Senatorial Surrender at the Border
www.opinioneditorials.com
July 24, 2005
Senatorial Surrender at the Border
Chuck Busch
Politicians are just so anxious to get back to business as usual and fulfill their “vision� for America’s future. This terror war has been a huge “nuance�. National security is hard. Why worry about porous borders and an understaffed underpaid under-equipped Border Patrol Force when there are so many more fun things to spend money on? So what if 20 million unknown individuals have snuck into the country? Let’s just make them all Americans and then they will be our brothers. See what great humanitarians we are. Problem solved.
This seems to be the attitude of a majority of U.S. Senators who last week rejected two amendments to the Homeland Security Bill passed last year that would have funded another 2000 Border Patrol Guards and added capacity for detaining 8,000 more alien invaders. As a result of this half-hearted interest, only 1000 more guards will be recruited and only 2,240 detention beds will be added.
You would think after the grisly Madrid bombings last year and the most recent attack on western civilization by militant fundamental Islamic radicals in London, that our elected representatives would double their efforts to correct the most obvious weakness in our defense against international terrorism. Incredibly, that is not what is happening. Senator John Ensign, (R-Nev) to his credit, tried to restore the number of border guards to the original 2000 with an amendment and Senator John McCain wanted to increase the number detention beds to 5, 760. Unfortunately for the American people and future terrorist victims both amendments failed.
The excuses given for not pushing through even this meager measure are pathetic and even frightening as they reveal just how feeble and shortsighted our government officials are in their response to combating terror. Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York) said the amendments would take money from local law enforcement. He said the solution is “not in strengthening the borders� but to support the people “who defend us and, since 9-11 have new duties.� His flawed thinking should be obvious to everyone except for those New Yorkers who keep voting this guy in. The “duties� of those local and state officials would be a lot less demanding if the problem was stopped at the border.
John McCain’s amendment of increasing detention beds by 5,760 sounds like a good idea in light of the fact that up to 90% of all OTM’s which number over 85,000 since last October, are released because of lack of facilities and an international law which prevents sending the detainees back across the border. This remedy is merely treating the symptoms rather than the cause. Only 19,450 immigrant detention beds are available nationwide.
Our current policy of dealing with OTM’s has become an internationally known loophole for a free pass into the country. South and Central Americans, Chinese, Pakistanis, Arabs, Africans, and other travelers from 80 different countries actually seek out the Border Guards once inside the border in order to surrender and obtain a court order. This allows them to stay in the country pending an immigration hearing to which of course they will never appear. These people should be detained no matter what, even if they have to be interned in a temporary tent city. How much can that cost?
We would not be discussing amnesty or detention problems at all if we had true border control. Sealing the border with numerous patrols and security fences would be much less expensive than building detention centers and enlarging local law enforcement operations. The terror risks would be greatly reduced if resources were devoted to keeping the alien invader out of the country. It costs $1700 to arrest a single alien and many of the same individuals are caught over and over again. At that price, it would certainly be cost effective to hire more agents which would go a long way to discouraging border crossers than encouraging them as we do now.
The point is: No amount of immigration reform or increased policing will accomplish anything unless the flow of undesirables into this country is completely stopped.
Both Political Parties are losers
On most issues our national two party system ordinarily functions to position both sides in competition with each other in serving the public will. However, for reasons not explained, both the Democrats and the Republicans have turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to the ever-increasing demands and open demonstrations by citizens who insist that the government perform its number one responsibility.
Apparently there is little party discipline or unity even within the Republican ranks. As many as eighteen deserted concern for the public’s well-being and common sense to vote with the most radical leftist Democrats in the Senate. Those Republican senators who think 500,000 aliens slipping into the United States every year is acceptable and that current border protections are adequate include some veteran politicians who should know better. Those include Richard Lugar, Rick Santorum, Chafee, Inhofe, Snowe, Spector, and Ohio’s very own RINO Senators, Michael DeWine and George Voinovich. One Republican, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma was the sole objector to the overall Homeland Security Bill. This proves again that there is neither a Republican or Democrat majority in the Senate, only a liberal one.
Prominent Democrat senators such as John Kerry and potential presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden all echoed the same backward deceptive notion as Chuck Schumer in opposing both amendments. They said they did not want to vote for cuts in first-responder grants to local officials. Curiously, Joe Biden actually voted for an increase in agents in a bill he introduced earlier this year before he voted against the Republican sponsored amendments. New York Senator Hillary Clinton voted against adding more agents and detention beds so she could continue to criticize the Bush administration for failing “to provide the resources to protect our borders.� Senator Bayh (D-Ind) said he voted for detention beds, but not the agents, because the HSD can “only train 1,200 to 1,500 agents a year anyway.�
These are lame excuses. The United States of America is supposedly the most wealthy and powerful nation on the earth and yet these narrow cunning minds are insisting that this country can not afford to do both, protect its borders and have a robust civil defense plan. This is an insult to the people of this land who deserve much better performance from its leadership. The truth of the matter is the Democrat party is committed to open borders and multiculturalism despite the inevitable erosion of American society and the enormous internal security risks. Again partisan politics prevails at the expense of public safety. One lone Democrat did break from the pack. Ken Salazar of Colorado, a state impacted greatly by the flood of aliens, voted for both amendments.
The threat is real and it is imminent
It's incredible that four years into the War with Terror our leaders are still treating border security so lightly and are so miserly with funds to improve it. The reality of the war on terror has receded from the shores of the Potomac. There is no border security and no plan for it or even the will to have it. This is partly President Bush’s fault for sending mixed messages. It appears that money for domestic programs and foreign aid packages trumps national security. Our government’s blasé attitude is going to cost us hundreds maybe thousands of lives. Osama bin Ladin’s goal is to kill 4 million Americans. Will he accomplish that by smuggling nuclear devices across the border?
FBI Director Robert Mueller has stated that terrorists from countries with ties to al-Qaida have crossed into the U.S. from Mexico. The intelligence community’s greatest concern is an estimated 5,000 sleeper agents believed to be operating within the country. How did this happen!? The head of a New York based intelligence company, Juval Aviv, also a former Israeli counter terrorism officer, has predicted that an attack is “imminent and around the corner here in the United States.� “It could happen as soon as tomorrow, or it could happen in the next few months. Ninety days at the most.� He believes the terrorist plan is to demoralize the public by hitting them as they commute to work as in Madrid, London, Iraq and Israel. He says the targets will not be confined to major cities, but that all Americans even those in rural communities will be made to feel vulnerable.
Amnesty is not the answer
The lack of leadership on this all-important issue starts at the top. President Bush despite all of his warnings about the need for America to stay on the offensive and not become complacent did not appropriate the money necessary for the 2000 Border Agents as recommended by the 911 commission. In fact, the President has done little to improve security at our borders and instead has criticized those private citizens who have taken it upon themselves to provide surveillance for the Border Patrol.
His plan for granting amnesty to some 10 to 20 million aliens already residing in the country is an international admission of failure, proof of our inability to maintain our borders, and an open invitation for more of our southern neighbors, OTM’s (other than Mexican) and terrorists to test our defective preventative systems. Considering this lack of impetus from the highest levels of government, it’s not surprising that the majority of Senators are willing to shirk their duty and spend money elsewhere.
The mere mention of an amnesty program has triggered an avalanche of aliens flooding into the country to reap the reward of citizenship for an act of lawbreaking. Forty-five percent of the 61% of aliens who heard of the amnesty plans said that this was an incentive to cross the border. This phenomena however did not register with John McCain and Ted Kennedy. They introduced their own amnesty bill which would grant legal status to millions now residing in the country. To add injury to insult, the bill will also burden the American taxpayer to fund the costs of free healthcare to all illegal aliens. This is in addition to the one billion dollars already budgeted for this gratuitous expense.
Representative Tom Tancredo of Arizona, an outspoken advocate of border control and no friend of Karl Rowe and the Republican hierarchy, said this of any amnesty bill, “There might be a little more lipstick on this pig than there was before, but it’s certainly the same old pig.� “Time and time again history has shown us that amnesty increases illegal immigration. There is a word for doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result, and that word is INSANITY.� What is the sense of defeating terrorism overseas while allowing our own domestic defenses to collapse?
Rep. Tancredo has confronted the White House directly over this issue. “We need to get the president to come to grips with the seriousness of the problem. I know he doesn’t like to utter the words ‘I was wrong,’ but if we have another incident like 9-11 by people who come through our borders, I hope he doesn’t have to say, “I’m sorry.� This courageous congressman was chastised by Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah). He said Tancredo’s belief that America should protect its borders and his insistence on law enforcement was “fundamentally un-American.�
Militarize the Borders
The situation has reached critical mass. A few thousand border agents here or there are not going to stop the hordes of mysterious characters streaming across our borders and the violent drug and human smuggling cartels trafficking in our cities. The imperative to immediately deploy our National Guard, Air Guard, Army Reserves and even our regular army to our southern and northern borders and ports could not be greater than what it is today.
Many oppose the militarization of our borders for fear of offending Mexico and Canada. Which is better; a realistic respectful accountable relationship with our neighboring countries or bombs going off in our subways and shopping malls? Both Mexico and Canada need to do a better job of policing their own borders. The United States should not become a dumping ground for all the poor, sick, criminal, demented or disaffected people of the world. Both countries are notorious for their poor immigration screening and being tolerant societies where suspicious Islamic “clubs� exist openly. If our neighbors are not careful of the people who slip through their territory, then that is all the more reason we must be more careful at our own gates. Should we really entrust our national security to the likes of Vincente Fox and Paul Martin?
Our relationship with Mexico along our shared 2000-mile border is anything but “friendly�. President Vincente Fox has said that our efforts to deter illegal aliens is “discriminatory� and “against freedom.� The Mexican government has gone so far to encourage their own people to migrate by providing guidebooks for their sojourn into the States. There is almost no effective cooperation between the Department of Security and Mexico’s intelligence agencies. Mexico has few resources to devote to screening aliens. Its government is facing a national crisis over drug lords rampaging through its communities killing officials, police and civilians. Hundreds of people have executed in the town of Nuevo Laredo, which is directly across the border from Laredo, Texas. Some wonder if Vincente Fox has lost control of the police force and the country. More than 30 Americans have been kidnapped in Mexico.
Mexico’s response to “our� border problem has even been coercive. This was clearly evident from the demands of former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda who testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week. Hoping to exploit the heightened tension following the London explosions, Castaneda warned anxious committee members that “No border security is possible without Mexican cooperation� and that “there can be no cooperation without some sort of immigration package.� That “package� is to include amnesty for all Mexicans living in the US, the admission of 5 million more over the next 10 years, and huge increases of aid to that country.
Castaneda reminded the senators that the situation is indeed dangerous because Mexico has lost control of its southern border and cannot identify everyone coming through their country. Castaneda “promised� that in exchange these mammoth concessions on the part of the US, Mexico would use “tough� but “non-coercive� methods in deterring terrorists, which is something Vicente Fox, should be doing anyway. Senior committee members John McCain and Richard Lugar listened attentively in polite silence to his demands and did not immediately repudiate this blatant attempt at international blackmail. They should have firmly and clearly informed Castaneda that unless they corporate on stopping terror suspects, the US will not only totally secure its own border, but it will close it.
Unstable Mexico Border
Mexico on various occasions has protested the idea of placing military on the border. They however, are not in a position to object. When the Minutemen Project was launched along a section of southern Arizona, the Mexican government immediately moved 1000 troops to its side of the border. Vincente Fox has already sent hundreds of troops to the states of Tamaulipas, Sinaloa, and Baja California to quell the drug violence. There have numerous reports of sightings of Mexican federals and men in military garb crossing back and forth across the border and several incidents of gunfire aimed at US Border agents. Sixty-four Border Patrol Agents were assaulted in just one three month period along a 260-mile stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border.
A specially trained group of Mexican soldiers know as the Los Zeta’s have deserted the military to join up with the drug cartels smuggling narcotics into the US. At least 600 people have been killed along the border since January. The drug cartels have already set up trafficking routes and operations in Houston and San Antonio and in the states of California, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. Property owners near the smugglers routes are routinely threatened and attacked. The Zeta’s oversee shipments of narcotics and aliens along the border and up Interstate 35 through Texas and Oklahoma. They have offered bounties between $30,000 to $50,000 for killing U.S. Border Patrol agents and other law enforcement officers.
Other organized crime groups have also been active at the border such as the extremely violent Salvadorian street gang know as M-13 which specializes in smuggling narcotics and humans (possibly al-Qaida sleeper agents) into the United States. This organization has networks in several large cities and has been responsible for numerous gangster style killings.
The US/Mexican border is already a war zone.
With our military on the border we could put an abrupt end to a calamitous situation. This would give the country time to build up its border control agency, install new surveillance equipment and erect barriers. This would set the proper conditions for reform in Mexico and more respect for the United States’ territorial sovereignty. This would free up the Immigration Bureau, FBI, CIA, Homeland Security and state and local law enforcement officials to do a mass registry of all aliens living in the county to resolve their final status.
What are we waiting for? Do we really need to suffer another 911 catastrophe for the government to perform its natural duty? Why do you suppose our armed force services are called the Department of DEFENSE? We have delayed too long already.
Border Security Insufficiencies
Besides the overwhelming evidence that there are too few Border Agents and not enough detention centers able to handle the mass invasion at our borders, it appears our much-touted electronic surveillance system is woefully and criminally inadequate. An initial contract of a measly $2 million was awarded to L-3 Communications to place remote video cameras to cover only about 4 % of the border. The costs eventually succeeded $257 million and the project was never even completed. An inspection of eight sites last year revealed that none of them was operational. Much of the equipment purchased was never installed and some was inferior to what was ordered and paid for.
It will be months, if not years before a new system “America’s Shield Initiative� is installed. It has been reported that the radiation detection equipment being used in our ports and at the borders is not sensitive enough to actually distinguish radioactive substances from common materials and only a limited number is in use. Where was the Congressional oversight on these failed ventures?
If deploying the National Guard to the borders is the right thing to do, is our Department of Defense even able to accommodate that? Since America’s decision on Sept 11, 2001 to counterattack in the war declared by Islamic jihads, over one half of the country’s 457,000 National Guard personnel have been activated for over-seas fighting and domestic homeland security roles. The Air National Guard has also been tapped for increased operations, both domestic and foreign. Many states are concerned about the availability and preparedness for security purposes and natural disasters while overseas deployments are so demanding.
The Department of Defense has yet to establish a comprehensive strategy with state authorities for homeland security missions that outlines the Guards role. Also, because of the long-term deployments, the general negative characterization of the war effort by liberal politicians and the press, and opposition to recruitment on college campuses, enlistment quotas have not been met to maintain current troop levels.
Four crucial years have passed since the attacks on New York City. The allied forces during WWII were able to assemble and launch a massive invasion force to regain Europe and Africa in that same amount of time. If this is the maximum effort of the most technically advanced country in the world then we are all dead for sure.
Our government has failed us
The Homeland Security Bill as it stands now is too little and it’s too late. It is disturbing that despite of all the harrowing reports of terrorist threats, border security in the muddled minds of these politicians still remains a low priority and not deserving of crucial resources even in time of war. I am at a loss as to why the Senate remains so passive in the face of terror. It makes you wonder if these politicians ever read the news much less their intelligence briefings? Are all these senators so conflicted with varying interests that they are completely confused?
What is going on here? This incomprehensible response causes the populace to imagine the worst. Have our officials forgotten what war is all about? Have they decided that resistance is futile and have surrendered our sovereignty? Are our leaders in complete denial about the seriousness of the threat? Are they deliberately neglecting the border problem so as to force the American people to accept the amnesty “solution�? Is this some sort of a grand scheme to merge North America into one vast economic community? Is the government allowing the situation to fester until all civil rights must be “set aside� so that “order� and “stability� can be maintained?
Our government is not doing everything it can to protect us and has even betrayed us. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are doubtlessly pushing back the forces of Islamic fascism, but they should not be fought at the expense of homeland defenses. It is painfully obvious that most of our government officials are not serious about Homeland Security. The message they are communicating to the people and to our enemies is that the United States has given up on maintaining its borders.
The success of the terrorist war so far has been to divide this country into two camps; one that believes there is a problem and one that is too afraid or too self-absorbed to deal with it rationally. Our politicians and the people in general have yet to assume a militaristic siege mentality. A suicidal fixation with politically correct sentiments and an extremist obsession with civil rights fueled by partisan jealousies have crippled the country’s ability to react to the peril developing in the midst of us. America must devote its full energy and resources to the war effort until such time as the global jihadist threat is eliminated. Halfway measures will only prolong the struggle and enlarge the risk of our subjugation and horrific loss.
The people must act
The American people have been waiting, worrying, and wanting their officials to act. But they can not wait any longer and watch the country drown under a flood of foreign cultures and divided loyalties while politicians play out their petty partisan ploys on capital hill. The will and the safety of the American people are being ignored. If the government is not going to protect the country, then the people in the tradition of our forefathers who bestowed to us this wonderful gift of liberty, must unite to protect themselves. Thank God, for Chris Simcox and Jim Gilchrist for founding the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. Already hundreds of patriotic determined citizens are signing up to assist the US Border Patrol by spotting aliens as they try to cross over. This organization has other projects as well to raise awareness and to defend against the invasion of foreigners. If you can help the Minutemen in any capacity, please do.
If this is to be a county that is governed “of the people, by the people and for the people� then its citizens must assume the responsibility for their own preservation. Unfortunately, the government has made it abundantly clear that they do not intend to do anything our borders or the aliens anytime soon. Public safety has been sacrificed to partisan politics, budget battles and cross border commerce. Our fathers and grandfathers, friends and neighbors did not fight and pay the ultimate price on hundreds of battlefields protecting freedom for their descendants, just so this generation of inept and disconnected politicians can give it all away without a struggle. Public officials need to be held accountable, but each citizen must act to make their own household, their communities and their country more secure.
