JUAREZ VIOLENCE: EFFECTS BEING NOTED IN EL PASO

It's time the impact of violence in Juarez sinks in. Yes, data show
we are the nation's third-safest big city, but we do suffer from the
effects of lawlessness right across our ports of entry.

And it's not just violence in next-door Juarez, such as Juarez Mayor
Jose Reyes Ferriz and others choosing to live here ... and other
Mexican citizens using our hotels to have weekend respites from the
daily killings, kidnappings, extortions and thefts in their hometown.

This ongoing drug war is affecting border trade, which hurts the
economy of both cities.

Several local officials recently talked with Dallas Morning News
reporters for a story that was distributed by McClatchy-Tribune
Information Services. What they said is chilling:

Noted El Paso private investigator Jay J. Armes said: "I've never
seen it this way, and going into Juarez, and we go daily, it's like a
war zone. You don't know who's who and you don't know who's next."

Armes said his firm worked on some 70 kidnapping cases last year in
the city that saw more than 1,600 gangland-style murders in 2008.

El Paso City Manager Joyce Wilson said: "The violence in Juarez has
brought the city to its knees. Overall, it's a net loss for the region."

In fact, less business means less sales-tax money; we get a share of
that money. The Dallas Morning News story quoted Wilson saying El
Paso can expect a shortfall of $1.5 million from vehicle and
pedestrian toll revenue.

Because El Paso's Thomason Hospital has been treating victims of the
violence, the cost to taxpayers here is more than $1 million,
officials have said.

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, noted that not only does the
Juarez mayor commute to his job from El Paso, but so do other Juarez
city officials.

Also chilling is this quote in the article from one U.S.
law-enforcement official, speaking on the condition of anonymity:
"Dozens of El Pasoans are kidnapped by gangs working for the Mexican
cartels in Juarez."

So far, the killings spread by warring drug cartels and other
criminals haven't crept across the bridges. But the effects of it all
sure have. Government entities in Mexico must retake control of that city!