Our overwhelmed Border Patrol

The Border Patrol finds itself overwhelmed by the large number of illegal immigrants coming into the United States:

More than three years after the terrorist attacks in 2001, the 11,000 men and women who serve as the border's front-line defense are overwhelmed. Despite an influx of new technology, such as underground sensors and cameras that pan the desert, agents catch only about one-third of the estimated 3 million people who cross the border illegally every year.

Most of the illegals are poor Mexican laborers looking for work. But officials are alarmed that a growing number hail from Central and South America, Asia, even Mideast countries such as Syria and Iran. In 2003, the Border Patrol arrested 39,215 so-called "OTMs," or other-than-Mexicans, along the Southwest border. In 2004, the number jumped to 65,814.

Those figures worry intelligence and Homeland Security officials, who say al-Qaeda leaders want to smuggle operatives and weapons of mass destruction across the nation's porous land borders. James Loy, deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, told Congress last week, "Several al-Qaeda leaders believe operatives can pay their way into the country through Mexico and also believe illegal entry is more advantageous than legal entry for operational security reasons."

T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, says the Border Patrol has "reliable intelligence that there are terrorists living in South America, assimilating the culture and learning the language" in order to blend in with Mexicans crossing the border.

"We really don't know who comes into this country illegally over the Southwest border," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., says. "This is a big problem."

Unfortunately, we have a President who is too busy fighting pointless wars in Iraq to deal with the real problems at home.

Around the Blogosphere:

Republicans: Golfing War Mongerers? Maybe It Is True?

Iraq: The Other Costs

Build a Wall

Smaller increase in agents criticized

As long as people complain, we will never be safe.

We have been warned, now what?

Department of Homeland Stupidity