During the course of this present administration, the U.S. Border Patrol has been restricted from workplace enforcement action, their presence at transportation centers, such as airports and bus terminals; and inland checkpoints are frequently closed. Until recently, Border Patrol agents were called upon to provide interpretive assistance to local police departments in instances where Spanish speaking persons were encountered. As many of those instances resulted in identification of the person as an illegal alien and subject to deportation, DHS Secretary Nepolitano recently issued an edict preventing Border Patrol agents from providing such services to local law enforcement in the future. In other words, if you make it across our border, you are home free. Now DHS is releasing criminal aliens from detention, under the guise of conforming to impending sequestration, although their allocation of 34,000 incarceration beds is not exceeded. A bi-partisan congressional committee recently proposed an immigration reform proposal that required sealing of our borders as a requisite to immigration reform. It is very doubtful that this administration would honor such a pre-condition in light of their past and present performance.

Patrick J. Guimond

Blaine