Thread: Border Patrol vets offer tips on curbing illegal immigration

Border Patrol vets offer tips on curbing illegal immigration

One day in 1954, Border Patrol agent Walt Edwards picked up a newspaper in Big Spring, Texas, and saw some startling news. The government was launching an all-out drive to oust illegal aliens from the United States.

The orders came straight from the top, where the new president, Dwight Eisenhower, had put a former West Point classmate, Gen. Joseph Swing, in charge of immigration enforcement.

General Swing's fast-moving campaign soon secured America's borders - an accomplishment no other president has since equaled. Illegal migration had dropped 95 percent by the late 1950s.

Several retired Border Patrol agents who took part in the 1950s effort, including Mr. Edwards, say much of what Swing did could be repeated today.

"Some say we cannot send 12 million illegals now in the United States back where they came from. Of course we can!" Edwards says.

Donald Coppock, who headed the Patrol from 1960 to 1973, says that if Swing and Ike were still running immigration enforcement, "they'd be on top of this in a minute."

William Chambers, another '50s veteran, agrees. "They could do a pretty good job" sealing the border.

Edwards says: "When we start enforcing the law, these various businesses are, on their own, going to replace their [illegal] workforce with a legal workforce."

While Congress debates building a fence on the border, these veterans say other actions should have higher priority.

1. End the current practice of taking captured Mexican aliens to the border and releasing them. Instead, deport them deep into Mexico, where return to the US would be more costly.

2. Crack down hard on employers who hire illegals. Without jobs, the aliens won't come.

3. End "catch and release" for non-Mexican aliens. It is common for illegal migrants not from Mexico to be set free after their arrest if they promise to appear later before a judge. Few show up.

The Patrol veterans say enforcement could also be aided by a legalized guest- worker program that permits Mexicans to register in their country for temporary jobs in the US. Eisenhower's team ran such a program. It permitted up to 400,000 Mexicans a year to enter the US for various agriculture jobs that lasted for 12 to 52 weeks.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0706/p09s01-coop.html

I have no idea where the idea that we, as Americans, cannot deport the swarm of illegals. We have always been willing and able to do anything we set our minds to, including "deporting" the British army during the Revolution. For this lack of spirit I blame the pandering to the major corporations that need cheap labor, whether insourcing or outsourcing, and the governments that have backed their efforts to destroy this country for nothing more than profit.

A handfull of true patriots can do the imposible.

BORDER PATROL VETS, that's who Obama and Napolitano should ask for advice.

This article has been posted various times on this forum. It is from 2006.
Here are just some examples:
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-35263-walt.html+edwards
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-33717-walt.html+edwards
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-33761-walt.html+edwards

This is good history for our newer members however a search for the article would be best and if one wants to bring attention to it a 'bttt' can always be added.

Thank you.