San Ysidro Port of Entry
Column By Mike Bibb
Reflecting a schism between two agencies of government, David Londo, president of the Air Marshal National Council, representing 3,000 air marshals, remarked, “Rank and file air marshals are going to refuse to deploy and risk termination.”
In other words, they believe protecting the safety of passengers on commercial aircraft is their primary responsibility. That’s what they’re hired and trained to do.
It’s a big job, considering the diminutive size of their department. Wikipedia says – “According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which regulates air traffic in the USA, 42,000 flights use more than 29 million square miles of airspace every day. They help around 2,587,000 passengers fly every day in and out of U.S. airports.”
Flight security and border protection – while similar in assignment – are entirely different situations.
Allegedly, Biden’s plan would greatly increase the risk of inflight physical confrontations by reducing the number of available air marshals.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, testified before Congress on Nov. 15, 2022, “You’re almost going to have a mutiny of a federal agency, which is unheard of.”
An odd statement coming from the same guy insisting, “Our border is secure.” If the border is secure, then why the need for air marshals to assist Border Patrol operations?
Mayorkas has been feeding us this bucket of slop long enough to gag a pig. No intelligent individuals – including members of Congress – takes him seriously.
Well, maybe, Joe Biden does. Then again, I’m not certain Joe knows where our southern border is since he’s never been there.
Coincidentally, Joe was recently asked if he was going to visit the border while in Arizona touring a new Taiwanese computer chip facility under construction.
From the White House lawn, a reporter inquired, “Sir, why go to a border state and not visit the border?”
Flippantly, Joe responded, “Because there are more important things going on. They are going to invest billions of dollars in a new enterprise in the state.”
Border. What border?!! Maybe an indication he has no idea what is going on along our southern boundary, or how much the mayhem is costing American taxpayers.
Obviously, not a high priority on Joe’s “To do list.”
After riding Air Force One 2,000 miles to Phoenix, he couldn’t, somehow, find the time to go another couple of hundred miles to Yuma or Nogales, and see for himself something he’s never seen in person.
Nope, after inspecting the Taiwan computer chip plant, he flew back to Washington.
Each time Joe takes one of these jaunts it costs millions of dollars in time, preparation, security enhancement, equipment, personnel, and coordination of all activities involved.
According to The Washington Examiner, Oct. 17, 2022, “President Joe Biden has logged more than one-quarter of his first 20 months in office away from the White House. Since January 2021, Biden has spent 238 days on unofficial rest and relaxation. He has traveled to his homes in Rehoboth Beach and Wilmington, Delaware, 55 times for a grand total of 174 days and spent 64 days at the official presidential retreat at Camp David, spread across 19 individual trips.”
Which is 238 more days than he’s spent visiting the Arizona or Texas/Mexico border.
Locally, we’ve witnessed a sample of “The border is secure” fiction/lie when a vehicle carrying nine illegal immigrants, plus driver, was apprehended at a convenience store a few miles south of Safford (The Gila Herald, Dec. 12, 2022).
Realistically, there is no telling how many human smuggling vehicles have passed through the area undetected, en route to other destinations. The enormity of the crisis is nearly incomprehensible.
Similar to an invading army meeting insufficient resistance, Joe Biden, our general-of-generals, doesn’t seem up to the task of even trying to repel the onslaught.
His ignoring border issues is a primary reason Border Patrol morale has plummeted. Reassigning border security personnel to non-enforcement humanitarian duties hasn’t been beneficial, either.
With thousands of migrants crossing into the U.S. daily, BP officers are more concerned with processing paperwork and providing food, shelter, and transportation than apprehensions.
This isn’t counting the multitude of “got aways” who have avoided detection and disappeared into the interior of our country. It’s estimated 15-20% of illegal border crossers are not taken into custody and their whereabouts are unknown.
Clearly, our Southwestern border is broken, and like Biden, Mayorkas is one of the reasons why.
Nevertheless, it’s apparent Border Patrol needs help, but dispatching air marshals to assist is kind of like Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, turning off the home’s security alarm system just before someone smacked him in the head. While his intention was problematical, the strategy was dangerously flawed.
We may never know what happened at the Pelosis’ residence that evening, as law enforcement, and media news continues to ignore the story.
Removing police protection from one important segment of government service, to provide custodial service to another agency doesn’t make much sense, either.
If the idea is freeing-up BP personnel to allow more enforcement, then couldn’t additional help be obtained from other departments of government whose missions are not as critical?
For instance, there’s the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Parks and Recreation, Internal Revenue Service, Environmental Protection Agency, military reserve units, and numerous other agencies could provide assistance.
With a federal workforce of over four million government and civilian employees, sending a few on temporary duty to the US/Mexico border shouldn’t be an overly difficult task.
Who knows, maybe even Joe and Kamala might eventually wander down there — just to see what all the commotion is about.
Or, here’s a novel idea: To help relieve tension and stress along the border, how about finishing and patrolling the damn wall. No one gets in unless they’re lawfully allowed to come in.
With an estimated 17 million illegal migrants already here, and increasing by over 200,000 a month, it won’t be long before our law enforcement, and social services are totally engulfed, overwhelmed by a tide of humanity that doesn’t appear to be receding.
Unfortunately, it’s increasingly apparent President Joe, and his scrambled brains cabinet doesn’t have the slightest idea how to stop and force back the ongoing aggression.
Or maybe – for whatever reason – they don’t want to!
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author.
