-secretary-of-homeland-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31300"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31301,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31300\/revisions\/31301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}