Thread: Casualties beyond the border

By Ken Allard - - Sunday, August 26, 2018
ANALYSIS/OPINION:

The same country that expects its all-volunteer soldiers to serve multiple tours in combat hell-holes also assumes that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agents will put themselves in harm’s way to protect our borders.

We voted for Donald Trump and the wall but idly wonder why those porous borders are suddenly overrun with refugees from Mexico to Bangladesh (150 of the latter arrested last week in Laredo). So we are shocked when Mollie Tibbets suddenly turns up dead in Iowa, far from the embattled border. And perhaps troubled because her story was eerily similar to the alien slaying of Kate Steinle, a steadily growing casualty list the only memorial for their grieving families.

Here’s why: Our current border is so porous that it invites daily intrusion by Mexican cartels and other trans-national criminal organizations. These cabals earn big bucks by moving drugs, weapons, various kinds of human cargo, counterfeit goods and (probably) terrorists among us.

Our internal security infrastructure is aptly described by President Trump as a disgrace, routinely overlooking malefactors who evade border controls or simply over-stay their visas. The only governing authorities over this hit-or-miss legal and regulatory hodgepodge are federal judges who care little about security on the border or anywhere else.

But there is little mystery that our governing classes on Capitol Hill deserve the lion’s share of the blame, Republicans and Democrats alike. A problem this bad and one that has endured for decades can persist only as an equal-opportunity, bipartisan, bicameral disaster.

The only real uncertainty: Will this legislative inattention endure until a WMD is detonated some weekend in a crowded shopping mall? To be scrupulously fair, we should begin by asking ourselves those probing questions since we elect those representatives in the first place.

Another obvious culprit is the press, routinely soft-peddling information about the cartels, even though they extend from Mexico into virtually every American neighborhood. The threat is usually minimized here in Texas, where most of the population has family ties on both sides of the 1,200-mile border shared by the Lone Star state with Mexico. Our local ABC affiliate, for example, is owned by the Graham Group, parent company of The Washington Post.

During a recent “special border series,” the station focused mostly on the humanitarian issues facing “undocumented immigrants” (not illegal aliens). The series anchor faithfully presented the prevailing politically correct verities:

• The Texas side of the Mexican border is safe (even if troubled by the regular discovery of drugs, safe houses and dead bodies);

• Those unfortunate immigrants are forced to endure a life-threatening gauntlet of hazards (including triple-digit heat and rattlesnakes) due to Washington’s prevailing gridlock; and

• Mr. Trump’s emphasis on building the wall is misplaced nativism at best; and at worst just thinly disguised prejudice. Or even racism: Can’t we just all get along?

Even with open borders, Professor Jeffrey Addicott of St. Mary’s University Law School, has a less hopeful view. One of his clients, Gary Brugman, is a nine-year veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard. Thereafter, Mr. Brugman served as a Border Patrol agent along the Rio Grande. Each night, he was part of the agent teams who detect and apprehend illegals. He even survived no-holds-barred fights with drug smugglers who played for life-and-death stakes against any threat to their livelihoods.

One memorable night, Mr. Brugman chased a large group of illegals for over a mile, arresting them and struggling to keep the group together. He even forced one illegal to the ground by placing his boot on the man’s back, exactly as Border Patrol agents are trained to do. But when the apprehension was over, Mr. Brugman’s troubles began with a complaint about “civil rights deprivation.”

In an astonishing turn of events for an agent with a clean record, Gary Brugman was tried, convicted and sentenced to a two-year term in federal prison. “I guess my worst mistake was trusting the system.” As a former agent, he survived his prison stint only through the protection of other inmates who lacked cartel connections.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, California Republican, recently joined with several other congressmen, requesting that President Trump commute Mr. Brugman’s sentence as well as several other Border Patrol agents caught in similar difficulties.

But here is what may surprise you most: Gary Brugman’s case began in 2001 when George W. Bush was president, long before Barack Obama was even a gleam in the eye of liberal Democrats. As Mr. Rohrabacher pointed out in his petition, “We believe (these) agents were victims of politics” as the White House exchanged diplomatic signals about drugs and illegals with Mexico.

Imagine that: Innocent people victimized by a long tradition of government incompetence. And knowing that if the feds want to get you, they will.

• Ken Allard, a retired U.S. Army colonel, is a military analyst and author on national security issues.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...r-agents-beco/

I'm sure this will offend some. I don't like misinformation to promote a good cause. This author writes:

So we are shocked when Mollie Tibbets suddenly turns up dead in Iowa, far from the embattled border. And perhaps troubled because her story was eerily similar to the alien slaying of Kate Steinle, a steadily growing casualty list the only memorial for their grieving families.

Mollie Tibbets was murdered by a man, who she apparently knew, who happened to be an illegal alien. His motivation is not yet known. Kate Steinle was killed by an illegal alien who shot a gun, either accidentally or on purpose, but not at Kate Steinle. She was apparently killed by a ricochet. One was deliberate, one was unintentional. One was an illegal alien here under the radar for many years, the other had been deported several times, and had been in custody. One had a long criminal record, the other didn't. So how were they "eerily similar"?

This is not to say the illegal alien invasion is not a problem, it is. This is not to say that illegal aliens are not more inclined to commit crimes, they are. I just don't like naming "links" that aren't there.

For me, and probably for the writer, these deaths are similar because these young women are both dead and neither man should have been in the United States. Intentional or unintentional, these deaths were not necessary and they have permanently separated both Kate and Mollie from their own lives with family and friends.

Originally Posted by GeorgiaPeach

For me, and probably for the writer, these deaths are similar because these young women are both dead and neither man should have been in the United States.

The only things I can see that they had in common was they were both women and they were both killed by illegal aliens. That makes them similar to thousands!

One was killed standing on a busy pier, the other jogging alone near cornfields. One was a murder, the other an accidental killing. Like I said, there are many categories to compare, and far more make these two killings dissimilar than eerily similar.

Originally Posted by jtdc

The only things I can see that they had in common was they were both women and they were both killed by illegal aliens. That makes them similar to thousands!

One was killed standing on a busy pier, the other jogging alone near cornfields. One was a murder, the other an accidental killing. Like I said, there are many categories to compare, and far more make these two killings dissimilar than eerily similar.

I don't really understand the point you're attempting to make because no one to my knowledge believes the many death attributed to illegal aliens are NOT 100% preventable!

I think you're implying that murders committed by illegals aliens are somehow equal to deaths perpetrated by U.S. citizens. Well, I categorically reject such an implication because murders committed by illegal aliens are being done by folks that should never have been here in the first place. How can you not recognize the difference?

Originally Posted by MW

I don't really understand the point you're attempting to make because no one to my knowledge believes the many death attributed to illegal aliens are NOT 100% preventable!

I absolutely agree that 100% of crimes by illegal aliens is 100% preventable if 100% of illegal aliens were removed from our country. It's just that I look at hyperbole in claims by people of facts that aren't facts. This one stuck in my mind. The media has made these two killings "almost identical" when they are not. As I said, they both basically only have two things in common, that both were women, and that both were committed by illegal aliens!

Originally Posted by MW

I think you're implying that murders committed by illegals aliens are somehow equal to deaths perpetrated by U.S. citizens.

Interesting way of looking at it. Are you saying murder is not murder if committed by a citizen? No! And I am not claiming that murders and other crimes by aliens have the same motivation as murder by citizens and legal residents.

We have several threads about rape by illegal aliens. Is the urge to rape driven by the fact that they are illegal or an alien? No! Rape happens in every society. The self control to not rape is different in the environment of different societies. When someone goes to a different country, or community, they are often unfamiliar with the customs of that community. Legal immigrants must learn those customs and are supposed to accept and adhere to them. Illegal aliens have no such orientation or commitment to follow those customs.

Originally Posted by MW

Well, I categorically reject such an implication because murders committed by illegal aliens are being done by folks that should never have been here in the first place. How can you not recognize the difference?

You are expressing an opinion, something you claim to be against, about something I have not claimed.