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Pantagraph Editorial

Monday, December 5, 2005
Uniform controversy deserves label of made in Congress

What could be more ironic than having U.S. Border Patrol agents wearing uniforms made in Mexico? Maybe having U.S. soldiers wearing berets made in communist China.

But the latter was averted in 2001 and now two border state congressmen want to end the other practice.

U.S. Reps. Rick Renzi of Arizona and John Carter of Texas, both Republicans, are citing potential security problems in support of their push to require that such uniforms be made in the U.S.A.

They argue that smugglers or gang members could get their hands on the uniforms, But dig deeper and the motivation is economic as much, if not more, than security-related.

Carter called the made-in-Mexico uniforms another example of U.S. jobs being siphoned away by countries with cheaper labor.

While we would be more worried if the uniforms were being made in America by illegal immigrant workers, we challenge the congressmen to check the labels on the clothing they wear. Maybe then they will acknowledge economics and politics are the drivers.