I prefer to think of it as a defense against an invasion that is far too low-intensity.
Okay now I am confused, so what's this all about? And why the "barf alert"?
OK, is this an old article, satire, or does the author not know what year it is?
I think militarization of the border is a legitimate defense against drug runners, al queda and chinese spies.
Have you looked at the breakdown of the results on the poll question tonight?
I voted yesterday re: immigration and I was astonished to see that the most gung-ho for shuting the borders and militarizing them, were NON-MEMBERS---
Where did that come from---I thought we had a hearty group of FR members that feel that way, but members mostly went with the "enforce the laws we already have" choice...
Makes ya wanna go hmmmmmmm.....
When will these idiots stop calling the army of illegal alien invaders, immigrants?
It is the duty of the Federal Government to send our military against invaders.
Remember the Alamo
This looks like an old Clinton Administration article. Maybe they saw a soldier wandering the border, and panicked. I don't know. But WHAT - military presence? That's exactly what is needed. The military have the helicopters and equipment. The current border agencies can't coordinate and cover the area. They are undermanned and underequipped, and probably in need of better training - a trained and deputized ranger force sounds like an option. A coherent group of tightly knit squads, all with the same goal in mind. And while gentleness would seem the order of the day to any reasonable ranger, harsh measures would seem quite justified only with regard to the coyotes and gangsters behind these excursions. If citizens of foreign countries get the idea that they can just walk across the border, undetected, and set up shop, buy a home, etc., that might work on a small frontier scale. But there are over 30 million people in CA, and the southwest numbers are growing, as well. A lot of these foreign nationals are not employed, but are being paid by the fed, state and local governments in a host of ways. And apart from the ultilitarian complaints with regard to that wage work (if it were made that foreign citizens had to contribute to a pool out of which 'benefits' were doled, some people might be less willing to complain), but there is just a notion that a nation without borders really becomes something other than a nation in short order. It has to be taken seriously. As I understand it, those nations 'south-o-the-border' take it seriously, themselves. Perhaps more might be done to publicize their treatment of foreign nationals illegally jumping the border into THEIR countries.