Statement by U.S. Border Patrol Local 2544, Tucson, Arizona

You have been invaded, America. There are reportedly 20 million illegal aliens in this country now, and the number could be much higher. These people are not supposed to be here, nobody knows who they are, and our president, George W. Bush, is doing nothing more than winking at them and promising them a huge "amnesty" program. Meanwhile, two border-state governors have recently declared their borders "disaster areas" because many of the people running the federal government sit on their hands, frozen in fear, and they refuse to address this problem in any meaningful way. 40% of the people still in Mexico say they want to come here.

We try every day to stem this massive wave of illegal immigration, but we are overwhelmed, ill-equipped, underfunded, and sold out by politicians. We lost this battle years ago. Thousands more illegal aliens make it in every day. We simply cannot stop them. We don't even have a reliable two-way communications system in the border patrol. Many times, if an agent gets caught up in a bad situation in a remote area, he or she is on their own. There is no way to call for backup. It's inexcusable. Our vehicle fleet is falling apart, with many patrol vehicle in excess of 100,000 or 200,000 very hard miles. We are constantly told there is "no funding" for new vehicles, so we continue to drive unreliable junk year after year after year.

Take it from the troops on the front lines America - the borders of this country are completely out of control. Don't listen to the smooth-talking pinheads who tell you otherwise.

We need your help. What can you do? Call your congressmen and senators. Demand that they get our borders under control. Demand that they properly fund the border patrol so we can get the equipment and infrastructure we need to do our jobs. Demand that they give us the freedom to do our jobs (yes, even if it means "offending" someone). Demand that they back off the all-out assault on border patrol agents' workplace rights (they want to shut our union down and gain the authority to fire us for any reason without any meaningful third party scrutiny).

And lastly, demand that they not support any type of "amnesty" proposal to reward the lawbreakers already here. It will only encourage millions more to come. We had a massive "amnesty" program in 1986. It was supposed to stop illegal immigration once and for all. It was an unmitigated disaster and only made things worse. Smart countries don't repeat their mistakes.

Desert Invasion - U.S.

Article