Bipartisan Betrayal at the Border
by Michelle Malkin
Can we talk about a war other than Vietnam for a minute?
Political debate is now focused on whether Democratic presidential
candidate John Kerry and his mates were under fire at Cam Ranh Bay and
how close he was to the Cambodian border (not very) three decades ago.
But there are American foot soldiers under siege right now on our own
borders.
And neither party is doing much of anything to arm, fund or
defend them.
Instead,
the Associated Press reported this weekend that
President Bush's
(put mouse over image to hear speech by Bush while reading
) nephew, George P. Bush, traveled to Mexico in search of overseas votes
and condemned the federal policy of arming U.S. Border Patrol agents
with plastic pellet guns. According to the AP:
"Speaking in a mix of English and sometimes-halting Spanish, George P.
Bush said his uncle was not to blame for the gun policy, which has
angered Mexicans. He instead blamed it on 'some local INS guy who's
trying to be tough, act macho.' "
Bush went further in defaming the character of our Border Patrol
agents and their supervisors: "If there has been American approval
for this policy, that is reprehensible," George P. Bush said of the
guns, essentially paintball projectiles filled with chile powder. "It's
kind of barbarous."
Newsflash, George P.: Your uncle abolished the INS last spring. As for
the pepperball gun policy, the Border Patrol purchased a measly 14 of
the pellet guns for agents in Harlingen, Texas, earlier this month after
conducting a study of non-lethal weaponry. The guns were first made
available to agents to protect them against violent confrontations in
California and Arizona in 2001.
Whose bright idea was it to arm our border guards with chile powder
as they stand watch against terrorists, drug dealers and other thugs?
Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier noted that the guns were purchased
as part of a binational pilot project with -- pay attention, George P.
-- Mexico.
George P. Bush calls it "barbarous" that we arm Border Patrol agents
with plastic pellet guns. The true disgrace is that we have rendered
our border guards defenseless, handing them toy guns instead of real
weapons. The criminals in Mexico who traipse across our border have
no problems with "macho" displays of barbarism. Park Ranger Kris Eggle
was murdered by an AK-47-wielding Mexican drug smuggler two years ago
this month. Kris was 28 when he was gunned down -- the same age as
George P. Bush.
You want to talk about "reprehensible"? What is reprehensible is a
prominent American citizen disrespecting our federal immigration
enforcement officers on foreign soil while scraping for expatriate
votes. Border Patrol agents and Park Rangers on the southern border put
their lives on the lines every day to protect us from harm. They should
be thanked, not trashed.
If George P.'s views were merely his own, they might not be worth
anyone's time. But homeland security officials in Washington have been
doing their fair share of undermining rank-and-file Border Patrol agents
as well from the comfort of their air-conditioned offices. When a mobile
unit of border agents in Southern California made a series of
high-profile mass arrests of illegal aliens in June, prompting the ire
of ethnic activists and Hispanic Democrats, Under Secretary for Border
and Transportation Security Asa Hutchinson iced the agents' efforts and
publicly criticized the arrests. Instead of backing his own men and
women, Hutchinson assured the open borders lobby that his department
would bow to the "sensitivities" surrounding interior enforcement.
The retreat has had a devastating effect on border agents' morale --
and our safety. A new survey of border security personnel released
this week by the National Border Patrol Council revealed that almost
two-thirds of the workforce are demoralized, and nearly half of these
employees have considered leaving their job within the past two years.
The council noted: "Almost three years after the terrorist attacks of
9/11, despite the expenditure of billions of dollars and endless
rhetoric from the top about how anti-terrorism is our foremost priority,
only about half of these officers believe that our nation is any safer
from terrorist threats."
Al Qaeda plots murder with dirty bombs, truck bombs and airplanes,
while we arm our border guards with chile powder. Let's roll? Bull.
Click on image above for detailed
description of the Bush immigration plan
