From the April 2003 Idaho Observer:

Mexican military presence on the U.S. border

by Dave Stoddard

The story from the L.A. Times, “Mexico Increases Security Amid Threat of Terrorism” (Reuters - 3/19/03) gives the impression that Mexico is helping to secure the United States during the Iraq conflict by sending troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.

What “The Times” does not report (and what the U.S. government chooses to ignore) is that Mexican troops have been operating on the U.S.-Mexico border for several decades now. Within the last 10 years, the Mexican military presence on the U.S. border has increased exponentially over what it was during the 1980s.

During this time, the Mexican Army has frequently entered the United States and fired upon U.S. Officers. Mexican helicopters, protected by ground forces in HumVees, have entered the U.S. and delivered narcotics to points unknown.

Additionally, Mexican troops have been observed guiding Mexican citizens (and probably citizens from other countries) to locations used by illegal aliens to cross into the United States. U.S. border residents have filmed this.

I live roughly five miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. There is a Mexican Army garrison due south of my home.

These troops lay up during the day and come out at dusk to:

A. Protect potential illegal aliens from border bandits;

B. Guide those potential illegal aliens to “safe” crossing points where they may enter the United States illegally;

C. Facilitate the crossing of narcotics into the United States by assuring that potential illegal aliens and patrolling U.S. officers don't interfere with those movements of narcotics, and;

D. Move narcotics themselves across the border at the direction of corrupt Mexican officers and politicians and;

E. Assure that violence does not erupt along the border between competing drug cartels thereby creating “bad press” for Mexico during its push for “regularization” of its illegal aliens in the United States.

The fact that USBP Agents are being taken off the line to “beef up” the Ports of Entry along the U.S.-Mexico Border is egregiously problematic and treasonous, to say the least.

The security problem along the US.-Mexico Border is not at the Ports of Entry where people try to enter the United States LEGALLY. Sure, smugglers try to evade authorities at the Ports of Entry by presenting people and merchandise for inspection. But, the real danger are those people who don't bother with standing in line at a Port of Entry and simply drive or walk across at any point in the hundreds of miles of “open border”. These people and traffickers are not inspected at all.

There is less risk, more opportunity, and less wait to enter the United States surreptitiously along our unguarded border.

Our politicians are giving the American public a false and dangerous sense of security by putting dozens of officers at ports of entry sucking their thumbs or inspecting tomatoes and products from maquiladoras (foreign-owned factories in Mexico at which imported parts are assembled by lower-paid workers into products for export).

These officers can be seen by the public, and the traffic at ports of entry can be held up for hours alluding to “intense security,” but the real, clear and present danger is along our unguarded border. Removing USPB agents from areas between ports of entry where the real threat lies may be politically correct, but is misguided and treasonous at best.

The American public is too smart to believe that a 24-hour “dog and pony show” at ports of entry makes them more secure and are too smart to believe that the Mexican military is on our borders for any purpose other than to further the interests of our corrupt neighbor to the south who is doing everything in its power to destroy the United States through pushing drugs, draining our economy, and eroding our national sovereignty.

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Dave Stoddard is a twenty-seven year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. His last eight years of service were spent in southern Arizona on the Cochise Strip.