By Jay Sekulow
The left's outrage over the IRS turns to a plea to 'move on'
The chief of the U.S. Border Patrol said Tuesday that his agents have a tough time ousting armed drug cartel spotters from the tops of U.S. mountains because the rules of engagement constrain them.
Apprehensions of illegal immigrants are up 13 percent this year, the chief of the U.S. Border Patrol testified to Congress on Wednesday as lawmakers continued to bash the Obama administration for failing to have a way of measuring how secure the borders are.
It was the trash that first drew Roger Barnett's attention.
Roger Barnett began rounding up illegal immigrants in 1998 after they started to vandalize his property — destroying water pumps, killing calves, vandalizing fences and gates, stealing trucks and breaking into his house.
Top Homeland Security officials told Congress on Wednesday that they still don't have a way to effectively measure border security — a revelation that lawmakers said could doom the chances for passing an immigration legalization bill this year.
When the Obama administration scrapped the old definition for measuring border security two years ago, it left the government without any way of measuring how much of the U.S.-Mexico border is under operational control.
The U.S. Border Patrol on Tuesday unveiled its first national strategy in eight years, a period in which the number of agents more than doubled and apprehensions of people entering illegally from Mexico dropped to a 40-year low.
Chief Fisher said the agency had had some success in ousting "dozens" of spotters from mountaintops, but he couldn't say how many more locations remains.
"The rules of engagement, what we call our 'use of force,' applies to individuals on the street or whether they're up on a mountaintop," he told the Senate panel.
