Editorial: Stuart News thumbs up, thumbs down
http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/the_news_edit ... 57,00.html
THUMBS DOWN:
BORDER POLITICS: First, the Minutemen on the Arizona-Mexico border were called vicious vigilantes. Then, when human-rights monitors could find no evidence of abuse, the border patrollers were derided as old men in lawn chairs.
Now, the real story is coming out. The Washington Times reports that U.S. Border Patrol agents were ordered not to arrest illegal aliens along the dangerous 23-mile stretch of desert last month because more apprehensions might prove the Minutemen's effectiveness
Border Patrol supervisors denied the allegation and blamed the 850 volunteers for unnecessarily tripping sensors, disturbing draglines and interfering with normal operations. But several field agents credited the Minutemen with cutting the flow of illegal aliens in the targeted Naco area, saying the number of apprehensions dropped from an average of 500 a day to less than 15 a day. Organizers said their action resulted in arrests of 349 illegal aliens.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., wasn't surprised by the allegations. "This is another example of decisions being made at the highest levels of the Border Patrol that are hurting morale and helping to rot the agency from within," he said. "Based on these kinds of orders, we could spend the equivalent of the national debt and never have secure borders."
