Border Patrol Agents Ordered To NOT Do Their Job

[Kennedy 0]

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U.S. Border Patrol agents have been ordered not to arrest illegal aliens along the section of the Arizona border where protesters patrolled last month because an increase in apprehensions there would prove the effectiveness of Minuteman volunteers, The Washington Times has learned.

More than a dozen agents, all of whom asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, said orders relayed by Border Patrol supervisors at the Naco, Ariz., station made it clear that arrests were "not to go up" along the 23-mile section of border that the volunteers monitored to protest illegal immigration.

"It was clear to everyone here what was being said and why," said one veteran agent. "The apprehensions were not to increase after the Minuteman volunteers left. It was as simple as that."

Another agent said the Naco supervisors "were clear in their intention" to keep new arrests to an "absolute minimum" to offset the effect of the Minuteman vigil, adding that patrols along the border have been severely limited.

Border Patrol Chief David V. Aguilar at the agency's Washington headquarters called the accusations "outright wrong," saying that supervisors at the Naco station had not blocked agents from making arrests and that the station's 350 agents were being "supported in carrying out" their duties.

"Border Patrol agents are the front line of defense against terrorism," Chief Aguilar said, adding that the 11,000 agents nationwide are "meeting that challenge, head-on ... as daunting a task as that may sound."

The chief -- a former head of the agency's Tucson sector, which includes the Naco station -- said that with the world watching the Arizona border because of the Minuteman Project, agents in Naco "demonstrated flexibility and resilience in carrying out their critical homeland security duties and responsibilities."

But Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican, yesterday said "credible sources" within the Border Patrol also had told him of the decision by Naco supervisors to keep new arrests to a minimum, saying he was angry but not surprised.

"It's like telling a cop to stand by and watch burglars loot a store but don't arrest any of them," he said. "This is another example of decisions being made at the highest levels of the Border Patrol that are hurting morale and helping to rot the agency from within.

"I worry about our efforts in Congress to increase the number of agents," he said. "Based on these kinds of orders, we could spend the equivalent of the national debt and never have secure borders."

Mr. Tancredo, chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, blamed the Bush administration for setting an immigration enforcement tone that suggests to those enforcing the law that he is not serious about secure borders.

"We need to get the president to come to grips with the seriousness of the problem," he said. "I know he doesn't like to utter the words, 'I was wrong,' but if we have another incident like September 11 by people who came through our borders without permission, I hope he doesn't have to say 'I'm sorry.' "

During the Minuteman vigil, Border Patrol supervisors in Arizona discounted their efforts, saying a drop in apprehensions during their protest was because of the Mexican government's deployment of military and police south of the targeted area and a new federal program known as the Arizona Border Control Initiative that brought manpower increases to the state.

The Naco supervisors blamed the volunteers for unnecessarily tripping sensors, disturbing draglines and interfering with the normal operations of the agents. They said that their impact on illegals was "negligible" and that civilians should leave immigration enforcement "to the professionals."

Several field agents credited the volunteers with cutting the flow of illegal aliens in the targeted Naco area, saying the number of apprehended illegals dropped from an average of 500 a day to less than 15 a day.

More than 850 volunteers, in a protest of the lax immigration enforcement policies of the White House and Congress, sought to reduce the flow of illegal aliens along a popular immigration corridor on the Arizona-Mexico border near Naco by reporting illegals to the Border Patrol as they crossed into the United States.

Their goal was to show that increased manpower on the border would effectively deter illegal immigration. Organizers said the protest resulted in Border Patrol arrests of 349 illegal aliens.

Area residents, in a half-page ad in the Sunday edition of the Sierra Vista Herald, told the volunteers: "Thanks for doing what our government won't -- close the border to illegal aliens. It was the quietest month we've had in many years ... You made us feel safe because the border was closed."

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[PhreeZone 20]

Careful, by not adding your thoughts at the end you might draw a lot of fire for making a post in here


Personally... Arests can go up, they can go down. The important thing is that the boarder get controlled more. I do not support a full militarization of the boarder like a FOX anchor was talking about last week, but I do support deportation of those crossing the boarder. Putting a 1 mile no mans land around the entire boarder guarded with the army like we have in Korea is not the answer like Bill O'Riley was wanting, but arrests ahould be happening if they are caught.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[waltappel 1]

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Careful, by not adding your thoughts at the end you might draw a lot of fire for making a post in here


Personally... Arests can go up, they can go down. The important thing is that the boarder get controlled more. I do not support a full militarization of the boarder like a FOX anchor was talking about last week, but I do support deportation of those crossing the boarder. Putting a 1 mile no mans land around the entire boarder guarded with the army like we have in Korea is not the answer like Bill O'Riley was wanting, but arrests ahould be happening if they are caught.

I kind of like the idea of a widely publicized deployment of land mines.

Walt

[Kennedy 0]

Personally I think any city that makes itself an "asylum city" ought to lose federal funding. "Yeah, sure City X, you can break federal laws, but good luck with your budget next year."

Of course, if we're going to do that, we need a federal government that actually wants to DO something about our borders, and like the article points out, again, we haven't got one.

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[PhreeZone 20]

Do you really want to live in a a country that you are surrounded by the Army at all times?

My thoughts on land mines are another topic. In the correct situation they are the right tool for the job. Korea is perfect since it basically eliminates all movement in both directions. The North Koreans are as protected by us as we are from them. In a situation like Afganistan, leaving of old mines that are unmarked is still injuring and killing people years after the Russians were there and left.

Surrounding the US Border with landmines is about the worst thing I could think of. It would be turning the country into a police state.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[waltappel 1]

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Do you really want to live in a a country that you are surrounded by the Army at all times?

My thoughts on land mines are another topic. In the correct situation they are the right tool for the job. Korea is perfect since it basically eliminates all movement in both directions. The North Koreans are as protected by us as we are from them. In a situation like Afganistan, leaving of old mines that are unmarked is still injuring and killing people years after the Russians were there and left.

Surrounding the US Border with landmines is about the worst thing I could think of. It would be turning the country into a police state.

The "war on drugs" has already turned the US into a police state. Law enforcement people routinely confiscate property and money without anything resembling due process and it is up to the property owner to prove themselves innocent.

The control of borders is an entirely different matter. In the past few years the need to control our borders for security reasons has become apparent--especially the Mexican border. I have absolutely no problem with legal immigration, but our borders are a joke.

When Americans travel to other countries, we are required to go through established channels and show identification--typically in the form of a passport. Why are so many people up in arms about enforcing that same policy along the Mexican border?

Maybe landmines are not the way to do it, they just seem a lot cheaper and easier than keeping troops deployed along our borders.

Walt

[Botellines 0]

It is more easy than that. If you want to stop illegal inmigration, the only way to go, is to stop making the U.S so atractive to illegal inmigrants. You can do that by making sure that employers do not hire them (fine them to hell).

You only have to look at the rest of the countries with illegal inmigration problems to realize that none of the other solutions will work. Not even your beloved minuteman project.

Now, will your government want to stop the cheap labour that make bussines owners rich? I see here a conflict of interests.

[kallend 2,147]

Well, reducing the flow of illegals would be bad for business, wouldn't it? Can't have that.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[EBSB52 0]

If you think this admin doesn't want tons of illegals to compete with and displace our labor... guess again. As Kallend wrote:

"Well, reducing the flow of illegals would be bad for business, wouldn't it? Can't have that."

There are a lot of facades out there where it appears the current admin wants to crack down on a lot of things when in reality it's profit before people, lives, rules, etc.... Don't be blinded by how you think the party is or how the party should be.

[mnealtx 0]

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If you think this admin doesn't want tons of illegals to compete with and displace our labor... guess again. As Kallend wrote:

"Well, reducing the flow of illegals would be bad for business, wouldn't it? Can't have that."

There are a lot of facades out there where it appears the current admin wants to crack down on a lot of things when in reality it's profit before people, lives, rules, etc.... Don't be blinded by how you think the party is or how the party should be.

If you had said "all administrations" instead of "the current administration" I'd be more inclined to agree... this has been a problem for decades, not just the last 4 years...

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[freethefly 6]

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It is more easy than that. If you want to stop illegal inmigration, the only way to go, is to stop making the U.S so atractive to illegal inmigrants. You can do that by making sure that employers do not hire them (fine them to hell).


Something to consider next time you go to the salad bar

"...And once you're gone, you can't come back
When you're out of the blue and into the black."
Neil Young

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