Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Badges? We Don't Need No - Wait, Yes We Do

Our president, in response to growing furor about the security of our borders, is sending twelve hundred troops down Mexico way to stem the tide. He will also request five hundred million dollars for border protection and law enforcement activities. This move was made in hopes of keeping Congress from voting on pretty much the exact same thing. Am I supposed to be relieved that it's the guy I voted for doing something that I don't like, or would I rather have the pinheads in Congress argue about it and then do it anyway?
Tough call. For the time being this will have to suffice as "immigration reform." The National Guard troops will temporarily supplement Border Patrol agents until Customs and Border Protection can recruit and train additional officers and agents to serve on the border. Back in 2006, President Pinhead sent troops south to perform support duties that tie up immigration agents. That program has since ended, and governors of those states just north of the Rio Grande are screaming for more help dealing with the human and drug smuggling. For his part, Maverick John McCain believes one thousand two hundred soldiers is simply not enough. He wants six thousand. Then again, he was only asking for an additional two hundred and fifty million dollars in funding. That's the way a Maverick does it.
Now the interesting bit: The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 prohibits federal military personnel and units of the National Guard under federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States. Is it our president's intent to send our soldiers down to Nogales to catch up on some filing? Then there's some geometry to consider. The border between the United States and Mexico is nearly two thousand miles long. If the plan is to give each National Guardsman his own mile or two to patrol, then I hope some of that five hundred million dollars goes toward night vision goggles and a lot of coffee. There are currently more than twenty thousand Border Patrol officers on the job. Most of them, we are assured, are patrolling to the south. If I'm up north, I'm guessing the time is ripe for another Canadian invasion.

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