For those who thought the problem of illegal immigration had only to do with the illegal immigrants themselves or the drain that illegal immigration may place on infrastructure, let me present a whole new twist.
Evidently, some of those coming illegally across our southern border are bringing more along with them than their families and a desire to improve their lot in life.
Some are also bringing �Latin America-style kidnappings,� according to a recent Associated Press story.
You know, I really enjoy the mix of cultures we find in the United States. It is without doubt one of the main reasons our country is as strong as it is. The larger culture�s absorption of the best elements of all sorts of cultures has made the United States the special place it is.
But there are some cultural idiosyncrasies I�d just as soon see left in the old country.
The whole suicide bomber phenomenon can stay where it is, for example. And I think we can live without widow-burning, honor killings, beheadings, child military conscription, and forced arranged marriages, among a number of other less-than-totally attractive foreign practices.
Call me crazy, but South American-style kidnap-murders of criminals by criminals is something else I believe we could get along just fine without.
I realize this activity represents a very small minority of South Americans, but �a terrifyingly common crime in Latin America has evidently come north into the United States� � with criminals and their family members being kidnapped by other criminals and held for six-figure ransoms, the AP story says.
The abductions are occurring mostly around Phoenix at the rate of nearly one per day, according to the story. And police reportedly suspect killings have resulted, since bound and bullet-ridden bodies have been found dumped in the desert.
The report notes that kidnap victims are typically drug- or immigrant-smugglers, who have a lot of money, can raise large sums of cash on short notice, and are unlikely to go to the police.
Phoenix had more than 340 such kidnappings reported last year, but police believe the real number is much higher because many cases go unreported, according to the story.
The San Diego area has also reportedly seen a rise in kidnappings over the past year, though the hostage-taking appears to be most prevalent in Phoenix, where most of the nation�s immigrant smugglers are based.
Many of the abductions reportedly begin in �drop houses� where immigrant smugglers hold their cargo until they pay. Typically, the kidnappers storm these houses or relatives� homes at gunpoint, rough-up the victims, tie them up and speed off to a hiding place, just like in the movies and cop shows.
Hostages are reportedly often tortured � a victim�s finger might be cut off; a man might get a phone call in which he is forced to listen to his wife being raped � as the kidnappers try to force families to meet their demands.
Sometimes hostages are found in the desert, shot dead with their hands tied behind them, the story says.
If there weren�t already several really good reasons to get a handle on illegal immigration, this story suggests a fairly powerful one.
We have enough of our own, home-grown criminals and crime, and the last thing we need is to import a particularly ugly, violent and dangerous new anti-social behavior that can too easily spill out of the criminal underworld and into the world the rest of us inhabit.
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