Monday, May 15, 2006

Border issues

Here we go again. The furor over illegal immigration has reached a point where the U.S. Senate may have to act, and tonight President Bush is preparing to announce that National Guard troops will be placed in support roles along the border with Mexico. Predictably there are many in favor of this and many opposed to the plan. President Fox is concerned about the militarization of the border. Of course, his country takes in billions each year from illegal immigrants sending money back to Mexico, so he has a vested interest in keeping the status quo in place.

One of the most intriguing comments comes from Senator Chuck Hagel (R- Nebraska) who said the proper way to do this is to double the Border Patrol during the next five years, but opposes using National Guard troops during the intervening 5 years. So, is it a free-for-all during that time? This makes no sense to me.

I have nothing against immigrants. But I am terrified of a porous border when we are at war with fanatics who recruit all over the world. Unfortunately the Mexican citizens trying to get into this country get caught in the blowback.

4 comments:

Charlie said...

I think that Senator Hagel's comments express reasonable concern that while the short term is important (in addition to the long term) there are concerns about using an already overextended national guard for border patrol.

This is an issue of law enforcement: apprehending and arresting people at the border. That is not the role that the national guard has been trained for. To use them as such degrades the lethal training that they have had, as well as puts them in a role to enforce the law that they do not excel at.

Remember that the national guard are part-time soldiers. They have been called away from their homes to serve excellently as they have in Iraq already. I think we need to save the remaining guard units we have stateside for emergency purposes.

Roy said...

So what do you do in the interim 5 years while you ramp up the Border Patrol? Does he have an alternative or is he just positioning?

Peter Attwood said...

If Americans were being subjected to precisely the aggression, the massacres, foreign soldiers strutting through their streets, bombing them, breaking into their houses, and whatnot, what kind of festive reception would those occupiers receive in your neighborhood?

"Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them," is what EVERYTHING hangs on, according to Jesus. How is that fulfilled when we do to others what we would never want for ourselves and consider them fanatics if they hate it as we would?

Roy said...

I'm not sure how that relates to people flooding across our border.