The Houston Chronicle reports that a DOJ memo from 2005 indicates that the Department of Justice noted that federal prosecutors working in Texas generally declined to bring charges against illegal immigrants until they were caught the 6th time.

As we stand here at the hitching post, watching those sweet New Mexico thoroughbreds being taken through their paces by Mexican jockeys, no one bats an eye.

‘Cause that ain’t news.

What ought to be news to ace Chronicle reporters Susan Carroll and Michael Hedges is that DOJ isn’t the right place to be looking at this whole thing. Guess the Gonzales memos got their attention as they work on new clippings to attach to their resumes.

What ought to be news is the strain on the Department of Homeland Security, which incidentally, and unrelatedly, is fairly arrogant about asserting its ownership over Customs & Border Protection, which owns the US Border Patrol, whose agents are on the line getting “rocked,” shot at and overrun.

That’s a chain-of-command thing, for those who never served.

And the usual interdepartmental politicking and Byzantinean bureaucratic boobs are to blame. DHS apprehends, DOJ prosecutes. Or ought to.

We all know how well government departments work together. About as well as booting that Mexican jockey back across the border and replacing him with a six foot ten Maasai warrior.

Nonetheless, right now, DOJ is left picking up the detritus of DHS’ noble efforts on the border and hauling it into court like a sack of New Mexico pecans. The pecans taste sweet, but no one wants to buy the bag.

Which means, usually, nothing happens at all. At least, for the first five times.

Six Strikes Law, anyone? Government subsidies for pecan growers?

The DHS/DOJ relationship doesn’t work well right now. It’s kind of like when New Mexico thoroughbreds go up against them horses from Kentucky. I just can’t tell who the Massai works for.

Just like down at Sunland Park Racetrack, I usually can’t pick the winner.

I’d just like DHS and DOJ to “show.”

Paul Kengor is a little bit late to the game, but accurate nonetheless. Mexico’s condemnation of fencing the Southwest Border by calling it a new Berlin Wall is inaccurate.

Bonus points: Mexico continues to struggle with illegal immigration on its southern border. It is attempting to construct its own fence of sorts, by sending military forces, technical equipment and police officers south, all the while attempting to network with (primarily) Guatemalan military forces, all in order to stop migrants moving into Mexico and taking the jobs that, well, Mexicans won’t do.

Hector Murguia, mayor of Juarez, Mexico, has condemned the new video game, “Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2,” because of its setting in Juarez. Murguia thinks the game promotes violence and instills values which are “upside down.” The game “attempts to divide the good will of the residents of American and Mexican cities,” he said.

Memo to the mayor: there isn’t that much good will between El Paso and Juarez. Americans, in particular Mexican-Americans and Mexican immigrants, don’t want any part of what Juarez is, except for keeping up family ties with relatives on the other side of the river. Murguia can sniff all he wants, but he presides over a remarkably inept, uncaring local government, riddled like Swiss cheese with corruption and violence. Once a decent destination for thousands of day-tripping American tourists and the occasional overnighter, Juarez is descended into a killing field where incorruptible cops, judges, attorneys and public servants are targeted by criminal groups or corrupted cops, judges, attorneys and public servants. Corrupted public officials attend BBQs on the ranches of local traffickers; they tip off cartel members of impending federal police raids; they extort businesses; they build themselves fancy homes in the few safe neighborhoods of the city, a la Aldrich Ames and well above what their incomes allow.

Figure on about five murders a week in Juarez, and that’s conservative. If the Juarez Cartel didn’t have the place well-locked down, imagine Nuevo Laredo times a thousand.

Hell, most Mexicans you see in El Paso are day-tripping tourists doing shopping, not illegal migrants heading to fields and factories. That’s because it’s cheaper to buy Mexican products in El Paso, not to mention luxuries like diapers, toiletries and appliances from China. Smart Chihuahuans put their money in Wells Fargo, and buy second homes here — for safety, security and the fact that they can smuggle their kids into good (by Mexican standards) education and health care system.

Tinted glass on the mayor’s company car must block his view of the “for lease” signs seen on office buildings all over town; of the numbers of native Indians selling chewing gum and bracelets at red lights; of the potholes; of the decaying infrastructure; of the lack of building code enforcement; of the drunkenness and random gunfire; of the slavery of Central American women in prostitution and factory work; of the corrupt public transport and taxicab industry; of the bodies discovered — nearly daily — in neighborhoods, victims of targeted assassinations and usually new (and often teenaged) members of drug gangs “given up” deliberately by traffickers in deals with local law enforcement. He doesn’t see the drowning victims in the Rio Grande; doesn’t look at the anti-gringo xenophobia that pervades border towns; and doesn’t worry about terrorists crossing the Southwest Border (or of the Government of Mexico’s stated intent to stop it) because they’re moving out of his turf.

They sell a T-shirt or two there. One says, “Souvenir of Juarez” and is a picture of an AK-47. The other is an international symbol-like graphic of a body being stuff into the trunk of a car underneath the word, “Juarez.” Now that’s entrepreneurship by somebody, but Hector ain’t complaining about that.

I can see a mod to the game already: a dam in Juarez is in danger of bursting and endangering thousands and thousands of residents who were allowed to build below it. The danger comes from a terrorist bomb. Or a 500-year flood. Take your pick, although the latter really happened last year.

UPDATE: Luis Carrasco of the El Paso Times takes the right approach to Hizonner and video games.

Red Square over at The People’s Cube sees Hillary Clinton as your friendly local Borderland resident does, and pens a song proving it.

“The Hillary Hillbillies” is my contribution to the New Hick phenomena among Democrats, and it is here.