The Letter Every Border Patrol Agent Should Submit a Week From Now

Many bloggers, including myself, have chronicled the travesty of justice regarding Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. For simply doing their jobs, they were both sentenced to over a decade in prison while the drug smuggling, illegal immigrant criminal they were attepting to apprehend gets taxpayer-funded medical care, immunity from prosecutiion in return for testifying against the agents, and likely a multimillion dollar verdict from some mouth-breathing federal jury for violating his "civil rights". A reader of Emperor Misha pens a fine letter that should be submitted by every active Border Patrol agent on January 18th (the day Ramos and Compean are scheduled to report to prison). I certainly wouldn't go to work if I had to live in daily fear of a decade in the federal pen for doing the job I was hired to do, but that's just me.

There are nearly 30,000 border patrol agents, officers and employees
currently out there, doing a very necessary but very hard job.

Now I, as an American, am going to ask you to do something very, very
hard.

I’m asking all of you, on January 17, 2006, to quit your jobs.

No two-weeks notice, no nice words. Just 30,000 letters of
resignation, handed in all at the same time. Something to the tune of —

—————————–
Dear President Bush,

Due to the incarceration of two of my colleagues in the Border Patrol,
Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, I no longer believe that I can perform my
lawful duties without fear of prosecution by your own federal attorneys and
federal judges. Therefore, I hereby resign my position in the United States
Border Patrol, effective immediately.

Turn in your guns, badges, vehicles, keys, uniforms, and any other
U.S. government property with your letter, so you don’t get wrongly accused
of stealing and end up in the slammer for that.

I am not talking about a PATCO-type strike. I am seriously and
honestly asking you to lay down tools and walk away. Permanently. You
won’t be breaking any anti-strike laws by doing that. You’ll just be
exercising your right as a free individual to end your employment. If
you’ve got a contract with the government people, break it. They could try
to sue, but I doubt they’re going to flood their already overloaded courts
with suits they’ll never collect a penny from. And if they try to force you
back to work, may I suggest you invite a couple of Minutemen over to your
house? Since Janet Reno’s no longer in a position of power, I doubt very
much that there’ll be any early morning closet raids in any event.

Now, why should you give up your jobs? It’s an honest question.
Here’s a brutally honest answer. Because paid or not, you’ll never be able
to do your job properly. Your own employer is royally boning two of your
fellow colleagues, and if you remain in the Border Patrol, you’re in the
same position (bent over, ankles gripped firmly in hands).

The President of the United States, the chief law enforcement officer
of the nation, is unwilling to override this travesty of justice. This
should worry you. I know it worries me!

Dubya doesn’t even talk a good game anymore when it comes to border
protection. Sure, he has nominally expanded your ranks. However, he’s also
put into place a system that emasculates your ability to enforce the laws
that are already on the books. The U.S. prosecutor and the federal judge
who presided over this charade are both Bush appointees.

I support George W. Bush on the War on Terrorism. In other areas, I
also find him to be a good president. However, he’s dead wrong on the
idiotic non-protection protection of our nation’s boundaries. Protecting
our borders is a necessary element in the War on Terrorism. Why Dubya
doesn’t see that is frankly beyond my ken.

Unemployment rates right now are at historical lows. That means that
you’ve got an excellent chance of finding new jobs quickly. There are a lot
of communities in the country who would gladly pay top dollar for your
training, your expertise, and your dedication to service. Without putting
you in the position of threatening you with imprisonment for actually doing
your job.

Now, those of you who stay on (because I’m certain that some always
do) should remember one very important thing. You may continue to draw a
paycheck. However, you’ll always be at risk of prosecution from your own
employer, for the simple act of doing the job you swore an oath to do.
Think about that. You can keep a job where you have to violate an oath, a
promise before God, to protect American citizens.

Could you really sleep at night, knowing that? I couldn’t.

I suspect that a lot of people who live near the border wouldn’t sleep
too well either, knowing that you weren’t able to do your job to the best of
your ability. Moreover, I don’t think you could either. Because you took this job
not to protect politicians or protect corruption, but to protect America.
If you are not permitted to do that, if you’re under threat of imprisonment
by your own boss for doing your job, well, I’d say you’re already in the
wrong job.

Time to find a new one.

Yours respectfully,
Doc Farmer