No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Imagine for a second you're out of the house for the evening at a nice restaurant. While you're away, a burglar breaks into your house and is seen by your local neighborhood watch who reports the crime to the police, but the police are told not to respond to calls made by the neighborhood watch.

Now, imagine that in addition to that insult, you find out that the police are actively notifying potential burglars where your neighborhood watch is patrolling!

You'd be nothing less than outraged, and justifiably so. It would certainly make you wonder whose side the police were on at the very least. Such behavior would be reckless, it could endanger personal safety and property, and is contrary to the public interest.

It's happening.

'According to three documents on the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations Web site, the U.S. Border Patrol is to notify the Mexican government as to the location of Minutemen and other civilian border patrol groups when they participate in apprehending illegal immigrants -- and if and when violence is used against border crossers.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman confirmed the notification process, describing it as a standard procedure meant to reassure the Mexican government that migrants' rights are being observed.'

And those rights would be?

"This ... simply makes two basic statements -- that we will not allow any lawlessness of any type, and that if an alien is encountered by a Minuteman or arrested by the Minuteman, then we will allow that government to interview the person."

Like crossing the border illegally?

"Last year an internal memo notified all agents not to give credit to Minuteman volunteers or others who call in sightings of illegal aliens," said one agent, who spoke on the condition he not be identified. "We were told to list it as a citizen call and leave it at that. Many times, we were told not to go out to Minuteman calls."

TJ Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, a union representing more than 10,000 Border Patrol agents, said agents have complained for years about the Mexican consulate's influence over the agency.

"It worries me (that the Mexican government) seems to be unduly influencing our enforcement policies. That's not a legitimate role for any foreign nation," Bonner said, though he added, "It doesn't surprise me."

Sadly, it doesn't surprise me either as President Bush doesn't seem to see leaving our collective back door open as a national security risk.

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