A report in the Washington Times addresses the glacial pace at which efforts are crawling to secure our nation’s southern border. The title of the article, “Border gear slow to be deployed” may well represent the understatement of the year!
Of course if Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of DHS, the agency I refer to as the Department of Homeland Surrender, is to be believed, our southern border is already secure! If you don’t believe her, then perhaps you would be comforted by similar assertions made by Senator Chuck Schumer who chairs the Senate Immigration Subcommittee!
The problem is that our southern border is not secure. But then neither is our northern border. In fact, there is virtually no security to be found in any element of the immigration system!
If you have been following the various programs that were purportedly intended to secure our southern border then you already know that programs known by a variety of names have all failed to do what they had been advertised to do. The most recent example of such a failure was the Secure Border Initiative Network that was also known as “SBI Net” or, in its more commonly known alias, the “Virtual Fence.”
As I have noted on previous occasions, the Virtual Fence did what could have been anticipated – it stopped virtually no one!
We are continually reminded that our nation is waging a “War on Terror” and also waging a “War on Drugs.” Both of these battles would logically require our borders be made secure against the unlawful entry of aliens and of contraband that may well include narcotics as well as weapons of mass destruction. Meanwhile our borders are as secure as a sieve is water-tight!
The Virtual Fence project was cancelled last year after our nation squandered well over one billion dollars and also squandered an even more precious commodity – time!
Our “leaders” keep reminding us that in order to be successful, the terrorists only have to get it “right” once while, in order to protect our nation and our citizens, our government must get it “right” 100% of the time!
Every day thousands of illegal aliens succeed in surreptitiously entering our country.
On March 10th of this year, Senator John Cornyn questioned Secretary Napolitano about the recent GAO report that painted a truly worrisome picture about the lack of security where our nation’s southern border is concerned.
Here is an excerpt from a transcript of what Senator Cornyn had to say:
SENATOR JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, Madame Secretary. According to the General Accountability – the Government Accountability Office, last fiscal year 2010 there were 445,000 individuals detained at the Southwest border. The Government Accountability Office points out that of the 2,000 miles along the southern border that 1,120 of those miles were not yet under operational control by the federal government.
And of the 873 miles that were under, quote, “operational control,” that differentiated between “controlled,” at 15 percent of that 873, and 85 percent which they call “managed,” which means that basically they are in a position to try to detect and detain illegal aliens within 100 miles of the border.
I raise that issue because you made the statement, I believe, earlier that you think the administration’s approach is working when it comes to border security. And you can correct me if I’m wrong.
I would just give you one other bit of data, and that is from the Border Patrol, the apprehensions during fiscal year 2009, up to April the 30th, 2010 – that out of the 445,000 individuals detained at our southwestern border, there were 45,000 detained coming from a total of 140 different countries. In other words, these are not just individuals coming from Mexico and points south.
SEC. NAPOLITANO: These are what are known – the category known as “other than Mexico.”
SEN. CORNYN: That’s correct.
I noted in looking at these statistics and these numbers, which I will in a moment ask to be made a part of the record, that at least four countries are represented on this list of 140 countries that have been designated by the U.S. Department of State as state sponsors of terrorism. How can you possibly claim that the approach of the administration is working when it comes to border security in light of these statistics?
You can read the complete transcript of the exchange between Senator Cornyn and Secretary Napolitano as well as watch a video of that exchange, at chron.com
Texas on the Potomac
Pressed by John Cornyn, Napolitano says she can’t set target date to secure the US-Mexico border
On February 21, 2011 Fox News ran a story on its website entitled, “Hezbollah Working With Cartels”
In response to that article I posted a commentary where I made a number of points. Hezbollah Working With Cartels to Seek Entry in The Borders of America
The point I was attempting to make back then and the point I am once again making today is that our borders are anything but secure and our alleged “leaders” are clearly sleep-walking while criminals and terrorists are seizing every opportunity to infiltrate our nation and set up shop in hundreds of American cities in every state, from border to border and coast to coast.
It has been said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
The point to that old adage is that it is far better to prevent a disaster than to deal with it after you failed to prevent it. If the terrorists who attacked our nation on September 11, 2001 had been prevented from entering our country, they could not have attacked us. The World Trade Center would still be standing. The thousands of killed and wounded would be alive and well today.
Even if only several of those 19 terrorists had been kept out of the United States, their horrific plans could not have been carried out.
Our leaders are now telling the citizens of our nation that it may take a decade or more to secure our southern border!
How many more criminals and terrorists will be able to saunter across our border during that decade? How many more lives will be lost in our country?
When a building catches fire, valiant fire fighters race to the scene to extinguish the flames to minimize the damage to the building and to try to prevent other buildings from catching fire. Even more importantly, they race to the fire to protect the lives of the people who may be endangered. They even race to the fire to attempt to rescue pets!
When an armed criminal commits a crime, police and federal agents race through the streets with sirens blaring to catch the suspect before he can get away and perhaps injure or kill innocent victims.
When someone is badly injured or suffers a medical emergency, ambulances and sometimes medi-vac helicopters race to the person to attempt to save that person’s life.
Yet our “leaders” expect that we the People will be mollified by the glacial approach to national security that should have been a major issue not only since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 – nearly ten years ago, but should have certainly become a priority in 1993 when our nation suffered terrorist attacks at the hands of radical Islamists who killed CIA officers and killed and injured civilians at the first attack at the World Trade Center more than 18 years ago!
Terrorist attacks have the potential to kill many thousands of victims and yet the response time is to be measured in decades and the Secretary of Homeland Surrender defends this insanity?
Every day crimes are being committed in towns and cities across our nation that are directly or indirectly related to the drug trade that depends on being able to easily move their cargos of poison across a border that offers little more protection than speed bumps! Every day citizens of our nation are dying across our nation because of our nation’s failures to secure our borders and I have to remind you that when the state of Arizona attempted to pick up the slack created by our federal government’s abject failures to secure our borders and instill even a modicum of integrity into the immigration system, that the federal government reacted by suing the state of Arizona for daring to attempt to do what the federal government has demonstrated no interest in doing!
Soon Mexican trucks will be barreling down our highways and other roads across our nation with the blessings of our President!
Our nation is being led by the “Not ready for prime time players” and this is not the least bit acceptable!
Nothing less than the survival of our nation and our citizens hang in the balance!
A country without secure borders can no more stand than can a house without walls!
If our country is to survive and if our children and their children are to get their share of the “American Dream” the citizens of this nation must take their citizenship seriously!
We the People must be the best citizens we can be, citizens who are worthy of the gallantry demonstrated by our valiant men and women in the military, law enforcement and firefighters, who routinely go in harm’s way in defense of this nation and our citizens.
My goal in writing this and other commentaries is to point out our nation’s many failings before more victims pay the ultimate price for the incompetence and ineptitude of our government.
The first step in problem-solving is to first identify the problems and vulnerabilities and then devise strategies to overcome them.
If you find yourself to be in agreement with this commentary, I ask that you forward it to as many of your friends and family members as possible and encourage them to do the same. We need to create a “Bucket Brigade of Truth!”
The practice of good citizenship does not end in the voting booth, it only begins there. The large scale apathy demonstrated by citizens of this nation has emboldened elected representatives to all but ignore the needs of the average American citizen in a quest for massive campaign funds and the promises of votes to be ostensibly delivered by special interest groups. There is much that we cannot do but there is one thing that We the People absolutely must do- we must stop sitting on the sidelines!
The collective failure of We the People to get involved in make our concerns known to our politicians have nearly made the concerns of the great majority of the citizens of this nation all but irrelevant to the politicians. I implore you to resolve this year to get involved!
I believe our nation’s is greatly benefited by the rich diversity of our people which is why I could never imagine living anywhere except New York City, arguably the most diverse city in our nation if not, in fact, the world. However, my idea of diversity most certainly does not include members of MS-13, the Mexican drug cartels or members of other transnational gangs or members of al-Qaeda!
If this situation concerns you or especially if it angers you, I ask you to call your Senators and Congressional “Representatives.” This is not only your right- it is your obligation!
All I ask is that you make it clear to our politicians that we are not as dumb as they hope we are! We live in a perilous world and in a perilous era. The survival of our nation and the lives of our citizens hang in the balance. This is neither a Conservative issue, nor is it a Liberal issue- simply stated, this is most certainly an AMERICAN issue! You are either part of the solution or you are a part of the problem! Democracy is not a spectator sport! Lead, follow or get out of the way!
