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New Military Branch: The United States Border Guard
By Jon E. Dougherty
June 13, 2005
Page 2 of 2
By making the border guard a part of the military, yet one which normally falls under the jurisdiction of a civilian federal agency, it could legally be given the authority to enforce border and immigration laws, while deploying in numbers adequate to provide a genuine deterrent to infiltration by terrorists.
The Posse Comitatus law notwithstanding -- which forbids the use of military forces for civilian law enforcement within U.S. borders -- it is a cruel joke not to use the military to guard our borders in the first place, since national defense is its primary responsibility. The cruelness of the joke is compounded when you consider that U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps members are already acting in a law enforcement capacity, but in Afghanistan and Iraq (manning checkpoints, conducting raids, enforcing curfews, etc.).
Having said that, a United States Border Guard, while still providing members training in some aspects of regular soldiering, would become a specialized branch of the military, with specific duties not readily taught or expected of regular Army troops. It would act much like the Coast Guard, which provides its members with some naval operations training and uses U.S. Navy rank and insignia, but performs a vastly different and specialized primary mission, making it a valuable contributor to both national defense and national security.
More and more Americans and lawmakers are coming to realize the futility of fighting a global war on terror while leaving our own back door wide open and unguarded. Creating a separate border force affiliated with the U.S. military is a wise idea whose time has come.
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Jon E. Dougherty is author of Illegals: The Imminent Threat Posed by our Unsecured U.S.-Mexico Border, and founder/editor-in-chief of the Web site Voices Magazine.
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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA. >> Back -- Page 1 2
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