We usually get to the airport for our flight a couple of hours early. Long lines indicate that we have found the right boarding gate. We walk through a metal detector. Travel bags are scanned and sometimes opened and checked. Our belts and shoes are often the subject of much scrutiny and review.
Good luck to our well-prepared travel plan if we are unfortunate enough to have the same name as somebody on the country's no-fly list. We have been told by the government that this time-consuming process is necessary for homeland security and to insure the safety of the public. In truth, this tedious process just to enter an airplane makes us feel that, despite all the inconvenience, at least we are doing our own small part to assist the government in its primary job of protecting our national security.
This is exactly why the recent incident along the United States border with Mexico, and the State Department's subsequent incoherent response, should leave every American citizen who values the importance of homeland security frustrated, furious, and feeling insecure.
Consider that a Tucson Border Patrol agent recently encountered four Mexican soldiers wearing desert camouflage and carrying weapons as he patrolled a border road in the Tohono O'Odham nation southwest of Tucson. The agent was held by the Mexican military at gunpoint for four minutes as he spoke to them in English and Spanish before he carefully reached for the radio in his back pocket in order to call for help. The Mexican soldiers took flight back across the border, into Mexico, only when other agents were seen in the distance responding to his call for help.
According to the Department of State this incident was just an unfortunate accident. Here is the statement from the Department of State's spokesman. "Our understanding is that this encounter stemmed from a momentary misunderstanding as to the exact location of the U.S.-Mexican border."
However, despite that dubious statement from the State Department, there is no real need to buy the soldiers of the Mexican army a GPS navigational system. The border in that area of the southwest is pretty clearly defined. This was no misunderstanding or accident.
Indeed, the Mexican soldier's action was planned, as it has been on many other occasions, for years. In fact, since 1996, there have been more than 200 confirmed incursions by the Mexican military across the United States border. Consider that there have been more than forty similar incidents along the Mexican border in this calendar year alone.
The truth is, the Tohono O'Odham border is frequently crossed by human and drug smugglers from Mexico. U.S. law enforcement authorities know that current and former Mexican military personnel have been hired to protect drug and migrant smugglers. Therefore, the smuggling process for illegal human and drug traffic across the border, assisted by Mexican soldiers, is certainly not any accident. In fact, it has become an illegal process that is now not even as time-consuming as an American boarding an airplane.
Mexican soldiers are motivated by a payoff from the Mexican drug cartel for their assistance. They cross the border and threaten at gunpoint a United States border patrol agent. The agent is allowed to respond by calling for border patrol backup. Other agents along the Mexican border leave their locations to assist the agent being held at gunpoint. After they are seen coming to the agent's rescue, the Mexican soldiers flee back across the border into the safety of Mexico.
The incident is successful in relocating the border patrol agents who need to move to rescue the hostage agent. This displacement of the border patrol agents allows planned entry into the United States for illegal drugs and illegitimate human traffic. Then, the incident is reported by the border patrol and the scripted response of an unfortunate accident or misunderstanding by Mexican soldiers from the Department of State is always the same.
Every day, from all walks of life, Americans do their part for the vital cause of homeland security. Is it really too much to ask that the United States Government better support their effort? What it takes is only what should be expected. To enforce the existing immigration laws, and to better support and protect border patrol agents. This can easily be achieved by increasing border security and by holding the Mexican government accountable for its frequent military invasion of the United States border.
Indeed, a more aggressive approach by the United States government to support the dedicated agents on patrol along the Mexican border would certainly make standing in those long airport lines in the name of homeland security a lot easier for many Americans to understand.
James William Smith has worked in Senior management positions for some of the largest Financial Services firms in the United States for the last twenty five years. He has also provided business consulting support for insurance organizations and start up businesses. Visit his website at http://www.eworldvu.com or his daily blog at http://www.eworldvublog.blogspot.com
|
