Labor Calls for Military at Border (With Lengthy Qualifications)

President of the National Border Patrol Council of Federal Employees T.J. Bonner told Senate subcommittees last week that Mexican military support of smugglers is serious enough to warrant presence of US military forces along the border. Then he added a lengthy parenthetical qualification:

"United States military units should be stationed at strategic locations near the southwest border in order to be able to quickly respond to and deal with future armed incursions by the Mexican military. The Border Patrol and other civilian law enforcement agencies do not have the proper equipment nor training to safely and effectively respond to such incursions.
"(This should not be construed as a call for the military to enforce our immigration laws, which would be problematic for two principal reasons. First, it requires a great deal of training to ensure that someone is prepared to effectively enforce our complex immigration laws. Border Patrol agents receive nineteen intensive weeks of basic academy training in a wide variety of topics, and an additional six months of on-the-job training. Attempting to shorten this training would likely result in numerous civil rights violations, including wrongfully arresting and incarcerating people who have a legal right to be in this country.

"Second, training soldiers to enforce civilian laws would needlessly endanger them during military combat situations, as the rules of engagement between the two settings differ dramatically. In civilian law enforcement situations, the use of force is permissible only in self-defense or the defense of an innocent third-party, and even then only as a last resort. It is well-established that people instinctively react in a crisis according to their training. At best, people who are trained as both soldiers and law enforcement officers would hesitate in a crisis situation, endangering themselves. At worst, they would respond inappropriately, potentially endangering innocent people. An unfortunate incident that occurred near Redford, Texas on May 20, 1997 illustrates this problem.

"A squad of four U.S. Marines was conducting counter-drug border surveillance when it was fired upon by an 18-year-old high school student who was tending his family’s herd of goats. The Marines outflanked the youth and fired a single fatal shot at him. While this response would have been appropriate in a military combat situation, it was entirely inappropriate in a civilian law enforcement setting.)"