Man the border!
Longtime critic of unchecked illegal immigration, Texan Allan Wall who’s currently serving in Iraq, has a piece published on National Review Online today where he proposes that the National Guard should be deployed to protect America’s border to Mexico. This idea has been pushed for years by Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly, and I must admit I used to think it close to crazy, but, heck, why not do it?
Writes Wall:
Some say it’s impossible to secure our borders. I don’t believe it. Here in Iraq I’ve seen what a determined national policy can accomplish in a short time. Back home, borders could be secured, if the political will existed. The technical means exist already. We have the resources. We have the personnel. Some have suggested we use the National Guard to secure the borders.
I think it’s a great idea. An excellent idea. An idea whose time has come. Many of the tasks necessary to secure the U.S. border are the same tasks we are already performing here in Iraq. They could be carried out just as easily (and less expensively) on our own borders. Here in Iraq, National Guardsmen are patrolling 24/7, logging thousands of miles in armored humvees. Why can’t they do the same on our own borders ?
In Iraq, Guardsmen secure defensive perimeters, they man guard towers, they operate UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles). They do surveillance in the dark with night-vision equipment. Why can’t they do the same on the borders of their own country?
Currently, Guard units are being called up on 18-month deployments to Iraq and other places. Why can’t they be deployed the same length of time to guard the border? When a Guard unit is not deployed, guardsmen train a total of about 40 days a year, one weekend a month and a two-week “annual training” period. Why not rotate National Guard units in and out of border duty for their yearly “training” period?
Yes, why not? Regardless of the level of immigration America should have, the immigration it does have should be legal.
