The Hell??

Okay, both my regular readers know that I don't get my panties in a wad over illegal immigration. "The law is the law" and all that...yeah, yeah.

But...This isn't acceptable.

The drug cartel violence coupled with increased crime along the Arizona/Mexico border has prompted Arizona officials to place signs along a heavily-traveled and known smuggling route leading from Mexico to the state’s capitol of Phoenix.

Signs went up a couple weeks ago along the southern side of I-8 between Casa Grande and Gila Bend Arizona. The region is about 80 miles north of the Mexican border and it warns American citizens of the dangers of hiking in the area.

Mexican drug cartels appear to control large areas of Southern Arizona, according to the Pinal County Sheriff.

Obviously this sort of thing is out of the normal line for a county sheriff's department. Sheriff Babeu had one of his own people ambushed and killed* several weeks ago, and he's yelling for federal troops. Since that would actually be useful, the feds are of course turning a deaf ear.

I'm wondering what's going on at the state level. This would be an excellent chance for the Arizona National Guard to get some live-fire practice, but for all I know they're all in Iraq. Which in turn bids me wonder: Where are all those gung-ho militia types I used to hear so much about, now that they're needed?

And of course a real wacko could make a pitch right here for drug legalization, which would make the whole "violent drug cartel" thing moot overnight. But that's crazy talk. We'll have none of that here. Let's just close off part of the state instead.

We could call it "Cartelistan."

*ETA: My bad. That deputy wasn't killed.