Expensive Paperweights

A kid with a bucket of green Army men presents more of a military presence than what the Biden presidency has done with our southern border

“It’s a welcome wagon”, a retired Border Patrol agent says of the 1,500 active-duty troops the Biden administration is sending to the southern border ahead of the Title 42 expiration on May 11th. - The Daily Signal

This is where we are at people. On May 11, 2023, the Title 42 Trump-era legislation put into place to close the border during the COVID-19 pandemic is set to expire. What does this mean for us in the United States? Try this…currently there are approximately 100,000 people lined up to enter our country through our southern border. Before you ring the xenophobia bells against me, keep this in mind. Former Vice President Mike Pence remarked recently “1,500 troops going to the southern border to do paperwork isn’t going to make a difference.” The average soldier earns $48,899 dollars a year. That’s an expensive paperweight.

Statistics from the Customs and Border Patrol show in Trump’s final year in office the agency encountered fewer than 560,000 illegal aliens at the southern border. Under this current administration in fiscal year 2021, encounters rose to approximately 1.7 million, and 2.3 million in 2022. Even since October 1st, 2022, the CBP reported encounters of 1.2 million illegal aliens already. The Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton-R, said in a recent interview on Just the News, “The Biden administration has not just allowed the cartels to expand, but they’ve actually encouraged them.” Ask Rep’s. Dan Crenshaw R-Tex. and Morgan Luttrell R-Tex. how they feel about serving our country in the most elite military unit in the world as Navy SEALs, to continue the fight for our country politically as Representatives in the Texas House just to line up over 1.7 million people waiting to come in illegally - with the help of our nation’s military. In fact, in a recent congressional hearing where Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was called to the floor for the mismanagement of this entire issue, Rep. Luttrell emphatically demanded with a “yes or no answer, sir” whether Mayorkas would sit down this coming week to discuss the immediate solution to the problem at the border. After numerous redirects, Mayorkas finally agreed. I’m not holding my breath.

Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs R-Ariz. has introduced articles of impeachment to the floor for Mayorkas this week as well. Even Rep. Ruben Gallego D-Ariz. indicated in a letter there needed to be a more cohesive strategy on how to handle the influx of immigrants through the southern border when Title 42 expires.

Police and Military Response

Consider when former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio advocated for Senate Bill 1070 to be put into law, all law enforcement in the state were given implicit federal arrest powers as it related to the detainment and arrest of suspected illegal immigrants. I was a street cop during that time in Arizona. We were being told to ask illegals where they entered the country. If they gave us an answer we arrested and processed them for transport in ICE’s Madden cruiser, which was almost like a party bus due to it being out all hours of the day and night.

After only a few short months, that provision of the bill was removed, and we were prohibited from detaining and processing admitted illegal aliens in our city. Maybe that wouldn’t matter except this group of people was responsible for a serious influx of crime with no end in sight. The police were told to take the reports, make arrests where we could, and before our paperwork was even done these people were being released out the back door. Our hands were tied back then. Now, it’s going to be as if the cops not only have their hands tied, but they’re tied while the officers and deputies are strapped to a chair barefoot with no gear.

The military has called up the National Guard as mentioned, but their orders to combat drug trafficking are put to the side. The Texas National Guard is mustered doing that work, but the toll it’s taking is substantial. What happens when Operation Lone Star does its job, and the justice system releases these illegal immigrants? They aren’t deported. They simply melt away into the surrounding communities. And the legitimate citizens in these communities are doing the best they can to just survive. I’ll give you one guess who they will be voting for in 2024.

As if this crisis wasn’t real enough, open sources show we have over 100,000 troops deployed in Europe, and while not specifically sent to fight in the Ukraine a portion of them offer proxy assistance through European neighbors. I saw this picture which captured the sentiment perfectly:

Think about it again - there are as many people waiting to illegally be escorted into our country on May 11th as there are military personnel in all of Europe keeping countries out of each other’s backyards.

Everyday Response

Don’t kid yourself. Just because you don’t work in a border state does not mean you will be immune to the of the surging mass of people taking up residence in the neighborhoods where you work. California, in a completely predictable California move, just passed a law stating that United States citizenship is no longer a requirement to work as a law enforcement officer. What kind of Bizzarro world are we living in? How can the command staff in these departments swear in these new additions? Let’s review, shall we? Here is the current California oath of office that every new law enforcement employee must take. This is when they qualify as “sworn” officers:

“I, (employee name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter.”

This may surprise some of you, but it is a procedural impossibility for an illegal immigrant to take this oath. The first words of the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States says, “We the People of the United States…”; therefore, those individuals who are not “People of the United States” [i.e., citizens] cannot take this oath!

Nevertheless, the response of the current police officers on the front lines still needs to be about protecting and serving the communities in which they operate. I heard one of the most profound pieces of wisdom from my air conditioning repairman last week on this as we were chopping it up while he worked to prevent possible Arizona summer death in my home with no AC. He said, “Jeff, be different - people matter.” Thanks, Brock, as this is really what it’s all about.

I still get the privilege of serving people. I still get to help people in their worst moments. And I still am the Eagle of Justice to the criminal element who would seek to prey upon those who can’t defend themselves. And pray for our troops and law enforcement this week when the floodgates open and the dam breaks.

***A new opportunity to link arms in proclaiming truth is here! Click the link to listen and download the episodes of the Trust the Truth podcast with Jeff Daukas here, where conversations on the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth are chased down!***

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Sergeant Daukas is committed to the principles of Courageous Leadership and is the lead instructor for the foundational principle of Courageous Nobility. You can listen to Jeff discuss this vital principle on a recent Courageous Leadership Podcast.  He has over 20 years in law-enforcement working through patrol, investigations, and special operations both at the line level and as a supervisor. Through the last 20 years, Jeff has embraced his passion instructing officers and civilians through the nobility of policing. He is a certified FranklinCovey Nobility of Policing instructor, as well as a certified instructor for the Blue Courage curriculum. Jeff holds a master’s degree in criminal justice with a focus on terrorism and homeland security and teaches in that discipline at the college level.  He is a graduate of the FBI-LEEDA Supervisor Leadership Institute program consistently implementing servant-leadership into training the next generation of law-enforcement professionals in both courageous leadership and followership.