Texas Sheriff Takes on Cartels
MALVEAUX: The battle between rival drug cartels in Mexico's Juarez Valley has been bloody and fierce. People fleeing the violence say the towns are lawless. Our CNN's Thelma Gutierrez, our colleague, takes us to the Texas border where one sheriff is making a stand.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They just open fire on us from across the border.</s>THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sheriff Arvin West says there's a war going on just a few miles from his back door, a place he calls Mayberry. He's warning residents to take up arms.</s>SHERIFF ARVIN WEST, HUDSPETH COUNTY, TEXAS: I don't care what the rest of the country thinks. I could care less. My priority is my citizens in this town.</s>GUTIERREZ: Sheriff West says several Mexican towns in the Juarez Valley that runs along the border of Hudspeth County are now under siege by cartels who are trying to control smuggling routes into the</s>U.S. WEST: They will protect the load of drugs at all costs.</s>GUTIERREZ: From U.S. Interstate 10, it's a quick dash to the border. In this high-speed pursuit, deputies chase SUVs packed with drugs. One gets stuck in the Rio Grande on the Mexican side. The drug haul is unloaded right in front of U.S. officials who can do nothing but watch. The sheriff says the cat and mouse chase to the border a few years ago were the good old days. Now, entire towns have fallen to the cartels and they've unleashed a campaign of terror where hundreds of families have been chased out of places like El Porvenir, their homes set on fire and much more grisly end for cartel enemies -- some of whom have been beheaded and dismembered, and left in plain view.</s>WEST: You see this little village right there, you see those houses really top way over there?</s>GUTIERREZ (on camera): Yes?</s>WEST: I think that's Banderas (ph). The drug cartels run their people off.</s>GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Sheriff West showed us what he's up against.</s>WEST: Hang on because we're going to climb up.</s>GUTIERREZ: The locals call this "Jurassic Park" fence because it looks like it can keep dinosaurs out. But the sheriff calls it a joke. (on camera): This is part of the international barrier between Chihuahua, Mexico, and Texas. It's a 13-foot tall steel gate. But take a look at what happens right here. It ends and all you see are posts and some barbed wire. (voice-over): In the last two years, three chiefs of police have been murdered in the Juarez Valley. The sheriff says it would be suicide if he crossed over the border. (on camera): You have no law enforcement counterpart on that side?</s>WEST: No, not any more. The last one I had contact with, they cut his head off and put it in an ice chest. There hasn't anybody step in to the plate since then.</s>GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Sheriff West says there's only seven miles of fence along the border, 91 miles are wide open. Even though 300 extra border patrol agents have been sent here, he says a county road crew was recently shot at. Farmer Joe Galvan's (ph) land runs right up to the border, and so does Gail Karrs (ph).</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is our hand. This is our little piece of the American dream, you know? I'm third generation on this farm, grew up here, my whole childhood. I have memories of going back and forth to the little town on the side of the river.</s>GUTIERREZ: But now they say they can see and hear evidence of the violence against innocent families for themselves.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can see the fires from here, for</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One night I sat on the balcony of my house, and I listened. I counted to 120 and finally stopped. It wasn't like pop, pop, pop. It was pop, pop, pop -- pop, pop, pop -- pop, pop, pop, pop.</s>GUTIERREZ: Karrs says he worries about family and friends there and says the exodus from the towns continues. More than 2,500 Mexican troops have been sent into the Juarez Valley. Even though so, we saw smoke billowing from a home burning right across the border.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's to the point to where I wonder why we're spending millions of dollars in Afghanistan when our next door neighbor is a fallen government basically.</s>GUTIERREZ: Karrs says he's not a vigilant and he doesn't believe in militias.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's my right.</s>GUTIERREZ: But says if the violence spills over, he and the farmers are ready to be the first line of defense. Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Fort Hancock, Texas.</s>MALVEAUX: More than a dozen school systems in Wisconsin canceled classes today because of budget protests. Teachers and other workers, they are angry over a plan that would require them to pay more for their benefits and pensions. It also strips them of many collective bargaining rights. Our Hillary Mintz of our affiliate WISN is live from Madison. Hillary, set the scene for us here. Obviously, a lot of people very angry and very frustrated.</s>HILLARY MINTZ, WISN REPORTER: Suzanne, it's really been a marathon of protesting. I mean, if you just take a look at this crowd behind me here, they are loud and they are proud of what they believe in here. They've been chanting as you can probably make out, "Kill the bill." Today, the Senate will meet about this budget repair bill. It already passed the first step of the budget write-in committee overnight. And like I said, there are tens of thousands of protesters out here. There is the third day in a row they have been out here. Some slept in the capitol overnight, just so they could be there in the morning when the lawmakers come back. And right now, I want to talk to Nancy Riesch. She's a band director at the nearby school here, about eight miles away in Middleton. Nancy, you've been out here, this is your third day in a row. Why are you out here?</s>NANCY RIESCH, MIDDLE SCHOOL BAND DIRECTOR: I'm here for everybody's rights, all union members. I'm here for my students. I'm a teacher. I'm here for my students' rights, so they can have smaller class sizes, so they can have great teachers. We have a great educational system. People move here from other states to go to Wisconsin. This is about working, people working together. This is about a dictatorship, and we understand we have to give some things up. It's not about money. This is about people's rights and their voice. That is what is the point -- everybody has a voice. He's not willing to come to Madison to have the voice. Just sit down with us, Scott Walker. Come on. Partnership! Partnership!</s>MINTZ: All right. So, there you have it, just one of many strong voices out here. There are even more people inside the capitol right now. Again, third day in a row this has been going on. It's very loud out here. They want to make sure the governor hears their message. Scott Walker has said when he introduced this last week that this is not up for negotiation. So, it will be very interesting to see how this all plays out. Suzanne, back to you.</s>MALVEAUX: Hillary Mintz, thank you so much. And we will be speaking with a representative, an official from the governor's office -- that coming up in the 2:00 hour right here on CNN. Well, police launch an attack on sleeping protesters. A live report from Bahrain -- one of the latest flash points in the reform movement that is rocking the Arab world.