Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano also more egregiously abrogates her duty to protect the citizens of Arizona by blaming the feds and refusing to deploy the Arizona National Guard or to organize an Arizona State Militia to support Border Patrol. While she blames and appeases Mexican government officials, lives are being lost every day along Arizona's borders and on the streets of our cities and towns. Perhaps she feels the victims are just a small price to pay in propping up a struggling economy and providing economic opportunities for those who exhibit blatant contempt for the rule of law in the United States.

In place of the National Guard deployments, a new operation has been announced: "Operation Open Season" has been officially declared on the American people and our citizenship.   The removal of the National Guard is a clear indication that President Bush and our Congress have accepted defeat in our effort to secure our borders and ensure the integrity and trust in our public security resources.  

We have now advertised that our government has decided it will not defend our borders.  This signals to the world's terrorists and criminals that our national leaders have ceded our border with Mexico and have openly invited them to probe away at our most vulnerable, weakest link in our National Security.  We have announced to the world that illegal aliens, terrorists and criminals have a pretty good chance to sneak into our country and wreck havoc on the American people, our laws and our culture.

At a time when the rise of violence along our southern border has escalated to near warlike clashes among drug and human trafficking cartels and the occasional contingent of Mexican federal police and military, with lethal violence that imperils the safety and security of communities on both sides of the border, the U.S. government officially gives up. We announce to the ruthless and determined drug cartels and human traffickers that this administration and our Congress cede control to the border gang bosses and terrorists, and give into the paralyzing pressures of political correctness.

While the Islamic radicals in Iran and Syria and throughout the Middle East, Al Qaeda terrorists, and terrorist agents of the Hezbollah all call for the destruction of Israel and the United States, we cede defeat on our borders and show the world we are not serious about preventing the deaths of U.S. citizens, or of the exploited and oppressed migrants preyed upon by the traffickers.  Instead it seems our message to legal and illegal immigrants and American citizens is that we are all expendable casualties in the apparently phony Washington “wars” – the war on terrorism, war on drugs and war against human exploitation.

While Israel builds walls to protect its citizens from death and destruction, we remove our best trained border soldiers, cede border security to drug and human trafficking cartels, and send a clear message to the world that American citizens are not worthy of the protection of the U.S. military, and have now been hung out for target practice by those who wish us harm.  One is forced to ask if American civilian casualties on our southern border have been officially, or only unofficially, categorized as “tripwire”?

Many elected officials have called for keeping the National Guard on the border.  Some analysts, including the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, call for a deployment of 30,000 National Guardsmen and military personnel on both borders, 5,000 on the northern border, 5,000 to support the U.S. Coast Guard and 20,000 on our southern border.

Some Guardsmen serving are reluctant to abandon their vital contributing role in protecting our borders. Many will return home, while others have already received deployment orders to Iraq, Afghanistan or Kosovo.

In the May 30, 2008, San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE article,  by Leslie Berestein, “Personnel Freed up Border Patrol for Law Enforcement” one of many Guardsmen with the same committed attitude explained, “There are a lot of people disappointed that this mission is coming to an end,” said Master Sgt. Michael Drake, a spokesman for the California National Guard in San Diego. “They think they are doing something very worthwhile.”

Taking a break from retrofitting last week, Spec. Jonathan Wood of Sebago, Maine, said that for now, he was going home after a stint working on the border fence.

“It feels good to help out and do stuff in the U.S.,” said Wood, 26. “It's more of a sense of pride, being able to protect our country at home.”

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps’ volunteers at the border will continue their mission, in support of our disgracefully under-staffed, under-supplied and now under-supported U.S. Border Patrol rank and file agents. We thank those Guardsmen who have served on our embattled border, on behalf of a grateful nation.  And we ask again – why the defeatism and dereliction of duty from Washington, DC?

The Guard's impact by the numbers while being told to observe and report suspicious activity, yet also under orders to avoid any confrontation with armed foreign invaders.

37: Miles of fence built along the southern border

700: Miles of border roadway repaired

18,700: Length in feet of retrofitted secondary fence between Otay Mesa and San Ysidro ports of entry

298,000: Pounds of drugs confiscated with National Guard surveillance help

SOURCES: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, National Guard

Chris Simcox
President and Founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps