Posted on 02/05/2004 6:50:34 PM PST by JackelopeBreeder
CALEXICO — Illegal aliens float down the New River to waiting vans, climb in, then ride to points north, west and east.
If the guy driving the van needs to get past a checkpoint he might drive on the wrong side of the road, endangering the people in the van and other motorists.
This in-our-face illegal immigration, putting U.S. citizens and the aliens at risk, happens every day in Calexico and all along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Since President George Bush announced his plan to offer temporary legal status to immigrant workers, more people are crossing that border, people seeking a better life, drug traffickers, people who owe money in Mexico and a vast number of people who will never be identified.
Here's the kicker: the men and women holding the line against these teeming masses just had their budget cut.
According to the Office of Budget Management, the U.S. Border Patrol will receive about $130 million less next year, almost a 7 percent cut.
The OMB's Program Assessment Rating Tool looks at each department in the federal government to find out if there are tangible results from an outlay of taxpayer money. In the case of the U.S. Border Patrol (and 40 percent of all government programs): "Results not demonstrated."
From the budget: "The assessment found a need for improving outcome and cost-effectiveness based measures. In 2004, the Border Patrol will work to develop outcome measures, as well as establish timeframes and milestones to measure progress. It will also make certain that managers are held accountable for both performance and budget execution."
While siphoning some of the money funneled to the Border Patrol, President Bush earmarked funds for B.P. activities that have been successful and those that go along with his temporary worker program.
To improve the alien-detention and removal capabilities of the Border Patrol — putting illegal immigrants in jail after they are caught and sending them back to their home countries — the budget supports an increase of over $100 million.
From the budget: "This includes an additional $50 million to expand the program to apprehend alien fugitives and $30 million to increase efforts to ensure that aliens convicted of crimes in the United States are deported directly from correctional institutions after their time is served. This will prevent their release into our communities."
That last phrase: "This will prevent their release into our communities" is interesting.
USA Today ran a story the day after Bush released his budget about the Border Patrol's "OTM" policy.
According to the story, an "OTM" — an immigrant from a nation "other than Mexico" — will be released into our community after being fingerprinted and identified. They are supposed to appear in court for a deportation hearing but 86 percent never show up.
In Imperial County the OTM issue isn't a problem since the vast majority of immigrants claim they come from Mexico and there is plenty of space at the El Centro detention center to house the immigrants the local Border Patrol catches.
Still, the men and women serving here are a part of a larger team. And that team is under fire.
There's the OTM issue, the president's temporary worker plan and now the budget head slap.
Some agents are getting sick of it. Washington, D.C., think tanks and the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal are calling for new immigration dialogue.
From the WSJ: "If a policy keeps failing for nearly two decades maybe some new thinking is in order."
T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, a union representing 6,000 or so agents, has plenty of ideas. The Border Patrol needs to look at the immigration problem globally, he said.
"We have been unsuccessful over the years in doing that," he said recently.
Bonner said agents are sitting in trucks at the border for 10 hours at a time acting as a deterrent instead of serving as law enforcement officers.
Bonner said the BP needs to go back to "locking people (smugglers) up."
He realizes there will be plenty of people waiting in the wings.
"Get the judges to hammer the people who are smuggling aliens across, give them the full five years per body time served," he said.
Regarding the PART assessment, Bonner dismissed it as a "bean-counter mechanism" that has no place in law enforcement, where results are hard to measure.
"It's foolish to try and use that type of equation to determine how much you're going to budget for a law enforcement agency," he said.
Steve Martin, the Border Patrol supervisory agent for the Calexico station, said the department's strategy of deploying agents on the line to serve as a deterrent has produced tangible results in this sector. The number of apprehensions has dropped dramatically since the late 1990s.
While that's a good sign, immigrants could be targeting Arizona or the San Diego sector. The national yearly average of illegal immigrants caught has been consistent, in the 500,000 range every year.
Martin said more technology would help agents be more effective in the field.
The president's budget for Customs and Border Protection includes $64.2 million to enhance land-based detection and monitoring of movement between the ports.
That's something, but Bonner's not impressed.
"You still need hands to catch people. Cameras don't jump off the poles and apprehend someone," he said.
He continued, "From day one he's (Bush) has been cozying up to Mexico, which doesn't benefit the citizens of his country, all it does is depress our wages and lower our standard of living."
The Bush administration has been handcuffing the Border Patrol and failing to target employers who hire illegal aliens, he said.
To blunt that criticism, Bush's budget includes an additional $23 million to more than double the number of worksite investigations performed by Immigration Customs Enforcement, providing an additional 200 investigators.
That's something, but Bonner's not impressed.
On the National Border Patrol Council's Web site, agents are being encouraged to look for another line of work.
That policy applies to approximately 3.5% of the 1 million + illegal aliens apprehended on the Southwest border.
Agreed, but until Washington builds some more jails, we have no place to put them.
Here's the kicker: the men and women holding the line against these teeming masses just had their budget cut.
According to the Office of Budget Management, the U.S. Border Patrol will receive about $130 million less next year, almost a 7 percent cut."
I've heard of shooting yourself in the foot. This is the first time I've heard of castrating yourself.
I've heard of pouring gasoline on a fire. This is the first time I've heard of waiting to stand in the middle of the fire before you start pouring.
What is WRONG with this picture?
:~)
We can’t send non - Mexicans to Mexico.
See # 15 above.
I prefer air-dropping them.
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