The Austin-American Statesman has a lengthy article today on the thriving drug cartels operating in Austin. Of course they don’t try to assign any blame to our city’s Sanctuary City policies or to our Federal government’s complete refusal to do their job of securing our borders and controlling illegal immigration.

But still, a good read.

Austin’s Liberals and their liberal sanctuary city policies have allowed Mexican drug cartels and all of the insidious crimes they traffic in (drugs, sex, humans, children, etc.) to grow and thrive under what the head of the Austin’s Public Safety Commission admits has been their ‘benign neglect.’

“We’ve been a little slow to recognize” the cartels’ local growth, said Michael Lauderdale, the head of the city’s Public Safety Commission. “We’re starting to feel the consequences of that benign neglect.”

Most of these drug cartels and a swarm of other illegal immigrants come primarily from one Mexican town:

Stroll through the small, bustling main plaza in Luvianos and you’re likely to hear residents sprinkle their conversations with references to nightclubs on Riverside Drive and taquerias on Cameron Road. Immigration to Austin began in the 1970s, according to local residents, driven by deep poverty and a lack of opportunity in the rural, mountainous region. Since those first migrants landed in Austin to work in construction and open restaurants, money sent home from Austin has helped keep the Luvianos economy afloat, paying for quinceañeras, weddings and retirements.

[snip]

After making the trip north, most immigrants from Luvianos and its surrounding towns have landed in a small area of Northeast Austin near Reagan High School, filling a string of moderately priced apartment complexes.

The pro-illegal immigration editorial policy of the Austin American-Statesman won’t report it or admit it…but the overwhelming majority of these immigrants from Luvianos into Austin are illegal immigrants. Criminals.

And the worst part of our city’s sanctuary policies? We know exactly where large enclaves of these illegal criminals live. And yet they are allowed to do exactly that. Live here openly and without fear of deportation. They open businesses, send their kids to our schools, and overwhelm our health and family services.

Several restaurants and businesses have been started by Luvianos natives, and three days a week residents can board a bus at a record store on Cameron Road for a direct trip to Tejupilco, a regional capital next to Luvianos. In the middle of the neighborhood, residents walk past an idyllic mural of Luvianos, complete with the quaint gazebo that dominates its central square and the emerald Nanchititlan mountains that ring the city.

For longtime Austin residents from Luvianos, the appearance of La Familia in the city is a painful reminder. “Many people come to live here because they have fear” of La Familia, said one Luvianos-born business owner who has been here since 1985. The man did not want his name used because he feared retaliation against his family in Mexico. “Here, people aren’t so scared because there have not been threats. And if the government hears about (cartel members) they grab them up.”

Greg Thrash, who was named the resident agent in charge of the Austin DEA office three years ago, said decades of immigration from Luvianos to Austin have made it easier for La Familia to set up shop locally. “Austin is a stronghold for La Familia; we know that,” said Thrash, who led the effort to bring Austin into the federal drug trafficking program. “I believe it’s generational and familial. They will deal with those they feel comfortable with. That’s why you see the presence in certain parts (of the United States), because of family.”

So, our city has a allowed a huge drug cartel to set up shop in our cities. All out of benign neglect.

It’s beyond time to completely seal and secure our southern border. Build a wall. Bring all of our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan and then put ‘em on the ground at our border and Drones in the air. All of them well armed and instructed to shoot anything coming over or under that fence.