The Real Problem With The Border

Everything is Different Now

Over the four years since 9/11, the open border policy is finally getting the scrutiny it deserves. The 19 highjackers who were in our country illegally taking flight lessons , and were able to carry out the worst attack on American soil since the Civil War. In the days that followed we discovered who the attackers were and who masterminded the attack. There was much talk about vengeance, there was talk about what countries might be behind the attacks and there was talk about the victims and their families.

Open Gate

There was a little talk of Islam and Jihad. After all, the killers claimed they were doing this in the name of Allah. But there was no mention of our absurd border system. No mention of the fact that the 19 highjackers were all illegal aliens. By 2001, the media was already well under way to eliminating the term “Illegal Alien”. The PC friendly “Undocumented Workers” is still commonly in use to describe someone who has entered the country illegally or overstayed their visa. The citizenship status of the highjackers seemed to elude the media and the government.

Stray Dots

But our Border Patrol had already saved countless lives by stopping the Millennium Bomber at the Canadian border near Seattle, WA. The simple act of checking the trunk revealed the grim intentions of a al-Qaeda operative Ahmed Ressam. His plan, to blow up LAX on New Years was foiled by Customs Inspector Diana Dean. The first attack on the WTC was committed by non-resident Middle Easterners. The Rental truck full of explosives was parked in the garage under the north tower and detonated with the intent of bringing down the entire building. The simple act of a strict border policy would have prevented all of these attacks. The idea of fighting a War On Terror while leaving our borders exposed is nonsensical.

Needle in the Haystack

Homeland Security has assured us that even though they can’t stop the millions of Illegal aliens from entering our country every year, they can magically keep out the “OTM’s” (other than Mexicans). So far, 51 suspected terrorists have been caught trying to cross the southern border into the United States. This is proof that our border is perceived as an easy entry point by those who would do us harm.

The Evidence

America has always been an open society, embracing immigrants in policy if not always in practice. But the very nature of the terrorist threat is to manipulate our openness. The FBI director Robert Mueller testified to Congress that agents caught Hezbollah trying to smuggle operatives across into the US. In Texas, Recorded telephone conversations authorized under the U.S. Patriot Act and a court order captured the La Feria truck driver referring to the 20 men as “gente de Osama” or “Osama’s people.”

During a Jan. 5, 2005, telephone conversation, captured drug smuggler Noel Exinia described the men as “Iraqis,” ages 25 to 33, who were willing to pay $8,000 for transportation past Border Patrol checkpoints in South Texas and into the U.S. interior. Exinia mentioned that eight of the men were coming to Progreso, northwest of Brownsville. He said they were “dangerous” and “really bad people.” They carried guns and made the smuggler that was helping them “afraid.”

In South Carolina ,Rep. Sue Myrick said "Our main concern is: Who's in our state? This is a critical issue today. They just arrested, down on the border, a couple of weeks ago, three al-Qaeda members who came across from Mexico into the United States." Rep. Solomon Ortiz testified last march that Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, a gang founded in El Salvador and known for smuggling drugs and immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border, could be bringing terrorists with them. Reportedly, al-Qaeda pays MS-13 $250,000 to smuggle operatives into the US. It’s estimated there are 30,000 MS-13 gang members in the US.

There are many stories like these , all of them dwarfing the other concerns of the border issue. If America is going to win the War On Terror, it’s going to have to come to grips with the fact that the Mexican and Canadian borders are the principal method of infiltration for terrorists.