Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Guardsmen smuggling illegals

This story is just too much fun not to mention. Three members of the Texas National Guard, assigned to helping to patrol the border to keep out illegal aliens, have been charged with smuggling illegal aliens. Federal agents found one of them, in uniform, driving a van leased by the National Guard, crammed to the gunwales with 24 illegal aliens.

It turns out that three of these stalwarts, including two sergeants have been running a lucrative smuggling business for some time, charging fees of $1,500 to $2,000 per illegal immigrant.

The story includes a statement from the Guard's head honcho that this is rare and the other Guard members are fine and upstanding. It probably isn't all that prevalent, given the short time National Guard personnel have been assigned to the border. But it points up that fact that whenever you prohibit something that people are willing to pay an inflated price to procure, some of the enforcers are going to go corrupt because of the monetary rewards available. The most prominent example, of course, is the drug war, which has led to the corruption of thousands of cops and agents. It's just human nature.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Virtually every other country in the world protects its borders and controls immigration better than the US.

The US controlled immigration for many years without any problem whatsoever.

It can be achieved easily, if we are willing just to follow the law, including punishing employers who hire illegals.

It is really not a difficult task, as history shows.

Anonymous said...

What I am saying is you can argue whether immigration is good or bad, or how to do it right or wrong, but don't try the "we can't prevent it."

That just doesn't hold water.

We can and have, and others do as well.