Southern Border Developments

[Merlin]

.. "OK, why would the government allow the border to remain open this long" and you can put together several reasons. I mean, maybe Bush felt China was such a huge threat, that he allowed illegals to enter, banking on using them as a cheap labor source if China ever fell through. Theories like that I've considered just because the failure to enforce the border is so absurd.

It seems possible, but we have no evidence of course.

[Doomarias]

Great vid on the subject by john stossel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmpDbM1YDWg

[ChrisF202]

We don't need more cops battling over jurisdiction or infantry troops, what we need is 6th armed service to act as land based counterpart to the Coast Guard.

Agreed totally, it's time for a US Border Guard with both military and federal law enforcement status. I would even go as far as to suggest a federal constabulary or gendarmerie specifically for border security and dealing with the fallout related to drug smuggling and gangs like MS-13.

[SnowLeopard]

We don't need more cops battling over jurisdiction or infantry troops, what we need is 6th armed service to act as land based counterpart to the Coast Guard.

Be careful what you wish for. It does sound a lot like Soviet Border Guards. While the Coast Guard has been noted that it is the equivalent of the KGB Maritime Border Guard, it still wasn't the same.

But saying we need an armed service as a military border guard suggests that we might go that way. To say nothing about an internal military force that isn't military or quite military that can be used against civilians.

Quite frankly, I'm hoping that that speech made during the campaign, about an internal security force as powerful and well funded as the military, was just a misspeak.

Heaven forbid that we decide because of this situation that we need our own Waffin-SS...........even if we don't realize that it would be that.
__________________________________________________
("Have any id you want me to destroy? I'm sure the Soviets would love to get a hold of one of our internal security men."--flight engineer to neutralized FBI man on hijacked 707
"Don't know what you are talking about, Sir! My name is Smithers, I'm in plastics!"--FBI man reverting to cover, (w,stte), "Skyjacked!")

[astralis]

gunnut,

Much like a Club lock for the car. It won't stop any thief who's determined, but it will stop those lazy ones. Serious drug runners and immigrant smugglers will still get through. But at least we can stop a good portion of the average smugglers.

perhaps, but without the long-term and medium-term solutions, the short-term solutions actually make the problem worse. as we catch more smugglers or illegal immigrants, scarcity drives up economic demand which drives up prices...so ironically we create an even greater incentive for people to try to sneak by. these days the drug runners are creating a freakin' submarine network to avoid the fences, for instance.

[BenRoethig]

Be careful what you wish for. It does sound a lot like Soviet Border Guards. While the Coast Guard has been noted that it is the equivalent of the KGB Maritime Border Guard, it still wasn't the same.

The main difference between the MBG and the Coast Guard is constraints in training derived from the culture. Likewise the USBG would have similar constraints.

[Grim]

I don't see the Obama administration walk matching the talk yet. Admittedly it's still early but so far it dose not look good. The link is a story in the The Hill by Jody Yager, dated 3/25. It reports how the DHS is going to boost personal on the border.
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/...009-03-25.html
To turn down the funds needed to hire 1600 more customs and boarder patrol personal in a situation this sever makes me think this administration is not serious about ending smuggling into or out of the USA.
The story states "Obama’s plan would send to the region more than 300 Homeland Security personnel, 16 Drug Enforcement Administration personnel and 100 Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives personnel."
Is it most effective in the long run to cut down on gun running to Mexico with 100 ATF agents or to cut off the supply of money to the cartels from drug sales? I believe it is important to target any gun running but to only add 16 personal to the DEA staff involved in this fight makes my jaw drop. If Mexico wins it's fight against the cartels they will just move to another nation and we will still have the lack of border security, so the problem for the USA remains.
I think this is a lame attempt at window dressing.

[Dreadnought]

Always loved this part of Born in East LA. The border crossing Hilarious!
:)):))

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCwrdqGrxBU

[Grim]

Always loved this part of Born in East LA. The border crossing Hilarious!
:)):))

Now that's funny Never saw that before. Thank you.

[Dreadnought]

Now that's funny Never saw that before. Thank you.

*Your welcome. Just trying to make some humor on an already dismal thread. Thought it was worth a good laugh.:)

[Grim]

When it rains it pours. From the Washington Post,March 29, 09 by Spencer S. Hsu
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...901109_pf.html
"The raid would have been the second under the Obama administration. After the first, a Feb. 24 sweep of an engine-parts maker in Bellingham, Wash., that led to 28 arrests, Napolitano publicly expressed disappointment that ICE did not inform her beforehand and announced an investigation into agency communication practices.

In response, Leigh H. Winchell, the ICE special agent in charge in Seattle, wrote an e-mail to his staff -- subsequently leaked to conservative bloggers -- saying they had acted correctly. He also copied a statement from House Republicans calling Napolitano's review "beyond backwards."

"You did nothing wrong and you did everything right," Winchell wrote. "I cannot control the politics that take place with these types of situations, but I can remind you that you are great servants of this country and this agency."

The man has a good grasp on the situation in my opinion.

[highsea]

Securing the Southern border

Was watching a Senate hearing this morning (a replay from 3/11/10). Homeland Security subcommittee, subject of the hearing was corruption and bribery within Customs and Border Protection.

Something like 2800 cases of bribery/corruption prosecuted in the last 2-3 years against border patrol agents, and another 1800 cases pending. The testimony from the Asst. Commissioner of the CBP was that there is serious infiltration within the ranks from the Mexican cartels.

The CBP has about 58,000 border patrol agents, about 1/2 of them hired in the last 10 years. Only about 10% of them have had the pre-employment polygraph screening that is supposed to be done for all Federal law enforcement agencies.

Of the applicants screened in the polygraph tests, the disqualification rate is 60%. This all translates to ~15,000 currently active agents who would fail a polygraph screening if it was administered today.

There are currently 31 polygraph examiners available to CBP to administer the tests. The CPB administrator said he needed 50 additional testers to just keep up with the hiring rate, not counting testing the backlog of existing agents.

This is not an encouraging situation, to say the least.

link:

Corruption of U.S. Officials by Drug Cartels - C-SPAN Video Library

[Gun Grape]

I did a tour with JTF6 back in the 90s. Before the Marine shot the kid.

Corruption in the Boarder Patrol isn't something new.

[Blue]

In 1988, when I ETS'd, soon after arriving home, I started recieving invitations to apply from various LE agencies, FBI, Border patrol, Missouri HP, etc.

I declined the border patrol because of all the ridiculous testing locations and length of time to hire. A few years later when I became a local county deputy, I dealt with some border agents that had been assigned to NE Oklahoma after I had caught some illegals in my neighboring county.

According to them, I was smart not to apply and if they ever got re-assigned to the border states, they were quitting, and that was about 1991!

They cited the same reasons as your article. Corruption. But they where afraid of getting falsely accused and jacked up on charges.

[bonehead]

it is really discouraging that our own government wants our border patrol to fail. Do the Mexican gangsters really have that many lobbyists in D.C.?