In Ann Coulter’s column today in Townhall, Ann talks a bit about the New York Times (as she often does) and how they are misrepresenting the opinion of Americans (as they often do.)  Specifically, she mentions how they have completely misinterpreted (probably intentionally) the attitude of voters vis á vis illegal immigration.  Well, I’m not going to sit here and rehash a column to which I’ve already provided a link, I’m here to talk about my own thoughts on the issue.

I work currently as a contractor for Customs and Border Protection, the agency responsible for making sure that people and things that ought not be here do not come in.  As you might imagine, that is a far more difficult task than it sounds, but that’s what they do.  Recently, as a part of my job, I had to travel to Tucson, AZ and work with several members of the Border Patrol as they learned the ins and outs of a new system intended to help secure our borders.  I’m not going to bore you with a rant either for or against the Secure Border Initiative (SBInet).  Plenty of ink and electrons have been spent on the task already.  (Just “Google” SBI to see what’s out there.)  No, I’m here to relate my thoughts about what I saw and heard while I was down there, on the front line, as it were.

First and foremost, the Border Patrol (BP) have, of course, to contend with their target audience: Illegal aliens, people smugglers, and drug smugglers.  The aliens themselves, being in situations where they don’t want to call attention to themselves, are generally (though not always) docile when confronted by BP agents.  They end up being more a danger to themselves than to the agents.  Crossing the Arizona desert is more than simply a case of climbing a fence near Nogales.  The area I was working in, a relatively high traffic area for illegals, was about 90 miles from Tucson and about 30 miles from anything that even resembled a population center.  It was located on an Indian reservation quite literally in the middle of the desert.  They walk across the border (Climbing fences, bringing ladders, etc. when necessary) and across miles of desert until they can get to something resembling civilization.  The traffic is seasonal.   Summertime, being when more jobs are available that “Americans won’t do” is the high season.  In southern Arizona, it’s also blisteringly hot (100+ most days and frequently 110+), and it’s the “monsoon season.”  Torrential rains hit the area in July and August causing flash floods, especially in the washes (dry stream- and riverbeds) that are common in the area.  Those washes are where the illegals travel to help themselves hide. 

For water, the illegals will often make do with what they can find.  It’s a desert, after all.  Cattle are common in that part of the world, and there are water troughs used by the farmers to keep their cattle alive.  These troughs are filled with stagnant water, mixed with cattle leavings (Cows don’t really care where they execute their basic bodily functions).  It’s not “don’t drink the water” so much as it is “don’t touch the water.” 

In short, illegals take their lives into their own hands by not waiting in line.  The BP agents, having also to contend with the scrutiny of a media that hates the mission of people charged with enforcing the law, do their level best to keep the illegals from dying from the heat, floods, contaminated water and toxic fauna that the desert has to offer.

Those who say that most illegals are totally harmless and don’t commit other crimes are apparently unfamiliar with what illegals do for shelter.  Since they have no money, no job, and no supplies, illegals will break into houses as they come across them, steal food, water, money and other items, and then move along.  This happens not just in lonely, desolate places in the middle of the desert, but in Tucson and the other cities and towns in the south of Arizona.  Hollywood often has stories about people who need to “steal to survive” and we are supposed to have sympathy for them.  But no one thinks to depict people “stealing to survive” because of a situation into which they put themselves, as is the case with illegals.

Adding significant hardship to the already difficult chore of singlehandedly rounding up 120 illegals (which most agents agree is about the most anyone gets by themselves) are the hardened criminals that the BP has to deal with: People smugglers and drug runners.  Smuggling of just about any sort is, by definition, a lucrative business.  If there is no market for an illegal item, people aren’t going to risk life, limb, and the law to transport it.  There’s plenty of market for getting people and drugs over the border, making both big money-making enterprises.  Where there’s illegal money, there’s also guns.  Since smugglers can’t rely on the law to protect their businesses (in fact, the law is trying to stop their enterprise) smugglers arm themselves to ensure they can be paid at the end of the deal.  Since, as I just said, the law is essentially trying to stop them from making money, smugglers take a dim view of anyone with a badge.  BP agents are shot at, and sometimes killed in the line of duty, because they are trying to stop drug- and people-smuggling.  In fact, the lonely road I had to take each day to go to my work location was the scene of no fewer than two shootouts involving drug and people smuggling in the three weeks I was there.  That’s just the ones I heard about. 

Aside from their target audience, the BP agents have to deal with a media sympathetic to the “plight” of those “poor undocumented immigrants.”  Media outlets, like the New York Times, who would prefer to see millions of poor Mexicans displace the rich, fat, lazy Americans who oppress everyone else.  Because the BP has to put the hundreds of illegals they can catch in a night somewhere, they have to put them into some sort of holding cell.  Of course, the media descends upon those detention areas like hungry piranhas on a cow, looking for any sign that they might be similar to Nazi Concentration Camps.  Allegations of “Human Rights” violations – such as BP agents going to a school when contacted by the cops and finding out that the kid who just tried to sell marijuana on school grounds is an illegal and the child of illegals – are reported as though they are the equivalent of Saddam Hussein gassing a town of 10,000 of his own people.  Add to this the politicians who want that all important illegal-immigrant vote, and therefore give incentives for people to make the long, arduous journey across our most hostile terrain such as welfare benefits, drivers licenses, in-state tuition in college, etc. and you make the job of the BP agent that much more difficult.

Amnesty pushes, providing services for illegals, shoddy reporting, and unfounded accusations of “human rights” violations serve only to dishonor and disparage the brave men and women who patrol our borders.  Their job is tough, the conditions they work in are far more difficult than just about anyone who looks at the Townhall site, and it’s all done without the thanks of the people who benefit from their services.  We need to stop giving people incentives to break the law.  We need to put more agents on the border, and we may need to change immigration law so the people who want to come over and work hard and assimilate into our culture can do so more easily.  But we also have to keep those Border Patrol agents in mind, and consider the work they have to do before going at them with guns blazing because they couldn’t save one illegal from death by heatstroke.

HJG

The worlds of violence and professional sports met again with tragic consequences this past weekend.  And this time it kind of affects yours, truly, because it was a star player on my favorite team.  Washington Redskins star defensive back Sean Taylor was shot in the leg early Monday morning, lingered for a little more than 24 hours, and died early Tuesday (27 November).  He was 24.  The cause of death, while not announced at the time of this writing, seems to have been massive blood loss from a severed femoral artery, the artery that runs through the groin and supplies the leg.  The shooting was apparently part of an attempted burglary, the second in 8 days at the Taylor home. 

Taylor had been playing particularly well this season, and was tied for third in the league in interceptions despite having missed the last two games because of a knee injury.  The team’s drafting of another defensive back this year allowed Taylor to continue his hard-hitting style of play while also allowing him to play pass defense while the new guy, LaRon Landry, could take over blitzing and playing the run.  (You non-football fans who have no idea what I just said will have to take my word for it.  He was a good player and getting better.)  Taylor’s injuries hurt the Redskins and analysts have noted that his absence contributed to two of their three consecutive losses.

Now he’s dead, cut down in a senseless act of random violence.  Taylor had had a somewhat shady past.  He had plead guilty last year to brandishing a weapon in a dispute over stolen all-terrain-vehicles in 2005.  His teammates have noted that Taylor had grown as a person over the last year and a half or so, since the birth of his daughter.  They say he was becoming more responsible, more humble, and an all around more decent person.  The only hope is that the people are caught and delivered appropriately to justice.

As I indicated at the beginning of this piece, this isn’t the first time a professional athlete has been involved in a violent crime this year.  A Denver Broncos defensive back was shot to death in January.  Two professional basketball players were the victims of burglaries and assaults over the summer.  Professional wrestler Chris Benoit went insane – due to brain damage caused by multiple concussions over his career – and strangled his wife and young son before hanging himself.  The Atlanta Falcons’ (and former Virginia Tech) star quarterback Michael Vick plead guilty to running a dog fighting ring in which he was alleged to have killed dogs in ways that disgusted the jury and others who were familiar with the situation.

The first reaction to any of this sort of thing is often to find some cause for the violence.  Usually in the media it comes out as a question about the perpetrator’s past, or the availability of guns, or societal issues, or whatever.  Anything to take the blame off the perpetrator of the violence.  (Except in Vick’s case.  Since the victims were animals, even Vick’s being black couldn’t save him from being made out to be the worst person since Osama bin Laden, and perhaps even worse.  After all, Osama only killed people.  Vick was violent toward defenseless animals.)

In the case of Sean Taylor, and all the people who meet a violent end, we can only pray that their families can find peace, that the police can find the murderers, and that their souls can, eventually, find heaven.

HJG