I believe that our southern border with Mexico and the lack of control by our government, is one of the major problems that we have faced in the past and are continuing to face today. It is both puzzling and annoying to me that none of the presidential candidates today have actually addressed this issue seriously. There have been some controversial statements made by some of the candidates, like promising to build a fence, etc. These were nothing but sound bites to get the voters' attention. But in fact, none of the candidates have actually made any serious proposals and have put forth any solutions concerning the border problem. It is as if the border issue is not all that important! Considering that all of the candidates claim to be getting away from the "establishment's" approach to our problems, they are actually doing exactly what the establishment is doing, which is nothing!
My familiarity with our problem on the southern border goes back many years. Even before I went to work for the State Department, I was exposed to the fact that our border was porous, almost non-existent. I lived in Central California, Sacramento Valley to be more precise, and even back then in the 1970s, it was common place to find Mexicans who had crossed the border illegally. I knew several such persons who freely admitted that they came across illegally and fairly easily! I did not work in agriculture nor did I purposely seek out illegal entrants, yet, I ran across them without effort. It was amazing to me even then how easily these people were able to cross the border into the U.S.
Later, in the 1980s, when I was already working for the State Department, I made a visit to California's southern border on consultation with the Immigration Service and Border Patrol before being assigned to a South American post. I did a blog on that experience earlier, about how it was like a scene out of Vietnam during a battle, as I watched illegals scrambling across the border at night! It was an experience that I will never forget. I was astounded on seeing the number of people involved and how they simply scrambled across into the U.S.! Later, serving in countries such as Ecuador and Paraguay, I learned that crossing the border into the U.S. illegally was both common and very popular way of getting into the U.S. Everyone seemed to be aware of the fact that it was fairly "easy" to cross into the U.S. from Mexico. So, although most preferred to get a visa and enter legally, if they were denied a visa and they were intent on coming to the U.S., they simply crossed overland illegally!
This method of entry into the U.S. was practiced not only by Mexicans, Central and South Americans, but by all nationalities. Countries such as Paraguay were a favorite "jumping off" point. In fact, Paraguay was known as the "trampoline" to the U.S.! People from all over the world, including Middle East and Eastern Europe, not to mention Asia, used Paraguay as a staging area before entering the U.S. illegally. Those who had money actually simply went to Mexico and then entered U.S. illegally. This was/is particularly true of Eastern Europeans and Middle Easterners who were unable to secure U.S. visas in their homeland. They would travel to Mexico, which is much more liberal about entry into their country, pay off the right individuals, and cross into the U.S. illegally.
Before I left for my assignment to Tijuana, Mexico, I spent a considerable amount of time being briefed by various agencies about the situation on the southern border. I was repeatedly reminded that my most important job would be to try to find a solution for illegal border crossers. Upon arrival at my new post, I discovered that I had to participate in at least a half a dozen different working groups, committees, and task forces, all aimed at stopping the flow of illegal border crossers. Some of these committees and working groups involved our Mexican counterparts, others were made up of strictly U.S. agencies, like Immigration and Naturalization Service, U.S. Customs, U.S. Border Patrol, DEA, FBI, San Diego Country Sheriff, San Diego Police, California Highway Patrol, and even some of the smaller police departments thrown in! In other working groups that involved Mexican officials it would include the Mexican Consul General from San Diego, the Baja California Governor's Office, Segunda Zona Militar (2nd Military Zone, Mexican Army), Mexican Federal Police, and their Special Anti Drug Unit. Unfortunately, those meetings were never fruitful.
It was obvious that many of the Mexican counterparts were not interested in stopping the illegal border crossers and only provided lip service. Additionally, there was a lot mistrust and the U.S. side did not want to divulge any sensitive information to the Mexican side. The fears were well founded, since the Mexican side had been heavily infiltrated by drug cartels as it was proven time and time again! Still, we had to go through the motions of having meetings and discussions which Washington insisted upon. We would submit the results of these meetings to Washington, although they accomplished nothing, and Washington didn't seem to be bothered by the lack of results! I guess it was more important to show that there was binational cooperation, although there were no results! Some, like the Mexican Consul General in San Diego at that time, Luis Herrera, genuinely wanted to try to do something about the problem. However, he was stonewalled by his own people, the military and the Federal Police, most of the time. Those two, the military and the Federal Police were the two most corrupt and heavily infiltrated by drug cartels!
During my three years in Tijuana, I had to attend at least two meetings each week that involved border issues. Once a month we hosted a binational meeting at our Consulate General and the Mexican Consulate General in San Diego hosted a meeting once a month as well. These binational meeting were time consuming and rarely if ever produced any results. About the only thing we were able to accomplish was to resolve some of the minor issues now and then, never the major issues concerning illegal border crossers. Also, once a month we had meetings of all U.S. agencies, usually at the border crossing in San Isidro. Then there were smaller meetings with law enforcement only at various locations including at places like Calexico, El Centro, and other "well known" locales!
All in all, it seemed like there were constant meetings trying to resolve some of the issues with our border problem. Every few months there were much larger meetings involving all of the border governors, governors of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, along with heads of Border Patrol, Customs, and INS, as well as DEA and FBI. U.S. Consuls and Consul Generals of all the border posts, Tijuana, Hermosillo, Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey, etc. These meetings were usually fruitful in that it made everyone aware of the problems that each state and area had! But everyone always complained about Washington's lack of interest and support! Apparently nothing has changed in the past 20 or 30 years. Everything is the same. Mexico is still rife with corruption and our side is constantly scrambling, trying to come up with solutions while Washington seems to just sit back and watch!
The problem on our southern border is immense! It isn't just the flow of illegal aliens of all nationalities that use this route, but the astronomical amount of drugs that are being brought in! Shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, crossing illegally from Mexico was the favorite method for Russian Mafia members who could not obtain U.S visas! It is not inconceivable that terrorists have used this route to enter our country, they just haven't been caught, so far! Yet, our government in Washington seems to just ignore it. Instead, the former U.S. Attorney General Holder played silly games with illegal weapons sales and got caught in the process, but got away without even getting his wrists slapped! The State of Arizona is still paying for it. The Justice Department apparently has a long memory and bears a grudge.
Since that incident, the Justice Department has been trying to punish Arizona one way or another, usually through charges against local law enforcement for allegedly breaking Federal laws! To this day, some of those weapons from Holder's little escapade are turning up in the hands of criminals in Arizona, in the cities as well as along the border! A few days ago the Federal Courts ruled that it was indeed against the law for illegal aliens to use stolen identity to secure employment. The courts had to rule on that? Give me a break, is it not against the law to use stolen identity regardless of your status? Why did they have to wait several years to finally rule against the illegal aliens? One of the main charges that the Justice Department filed against Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona was that Arpaio's people were arresting illegal aliens for using stolen identity for securing employment. The Justice Department claimed that it was unconstitutional and discriminatory for the Sheriff's office to arrest illegal aliens for using stolen identity. That was very puzzling and I am glad they were able to sort it out after all this time.....give me a break!
All of the government agencies represented along the border, both Federal and State, as well as our Foreign Service posts, are constantly asking Washington for help, for some solid guidance and support. Except for some "keep up the good work," and a pat on the back once in a while, support as such is minimal. It almost seems as if Washington does not want to stop the flow of illegals across our southern border. I know that is not the case, but their inaction sure makes it seem so!
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