Zack Taylor, who is a former Border Patrol agent, says a bill being proposed by a member of the Congressional Hispanic caucus would make it very difficult for law enforcement agents to operate in areas along the U.S.-Mexico border where illegal immigration and drug smuggling is rampant.
H.R. 2593 is called the Borderlands Conservation and Security Act of 2007. Sponsored by Representative Democrat Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona), it would create new public lands wilderness areas along the southern border, especially in Arizona -- which is the largest point of entry for illegal immigration and drug-smuggling traffic in the United States. Zack Taylor is a member of the National Association of Former Border Patrol Agents. "It would prevent the building or maintenance of a fence. It would restrict law enforcement access to those lands. And it would facilitate drug smuggling and alien smuggling in those areas," he laments. Taylor says the bill would completely defeat the expressed purpose of the legislation -- conservation. "It would make the entire border protected so that [federal agents would] have to go in there on foot or horseback," he specifies. "Then it will benefit the smuggler and will make it easier for them to smuggle on these public lands -- and they will deface [those areas] to a greater extent." The former Border Patrol agent believes Grijalva's bill is going to have a tough time passing this year because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is unwilling to move forward on any immigration-related legislation until after the November elections.
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