Bonner, Bauer Say Bush Budget Gives Border Patrol Short-Shrift
by Chad Groening and Jenni Parker
March 7, 2005
(AgapePress) - A 27-year veteran of the Border Patrol is calling the Bush administration to task for failing to hire more 2,000 more agents that were already budgeted by Congress.T.J. Bonner is president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents some 10,000 non-supervisory U.S. Border Patrol agents. He says the Bush administration has cut the Border Patrol's overall budget by $80 million.
Also, Bonner says the White House plans to replace less than half of the agents lost through attrition last year, "even though the Intelligence Reform Bill called for 2,000 agents per year for the next five years." But despite that promise, he notes, "The down payment, if you will, is 210."
The National Border Patrol Council spokesman notes that it can be quite discouraging for those involved in protecting U.S. borders when government leaders and decision-makers fail to demonstrate commitment to resolving their issues. "It is pretty distressing to the folks out there putting their lives on the line to find out that there's not a lot of willingness on the part of the administration, at least, to back up the talk," he says.
"They have this policy that's pretty much a one-way street," Bonner says. "Mexico can run over the top of us, send millions of people here, who export billions of our dollars back to their country, and there doesn't seem to be any benefit to us in this relationship."
Equally perplexing, Bonner adds, is "this administration's inability to connect the dots to see that there's a direct relationship between border security and homeland security." Nevertheless, he says he hopes Congress will override the president's request and fully fund the increases in personnel and the resources necessary to protect the U.S. against terrorism at home.
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Gary Bauer |
Conservative analyst Gary Bauer of the group American Values says he, too was hopeful last December when Congress and the White House agreed to pass legislation authorizing the hiring of 2,000 new Border Patrol agents yearly for five years. However, when he saw that the budget recently sent to Capitol Hill provided for only about a tenth of that number, he observed that, apparently, "the devil is in the details."Bauer says he does indeed want to see the nation's budget balanced, but he believes this is the wrong place to look for savings. "With all the fraud and waste inherent in big government, why, oh, why are we pinching pennies on something as central to our future as border security?" he asks.
The American Values spokesman observes that only a few weeks ago, Homeland Security officials told a congressional committee that Al Qaeda operatives are seeking access to the United States through Mexico, and in 2003, about 5 percent of captured illegal immigrants crossing the southern border were OTMs or "Other than Mexicans."
Bauer says Senate liberals immediately went on the attack over the agents missing from the budget. He warns that, if another September 11-type of attack occurs and it involves terrorists that entered the United States illegally, the political backlash against the White House and the GOP would be devastating.
