The border is “safer than ever”. So says DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. Again and again. But for Texans, the Rio Grande is wide open -- thanks to Federal failure to secure it -- and is a growing threat to the safety of citizens and law enforcement, on land and water.

Now, as reported in StandWithArizona.com, to deal with the Federal failure to secure the river and the drug and human smugglers who use it, Texas Department of Public Safety has deployed gunboats on the river, armed with major firepower. DPS now has 4 shallow-water vessels (soon to increase to 6), each armed with six M-240, 30-caliber automatic machine guns that fire 900 rounds per minute.

Each of the boats, equipped with armor-plating, night vision equipment and a small arsenal of weaponry, costs about $580,000.

Troopers patrolling the border say the expense is justified, considering the ruthless nature of their adversaries in the Mexican drug cartels. What they fear, more than anything else, is the prospect of an ambush.

“They’ve got radios, they’ve got their telephones, there’s somebody right here in this abandoned house right here,” Lt. Charley Goble says, gesturing to people hanging around on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. “There’s somebody there now. They’re watching what we’re doing.”

Several times last year and again this past March, Texas DPS and Rangers have come under fire from the Mexican side, or from cartel boats right on the river. The cartels have grown increasingly bold and are more heavily armed every few months, as the battle continues to intensify.

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Editor's Note: Yup...the Southern US border is "safer and more secure than ever." Whow was it that said, "repeat a lie often enough and people will begin to believe it,"?


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