HOMELAND SECURITY: Resources should be re-deployed

Another New Year is upon us with baggage from the previous years to address. We have the president talking to the corrupt Mexican president about our current problem with migrants.

It seems that our Congress Republicans and Democrats have forgotten that we have a department that was created after 9/11 called Homeland Security (though it is mentioned from time to time). They have 260,000 employees and an annual budget of $58 billion. Their mission is to secure our borders and counter terrorism, of which they have failed to do. 

The agency has released a document called the Homeland Threat Assessment 2024. Most of the information documented addresses the increase of migrants coming into our country who have connections with terrorists. Another problem the document states that the increase of migrants from the northern part (Canada) from 68,000 last year to 132,000 this year. 

In the assessment it talks about the Mexican drug cartels known as the Transnational Criminal Organization, are mainly the Sinaloa Cartel and the New Generation Jalisco Cartel. These remain the primary smugglers of fentanyl and other drugs into the U.S.

They rely on companies in China to purchase fentanyl precursor chemicals and pill pressing equipment. The document expects illegal drugs from Mexico will kill more Americans than any other threat. They also say that the challenges facing the borders are likely to continue. 

The issue I have is also how many of the migrants may have diseases and other health issues that we don’t know about, a huge problem that the media has not talked about that I know of yet?

So where do we go from here? I say we should renovate Homeland Security and replenish more of the 260,000 employees and the $58 billion to the Border Patrol. 

JOHN A. FITZGERALD

St. Maries