(Conservative Review) -- There’s a very simple question the president needs to ask as he continues to contemplate action at the border. For whom does our Border Patrol or even the military exist? Do they exist to protect Americans from bad people coming into this country or to serve as babysitters for a cartel smuggling operation that enables bad people to come in? The two jobs are mutually exclusive. Cartel babysitting undermines protecting Americans. This fact alone should prompt the president to shut down all asylum requests at the border and turn back migrants.
Yesterday, the U.S. Border Patrol celebrated a grim 95th birthday. On May 28, 1924, Congress established the Border Patrol as part of the Immigration Bureau in the Labor Appropriation Act of 1924. Prior to that, land borders were patrolled by ad hoc “mounted watchmen” with few formal federal resources, because most people entered through sea ports. The purpose of the Border Patrol was very clearly spelled out in the 1924 funding bill: “Preventing the unlawful entry” of mainly Chinese nationals and deporting anyone who was caught. The Department of Labor was given funding for “the operation of horse and motor vehicles.” It was all for detention and deportation. Nothing more, nothing less.