THE BORDER REPORT

So says the chief of the U.S. Border Patrol's Laredo Sector, speaking at a community meeting in that city.

The quote, from the Laredo Morning Times, is quite likely the most blasphemous statement ever made by a public border official. In this political climate, it's akin to an American general saying we're losing in Iraq.

Unfortunately, as you'll see in a little while, it's also one of the most honest.

Among other things, Carlos X. Carrillo stated that it is not the agency's job to stop narcotics trafficking or illegal immigration, saying that the Border Patrol, the largest law enforcement agency in the United States now, is not equipped to do either of those tasks.

"The Border Patrol's job is not to stop illegal immigrants. The Border Patrol's job is not to stop narcotics."

Instead, it's the Border Patrol's job to stop terrorists, he said.

Predictably, Carrillo's statements have the law enforcement community enraged.

"Not equipped to stop illegal immigrants and illegal narcotics are not on the priority list? Then why do we need Border Patrol!" says an angry email from a Homeland Security official that's making the rounds in the Tucson Sector community.

Republican Tom Tancredo, also predictably, has called for Carrillo's ouster while Border Patrol agents contacted by The Border Report smirked at the boss's remarks.

"That's a stupid thing to say; we're not all that equipped to stop terrorists either," quipped a Border Patrol agent speaking on condition of anonymity.

Chief Aguilar tried to stamp out the fire, saying terrorists and their weapons are the agency's highest priorities but that of course all lawbreakers are important.

Now maybe the agency would like to think so but I can't recall the agency stopping one terrorist yet.

It's not the first controversy surrounding Carrillo.

The former Tucson sector station chief is a favorite of Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar.

He was rewarded with a top spot in the agency's Washington D.C. office when Aguilar left Tucson Sector a few years ago.

In 2000, Carrillo tried to stamp out the complaints of two Tucson sector agents who were complaining about a kickback scheme here.

In 2005, the office of Special Counsel cited Carrillo and Aguilar because they knew that dozens of temporary agents were taking kickbacks on their housing allowances but did little beyond punishing low-ranking agents involved in the fraud, a government report stated.

After an Office of the Inspector General investigation in 2002 determined dozens of temporary agents in Southern Arizona were taking kickbacks from the owners of rental properties, 45 low-ranking agents were disciplined. However, supervisors who tolerated the kickbacks were not punished, the Office of Special Counsel stated.

The counsel is an independent government agency created to protect government whistle-blowers.

No matter how politicians want to re-characterize Carrillo's remarks, the blunt statement is true.

Border Patrol agents are woefully illegally-equipped to stop illegal immigrants or drugs. The entire strategy behind placing a man in a Chevy Tahoe on top of a hill has never worked; more akin to reliving the Maginot Line than the Berlin Wall.

At best, the Border Patrol stops those that they see coming in. That game-plan alone guarantees that a certain number of illegal immigrants and drug mules will secrete in. Sadly, nearly half of illegal immigrants don't even come through the desert, instead choosing to slide through the ports of entry and overstay their visas. While apprehension rates drop dramatically in Laredo and Yuma Sectors, overall Southwest border apprehension rates barely fluctuate more than a few percentage points every year. This alone tells me the strategies are not working.

So far, no terrorists have been captured coming through the border, an assumption I draw off the simple fact that every time the Feds make a terror-related arrest, they're quick to make the announcement public.

It's almost a game; the first agency to capture a terrorist at the Mexican border will shore up funding for the next 20 years – at the cost of the other agencies. It's one reason these agencies have such a hard time collaborating their efforts and it's one reason why the DEA is in a hiring freeze right now while the Border Patrol gets whatever it needs in manpower and equipment.

Carrillo apologized (maybe was made to apologize) for his remarks, but the simple truths behind his initial statements haven't gone away.

Carrillo spoke the plain truth but plain truths are not comfortable when you're in the business of selling a show to the American public.