Hundreds of Border Patrol agents to be cut on U.S.-Mexico border

The Department of Homeland Security will cut hundreds of Border Patrol agents from the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the department’s annual performance report.

CNSNews.com published this last week:

Even though the Border Patrol now reports that almost 1,300 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border is not under effective control, and the Department of Justice says that vast stretches of the border are “easily breached,” and the Government Accountability Office has revealed that three persons “linked to terrorism” and 530 aliens from “special interest countries” were intercepted at Border Patrol checkpoints last year, the administration is nonetheless now planning to decrease the number of Border Patrol agents deployed on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Border Patrol Director of Media Relations Lloyd Easterling said that his agency is planning for a total decrease of 384 agents on the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal 2010, which began Thursday. The article continued:

While the U.S. government may be failing to exert effective control over most of the border, identical language in the ndic [National Drug Intelligence Center] reports for Arizona and West Texas said that drug trafficking organizations have set up “gatekeeper” operations that control smuggling into the U.S. and levy taxes on the smugglers they let through.”Gatekeepers regulate the drug flow from Mexico across the U.S.-Mexico border into the United States by controlling drug smugglers’ access to areas along the border,” said the Arizona and West Texas ndic reports. “Gatekeepers collect ‘taxes’ from smugglers on all illicit shipments that are moved through these areas, including drugs and illegal aliens.”

Here is what we wrote in 2005 about the dangers of our unsecured southern border:

There is no mistaking the fact that weak immigration policies and practices are contributing to the economic and societal destruction of America, Britain and Canada. Combine these facts with the probability that terrorists are penetrating our porous borders and setting up camp, and we should easily recognize the severity of the immigration issue. This is a serious problem. National security is on the line.

Much attention has recently been given to the question of whether President Barack Obama will increase U.S. troop deployment in Afghanistan, but few are discussing this decision to substantially reduce the number of agents deployed on the U.S.’s own southern border.

For information about the dangers posed by deteriorating border security, read our article “How Terrorists Could Get Into the U.S.”