Thread: Why won't they close the borders? Border chief wins bonus de

Here is a guy with first hand information and experience with politicians and the closing of the borders. The insight provided pretty much explains why the borders are not going to be closed. This is worth the read and also confirms my analysis that is "nothing is going to change except amnesty will be granted" American must quite trying to be nice to a bunch of scumbag politicians! People need to be angry and ready to confront their elected officials in a face to face demanding the border be closed and removing them from office if they refuse.

regards
eyefortruth
a non politically correct American!


From: MCutler007@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 11:50 PM
Subject: Washington Times: "Border chief wins bonus despite criticism"



The news article I have attached below appears in today's edition of the Washington Times and was written by veteran journalist Jerry Seper who has been accurately covering the immigration "beat" for many years.

What many people may not realize is that all too often, leaders of agencies are actually non-elected politicians. Someone once said that if you put more than two people together, you wind up with a political system.

In order to ascend the chain of command in any organization, often the person who winds up at the top of the pyramid is the person who has demonstrated the willingness to "go along to get along."

Apparently the chief of the Border Patrol is such an individual.

Virtually from his very first day in office, President George W. Bush made it clear that he opposed any effort to secure our nation's borders. He dangled promises of guest worker amnesty programs that encouraged the greatest influx of illegal aliens in the history of our nation.

In pushing for the massive hiring program in the waning months of his administration that spanned 8 years, he caused standards to be lowered, and, as the article points out, made it all but inevitable that the massive hiring program caused new recruits to not be properly vetted, apparently causing some applicants with criminal histories to be hired.

Law enforcement is a profession that exposes its officials to the potential for corruption. Corruption takes may forms and in its most insidious, can cost the corrupt agent's colleagues their very lives. Corruption can and does, compromise national security.

The outrage is that for years the administration refused to hire an adequate number of special agents for ICE and an adequate number of Border Patrol agents. As I have noted in previous commentaries, on March 10, 2005 I was invited to testify before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims at a hearing entitled:

"INTERIOR IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT RESOURCES"

You can read the transcript of that hearing in its entirety at:

INTERIOR IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT RESOURCES

http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/ju ... 785_0f.htm

The significance of that hearing was that while the Congress had appropriated sufficient funds to hire and train 800 new special agents for ICE, the administration cut that number to just 143 new special agent hires. Similarly, while Congress had provided funding to hire 2,000 new Border Patrol agents that year and proposed that an additional 2,000 new Border Patrol agents be hired for each of the next 4 years, for a total of an additional 10,000 Border Patrol agents, the President and his administration slashed the number of new Border Patrol agents to be hired that year to just 210!

Had the President heeded the advice of the Congress, there would have been no mad dash to hire and train 6,000 agents whose screening and training program had been compromised out of the necessity of meeting the quotas belatedly imposed by the inept Bush administration.

Meanwhile, Chief Aguilar obviously bought into the madness and is now being richly rewarded by the administration for his loyalty to an administration that will leave behind a legacy of ineptitude, incompetence and arguably worse, where the security of our nation' borders and the creation of an immigration system that his integrity is concerned.

Even as Mr. Aguilar contemplates how to spend his huge $61,200.00 bonus, Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean and their families must wonder how they will get through the next decade as those two valiant agents languish in solitary confinement in federal prison for carrying out their sworn duties!

There is something else I would like you to consider.

The news report that I have attached below notes that the rapid way in which new Border Patrol agents were recruited and hired resulted in criminals not being screened out of the vetting process. Obviously criminals would love to become Border Patrol agents! To be in the position to assist smugglers in moving drugs, illegal aliens including criminals, gang members and terrorists across our nation's borders could yield them huge "fees." It is clear that such criminals would have a strong incentive to beat the system and acquire the badge of a sworn federal agent.

Similarly, criminals and terrorists would see in any Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) program, an opportunity to succeed in acquiring lawful status to which they are not entitled. This is the critical vulnerability in a system that is made to operate more rapidly than it was ever designed to operate.

The theory behind the speed laws that are applied to motorists is that if you attempt to drive a vehicle at excessive speed, accidents may well result, often with deadly consequences.

Our nation's leaders need to finally come to grips with a basic rule that there is an adverse proportion between speed and accuracy!

Had the Bush administration, especially in the wake of the terrorist attacks of 9/11 accepted the commonsense concept that required that the vulnerabilities in the immigration system be immediately and effectively addressed, the issues noted in the news report below concerning the vetting and training of new Border Patrol agents would not be an issue now!

Furthermore, the debate over the construction of a fence to secure the border between the United States and Mexico was utterly absurd. The idea of a "virtual fence" made no sense when you realize that the Border Patrol lacked the resources to respond to the alerts that such a system generates. As I noted during several appearances, "A virtual fence will stop virtually no one!"

A fence, in and of itself is not the solution to the illegal immigration crisis, just as a wing, in and of itself is not likely to fly. However, when a wing is added to other components such as a fuselage, engines, tail assembly and landing gear, you have an airplane that will fly.

A fence should be seen as an important component of an immigration enforcement program that takes many issues into account that need to be closely coordinated to achieve the success that unfortunately, many politicians from both political parties do not want to create.

These are the politicians who are more concerned with getting the campaign contributions of the various groups of advocates that are happy to see an endless stream of illegal aliens flooding across our borders to provide a limitless source of cheap and exploitable labor and also to provide political leverage.

Other politicians are motivated by a desire to have an endless supply of new voters that the massive influx of illegal aliens provides, especially if they can be quickly legalized and then naturalized so that they can legally vote.

Needless to say, the politicians that do not want our nation's borders to be secured would not want to take the advice and recommendations of field agents into account when constructing the fence because the likelihood is that the input from those agents would make the fence more effective in securing our border, a goal that these politicians do not want to see realized!

These politicians are all about creating illusions while making certain that the border remains as porous as a sieve! David Copperfield, the famed illusionist should run for public office- he is a true illusionist!

We the People must not sit by passively and allow this madness to be foisted upon us and our nation. We the People must take our First Amendment rights seriously and make it our business to have our voices heard by those who purport to represent us!

Good citizenship does not end at the voting booth but it simply begins there. In order for our representative democracy to represent us, we need to communicate with our elected representatives to let them know in clear and unequivocal terms what we want.

I implore you to get involved! Please make this your New Year's Resolution!

We live in a perilous world and in a perilous era. The survival of our nation and the lives of our citizens hang in the balance

This is neither a Conservative issue, nor is it a Liberal issue- simply stated, this is most certainly an AMERICAN issue!





You are either part of the solution or you are a part of the problem!

Democracy is not a spectator sport!

Lead, follow or get out of the way!

-michael cutler-



http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/200 ... -by-ranks/




Thursday, January 8, 2009

Border chief wins bonus despite criticism

Jerry Seper (Contact)

The Bush administration has awarded a $61,200 bonus to Border Patrol Chief David V. Aguilar, whose agency has been criticized in the past year by Congress for delays in a $20 million fence project and for an accelerated hiring program that auditors said threatens to reduce qualified field supervisors.

The chief also has been criticized by his own rank and file for not supporting two agents sent to prison for shooting a drug smuggler in the buttocks as he fled back to Mexico, and greeted with a unanimous "no confidence" vote by the union representing non-supervisory agents.

The presidential merit award, equal to 35 percent of Chief Aguilar's $172,000 annual pay, is 1.7 times larger than the base starting salary of $36,658 for a Border Patrol agent. The bonus has angered many field agents, some of whom told the chief in a terse, unsigned letter that the agency has been damaged and field agents jeopardized by his "politically expedient decisions."

The letter, a copy which was obtained by The Washington Times, challenged Chief Aguilar's job performance since his May 2004 appointment, saying there had "never been a time when our chief has been so out of touch with the field, or a time when our chief has become a politician and lost sight of his most important responsibility: to be an advocate for the agency and its mission."

"You clearly see yourself as an agent of change for political bosses rather than a person who has been entrusted to ensure that the Border Patrol remains a top-notch law enforcement agency, ready and able to carry out its critical function," the letter said.

Mr. Aguilar declined to be interviewed, deferring to his spokesman, who issued a statement defending the chief's work without addressing the merits of the bonus.

Jeffrey C. Robertson, assistant commissioner for public affairs at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which oversees the Border Patrol, acknowledged that the chief had received the letter but declined to comment publicly on what action, if any, had been taken on it.

Mr. Robertson said, however, that decisions concerning the border fence project and the academy classes were made "corporately and ultimately" by CBP and the Department of Homeland Security, not Chief Aguilar, whom he described as a "zealous advocate" for the Border Patrol's front-line agents

The agents' four-page letter focuses on two major topics: a virtual fence project along the Arizona-Mexico border that it called "ineffective and too costly," and changes at the Border Patrol Academy to meet a presidential mandate of hiring 6,000 more agents by the end of 2008.

The letter accused Chief Aguilar of ignoring top Border Patrol executives who unanimously opposed the academy changes.

Fifteen field agents contacted by The Times all said they had seen the letter and said the concerns it raised were "right on" or "pretty accurate." They said it had been widely circulated, and that its writers did not sign the letter for fear of losing their jobs or receiving some sort of punishment.

The letter focused on the Presidential Rank Award, which President Bush gave in December to Chief Aguilar for "sustained extraordinary accomplishment." Career senior executives from across government are nominated by their agency heads, evaluated by citizen panels and designated by the president -- each receiving a bonus equal to 35 percent of their annual salary.

The 2008 awards will be given in February to 57 government executives from 24 agencies.

Chief Aguilar was being paid $172,000 annually at the time of the award, Border Patrol spokesman Michael Friel said, but his salary was raised to $177,000 on Jan. 4. Mr. Friel also confirmed the bonus amount.

The letter is the most recent evidence of continuing dissension within the Border Patrol ranks. Chief Aguilar was bitterly challenged by many of the agency's rank and file for not supporting Agents Ignacio Ramos and Alonso Compean, who were convicted in the shooting of Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, who later pleaded guilty to federal drug smuggling charges in a separate smuggled load of marijuana.

The agents were sentenced to 10- and 11-year prison terms.

The leadership of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents the agency's non-supervisory personnel, voted a no-confidence resolution against the chief in April 2007. It won the unanimous endorsement of all 100 of the NBPC's national leadership.

The union later accused the chief of trying to "intimidate" field agents to discredit the vote, saying he "willfully and blatantly" violated federal guidelines by sending a top aide to seek a "show of hands" among field agents for those who supported the chief in the wake of the no-confidence vote -- knowing the agents would not risk retaliation by publicly opposing the chief.

The letter outlines what it called a "disconnect" between Chief Aguilar and front-line agents and cites a "growing frustration" over the chief's "misguided policies and politics."

It criticized a new fence along 28 miles of the Arizona-Mexico border, saying taxpayers had spent more than $20 million on a project that "has not been fully functional for a single day since we were forced to accept delivery by your office." It said that while the fence, known as Project 28, was supposed to provide a blueprint for effective border security, field agents had no input into its development and Chief Aguilar ignored warnings that it had no chance to live up to expectations.

"The Department of Homeland Security and CBP went overboard hyping this project and you avoided political risk by remaining silent while we were being force-fed inadequate equipment," it said. "Where was your voice of advocacy to make sure we got what we needed to successfully carry out our mission?"

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded in a report last year that it did not know what criteria had been used to accept the $20.6 million project near Sasabe, Ariz., and that the fence did not meet expectations and was not "the ultimate system" that had been envisioned. It also said field agents had not been consulted prior to its construction, and that Border Patrol executives in Washington slowed the project down.

The GAO said the scheduled 2008 deployment of about 100 miles of virtual fence in Arizona and Texas had been delayed until the end of 2011. Its future in the Obama administration is uncertain, because Mr. Obama and other Democrats have criticized the plan, although the president-elect earlier voted for it.

Mr. Robertson described the project as a "first step" in gaining operational control of the border, adding that while it had not fully met operational needs, it proved that the concept of linked sensor towers, ground-based radar and camera systems was solid, and demonstrated that work could begin toward developing a system to meet the needs of agents on the ground.

He also said Chief Aguilar had argued "uncompromisingly that the eventual deployed operational system had to first and foremost work for frontline agents in a way that made their jobs easier, safer and more effective." He said the project now includes the "full participation and input of Border Patrol agents."

During a House subcommittee hearing last year, Chief Aguilar acknowledged that senior Border Patrol officials had not consulted with the field agents who would use the system before it was installed. He told two House subcommittees that future projects would include increased input from field personnel.

In their letter, the agents also accused the chief of making "radical changes" at the Border Patrol Academy to meet a presidential mandate of recruiting, hiring and training 6,000 new agents by the end of Mr. Bush's term.

They said that when the chief first proposed the idea of an altered academy, top Border Patrol executives unanimously opposed it but he ignored the "substantive misgivings expressed by your senior field leaders" and went ahead with the changes without further consultation.

"You supported the transformation of one of the best law enforcement academies in the country into a diploma mill," they said, adding that the academy was altered and shortened to produce "more agents, not better agents."

"Many criminals were able to enter on duty here in Tucson because of the sloppy hiring practices implemented by your office as you strived to meet the political goal of hiring thousands of agents," the letter said. "Again, advocacy took a back seat to political appeasement. We are unsure to this day if we have successfully weeded out all the criminals you permitted to infiltrate our organization."

In a separate report, the GAO said there were serious questions about whether the Border Patrol adequately can supervise and train the 6,000 new agents. Despite assurances from agency executives, the report said, the planned addition of the agents on the southwestern border - coupled with the transfer of experienced agents to the northern border - will "likely reduce the overall experience level" of those on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The report described as "the larger challenge" the agency's ability to provide adequate supervision and training - post-deployment - for the influx of agents, adding that the Border Patrol will be "relying on a higher proportion of less seasoned agents" to supervise new agents.

The GAO first raised questions in April 2007 when it said the Border Patrol had let its on-the-job training of new field agents slip as it sought to meet the president's goal, adding that although its academy training program was "in line" with other law enforcement agencies, it is not clear whether hiring "such an unprecedented number of new agents" would become a strain.

Mr. Robertson said the hiring of 6,000 more Border Patrol agents to meet Mr. Bush's end-of-the-year mandate of 18,000 total agents was not a decision by Chief Aguilar but by Congress and the nation's political leadership "spurred on by the American people´s desire to gain control of the nation´s borders as quickly as possible."

He described the hirings as a "tremendous accomplishment," and added that while the Border Patrol Academy training had changed, its law enforcement courses and requirements had not.

"The truth about the academy is -- law enforcement training and immigration law classroom hours that Border Patrol Agents took before were left unchanged. Training today is different only because the Spanish language classroom work requirements have been adapted to address the new generation of agents-in-training allowing those proficient in the language to test out and go to their duty station earlier," he said.

"This common sense decision is saving taxpayers money by putting new Spanish proficient Border Patrol agents at their duty stations rather than in classrooms studying a language they already speak," he said, noting that the change had saved 22,191 classroom training days at a savings to taxpayers of $2.3 million.

Our government has sold us out. Now it's up to the American people to put into effect a plan B.

Same/ Related

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-142426.html
this one has Aguilar's office number posted