Border Patrol Seeks Volunteers to Build Fence

Well, I figure this is a start, but why on earth do we need volunteers from an already strapped agency to build the border fence?

Lord knows the government coffers are overflowing (thanks to President Bush's Rovian-inspired tax cuts), so why not contract the work out?

Halliburton wants out of Iraq, so how about them, if only to drive the libs crazier than they already are?

Whatever they do, just don't get caught hiring illegals, OK?

Border Patrol to Build Fencing

The U.S. Border Patrol is asking for volunteers among its agents to help build fences on the U.S.-Mexico border, even as President Bush is withdrawing half the National Guard troops he sent there last year to build fences.

A memo circulated last week to Border Patrol sector chiefs said fence-building efforts on the Southwest border were going to fall short of Mr. Bush's goal of finishing 70 miles in fiscal 2007, which ends Sept. 30, "so the Border Patrol is now going back into the fence-building business."

Wow, 70 miles, or actually, less than 70. That's bound to keep the invaders out.

The memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times, called on the chiefs to provide lists of agents who "can and have built fences in the past," adding that the agency was looking for welders, equipment operators and "anyone else with construction experience."

Hmm. Anyone with construction experience. I'll go out on a limb here and recommend construction workers.

"They are moving quickly on this, so your sector's response will be needed back here by noon tomorrow," said the Aug. 6 memo, which asked that the entire Border Patrol be canvassed for agents qualified and able to work on fence construction.

Rich Pierce, executive vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents the agency's 11,000 non-supervisory agents, said that while the Bush administration "on one hand is trying to convince the American public it is serious about immigration enforcement," it has failed to provide the needed funding and manpower.

"Meanwhile, the other hand reduces the National Guard by 50 percent, whose job to build the border fence has hardly started," he said. "Now the Border Patrol agents who were meant to replace the National Guard are pulled from border enforcement and tasked with building the fence.

"The president's game of pretending to enforce our border continues," he said. "He has never been serious about this issue at all."

Indeed, and he needs to hear about it. It was made crystal clear throughout the Shamnesty debacle that Americans want the border shut and then endless flow of illegals stopped.

Day in and day out we see horror stories of illegals murdering innocent people, the recent travesty in Newark being the most prominent recent example.

How much longer must Americans wait to have their border secured, Mr. President?

While he ponders that question, the administration and Congress need to appropriate the necessary funds to secure the entire border and stop playing games with our security.

The wall can be built in a relatively short amount of time, so just stop dithering and get it done.