Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

May 13, 2005

Were the Minutemen Too Good?

An article in today's Washington Times claims that border patrol agents have been instructed to avoid the 23-mile stretch covered by the Minutemen volunteers in Arizona last month:

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...

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 officials, of course, deny the charge.

Whether or not this claim is true, the fact that the Minutemen made a huge difference in how many illegals made it across the border in that area:

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.

It makes me wonder if bureaucrats in our border patrol system...the ones who sit at a desk all day instead of being on patrol on the front line...are worried about being made to look bad. If that's the case, it's a sad commentary that they are more worried about appearances than security.

Kind of like the Democrats.

Why does our country even have immigration laws if we aren't going to enforce them? We should just dissolve the Border Patrol altogether and save some money...money that will be needed to go toward medical treatment, education and other services that illegals deserve, according to sympathizers.

And why is President Bush dragging his feet on the illegal immigrant/border issues? He needs to take action now.