The Loadout Blog

Snapshot|Opinion

The men and women who choose to serve their communities and nation isn’t an easy one. Tough decisions have to be made, sacrifices have to be understood, and certain realities have to be faced by our law enforcement professionals.

These men and women in law enforcement make sacrifices of time. Time away from husbands, wives, and children. Missing family events and holidays to serve their communities. In their profession of choice their duty calls 24/7 because their communities need their service and their protection from the ills of our society. Included in that sacrifice of time comes long hours and in some cases mandatory overtime when understaffed. These men and women work tirelessly to protect our community and nation. 

Law enforcement professionals on a everyday basis essentially put their lives on the line for people they do not know.  These men and women never know if a traffic stop could go left or a simple call will turn violent and deadly.  The horrors of the human condition they have to witness on a every day basis. The pain, suffering, victimization, and hopelessness many unfortunate people live. This is the reality of their profession. 

Even with acknowledging and understanding those enormous challenges many men and women still decide to serve our communities locally and nationally. It is their drive to serve and protect their communities and nation from the ills that society has to offer. To protect and ensure the safety of hard work Americans of this nation. It is this nature of service and protection that drives them to do what they do. 

Through it all, these men and women do it anyway because they seek to serve their communities and this nation. Everyday they walk out of that door they are putting their lives on the line and protecting the lives of others. These men and woman pay this price everyday. Risking their lives to potentially protect life at the cost of theirs. This sacrifice is one of the honorable ones a person can make. 

This daily choice and sacrifice they make for all of us is under appreciated. The good deeds that law enforcement does within our communities and nation doesn’t make the news cycle as often as those stories should. Mostly the negative stories about law enforcement reaches our eyes and ears first or is the headline that grabs our attention. 

Lately Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been taking the grunt of the negative PR because of the border crisis along the southern border. CBP agents are being portrayed as cold, uncaring, and abusing their power over illegal immigrants coming to this nation. That they are not trying to meet the basic needs of care and safety for those located at these facilities. They speak about the horrible conditions and human suffering experienced at these facilities in media and the headlines. 

I believe this narrative to be untrue about the CBP agents that work along our southern border. I believe that the men and women of CBP are doing the best with what they have. Which are limited resources and manpower, along with facilities that can’t hand the influx of illegal immigrants at the southern border. 

The CBP agents have been dealing with an influx of illegal immigration while our elected officials have been playing a game of political chess to their base for support. The last three months has seen illegal crossing grow. In April their where 99,290 apprehensions at the southern border. May seen a spike to 132,880 apprehensions at the border. While June seen a reduction to 94,897 apprehensions at the border. Simply, put CBP agents are stretched thin and facilities are not designed or capable of handling this influx of people into the U.S.

Many within the CBP hierarchy has been asking congress to give aid to CBP so they can better address the influx of illegal immigrants at the border. President Trump had asked for humanitarian aid money to address this crisis and his calls fell upon the defeat ears of political tribalism. With the lack of action the conditions worsen and unfortunately lives have been lost. As, of July 1st congress finally passed the bill to fund the CBP at the tune of $4.59 billion to address the humanitarian crisis at our southern border. 

These CBP agents who protect the sovereignty of this nation should be scorned for what they do. Nor do they deserve to be attack in the press or social networking platforms. They are doing a much needed and valued  service of protecting our borders. These men and women are doing their best with what they have available to them to address the influx of illegal immigrants. They where put in a hard place of enforcing the laws that were passed down to them from higher. These CBP agents are professionals striving to do their job the best they can. Now, with proper funding for this humanitarian situation CBP agents and the agency will be better equipped to address the situation at the border. We may not see changes immediately but over time they will come so, patience is needed.

I am saying all of this to say thank you to the men and women of CBP who protect the sovereignty of this nation. We are a country of laws they should be defend and enforced.

Thank you for all the CBP agents who work at our southern border, ports, and airports. It is because of your hard work and vigilance you have reduce the flow of illegal narcotics into this country from the Mexican and South American cartels. The work is daunting and tireless to even make a dent in the narcotics flow into this country. With every bust at the border or bust at a port or airport means there are less of those narcotics on our nation’s streets. Recently, CBP made a bust at the Philadelphia port of 35,000 pounds of cocaine, valued at $1.3 Billion dollars. To all the CBP agents on that bust thank you for making bust and hopefully putting a serve dent into the cartels money. 

Thank you, for your efforts in reducing human trafficking. The human trafficking is unforgiving, inhuman, and a cruel illicit trade. A illicit trade that preys on children and young men and women from poor countries to work in the sex trade or as a slave.  Victims in human trafficking live in constant fear of mental and physical torture by the ones who weld power over them. Every child you rescue or trafficker you stop I am thankful for. People shouldn’t make money off the pain of human suffering. Those who do should be stopped and prosecuted to the fullest extent of a country’s laws or internationally if they apply.  Thank you for your efforts in reducing human trafficking into this nation. Thank you for hunting down the organizations that exploit these children and young men and women. 

All in all, thank you for all you do. I understand you do not do this job for thanks. You do this job because you enjoy the work and are passionate about protecting this nation. Everyday you have a chance to potential see the darkness of humanity. From stopping drug and human  traffickers, to stopping authorized border crossings into this country. In many ways you are the first line of defense to the sovereignty of this nation if it’s by land, sea, or air. Thank you for all that you do because without you none of this will be possible. Lastly, let me thank  you again for protecting us and the sovereignty of this nation. Your work at CBP is a vital part of America’s national security.