[AGL] Border Patrol

[Gerry]

The government has been trying to expand the Border Patrol for years. Ideal candidates are bi-lingual natives of the border states, ie young Mexican/American men in good physical condition with high school diplomas. But the quotas go unfilled in spite of all kinds of "incentives" (money). Now our president is bringing in the National Guard to help compensate for the lack of BP. The requirements for guardsmen are much lower than those of border patrolmen. But we are being told that the guard on the border will be a stopgap measure, filling in until more BP are trained. What a bunch of crap. There is not likely to be an sudden rush of qualified candidates joining the patrol. As a matter of fact, it will be difficult to maintain current levels as many of the recruits aren't staying on the job. And with all the various assignments from Afghanistan to Iraq to the Gulf Coast to the Mexican border it is increasingly difficult to recruit more National Guardsmen.

The main reason for reluctance on the part of qualified youth to join the BP is the nature of the job, busting Mexican migrants who want to come to the US to work and have a future. In most every case the ancestors of these youth were in the same position not long ago. It's like busting your grandfather. Those who do join the BP are usually turned off by the working conditions, the rep this kind of work gives them back home in their neighborhoods, the pressure from higher-ups, etc. It's a bad gig even though it pays pretty well. What to do? How to glamorize the job to make it more attractive? 

The failure of meeting the quotas is a big contributor to the greater issue which raises the greatest question of all: can we actually patrol the Mexican border effectively? The answer to this question continues to be: probably not. Why is this? It is too great an area in too remote a locale. It is hot and dusty and lonely and scary and vast. What's more the desperation of the migrants fuels a willpower which would appear to exceed the willpower of those who are trying to stop them. So far there is a great show going on, all kinds of flashy equipment and uniforms and radar and satellite imagery, and heat sensing, motion detecting devices which costs tons of money. Lots of guns too. Problem is all of this technology is only show. It doesn't work. They are still crossing in droves and nothing that has been tried thus far works. I laughed last week at a photo of a fence built on private land by the Minutemen. It was 4' high barbed wire--with little American flags atop each post. This is typical of the utterly ridiculous attempts to "shut down" the border.

Two more deaths reported today in the western New Mexico region. That makes 27 so far this year. The weather in this area at present could not be worse, daily temps in the high 90's to low 100's. There is a major drought in place and the desert is not providing much in the way of greenery nor water. The big winds which are common in the spring are still around blowing dust in great clouds. Oh yeah, don't forget the drug wars that are also raging along the border, smugglers representing private narco armies are operating in the area as well. Who in their right mind would want to work in these conditions? Not the targeted recruits, that's for sure.

Remember the tactics the US Army used to ultimately track down Geronimo? Apache scouts. Maybe that's the answer on the border. Recruit migrants to be the border patrol. They will work for much less and could not be less effective than the current patrol.
G

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