Every time I return home from a trip to El Paso or Las Cruces, it happens.\u00a0 I’m profiled.\u00a0 You see, there are border patrol checkpoints just outside of\u00a0Alamogordo, NM,\u00a0the place\u00a0where I call home.\u00a0 Set up to stop the flow of illegal aliens and\u00a0illegal drugs into our country, all vehicular traffic\u00a0traveling north on U.S. 54 from El Paso or East on U.S. 70 from Las Cruces must stop at these checkpoint.\u00a0 No exceptions.<\/p>\n
While these roads are not as heavily traveled as some others in the U.S.,\u00a0there are\u00a0enough vehicles that have to stop at these two checkpoints\u00a0to create a long wait\u00a0for cars to pass through.\u00a0 However, the wait is hardly ever more than a few minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
You might be surprised at how\u00a0efficiently the\u00a0Border Patrol Agents are able to keep traffic flowing.\u00a0 Almost every time that I stop at the checkpoint, I am asked if I am an American citizen.\u00a0 My standard answer is\u00a0 a simple “yes.”\u00a0 I do not have to show\u00a0my drivers license or any other identification, which would obviously slow down the process.\u00a0 I am the waived on through.<\/p>\n
The last\u00a0time I stopped at the checkpoint a few weeks ago after returning home from picking my brother-in-law up from the hospital in Las Cruces, I was not even asked\u00a0any questions.\u00a0 The Border Patrol Agent\u00a0looked in my minivan,\u00a0saw my mother-in-law in the back seat and my brother-in-law in the front seat, and motioned with his hand to keep on moving.\u00a0 That was easy.\u00a0 Why?<\/p>\n
Because I, like every other driver who stops at the Border Patrol checkpoints, was profiled.\u00a0 My race, while not the only component of the profile, is certainly included in the mix.\u00a0 And, I’m glad that it is.\u00a0 Otherwise,\u00a0the line of cars and trucks would be backed up for miles and it would take\u00a0hours, not minutes, to pass through the checkpoints.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I don’t know what factors make up the profile\u00a0of a person trying to smuggle illegals — aliens or drugs — into the country, but I’m quite sure that the Border Patrol Agents are well-trained\u00a0in what characteristics to look for.\u00a0 That’s why they have been successful at interdicting illegal aliens and illegal drugs.\u00a0 You\u00a0see, a little common sense goes a long way.<\/p>\n
Which brings me to the complete lack of common sense found in our nation’s airports.\u00a0 The Transportation Security Administration\u00a0continues\u00a0its heavy-handed and inefficient approach to airport security.\u00a0 Because of their glaring failure\u00a0that allowed\u00a0the “underwear bomber” to get on a plane\u00a0on Christmas Day, the TSA now wants to have every\u00a0passenger be subjected to a “naked” body scanner or an invasive pat down.<\/p>\n
However, instead of having some passengers go through extra screening, all passengers will go though this extra screening.\u00a0\u00a0There will be no exceptions, even for religious reasons<\/a>.\u00a0 Do we really need to pat down Catholic nuns who are boarding an airplane<\/a>?\u00a0 I mean, if Catholic nuns fit the profile of folks who would blow up planes, then I could see that.\u00a0 But, funny thing is, I haven’t heard of any radicalized Catholic nuns flying planes into buildings anytime Who flies planes into buildings?\u00a0 Who blows up subways?\u00a0 Who hides bombs in their underwear?\u00a0 These questions are not hard to answer.\u00a0 But, according to a recent editorial in the Washington Times, TSA’s enhanced security measures stem from the Obama administration’s failure to recognize that we have a problem with radical Islam.<\/p>\n The Transportation Security Administration’s demeaning new “enhanced pat-down” procedures are a direct result of the Obama administration’s willful blindness to the threat from Islamic radicals. While better tools are available to keep air travelers safe, they would involve recognizing the threat for what it is, which is something the White House will never do. (full article here<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Why does this Administration seem so blind to the threat that radical Islam poses to this country?\u00a0 Why are Americans subjected to intrusive scanners or pat downs when better security screening is available?\u00a0 And, before some get all wound up, I do not think that every Muslim or Middle Eastern-looking person should automatically be subjected to additional security just as every Hispanic-looking person is not subjected to enhanced security at Border Patrol checkpoints.<\/p>\n I am not concerned with the Muslim family of four who are carrying Disney World bags onto the plane in Orlando.\u00a0 I am concerned about a young, Middle Eastern man whose flight originated in a radicalized country (i.e., Yemen), who is\u00a0improperly dressed for the time of year and who is acting suspicious.\u00a0 Why can’t our TSA agents be trained to profile high-risk passengers who are attempting to board a plane?\u00a0 Why must 70 year old\u00a0nuns be subjected to an invasive pat down or “naked” body scan?\u00a0 It is simply absurd and most people know it.\u00a0 That’s why more and more Americans are beginning to rebel against these insane “security” procedures, even calling for an opt-out day on one of the busiest travel days of the year.<\/a><\/p>\n But, this is the world that we live in.\u00a0 Unless effective, efficient common sense rules are restored to our nation’s airport security, people will continue to opt out of flying.\u00a0 I’m so glad that, as of now, common sense profiling is being practiced at our Border Patrol checkpoints.\u00a0 If the TSA’s non-sensical rules were to take hold at the various highway checkpoints throughout the country, then folks might also opt out of driving.\u00a0 Just one more way the Obama Administration can help restore the economy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every time I return home from a trip to El Paso or Las Cruces, it happens.\u00a0 I’m profiled.\u00a0 You see, there are border patrol checkpoints just outside of\u00a0Alamogordo, NM,\u00a0the place\u00a0where I call home.\u00a0 Set up to stop the flow of illegal aliens and\u00a0illegal drugs into our country, all vehicular traffic\u00a0traveling north on U.S. 54 from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21,22,29,34],"tags":[69,70,174,175,419,3388,690,732,748,3392,885,964,997,1006],"class_list":["post-1164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-freedoms","category-government","category-islam","category-politics","tag-airport-security","tag-airports","tag-border-patrol","tag-border-patrol-checkpoints","tag-full-body-scanners","tag-islam","tag-naked-body-scanners","tag-nuns","tag-opt-out","tag-religion","tag-screening","tag-terrorism","tag-transportation-security-administration","tag-tsa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-iM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}in the recent past<\/del> ever!<\/p>\n