Obama Calls Retreat with Border Station Closures
Obama administration officials have announced yet another step backwards from effective border control and immigration law enforcement. Citing the need to save money and consolidate operations closer to the border, the Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP), which includes the Border Patrol, will close nine border patrol stations: six in Texas, one in California, one in Montana, and one in Idaho. Forty-one agents and seven support staffers will be relocated from the “deactivated” stations to posts closer to the border.
This move is a blow to public safety in the nine areas that are directly affected, and will create new safe zones for human and drug smugglers to move their loads across the country. It also suggests that the president is bent on replacing our effective layered approach to border security, which allows for the border patrol to apprehend illegal aliens even deep within the interior of the country, with a 21st century Maginot Line, with agents and fancy technology concentrated along the border itself, but free passage for illegal aliens who make it past the frontier.
Clustering all of our assets on the border is an absurd strategy (unless you are concerned more with facilitating illegal immigration than stopping it). With economists forecasting sustained high unemployment for years to come, state and local governments going broke, and foreign drug cartels and terror groups established in hundreds of U.S. cities, the federal government ought to be adding border patrol stations in the interior, not closing them.
The list of stations on the chopping block includes some located in large interior cities with big illegal settlements: Dallas and San Antonio, Texas, and Riverside, California, where the CBP sister enforcement agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is overwhelmed. The others are in less populous areas, but situated at key highway crossroads that see significant trafficking and smuggling of people and contraband: Abilene, San Angelo, Lubbock, and Amarillo in Texas, plus Billings, Montana, and Twin Falls, Idado.
Localized CBP statistics are hard to come by, but reportedly the Lubbock and Amarillo stations, staffed with nine agents, produced nearly one thousand illegal alien arrests in the last year. Think about it — those nine agents saved a thousand jobs for legal U.S. workers and who knows how many thousands of dollars in taxpayer-funded services, not to mention probably prevented a few criminals from setting up shop or driving drunk or recruiting kids into a gang in a town near you.
True, the agents are being relocated, not laid off, but there are good reasons to keep them in the interior rather than on the border itself. Because the Mexican drug cartels have taken control of all routes into the United States, it is impossible now to cross the southern border illegally without paying a smuggler. The process is often violent, but also highly organized. The smugglers exploit the many parts of the border that are still only lightly controlled (85 percent of the southern border is less than tightly controlled, according to the GAO). In addition, smugglers bring loads through legal crossing points, either with fake documents, as imposters, hidden in large trucks, or co-mingled with church groups, sports teams, and musical groups.
It is widely believed that two-thirds of those attempting to cross illegally into the United States will get past the Border Patrol. The smuggled aliens (and other cargo) do not stay in the border area for long. They are taken to drop houses and then put on vans that travel on interstate highways to their destination. It takes as little as 48 hours to get from the southwest border to most points in the continental United States. Points along these highway arteries that formerly were considered off the beaten track, like rural enclaves in North Carolina, Ohio, and Utah, have become outposts for well-armed transnational crime syndicates and the lucrative smuggling networks and street gangs that sustain them.
Local law enforcement officers in the affected areas are irate over the planned closures. The sheriff of Potter County, located in the Texas panhandle, said the loss of the nearby station would affect his agency “tremendously,” as his county is a major corridor for smugglers. “I can’t hold a carload of people out there on I-40 for eight hours while somebody comes from El Paso,” Sheriff Brian Thomas told Fox News.
CBP maintains that ICE will pick up the slack. But ICE has not been given additional staff to do so. Besides, under the Obama administration policies, ICE’s enforcement activities have been severely curtailed and politicized, to the point where agents are directed to target only individual illegal aliens who are already in jail for something else, or who are repeat immigration scofflaws. They may not respond to referrals of illegal aliens that result from traffic stops and are expected to look the other way when vanloads of smuggled aliens are discovered. Disrupting the criminal organizations that each year bring in hundreds of thousands of new illegal workers is not a priority for this administration.
Current and former Border Patrol agents, county sheriffs, and a few members of Congress have protested. But if the recent past is any guide, these objections will be ignored. Congress, through the appropriations process, could force the administration to keep the stations open. However, Congress is in a state of gridlock and preoccupied with many other matters.
This gridlock has enabled the White House to proceed unchecked in its scheme to dismantle immigration law enforcement through executive fiat. Lacking congressional and public support for enacting a massive amnesty for illegal aliens, over the past two years they have implemented a long list of changes that have stemmed the outflow of illegal immigrants brought on by the faltering economy, Bush-era enforcement strategies, and state action.
Each move has been fairly narrowly focused and spaced out in time: draw down the National Guard at the border; substitute virtual fencing for real fencing; forbid Border Patrol agents from screening bus and train passengers; cancel partnership agreements with local law enforcement agencies known as 287(g); dismiss immigration court cases by the thousands; sue states that enact tough laws; forbid worksite raids in favor of audits that avoid contact with illegal workers — the list goes on and on. The new Dream Act amnesty for roughly one million illegal aliens under the age of 30 is the latest and boldest example.
States can step in, either using the Supreme Court-endorsed approaches, like mandatory E-Verify and immigration checks by police, or more direct measures like those adopted in Texas, which now has a state fleet of gun boats to patrol the Rio Grande.
But ultimately it will take a big change in the balance of power in Washington, D.C., to derail the Obama administration’s scheme and rebuild an effective border control program.
If Obama is going to go to war against Arizona and Texas, he at least ought to ask Congress for a formal declaration.
Feral Cat,
We know that the Usurper-in-Chief has been at war with the US since his adolescence. However, as POTUS he has the ability to destroy the ‘miserable house from within, ala the Brotherhood.
Therefore, his open sesame border ‘policy’ is of peace with his anti-American policies. You may be interested in some of my blog posts, regarding this issue. My latest should be of interest – http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/07/14/the-redgreen-alliance-the-ties-that-bind-hillary-clinton-huma-abedin-compromise-us-national-security-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki-36/, pay attention to the links too.
And, this one too – http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/07/13/islam-blood-a-groundbreaking-policy-paper-contained-herein-the-world-stands-on-a-precipice-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki-109/.
Pass it around…..we (in Israel and in the US) are fighting a common enemy(the Red/Green alliance), and facing the fight of our lives!
This guy either never intended to have a 2nd term, or he never intended to vacate the office once in. His behavior this week points to the scarier of the two alternatives.
If he intends to be President for Life, then he most likely will be President for Life. It will also be a very short life, ended by a gunshot fired by a member of the US Military, at the order of the legitimately elected President who succeeds him. So sure, if he wishes to be President for the rest of his life, he can have his wish, at the price of an early grave.
These closings have nothing to do with the border and everything to do with gaining the hispanic vote and making it easier for drug traffickers. I would not be surprised if the Obama campaign is not laundering some drug money for a share of the proceeds.
The democrats have always made a lot of money off the “war on drugs”. Donations funneled through the police and prison unions and trial lawyers association, all of who’s ranks have been swelled by this stupidity go where?
Some have speculated that Fast and Furious may have involved just that.
This works perfectly after arming 10,000 mexiacan drug soldiers with assault weapons, ammunition, night vision, bullet proof vest, RPG’s and grenades. How incredibly convenient. Arm his personal Army and then create a personal passage for them to come across the border with no resistance. Just saying! Folks, something very dark and ugly is heading our way!
I don’t know what the “Hispanic vote” is because there is no such race group(gene pool). There are the East Asians: the Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Burmese, and a few more race groups. The Chinese is such a big group that is often broken down to the Han and Mandarin. There are the Caucasians. There are the Indians, who have several subgroups from the Hindustans, Sindhs and Tamils. There are several native Americans races. There are the Aborigines, too.
But there are no Hispanics. That name was cooked up by Richard Nixon in a cynical ploy for political advantage that backfired and went on to become a mainstay of the socialist party.
There are, however, several meso-American race groups. Aztecs and Maya come to mind along our southern border. So do the Inca. To the east you have the Carib, from which the great legal mind and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor sprang.
Let’s call them what they are. Why such a lack of pride in one’s race by so many groups?
Sen. Marco Rubio should be ashamed of himself for falsely self-identifying with this Hispanic fiction. It’s always been a loser for the Republicans.
This is just one part of a larger agenda to help speed the destruction of American culture. A North American Union is the goal.
Outstanding Devil Dog. But are you and the other commenters going to do about it?
Combined with Obama’s gutting of welfare reform (which also happened this week),
http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/13/will-obama-get-away-with-it/
it’s clear that Obama is trying to put together a coalition of all the groups that vote hard-left: Blacks, Hispanics, gays and lesbians, welfare recipients, environmentalists, feminists, etc.
Let’s just hope they don’t make up a majority in the nation.
They don’t need a majority (population) just 50.1% (politically) because they control all the levers of power: MSM, local, state and federal governments, wealth, academia, net, and banking. Which they have been working on for 70 years. But they will reach the majority-minority in a few years.
Jessica, one item truly ‘jumped out’ during my read of your otherwise fine article. When you express that gridlock in Congress enabled the White House (read…and rightly so Obama)to dismantle immigration law through executive fiat? Gridlock enabled POTUS to do this? Sorry, a little edit please: POTUS in a purely unlawful manner executed what is clearly an illegal ‘fiat’ to ignore the law, and give aliens considering an unlawful entering of America a true ‘carrot’. With the understanding that if they cross the border successfully, they will not be subject to the deportaion law of the U.S. and enjoy all of the benefits of a civil society that is very welcoming. So, THERE! Semper Fi.
Boogalie,
I agree that Obama’s executive actions are probably illegal. But Congress has the authority to stop most of them through their control of executive agencies’ budgets. The House has already voted to stop some of the most egregious pro-illegal alien Obama policies. But the Senate will never go along, so the White House gets its way. That’s what I mean by gridlock — without a consensus between the chambers of Congress, the President can pretty much do what he wants. jv
Well, that WAS the whole point of 2010 – to put a break on the libs bullet proof congress. We knew we never did have enough elected officials up for reelection in 2010 and it had to be a two-pronged attack.
And BTW – we already have more than enough laws on the books to control illegal immigration. The fed pressuring local law enforcement NOT to enforce those laws is another major problem. Add to that the judicial activism that forces states to clothe, feed, house, educated and medically treat these illegals is just a criminal war-crime against this invasion into our country.
There are 70 million of these invaders – which is the same tactic islamists use to overwhelm their intended target to culturally overwhelm them – then DARE the host population to DO something against women and children. If they had guns they’d be more honest, but they’d also alert the host population to their intentions.
I wonder if this article and the one about Obama gutting welfare reform don’t signal the belief that Obama will lose in November. It will be “Republicans want to put arsenic in your drinking water” again as Border Stations are reopened (racists!) and work requirements are reinstated (war on the poor!!). It’s just another example that Official Washington doesn’t care about the country, they only care about their little political games. Rome only had one Nero, we’re got several hundred thousand of them.
No borders,no Rome!
here’s a thought…why dont we take all the recent grads without jobs and kids from urbangansta land and make them unarmed border guards we can surge the support into various area. Not only minimum wage but any one that gets say 10 illegals nailed gets a guarenteed job with some company (just like returning veterans) when their tour is up….
hey we can use them right there in the cities to do sweeps and they can go home at night…..
and for the comment above worried about a coalition of the Takers…how about a MAKER General Strike…every business closed…all of who work take vacation or leave with out pay…or just quit…withdraw all funds from banks and investments….lets collapse the system and watch the takers die on the vine
Truth be known, interior enforcement (or lack thereof) is the core, missing ingredient of any meaningful immigration control. Without it, illegals know they are home free, and, I suspect, pro-illegal immigration advocates do, too. Closing the 9 Border Patrol stations may not have much impact on it, but no administration has done anything meaningful to truly make immigration laws already on the books have teeth because interior enforcement is in name only, and always has been. ICE goes after smuggling rings after months of investigations, but the Border Patrol method is more simply to go out and hunt people down. Both methods have their value, but without rounding people up in interior cities via roving patrols, serious business inspections and the like, aliens are scot-free otherwise. Sanctuary cities must go, and the American public will have to stomach a different way of life of watching immigration officials cuffing whole groups of illegals in their cities to have real effect on this problem. Border states are used to it, but most people in the interior US have no idea what real enforcement looks like.
The last thing Obama wants is effective border control. What I think is criminal is the fact that he’s doing this just to get more votes from hispanics. Think about that. Obama is risking the security of this nation by allowing criminals and possibly terrorists to cross over into this country, just so he can get a few votes. If that isn’t criminal, I don’t know what is. The man should have been impeached a long time ago, either for his reckless disregard for the law when it comes illegal aliens, or for the Fast and Furious scandal. Take your pick. Ironically, both have to do with our southern border with Mexico.
Well of course, got to get those ‘New Americans’ in so the can vote the ‘right way’ in November!
Well, at least the USDA has been called on the carpet over its “novelas” on Spanish language soap operas, extolling the availability of food stamps/EBT cards and the wonderfulness of free stuff to Latinos (legal and illegal) in America.
Advertisements we the American taxpayer pay for.
Is this a great country or what?
Ilive near Billings, and family in TwinFalls, there’s no border around those towns? Confused
Thank God for the Pacific ocean or we could be watching a billion people wading ashore looking for a job!
Welfare queens, motor voters and drive-by borders – The Democratic Nirvana.
And this makes the border safer.
Maybe this will be like in Chicago, where they can move police away from the crime situation, and expect it to get better.
Or better yet in the lib/dem/thuggish world of obozo and his cronies, we can ask illegal immigrants to be nice to us, and not violate the law.
Let’s get real; why the hell do we need border stations with Canada? How many of those were purely the result of earmarks and not actual need?
Perhaps you’re not aware that a great many illegals from Asia and the Middle East first fly to Canada and then cross the border.
My father entered the Border Patrol in 1940; went off to war; came back and picked up where he left off. I put in a career as an INS agent.
Around 1992 he asked me, “Do you think this country is becoming decadent?” At the time I didn’t quite know how to respond to that. Now I do.
Now we have to quit being tolerant of evil and decide what we are going to do about it.
Wave a white flag or have it fitted to you as a hood. Resolve has disappeared in America and voters turned so PC stupid they just don’t get it.
Four years ago I started beating the drum that Obama’s true intent was to destroy America. Today, I get the uneasy feeling half of this country couldn’t care less.
If Obama isn’t beaten on November 6, I’m afraid the nation’s better half will discover what it felt like to be in the Alamo the morning of March 6, 1836.
So, the drug cartels are donating huge sums of money to our politicians?
I don’t know, tinzz. Are they? Bribery is a time-honored tradition in both Mexican and Chicago-style politics.
Why does it seem as if the administration has worked to keep the border as wide open as possible?
Why was BATFE’s Project Gunrunner re-worked in 2009 to yield Operation Fast and Furious?
Who else has covertly crossed the border in addition to the drug gangsters, welfare seekers and relatively honest workers?
“Closing nine patrol stations signals …” one more nail in the Obama re-election plan. Americans have varying ideas on how to deal with the illegal immigrants that are already here, but a majority of Americans reject any plan that includes amnesty, and a much larger majority of Americans want the borders secured, first and foremost.
CLEARLY, this is not the position of the Obama administration, as underlined with this latest political move.
So how many ACORN troops does Obama have on the border to replace our overwhelmed border-control officers (now that he’s softened our defenses with months of Fast & Furious collusion with the enemy)?
Guaranteed, if Obama had closed 9 stations along the border – and relocated the agents to interior posting – this exact same article would have been written to the exact same reaction from the exact same people. Just replace the current version’s unsubstantiated proclamations of interior enforcement being the key to stopping illegal immigration with florid pronouncements of the absolute necessity of attacking illegal immigration at its source, the border.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/13/mexican-drug-cartels-spreading-influence-graphic/
Excellent graphic on the subject of this article from Canada’s National Post newspaper.
What is the next step? Maybe the low flying planes, five miles South of the Border, scattering “SAFE PASSAGE” leaflets good through Noevmber 6, 2012, redeemable at any U S Polling Place!
DON’T WORRY ABOUT OBAMA 2ND. TERM! OBAMA IS STARTING TO CRACK UP, TOO MUCH ON HIM, TO MANY LIES, THERE CATCHING UP, WATCH AND SEE?