The 9/11 terrorists arrived in the United States by air, and performed their awful deeds in the air. Since that day, the American aviation system has been in a state of high alert.
There are five ways to enter the United States. You can drive, fly, sail, swim, or walk in. What are we doing to protect the other gateways?
After flying, driving might be the most inspected mode of entry. Travelers and vehicles enter this country through border stations operated by the Department of Homeland Security, where Customs agents inspect passengers, vehicles, personal property, passports, and other documentation. Reportedly, there are a handful of unofficial entry points on the Canadian border manned by private security guards.
Visitors, who sail to the U.S., arrive on cruise ships, cargo vessels, ferries, charter boats and privately owned vessels. Customs procedures vary as to vessel type, point of entry and other variables. Container ships offer plentiful opportunities for stowaways. And there are thousands of miles of shoreline stretching from Maine to Mexico on the east, and Washington to Mexico on the west, including thousands of inlets where a small boat can put ashore.
Swimming is another way to get here. Passengers may be transported by vessel until close to shore, where they are put overboard, and using an inflatable raft or scuba gear, simply float ashore. Again, the thousands of miles of unprotected shoreline make this an inconspicuous option. Mexico, Canada, Cuba, and the Bahamas are convenient launching pads for this type of entry.
The U.S. coastline is porous and the U.S. Coast Guard, mysteriously mired in the Department of Transportation, does not have the resources to cope.
Yet, with a 2,000 mile land border on the south and almost 4,000 miles on the north, simply walking in may be the easiest way to enter the United States.
In the south, the government cannot, or will not, stop the flow of illegal immigrants from Mexico. To the north, Canada gets even less attention, and its rough and remote geography offers a safer environment for slipping across undetected.
I am not a Homeland Security or Homeland Defense expert, and it is not my intention to examine the convoluted reasons for our porous borders; however, we now face a new kind of illegal alien, one who is coming here not to work for us, but to kill us.
I have an idea for plugging our borders, and it is free; the resources are already on the U.S. Government payroll.
Once a year 1.2 million Reserve and National Guard troops go away for two-weeks of active duty drills. Some units go the same place year-in and year-out; others go to different locations. The destination is a function of their mission in coordination with the military command structure, but my point is this: they all go somewhere for two weeks. Once a year, Army, Air Force, Marines, and Navy personnel get into their jeeps, trucks, buses, boats and aircraft and go off to hone their skills.
Why not deploy them to guard our borders for that two-week period?
The 9/11 Commission asked the question, “Who is responsible for defending us at home?” And the answer was, “Our national defense at home is the responsibility, first, of the Department of Defense and, second, of the Department of Homeland Security.”
1.2 million troops, deployed on a rotating two-week duty cycle on the borders with Mexico and Canada would provide a constant contingent of approximately 45,000 personnel. (1) That assignment would be more than a training drill for them; they would be our first line of defense. Can there be a more important mission than that? And since those two-week exercises are already budgeted, the incremental cost to U.S. taxpayers would be minimal.
(1) The war in Iraq put an enormous strain on Reserve and National Guard resources, and I am not ignoring the dilutive effect that war would have on this proposal. Obviously, Reserve and National Guard commanders would consider active-duty cycles when scheduling summer drills.