By Francisco Canseco, Republican Nominee for the 23rd District of Texas

If you’ve ever wondered what it was like to be an American frontiersman, you’ve now got that opportunity in modern times. Just move to Hudspeth County along the Texas-Mexico border and follow Sheriff Arvin West’s advice, “Arm yourself.”

Nearly two weeks ago, I met with the Sheriff, border patrol and customs agents, and farmers and ranchers who are all on a high state of alert. What I learned, what I heard, and what I saw was nothing short of shocking.

Located 50 miles East of El Paso (and the butcher shop that was once Ciudad Juarez), Fort Hancock, Texas rests on a stretch of the Rio Grande where the river is rarely more than a foot deep. Wide open and easily traversable high desert expands for miles but is readily accessible using a highway on the Mexican side and Texas Highway 20 on the U.S. side. Simply put, ideal for narco-trafficking and human smugglers – and they know it.

This area of the border, and the families who live here, is valiantly protected by 17 officers of the Sheriff’s Department (including the Sheriff himself) and even fewer border and customs agents. For about fourteen miles there is a 25 foot high wall. Fourteen miles, that is all. Smugglers and drug traffickers simply go around it and onto the land of farmers and ranchers.

Certainly the lack of a continuous and effective border wall is an insult to the people who live here and the wasted taxpayer dollars this fourteen mile farce represents. But, it is by no means the worst, most egregious example of how faulty Washington policy-making results in zero border security.

The border patrol agents are too few to cover this vast area. They are out gunned, out manned, and lack basic equipment like night-vision goggles (tip to Congress, drug smugglers work at night).The reality is they regularly borrow night-vision equipment and, sometimes, ammunition from the farmers and ranchers.

These same farmers and ranchers showed me video, shot at night, of heavily armed drug runners confidently crossing their property. . .invading American soil.

When our border agents have only half loaded 9mm side arms, they can hardly be blamed for not engaging the murderers who are crossing into our country. Given their strict rules of engagement, I was told, the agents themselves wonder “If I pull this trigger, am I going to be thrown in jail.” 

It is an absolute outrage that these agents aren’t emboldened, encouraged, and empowered to act in defense of our country.

But, at least they have around 25 new patrol vehicles and a brand new office building. The problem is, they don’t use the vehicles or the office because there are too few of them to do so – their time is needed patrolling.

Instead of an office building, these brave men are asking for more help, more agents, a detention center, a completed wall, or support from the military. The empty building and unused vehicles stand as a stark and perfect example of how nonsensical Washington spending does not meet the real border security needs of our country.

The frontiersmen and women of Hudspeth County are cut from tough stock. They are brave. They are determined. But they are also afraid. 

Although it went unsaid, they are wondering, will it take them or their children being wounded or killed before Congress stops dithering and takes serious, meaningful measures to protect them, their families, and America’s sovereign soil?

America deserves a Congress with the courage and common sense to meet its Constitutional duty of protecting our country. We need military assistance, real barriers, and more agents with the right equipment and weapons before it becomes a wide open season on our border residents.

Last week the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that in 2009 Texas lost 276,000 jobs, second only to California.

Throughout 2009 Ciro Rodriguez has blindly supported Nancy Pelosi's massive spending bills that have driven our national debt into unprecedented levels while ignoring the skyrocketing unemployment numbers right here in Texas. Ciro and his liberal masters in Washington have proven time and again that they simply do not understand or care about our economy and are solely focused on a liberal agenda to socialize our health care and further grow an already bloated federal government. 

San Antonio, TX - It has become increasingly difficult to keep track of the broken promises of the Obama Administration, but when it comes to the promise of transparency, Obama and the democrats in congress have broken their pledge to keep the doors open during all health care negotiations. 

Now today you and I are forced to sit back and wait to see what atrocities are being put into the Obama/Pelosi health care bill.  First it was a $300 Million Louisiana Purchase of Senator Mary Landrieu, then Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson and the Cornhusker Kickback, both behind closed doors. Finally last week the powerful union bosses all gathered behind closed doors at the White House and were given a tax break on their health care plans that non-union workers are not eligible to receive. 

Washington, D.C. – Concerned Women Political Action Committee (CWPAC) has announced its endorsement of Quico Canseco for Congress in Texas’s 23rd Congressional District.

Concerned Women PAC is affiliated with Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization with more than 500,000 grassroots members nationwide.

San Antonio, TX – On Monday, December 21st Conservative Libertarian Victor Luebker announced that he will not be running as a candidate for the Texas 23rd Congressional District and is endorsing Republican candidate Francisco Canseco.

San Antonio, TX – On Thursday, December 10th, Ciro Rodriguez voted in favor of a provision in the FY2010 Omnibus spending bill that will cut $70 Million in funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program or SCAAP.

San Antonio, TX –– In response to the Monday announcement that the EPA would begin regulating carbon emissions in order to “protect the public health and environment” Texas 23rd Congressional candidate Francisco “Quico” Canseco addressed the far reaching consequences of such an action.

San Antonio, TX – Monday, December 7, 2009 – On the opening day of filing for the March 2nd Republican primary election, Texas 23rd Congressional District candidate Francisco Canseco filed 995 signatures with the Republican Party of Texas. 500 valid signatures are required to be placed on the ballot for the spring primary election. Francisco Canseco is the first Republican to qualify for the March 2nd primary in the 23rd district.