December 13, 2003

A Border Patrol Patriot Joins The Resistance

As the Treason Lobby and the Department of Homeland Security’s own Secretario Ridge gear up to peddle another illegal alien amnesty disaster, there are many sources of resistance within the informal immigration reform coalition that is gradually organizing across the country.

The most unrepentant opponents of this lunacy will be men with guns who know the deserts of the Mexican border, know the immigration law, and worked in government the last time around during the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) amnesty. Men like John W. Slagle, that is.

With the current release of his memoirs documenting a thirty-year career in immigration law enforcement, the retired intelligence analyst and U.S. Border Patrol veteran joins the proud ranks of patriotic opposition to another illegal alien amnesty.

His new book, Illegal Entries, made its debut last week on the internet as an e-book. [Illegal Entries, by John W. Slagle, published by 1stbooks.com—downloadable file for $4.95, softcover for $12.50]

Illegal Entries chronicles the career of a dedicated special agent and patrolman who is not so easily fooled.

Slagle is a student of reality—the harsh reality of Border Patrol anti-smuggling operations from the onion fields of Presidio, Texas, to the citrus groves of Florida, and all the way down to Guatemala.

He knows the art of “cutting sign” in the desert, and how to successfully pull off an undercover cocaine buy-and-bust with a million dollars of real money.

He’s a guy you would want watching your back during freight train inspections in the desolate railroad yards of South Texas.

Slagle doesn’t try to rival accomplished immigration writers like Peter Brimelow or Michelle Malkin. He doesn’t have to. Instead, his experience speaks volumes.

Here Slagle reflects on America before the Immigration Disaster:

“Prior to [Slagle’s] military service in 1963 and after, most Americans were mowing their own lawns, raising gardens, working at service trades, construction to meat-packing industries and raising families. In the mid-west farm fields of Missouri, crops were brought in each year with the help of hired help, mostly local high school students. City parks were well tended and people cared for their own children. Wages were not great, but there was always employment. U.S. citizens and legal resident aliens worked hard for decades, but now suddenly we’re told all the working class people no longer want to work. Talk about a con-job, the elite need to get out and see the real world that even by California standards is in plain view.”

Slagle’s considered opinion of the Federal Government’s immigration arm:

“Very few politically appointed [INS] Commissioners were ever chosen for their ability to enforce the laws of the United States under the I & N Act but were there, it seems, for service social work.”

“The Service side is an extremely liberal forgiving mother that welcomes all people into her house with few reservations or thoughts that she could be betrayed. The strict enforcement side is the Bastard son that ensures that the family silver is not carted away by guests without invitations, or people whose goal is the total destruction of the house.

“The Service side sees only the best in all humanity, acting under the same Congressional I & N Act. One side sees rainbows and diversity, the other side sees an ugly reality and the need for enforcement to monitor certain non-immigrant classes that could pose a threat to the United States—criminal as well as subversive terrorist factions.”

Slagle on the moral hazard of our immigration disaster:

“Once a section of territory is lost, it’s hard to back track and regain that area again, despite best intentions. Laws are established by Congress to be obeyed and enforced, not subject to political correctness of the times. An expired driver’s license in any state means arrest or fines for the vehicle operator. Expired U.S. visas are far more serious.

“Only within the Immigration Service of the United States is the compliance of laws always in limbo, the last of priorities, subject to interpretation, and policy directives.”

Slagle on the Bush Administration—particularly relevant as it prepares another Amnesty offensive:

“The war on terrorism was a righteous sound decision by the President of the U.S. that I fully support and will continue to support, but on immigration issues, Amnesty, we part company. The 1986 Amnesty was a total and complete failure.”

“…Amnesty and the [1986] Immigration Reform Act did not slow down or halt illegal migrants but actually made the situation worse.”

If America is ever going to pull itself out of its current federally-induced illegal immigration disaster, members of Congress and other assorted government bureaucrats flying desks inside the Beltway need to start listening to the real—and remarkably accessible—voices of experience in immigration law enforcement.

The nation’s most experienced immigration officers and agents, like John Slagle, would be glad to give the federal immigration bureaucracy a lesson in reality.

If the policymakers would only listen.

Funny, isn’t it…folks like John Slagle never seem to spend their retirement years supporting the Treason Lobby’s gaggle of “open borders” cheerleading foundations, think-tanks, phony lobbying organizations and illegal alien front groups.

The reason: they know better.

Juan Mann [send him email] is a lawyer and the proprietor of DeportAliens.com.