Border Patrol Vet Praises Agents ... but Blasts White House
by Chad Groening
March 2, 2005
(AgapePress) - A 27-year veteran of the U.S. Border Patrol says his agency is literally overwhelmed by the millions of illegal aliens who are crossing the nation's southern border with Mexico. The long-time agent says attacks against Border Patrol agents are up.T.J. Bonner is president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union which represents more than 10,000 non-supervisory Border Patrol employees. Bonner says there are deadly consequences of letting just anyone cross the U.S.-Mexico border -- and he refutes the argument that illegal aliens are just poor people seeking a better life.
"We regularly encounter people who are not just coming across looking for work -- drug smugglers [for example]," he says. "In fact, I believe in our Tucson, Arizona, sector alone, ... our assaults are up dramatically this year; I think it's about 118 assaults against our officers."
And the threat of terrorism as a result of the illegal border crossings is real, he says. "There are deadly consequences of allowing just anyone to come across our borders," he shares. "Every year, literally millions of people get by the Border Patrol. As hard as we work, we're just simply overwhelmed with the volume of traffic coming across that border."
According to the veteran Border Patrol agent, those seeking to harm his nation could be among those that get by. "Let's say that it's a one-in-a-million chance that a terrorist gets in," he conjectures. "Well, that means that several terrorists can get in every year -- and it only took 19 terrorists to carry out the attacks of September 11."
But Bonner says despite being overwhelmed by illegal border crossings, there is no one more patriotic than thousands of men and women who serve with the Border Patrol and put their lives on the line every hour of the day, every day of the week. "You're not going to find anyone who stands closer to the flag than the men and women who wear the green uniform of the United States Border Patrol," he says.
The National Border Patrol Council recently criticized President Bush's budget decision that slashed the Border Patrol's budget by $80 million and replaces less than half of the number of agents lost through attrition last year. The organization calls that a "shortsighted" approach, and notes that the federal government allocates more money for transporting illegal aliens back to their hometown free of charge than it does for hiring agents to stop such illegal entries.
"The Bush administration continually fails to grasp the connection between border security and homeland security," Bonner states. "[I]t is shortchanging our first lines of defense against terrorism at home."
Chad Groening, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a news reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
