Sunday, May 14, 2006

The National Border Guard

teh
The notion that putting National Guard troops on the Mexican border is going to make a difference in illegal immigration is just silly. Without getting into the larger immigration debate, it’s futile to think a few thousand troops are going to stem the tide in any meaningful way.

This reminds me of the promise we had that the “War on Drugs” could be “won” by stricter interdiction efforts at the border and other points of entry. Truth is, as long as the demand exists, for drugs or cheap immigrant labor, the supply will get here.

C’mon, the Mexican/U.S. border is a huge area to guard. It’s nearly 2000 miles long. Using Guard troops who aren’t trained in effective border control is an enormous waste of money and manpower. Add to that the Guard has been over extended already in Iraq. Deploying them in border patrol duty, keeping them away from home even more, is only going to result in falling recruitment as potential volunteers opt out.

I also find it interesting that last year the Bush administration removed funding for more than 9700 new border patrol agents but now sees illegal immigration as such an emergency that the National Guard must be called in. Immigration concerns are the political flavor of the day and now we can expect this administration to respond as they usually do –foolishly.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As most of us know, Mexico used to own a large portion of the Southwest a century ago. They want it back, that is evident. What better way than to get U.S. citizens used to cheap labor, and because of that, they will accommodate "guest workers." Unfortunately, it's not only those who wish to better themselves who try to cross the border. Vincente Fox is also encouraging the dregs of his society to cross and therein lies the problem. How do we tell the difference while we're peering through binoculars?

We need to either increase the ability of the those truly wanting to work and live in the U.S. as citizens by making immigration legally simpler for them, or, by putting an electric fence across the entire 2000 miles of border , along with armed guards and dogs. Either we want law-abiding immigrants or we don't want any. We need to decide and act, not speechify with empty rhetoric.