Protecting Our Citizens Is Legal (Politicians Feel Free to Read On)

By Brittney Linville

We hear stories every day of the violence on our Southern border from the drug cartels. Many of us hear these stories and we want to scream; and we wonder why the United States hasn’t put our soldiers on the border to protect our citizens.

We know the threat that these cartels pose. We hear of citizens dying from the violence; and recently U.S Border Patrol Agent Robert Rosas was killed in the line of duty. We know that cartels engage in kidnappings, beheadings, torture, murders, violence, and dissolving bodies in industrial solvent to maintain a stronghold over drug trading routes and territories. Phoenix has become the “kidnap for ransom capital of the United States” which police have linked it to the drug trade. Our governments have failed so dramatically to remedy the situation that David Spade felt that he had to donate $100,000.00 to the Phoenix Police Department to help them purchase weapons that would match those that were being used by the criminals in the area.

You might wonder why we don’t already have troops on the border. The main reason is because Pentagon officials don’t want to militarize the region. Their concern arises from The Posse Comitatus Act, 18 U.S. Code, Section 1385 which states:
Whoever except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse conmitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than two years or both.

Some view that by placing troops on the border, you will be utilizing them for law enforcement purposes and therefore violating the U.S. Code. They would be incorrect however, and I would direct them to another law that was passed. The military can be used to help combat the “war on drugs.” This information can be found in 10 U.S. Code, Sections 371 – 381. In particular, Section 374, Subsection 2 (B) allows for Department of Defense personnel to be made available to civilian law enforcement for:
Detection, monitoring, and communication of the movement of surface traffic outside of the geographic boundary of the United States and within the United States not to exceed 25 miles of the boundary if the initial detection occurred outside of the boundary.

It goes on to state that the distance may be continued if it is believed that there are violations of The Controlled Substance Act or The Controlled Substance Import and Export Act. This makes it legal for the military to be used to help combat border violence.

Our elected officials must increase our military presence on the borders. We do have the legal avenues to do it, and we need to be more concerned about protecting our citizens from cross-border violence from the drug trade. We have already lost so many lives and we shouldn’t have to lose more.

Brittney Linville is a proud wife, mother, and veteran of the United States Army, serving in Iraq where she met her husband. She is an unapologetic conservative and supporter of our troops.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Headquarters National Guard Bureau (NGB) Awards FCN Technologies and Desktop Alert, Inc. Mass Notification Contract for All 54 U.S. States and Territories (prweb.com)
• “The Military Is Not the Police” (americablog.com)

Popularity: unranked [?]