To Repel Invasion

With just over 11,000 agents, the United States Border Patrol has the responsibility for securing around 8,000 miles of land and sea borders. Anyone taking an objective look at the situation can clearly see that there are not enough agents at the border. Even with the 6000 National Guard troops from California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas deployed to their respective borders with Mexico are not enough. Besides, those troops are only able to assist USBP with surveillance, the installation of fences and vehicle barriers, in addition to training. The USBP acknowledges that the bulk of their personnel are deployed at our Southern border, where their mission includes drug trafficking and illegal immigration.

The latter part of their mission however is an abysmal failure. Results from the 2000 census indicate that there are between eight to eleven million illegal aliens living in the United States in 2000. To put this in perspective, this is the combined population of New York and Chicago. Research by the Pew Hispanic Center (as of March 2004) shows that 81% of illegal aliens, or 8.4 million, are of Latin American and Mexican origin. Countries such as Canada, those in Latin America, and most notably Mexico take little if any action to assist in the situation. Mexico, for example, is active in the pursuit of invading our sovereignty. While Vicente Fox refuses to acknowledge there is an illegal immigrant problem, his country provides maps, water, and assistance to people as they enter our country illegally, rather than to assisting us in preventing this from occurring. The World Bank reports that private foreign aid to Mexico for example reached $1.5 billion per month, or $18 billion per year in 2004. Why are we then contributing millions and millions to these countries who are actively violating our sovereignty? That money could be better utilized in funding the security of our securing the border.

Article I, Section 8, Clause 15 of the US Constitution calls for the National Guard to “repel invasions”. Article I, Section 8, Clause 15 of the US Constitution calls for the National Guard to “repel invasions”. This is a role that they must undertake to eliminate the onslaught of people crossing illegally into our country. I have read the opinions of others who point to the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA) as an obstacle to the use of the military in border security. Any such obstacle was eliminated when the Insurrection Act of 1807 was revised in the 2007 Defense Authorization Bill fulfilling the requirements set forth in the PCA.

While the administration trumpets additional forces to be deployed at the border, they make an effort to point out the move towards the use of predator drones and new technologies that will supposedly deliver a silver bullet to the heart of the illegal immigration issue. The danger I see in emphasizing this is the same that the CIA encountered in the 1970s when Admiral Stansfield Turner was DCI. He directed that they shift their focus from human intelligence to technical and signal intelligence under the hopes that it would produce the same results. I hope that the USBP use these new assets to supplement agents in the field as opposed to replacing them. The vote to construct a 700-mile fence along a portion of our border with Mexico, along with electronic warning and surveillance systems for the remainder of the border, is but one step in a long march to actually protecting our borders.