WE'VE GOT TO PROTECT OUR

WE’VE GOT TO PROTECT OUR PHONEY-BALONEY JOBS! Michelle Malkin, who’s done yeoman work on the “Snipergate” story, writes:

Border Patrol agent Keith Olson, the arresting officer in Bellingham, Wash., who was responsible for obtaining the fingerprints of illegal alien sniper suspect Lee Malvo last December, has been the subject of two internal investigations during the past three weeks. Instead of pinning a medal on his chest and giving Olson a raise for taking the prints of Malvo that eventually led to his arrest in the Washington, D.C., area killing spree, federal officials are conducting a probe of his conduct.

Meanwhile, Border Patrol agent Daryl Schermerhorn has been castigated by an INS higher-up for publicly criticizing the decision by federal immigration authorities to release Malvo and his illegal alien mother earlier this year pending deportation proceedings.

Malkins quotes an swarmy and belligerent email sent on October 30th by the assistant regional director in the INS Western Regional Office in Laguna Niguel, CA to Schermerhorn, which was copied to nearly 50 other INS employees:

“Nobody, not even a person of your monumental intelligence, could have predicted what path the young Mr. Malvo would take.Your agenda, whatever it may be, is counterproductive to the thousands of [detention and removal] personnel who are doing their best in spite of the limitations placed upon them by Congress, uncooperative foreign consulates, [non-governmental organizations], pro bono attorneys, special interest groups, ect. [sic] Have you ever detained a non-criminal mother and her 16 year old child for a lengthy period of time? Have you had to face the wrath of the above mentioned groups?”

How very 1990s of INS. They just don’t get it. We’re used to Federal agencies being slack, expensive and wasteful during peace. But we expect results during war. As Malkin writes, “will a $37 billion Homeland Security Department prevent another Malvogate? As long as federal immigration authorities remain more committed to stifling whistleblowers instead of protecting them: Fat chance.”