Paranoid DREAM

On a call organized by the White House on Friday, David Aguilar, the deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, said that strict eligibility requirements in the bill for young immigrants who are here would dissuade others outside the country from trying coming to the country illegally. Addressing concerns from lawmakers who say they want more border security before voting for the legislation, Mr. Aguilar said, “At no point in history has the border been as secure as it is today.” from: Immigration Bill Fails in Senate Vote – NYTimes.com.

Ever offering the visual rejoinder to political posturing, Getty’s John Moore has been picturing the increased U.S. employment of force on the Arizona border.  His timing, coinciding with the Congressional dance resulting, one more time, in the torpedoing of the DREAM Act, is ample evidence of Mr. Aguilar’s quote.  I encourage you to look at a larger body of John’s border shoot.  This one, in particular, though, captures the militarization of the issue.

With Baghdad getting ready to turn us out, I can already anticipate that American soldier detailing his course five years from now: “Yep, I did three tours in Iraq, four in Afghanistan, and two in Nogales.”

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(caption: Arizona National Guardsmen talk while at an observation post overlooking the U.S. Mexico border on December 7, 2010 in Nogales, Arizona. The Obama administration ordered more than 500 soldiers placed along the Arizona border to man ‘entry identification sites’ and spot illegal immigrants crossing into the United States. The troops, who have no detention authority, radio U.S. Border Patrol agents when they spot immigrants crossing. The troop deployment was meant to further bolster border security and help stem illegal immigration into Arizona, which has become a flashpoint for the issue nationwide.)