Criminal Gangs and Illegal Immigration Correlation

It is simply not a secret that Illegal immigration has direct correlations with crime. Illegal immigrants may traffic narcotics, weapons and commit crimes in order to enter the United States. This has been shown historically and is an ongoing problem. For many years criminal gangs and drug cartels have used them as “mules” for this purpose.
The criminal organizations also scare the illegal immigrants into committing more crimes, or not reporting crimes once they are inside the country. Fear and distrust of authority abounds. They are frequently victimized and re-victimized due to this fact.

In general many illegal immigrants are peaceful people who wish to work hard and better their lives; the only issue is they need to be legally here inside the country.

Significant Enforcement Concerns: Stereotyping and not treating fairly all law abiding people within the country. The sheer burden on enforcement, the very immense lack of resources whether be it members of Law Enforcement (much of the funding for local law enforcement as well as federal law enforcement was diverted to the overseas war on terror) since 9 11.

Infastructure Concerns: For years not enough funding for prisons, jails, holding facilities, court employees, and required criminal prosecution has been ignored even when there were budget surpluses. For years data has not easily flowed between agencies. For years identification forms were weak. For many years population growth and infrastructure needed for such expansion was not addressed.

In a recent interview with Senator and Ogden Police Chief Jon Greiner indicated that there is a link between illegal immigration status and criminal activity. As an independent free lance gang researcher, I have seen many gang issues that are also illegal immigration issues. The parts of the bill SB81 Utah, that I agree with mostly pertain to documentation of criminals. My long term concern is enforcement and social implications that may create harm in minority populations. This is simply not a cut and dry issue.


Ground Zero in Illegal Immigration
Cities like Phoenix, Arizona have become the kidnapping capital of the United States with well over 350 kidnappings in 2008 where gangs, criminal cartels and illegal immigration status mingle. New Laredo, Texas and many places in California are rapidly degrading as well. Due to enforcement concerns (continued in later paragraph) many cities like San Francisco seem to be struggling with public policy issues on immigration.

The Ripple Effect of crime: During a very recent news interview, Salt Lake City Police Chief, Burbank said there is a serious concern that minorities with high prevalence of illegal immigration definitely will fail to assist law enforcement with solving crimes due to fear of immigration enforcement. Easily, this currently creates a double edged sword, crime occurring and being perpetrated by those who use the legal status of an individual as leverage. The flip side of the sword results in people avoiding the police and respectable authority figures, and first responders. Victims may be re-victimized due to such fears. Emergency situations may not be responded to efficiently due to delays from those reporting, and in worse case scenario a total failure to report.

The Possibilities of racism and bigotry abound There are those racists within society that will use illegal immigration as a rally call to membership and promotion of hate. The intensity of such hatred has been accelerated by the recent economic hardships faced by many people inside our great country.

We must all work together to strengthen our communities thru dialogue, and direct involvement.

Peace!
























When I hear school administrators say that they were not aware of gang members (DUH)!
Comment by Utah Gang Graffiti Researcher @ 2:14pm - Wed Jan 28th, 2009
"When I hear school administrators say that they were not aware of any gang members attending public school" I will be glad to take you on a tour to any school in the state from elementary and higher and show you exactly who they are=the difference is I care and want to end the gang spread and the violence. I want to end the drug dealing, property, and higher crimes committed by the criminal gangs within our communities" Americas Gang Harm Denial Epidemic Dear Politicians and City and County Leaders, As a very concerned citizen of the United States, I say this to all politicians and city, county leaders. I will also make this perfectly clear to school administration.Please stop denying that we have a crime, gang, drug abuse addiction and overdose problem and other related social problems which stem from gangs and drugs. First off, I applaud the efforts of the local law enforcement community who works with the gang problem daily here in Utah. I thank all of the Law Enforcement and Public Safety Community nationwide for doing a much underappreciated difficult job. As a non law enforcement member of the Utah community; and having watched gangs spread successfully since about 1995; that in Utah and Nationwide much more needs to be done. People may wonder why gangs are spreading in Utah, one of the best states in the U.S. The reason is very simple; we continue to provide them little resistance as law abiding citizens. The law enforcement community is poorly staffed and there is little if any funding for gang units, and needed enforcement measures. If we prioritized gangs in America as Domestic Terrorist we would be much better off as a society. Why do I say Domestic Terrorists? They terrorize communities; they traffic in and sell drugs to kids. They continue to recruit kids now in elementary school to sell drugs and use drugs. They generate crime thru drive by shootings, crime to pay for drug habits. They rip apart families with drug related violence and domestic violence, abuse of children because of drug use. They terrorize poor, middle class and even upper class neighborhoods as the drug dealers and thugs become more powerful. There is an extensive gang drug cost to society as we all pay for the health system effects related to abuse and addiction, overdose. These terrorist groups politely referred to as criminal gangs are in it for the money, the power grab, the turf control, and they do not care who gets in their way. They are smart and change as law enforcement gets closer to controlling them. They use weak laws to their advantage, as repeat felony level graffiti and vandalism goes without proper prosecution. They drive illegally modified vehicles due to lack of enforcement. The weak enforcement and non enforcement of laws currently on the books is partially due to inadequate staff, but also to lack of adequate support of law enforcement by community leaders and politicians. The street knows that police officers cannot be everywhere always; the lack of community support also helps the gangs spread. They effectively spread power and influence in public schools at very young age utilizing basic gang attire and fashion gang related attire. They avoid harsher penalties for gang crimes, left by gaps in the current laws. These terrorist criminal organizations spread by using the politically correct faces of church going, middle to upper class, non ethnic children to deal drugs in public schools and elsewhere. An example of the perfect public school drug dealer: If lil Johnny a white kid from well educated white parents living in the finest neighborhoods, who goes to church, is the correct front for their gang (as a politically correct figure head leader) of the gang, then when he is recruited the parents usually are clueless. The neighbors and family are clueless as he dresses in Hip Hop Street fashion styles, and modifies his car and clothing attire, and begins to reap the financial rewards of gang affiliation. The denial of a gang problem continues to harm us overall as a society. The gangs in Utah are as diverse and varied as the ice cream at your favorite ice cream parlor. Before the Olympics we had most of the gangs, now I can document all of the major gangs of the U.S.A. and many hybrid gangs who dominate areas of Utah. In Utah when traveling the high speed light rails system: TRAX light rail system on the entire route please notice the many tagger individual and group graffiti artist vandalism incidences. There is as well the gang related frequent graffiti vandalism which coincides with the high visibility area along the TRAX route. These can be prosecuted if the politicians would support the cause. They usually always violate the felony level graffiti vandalism laws on the books. They can be researched and the perpetrator/ perpetrators identified. And what is the cost to society in graffiti vandalism cleanup. It has to exceed more than $1,000,000 just in Salt Lake County Utah if you take into consideration the labor and paint cost, fuel to and from the sites etc. What I have studied for many years is the overall growth in population of gang members and the related drug crime trends that have spread out across the entire state. The sheer volume of ongoing calls to law enforcement by citizens requesting services that are due to the crime perpetrated by gangs in our communities. These calls frequently are from innocent citizens caught in the middle of gangs who are rivaling over turf. These incidences are paid for ultimately in the loss of innocent lives, property devaluation, and quality of life overall as neighborhoods become blighted. This year we saw the loss of a little angel within our community, an innocent victim. I attended her memorial and it was incredibly sad. The reality of many of Utah gangs is the ongoing family disruption that stems from years in the gang. There is also the disruption of families because of drug addiction and crime. Utah has a bad ten year history of drug abuse and addiction, most of the drugs dealt directly by gang members. Salt Lake City has seen huge spikes in specifically in Crack Cocaine, as well as ongoing seizures of Methamphetamine, Heroin, Cocaine Powder, and other drugs. Remembering that Utah was originally one of the highest METH lab seizure states and the epidemic of meth addiction still lingers many years later with record numbers of women on methamphetamine. Utah gangs spread throughout the state from urban to very rural areas just like in the rest of the United States. The influence of gangs can bee seen in what is considered model areas of conservative society. They are evident in HAPPY VALLEY THE MOVIE, a film about drug addiction in very young children in very conservative non minority areas. When kids do not get illegal access to Rx drugs they switch to or co abuse heroin. Street Heroin trafficked in by criminal terrorists groups = gangs. Thank you to HBO and History Channel.com, as well as MSNBC for programs about gangs and the influence of drugs in society. Thank you for continuing to educate society on the harm of criminal gangs. The gang and subsequent drug crime appears as violent crime, drug addiction/ abuse, as well as property crime such as car prowls/ break ins, smash and grabs, vandalism, and larceny and burglary to fund drug abuse and gangs. We also as a society in Utah fail to address the social problems which stem from the gang intimidation in areas. The aftermath of what happens when children are afraid to go to schools or walk thru neighborhoods etc. For politicians that are playing the denial of any crime problems card, please attend public school with teachers who work with at risk youth. I will personally be willing to tour you around Utah to public schools to see the gang members attending, and the influence of the gang members on the peer pressures at the school. To do so lets go from the wealthiest of neighborhoods to the poorest and from big city to small town and county schools. Please do this for the sake of our kids, and the sake of our beloved state. Sincerely, tmkjusticestudies As seen on www.Policelink.com, Speforums.com, Firelink.com , NON L.E.O. always advocating for proper funding and staffing of Public Safety

Special Thank You to Mayor Ralph Becker Salt Lake City, Peter Peter Corroon Mayor Salt Lake County, Honorable John Huntsman, Nancy White, Graffiti abatement crews, and to the legislature for passing tougher gang laws in 2008 and recent