1. A less open and more secure border would only make sense if it were true that “the flow of illegal immigrants across U.S. borders makes it difficult to identify and stop dangerous people and contributes to an infrastructure designed to weaken the integrity of U.S. borders” (Secure Borders, Safe Travel, Legal Trade). Unfortunately, for those who promote such a thesis, the exact same argument was made in the past to promote anti-immigration legislation aimed at Chinese immigrants in the 1880s, Japanese immigrants at the turn of 20th century and Italian immigrants in the 1920s. Same old tune with a different face and it is no less an act of legislating discrimination in 2015 than it was in 1929.
2. Transforming a mainframe system into a decentralized network is typically not the worst idea in the world, even if it usually is not the best (9/11 Commission Report). In the case of national security institutions at risk for hacking and security breaching in a world where the private email of the head of the CIA was hacked and breached, however…the only word that accurately describes the conclusion of the authors of the 9/11 Commission Report is…idiotic. If the decisions made in the wake of the Presidency of George W. Bush has taught the world anything, it is that any recommendation made by any government official in response to the attacks of 9/11 needs to be shunned, shuttered and shut down. If anything, rather than embracing the technological revolution, recent events indicate that national security would best be served by instituting a system that Luddite in nature that eschews all the “benefits” allowed by technological innovation.
3. The DOD is responsible for assisting with border and coastal security by offering helicopters to transport border patrol agents in order facilitate response time. In addition, drones and surveillance technology is provided by the DOD as a means of increasing efficiency of finding and tracking illegal immigrants crossing over more remoted border areas (National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States).
- CBP. Secure Borders, Safe Travel, Legal Trade. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Fiscal Year 2009-2014 Strategic Plan. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, July 2009.
- 9/11 Commission Report. Final Report of the National Commission Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, Executive Summary. http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/report/911Report_Exec.pdf
- National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf.
