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?
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?
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Michelle |
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Votes, man, votes.
The democrats have castrated the republicans in this point. Neither party wants to enforce immigration law because they would look like anti-foreigner bigots.
I still say that the non-border is probably the easiest way to smuggle weapons of mass destruction into the USA. I don't know how good the Canadians monitor who is coming into their country, but if its decent, then the southern border would be the easiest way to smuggle in a NUKE.
All a terrorist organization would have to do is have a few terror cells in Guatemala or Mexico, have these advance units secure transportation. When the smuggling unit comes in, off they go in a Ford Explorer, loaded with food, water, and the NUKE, and they cross the porous Mexican border into the US.
(What's Arabic for "matricula" ?)
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.
