The state of the borders 2003 (Michelle Malkin)

Prediction: On one of the most pressing homeland security issues facing the nation, President Bush will have nothing -- nada -- to say during his State of the Union address.

The Bush White House remains shamefully silent about the brutal murder of U.S. Park Ranger Kris Eggle. This 28-year-old American was gunned down last summer by an AK-47-toting illegal alien drug smuggler who waltzed across the southern border into Arizona's Organ Pipe National Monument.

According to the Park Service, as many as 1,000 illegal aliens a day trample across the park -- trashing our fences, ruining the environment, breaking our laws and endangering lives. It's a smugglers' paradise and a national security nightmare. "We have caught people from China, Pakistan and Yemen coming through," Bo Stone, an Organ Pipe ranger and close friend of Eggle's, told the Los Angeles Times this week.

"If 1,000 illegal immigrants can walk through the desert here, so can 1,000 terrorists."

Kris's father, Bob, a Vietnam veteran, told me last fall on a trip to Washington, D.C.: "I gave an eye for one war. Now, I've given my son for another. What is our president going to do about the war on our borders?"

Despite recent press coverage from the L.A. Times, Wall Street Journal, National Geographic magazine and Outside magazine, the Eggle family still has received no phone call, no acknowledgement, from the Bush White House in response to their call for border reform and serious enforcement of our laws.

Bob Eggle noted at a press conference in October: "The Mexico-American border is in chaos and is virtually a non-border. I have been involved there as a volunteer for the National Park Service and attempted to repair the border fence, only to have it knocked down again a couple of hours later. That non-border contributed to Kris's death."

The story is the same on the northern border, where just last week two reporters for the Toronto Star illegally crossed a dozen easy entry points between the land boundaries that separate Quebec from Vermont and New York state. Mangled fences and battered stop signs spraypainted with "U.S.A." are all that stand in the way.

"After September 11th, we all need to be concerned about border security and how easy it is to get in this country," Bob Eggle says. "Kris's death needs to bring about reform. We have to make his sacrifice meaningful."

Peter Gadiel, a lifelong Republican from Connecticut, is on a similar crusade to get his president to address illegal immigration as a national security issue. He, too, lost a son because of the government's lax border and entrance enforcement policies. James Gadiel, 23, died in the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. He was an assistant trader at Cantor Fitzgerald.

"When you have 8 to 11 million illegal immigrants living here in the U.S, it's hard to notice 18 or 20 terrorists," Peter Gadiel argues. It is that ocean of illegals that "allowed the hijackers to plan, rehearse, finance and carry out their mass murders over a long period of time, almost completely free of fear that they would be discovered."

Some 300,000 illegal alien fugitives remain on the loose despite deportation orders. There is still no systematic tracking of criminal alien felons across the country. Sanctuary for illegal aliens remains the policy in almost every major metropolis. Banks and local governments continue to accept sham Mexican ID cards to "regularize" the existence of alien lawbreakers. And "catch and release" remains standard operating procedure for untold thousands of illegal aliens who pass through the fingers of federal immigration authorities every day.

Nevertheless, the Republican Party elites in Washington continue to turn a blind eye. As grass-roots conservative stalwart Phyllis Schlafly has noted, the Republican National Committee's mail-order surveys on important national issues omit immigration and border security. Meanwhile, the White House refuses to meet with the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, led by Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo of Colorado.

"The simple truth is that we've lost control of our own borders," Ronald Reagan warned nearly two decades ago, "and no nation can do that and survive." We ignore America's lost sovereignty at our peril.

Why is it necessary for President Bush, before he goes after Iraq, to be such a complicit, Clintonian appeaser when it comes to the sovereignty of our own borders?

Unfortunately, the change to Homeland Security appears to be offering little in the way of substance when it comes to border security. I am hoping the administration will rectify this through follow up reorganization.

Here is some history and current DHS info:

The United States Border Patrol currently serves as the uniformed law enforcement arm of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Under the recently established Homeland Security Department, the US Border Patrol will be part of the Directorate of Border and Transportation Security. The US Border Patrol will not function as an independent organization but rather will be subordinate to the Bureau of Border Security, made up of remnants of the former INS including its managers.

The United States Border is the primary interdiction agency between the ports of entry. As such, its operations have been designed to prevent the entry of persons or contraband at other than designated ports of entry and to arrest those who attempt to circumvent the law.

As the policy direction of the INS changed over the years, the Border Patrol simply adjusted to whatever new objective the agency was attempting to achieve. This resulted in "on again off again" initiatives, enforcement and non-enforcement of various statutes which directly effected Border Patrol operations. The policy direction of the INS was often seen by Border Patrol employees as "confusing", as it frequently conflicted with the mission of the Border Patrol as an organization.

The Border Patrols Mission Statement:

The mission of the United States Border Patrol is to secure and protect the external boundaries of the United States to prevent, detect, apprehend, and interdict illegal aliens, smugglers, contraband, and violators of other laws.

As currently outlined in the Homeland Security Bill, the Bureau of Border Enforcement will be comprised of various components of the former INS. They include the following programs, Investigations, Inspections, Detention and Removal, Intelligence and the Border Patrol.

The Bureau of Border Enforcement will start out as a massive agency with a myriad of critical responsibilities. It will be responsible for regulating the entry of aliens, apprehending undocumented and out of status aliens in the interior, enforcing employer sanctions, investigating and prosecuting fraud and detaining and removing immigration violators and securing this Nation's borders.

Whether developing or deploying camera systems, mapping software, interoperable communications or developing training and tactics, the priorities of the Border Patrol and that of the Bureau of Border Security will be by their very nature divergent. The issues important to the Border Patrol are singular with little or no crossover to other Bureau programs and will likely serve as a distraction from the Bureau's critical immigration related mission. As the Border Patrol will have a subordinate role in the Bureau, it is clear that border security will remain just one of many priorities to be balanced against other issues of the day.

As was so graphically illustrated on September 11th, border security can no longer be relegated or regarded as just another program. Clear lines of command and control, responsibility and accountability must be established. Those in leadership roles must have defined missions and a vision for the future of national security. Including the Border Patrol and its mission in the Bureau of Border Security fails that test.

Since INS's overall mission was not "singularly" to secure the borders there was little accountably for failure. There was no one manager in the INS who was solely responsible for border security but rather a long list of bureaucrats with fancy titles like Executive Associate Commissioners, Assistant Commissioners, Regional Directors, the list goes on and on.

The U.S. Border Patrol's mission is to secure more than eight thousand miles of external boundary of the United States against all border violators, regardless of their immigration status. No other federal agency shares this responsibility. Arguably no other federal agency has such a tremendous challenge or obligation to the safety of the American public.

Additionally, given the magnitude and consequences of failure of this critical component of national security, it is imperative that the U.S. Border Patrol become a separate agency and not a subordinate of the Bureau of Border Security.

The U.S. Border Patrol's mission is direct, unambiguous and critically important to overall national security. The Border Patrol's mission represents the most fundamental of all federal responsibilities. The Border Patrol must be given the leadership and authority commensurate with their mission.

Back when the US Border Patrol was originally attached to the INS it was in fact relatively small with well under 2,000 agents. That is no longer remotely the case. Currently the Border Patrol has an authorized workforce of approximately 10,000 agents. Every indication from capital hill is that this number is totally inadequate with several congressmen calling for the doubling of the workforce to 20,000. It remains to be seen what the final number will be, but all indications are that the US Border Patrol will continue to expand for several years to come.

In looking at some other independent federal agencies we see that size is not necessarily relevant.

FBI, approximately 12,000 agents

DEA, approximately 5,300 agents

US Secret Service, approximately 3,500 agents

ATF, approximately 2,100 agents

An independent US Border Patrol will not be relatively small. Actually it will automatically be the of the largest law enforcement agency in the federal government. It already is the largest uniformed federal law enforcement agency in the nation.

Unfortunately, under the current organizational structure the Chief of the Border Patrol will not answer directly to the Director of DHS as Secret Service and the Coast Guard will. Nor will he answer directly to the Directorate of Border and Transportation Security as will the US Customs Director. He must answer to the Director of the Bureau of Border Security. This Effectively relegates one of the largest and most important federal law enforcement agencies to the lowest possible box on the DHS organization chart.

A simple check of the proposed organization structure of DHS located at www.DHS.GOV/employees/NextSteps/orgchart.cfm confirms the US Border Patrol did not even rate it's own organizational box. This does not demonstrate well the seriousness with which we must focus on border security.

Thanks for the correction. Here is an email I received yesterday from Shaddeg to give you an idea of where he stands on this issue:

Thursday, January 23, 2003 9:47 AM

Subject: Responding to your message

     Thank you for contacting me with your concerns about amnesty for
illegal aliens. I appreciate the opportunity to respond.

     I am strongly opposed to granting blanket amnesty to illegal
immigrants living in the United States. As we learned from the 1986
amnesty, the "Immigration Act of 1985," such amnesty does not end our
illegal immigration problem. Rather, it actually precipitates even more
illegal immigration. Individuals are encouraged in the belief that if
they can elude the Border Patrol and stay underground for a few years,
they will eventually get amnesty themselves. A large-scale amnesty would
lead to further violations of U.S. law instead of encouraging and
rewarding legal immigration.

     As you know, the Bush administration is considering several proposals
as part of a joint effort between the U.S. and Mexico to solve chronic
problems along the border. They include the possibility of more U.S.
visas for Mexican citizens and more and better cooperation along the
U.S.-Mexico border to reduce crossings at dangerous, isolated areas. The
plan would also explore more joint investments to create jobs in Mexico
and the development of a guest worker program to allow Mexicans to
temporarily live and work in the United States, and return to Mexico upon
completion of their work.

     While I do not believe in granting amnesty to illegal aliens, I do
support legal immigration through such programs as the guest worker
compromise. The farming, agriculture and nursery industries in Arizona
are a vital part of the state’s economy. A great deal of the labor for
this industry is supplied by immigrant workers. The truth is that if
immigrants do not hold these positions, the agriculture industry will
suffer. Therefore, I believe a compromise between our two countries will
offer a solution to allow seasonal immigrant workers an opportunity to
legally fill the positions in Arizona and across the country.

     Once again, thank you for sharing your concerns. I look forward to
hearing about issues of importance to you in the future. In the meantime,
I encourage you to visit my web site at

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