Prepare to be nauseated. Disgusted. Enraged.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Texas have been ordered to abbreviate national security checks at one of the nation"s busiest ports of entry to speed up travel between the United States and Mexico, according to official documents and multiple interviews with agents.
This comes from an August 16th memo from CBP El Paso field office Director Luis Garcia, which states
- If wait time is 45 minutes or less, officers are required to query all drivers and passengers older than 18 and ensure that the license plate is correct.
- If wait time is 45 to 60 minutes, customs officers are to query only the driver and 50 percent of the passengers. Also, the officers are not to conduct compartment checks and density-meter readings used to find contraband.
- If wait time is 60 to 120 minutes or more — the average wait at the numerous crossings — they are to query only the driver and ensure that the license plate is correct.
Now, the Washington Times article does seem to point out that their checks were even more lax prior to the memo. However, we now have it spelled out that our border security is to be lax intenttionally.
According to the memo, if the pedestrian crossing wait is more than one hour, "query at a rate of 30 percent of pedestrian traffic."
Just lettin’ them through.
Rosemary Jenks, immigration lawyer and government relations director for Numbers U.S.A., said the directives in the El Paso memo violate federal law.
In Section 110 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, all border inspectors are to collect a record of departure for every alien departing the United States and match the records of departure with the record of the alien’s arrival in the United States.
But, will this change? Doubtfull. Check out the rest of the article, if you want to be a bit more pissed off.
