Posted on March 20, 2021

A Note About the Latest Border Crisis

Phil Defer, American Renaissance, March 19, 2021

Editor’s Note: Phil Defer, the retired Border Patrol agent I interviewed in December, sent me this note about the current situation at our southern border. It has been edited slightly to ensure clarity and confidentiality. 


If this surge ever ends (and it likely won’t), in my opinion, the Border Patrol should be considered finished as a an agency. It is thoroughly compromised. When I was on the southern border and a group of illegal aliens eluded being caught, an agent would often say “We have to let a few get through. That’s job security!” On the Facebook group for retired Border Patrol agents, somebody commented on the recent upswing in crossings by saying, once again, “That’s job security for the agents on the job.” I always hated the saying because the agent uttering it was often a slug who didn’t care about droves of aliens getting past us.

Today, Border Patrol morale isn’t in the dumps, it’s non-existent. The agents I know are just putting in their time waiting to retire. They have no enthusiasm for the job. The new agents coming into the patrol will be compromised by the mindset the current patrol has. As Vince Lombardi said “Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.” The Border Patrol is now an outfit that is way too used to losing.

It should really be the military that secures the border. Most other countries use their military to secure their borders. Our military brass has fought against being placed on the border. Their excuse is that they don’t want to compromise the military’s primary mission; that it’s built for war, not humanitarian aid. The military needs to realize that this is a war of sorts. Population migration plays a greater role in the fate of nations than wars do. Losing the war in Afghanistan will not collapse the United States, but opening the southern border will.