- DRAFT - Border Security Public Outreach Themes and Messages Introduction The following public information themes and supporting messages are designed to inform the public of the threat of Mexican drug cartels and transnational gangs to the citizens of Texas and to curtail the influence of these criminal organizations in our state. These themes and messages seek to accomplish the following: 0 Position Texas border security efforts in a positive light as anti-crime and as an enhancement of Texas and National Security. 0 Equate cartel activities with the violence in Mexico. Deny the support of Mexican drug cartels and transnational gangs in Texas so as to prevent the Spread of violence north of the border. 0 Enhance public awareness of the criminal and violent actions of Mexican drug cartels and transnational gangs. 0 increase public awareness of human trafficking in Texas and the border region. 0 Counter the efforts of Mexican drug cartels and transnational gangs to recruit young men and women in illegal activities. a increase the pubiic?s awareness and understanding of Texas border security and law enforcement initiatives. - Enlist public support of border security and law enforcement efforts. a Solicit the involvement of the public in reporting illegal and/or suspicious activities to local Sheriffs and Police or to the Texas Department of Public Safety. THEME 1: Protection of our communities, our families, and our way of life. Background. Texas communities in the border and coastal regions are increasingly impacted by the growing violence of Mexican cartels. This year Mexico was beset by :the murder of 8,032 of its citizens; incidents of car bombings; greater frequency of grenade attacks; and continued assassinations of government officials city mayors, police chiefs, prosecutors and journalists. This violence has resulted in the displacement of large numbers of Mexican citizens to the United States, many of whom have escaped to communities in Texas. Message: To protect our communities and our children, local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies and the District Attorneys in Texas border counties are Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - DRAFT - working together to detect, disrupt, and deter Mexican cartel-related crime along the Texas-Mexico border. Message: Border security efforts seek to ensure the safety and security of all Texans. The success of Texas border security and law enforcement efforts are critical to preserving you and your family?s safety and way of life. Message: Texas law enforcement efforts focus on interdicting the smuggling of narcotics into the United States and the trafficking of weapons, stolen vehicles and drug money to Mexico. Message: lnteragency law enforcement operations seek to disrupt human trafficking and prevent international terrorists from crossing our borders. Message: Border related crime is a problem throughout the State of Texas. THEME 2: The Mexican drug cartel and transnational gang threat. Background. The National Drug intelligence Center reported in its 2009 National Drug Threat Assessment. The report warned that violent urban gangs connected to Mexican cartels were extending their network ?from inner cities to suburban and rural areas.? Its conclusion: ?Mexican DTOs represent the greatest organized crime threat to the United States.? Drug cartels and transnational gangs are waging war in Northern Mexico, their tactics including death threats torture car bombings, kidnappings, assassinations, and beheadings. As stated by Mexican President Felipe Calderon, From the "most modest little towns" to major cities, traffickers attack, intimidate and blackmail Mexican citizens as part of an illegal business that goes far beyond the simple transport of narcotics. Their business is no longer just the traffic of drugs. Their business is to dominate everyone This criminal behavior is what has changed and become a defiance to the state, an attempt to replace the state" by exacting war taxes and taking up arms more powerful than those used by outgunned government forces. These international drug cartels and transnational gangs pose a dire threat to our southern border. Drug-trafficking organizations have established connections with transnational gangs throughout Texas, and use them to traffic in drugs and humans, providing cartels with willing soldiers who operate on both sides of the border and in our communities. Members of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas Cartel have been arrested in Texas. In May 2009, Jose Daniel Gonzalez Gaieana, a midlevei member of the Juarez Cartel, living in El Paso, was murdered outside his Texas residence. Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - DRAFT - Message: Mexican DTOs represent the greatest organized crime threat to the United States. Message: Drug cartels seek to extend their influence and violence in Texas. Message: Border security efforts by Unified Commands in the State of Texas seek to stop the spread of cartel violence to the United States. Message: Cartel violence Not in our in Texas. Message: Since 2006, violence by Mexican drug cartels caused the deaths of over 28,000 people and destroyed the fabric of communities south of the border. THEME 3: The impact on our youth. Background. Mexican drug cartels actively recruit Texas youth to support their operations on both sides of the border. These criminal organizations lure teens with the prospect of cars, money, and notoriety, promising them if they get caught, as juveniles they will receive a minimal sentence. These promises are especially well received in border communities beset with double digit unemployment. El Paso teens have been recruited to smuggle drugs across the border, many with the packs taped to their bodies. Laredo juveniles Gabriel Cardona and Rosalio Reta were recruited to be hit men for the cartels. Other teens are used as ?ha/cones? or lookouts to aid cartels and gangs in counter surveillance of law enforcement operations and activities. Message: Cartels and gangs threaten our youth. Cartels and gangs actively recruit our community?s youth to engage in smuggling and acts of violence. Message: Youth is not a shield. The State of Texas will prosecute those individuals participating in illicit cartel and gang activities, regardless of age. Message: Easy Money 2 Hard Time. Promises of ?easy money? for criminal acts will result in hard time served in prison. Message: Talk to your children. Warn them of the dangers of cartels and gangs. Monitor your children and their activities. Pay attention to any signs that they may have become involved in illegal activities. Report incidents of attempted cartel or gang recruiting. Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - DRAFT - THEME 4: Human trafficking. Background. Human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry with revenues estimated from $9 billion to $32 billion annually. After drug dealing, human trafficking is tied with the illegal arms industry as the second largest criminal industry in the world. it is the fastest growing. An estimated 18,000 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United States each year. Texas and the Southwest border continue to serve as the biggest area of illegal entry into the US, largely because traffickers are able to get aliens across without documents. Texas? huge geographic size and large Hispanic population create optimal conditions for trafficking because of the ability to blend in with the community. At the Department of Justice Human trafficking Conference, the HO corridor was identified as one of the main routes for human traffickers in the United States. Texas has and continues to experience incidents in human trafficking in forms of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Texas businesses employ migrant labor in many different sectors throughout the state. Such industries include textiles, agriculture, restaurants, construction and domestic work. The vast diversity in migrant labor makes it difficult for law enforcement, with limited manpower and resources. to concentrate its efforts in any one labor sector. Message: Human trafficking is the illegal trade in human beings for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor - a modern-day form of slavery. It is one of the fastest growing criminal industries in the world. Message: Human trafficking is not the American Dream it is a modern?day form of slavery. Message: Texas continues to experience incidents of human trafficking in forms of forced labor and sexual exploitation. Texas and the Southwest border continue to serve as the biggest points of illegal entry into the United States. Message: if you have information about a potential case of labor or sex trafficking call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888- 3737-888 or your local Sheriff?s Office or Police Department. Your call could help get victims of human trafficking out of exploitative and dangerous situations and into safe environments. Message: Illegal immigrants to the United States are routinely forced into the illicit transportation of narcotics. A significant number are abandoned each year by their guides or ?coyotes? and left to die in remote or inhospitable areas of the Texas border region. Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - DRAFT - THEME 5: Cross-Border Violence Background. Concerns have heightened over the possible spread of violence into Texas north of the Mexican border. For more than two years, US. intelligence and law enforcement officials have been warning that the dramatic rise in violence along the southwestern border could eventually target US. citizens and spread into this country. in its most recent assessment of the illegal drug trade, the US. Justice Department reported that the Mexican drug cartels now operate in 230 US. cities - and as cited in its that where Mexican?directed drug operations take root, violence is likely to follow. This year, cartel-related violence north of the border has increased in incidents directed against both citizens and law enforcement officers. On March 13, a staff member of the US Consulate General in Cuidad Juarez, and her US Citizen husband, an El Paso Sheriff?s deputy, were shot and killed in an attack by members of the BARRIO AZTECAS transnational gang, acting as an enforcement arm for the VINCENTE CARRILLO-FUENTES Cartel. In April, Robert Krentz, Jr, an Arizona rancher, was murdered on his ranch in southeast Arizona, reportedly by a scout working for a drug trafficking cartel. In May, a Walmart store in McAllen, was the site of a suspected cartel kidhapping and murder attempt. On June several bullets from a gun battle in Ciudad Juarez struck El Paso City Hall. in September, US Border Patrol agents in Mission, Texas, came under fire from persons on the Mexican side of the border during a drug seizure along the Rio Grande. in January 2010, FBI sources indicated that LA MANA, an enforcement group for LOS ZETAS Cartel was targeting Hidalgo Police Department Officers (San Antonio FBI, CRO Keith Wood). Message: For citizens living in the border region, the threat of cross?border violence is very real. Message: Texas law enforcement officers must respond frequently to acts or threats of cross-border violence. Message: Cross-border violence includes violent actions perpetrated in Mexico or Texas, often by cartel- or gang-related individuals or groups, including: aggravated assaults, extortion, kidnapping, torture, rape and murder. Message: Victims of cross-border violence may include illegal immigrants being smuggled into the US, Mexican or US Citizens working with the cartels or their innocent family members, and others who are not associated in any way with the cartels or trans- national gangs. THEME 5: Public Awareness of Border Security Efforts Background. Law enforcement agencies at federal, state, tribal and local levels are engaged in ongoing border security operations to reduce border-reiated crime in Texas Tuesday, February 28, 2012 DRAFT - border and coastal regions and along trafficking corridors throughout the State of Texas. Operation BORDER STAR is the State of Texas? joint combined ongoing border security operation, involving federal, state, tribal and local law enforcement agencies; private businesses and civilian organizations. Message: Border Security is a Federal Responsibility but a Texas problem. Message: The Department of Homeland Security (Customs and Border Protection) is the first line of defense for securing the border. Message: County Sheriffs Offices and Police Departments are the primary law enforcement agencies combating borderurelated crime in your community. Message: Operation BORDER STAR is a coordinated and continuous long-term interagency law enforcement effort. Its Unified Commands join in an effort to disrupt, deter, interdict, and thereby dominate criminal activity associated with the movement?- northbound and southbound-?of illicit traffic through the Texas border region and throughout Texas. Message: Under Operation BORDER STAR, County Sheriffs? Offices, local Police Departments, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Texas National Guard?s Joint Counter Drug Task Force and other federal, state, and tribal law enforcement agencies, join with private companies and organizations to form Unified Commands to reduce border-related crime, contribute to the reduction of potential acts of terror within Texas and the United States, and increase the security and quality of life of Texans. Message: Operation BORDER STAR successes are a direct result of effective inter-agency cooperation, combining the capabilities of Federal, State, County, and Local law enforcement organizations and focusing them on the single goal of reduced border?related crime. Message: Texas Ranger Reconnaissance Teams are employed in special operations to counter and reduce border-related crime in and around the Texas border region. Team members are specially selected, highly trained and equipped with advanced technology to find and arrest criminals who move drugs, weapons, peOpIe, currency, and stolen vehicles through the border region. Message: Texas Ranger Reconnaissance Teams were formed to supplement the efforts of the various Unified Commands in the Texas border region. The Texas Ranger Reconnaissance Teams are typically deployed in clandestine Operations targeting cartel operations in high threat and remote regions. Our operations, which are a small but critical piece of Texas? efforts to secure the border, have already led to numerous arrests and seizures of drug loads in areas throughout the border region. Message: The safety of citizens and iaw enforcement officers is our first concern. All our operations are planned and rehearsed in great detail with citizen safety in mind, and we adhere to strict rules for using force. Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - DRAFT - THEME 7: Citizen Involvement Background. The Texas Department of Public Safety and local Sheriff?s Offices and Police Departments solicit information and cooperation of local citizens in support of law enforcement efforts. Message: Support the law enforcement efforts of your local Sheriff?s Office or Police Department. Message: Report criminal acts or suspicious activities when you see them to your Sheriff?s Office, Police Department or the Texas Department of Public Safety. Message: if you have information about a criminal act or suspicious activities, you may contact your local community CRIMESTOPPERS (found at or go online to Your information is submitted anonymously. Tips submitted through this website are entirely confidential, completely anonymous and are immediately and securely transferred directly to responsible law enforcement agencies. Message: If you have information about a criminal act or suspicious activities or the location of a fugitive, contact Texas Crime Stoppers, 24 hours a day, at 1-800-252- (8477). You DO NOT have to give your name, and you could earn up to a $1,000 CASH REWARD. Tuesday, February 28, 2012